"Maybe he thought that you already knew it. I thought the same thing after all," Zhiqing replied to Mingyu as she thought about it.
From what she understood, Mingyu had more knowledge than her. She herself thought that Mingyu must've known about this. It wasn't out of bounds for Long Chen to believe that.
"Maybe," Mingyu muttered as she glanced at Long Chen.
"Why isn't he waking up? Did you suck his soul dry already so that he's still resting inside?" Zhiqing asked teasingly.
" Nope. His consciousness already left my Martial Space. I don't know why he's not waking up. Could something have happened?" Mingyu replied in a concerned tone as she looked at Long Chen.
The others started looking at Long Chen as they also grew concerned.
*****
While the girls were worried about the reason Long Chen wasn't up, Long Chen's consciousness was inside his own Martial Space.
He was standing before the red core as he tried to see if there were any changes to his core after absorbing the excess energy of Mingyu's core.
As he observed his core, he found it to be more energetic. The core looked even redder and even more powerful. Previously it already looked like it contained the energy of the entire universe, but now it looked like it contained even more energy.
" I wonder how powerful my world will be after I reach the realm when I can form my own Inner World," Long Chen muttered as he looked at the red core.
"With the Red Core, I'm sure you'll be able to form a world that is nothing like anyone has ever seen. The world would be vaster than normal people, and it would be much more incredible. Only your imagination will be your limitation," Xun explained to Long Chen.
"I sure hope so. Anyway, what is that guy doing there?" Long Chen asked Xun as he looked towards his Heart Devil, who was sitting near his Martial Soul on one knee like a faithful servant.
"When that guy had appeared here, he was so dominant that he had me lose my sense of purpose so many times. I hated him, and when you said that he was evolving and it would be even more difficult for me to contain my emotions, I was genuinely concerned. A completely different thing happened, though. Instead of becoming more savage, it became clever and stopped disturbing me."
" As time passed, he grew even less involved, and now it's like he doesn't even exist. Didn't you say that he would keep becoming more and more savage with time, and I would be in danger?" Long Chen asked Xun.
"Why is it that I saw the complete opposite of it? It grew less and less dangerous with time, and now he doesn't even move. Were you pulling my leg to make me work hard?" Long Chen inquired.
"No. Why would I joke about that? This was what it was supposed to do from the information I had about this. This Heart Devil was supposed to be a real devil. I don't know how it became like that either," Xun replied as she looked in confusion.
"Don't lax yourself, though. It might just be the silence before the storm. Keep tempering yourself for whatever comes in the future," She told Long Chen.
" That can be it, but I have a feeling that it'll be something different. I hope that it won't be too bad, though," Long Chen muttered as he nodded his head.
Long Chen glanced around his Martial Space one last time before he left the place.
Long Chen slowly opened his eyes and saw all the girls sitting before him. All the girls were looking at him with concern on their faces.
"Why are you looking at me like I'm dead or something?" Long Chen asked in confusion.
"Did Mingyu really suck you dry so much that you had to recuperate for ten minutes longer than her?" Zhiqing asked him jokingly. Now that she knew that he was fine, she was back to her teasing self.
"You want to give it a try as well?" Long Chen asked jokingly as he caught Zhiqing's hands and pulled her into his arms while he closed her lips with his lips.
Zhiqing was so stunned that she didn't even know what happened before a warm set of lips closed her lips.
Long Chen kissed her for a few minutes before he released her.
"Why are you so out of breath? Are you really saying that I sucked you dry with just one kiss?" Long Chen asked as he placed his hand on Zhiqing's reddish cheeks. He was replying to her in her own language
"Anyway, to answer your concerns, I was not sucked dry. I can still do it with all of you many times. I was just looking around my own martial space," Long Chen continued as he shook his head.
"If your flirting is done, can this king continue ahead? I'm getting bored here."
Long Chen suddenly heard the Snake Monarch's grumpy voice.
"Oh? We're already at the edge of the Crystal sea?" Long Chen asked as he looked around, and he was right.
They were standing right at the edge of the safe zone where sea monsters didn't appear. He remembered telling the Snake Monarch not to pass through the safe zone before he was out of Mingyu's Martial Realm, and the Snake Monarch listened.
"You listened to me. That's good. Anyway, you can continue. We're done here," Long Chen told the Snake Monarch to continue ahead.
The Snake Monarch again started flying.
"How are you feeling now? Is that problem still there?" Long Chen asked Mingyu.
"No. It's solved. In fact, I feel better than I ever did before," Mingyu said as she smiled brightly.
"That's good," Long Chen nodded his head.
"Oh, right. Before you listened to her problem, you were talking about something. What was that?" Zhiqing asked Long Chen.
"Talking about what?" Long Chen asked her in return. He didn't remember what she was trying to say.
"When you said that you have something important to talk to us about after you heard about Mingyu's problem. I'm talking about that," Zhiqing asked Long Chen.
"Ohhh, I remember. That's right. It is something really important," Long Chen exclaimed as he remembered.
"That's right. That was it about?" Zhiqing inquired as she looked at Long Chen.
'What could be so important?' The other girls also wondered as they looked at Long Chen and waited for his explanation.
" I was thinking about it for quite some time, but I have all of you with me, and I love all of you equally," Long Chen said as he looked at all the girls.
"The problem is that I am unable to keep you all with me at once in any dangerous place, and if I just let you stay in the fake world, then that won't be fair either. I want to give all of you the best I can, but I have been failing so far," Long Chen said softly.
"It's fine. We know that it's not feasible to wake with a group as big as ours. You can leave us at the Fake World," Mingyu said to Long Chen as she smiled.
"Yeah. Don't concern yourself. There's our family in the Fake world too. Grandfather, Mother, and now even father is there," Xue and Mei replied as they saw the concern on Long Chen's face.
" My mother is there too. My whole Clan is there as well. Don't be concerned," Ming Lan said as she smiled innocently.
"I know, but it's not enough if you can't have time with me, and with you all, I can't find you all my pure care together. That's why I have come to a decision," Long Chen said as he looked at the girls in full seriousness.
" What decision?" Mingyu asked Long Chen. She wanted to be sure of what he was thinking about.
"I was thinking about sharing, like deciding a certain amount of time for each of you. It can be one day or two. Any longer would be just as bad," Long Chen let out with as he sighed.
"Ah, so you mean keeping one of us with you for two days, then the other one, and then so on? That does sound better than not getting any privacy," Zhiqing instantly agreed. This was what she wanted. She wanted to spend her time with Long Chen, and she wanted that time to be only hers, but she didn't want to be misunderstood, so she never said anything. When Long Chen talked about this idea, it was as if he had read her thoughts.
Xue and Mei were excited as well since they were the weakest and most silent girls there that didn't chime in too much. With this method, they would have two days each to spend with Long Chen and to be truly there for him without considering about hurting anyone's feelings.