It wasn't merely pain. It was a bone-deep chill that seemed capable of freezing her soul. Wherever it passed, her blood seemed to congeal, and her meridians grew stiff.
"Snow Mountain Cold Soul!"
The name of the infamous Western Regions poison, known to her only through legend, flashed through Ning Zhongze's mind. Her heart turned cold.
The poison spread at an astonishing speed.
Her vision darkened, and all the strength seemed to drain from her body in an instant. She could no longer gather her true qi.
The hand holding her sword fell limply to her side. Her delicate body went slack, and she could no longer keep her footing on the steep cliff face.
Amid the disciples' cries of alarm and Yue Buqun's horrified gaze, Ning Zhongze's graceful figure drifted from the cliff like a leaf blown loose in the wind, plunging toward the valley floor dozens of zhang below, where firelight mingled with darkness...
Intimate Treatment
Night hung over Yan Hui Valley like a heavy black cloth soaked in blood.
Ning Zhongze's consciousness plunged through an endless darkness that seemed capable of freezing her soul.
Just as her soul was about to be swallowed completely by the darkness, a streak of azure light tore through it!
The figure moved at incredible speed.
He ran across the sheer, ninety-degree cliff face as if it were level ground. Each time his toes touched a tiny outcrop, he twisted and rose through the air in ways that seemed impossible.
On the battlefield below, countless people looked up, but all they could make out was a blurred azure afterimage—like a ghost, or an immortal descended from the heavens.
It was him! Lin Xuan!
The moment Ning Zhongze was in danger, Lin Xuan—who had been calmly overseeing the entire battle—finally moved. For the first time, his deep, dark eyes flashed with a terrifying light sharp enough to pierce the night.
Without the slightest hesitation, he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. Driven by the Yin Yang Deficit Supplementation Technique, his supreme Lightness Skill from the Nine Yin Manual reached extraordinary heights. He crossed the deadly web of arrows and falling rocks and appeared precisely where he was needed most.
A pair of strong arms, carrying a reassuring warmth that seemed capable of melting all snow and ice, gently but firmly wrapped around her.
One hand circled her slender, soft waist, neutralizing the terrifying force of her fall. The other supported the small of her back, sending a stream of pure Internal Energy through his palm to protect her failing heart meridian.
Ning Zhongze's limp body fell into a warm, solid embrace. It wasn't like being struck. It was like a drop of water merging into the sea: every impact and every fear was instantly absorbed and dispelled.
Summoning the last of her strength, she forced her heavy eyelids open. Lin Xuan's sharply defined face, lit by the firelight, came into view. There was no panic or pity in his gaze, only an absolute confidence and cold resolve that seemed to see and command everything.
"Heroine Ning, hold on to your clarity. I'll treat your injuries!"
Lin Xuan's deep, magnetic voice seemed to carry the power to make words reality. It pierced through layer upon layer of cold poison and rang out in her frozen sea of consciousness, forcing a spark of "hope" into the flame of her soul just as it was about to die.
Holding Ning Zhongze in his arms, Lin Xuan twisted in midair. Like a hunting eagle soaring through the sky, he bounded away from the chaos of the main battlefield and landed securely on a rocky ledge far from the fighting.
"Junior Sister!"
On the cliff above, Yue Buqun's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He looked like a mad tiger. His Gentleman Sword had lost all its usual elegance and composure; now he could only hack wildly.
He tried to rush down, but the valiant Mongolian deputy general Batu and his death warriors had him pinned down. He couldn't break free.
All he could do was watch helplessly as Lin Xuan carried his wife into the shadows of the cliff.
Holding the barely conscious Ning Zhongze, Lin Xuan swept his awareness over the area and spotted a hidden cave nearby, thickly screened by ancient vines. Without hesitation, he darted inside.
The cave opened into a quiet, dry refuge, like a secluded paradise amid the bloody hell outside.
Lin Xuan spread his valuable silk outer robe over a smooth, flat rock and carefully laid Ning Zhongze down upon it. Then he flicked a finger. A sharp burst of force lit the dry firewood that had been stored in the cave, and a bonfire blazed to life.
Orange flames danced, driving the cave's chill and darkness away. Their light played across Ning Zhongze's lifeless body, now bright, now dim.
In the firelight, her fair, jade-like face was deathly pale. Her delicate brows drew tightly together from the pain, and her full red lips had turned purple. A faint, heart-rending whimper, like a kitten's, escaped her unconsciously.
A thin layer of white frost had even formed on her exposed skin. The icy poison rampaged through her body at a visible pace, devouring the last of her vitality.
Lin Xuan's expression was grave. He placed his fingers on her delicate wrist, and a thread of exceptionally pure Internal Energy slipped inside. In an instant, he understood just how dire her condition was.
"The Snow Mountain Cold Soul really is vicious!"
He could clearly feel the extremely cold, foreign energy spreading like a vast spiderweb through Ning Zhongze's limbs and torso. Its main force was gathering for a final assault on the Tanzhong acupoint that guarded her heart meridian and on her Dantian, the sea of her vital energy.
