Tangled Threads, Success at Last

Golden Wind Jade Dew Pavilion.

Strings of red lanterns unfurled around the surroundings, their light swirling and spreading in a hazy glow. A brocade carpet stretched across the center, luxurious and dazzling.

Qi Yu wore a scarlet cloak and leaned alone behind the curtain of a private room, his gaze resting quietly on the dancers below.

The dancers' data was all rather strange, uniformly reading "0~6."

"0" meant they were ordinary people.

"6" meant they could display the strength of a ninth-rank martial artist.

Such abnormal data could not occur naturally. Yet if they were Paper-Grade demons, they did not seem like it either. After all, even Paper-Grade demons were not this weak.

"Umbrella Sect..."

Qi Yu vaguely arrived at a conclusion.

However, he had come today only to watch the singing and dancing.

After a short while...

Onstage, numerous dancers fluttered like butterflies, their wide sleeves flying like drifting clouds unfurling and rolling. Their slender waists turned lightly, and every step and sway gave birth to a hidden allure, fine as silk and thread.

Such dancing far surpassed that of the girls at his Fragrance Containing Pavilion. That was why he had gone farther afield instead of staying close to home.

Within Mount Wei City, when it came to singing and dancing, if Golden Wind Jade Dew Pavilion claimed second place, no one dared contest its supremacy.

When the dance ended, six dancers stood quietly behind the stage, like ladies from a painting.

The madam called out loudly, "Shared dancing! The highest bidder wins... Starting price, one tael of silver."

The dancers stepped forward one after another.

Below the stage... the bidding gradually began.

Golden Wind Jade Dew Pavilion was, after all, a brothel. This "shared dancing" was merely an entertaining segment.

The so-called "shared dancing" lasted only the time it took an incense stick to burn. The young masters below could approach the dancers, tease them, stroke their hands, and feel them out.

However, they could only touch and fondle. If they wanted to go any further... that was forbidden.

Unless they waited for another segment at night...

After the madam finished speaking.

The dandified young masters below began clamoring and bidding.

Qi Yu had originally come intending to experience it for himself, so he spent five taels of silver and chose the dancer who seemed most pleasing to his eye.

The dancer's brows were like distant green hills, her eyes bright and sparkling. She was quite beautiful, with especially long legs.

As the curtain slowly descended, another layer of thin gauze curtains divided the space within, allowing each pair to enjoy this marvelous incense-stick-long period alone and making the price well worth it.

Wearing his scarlet cloak, Qi Yu stepped into one of the gauze-partitioned spaces.

The dancer raised her eyes. Her gaze landed on the cloak, and a concealed flash of astonishment crossed her eyes. Immediately afterward, a strange delight quietly surfaced.

At that moment, the qin player began a gentle melody, like murmuring water.

Amid the flowing water... Qi Yu raised his hand and hooked it around the slender waist of the dancer before him.

The dancer's body surged forward with the motion, pressing herself entirely against him. Her actions were exceptionally passionate.

Qi Yu's palm shifted slightly, pulling her tightly pressed body back a little and maintaining a perfectly appropriate distance.

The dancer parted her vermilion lips and giggled. "What does Young Master wish to do?"

Qi Yu said, "Dance together."

The dancer stared blankly. "Really dance together?"

Not one person who entered these gauze curtains had come to dance.

Qi Yu countered, "Is that not allowed?"

Smiles filled the dancer's eyes and brows. She said softly, "Then Young Master must keep up with my steps..."

With that, she moved her lotus steps lightly and began to dance gracefully.

It was a strange duet.

Qi Yu had never learned it before. However, he practiced numerous stance techniques in his daily life and had already reached the Eighth Rank, so imitating such supple movements was not difficult. Before long, he had caught up with the dancer's rhythm.

Even so, he could still sense a strange feeling of resistance.

Dim lamplight filtered through the gauze curtains, casting hazy shadows that enveloped the two dancers. This should have been an atmosphere filled with ambiguity, yet Qi Yu's seriousness gave it a different kind of solemnity.

The dancer's face shifted several times in the shadows, but eventually settled on Qi Yu's scarlet cloak. At last, she seemed to make up her mind and asked softly, "Young Master, is this your first time dancing this?"

Qi Yu nodded slightly.

Actually, it was not. It was only that... when the original owner had come here before, he had not danced with the dancers. He had merely touched and fondled them.

So, strictly speaking, this was his first time.

Hearing this, the dancer raised her eyes slightly, the corners of her lips curling into a faint smile. She said softly, "This humble one is Xiao Zhi. Young Master, do not forget."

Qi Yu was quick-witted. With a slight turn of his thoughts, he roughly deduced the reason.

The scarlet cloak he wore had been demanded by Master Chen of the Umbrella Sect. It seemed that this cloak was not merely a "loyalty test," but also represented something else. Seeing his cloak, this little Umbrella Sect disciple before him had likely found some way to gain benefits...

When two people grew close at their first meeting, then... there could only be profit involved.

