A Clash

Hearing this, Xu Yuan was a little surprised, but not alarmed.

His body was merely unable to move. He had not lost his connection to his senses.

He could see Su Jinxuan's face growing paler by the day, so naturally, he knew she had realized something was wrong.

However, every time he chose a lucky target to devour and refine, the drifting particles on the surface of his Will Soul showed no sign of anything amiss. Xu Yuan had a vague feeling that although Su Jinxuan knew something was wrong, she had yet to find the cause.

It was like a horror movie: the person walking at the back suddenly disappeared, but the others had no idea how.

But there were only two people in the room, after all. Su Jinxuan must have known that he, Xu Yuan, was the one behind her growing weakness.

She simply had no way out.

His guards were waiting outside to protect him, the Third Young Master. Now that they had dropped all pretenses, no matter what, she had to grit her teeth and see it through.

Either she forced her way into his Innate Soul Body and took complete control of him, or she would be captured and made to wish she were dead.

Su Jinxuan choosing to speak with him now came as something of a surprise to Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan sensed that the spore-like particles clinging to him like ants suddenly stopped moving. With that, control of his body returned to him.

Within the bed curtains, Xu Yuan slowly shifted.

The red bed was small, making it difficult to move around.

They lay together, sharing a pillow, with such a beauty right beside him.

Her peach-blossom eyes were as lovely as ever, gleaming with seductive charm.

Each breath she exhaled brought to mind a valley blanketed in roses from one end to the other.

Looking at the peerless beauty lying beside him, Xu Yuan narrowed his long, slender eyes. He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

He sensed the spore particles clinging to the surface of his Will Soul suddenly twitch.

She was warning him not to say anything reckless.

With a soft chuckle, Xu Yuan reconsidered his words and said gently, his eyes curving with a smile, "Jinxuan, since I promised to respect your wishes, I haven't crossed the line these past few days. You really have wronged me."

They held each other's gaze for two seconds.

Lying on her side, Su Jinxuan raised a slender finger and gently tapped his chest, her voice tinged with reproach. "Third Young Master, then why have I been waking up every day these past few days feeling limp, sore, and weak?"

"Sore and weak?"

Xu Yuan murmured, then nodded slightly. "Jinxuan, why is your face so pale? Perhaps you really are ill. But if your body is sore and weak, would you like me to give you a massage?"

As he spoke, Xu Yuan smiled and reached toward her where she lay beside him.

Smack—

A soft, crisp sound.

Su Jinxuan slapped his hand away and chided him, "You just woke up and you're already trying to take advantage of me. Third Young Master, you're so bad."

Xu Yuan smiled faintly, unfazed. He drew back his hand and said with a laugh, "Heh... If you really are sore and weak, Jinxuan, I happen to have some Essence Dissolving Powder here."

If Zhou Chen were spying, he should have noticed something was wrong by now.

But several seconds passed without Zhou Chen appearing. He was probably behaving himself and not using his Will Soul to spy on Xu Yuan.

He was being far too obedient.

Feeling a little helpless, Xu Yuan grabbed her delicate hand and continued, "If you're willing to bathe with me, Jinxuan, I'll share this Essence Dissolving Powder with you~"

Su Jinxuan's eyes flickered for a moment before she smiled softly.

"My body is weak right now, and I can't withstand the Third Young Master's vigor. I hope you'll be gentle with me."

"If that's the case, then another day."

"Gigglegiggle."

With a silvery laugh, Su Jinxuan slowly sat up in bed. As she gathered her soft, flowing hair, she remarked casually, "The Third Young Master has seen that I haven't been feeling well lately. My usual physician isn't in Jingjiang City, either. Would you let me leave for a while to seek treatment?"

Xu Yuan smiled when he heard this.

Things weren't going her way, so now she wanted to run?

As if he'd let that happen.

And just as Xu Yuan's smile appeared—

Humm—

Several thousand inconspicuous spores among the countless particles suddenly moved.

Unlike before, when they had tried to burrow into Xu Yuan's Will Soul, these thousands of spores began drawing Will Soul from its surface.

The sight left Xu Yuan uncertain.

Was this woman's cultivation method also one that devoured people?

But the keen senses of his Innate Soul Body let Xu Yuan spot the difference at once.

After the spore particles clinging to him absorbed a certain amount of his Will Soul, they did not devour and refine it to strengthen themselves. Instead, they simply shattered apart.

The repulsion between people's Will Souls was no empty claim.