The cold poison was not only freezing her meridians; it was also eroding the source of her vitality. Once her heart meridian and Dantian fell, even a great immortal descending from the heavens would be powerless to save her.
The only way to neutralize this poison was with Internal Energy that was supremely yang and strong.
But simply sending in Internal Energy would never work. Her meridians were already as fragile as ice crystals; if the two forces clashed, they would shatter into pieces.
The only chance of survival was for the healer to use his own body as a furnace. Through the most direct, unobstructed contact between their skin, he had to imprint the pure yang qi he had cultivated into the poisoned person's flesh and meridians, inch by inch. Working from the outside in, like slow roasting over a gentle flame, he could draw out and completely refine the cold poison lurking inside.
That meant the healer would have to touch and caress every inch of the poisoned person's skin without holding back.
Fortunately, I have a cheat. The Yin Yang Deficit Supplementation Technique is a peerless art, with both pure yang and extreme yin attributes.
So Lin Xuan was the perfect person to save her.
If you were going to save someone, you had to see it through.
Lin Xuan thought to himself, I saved your life. Taking a few liberties shouldn't count for much, right?
"Heroine Ning, I'm sorry, but I must offend you to save your life."
Lin Xuan murmured softly, as if explaining himself to the unconscious Ning Zhongze—or perhaps looking for a high-minded excuse for what he was about to do.
He no longer hesitated.
First, he reached out and undid the belt at her waist, the one that accentuated her valiant bearing. Then, with great care, he removed her Mount Hua Sect martial outfit, already stained with blood and dirt.
His touch was gentle, as though he weren't taking off a garment but unveiling a priceless work of art.
Beneath her outer clothes was a water-blue silk undergarment. Soaked with sweat, it clung tightly to her shapely figure, outlining the perfect form unique to a mature woman—a blend of youthful firmness and a married woman's fullness—and leaving plenty to the imagination.
Lin Xuan's breathing caught for a moment.
His mouth went dry, and a hot, wicked desire rose in his lower abdomen.
He continued, his long fingers deftly undoing the fastenings of her undergarment.
The silk slipped smoothly from her snowy shoulders, revealing a delicate rose-red bodice that protected the most private parts of a woman's body. A pair of lovebirds embroidered along its edge trembled with each faint breath, as if about to take flight.
It was the last barrier between him and her bare skin.
Lin Xuan's fingers paused for a moment on the thin tie securing the bodice. He could even feel the astonishing warmth and elasticity coming through the delicate fabric.
He didn't hesitate again. A flick of his fingertip undid the tie.
At last, a flawless, mature body, as if carefully sculpted from moonlight and ivory, was laid bare before him.
Beneath the warm, orange firelight, her skin glowed with an ivory sheen, at once pure and intensely alluring.
From her elegant collarbones to her full, pert breasts; from her flat, soft belly to the mysterious depths between her thighs; down to her long, shapely legs...
Every line seemed to have been designed by a partial creator. Any fuller, and she would be plump; any slimmer, and she would be thin. She was so perfect it took his breath away.
She was like a priceless South Sea pearl, stripped of every hard outer layer, revealing a beauty that was most natural, most primal, and profoundly moving.
He sat cross-legged and lifted Ning Zhongze's soft body, settling her with her back to him so she could lean against his chest.
This way, he could begin at the Du meridian, the body's sea of yang qi, and treat her systematically from top to bottom.
Ning Zhongze's body, caught between icy cold and burning warmth, fit snugly against his chest. Her astonishing softness and fullness pressed clearly through the thin fabric of his clothes. Lin Xuan's body tensed at once, and his blood began to race.
He drew a deep breath and abruptly channeled the full power of the Yin Yang Deficit Supplementation Technique into both palms.
In an instant, his palms turned red as hot iron. Yet they gave off no scorching heat. With miraculous control, he kept all the yang energy contained within his hands.
Then he slowly pressed his palms against Ning Zhongze's smooth, soft back.
"Hiss..."
A faint sound, like cold water sizzling in hot oil, arose in the silent cave. A visible cloud of white vapor rose from where their skin touched—the result of pure yang qi clashing directly with the extreme yin cold poison.
"Mm... ah..."
Ning Zhongze, who had been moaning unconsciously in pain, suddenly let out a long sigh with a strange tremor in it.
The pain faded from her voice, replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief and satisfaction, like rain after a long drought.
In her world of perception, the vicious frost demon that had been chasing and gnawing at her suddenly let out a terrified shriek. A warm, golden sun rose fiercely behind her. Its warm yet domineering light pierced through her body and drove away a great swath of the bone-deep cold.
It was a kind of comfort she had never experienced before, one that seemed to reach into her soul!
That warm force flowed through every inch of skin on her back and poured into her limbs. Her frozen, stiff body began to soften, and her sluggish, heavy blood started flowing freely once more.
She was like a traveler frozen on the Siberian tundra, at last stumbling into a warm cabin with a roaring fireplace. Every pore in her body cheered and rejoiced.
