
“Mengjun!?”
“Yiheng?”
Yuelong stared at the man dressed in red. His hair was no longer tied up in a high ponytail, but it flowed smoothly down his shoulders. A large portion of his chest was shown from the exposing robes. He instantly recalled the moment when he first saw Mengjun’s wet chest. His face burned red.
His eyes uncontrollably followed down his slender build and onto his long, pale legs. It was wickedly tempting. Like a beautiful fox demon, Mengjun’s current appearance released an insatiable desire to those who saw.
Yuelong swallowed.
“Huang gong-zi, you…” Murong Zi avoided Mengjun’s eyes.
Sifei’s blushed red at the sight. “Wow…so brave of them.” He thought to himself.
Completely nude, the He Luo King laid flat on the floor, his tentacles sprawled across the room. Clothed with only a single layer, Mengjun was leaning on one leg that was pressed down against the He Luo King’s chest. If a stranger were to walk in, they would most likely suspect that the unnaturally buff bottom had a fetish for being dominated and stepped on.
“Wait! It’s not what you think!” Mengjun explained nervously, taking his leg off from the creature.
“Mengjun, you…” Yuelong was at a loss for words. Regardless of what happened between the two, he couldn’t help but feel a little bit of hatred towards the two. He wished that if this was under normal circumstances, he could be the one, alone with Mengjun. Afterall, who could resist the temptation of that man…
Yuelong shook his head, trying to erase the dirty thoughts.
“What are you thinking about!?” He accidentally yelled out.
Murong Zi looked at Yuelong with a surprised look.
“Yiheng, let me explain,” Mengjun continued. “I was brought to a bath, and these demons swapped out my clothes, and then I was brought here—”
Yuelong held up a hand. “At least you’re not injured.” He said coldly.
“It’s not what you think! We didn’t do anything!” Mengjun explained.
Yuelong let out a breath of relief, but nonetheless kept his face blank.
Without warning, a tentacle quickly lashed out at Mengjun.
“Look out!” Yuelong cried.
He lunged forward and pulled Mengjun in by the waist. With a twist of his heel, Mengjun and Yuelong twirled across the room.
A distant memory of his childhood flooded back to Yuelong’s mind at that moment, it was the one where he had crashed onto the bookshelf with his shi-di.
Stopping his footsteps, Yuelong released Mengjun’s waist. He looked off to one side, avoiding Mengjun’s glance.
“What are you thinking about, Yuelong?” He muttered to himself angrily. Frustrated by his own thoughts, he released his anger at the creature through a long glare.
“Damn it, the effects wore off…” Mengjun thought to himself. “He could expose me at any time, I better seal his mouth soon. This is not looking good for me.”
Mengjun grasped the air behind his back, concentrating the moisture from the air and into his hand.
A thunderous rumbling shook the entire room. “What a great show I’ve been entertained to!” The He Luo King exclaimed. “First, the rare beauty, and now, a vinegar-bathed Fan Yiheng?”
“You…” Yuelong spat through his gritted teeth.
“Don’t waste your energy to talk to him, he isn’t worth it.” Murong Zi advised from the other side of the room.
The creature laughed sarcastically. “It is not me who you should be focused on, it is him!” He pointed at Mengjun.
Everyone looked at Mengjun. He shrugged and smiled nervously.
Before anyone had a chance to question anything, the creature charged towards the doors. In a poor attempt to escape, he tried diverting the attention to Mengjun. But faced with a disciple who’s sole duty is to eliminate demons, Murong Zi wasn’t so easily tricked. She had her eyes on the creature the entire time they were in the room.
“Don’t you dare think of escape!” Murong Zi held up a small, purple orb. At once, the orb exploded with a shattering sound of glass. Like fireworks, purple dust exploded everywhere and on everyone.
Amidst the purple-clouded air, Mengjun flicked the needle from his hand.
“Nothing but a piece of calamari…” He muttered to himself.
As the purple powder disappeared into the air, it left behind a fresh scent of peach blossoms. The large shape of the He Luo King laid still on the ground, one hand grasping the handles of the door.
Yuelong held a sword to the creature’s neck.
“H—how did you…” The He Luo King pointed at Murong Zi.
“Did you think that I would never learn from my own mistakes?” Murong said coldly. “All creatures under Heaven require air. Did you think that you would stay immune to my abilities?”
The He Luo King was at a loss for words. He did intake a large amount of the powder, but the majority of it would be filtered out by his mucus and water. However, he did feel a slight sting at the back of his neck.
The creature turned his attention to Mengjun, who was strolling towards him. He pointed towards Mengjun.
“You—” He stopped. The He Luo King felt something cold slide all over his organs. Hard, sharp crystals of frosted blood seized up his throat. He couldn’t talk.
Mengjun crossed his arms and looked down at the pitiful creature.
“Yiheng, take out his spiritual dan.” Murong Zi suddenly suggested.
Yuelong looked at her with a puzzled look. “What?”
