Chapter 60 of 90
Talking About That Deal Again
"It's very simple," said Yun Xianchen. "I'm here to make a deal with you. You help me find the Dragon King Turtle. I need the Snake Spring for my cultivation." She lifted her chin. "Of course, I won't make you help me for nothing. It'll be a debt I owe you. As long as you don't ask too much, I'll help you with something in return. And I'll give you spirit stones. Though I can't get too many at once."
"Hahaha…"
Li Yuguo laughed. He poured himself a cup of water.
"The Snake Spring is only found near the Ling Snake Cave on Ling Snake Mountain. And you want me to take you to it? Wouldn't that cost me my life? I was lucky last time. I only stole a little Snake Spring right out of the Dragon King Turtle's mouth…"
He had not expected the first beauty of Saibei to be so interested in what was, as far as he knew, the turtle's bathwater.
Yun Xianchen took off the cloth over her face. Since he already knew who she was, there was no point in hiding.
"Then tell me. How can you help me? Name your condition!"
Li Yuguo came closer. He smiled an evil smile.
"Conditions? Well, it's just as well you came to me. You see—the County Lord and I have been married three years, but we can't share a room. And as a man, there are naturally certain things I can't bear any longer… So if you were to…"
"You—!"
Yun Xianchen's face flamed. She drew her sword.
"You insult me so lightly… I can't forgive you—"
And at that moment, the sword fell out of her hand.
It clattered on the floor. She put her hand to her head. The room was swaying. Her body had begun to go soft, from the knees up.
"You—what have you done to me?"
Li Yuguo came closer, smiling his wicked smile.
"Outside my window, there are a lot of flowers and plants. And among them, there's a kind of spirit grass called the Fascination Flower."
"The Fascination Flower… so it's…"
The Fascination Flower was one of the ingredients used to make hallucinogens. The Poison Emperor had given him the recipe for it, over the fire on Ling Snake Mountain. And Yun Xianchen knew it too. A great many flower thieves used it. The kind of men who climbed in through women's windows at night.
Could it be, she thought, that I've walked straight into his trap tonight? She looked at his evil face. Doesn't he want to—
She was angry, and frightened, and her whole body ached and would not give her any strength.
Li Yuguo looked innocent.
"There are a lot of mosquitoes here, you know. And I like to practice at night. So I planted those flowers to keep the mosquitoes off. And, of course, to keep off my dear sworn cousin. He treats me like a thorn in his eye. He'd kill me in a minute if he could. I have to take precautions."
"You—what are you going to do to me?"
Yun Xianchen crossed her arms over her chest.
Under the moonlight, her beautiful face glowed with a soft, enchanting light. The fear in it only made it more beautiful. Even Li Yuguo had to sigh a little. She really is the first beauty of Saibei. The way I wrote her.
If Yun Xianchen is this beautiful, he thought, how beautiful must that woman in the Kingdom of Haotian be?
He coughed.
"I should be the one asking you. You say you have business with me. Couldn't you come during the day? You had to come at night. It's time for bed. You broke into a man's room in the middle of the night. Are you trying to do something with me?"
He came closer. He took Yun Xianchen by the arm and pulled her straight into his arms.
She could not break free. She did not have the strength.
Li Yuguo smiled his evil smile. "Look. You're in my arms already. Could it be that the first beauty of the True Yuan Sect couldn't hold herself back under the moonlight? Did you come looking for me to talk about life?"
"Let—let me go! If you don't let go, I'll scream!"
Yun Xianchen was trembling. Tears were very close to falling.
She had always been the first female disciple of the True Yuan Sect. A daughter of heaven. They treated her like a goddess there. When had she ever suffered humiliation like this?
"If you want to scream, scream," said Li Yuguo. "Then everyone will come. And they'll all say that Yun Xianchen, the second disciple of the True Yuan Sect, came into a man's room in the middle of the night. If that gets out… what do you think people will say about you? I'm afraid in the end they'll decide you're a lascivious woman."
While he was speaking, his hand had already slid around her slender waist.
Yun Xianchen was ashamed and furious and terrified. Is this the night I lose my innocence? she thought. If it is—I'd rather die.
His hands searched her. Up and down. Along her sides, her back, her hips, the inside of the black sash at her waist.
He frowned. Something's wrong. A woman like Yun Xianchen, the carrier of the True Yuan Sect's secrets, should have been bristling with hidden weapons. Needles. Darts. Something. But there was nothing on her.
He lifted her a little in his arms, and bent his head, and put his mouth to the side of her neck, under her ear, and licked it.
"What a beautiful scent," he murmured against her skin.
Yun Xianchen crumbled.
Kill him, her mind said, clear and cold. Kill him. Cut his hands off. But her body would not answer. It hung in his arms like wet silk. And the place on her neck where his tongue had been was burning.
His hand moved slowly up from her waist, and closed over her breast through the black cloth, and squeezed.
It was so soft that it filled his hand and changed shape under it, yielding, swelling up between his fingers.
She had never been humiliated like this. Never. A perverted man had his hand on her breast, and was kneading it, and she could do nothing at all. Nothing. She could not even lift her arm.
