Night fell over the Heavenly Sword Sect, draping the mountains in a heavy, velvet shroud. The cries of training disciples faded, replaced by the chirping of spirit crickets and the distant howl of wind through the canyons.
In the depths of the lower residential area, at the end of the blind canyon, Cave #404 glowed with a faint, eerie luminescence.
Inside, Li Ye sat cross-legged on the stone slab. He had cleaned the space—sort of. The skeleton was gone, kicked into a ravine outside. The dust was swept into corners. But the damp, heavy atmosphere remained.
In the center of the room, a small incense burner released a thin, purple trail of smoke.
It wasn't ordinary incense. Li Ye had mixed the [High-Grade Aphrodisiac Dust] with a pinch of Dried Spirit Grass. The scent was subtle—sweet, like rotting orchids—and designed to dilate the meridians and lower mental defenses.
"She's late," Li Ye murmured, his eyes closed.
He wasn't worried. He knew the pain of the Nine-Wind Spirit Body. It was like having razor blades circulating in your bloodstream. At night, when the Yin energy rose, the pain would double.
Step. Step. Step.
Hesitant footsteps echoed outside the cave entrance. They stopped, retreated a pace, then advanced again.
Li Ye smiled in the dark. The mouse has found the cheese.
"Enter," he commanded, his voice amplified slightly by his Qi.
The vines at the entrance parted. Lin Xiaoyue stepped inside.
She had changed. Gone were the practical training robes. She wore a hooded cloak over a set of light green casual robes. Her face was pale, beaded with cold sweat. Her hand was pressed tightly against her right side, just below the ribs.
She looked around the gloomy, glowing cave with visible trepidation. When her eyes landed on Li Ye, sitting like a statue on the stone bed, she stiffened.
"I... I'm here," she whispered, her voice tight with pain.
"I see that," Li Ye said. He didn't stand up. He gestured to the empty space on the stone slab in front of him. "Sit."
Lin Xiaoyue hesitated. The air in the cave smelled sweet and strange. It made her head feel light. "Li Ye, if you try anything... if you try to trick me..."
"You are currently at Body Tempering Layer 6," Li Ye interrupted coolly. "But with that blockage in your liver meridian, you can barely exert 30% of your power. I, on the other hand, am at peak Layer 5 and in perfect health. If I wanted to force you, Xiaoyue, I would have done it already."
The logic was cold, brutal, and irrefutable.
Lin Xiaoyue bit her lip. The pain in her side flared, a sharp, twisting agony that nearly brought her to her knees. She gasped, stumbling forward.
"Fine," she hissed. She walked to the stone bed and sat down, keeping as much distance from him as the slab allowed. "Fix it. You said you could fix it."
"Take off the cloak," Li Ye ordered. "And the outer robe."
"What?" She wrapped her arms around herself. "Why?"
"The Nine-Wind Spirit Body accumulates chaotic Qi in the skin and muscle fascia," Li Ye recited, the System feeding him the medical jargon. "I need direct contact with the acupoints to guide the energy out. Cloth interferes with the transfer."
He opened his eyes. They were dark, unreadable pits. "Unless you want me to burn a hole through your clothes?"
Lin Xiaoyue glared at him, but her defiance was crumbling under the weight of her physical suffering. With shaking hands, she untied the cloak and let it fall. Then, she unfastened the sash of her green robe.
She slid the robe off her shoulders.
Underneath, she wore a pair of white silk trousers and a dudou of pale, mint-green silk. The undergarment was modest, covering her chest, but it left her shoulders, arms, and the entirety of her smooth, pale back exposed.
Her skin was flawless, glowing with the vitality of a cultivator, but Li Ye could see faint, dark green veins pulsing under the skin of her ribs—the visible sign of the poison.
"Lie down," Li Ye said. "Face down."
She complied, lying flat on the cold stone. The chill of the rock made her shiver, causing goosebumps to rise on her arms.
Li Ye moved. He crawled forward on the slab until he was kneeling beside her hips.
"This will hurt," he warned.
"I can take it," she mumbled into her crossed arms.
"We'll see."