Following the most primitive instinct of a living creature, she unconsciously leaned back, closer to him, as if trying to meld herself into that warm source and greedily draw in every trace of warmth that could keep death at bay.
Lin Xuan closed his eyes and focused entirely on this extraordinarily delicate battle of Internal Energy.
His palms followed the elegant line down the center of her back, along the Du meridian, starting at Fengfu and Dazhui on the back of her neck and moving slowly downward.
Everywhere his hands passed, the cold poison beneath her skin was refined away, leaving a healthy, alluring flush. He could clearly feel her frozen, delicate meridians thawing and reviving inch by inch under his forceful yet gentle yang qi. They even seemed to grow stronger than before.
His hands passed over her graceful shoulder blades and caressed her smooth, flat back, finally coming to rest on her slender waist. He couldn't help admiring its astonishing suppleness and elasticity.
To steady her and keep unconscious tremors from disrupting the treatment, his arms passed quite "naturally" beneath her armpits and wrapped around her upper body, forming an intimate embrace.
In this position, he held her full, ample upper body even more closely against him.
He could clearly feel her astonishing softness pressed unguardedly against his chest. Even through a thin layer of clothing, the intense, blood-stirring sensation came through unmistakably, making his heart waver.
After clearing the cold poison from the Du meridian in her back, Lin Xuan slowly turned her soft body around so that she faced him, still pressed tightly against him in an extremely suggestive position.
Now he had to treat the Ren meridian on the front of her body, as well as her heart meridian and Dantian—the most important parts.
This was also the most dangerous and crucial step, and... the one that would let him savor the forbidden fruit most fully.
His gaze fell without obstruction on the rosy peaks that had stiffened slightly from the cold and the stimulation. He knew that the Tanzhong acupoint, one of the body's most important points and a vital link to the heart meridian, lay in the deep valley between them.
He could feel the masculine, conquering desire in his blood roaring with righteous indignation.
Holding his breath, he slowly and firmly placed his right palm over her left breast, the heat in his hand irresistible, his fingers trembling almost imperceptibly.
Lin Xuan's body jolted, and he sucked in a sharp breath.
The feel of her... It was even softer, warmer, fuller, and more astonishingly elastic than he had imagined.
It was an extreme sensation that seemed almost to melt his hand into her: like holding the finest silk, or a warm, living cloud that rose and fell with each breath.
Its wonder defied description.
"Ah... mm..."
Ning Zhongze's body trembled violently. From deep in her throat came a suppressed whimper that sounded both pained and pleasurable.
In her dream, the golden sun had reached the space before her. No longer a distant radiance, it drew her directly into its embrace.
Its warmth wrapped around her heart, completely and forcefully melting the last trace of cold—also the most stubborn one—lurking there.
An unprecedented sense of comfort and security swept over her like a bursting flood, drowning her completely.
She felt like a baby who had drifted for days through a raging storm, finally returned to the warmest, safest embrace of her mother, protected by a strength that was both gentle and powerful.
From the depths of her soul, she felt the most primal dependence, trust, and... surrender toward that source of warmth.
Lin Xuan carefully guided his Internal Energy into her.
Yet without meaning to, his movements took on a hint of "fondling."
His palm slowly and carefully kneaded and shifted over the smooth, snowy softness of her chest, as if molding the finest dough into a shape he liked best.
He carefully worked through every delicate meridian. Each press drew a slight shiver from the body in his arms.
His fingers brushed again and again against the most sensitive, taut tips. Each touch was like a spark of electricity, drawing soft, tearful murmurs from her lips that he couldn't understand.
He was taking full advantage of the usually dignified and respected Huashan Jade Maiden. But at the same time, he was saving her life.
The strange feeling of walking along the edge between the sacred and the profane, angels and demons, made the blood and qi within him surge faster than ever. An unprecedented pleasure welled up in him—the thrill of controlling another person's life and dignity.
After "purifying" the left peak completely, his palm lingered greedily as it slid across her deep cleavage and settled over the equally perfect and alluring peak on the right, repeating the same movements that blended treatment with desecration.
Once he was sure that his yang qi had neutralized and refined all the cold poison in her chest, he didn't withdraw his hand. Instead, he continued moving downward.
He passed over the smooth skin beneath her ribs and reached her flat, soft abdomen. Her skin was as delicate as a newborn's, free of any excess flesh yet astonishingly elastic.
His palm finally settled over the Dantian in her lower abdomen. It was the source of a person's vital energy, and one of the cold poison's favorite hiding places. He sent pure yang qi into it, clearing away the poison while nourishing and strengthening her sea of qi, turning her misfortune into a blessing.
By now, every inch of her breathtaking upper body, every patch of skin and every meridian, had been measured, kneaded, imprinted, and purified by his own hands.
His domineering presence now lingered all over her.
But poison was fluid. Some of the most stubborn cold poison had slipped through her meridians into her lower body, like a cunning snake making its final stand.
Lin Xuan's gaze fell upon her long, shapely legs.
Before you continue