Grotto-Heaven Hot Spring: Nowhere Left for Her to Retreat?
A short while later, beside the hot spring pool on the terrace outside the grotto-heaven's side hall.
Thick, milky-white mist curled upward in the night breeze, while the distinctive, delicate sweetness of Silk Flower petals wafted from the pool.
Keqing walked alone to the edge of the white marble pool and glanced back, wary and bashful, toward the inner room behind the screen. Only when she saw that Chu Yuan really had not followed her did she breathe a small sigh of relief.
She raised a slender hand, pale as jade, and removed the white, gold-patterned outer robe that still held Chu Yuan's body heat. Carefully, she folded it and set it on a jade tray nearby.
As the loose robe slipped away, the young woman's graceful body, half-covered by her damaged purple-and-black formal dress, was exposed to the warm, moist air.
Keqing bit her lower lip and reached behind her to undo the dress's concealed fastenings.
Freed of its fastenings, the dress slid down her slender waist and the rounded curve of her hips to the floor, revealing the violet lace bandeau beneath and the little panties whose edges were likewise torn.
She sat on the white marble steps at the pool's edge, bent her supple waist slightly, and pinched the damaged edge of her deep-purple pantyhose at her upper thigh, slowly peeling them down.
The faint rustle of silk against her delicate skin was especially clear beside the silent pool.
Once her long, straight, perfectly proportioned legs were freed entirely from the torn black hosiery, they shone with the luster of mutton-fat jade in the moonlight and mist. The lines of her calves were taut and smooth, and her dainty feet were pink and translucent, their arches so graceful they could make a heart tremble.
After removing her last two undergarments, Keqing shielded her full breasts with both hands and stepped slowly into the warm spring water on her long, pale legs.
"Mmm..."
The moment the spring water, rich with Irminsul's vital essence and the heat of the Ley Lines, rose over her shoulders, Keqing could not help letting out an exceptionally soft, contented hum.
The warm water felt like countless gentle hands caressing every inch of her slightly weary skin. She let down her signature cat-ear twin-tail buns, allowing her waterfall of purple hair to spread across the water. Then she leaned lazily against the jade pool wall and closed her eyes, enjoying this peace after her narrow escape.
Yet as soon as she closed her eyes, all she could see were the embarrassing scenes from the rocky hillside: Chu Yuan holding her tightly in his arms, his warm, broad hands against her waist and lower abdomen as he transferred divine power into her.
At the thought that she, the Yuheng of Liyue, had made such undignified, breathy sounds in the arms of a man several years younger than herself, and had even volunteered the words "I am at your disposal," her cheeks, already flushed by the spring water, grew hotter still. Even her full, snow-white breasts beneath the ripples rose and fell slightly as her heartbeat quickened.
Just as her thoughts churned and her embarrassment refused to subside, unhurried footsteps suddenly sounded from behind the screen.
"Are the water temperature and spiritual Qi comfortable?"
Keqing's violet eyes flew open, and she turned to look.
Chu Yuan had changed out of his travel-stained inner robes and was walking slowly around the screen in nothing but a loose, plain white bathrobe. Its collar hung slightly open, revealing a well-defined, powerful chest and collarbones. His ink-black hair fell loosely over his shoulders, lending him an indescribably noble and wicked charm amid the swirling mist.
"Ah! You... why did you come in?!"
Keqing cried out and shrank sharply into the water like a startled fawn, her hands clamped over her chest. Only her watery violet eyes and pretty face, red as blood, remained above the surface.
But the hot spring pool was fed by an underground spiritual vein, and its water was clear all the way to the bottom.
Though a few Silk Flower petals and a thin veil of mist floated over it, Chu Yuan could still see every inch of her breathtaking body beneath the ripples from where he stood above her. Her skin put frost and snow to shame; her slender willow waist was small enough to encircle with a hand, the full curve between her waist and hips was heart-stopping, and her long legs were crossed and pressed together beneath the water. In the refracted light, every curve radiated a deadly temptation.
A gentle, candid smile curved Chu Yuan's lips. He walked straight to the pool, casually undid his plain white bathrobe, and stepped into the hot spring.
Splash-
As Chu Yuan entered, the water level rose slightly, and warm waves pushed the petals against Keqing's pale collarbones.
"This grotto-heaven was created because of the two of us in the first place. Besides, the Electro Vision inside you has only just established a resonance with my First Soul Ring. Using the spiritual spring's baptism to complete that last bit of soul compatibility will be greatly beneficial to your future cultivation."
As he spoke, Chu Yuan slowly waded 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 to her and breathing in the scent of primordial divine power on him that made her soul reel, Keqing trembled slightly in the arms she held over her chest. Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's hum. "B-but I'm not wearing anything right now..."
"Back on the rocky hillside, it seems I already saw and touched most of what there was to see and touch."
Chu Yuan chuckled and reached out, gently taking hold of the two slender, pale wrists she held before her chest. With gentle movements that nevertheless allowed no refusal, he spread her arms to either side and pressed them against the jade wall behind her.
"Mm...!"
Keqing's mind went blank with embarrassment. She turned her head and squeezed her eyes shut, her long purple lashes trembling violently with crystal droplets clinging to them. Her fair, slender swan neck flushed red all the way down to her chest.
Chu Yuan gave her no chance to evade him. His tall body leaned forward slightly, and in the warm pool water, he transferred gentle primordial divine power into her.
As the gentle primordial divine power flowed from Chu Yuan into her once more, faint rings of violet-gold light rippled through the water around them.
The instant their lips met, Keqing's pupils contracted, and a dazzling bolt of violet lightning seemed to explode in her mind.
At some point, the hands she had braced against the pool wall had willingly climbed onto Chu Yuan's broad back, holding tight to the man before her who had given her a new life and would completely possess all of her.
The pool was warm, and petals drifted and sank.
Only when the night had grown deep did things gradually grow quiet beside the hot spring.
On the large carved nanmu bed in the inner room, a pale-purple silk nightgown, woven by Irminsul from moonlight and the elements, hung loosely on Keqing.
Having completely shed her wariness and shyness, the purple-haired young woman now nestled obediently and gently in Chu Yuan's arms, her loose purple hair mingling with his black hair on the pillow.
"Chu Yuan," Keqing said softly, raising her clear, dewy violet eyes, "where are we going after daybreak tomorrow? There should be other companions from Teyvat on this continent facing the danger of rejection by its 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 far from the secluded valley on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.
"That's right. Not far northwest of this forest, there's an important human city called Suotuo City."
The corners of Chu Yuan's mouth lifted slightly, and a profound light flashed in his eyes. "Tomorrow morning, I'll take you to meet some of this world's native Soul Masters. While we're there, we'll pick up a certain young lady astrologer who's probably at her wits' end from being penniless and rejected by the laws."