Li Ye rubbed his hands together. He activated his Qi. Instead of the cold Frost Qi he used for combat, he converted it into a neutral, vibrating force.
He placed his hands on her bare back.
"Ah!" Lin Xiaoyue flinched violently. His hands were hot. Shockingly hot.
"Relax," Li Ye commanded.
He began to massage.
He started at her shoulders, his thumbs digging into the trapezius muscles. He wasn't being gentle. He pressed deep, finding the knots of tension and grinding them out.
"Nngh..." Lin Xiaoyue gritted her teeth. It was painful, but beneath the pain, there was a strange sense of release.
Li Ye's hands moved down. He traced the line of her spine, counting the vertebrae. When he reached the thoracic region, directly behind her lungs, he stopped.
[SYSTEM ANALYSIS] [BLOCKAGE DETECTED: WIND GATE (FENGMEN) POINT.] [SOLUTION: PERCUSSIVE RELEASE.]
"Breathe in," Li Ye said.
She inhaled sharply.
Li Ye struck. He used his knuckles to deliver a sharp, drilling blow to the acupoint.
"Gah!" Lin Xiaoyue cried out, her legs kicking involuntarily.
"Hold still." Li Ye pressed his palm flat over the spot and rotated. "I'm breaking up the stagnant wind."
He could feel it—a chaotic, swirling energy under her skin, fighting him. He pushed his own Qi into her body, dominating the chaotic wind, forcing it to submit and flow downward.
His hands slid lower, reaching the small of her back. The skin here was incredibly sensitive, transitioning from the firmness of her back to the softness of her hips.
The Aphrodisiac Dust was working. The room felt hotter. Lin Xiaoyue's breathing was becoming shallow and fast. The pain was receding, replaced by a tingling warmth that radiated from where Li Ye touched her.
"Turn over," Li Ye said softly.
Lin Xiaoyue lay limp for a moment, panting. Slowly, she rolled over onto her back.
Her face was flushed a deep pink. Her eyes were watery, unfocused. The mint-green dudou rose and fell rapidly with her breathing.
"Is it... is it done?" she asked weakly.
"That was the back," Li Ye said, looming over her. "The root of the poison is in the front. In the Qihai."
The Qihai (Sea of Qi) was located two inches below the navel. An intimate zone.
Lin Xiaoyue's eyes widened. "You... you want to touch there?"
"It's a medical procedure, Xiaoyue," Li Ye said, his voice dripping with false professionalism. "Don't make it weird."
He didn't wait for permission. He placed his hand on her flat, toned stomach.
Her skin was burning.
Li Ye slid his hand lower, his fingers brushing the waistband of her silk trousers. He pushed the fabric down just an inch, exposing her navel and the soft flesh beneath.
He pressed his thumb into the Qihai point.
"Haaah!" Lin Xiaoyue arched her back, a sound escaping her lips that was definitely not a cry of pain. It was a moan. A loud, wet moan.
The release of the blockage in her lower dantian sent a surge of pleasure through her nervous system so intense it curled her toes.
"Does that hurt?" Li Ye asked, watching her face.
"No... it... it feels strange..." She grabbed his wrist, trying to push him away, but her fingers had no strength. Instead, she ended up clutching his hand, pressing it harder against her stomach.
"The poison is dissolving," Li Ye whispered. "But it needs an exit."
He used his other hand to trace a line up her stomach, over her ribs, and onto the slope of her breast covered by the silk dudou.
"Li Ye..." She whimpered. "That's not... a meridian..."
"The heart meridian controls the blood," Li Ye lied smoothly. "I need to stimulate the heart to flush the toxins."
He cupped her breast. It was smaller than Han Ruoxue's, but firm and perky. He could feel the nipple hardening instantly against his palm through the thin silk.
He squeezed.
"Oh god..." Lin Xiaoyue threw her head back, her neck arching, exposing her throat. The pleasure was overwhelming. The combination of the massage, the relief from years of chronic pain, and the aphrodisiac in the air had completely short-circuited her brain.
She hated him. He was a traitor. A thief. But right now, his hands were the only thing keeping her anchored to the earth.
