Damon let his gaze drift to the last person in the room.

Selene stood near the window with her back to the group, her platinum-white hair catching the afternoon light like a sheet of frost.

She hadn’t moved to greet him when he walked in.

She hadn’t said a word.

She just stood there, one hand resting loosely at her side, her posture carrying that particular kind of stillness that meant she was very aware of being watched.

He activated the Celestial Eyes again.

Her status materialized.

[Name: Selene Frostborn]

[Age: 35]

[Cultivation: King Spirit Realm - Second Level]

[Relationship: In Love]

[Interest: 900/1000]

[Chastity: Claimed by Damon Arcknight]

[Lust: 0/100]

[Affinities: Ice: 120, Sword: 100]

[Spiritual Roots: Glacial Sword Spiritual Roots] [Heaven Grade - Low]

[Bloodline: Blood of Ice Goddess] [Earth Grade - Low]

[Physique: Body of Ice Goddess] [Earth Grade - Low]

[Traits: Cold, Sword Freak, Proud, Natural Sword Master, Cold Outside Soft Inside]

’King Spirit Realm - Second Level. That was fast... To think my yang qi can make her break through a level in a few months.’

She had been at the First Level when he sealed the cave.

A few months of closed-door training, and she had pushed through an entire King Spirit Realm level using his yang qi and Yin-Yang Harem Scripture

He let the status fade and leaned back into the sofa cushion.

"How did the training go?" he asked, directing it at the room generally.

Ariel turned from the window where she had drifted and tucked one leg beneath herself on the armchair across from him.

"I broke through to Earth Spirit Realm while you were in the cave. The pills helped a lot, the spiritual energy absorption felt different after taking them."

"I noticed, you did a good job, Ariel." Damon said s she pat her head.

She smiled at that, small and warm.

Mio dropped her book onto the side table and stretched both arms above her head with a groan that had no business being as dramatic as it was.

"Mia and I hit Ninth Level about three weeks ago. We’ve been stuck there since. The threshold to Heavenly Spirit Realm is harder than I expected."

"Of course it will," Damon said.

"The gap between Earth and Heavenly is real. Your body has to restructure itself to handle the higher density of spiritual energy."

Mia, who had been quietly watching Neko from the corner of the room, glanced over.

"We’ve been sparring every day to try and force the breakthrough. Nothing yet."

"Stop trying to force it," Damon said.

"You’re both at the threshold. Forcing it creates instability in the foundation. I will fill you up and help you later."

Mia blush as she nodded hearing that Damon will fill her up and looked back at Neko.

Mio pointed at him.

"Okay..."

"Don’t be impatient, Cultivation will take time. It’s already consider fast wit you progress, you know."

Mio opened her mouth, closed it, and picked her book back up.

Neko, who had been sitting quietly beside Damon with her white ears angled forward, tilted her head and looked up at him.

"Master trained well?"

"Well enough," he said.

She seemed satisfied with that and settled her chin on his shoulder.

He glanced toward Selene.

She still hadn’t turned from the window.

"Selene."

A pause. Then she turned, and her frosty eyes found him across the room with that flat, unreadable expression she wore like armor.

"You broke through," he said.

Something shifted in her face.

Not much, just the faintest tightening around the eyes, the kind of reaction she couldn’t fully suppress when something caught her off guard.

"You can tell from there?"

"Of course, you are Second Level King Spirit Realm now," he said.

"Your aura is denser than when I left. The sword aura radiating from you also getting more dense."

She held his gaze for a moment, then looked away toward the window again.

"Your yang qi help a lot and The Yin-Yang Harem Scripture also make the process faster that usual." Selene said as she blush a little bit.

"Good."

"I also," she started, then stopped.

Ariel was watching her with open curiosity.

Mio had lowered her book again.

Selene’s jaw tightened slightly.

"I achieved a something great with the sword aura during your closed door training. The technique you demonstrated before, the layered armor application. I can replicated it now."

Damon looked at her properly then.

That wasn’t a minor achievement.

Sword aura compression at the layered armor level required a complete understanding of how to fold intent back into itself without losing cohesion.

Most cultivators who reached sword aura spent years just learning to project it outward in a straight line.

She had done it in three months while simultaneously breaking through a cultivation level.

’Sword freak indeed.’

"Show me later," he said.

The corner of her mouth moved.

Before anyone could say anything else, the courtyard door opened.

The temperature in the room dropped two degrees.

Mei Nightrider stepped through the entrance with the unhurried ease of someone who had never once in her life felt the need to knock.

Her deep purple hair flowed over one shoulder, and her tight qipao moved with every step in a way that made the room feel smaller.

Her purple eyes swept across the group, lingered on Mio and Mia for exactly one second of maternal assessment, then landed on Damon.

Her red lips curved.

"You’re back," she said, her voice carrying a warmth that she used like a tool.

"I was beginning to think you’d decided to live in that cave permanently."

"A few months isn’t permanent," Damon said.

"No," she agreed, moving further into the room.

"But it is long enough for things to move in the capital."

She stopped a few steps from the sofa and looked down at him with an expression that was equal parts amusement and something more serious underneath.

"The Sect Leader wants to see you. He sent word a few day ago but you haven’t out of the cave. Apparently it cannot wait ant longer."