Chapter 1346: Reunion with Dear Wife

He couldn’t wait to—

Phei’s eyes narrowed.

The change in space was faint at first, so far beyond the reach of ordinary perception that even most powerful cultivators would have noticed nothing until it was already happening. Reality itself seemed to tighten somewhere outside the range of his senses, while space around their home gained a strange tension, as though something impossibly distant had reached through countless layers and begun imposing its own path upon the world.

It was targeting exactly here.

Phei’s expression changed immediately, and the smile spreading across his face made the Dragon Lady open her eyes from where she had been cultivating.

"Hey, little sister," Phei called while glancing toward the meat he had only just begun preparing. "How about a proper hefty meal on one ridiculously long table instead of this stupid pile of meat?"

The Dragon Lady’s head lifted.

Phei grinned. "My wife is here to get us."

She did not react immediately because whatever was approaching remained beyond even her senses, but several breaths later her wings shifted and her eyes sharpened toward the center of the cavern. The spatial disturbance had finally reached a point she could feel too, and the core floating before her slowly lowered as she watched the air begin to distort.

Threads of reality appeared without warning.

They were impossibly thin, almost invisible strands running through empty space where nothing had existed a moment earlier. More followed, crossing and intertwining until the fabric of the world seemed to peel itself open with terrifying gentleness.

Sienna stepped through.

She brought Nether and Death with her.

The energies did not erupt across the cavern or crush everything beneath their presence. Sienna held them far too perfectly for that. Yet Phei still felt the quiet enormity surrounding her, Death moving beneath the surface like a sleeping ocean while Nether flowed around it with a depth that made the frozen cavern suddenly feel very small. The power was restrained so completely that the flames near the cooking area barely flickered, but anything capable of sensing what lay beneath that control would have understood how horrifyingly false the calm was.

Sienna looked toward him.

Phei vanished from where he stood and surrendered himself to the Void without so much as a ripple left behind.

"My love."

The words had barely escaped him before his attention settled completely upon Sienna, and for a moment even Phei found himself caught between pride and disbelief.

Fuck, she had become terrifyingly strong.

Two weeks of cultivating his Soul Energy she had drawn from him had carried Sienna all the way into the Lesser God stage, an ascent so absurd that most cultivators would probably develop spiritual injuries merely from hearing about it.

Sienna was breathtaking.

Her strength had refined everything about her without stealing the young woman beneath it.

Her pale skin carried a quiet, a divine luster beneath the surrounding light, while her long dark hair poured behind her in smooth rivers that seemed too black for anything mortal. The sovereign violet of her eyes had deepened until they looked almost luminous, beautiful enough to hold attention even before one noticed the immense pressure sleeping behind them.

Nether Essence lingered around her with the cold majesty of an endless night, yet against all that frightening divinity stood the same beautiful woman whose lips Phei knew far too well.

’Gods, she is unfairly otherworldly.’

Sienna had gotten more beautiful than she was powerful, and considering Sienna had somehow become a fucking Lesser God while he was gone, that was saying something.

Phei appeared directly before her before the last word had fully left his mouth; his arm swept firmly around her waist, pulling her against him while his other hand slipped behind her neck and caught her beneath the fall of dark hair.

Then his lips found hers; Phei kissed her with the hunger of someone who had been away for far longer than she understood, pressing her close until there was hardly space left between their bodies; their lips met fully before he softened it just enough to taste her properly, drawing her lower lip between his own and lingering there before kissing her again.

Sienna barely managed to inhale.

Surprise widened those sovereign violet eyes for the smallest instant before they slowly closed, and whatever response she might have prepared disappeared beneath the kiss. Phei kissed her with all the impatience of a man who had spent far too long without her, warm and deep enough that the immense Lesser God pressure surrounding Sienna wavered around them.

Her body stiffened for barely a heartbeat before melting against his chest, one hand catching the front of his shirt while the other rose almost instinctively toward his shoulder.

Phei tightened his arm around her waist.