Forcefully swallowing one's Will Soul led to this very result.

It was Su Jinxuan's warning—and a method of mutual destruction.

Let her leave, or they would die together.

Xu Yuan sensed the slight damage to his Will Soul and considered it briefly. Then he smiled and said softly, "We've been inseparable these past few days. Can you really bear to leave, Jinxuan?"

Once she got farther away, this trick of hers wouldn't work anymore, would it?

After a pause, without waiting for Su Jinxuan to answer, Xu Yuan continued, "Why not let me go with you?"

He wanted to see whether Su Jinxuan had any other tricks. If this was all she had, he could stop holding back.

After all, the Will Soul contained in those shattered spore particles wouldn't simply vanish. They would drift for a while before gradually dispersing into the air.

And once broken apart, their tiny fragments were even easier for Xu Yuan to absorb and refine.

What was more, if the number of spores sucking at him at once increased, the vibrations of his Will Soul would grow more intense.

Xu Yuan didn't know whether Zhou Chen was spying, but he knew that woman Ying'er definitely was.

The moment the vibrations rang out, she would arrive.

Xu Yuan's words were met by the simultaneous sucking of over ten thousand spores.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan smiled even more broadly.

Well, the same trick again.

He could make his move now.

Xu Yuan suddenly grinned as the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art and its accompanying secret technique began circulating together.

He slowly sat up, then abruptly reached for Su Jinxuan's throat.

But just like before, halfway there, he lost control of his body.

They stared at each other in silence. Su Jinxuan turned over and straddled Xu Yuan, tracing circles on his chest with a finger as she pushed him down onto the bed. Narrowing her eyes, she smiled coquettishly. "Does the Third Young Master really want to go with me?"

As she spoke, the floating spores began rippling like waves of wheat. Xu Yuan, meanwhile, started feasting greedily.

His "stealing people" over the past few days had made him quite familiar with the devouring-and-refining stage of the secret technique.

Countless holes suddenly opened across the surface of Xu Yuan's Will Soul, like countless gaping mouths, swallowing the spore-like particles clinging to him.

A thousand.

Several thousand.

Ten thousand.

Tens of thousands.

For a moment, the densely packed spores clinging to him seemed to be caught in a living hell.

The instant this happened, Su Jinxuan's seductive eyes narrowed slightly.

She tried to make contact with the spore particles that had been swallowed into Xu Yuan's Will Soul.

If she could scatter the spores Xu Yuan had willingly swallowed, she could take complete control of his mind.

But every one of those spore particles vanished without a trace, like mud sinking into the sea.

Realizing this, Su Jinxuan's face went pale. She bit down hard on her lower lip with one pointed canine.

She understood what had been happening these past few days.

The situation had completely slipped from her control.

The notorious good-for-nothing Third Young Master in the rumors was the polar opposite of what she had learned beforehand.

They had said he had no cultivation, yet he was already at the ninth rank.

They had said he had a worthless innate soul, yet he possessed an Innate Soul Body and had even cultivated an incomparably strange soul-path secret art.

But there was no use complaining now. Su Jinxuan kept her smile unchanged, bent down, and began slowly tracing her hand over Xu Yuan's clothes, her eyes seductive and alluring.

"If the Third Young Master really wants to go, it's not impossible. It's still early. Let's sleep a little longer."

The more a Will Soul was damaged, the less clear a person's consciousness became.

If she weakened Xu Changtian's Will Soul enough, the strange technique he was using would naturally stop. Then she could make him lose consciousness.

The price of doing so was enormous, but she had no choice now.

If she could avoid alerting Xu Changtian's guards, she still had a chance to escape.

As Su Jinxuan made up her mind,

the densely packed spore particles began drawing on Xu Yuan's Will Soul in batches.

One batch of spores shattered, and the next took their place.

Wave after wave, one after another.

Xu Yuan, focused on devouring and refining, immediately felt waves of dizziness rising within him.

He steadied his mind, knowing that Su Jinxuan had begun to fight back.

But the countless brushes with death he had endured while cultivating the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art had long since taught him how to steady his mind on the brink of collapse.

After adjusting for a moment, Xu Yuan sensed what was happening on the surface of his Will Soul.

Most of the floating particles were still motionless, clinging to the surface of his Will Soul. Seeing this, Xu Yuan felt a flicker of confusion.

What did this mean?

He was already prepared to risk his life.

And Su Jinxuan still wanted to deal with him without disturbing Ying'er?

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