Chapter 1048: Chapter 248: Advancing to Tier Eight (Part 2)

Lin Rui’s waist hurt so much he didn’t want to move, but Audrey, who’d just been crying with pear-blossoms-in-the-rain tears and didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger, was full of energy again as soon as they were done.

This really proved that old saying: there are only overworked oxen, never over-plowed fields.

Of course, the premise is you have to cherish her—you can’t just stand up and pound away. Women are fragile; it’s easy to hurt them.

Married young women are an exception though; what they like is fiercer, deeper "communication."

So it’s not like Cao Cao’s love for other men’s wives was completely without reason.

For a domineering guy like him, tender and considerate just isn’t in the toolkit.

Girls, on the other hand, care more about emotional gentleness and mental pleasure. If you come at them softly, they’re over the moon.

Once you’re past thirty, the world turns upside down.

Lin Rui sighed, then said, "You go, take Galo with you. With you two Heroes together, there’s more of a guarantee."

It wasn’t that Lin Rui didn’t trust Audrey, it’s that this inhuman distribution system might assign Soldiers to who-knows-which battlefield. One more Hero meant one more battlefield they could influence.

With Galo, Lin Rui actually felt a bit guilty. The Legendary Soul Seal he’d initially planned to give her ended up going to Violet instead.

[Legendary Soul Seal: Blazing Counterattack: There is no firmament that never falls, nor a fate laid bare at a single glance. The blazing flame is the trial of the Hero. Only by crossing a sea of fire can one forge an Invincible Soul. Attacks gain an additional 30% Divine Damage and preemptively trigger a counterattack before the enemy’s attack. Each time a counterattack kills an Elite-level or higher unit, counterattack damage permanently +10 Divine Damage (this effect has a 10-second cooldown and cannot be reduced by any means).]

If Galo had this Trait, it would basically be "an arrow to pacify the world"!

The enemy might not even get a chance to make a move!

Say the enemy had a ten-thousand-strong army and planned a volley against her—their archers would just have nocked their arrows, not even started outputting damage, and she’d already unleashed a storm of arrows! Densely packed arrows would rain down in a counterattack, nailing the enemy right between the eyes.

The more people focus fire on her, the more terrifying her DPS becomes!

And if you factor in that she also has a Sub-Invincible Shield—if she’s standing on a city wall, she alone is an entire army; she could fight the whole world by herself!

Number one gatekeeper general in the Divine Realm—none but her.

But in the end, Lin Rui gave this item to Violet, because this Trait paired with her [Distant Ideal Homeland] could push her Divine Resistance and Divine Damage to absolute extremes, as long as the wars were numerous and brutal enough.

If she fights a few apocalypse-level battles, her HP, Divine Resistance, and so on will quickly surpass Setra’s!

That’s the future military backbone of the domain. When the Plane Wars come, Lin Rui might well have to rely on her to hold off the enemy’s strongest.

Lin Rui also wanted to buff Galo properly. His recent investments had basically all revolved around her, massively boosting the ranged legions’ combat power; it was about time they got to show off.

Audrey didn’t overthink it at all. She said, "Then I’ll take the Book of Wisdom and go find Galo. You issue a command for all units that need to advance to gather in front of the Goddess Hall."

"No problem. I’ll have Violet and Caroline assist you."

The Banner of All Living Beings’ Command could only be activated once per day; Lin Rui planned to run another advancement tomorrow.

Today was just right to invest another wave of [Historical Essence] and activate the [Radiant Hourglass].

Audrey bustled off in a whirlwind, but very thoughtfully left Natasha behind so Lin Rui could hold Natasha’s soft body and sleep with her in his arms while waiting for Audrey to come back.

Lin Rui really was a bit wiped out; in the Sage Time afterwards, it’s always easy to get sleepy.

He hadn’t even had his fill of groping Natasha’s delicate, sultry body before his mind and body relaxed and he fell asleep.

A beauty of eighteen, body soft as cotton—holding this wonderful, warm, tender figure in his arms, Lin Rui slept till heaven and earth dimmed.

When he opened his eyes again, it was already dark.