His other hand had gone down to her ass, and was enjoying it. The soft, round, firm weight of it, through the black dress.
And then it went inside.
He slid it down inside the waist of her trousers, under the dress, and took hold of her bare ass and squeezed. She felt every finger. His palm on her naked skin. The shape of his hand moving under the black cloth, here, there, kneading.
His middle finger slid down into the crack between her cheeks. Slowly. Deeper. Until its tip pressed against the tight, hidden pucker of her asshole.
A shiver went through her that was not only fear. What—what is he going to do now? Her mind was cursing him with every vile word she knew. And her body had gone hot all over.
He was enjoying her. He had never touched a woman like this before. Not in either of his lives.
He drew his finger back out of the crease of her ass, and moved it forward, down, between her thighs. And began to rub. Along the soft seam of her pussy, through the thin silk of her underclothes.
It was already wet.
"Oh?" said Li Yuguo, softly, into her ear. "Look at that. You're already wet, while I'm playing with you. What a horny woman."
Yun Xianchen heard it, and wanted to die of shame. She did not say anything. She pressed her lips together and kept silent. Her eyes were swimming. She was about to cry.
And then he took his hand away.
"Forget it," he said. "Figure-wise, you're much worse than my Nalan Meng."
He let her go.
If he had not said that, it would have been fine.
But he did say it. And the moment he said it, a thousand waves rose up in Yun Xianchen's heart at once.
A woman could stand to be called an idiot. She could not stand to be slandered on her looks.
"Why can't I compare to her?" she said furiously.
"You mean you want me to test it for you?" He sat down on the stool and drank his tea. "All right. The Fascination Flower's effect only lasts one stick of incense. It's almost worn off you now. You can go."
"You—I'll never let you go!"
Yun Xianchen snatched her sword up off the floor and went out through the other window.
The more she thought about what had just happened, the angrier she got. She flew faster and faster through the night, and went straight back to the True Yuan Sect's lodgings outside the city.
In her own room, she threw herself face down on the bed. And as soon as she thought of that humiliating scene, she buried her head in the quilt.
"Woooo… it's so embarrassing! Woohoo… Li Yuguo, I'll never, never forgive you!"
Then she sat up, and thought.
He had used tricks. That was all it had been. Tricks. In cultivation, she crushed him completely. He was nothing. A Martial Teacher. She only had to find her chance to deal with him—and make him pay, properly, for tonight's insolence.
She was Ximen Lang's fiancée, but only in name. And though nothing had happened—though she had only been touched—she could not swallow it. Not whatever happened.
She could not sleep. Her face was burning like fire. Hot. Hot. She tossed and turned and pressed the pillow against her face, and breathed into it.
The next night, Yun Xianchen came back fully armed.
She wore the beast-hide light armor of the True Yuan Sect over her black dress. There was a belt of hidden weapons at her waist—needles, darts, a coil of steel wire. And in her hand was the True Yuan long sword. She flew over the City Lord's Mansion in the dark like a hawk.
This time, she came late. Very late. She waited until she was sure the whole house was asleep. Then she slipped down to Li Yuguo's window with her sword drawn.
But she had overlooked one thing.
Li Yuguo had been a writer. Naturally, he was a night owl.
It was pitch dark all around. Yun Xianchen gritted her teeth and jumped in through the window. She had two balls of cotton stuffed in her nose, and she was holding her breath besides, on purpose.
Clang.
She drew the sword, and sneered under her breath.
"Li Yuguo. Plot and scheme all you like. Tonight, how are you going to trick me again? Let's see this girl teach you a good lesson—for the humiliation you gave me yesterday!"
She went straight for the bed. The quilt was heaped up in a long lump. She raised her sword and brought it down, meaning to stab Li Yuguo right in the backside.
But when the sword went in, it felt wrong.
She tore the quilt back. Underneath was a log of wood.
Her face changed. She spun around.
Li Yuguo was standing right behind her, holding a cup of tea.
He sighed. "Sure enough. You came at night again…"
"You're toying with me!"
Yun Xianchen lunged. But as the sword went out, her feet went unsteady under her, and she pitched forward. Luckily, Li Yuguo caught her in time.
She fell straight into his arms.
"You—what did you do to me?"
"I knew you'd come," said Li Yuguo. "So I prepared a little gift for you. Look."
He pointed to the desk.
Sure enough, there was a stick of incense burning there. A thin gray thread of smoke curled up from its tip into the dark.
"This…" Yun Xianchen's pretty face changed.
Li Yuguo coughed. "An incense stick, made of Fascination pollen. You can stuff your nose and hold your breath all you like—pollen this fine goes in through the skin. And of course… I've already taken the antidote."
Yun Xianchen hung in his arms with her sword dangling from her slack fingers, and stared up at him.
Twice. He had beaten her twice. Without lifting a hand.
She was so angry she could not speak. Her face had gone scarlet from her collar to her hairline. Her eyes were blazing. And under the beast-hide armor, her body was already going soft and warm and heavy against his chest, exactly as it had the night before, and she could not do one thing about it.
Li Yuguo looked down at her, and set his tea down on the desk, and smiled.
"Now," he said. "Shall we try talking about that deal again, Senior Sister Yun? Properly, this time?"
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