[SYSTEM ALERT] [TARGET RESISTANCE: 20%] [TARGET AROUSAL: 80%] [WIND POISON IS BEING VENTED. HOST CAN ABSORB THE EXPELLING QI.]
"I'm going to draw it out now," Li Ye said.
He leaned down.
He didn't kiss her lips. He kissed her neck. He sucked hard on the sensitive spot just below her ear.
"Ah! Nnnng!" Lin Xiaoyue's hips bucked off the stone slab. Her legs fell open involuntarily.
Li Ye inhaled. He could taste the bitter, metallic flavor of the Wind Poison seeping out of her pores. The System activated, sucking the energy into Li Ye's mouth.
To Lin Xiaoyue, it felt like her soul was being drawn out through her skin. The sensation was terrifying and ecstatic.
Li Ye moved lower. He kissed her collarbone. He kissed the swell of her breast above the fabric. Then, he moved his hand to the back of her neck and untied the string of the dudou.
The silk front fell away.
Her breasts were exposed to the cool cave air. Pale, perfect, tipped with rose-colored buds that were tight and trembling.
"Beautiful," Li Ye whispered.
He lowered his head and captured her left nipple in his mouth.
Lin Xiaoyue screamed. It was a raw, vocal sound that echoed off the cave walls. Her hands flew to his head, tangling in his hair. She wasn't pushing him away. She was pulling him closer.
As he suckled, drawing out the chaotic Wind Qi that had gathered in her chest, Lin Xiaoyue felt her world narrowing down to the wet heat of his mouth. The hatred was gone, replaced by a desperate, animal need.
"More..." she sobbed, not knowing what she was asking for. "Please..."
Li Ye complied. He used his tongue, his teeth, teasing and tormenting her nipples until they were swollen and red. His hand moved down, slipping inside her trousers, finding the damp heat between her legs.
She was slick. Soaking wet.
He stroked her there, finding the small pearl of her desire. She convulsed, her thighs clamping around his hand.
"Li Ye! Li Ye!" She chanted his name like a prayer.
He picked up the pace. His thumb circling, his mouth sucking.
"Let it go, Xiaoyue," he commanded. "Give me the poison."
With a final, strangled cry, Lin Xiaoyue shattered. Her body went rigid, her back arching off the stone so high only her heels and shoulders touched the slab. A wave of Wind Qi exploded from her body, blowing the incense burner off the table and extinguishing the candles.
The cave was plunged into darkness, save for the green glow of the pool.
She collapsed, gasping, her body twitching with aftershocks.
Li Ye sat up. He wiped his mouth. He felt the surge of new energy in his dantian—sharp, fast Wind Qi mixing with his heavy Ice Qi.
[SYSTEM NOTICE] [ABSORBED: PURIFIED WIND ESSENCE] [CULTIVATION PROGRESS: BODY TEMPERING LAYER 5 (PEAK)] [RELATIONSHIP UPDATE: LIN XIAOYUE (CONFUSED/DEPENDENT)]
He looked down at her. She lay in the dark, her clothes in disarray, her chest bare, weeping softly.
He reached out and pulled the dudou back over her chest, covering her.
"The treatment is finished for tonight," Li Ye said, his voice calm, devoid of the lust that had just consumed the room.
Lin Xiaoyue turned her head away, unable to look at him. She felt shame, relief, and a lingering, terrifying hunger for more. The pain in her side was gone. Completely gone.
"You..." She whispered, her voice hoarse. "You did this on purpose."
"I saved your life," Li Ye corrected. He stood up and walked to the entrance of the cave, looking out at the moon. "The poison will return in three days. It will be less painful, but it will return."
He turned back to look at her silhouette.
"You know where to find me, Xiaoyue."
Lin Xiaoyue sat up, clutching her clothes together. She scrambled off the bed, her legs wobbly. She dressed in a frenzy, her fingers fumbling with the ties.
She ran to the entrance. She stopped just as she passed him. She didn't look up.
"I hate you," she whispered.
But they both knew it was a lie. Or at least, only half the truth.
"See you in three days," Li Ye replied.
She vanished into the night.
Li Ye watched her go. He stretched his arms, hearing his joints crack. He felt powerful. He felt alive.
"Two down," he whispered. "Now... about that weapon."