He Ate the Offerings Right in Front of Him, Yet Qian Daoliu Called Him Honored One
Keqing's eyes snapped open. She could even feel clearly that the transformed Vision at her waist could draw in the ambient Soul Power of heaven and earth on the Douluo Continent and convert every bit of it into violet empyrean lightning, purer and more violent than before!
The lightning gradually faded, and the night wind grew still once more.
With all her strength restored, Keqing belatedly realized just how mortifying her current position was.
She was practically reclining in Chu Yuan's arms, her legs crossed and resting against the side of the young man's legs. A broad expanse of delicate, snow-white skin pressed against his chest, while Chu Yuan's warm hand remained snug against her slender, smooth, bare waist, his fingertips almost imperceptibly caressing the soft flesh at the hollow of her waist.
"Ah...!"
Keqing's pretty face flushed scarlet all the way down to her neck. Like a startled purple-haired cat, she scrambled to push herself up and away from Chu Yuan's arms.
But at the very instant her Vision finished reshaping itself, a sudden change occurred!
Before Keqing could push against Chu Yuan's chest and move even half an inch away, the [Electro Vision] at her waist, freshly branded with pale golden divine patterns, suddenly entered a deeper resonance of laws with the [Crown of Heavenly Principles] hovering above his palm!
In an instant, a torrent of violet-gold origin power, several times richer than before, thundered back out from the Vision's core. Under the dominion of the [Crown of Heavenly Principles], it became scorching, boundless Primordial Divine Power and surged imperiously into her body once more through Chu Yuan's palm pressed against her waist!
If the earlier baptism had merely been preliminary treatment to strip away the plane's rejection and repair her damaged meridians, this resonance was the new Heavenly Principles' complete reshaping of his dependent's flesh and soul, and the merging of their origins.
"Mmh...!"
The little strength Keqing had just gathered instantly scattered. Her arms went limp, and far from escaping, she fell back into Chu Yuan's broad embrace, pressed even more tightly against him.
The fiercely invasive yet warm and boundless Primordial Divine Power seemed to have a life and consciousness of its own. Following the lines of Chu Yuan's scorching palm, it roamed freely through her limbs and bones and every inch of her extraordinary meridians.
Keqing tilted back her fair, slender swan-like neck, and a shimmering, hazy mist instantly veiled her amethyst eyes.
She had devoted her life to affairs of state and the way of the sword, and in Liyue Harbor she was always dignified and composed. Never mind embracing a man this closely; she had never even experienced ordinary physical contact.
But now Chu Yuan's left hand was wrapped firmly around her slender willow waist, so narrow it could be encircled in one hand. It slowly wandered upward along her side, guiding the scorching divine power within her through every hidden meridian node.
So hot...
The heat of Chu Yuan's palm, together with the violet-gold divine power surging through her body, threatened to melt her reason away completely.
As the divine power flowed past her tailbone and up her back, Keqing felt an unbearable sensation and heat rise across every inch of her skin, as though countless tiny, gentle currents were dancing deep in her marrow.
Keqing bit down hard on her lower lip, trying to preserve the last of the Yuheng's modesty and dignity. But as the divine power from Chu Yuan's palm slowly flowed over her heaving curves, the overwhelming shudder that struck the very origin of her soul still shattered all her defenses with ease.
Chu Yuan looked down at the graceful figure in his arms, now entirely suffused with a rosy glow, even the pair of cat-ear-shaped hair buns atop her head trembling faintly. A trace of appreciation and gentleness flashed in his eyes.
Several dozen breaths passed.
"Clang-!"
A clear sword cry like the call of a phoenix and the roar of a dragon rang out from within Keqing. The violet-gold radiance bursting from the [Electro Vision] at her waist finally reached its peak, then ebbed away like the tide, leaving a flawless, translucent violet-gold lightning crystal threaded with pale golden divine patterns of the Heavenly Principles.
The violent power enveloping Keqing subsided completely.
After that intimate baptism, which had lasted several minutes and felt almost like a merging of souls, Liyue's always proud and strong-willed Yuheng was drenched in fragrant sweat, too drained to lift even a finger.
Her clothes were half undone, her face flushed crimson, and she lay limp in Chu Yuan's arms like a boneless water snake.
Her violet eyes, usually sharp and piercing, now shimmered with rippling moisture and a tender warmth. She lowered them in utter embarrassment, not daring to meet Chu Yuan's downward gaze.
Yet her hands, driven by her subconscious, clutched the front of Chu Yuan's robes tightly, showing no intention of letting go.
At the final moment of their divine powers' intermingling, through the connection of laws between the [Crown of Heavenly Principles] and her Vision, Keqing had not only truly felt the pure, supreme origin of creation within Chu Yuan, as vast as a sea of stars; she had also clearly experienced the young man's unreserved protection and salvation beneath his domineering exterior.
In this utterly unfamiliar wilderness of another world, where even the laws of heaven and earth sought to put her to death, only the embrace of the man before her could bring her an unprecedented sense of safety and warmth. Only his power could grant her a new life in the face of despair, and even let her touch a higher realm of the sword.
Whether out of awe for the station of the new "Heavenly Principles" or because of their skin-to-skin intimacy that had reached deep into her marrow, Keqing's heart, which had never opened to any man, had fallen completely before she knew it.
"Th-thank you..."
Keqing half buried her burning cheek against Chu Yuan's chest. Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, tinged with a breathlessness that had yet to fade and a trace of shyness. "If you hadn't saved me, I surely wouldn't have escaped disaster today... From now on, in this world called the Douluo Continent, I... I am willing to do as you command."
As she spoke those last few words, her small, translucent earlobes turned so red they looked ready to drip blood, and her slender, pale fingers tightened slightly around Chu Yuan's robes.
For the proud Yuheng, speaking words that so nearly expressed a surrender of her heart and allegiance was undoubtedly entrusting her life and future entirely to Chu Yuan.
The corners of Chu Yuan's lips rose slightly. He reached out with his right hand and gently brushed the tip of her pert, reddened nose with his fingertip, then let his hand pass over the long purple hair scattered across her fragrant shoulders. His tone was gentle, yet carried the natural bearing of one who stood above others:
"Since you've come under my wing, there's no need to be so reserved. Whether restoring order to Teyvat or reigning over this Douluo Continent, I'm in need of a capable aide as decisive as you... and someone close to accompany me on my path."
"S-someone close..."
Keqing's heart gave a heavy thump. So embarrassed that she hurriedly closed her eyes, her long lashes trembled fiercely like butterfly wings. In the end, though, she offered no objection, only nestling her cheek a little closer against his warm chest.