A Fierce Auntie in Purple Is Trying to Steal Paimon's Late-Night Snack!

A short while later, beside the hot spring pool on the terrace outside the side hall of the grotto-heaven.

Thick, milky-white mist curled upward in the night breeze, while the delicate, sweet fragrance unique to Silk Flower petals drifted from the pool.

Keqing walked alone to the white marble poolside and glanced back, wary and shy, toward the inner room screened off behind her. Only when she saw that Chu Yuan really hadn't followed did she breathe a small sigh of relief.

She raised a slender hand, pale as jade, and untied the white, gold-patterned outer robe draped over her shoulders, still warm with Chu Yuan's body heat. She carefully folded it and placed it on a jade tray nearby.

As the oversized robe slipped away, the young woman's graceful body, half concealed by her battle-damaged purple and black dress, was exposed to the warm mist.

Keqing bit her lower lip and reached behind herself to undo the hidden fastenings of her dress.

Freed of its fastenings, the ornate dress slid down her slender waist and the rounded curve of her hips to the floor, leaving only a violet lace bandeau and a pair of close-fitting panties with similarly damaged edges.

She sat on the white marble steps at the pool's edge and bent her supple waist slightly, pinching the torn edge of her dark purple pantyhose at the top of her thigh and slowly peeling them down.

The faint rustle of silk against delicate skin sounded especially clear beside the silent pool.

Once her already long, straight, perfectly proportioned legs were free of the torn black stockings, they shone with the luster of mutton-fat jade against the moonlight and mist. Her calves were taut and graceful, and her dainty feet were rosy and translucent, even the curves of their arches beautiful enough to make one's heart tremble.

After removing her last two undergarments, Keqing covered her full breasts with both hands and stepped slowly into the warm spring, her long legs pale and fair.

"Mmm..."

As soon as the water, rich with Irminsul's life essence and the heat of the Ley Lines, rose over her shoulders, Keqing couldn't help letting out a soft, contented hum.

The warm water seemed like countless gentle hands, tenderly caressing every inch of her slightly weary skin. She loosened her signature cat-ear twin-tail buns, letting her cascading purple hair spread across the water, and leaned languidly against the jade pool wall, closing her eyes to enjoy the peace of having survived her ordeal.

Yet the moment she closed her eyes, all she could see were those embarrassing scenes from the rocky ridge: Chu Yuan holding her tightly in his arms, his warm, broad hand pressed against the small of her back and her lower abdomen as he passed divine power into her.

At the thought that she, the distinguished Yuheng of Liyue, had let out such unseemly gasps in the arms of a man several years younger than herself, and had even offered to "follow his every command," Keqing's cheeks, already pink from the spring's warmth, grew hotter still. Even her full, snow-white breasts beneath the rippling water rose and fell slightly as her heartbeat quickened.

Just as her thoughts churned and her embarrassment refused to subside, a measured set of footsteps came from behind the screen.

"Are you comfortable with the water temperature and the spiritual Qi?"

Keqing's violet eyes flew open, and she turned to look.

Chu Yuan had changed out of his travel-stained underclothes and was walking slowly around the screen toward her, wearing only a loose, plain white bathrobe. Its collar hung slightly open, revealing a powerfully defined chest and collarbones. His ink-black hair fell loosely over his shoulders, and the swirling mist lent him an indescribably noble and wickedly alluring air.

"Ah! Y-you... how did you get in here?!"

Keqing cried out and ducked sharply beneath the water like a startled fawn, her hands clamped over her chest, leaving only her watery violet eyes and her pretty face, red as blood, above the surface.

But the hot spring was fed by an underground spiritual vein, and its water was clear to the bottom.

Although a few Silk Flower petals and a thin veil of mist floated on the surface, Chu Yuan's gaze from above could still take in every inch of her breathtaking, shapely body beneath the ripples, fairer than frost and snow. Her willow-slender waist, narrow enough to circle with one hand, the stunningly full curve between her waist and hips, and her long legs pressed together and crossed beneath the water all radiated a deadly allure in the refracted light.

A gentle, untroubled smile curved Chu Yuan's lips. He walked straight to the pool, casually untied his plain white robe, and stepped into the hot spring.

"Splash-"

As Chu Yuan entered, the water level rose slightly, and warm waves carried the petals against Keqing's fair collarbones.

"This grotto-heaven was created because of the two of us. Besides, your Electro Vision has just established a resonance with my First Soul Ring. Completing that last trace of soul compatibility while the spiritual spring bathes us will be greatly beneficial to your future cultivation."

As he spoke, Chu Yuan walked slowly through the water until he stood before Keqing.

Keqing instinctively tried to retreat, but her back was already pressed against the warm white marble wall. There was nowhere left to go.

Looking at the young man's chest so close before her and breathing in the scent of Primordial Divine Power that left her utterly enthralled, Keqing felt her arms tremble where she held them across her chest. Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's hum. "B-but I'm not wearing any clothes right now..."

"Back on the rocky ridge, it seems there wasn't much I didn't see or touch."

Chu Yuan chuckled and reached out, gently taking her two slender, pale wrists. With gentle movements that nevertheless brooked no refusal, he parted her arms and pressed them against the jade wall behind her.

"Mm...!"

Keqing's mind went blank with embarrassment. She turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut, her long purple lashes trembling violently with crystal droplets clinging to them. Her fair, slender swan neck was red all the way down to her chest.

Chu Yuan gave her no chance to hide. His tall frame leaned forward slightly, and in the warm pool water, he passed gentle Primordial Divine Power into her body.

As the gentle Primordial Divine Power flowed into her from Chu Yuan once more, faint rings of purple-gold light spread across the water around them.

The instant their lips met, Keqing's pupils contracted slightly, as though a brilliant bolt of violet lightning had exploded in her mind.

At some point, her hands had left the pool wall and willingly climbed onto Chu Yuan's broad back. She held the man before her tightly—the man who had given her a new life and would also wholly possess everything that was hers.

The pool was warm, and petals rose and sank.

Only when the night had grown deep did things gradually quiet down beside the hot spring.

On the great carved nanmu bed in the inner room, a pale purple silk nightdress, woven by Irminsul from moonlight and the elements, hung loosely on Keqing.

Having completely shed her guard and shyness, the purple-haired young woman now nestled obediently in Chu Yuan's arms, her loose purple hair entwined with his black hair on the pillow.

"Chu Yuan," Keqing asked softly, raising her clear, dewy violet eyes, "where do we plan to go after daybreak tomorrow? There should be other companions from Teyvat on this continent who are in danger from the rejection of the laws, shouldn't there?"

Chu Yuan held her smooth shoulder, playing with a lock of purple hair by her temple as he gazed through the grotto-heaven's jade window at the distant night sky.

Through Irminsul's perception of the deep Ley Lines, a faint point of light representing "the starry sky and the water element" flickered under the pressure of the Douluo Plane's laws, in the direction of a human city not too far from the secluded valley on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.

"That's right. Not far to the northwest of this forest, there's a major human city called Suotuo City."

Chu Yuan's lips curved slightly, and a profound light flashed in his eyes. "Tomorrow morning, I'll take you to meet this world's native Soul Masters. While we're at it, we'll go pick up a young lady astrologist who's probably at her wits' end from being penniless and rejected by the laws."