However, Xiao Zhi did not seem to be asking him for any additional payment. She merely hoped he would remember her name.

Then...

Qi Yu smiled. "Xiao Zhi, I'll remember."

The dancer smiled lightly and said gently, "Relax, Young Master. Move with my strength, and you... will experience happiness you have never known before."

Qi Yu remained wary, but the other party's battle strength was plainly evident. He... still withdrew the force clinging to the surface of his body.

Immediately afterward, he felt Xiao Zhi's hand move like a nimble snake, slowly roaming around his waist. It hooked inward lightly, and her five fingers pressed steadily against his body.

The two danced gracefully once more. As the dance reached its height, their bodies inevitably produced some contact and pressure.

With every press, a strange drawing force arose at the point of contact.

Even without making any movements, so long as Qi Yu did not deliberately resist with force, he would be drawn into dancing by that power—sometimes drawing close, sometimes springing apart, like a puppet pulled by threads, dancing lightly according to its master's movements.

However, the movements he danced did not come from his own will.

Throughout the process, he not only felt no restraint; instead, an indescribable delight surged through his heart.

It was as if his body and mind had merged with the dancer named Xiao Zhi before him, granting him immense pleasure. That pleasure rose like a tide, climbing higher and higher, as though it were reaching the clouds...

Just then...

A sinister, bone-chilling note suddenly descended from above.

Clang!!

The melody, clearly elegant and gentle as a breeze brushing willow branches, suddenly transformed into a dark, heavy icicle blade that viciously slashed down from midair.

Upon hearing the note, Xiao Zhi's body abruptly stiffened.

With that stiffness, the pleasure that had nearly reached the clouds vanished without a trace.

"What's wrong?"

"N-Nothing?"

Xiao Zhi was trembling.

Afterward, she forced herself to remain calm and continued dancing with Qi Yu, but the sense of their bodies and minds merging, that drawing force, never returned.

When the incense stick had burned out, Xiao Zhi did not dare say another word. She fled from Qi Yu as if escaping for her life.

Qi Yu slowly raised his eyes and looked upward.

The qin music had come from behind the gauze curtains above.

Yet behind the gauze curtains at that moment was only a qin player whose battle strength was "0~6."

Qi Yu's pupils contracted slightly.

However, he asked no further questions.

Sometimes, excessive curiosity was not a good habit—unless one was already prepared to step into a new environment and become embroiled in a new storm.

Xiao Zhi's matter was less an accident than... the tip of an iceberg revealed by some rule or some faction.

As for today's shared dance, he had already gained a vague understanding. His purpose had been achieved.

After returning, he would naturally contemplate it in detail.

Night fell...

Qi Yu danced alone in his room while experiencing that sensation from the dance—the feeling of his body moving according to force.

The hard made the body exert force.

The soft let force draw the body along.

In the candlelight, the youth's figure sometimes danced gracefully and sometimes stood motionless.

He continuously adjusted himself and continuously sought insight.

He incorporated that thread of softness into the stance of the Nine Stances as One.

The next day...

At dusk, Qi Yu was continuing his attempts when inspiration suddenly struck him.

He settled into the ninth posture of Hunyuan Contending Force.

Half an incense stick...

One incense stick...

Two incense sticks...

Half an hour...

He stood there.

He could only feel a strange force surging through him, from his fingertips to his toes, with no point wasted and no point stalled. Because there was no stagnation, he did not grow tired. Thus, his strength formed a perfect closed loop within this posture.

At this moment, "contending" was no longer a collision of brute force or forced extraction. It was a profound insight into oneself, an guidance and transformation of strength...

He had already been on the verge of breaking through. Now, with the gentle push of the "softness of dance," he actually succeeded!

Suddenly, Qi Yu let out a booming shout, his voice like a great bell. His right fist clenched once more and punched forward. There was no exaggerated sonic boom, only a comfortable sensation of every ounce of strength in his body gathering there.

He swept his eyes over the panel.

[Qi Yu]

[Realm: Eighth-Rank Blood Explosion]

[Battle Strength: 23~34]

[Skill Points: 23]

[Techniques]

[Hunyuan Contending Force (1/36)]

[Spirit Serpent Skill Great Accomplishment (6/16)]

He stared at his battle strength.

His battle strength had changed from "22~32" to "23~34," rather than "23~33."

This meant... the strength added by Hunyuan Contending Force was a fundamental increase, added onto the "10" of perfect ninth-rank cultivation.

For others, "9" was already the limit at the ninth rank.

But because he had achieved perfection, he had reached "10."

Now, through Hunyuan Contending Force, he had reached "11."

This increase seemed small, but as his realm rose, it would snowball and grow larger.

Qi Yu no longer hesitated. He looked at the "+" after "[Hunyuan Contending Force (1/36)]" and began assigning skill points.

In the end, he kept 6 skill points, while the progress of [Hunyuan Contending Force] temporarily settled at "[(18/36)]." His battle strength likewise settled at "[Battle Strength: 27~42]."

This meant... his battle strength at the ninth rank had already reached the terrifying "15."