Chapter Ninety-Four: So Hot, So Hot

On the morning after, the rain was still falling in a thin, scattered veil. After breakfast, Yue Lianyue and Yu Wenlingxi resumed their practice, and under Lingxi’s guidance, Lianyue began once more with the most basic movements.

On Yue Lingjun’s side, however, a group of uninvited guests arrived.

Seeing the white-robed man at the head of the party, Qiao Zhi greeted him warmly, thumping his fist against the white-robed man’s chest beneath the brim of his hat and teasing, “Well now, the moment your fiancée runs into trouble, you rush right over.”

The white-robed man pressed his lips together, gave only a slight smile, and nodded toward Meng Chuchen and Yue Lingjun behind Qiao Zhi. Meeting Meng Chuchen’s somewhat angry gaze, he stepped aside to reveal the small figure behind him.

“Senior Brother Chuchen.”

That soft, coaxing voice instantly ignited the fire in Meng Chuchen’s heart.

He did not hide his anger in the least. “Yaoyao, come here.”

Yaoyao turned for help toward Yue Lingjun, but Yue Lingjun only shook his head. Stamping a foot, she followed with a bitter look on her face.

“Senior Brother Chuchen, I was wrong. Forgive me, all right? Please… please…”

Her voice trailed on and on as she tugged at the sleeve of Meng Chuchen’s robe, swaying it back and forth, her head lowered and her eyes fixed on her toes.

The moment Meng Chuchen heard that soft, pliant voice, however angry he was, he could no longer stay furious.

With a helpless sigh, he turned, lowered his head, and looked at the distressing little figure before him. “You know you were wrong?”

“Yes! Yes! I know I was wrong.” Yaoyao hurriedly nodded.

Seeing that her attitude was still decent, Meng Chuchen continued, “You are a young girl. Why did you come to a place like this? Do you know how dangerous it is inside? Do you know how many fierce beasts there are in there? What if you’re attacked and injured by one?”

With her head still lowered, Yaoyao was also muttering under her breath, and from the shape of her mouth one could faintly tell that she was actually reciting along with Meng Chuchen’s words.

Yue Lingjun withdrew his gaze from the two of them and said apologetically to Yu Wenlingxi, “Chuchen is always like this when he meets Yaoyao. Young Lord Yu Wen, please do not mind.”

“How could I? Master Yue is too kind. Lingxi truly should not have agreed to let Yaoyao come.” Yu Wenlingxi’s tone was courteous without being distant.

Since it had been raining constantly, the traces of the fierce battle from the previous night were still clearly visible, and the sight made the men who had come with them twitch at the corners of their eyes. Yu Wenlingxi motioned to the people behind him to take out the hats they were carrying and distribute them to everyone.

Not far away, on a tree, Forty-two slipped away without a sound and returned to where Forty-two, Fifty-four, and the others were stationed.

Forty-two asked in a low voice, “The Second Young Master is already in place. Do we continue as before?”

“Of course we continue! The young lord was injured by us, after all. Besides, isn’t Number Ten still with the Second Young Master? But Thirteen only ordered us to hold them here for last night; after that, we don’t need to make such a big fuss as we did yesterday.”

“Strange. Why has Nineteen been chasing that giant serpent all night and still not returned?” Fifty-four asked, staring into the deep forest.

“Who knows? Leave him alone. Mark the way for him, and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”

“All right! Then I’ll go back to keeping watch on that group. Remember to leave signs for me all along the way.” Before the words had even fallen, he vanished without a trace.

The already dim sky darkened all at once, and with a roar, a fiercer storm suddenly descended.

“Brother Ming, the rain is getting heavier. If this goes on, when will we ever be able to travel?” Lianyue looked at the woods, suddenly darkened, and stopped practicing. Reaching her hand out to catch the splashes from outside, she looked toward the dark figure beside her.

“When the rain stops, we’ll set out again.” Yu Wenlingxi imitated her, extending his hand to catch the rainwater. “Play for a little while if you like, but be careful not to catch cold.”

Reluctantly, Lianyue withdrew her hand, only to feel a wave of heat rising through her body. She fanned herself repeatedly with her small hand, but the heat would not subside. “Brother Ming, why is it still so hot when it’s raining?”