Audrey had already finished her bath and was using Spiritual Energy at the bedside to blow her hair dry. Her smooth long hair was tied into a cute bun at the back of her head.

With her long hair pinned up, she had both the charm of a young wife and the sweetness of a girl; her exposed, fair neck and shoulders were extremely alluring and sexy—perfect for her current identity.

She was happily putting on makeup in front of the mirror, but the moment she noticed Lin Rui had opened his eyes, she immediately pounced over excitedly, hugged his chest, and asked, "Father Emperor, how about it? Am I pretty? I just learned this from Galo."

"Pretty." Of course she was. She’d just advanced to Tier Eight, and her Charm had jumped up a notch; no wonder Lin Rui had felt she was especially tempting the instant he woke up, with his body reacting on its own. "What time is it now? If we still have time, come over here and get cozy for a bit."

"Just after six. Aren’t you going to sleep a little longer?"

Lin Rui’s eyes lit up. "It’s only a little after six?"

His recovery rate was actually pretty good.

Ambition and fighting spirit surged in him. He pulled her under the covers and said happily, "I’ve only slept a bit over four hours; we’ve got plenty of time. Let’s get intimate for a while and let me see what’s different after you’ve advanced to Tier Eight."

Audrey immediately spread her arms and threw herself into his embrace with delight.

Only when the clouds parted and the rain ceased did Lin Rui realize something was off. "How are you recovering this well? This isn’t like your usual begging-for-mercy state. It’s only been four hours."

Audrey giggled, kissed his face, and said, "It’s not four hours, it’s sixteen. Didn’t you notice it’s getting brighter outside?"

Things had been so intense just now that the heaven-and-earth-shaking "battle" messed with his sense of time. Now that he glanced out the window—sure enough, it was a bright, sunny morning.

This "after six" wasn’t six in the evening yesterday, but six in the morning!

He’d slept through a full cycle and then some.

Yesterday really had drained his Primordial Energy. How much good stuff would he need to eat to make up for that?

"Crap, Natasha’s going to think I’m the little dog in our deal now." They did have some playful bets between them, but Lin Rui wasn’t stupid; he wasn’t going to let trivial things delay serious business. He definitely had to head out today.

Audrey hugged him and laughed. "It’s fine. The agreement between you two was whoever went out yesterday would be the little dog. Natasha deliberately stayed in the room and held you while you slept all the way to today before she left."

"That stubborn?" Lin Rui sighed. "No, that makes it look like I was playing tricks. I’ll have to find time to prove myself to her."

What happened today gave Lin Rui a huge wake-up call: he really needed to train his Physique, otherwise the big boasts he’d made would be impossible to live up to.

He then looked at Audrey with concern and asked, "So was the overall advancement smooth?"

Her own advancement had obviously been extremely smooth; otherwise she wouldn’t be lying here this relaxed. After coming back and seeing Lin Rui asleep, she’d very considerately chosen not to wake him.

But how things went for the army as a whole was another question.

Audrey answered happily, "It went very smoothly. I took the field myself, summoned the Undead Army, and steamrolled that entire battlefield. If the domain’s troop assembly hadn’t taken up time, I could’ve gotten back before you fell asleep."

"Things went great on Galo’s side too. With just herself and a bow, she solved the crisis on the Empire battlefield."

"But you guessed right—this distribution system really is inhuman. We had over 8,000 people going through advancement, and they got split across several hundred battlefields. Over 2,000 people still haven’t returned."

The Empire was treating the Golden Pansy Domain like a roving fire brigade!

The Holy Knight really had spoken like a prophet back then!

The Golden Pansy Domain’s entry into the war would inject a massive amount of new blood into the Empire and prop up its backbone.

Helping the Empire win battles on several hundred fronts—how many powerful foreign enemies and crises was that resolving for them?

This one wave alone could save the Empire from a hundred or two hundred defeats, regaining countless territories and reversing its decline.

Without exaggeration, this alone could extend the Empire’s national fortune by twenty or thirty years.

And the key point was, this was only the first advancement mission for the Golden Pansy Domain. The Domain would undergo multiple upgrades in the future. With a strong territory like this joining in, extending the Empire’s national fortune by a full century wouldn’t be a problem at all.