'Lightning Dao is now at 51 percent mastery. Combat status 91 percent.' the glove proclaimed just as Pef regained consciousness.

'Yeah, a silver lining to all those Heavenly Tribulations crashing down on me.' Pef grumbled inward, while checking his body for any lingering damage.

His heart was still missing for now, but that didn't really impact his combat abilities anymore. As long as his Dantian was intact, he could still fight, at a reduced capacity.

The miracle of qi wasn't limited by the body, or only tangentially. Still, perhaps next time, he shouldn't linger in front of a deadly enemy...

"Pef, are you awake?" he heard Yue ask with a worried voice.

"Yeah. Damn eagle kicked me rather hard, but I've healed, mostly." he said with a pained chuckle, and spitting some blood stuck in his throat.

"...Yeah. There was a foot-sized hole in your chest. And you were burned to a crisp too." Yue commented with an awkward smile.

"This time though, it only took half a day to recover, instead of months." Pef replied a bit more cheerful, and took out some wine to wash the taste of blood away. He immediately regretted the act, as the fermented alcohol burned its way down tender flesh, barely regrown.

"You live dangerously." Yue muttered as she filled a washbasin with water and set it in front of him for a bath. She even had a few towels...

Pef sighed and flushed himself with a wave of conjured water, making it vanish before he flooded the cavern. Water Dao had its perks too.

"That Godbeast was a Peak Tier 5 rank, my dear. Or Universal God as you know it." Pef answered with a proud smile, then took out a large red plume for extra emphasis.

The feather was taller than him, yet very light and impossibly durable. Much more durable than adamantine, since even ship-sized armor plates would not withstand a Voidsplitter skill.

He then simply handed over the feather to the indigo-haired woman." This is for you."

"I...I accept. I will be your wife." Yue said with a warm smile, then began playing with the feather like a child with a new fan.

"Okay. I need to sleep now, but we'll talk tomorrow." Pef answered with a soft voice, then drifted back to sleep.

A lingering song followed his dreams, the singer a woman's voice so familiar yet so distant.

Pef woke up with his face covered by two warm pillows, thus he instantly reacted, to grope and pinch the new wife. "Ah, right...there!" Yue voice sounded heavenly, so he didn't stop and continued with kisses and licks...

Much later, the new couple emerged for air and food, Yue still blushing and stealing glances at her new husband.

"You scoundrel! No man has ever done those things to me!" she chided him with fake outrage.

"I sure hope not, my lovely wife! I invented most of those techniques." Pef declared proudly while stirring the soup. Yue wrapped herself around his back, and smelled deeply over his shoulder.

"Feels nice though." she admitted in a shy tone.

"Tastes nice as well!" Pef commented wryly, and got pinched for it. He endured it well though, even smiling at the pain.

Starting from the next day, Yue began her Legion indoctrination then crossed swiftly into Saint rank, while Pef went out daily to hunt more beasts and search for valuable plants and minerals, or looting certain beast nests of precious stones and artifacts.

Two months later, he also finished repairing his jade armor and located the portal towards the Indigo Realm. Well, the glove did, as the portal was hidden under a fog of concealment mist and illusionary arrays, meant to restrict access to cultivators of Tier 5 and above.

Yue too was almost ready for Ascension and joining the ranks of the gods, which could be done through combat or just a sip of Godbeast blood, plus a few tons of precious metal to redirect the Ascension on the path of physical gods.

"I thought only beasts keep their bodies once they become divine." Yue argued with a frown.

Pef nodded and sat beside Yue, then caressed her head. "I invented this type of Ascension after observing a Saint beast on my homeworld bypass Divinity and aiming for Perfect Sainthood. I suspect such a path is possible for humans as well, but it does lock the possibility of cultivation."

"Then, how would this beast keep growing, if it locks itself from the Heavens?" Yue wondered curious.

"It would devour other cultivators, or puppet them to cultivate instead. Maybe create a religion as a focus?" Pef answered with a shrug.

In an infinite multiverse, there were a myriad of ways to obtain more power.

"Or torture them for pain. Deny them reincarnation..." Yue continued with her own knowledge.

"See? There are many ways to power, and each person or race might have their own ideas. So, are you ready to become a Goddess?" Pef inquired with a grin.

"You mean a fledgling divinity on the lowest rung?" Yue asked back, eyes filled with mirth.

"There are always stronger people. This will never change. But it does make running away much easier." Pef argued wisely.

"Ha! We did run away a lot, when we first arrived in this Blue Realm..." the new recruit mused, a bit more somber.

Pef shrugged and tapped his chest. "I can take a beating, you can't. Thus we run. It's never too late to come back later and kick ass."

Yue smiled with a grimace and leaned on the pillows. "Make more of that bark tea. My bones hurt worse..."

Instead, Pef cupped his hands and closed his eyes. "I think not. It's time to end the indoctrination and begin your practice."

And with that, Yue opened her eyes in wonder as the pain vanished and she felt ten times stronger. "Hubby, since I am still in bed, we can practice those things..."

It didn't take long for Yue to achieve Divinity, not with the amount of high-level cultivation treasures at Pef's disposal. Soon, the pair of Legion Soldiers made their way towards the Indigo portal, Blinking over difficult terrains or avoiding stronger beasts.

They even found a few rare lotus plants, one in a volcano and another one in an acid pool, which helped Yue open more meridians and acupoints. Yet with all that, Pef was still worried.

Yue was indeed much too weak for these trials, and they had no idea how bad it might become in the next Mausoleum Realm.

Anyway, they still advanced and reached the blue-indigo fog that covered the entrance.

Cautiously, Pef sent forward a pair of clones, not willing to risk his new wife in the unknown.

However, while the clones managed to reach the portal and cross, they instantly vanished from his perception.

Pef poked the fog with his gloved hand. 'Any ideas, my friend?''

'Try not to die. Raising another one will be boring.' the glove answered a bit ironically. Pef sighed and stepped into the fog. 'I'm always trying not to die...' he muttered inward.