“His spiritual dan is his cluster of energy that he has cultivated through the years. It will have the ability to reverse the effects of his ink.” She explained.
“Ink? What ink?” Mengjun asked.
“Yiheng was sprayed with this creature’s ink, which blocked the meridian channels in his body, rendering him incapable of using his powers.” Murong said.
Mengjun replied with an amused “huh”.
Yuelong looked down at the He Luo. He could see a deep shade of purple forming underneath his gray skin. The poison was in effect.
Recalling the acts and arrogant attitude of the He Luo King, Yuelong raised the sword in his hand. He wanted to slay this creature for good. Yuelong took a glance at the creature’s eyes. They were moist and on the verge of tears, begging him to not take away the accumulation of his hard work over hundreds of years.
Yuelong’s heart wavered. He slowly lowered his sword. “Is there another way for me to recover?”
“Yes…” Murong Zi said.
“What is it?”
Without warning, Murong Zi plunged her sword into the abdomen of the He Luo King. He cried out in pain but no sound came out. Blue blood gushed out from his wound.
Faint words creeped out from the creature’s mouth, “You vicious woman!”
Mengjun took a step back from the creature. Astonished, he watched another spray of blue gush out as Murong Zi took out her sword.
“Murong gu-niang! What are you doing?” Yuelong asked, a slight anger in his voice.
“You asked if there was another way and this is it,” she argued. “If you don’t take it, I’ll take it for you. And besides, who knows how many people this creature killed to achieve his powers of today?”
She pointed two fingers at the abdomen of the creature and then pointed upwards. A glowing dan rose from the wound.
Similar to the pearls of a clam, the spiritual dan is a cluster of energy that the cultivator had accumulated throughout the years of cultivation. It symbolized the capacity of the cultivator’s energy storage and strength. For cultivators of the orthodox sects, a powerful dan would be round in shape and both pure and light in color. A weak dan would be dull in color and barely glow.
However for animals, since they were born with the ability to collect energy naturally, their dan could take on the shape and color of anything.
“Wow! Is that the creature’s dan!?” Sifei exclaimed.
A diamond-shaped dan left the body of the creature. It’s smooth surface was a swirling of dark and light blues like that of the oceans. It glowed with a bright, blue brilliance that could even shame some orthodox cultivators.
“Touch it, Yiheng.”
Reluctantly, Yiheng raised a hand towards the dan. Upon touching the smooth jade-like surface, he felt a rush of powerful energy course through his veins. It felt like the ocean was inside his body, cleansing out the ink that blocked his meridian channels.
Feeling refreshed, Yuelong let out a breath.
“Are you feeling alright now?” Murong Zi asked, the coldness absent from her voice.
Yuelong nodded and let the dan fall into his palm. It felt warm and cozy in his hand. This was his first time actually seeing and holding the spiritual dan of a living being. It was uncanny to hold something that came out so violently from the He Luo King, but somehow, Yuelong felt tranquil and serene from the cluster of energy.
“Look at his body!” Sifei pointed to the creature.
The four of them took a couple steps back from the creature. Its skin had started to melt and its muscular build was now a jiggly blob of flesh. No longer supported by his own spiritual dan, the creature had begun to lose its physical form. All of a sudden, the blob of flesh completely lost its shape and turned into a pool of water, leaving behind a foot-long creature sprawled on the ground.
It had the head of a fish whilst ten, long, thick arms squirmed and wriggled in the puddle. This was the true form of the He Luo King.
“How is it still alive?” Murong Zi muttered to herself, frustrated at her powers once again.
“It’s alright, Murong gu-niang, it has lost its powers and can no longer harm anyone.” Yuelong assured.
“No, if we want to destroy the demons, we have to root them up!” Murong Zi lifted her sword.
Veins of green bulged from her hand and temples. Red strings of blood crept into her eyes. Murong Zi was under the control of the mysterious toxins again.
“Murong gu-niang!”
“Shi-jie!”
Sifei grabbed Murong Zi’s hand that held the sword and Yuelong pulled her away from the He Luo. Concentrating a bit of his powers into his fingertips, he attacked a few acupuncture points and temporarily sealed Murong Zi’s meridian channel. The two struggled to pin down Murong Zi as the toxin’s effects slowly wore off.
Unnoticed, Mengjun had picked up the squirming body of the He Luo with two fingers and walked to the edge of the pool.
“Plop!”
Mengjun had dropped the He Luo into the pool.
“Be careful of what you report to your master,” Mengjun whispered to the He Luo. “Or I will drain the oceans just to find you, and then, you would have wished you died.”
He brushed the surface of the water and a small whirlpool opened up from the depths of the pool. The He Luo took one last look at Mengjun with its big glossy eyes and swam away into the deep.
Mengjun was completely unaware that he was also being watched by someone.
Afterall, who could resist the temptation of that man…
I agree
“First, the rare beauty, and now, a vinegar-bathed Fan Yiheng?”
Jealous boi ?
I wouldn't resist Mengjun....if he was real T_T
??