Li Ke knew how to draw a hard line between business and pleasure. When it came to someone like Toph, he viewed the whole ordeal as an act of charity more than anything else. He had no intention of turning this into an all-night marathon; a quick session to test the waters and verify the energy exchange was plenty.
If they were talking about actual technical skill—like a high-stakes card game where endurance mattered—he could have tapped into his Blood Secret Arts or Life Return techniques to last indefinitely. But this wasn't that.
"Look, it's obviously a lie," Li Ke explained, trying to sound patient. "The average guy manages maybe once or twice, with the total time adding up to about an hour. Even the 'legendary' ones are usually just guys who know how to pace themselves slightly better."
He knew the reality: anyone claiming extreme feats was either using "medical assistance," was a genetic freak of nature, or had trained specifically for it. Such people were rare. He wasn't about to let her project the unrealistic standards of an adult film protagonist onto him.
"So? You're saying you can't keep up?"
Toph stared at him with a deadpan expression. She could feel a distinct physical change; after Li Ke's release, her body felt lighter, as if some strange, heavy burden had been siphoned away.
The sensation was strangely comfortable, yet deeply unsettling. A warm glow had spread through her limbs, but it left her chest and lower body feeling tight and itchy. Combined with the suggestive audio still drifting from the "little box" on the floor, she felt a restless urge she couldn't quite name.
She wanted to settle this strange feeling all at once rather than letting it linger. Back at the arena, whenever she dropped a comment like that, men would lose their minds and charge at her recklessly. Whether she wanted to speed up a fight or just manipulate someone, questioning a man's "capability" was a guaranteed way to lower their IQ and put her in a winning position.
She didn't think Li Ke was any different. If she could just bruise his ego enough to make him lose his cool, she'd have the upper hand.
"Obviously, that's not the case," Li Ke replied, shaking his head. Even in the short time they'd been talking, his body was already bouncing back. Toph actually had a very pleasant scent, and between that and the lingering feel of her soft palms, he could feel his drive returning.
But he held back.
"The priority right now is building a shelter. Doing this was just to confirm I could actually send you home. Look at the sky—it's almost dark."
Li Ke gestured toward the fading light outside the cave. Toph paused, her competitive edge softening as she realized he was serious.
"In the last world I was in, nightfall was bad news. Monsters came out in droves. I don't know the rules of this place yet, but I'm not taking chances. We need a proper fortress."
Li Ke was being sincere. Toph, however, remained blunt.
"Fine. But let's do it one more time, it only takes you three minutes anyway," she retorted.
"..."
"Fine, fine."
Li Ke let out a weary sigh, rubbing his temples as he looked at the stubborn girl. He felt completely defeated by her persistence.
"Fine," he repeated.
He settled back down on the dirt floor and pulled up another video to keep the momentum going. Beside him, Toph began to work with his "spear" again, her movements noticeably more careful this time. She could sense his lack of enthusiasm through the steady, unhurried rhythm of his heart, and she couldn't help but ask, "You're not exactly enjoying this, are you?"
"Not really," Li Ke admitted.
His mind was elsewhere, mentally calculating his new balance. Now that he knew he could extract World Power directly, he was trying to figure out the most efficient way to convert it into energy points without wasting a single drop of the precious resource. He wasn't sure if he should cash it all in at once to send them home or save some for the inevitable upgrades he'd need for this blocky world.
Despite his distraction, Toph was proving to be an incredible study. Her movements were significantly more confident than the first time; she had even started instinctively experimenting, using her fingertips to lightly tease the tip while rotating her palm with a newfound rhythm. Her mouth and her logic might have been bizarre, but there was no denying she was a genius who mastered new skills at a frightening pace.
"I prefer genuine connection with a woman," Li Ke explained, his voice flat. "This... this is more about getting someone home. To me, it feels like work. It's purely physical stimulation without any emotional spark. Honestly, it's a bit tedious."
He was being completely sincere. Toph gave a small nod.
"I see..."
As far-fetched as his words sounded, she could feel that his heartbeat remained perfectly level. Unless Li Ke belonged to a race of biological anomalies or was a world-class pathological liar, he was telling the truth.
"So you really are just doing 'charity' work?"
"Pretty much. It's not exactly how I'd choose to spend my time. If I had enough energy banked already, I would've just sent you back ten minutes ago," Li Ke replied.
He wasn't trying to be cruel, but it was an objective fact: Toph's technique was improving, but a hand—no matter how skilled—simply couldn't compete with the warmth and comfort of a woman's mouth or her other two 'entrances.' To Li Ke, there was no question about it; it just wasn't the same.
"Well, aren't you a saint," Toph muttered.
She nodded to herself, trying her best to tune out the suggestive sounds drifting from Li Ke's phone. She was dying of curiosity about how that little box could produce human voices, but she decided that now was definitely not the time to ask.
Toph, however, was preoccupied with something else entirely.
"Elsa mentioned you can conjure fire in this world. How do you do it?"
She was well aware of Elsa's frost; it was an innate power, a reservoir of raw energy within the girl that made her seem like a literal deity. But Li Ke was clearly different. When she had gripped his body earlier, she hadn't sensed any terrifying, god-like ocean of energy. So how was he manifesting flames?
"That's a power I brought with me called Mana," Li Ke explained, mentally checking his internal reserves. "I used nearly all of it to save you two."
Li Ke felt out his remaining Mana. It was a peculiar thing. Unlike Blood Energy, which he constantly circulated and hoarded to nourish his physical form, he didn't like to store Mana in large quantities. Mana was synthesized from a mixture of mental focus and life energy whenever he actually needed to cast something.
After all, both Mana and Blood Energy were refined from the body's life nutrients. Blood Energy was easy to preserve and actively strengthened his physique, but Mana tended to dissipate if left stagnant.
It was only after he began his cultivation that Li Ke realized real life wasn't like a web novel. You couldn't just absorb external energy to permanently increase your "MP bar." Ambient energy was for casting or purification; increasing your internal capacity required slowly and painfully remodeling your own physical vessel.
Even with his Blood Energy, his body had a hard limit on how much it could contain. The only reason he could store as much as he did was because the Arad techniques allowed Blood Energy to stand in for his actual blood, circulating through his veins to sustain his life.
Mana was different. People like Rin Tohsaka or Rias Gremory could stockpile massive amounts because their bodies were built for it—Rin had Magic Circuits, and Rias was a high-tier mythological being. Li Ke, despite being categorized as a "human" from their worlds, was actually a Primordial Human by their standard. Unlike the "modern" humans of those worlds who were limited to their specific systems, Li Ke was a universal template, capable of learning any technique from any world—but he still had to build the "pipes" to hold the power.
Because he lacked specialized organs like Magic Circuits, he synthesized Mana by drawing directly on his own life force and mental energy on the fly. He prioritized Blood Energy as his Core Law because it directly boosted his Attribute Points. As long as his vitality was high and he kept training with Blood Energy, his constitution would continue to evolve.
Blood Energy was his cultivation method for growth, while Mana was simply a tool for combat. It was a power earned through pure hard work and talent—independent of the 'System'—so he took a certain pride in it.
Toph, however, just tilted her head in total confusion, her "gaze" fixed on the rhythmic, heavy thrum of his heart.
"Mana? You mean you aren't just using Chi?"
She "stared" at him in shock. To her seismic senses, the two forces flowing through Li Ke didn't feel like "tools" at all; they felt like a wild, untamed storm of life and intent. She reached out, her fingers brushing his arm as if trying to read the very map of his soul. "If it's not Chi, then what exactly are you made of?"