One of her hands caught the front of his robes while the other slid around his back, her fingers tightened against the fabric as Phei angled his head and deepened the kiss. Their lips parted and met again without hurry now, each kiss carrying the weight of the next before the previous one had completely ended.

Phei brushed his mouth across hers, caught her upper lip gently, then returned to her lower one before Sienna pulled him closer by his robes and kissed him back with enough force to steal the rhythm from him.

He had missed this.

’I have missed you my wife.’

And judging by the way Sienna’s fingers slowly curled into his robes while she kissed him back with considerably more hunger than her usual frozen dignity would ever admit, the feeling was painfully mutual.

Her surprise lasted only a heartbeat.

Sienna melted into him.

Phei smiled against her mouth.

That only made her grip tighten.

His hand left the back of her neck and travelled slowly down between her shoulders, following the line of her spine until his palm settled firmly at the small of her back.

He drew her tighter against him while his other hand remained around her waist, fingers spreading there as though he needed to make certain she was actually standing in his arms and had not disappeared somewhere during the past year.

For Sienna, barely two weeks had passed.

For Phei, her lips felt like something he had been waiting almost a year to taste again.

He kissed her more slowly after that, allowing the urgency to turn into something heavier.

His lips pressed against hers and remained there before withdrawing only enough for their breaths to mix. Sienna followed immediately rather than letting him escape, her fingers curled into his robes as she brought his mouth back to hers, and Phei answered by tightening his arm around her waist until she was almost lifted against him.

Her lips were soft.

’Warm and mine.’

Familiar enough that something inside his chest finally relaxed.

Phei’s hand moved from her back to her side and then higher, caressing along her ribs through her dress before returning to her waist. He touched her everywhere he could without breaking the kiss, almost restless with the need to feel that she was here, while Sienna’s hands became equally unwilling to let go.

One slid up his back until her fingers reached his shoulder, while the other remained twisted into the front of his robes, pulling him closer whenever his mouth threatened to leave hers.

When Phei finally broke the kiss, he remained close enough that their noses nearly touched.

"I missed you."

The words came quieter than most things Phei said.

Sienna looked into his eyes, and whatever she saw there softened her expression.

Phei kissed her again before she could answer.

This one was hungrier.

His hand returned to the back of her neck while Sienna immediately rose and tiptoed to meet him, her lips parted against his as the Nether Goddess pulled hard on his robes. Phei tilted his head and kissed her deeply, his mouth moving against hers with none of the teasing patience from before.

He caught her lower lip, released it, kissed her again and felt her fingers tighten at his shoulder as she leaned completely into him.

Sienna’s breathing changed.

So did his.

Phei’s hand slid down her back again and held her firmly against him while her arms wrapped more completely around him, and for several breaths the only movement inside the cavern came from the slow shift of their bodies and the soft sounds of lips meeting again and again.

He finally pulled away with considerably more reluctance than dignity required.

Sienna remained against him.

Phei looked at her flushed lips and smiled. "So if a few days pass here, that’s what, maybe an hour outside? Less?"

Sienna’s fingers were still holding his robes when she gave a small nod.

Phei’s smile widened.

He glanced toward the Dragon Lady. His little sister was staring at them.

Phei suddenly remembered she existed.

"Right."

The Dragon Lady’s stare became considerably flatter.

Phei cleared his throat and pointed toward the opening of their home. "Little sister, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to wait outside for a little while."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Please?"

The look she gave him promised future judgment.

Phei did not care.

Space folded around him and Sienna before his little sister could offer further criticism, and they appeared inside his sleeping area with Sienna still caught in his arms. At the same moment, Void-Ice flowed through the surrounding walls and sealed the entire section away from the rest of the home, closing sound, sight and every convenient opening with an efficiency that made Phei privately proud of himself.

Sienna looked around once before turning back toward him, still held against his chest.

"What are you—"

Phei touched her clothes—

—they became a poof of white smoke and vanished; his own followed.

Sienna knelt naked on the bed in front of him, and for a moment Phei just looked.