Hot? How could it be hot? It had rained all night, and the weather now should have been especially cool. Could the fire be burning too strongly? But why did he feel nothing at all?

Yu Wenlingxi looked at Lianyue in confusion, only to see a trace of unnatural flush spreading over her already lovely face, while her apricot eyes had grown somewhat misty.

In a single step he was at her side, seizing her pulse. The warmth that had only recently returned to his eyes over the past two days was instantly covered in a layer of frost.

“Brother Ming, why am I so hot? Your hand feels so nice, so nice.”

At this moment Lianyue was blooming like peach blossom in full flower, her eyes shimmering with light. Her words had begun to lose all coherence, her hands fluttering more and more wildly, until even her senses started to blur and she reached up to tear at the clothes on her own body.

Lianyue only felt an unbearable heat raging inside her. She desperately needed something cold to ease it, and the impulse within her drew her toward the rain.

Yu Wenlingxi discovered her intention a step too late. He hurriedly sealed her drowsiness acupoint, then gently supported her to the side of a tree and let her lean against it.

Once he straightened, his entire aura changed at once, becoming bleak and ice-cold. He picked up the waterskin beside him and, with a swift movement over several borrowed steps, leaped into the tree where Thirteen was hiding. Seeing Thirteen, Yu Wenlingxi immediately understood that this matter was likely not so simple.

“Hand over the antidote!”

Thirteen looked into Yu Wenlingxi’s wolf-like eyes and said, forcing himself to speak, “Young Lord, the Master specifically ordered that the waterskins be filled with diluted saliva from the Serpent of Coupling. If the act of union is not performed within one hour, the body will burst apart and die.”

As soon as he said the last word, he felt his throat being clenched so tightly that he could barely breathe.

“Young Lord, mercy!” Forty-seven cried out anxiously when he saw Yu Wenlingxi truly about to strike, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

“That’s right, Young Lord. We are merely carrying out orders.” Sixty-nine hurriedly echoed him, yet not one of them dared step forward to stop Yu Wenlingxi.

But there was always one who feared nothing. Seventy-One not only made no plea for Thirteen, but kept glancing down toward the base of the tree. “Young Lord, I can see that Miss Yue is suffering terribly. If this is difficult for you, Seventy-One can do it in your place.”

Yu Wenlingxi’s hand abruptly released the nearly suffocating Thirteen and, with a reverse motion, seized Seventy-One by the throat. “Say that again.”

“I… I… I didn’t… say… say anything!” Seventy-One finally managed to force out a complete sentence.

But he had already crossed Yu Wenlingxi’s bottom line. Furious at his father’s interference, Yu Wenlingxi now directed his anger at the people before him as well.

He took a celadon bottle from his bosom, forcibly dislocated Seventy-One’s jaw, poured a pill from the bottle into his mouth, and then snapped the jaw back into place.

“Young Lord!”

“Young Lord, show mercy!”

Yu Wenlingxi let go, and Seventy-One hurriedly thrust both hands toward his throat, but could grasp nothing at all.

Then a wave of searing pain rose from his abdomen, and he watched in horror as his own hands began to rot away before his eyes. Trembling, he stared at them. “My hands… my hands… spare me, Young Lord…”

Yu Wenlingxi paid no attention to his cries. Thirteen, Forty-Seven, and Sixty-Nine were already soaked in cold sweat by this display, their pleas dying on their lips, not one of them able to utter a single word.

Before long, Seventy-One vanished without a trace, not even a strand of hair left behind.

Yu Wenlingxi’s cold gaze swept over them. “Do not think that because you serve under the Master, I cannot touch you. Even if I make all of you disappear, at most I will suffer a little punishment when I return. I will remember this. Another day, I will settle accounts with you. For now, the three of you retreat a hundred paces and guard the surrounding area properly. Under no circumstances let anyone or anything approach, or your fate will be the same as his.”

“Yes.” The three of them knew he spoke the truth. Compared with Yu Wenlingxi, even if their entire generation died at the young lord’s hands, the Master would probably not even blink; he would only blame them for failing at their task.

And all three had witnessed Seventy-One’s death with their own eyes. That terror and despair were enough to make even those who had crawled out of heaps of corpses shudder.

Since the young lord had already issued the order to leave, they had best withdraw at once.