Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 429 415: Jiu's Thousand-Layered Scheme to Seduce Pei Sword Immortal

After Pang Xiaoming left, Huang Wanshi stood alone in the study, fuming.

Although she had sucked Pang Xiaoming's Spirit Stone Bag dry back when she was down on her luck, she now despised this husband from her humble days. After becoming successful, she was unwilling to let him appear in public, nor did she want to give him a child.

'But I'm a good woman!'

'At least I haven't done anything to wrong Pang Xiaoming!'

'I can't believe you, you spineless fool, dared to suspect me today!'

Huang Wanshi stomped her foot, her thoughts inevitably drifting to the pair of Sword Immortal Dao Companions she had met earlier.

The blissful smile on Ye Liyuan's face as she snuggled in the arms of that peerlessly handsome Sword Immortal filled Huang Wanshi with deep envy.

'If only my Dao Companion were a figure as brilliant and otherworldly as Pei Sword Immortal.'

'If it weren't for my limited talent for cultivation back then, why would I have settled for an ordinary male cultivator?'

Huang Wanshi felt that fate had been truly cruel to her.

She had once been the number one Alchemist of the younger generation, until a prodigious young woman named Lu Ruoxi rose up at an unbelievable speed. Despite being her junior, Lu Ruoxi had left her far behind, eventually seizing the position of Elder.

'But I'm not any worse than Lu Ruoxi! At least when it comes to talent for Alchemy, I'm certain she hasn't surpassed me.'

'Lu Ruoxi just got lucky and was born into a good family, that's all!'

'If only I had a family like Lu Ruoxi's, a powerful master like hers, a handsome junior brother like Pei Sword Immortal…'

Lost in her fantasies, Huang Wanshi felt a wave of drowsiness and slowly leaned back in her chair, falling asleep.

In her dream, she saw a handsome man in white robes slowly walk up to her and gently lift her onto the bed.

Just as he was about to leave, she quickly grabbed his hand.

"Sister Huang, you have a Dao Companion. This isn't allowed, you know," the handsome man in white robes said.

Huang Wanshi swallowed. All her previous anger and resentment toward Pang Xiaoming now transformed into a reckless desire for a thrill.

'Since you think of me that way, you spineless fool, then even if I really did cross the line, would you dare say "no" to me?!'

At that thought, Huang Wanshi threw all caution to the wind.

She licked her red lips, her voice carrying a trace of alluring huskiness.

"He's not important… If it's okay with Lu Ruoxi, it should be okay with me, too, right?

I'm better than that woman, in every way."

"Would you like to find out, Palace Master Pei?"

...

Huang Wanshi slowly opened her eyes. She brushed away the strands of dark hair soaked with sweat, then, sensing something, she murmured, a crimson flush spreading across her cheeks:

"I should change and take a bath…"

She got up, threw on an outer robe, and left, planning to go soak in the hot springs in the bathhouse.

'And while I'm at it… I should have someone dig up more information on Pei Yuhang.'

Back then, she had been so focused on finding a way to take down Lu Ruoxi that she'd never really noticed Pei Sword Immortal's stunning good looks.

...

...

「Cold Palace Sword Mansion.」

「In a small wooden cabin on the back mountain.」

The dim yellow candlelight flickered in the cold wind, illuminating the curled-up figure on the bed.

The woman in the black dress, wearing a mask with a Red Lotus Pattern, gripped the bedding tightly, her knuckles white from the force. She let out a low, pained moan, and every breath was accompanied by a slight tremor.

Black, cold energy seeped from her body, spreading out like a spiderweb. A layer of crystalline frost gradually covered the bedding, gleaming coldly in the candlelight.

Nearby, Pei Yuhang was patiently drawing a Yang Fire Talisman for her.

Jiu's cold poison was acting up again.

Pei Yuhang had just returned from Lu Ruoxi's place and hadn't even had a chance to be affectionate with Liyuan for a while before he was urgently summoned to Jiu's side.

'If the bone-deep pain of the cold poison wasn't something beyond what an ordinary person could endure, I would almost suspect Jiu of contracting it on purpose, just to spend more time with me…'

But that thought was too narcissistic, so Pei Yuhang only grumbled about it internally for a moment.

"Pei Yuhang… it hurts so much…"

Jiu's voice was as faint as a thread, like wind being squeezed from a crack in the ice.

She was hunched over, her fingers pressing hard against her lower abdomen. Beneath her mask, her lips were bitten white, and the cold sweat beading on her temples instantly froze into tiny ice pearls.

Seeing that she really couldn't take it anymore, Pei Yuhang had no choice but to stop drawing the talisman.

He came to Jiu's side and gently placed his palm on her tense lower abdomen.

Warm Pure Yang True Qi flowed like a gentle, warm stream, seeping through her cold clothes and into her Dantian.

Feeling the scorching heat rush into her, Jiu's body trembled violently. Like a butterfly about to freeze to death touching the first ray of spring sunlight, she subconsciously gripped Pei Yuhang's wrist with great force, as if terrified he would let go and she would lose that comforting warmth.

"Jiu, I should have already dispelled most of the cold poison in your body a couple of days ago. I even reinforced the warming and wind-blocking array in your room. Why have you relapsed so severely?"

Pei Yuhang asked aloud. He couldn't keep coming to treat Jiu; he was determined to find the root cause this time.

"I… I don't know…"

Jiu curled up, clutching Pei Yuhang's hand.

Like a frozen kitten huddling close to a warm stove with a roaring fire, she greedily monopolized the only source of heat.

Through the thin fabric of her clothes, Pei Yuhang could clearly feel the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Every breath she took carried a cautious greed.

Assuming Jiu was still gravely ill, he silently increased the output of Pure Yang True Qi, forcing even more of the black, cold energy from her body.

But for Jiu, one hand was simply not enough.

'The warmth from just one hand isn't enough.'

'I want more. I want to possess more of it.'

"Pei Yuhang…"

"What is it?"

Feeling Jiu's tight grip on his wrist loosen slightly, Pei Yuhang looked at her, puzzled.

Feeling Pei Yuhang's gaze on her, Jiu's cheeks burned at the thought of what she was about to say.

If he could see her face without the mask, Pei Yuhang would find it flushed a lovely, shy crimson.

"Pei Yuhang… c-could you get in bed and, and h-hold me…"

Pei Yuhang: "???"

Sensing the White-clothed Sword Immortal's increasingly wary gaze, Jiu hurriedly added, "Don't get the wrong idea!"

"It's not for… anything improper…"

"So you think this is a good thing?"

Pei Yuhang's sudden retort left the already abashed Jiu even more mortified.

Mortified, she blurted out in a pleading tone, "I-I just think that you transferring Pure Yang True Qi to me directly, body to body, is more effective than using a Yang Fire Talisman!

Just using your hand… is too inefficient.

That's all it is. I don't have any other intentions."

As Jiu finished, her voice dwindled to a whisper.

Through the openings in her mask, as those liuli eyes timidly gazed up at him, Pei Yuhang could clearly see the halo of light shimmering in her pupils, like shattered Moonlight on a frozen lake.

'That pitiful yet stubborn look in her eyes… it's so familiar…'

'I feel like I've seen it somewhere before.'

Pei Yuhang's voice finally grew solemn.

"Jiu, have we met before… at the Yin Yang Sacred Land?"