Yao Yuezhi's delicate frame tensed to its absolute limit now, her toes curling in tight. Had she gone barefoot, Ye Chen would have clearly seen her pretty little feet arching into a graceful curve.

She stared fixedly at the scene unfolding before her, watching as endless cave heaven essence roared through the four channels, its overwhelming force pushing her to the brink of endurance.

And within her, the cave heaven core—the Qiankun Cauldron—whirled at a frenzied pace. It converted the influx one strand at a time, weaving it into threads of gentle, warm energy that slowly merged into her domain's depths.

The sight wrung Yao Yuezhi's heart all the more. For her own cave heaven, upon reaching a hundred thousand miles, had ceased all expansion. The incoming essence, after the cauldron's transmutation, merely seemed to render her domain a touch more solid. But scarcely noticeably so. To bear such massive waste for so little return.

Yao Yuezhi ached for Ye Chen's sake. Not to mention the Qiankun Cauldron, which seemed on the verge of overload. Its conversion rate couldn't keep pace with the torrent of Ye Chen's essence. Much of the essence was scattered unprocessed. Even drifting from her very pores.

Yao Yuezhi's heart twisted harder; this was all hard-won from Ye Chen's cultivation. She couldn't bear a single drop wasted, so she parted her small lips hastily. A powerful suction bloomed from her cherry lips, like a whale gulping rivers, sweeping up every stray wisp of essence in the air and drawing it all into her mouth.

Then, cheeks puffed like pink pouches, she opened wide with a hint of pride, showing Ye Chen her thrifty haul. Only once he had seen it all did she swallow it down. Afterward, she addressed Ye Chen gravely. "Brother, a hundred thousand miles truly is the limit. Even more essence would just make the domain a bit sturdier, but it holds no meaning for cultivation.

"When we break through to the seventh heaven later, the cave heaven evolves straight into an inner world. Fortifying it now serves no purpose. So, Brother, stop it! This era teems with prodigies outside—you need to save some to crush them later. I'm still waiting for you to take me into the immortal realm!"

Yao Yuezhi reasoned with him, appealing to both logic and emotion, desperate for him to end the waste.

Ye Chen, meanwhile, found her motions oddly familiar, like something from before. But he brushed it off, shaking his head. "I don't buy that a hundred thousand miles is the cap. Since you can still take it, let's go all the way! Once your domain's fortified to the max, that might trigger the next expansion."

Yao Yuezhi felt helpless before his stubbornness. Truth be told, a hundred thousand miles was a dream beyond dreaming. As for surpassing the limit? She wouldn't dare entertain it even in her wildest fantasies. Yet Ye Chen fixated on pushing her beyond. It left her torn between touch and turmoil.

Undeterred, she pressed on earnestly. "Brother, I don't want to break the limit. You should..."

But Ye Chen shot her a glare. "Are you telling me how to do things?"

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Yao Yuezhi: "..."

Another week slipped by in the blink of an eye. Ye Chen's unimaginable reserves of cave heaven essence had left Yao Yuezhi utterly numb. She dared not ponder the true scale of his domain. Nor the sheer volume she had "wasted" from her own. Her cave heaven now stood far sturdier than before.

If one of the Undying Celestial Phoenix Clan's peak Half-Saints dared enter it now, she might withstand their undying divine fire head-on. At the same time, her domain's foundation had grown vastly more robust. In the future, spirit plants sown within would thrive with exceptional vigor. Spiritual Qi would flow more abundantly, and her cave heaven's power had surged by unknown multiples!

All in all, Yao Yuezhi brimmed with confidence. In her current state, she could face those three peak Half-Saints squarely. With the right timing, she might even slay one or two. The magnitude of her gains proved staggering.

Yet Yao Yuezhi's heart truly ached. This was too wasteful. Even if Ye Chen seemed inexhaustible, bottomless in his supply. How could that be? No man could endure so long. He had to be nearing his end. Please, stop—save something for yourself!

Yao Yuezhi steeled herself to plead once more. But suddenly, her willow brows twitched, and that seemingly fragile frame tensed even tighter. For she sensed her cave heaven had hit some profound threshold, a stubborn bottleneck. Yet if broken, it might birth tremendous transformations within.

The realization stirred confusion in Yao Yuezhi, mingled with faint excitement. In the past, she would have deemed a hundred thousand miles the absolute ceiling. But with Ye Chen before her, Yao Yuezhi glimpsed a whole new realm.

Still, the steady influx of essence faltered in momentum. It lacked the force for a decisive breakthrough. Yao Yuezhi peered inward and understood: this wasn't Ye Chen failing her, but the Qiankun Cauldron reaching its limits. Its conversion efficiency had maxed out.

"Brother, let's stop here—my domain's solidity has reached its peak too..."

Yao Yuezhi believed anything further would be pure waste. Utterly meaningless. The cave heaven essence could no longer be absorbed; it would only leave her bloated and aching.

Ye Chen, hearing her, sensed the truth in her words—her domain had indeed hit a critical threshold under the relentless infusion. Breaking through that point could either sublime her cave heaven into something extraordinary or shatter the limit for further expansion. Either outcome thrilled Ye Chen and demanded he see it through for her. Without question, unabsorbable essence would overwhelm her to the point of rupture—he had to halt if it came to that.

With the thought, Ye Chen spoke at once. "No need to worry, Yuezhi—I'll help you through it!"

The current bottleneck on transmission lay with the Qiankun Cauldron, after all. For it was merely a high-grade Extreme Dao Weapon. So Ye Chen pushed the Armament Secret to its utmost. The cauldron shuddered first, then its verdant form shifted hue—as if heated from within—flushing crimson in a blink...

Its spin accelerated to a frenzy, whirling like a gyroscope. In that instant, the cauldron's conversion capacity exploded several-fold. Such was the Armament Secret's profundity: it could force a weapon into overload, unleashing greater potency. But not for long—it would erode the tool's lifespan.

Seizing the window, Ye Chen unleashed his cave heaven essence without restraint, pouring it forth in an unending tide. The four channels, all spiderwebbed with cracks, then teetered on collapse.

As for Yao Yuezhi, she no longer rolled her eyes. Her lids simply drooped, her body slackening as she slipped into unconsciousness. Her soul, hovering mid-air, dimmed with her.

And at the same instant, odd sounds echoed from within Yao Yuezhi's cave heaven. In the next breath, a sharp crack resounded. Her domain had shattered the bottleneck at last, embarking on a stunning metamorphosis.

...

Though Yao Yuezhi lay insensate, Ye Chen's command of the Qiankun Cauldron via the Armament Secret let him peer effortlessly into her domain's state. It had not yet breached the hundred-thousand-mile limit. But it underwent some astonishing evolution, its quality refining ever higher.

For Ye Chen, this was an unqualified boon. The metamorphosis demanded vast quantities of cave heaven essence.