The hour passed. The snow around Li Ye had melted into a perfect circle of steam.
He opened his eyes. They were no longer just dark; a faint, rotating mandala of red and blue light spun within his pupils.
"Done," Li Ye announced, exhaling a breath of white mist.
Ye Qingyu, who had been watching him with hawk-like intensity, stood up. "Demonstrate."
Li Ye stood. He didn't use a flashy move. He simply placed his hand on the stone plinth beside him.
[TECHNIQUE: YIN-YANG REVERSAL (MODIFIED ICE HEART)]
Hummmm.
The stone didn't just freeze. It turned grey, then crumbled into dust.
"The original mantra freezes everything, including the user," Li Ye explained, dusting off his hands. "My version circulates the cold, turning it into a grinding force. It doesn't stagnate. It flows."
He looked at Ye Qingyu. "And because it flows, it can flush out the poison in your liver."
Ye Qingyu stared at the pile of dust. She was a genius of cultivation; she understood immediately what he had done. He had introduced a tiny sliver of Yang energy to act as a pump.
She looked at him. For the first time, she didn't see a prisoner. She saw a lifeline.
"Do it," she commanded.
"Here?" Li Ye looked around the open-air garden. "I need to strip you naked, Empress. Unless you want the statues to watch."
Ye Qingyu's face flushed—a rare, stunning splash of color on her pale skin. "Insolent... follow me."
The Inner Sanctum
She led him not to the dungeon or the pool, but to her private meditation chamber.
It was a room of white fur and silk. The walls were lined with glowing pearls. In the center lay a massive bed carved from a single block of Warm Spirit Jade—a treasure worth cities, designed to counteract her coldness.
"The door is sealed," Ye Qingyu said, her voice trembling slightly. "No one enters."
She stood by the bed, her back to him. She took a deep breath.
"Turn around," she ordered.
"No," Li Ye said. "I'm the doctor. I need to see the patient."
Ye Qingyu stiffened. She gripped her sash. In the Outer Sect, she was a goddess. In the Inner Sect, she was a feared Elder. But here, with the pain gnawing at her liver and this man invading her space, she felt strangely exposed.
Slowly, she untied the sash.
The silver robe slid off her shoulders, pooling on the floor. Underneath, she wore layers of white silk. She removed the outer tunic. Then the skirt.
Finally, she stood in her undergarments—a set of translucent, snow-white silk that clung to her curves like a second skin. The dudou struggled to contain her breasts, which were fuller and heavier than Han Ruoxue's, ripened by maturity and power. Her hips were wide, transitioning into thighs that were thick, smooth, and powerful.
"Is this enough?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Not even close," Li Ye said, his voice dropping an octave.
He walked up to her. He didn't ask. He reached out and hooked his finger into the string of her dudou.
"The poison is in the skin," he whispered. "The barrier must be removed."
He pulled. The string snapped.
The silk fluttered to the floor.
Ye Qingyu let out a shaky breath as the air touched her bare skin. She was magnificent. Her skin was so pale it seemed to glow. Her nipples were pale pink, stiffening instantly in the cool air. A faint, icy mist radiated from her pores.
Li Ye didn't stop to admire. He pushed her trousers down. She stepped out of them, leaving her completely nude.
She tried to cover herself with her hands, a gesture of modesty that looked absurdly erotic on a woman of her power.
"Lie down," Li Ye commanded. "On your back."
Ye Qingyu climbed onto the Warm Spirit Jade bed. The heat of the jade against her cold back made her arch slightly.
Li Ye climbed onto the bed after her. He crawled between her legs, settling on his knees.
"Spread them," he said.
"Li Ye..." Her voice was a warning, but it lacked heat. "If you violate me..."
"The Liver Meridian runs through the inner thigh, up the groin, and into the abdomen," Li Ye recited the medical text, though his eyes were devouring her. "I have to start at the root."
Ye Qingyu closed her eyes and slowly, agonizingly, spread her legs.
The view was divine. She was hairless, like a statue, her femininity a neat, pale flower that was currently clenched tight in anticipation.
Li Ye placed his hands on her ankles. Her skin was ice cold.
[SYSTEM ACTIVATED] [MODE: THERMAL RESONANCE] [YANG FIRE: MAXIMUM OUTPUT]
He activated his Yang energy. His hands became hot irons.
He slid his hands up her calves.
"Nngh!" Ye Qingyu bit her lip. The heat was shocking. It felt like he was branding her.
"Relax," Li Ye murmured. "Let the heat in."
He moved past her knees, his thumbs digging into the soft, sensitive flesh of her inner thighs. He kneaded the muscles, pushing the heat upward.
Ye Qingyu's breathing hitched. The sensation was overwhelming. For years, her body had been a tomb of ice. Now, fire was invading her. It wasn't just pain; it was a melting sensation, a thawing that sent shivers of pleasure-pain shooting up her spine.
"It's... too hot..." she panted, her head thrashing on the pillow.
"It has to be," Li Ye said.
His hands reached the top of her thighs. His thumbs brushed the outer lips of her sex.
Ye Qingyu gasped, her hips bucking involuntarily. "Don't... don't touch there..."
"The meridian is blocked here," Li Ye lied. It wasn't fully a lie, but it was certainly a convenient truth.
He pressed his palms against her groin, cupping her mound. The heat from his hands seeped directly into her most private area.
"Ah! Ahhh!" Ye Qingyu cried out. The intimacy of it—a man, a prisoner, holding her like this—shattered her mental defenses.
"I can feel the poison moving," Li Ye whispered. "It's retreating to your stomach."
He moved his hands up, sliding over her flat stomach to her liver area, just below the right ribcage.
Here, the skin was dark, almost bruised. The concentration of Yin Poison.
"This is going to hurt," Li Ye warned.
He placed his left hand on her liver. He placed his right hand on her breast, right over her heart.
"What are you—"
"Anchor," Li Ye muttered.
He squeezed her breast hard. Simultaneously, he drove his Qi into her liver.
"GAAAAH!"
Ye Qingyu screamed, her back arching off the bed. It felt like he had reached inside and grabbed her organ.
"Circulate it!" Li Ye roared over her screams. "Use the mantra! Push it to my hand!"
Ye Qingyu, amidst the blinding pain, found the thread of the new technique. She grabbed the stagnant, freezing poison in her liver and pushed.
It flowed. For the first time in ten years, it moved.
It rushed out of her liver and into Li Ye's hand.
The pain vanished instantly, replaced by a void. A void that needed to be filled.
Li Ye didn't pull away. He kept his hand on her breast, kneading it, his thumb flicking the nipple.
Ye Qingyu fell back onto the bed, panting, sweat beading on her forehead. The relief was orgasmic. Her body, suddenly free of the toxicity, went limp.
But Li Ye wasn't done.
"The residual poison," he whispered, leaning down. His face hovered over her abdomen. "It needs to be sucked out."
"No... Li Ye, that's enough..." She was weak, her eyes half-open, glazed with endorphins.
Li Ye lowered his head. He kissed her stomach. His skin was burning hot against her cool flesh. He licked the spot where the poison had been.
Then he moved lower.
"Li Ye!" She panicked, feeling his breath on her pubic hair.
He didn't listen. He buried his face between her legs.
"NO!" She grabbed his hair, intending to pull him off, but as soon as his tongue touched her, her hands lost all strength.
He licked her with the same ruthlessness he used to kill. He found her clitoris—a small, frozen pearl—and assaulted it with heat and suction.
"OH! OH GODS!"
Ye Qingyu, the Ice Empress, the terror of the Inner Sect, screamed like a mortal woman. Her hips rose, grinding into his face. Her thighs clamped around his head, trying to crush him, but he was too strong.
He drank her Yin. He devoured her essence.
[SYSTEM NOTICE] [CONSUMING: EXTREME YIN NECTAR] [YANG FIRE: BALANCING] [HOST CULTIVATION: RISING RAPIDLY]
It was too much. She had never been touched by a man, let alone ravished. The sensation of his tongue swirling, lapping, penetrating... it overloaded her nervous system.
"Stop! I can't... I'm going to break!" She sobbed, tears streaming down her face.
Li Ye didn't stop. He sucked harder.
"BREAK!" He commanded against her skin.
And she did.
A massive surge of Ice Qi exploded from her core. Her body convulsed violently, spasm after spasm racking her frame. She screamed a high, keen note that shattered the pearls on the walls.
Li Ye absorbed the explosion. He drank the flood of fluids she released, savoring the taste of her power.
She lay there, twitching, her mind blank.
Li Ye slowly pulled back. His face was wet with her essence. He looked like a demon who had just feasted on a goddess.
He crawled up her body. She was limp, her eyes rolled back, her mouth hanging open.
He lay down beside her, pulling her cold body against his burning chest.
"See?" Li Ye whispered into her ear, his hand resting possessively on her hip. "Fire and Ice can coexist."
Ye Qingyu couldn't speak. She could only breathe, her heart hammering against her ribs. The poison was gone. But something else had taken its place.
A seed of dependency.
She turned her head slowly to look at him. Her violet eyes were no longer arrogant. They were terrified. And hungry.
"You..." she whispered, her voice a broken rasp. "What are you?"
Li Ye smiled, running a hand down her naked back.
"I told you, Empress. I am the cure."
[QUEST UPDATE: CONQUER THE ICE EMPRESS] [PROGRESS: 25% (INTIMACY BARRIER BROKEN)] [REWARD: ACCESS TO YE QINGYU'S PRIVATE RESOURCES]
Li Ye closed his eyes. The bed was warm. The woman was cold. The balance was perfect.
He slept, knowing that when he woke up, he wouldn't be a prisoner anymore. He would be the Master's favorite pet.