Yue Mei's Lingering Knot, the Calm Before Medusa's Evolution

Tagor Desert, southwestern interior.

Dunes rose and fell in endless waves, and the sun was scorching enough to roast a person alive. Yet deep beneath this desolate sea of sand lay a sizable Underground Palace.

The palace was built entirely from blue-black serpentine stone. Fist-sized luminous pearls were embedded in the walls, casting a faint, cold glow.

This was the territory of the Charm Snake Tribe, one of the Snake-People Tribe's eight great tribes.

Yue Mei reclined against a stone couch. Her upper body was draped only in a thin veil, while her azure snake tail hung lazily over the edge, its tip tapping the ground now and then.

She was spacing out.

More precisely, she had been spacing out for nearly half an hour.

The two snake-woman maids standing behind her exchanged glances, both somewhat puzzled.

Their commander usually hated having nothing to do. What was wrong with her today?

Yue Mei was indeed thinking about something.

Even after more than a year, she still had not figured out what had happened back then.

That day, under the Queen's orders, she had been patrolling the northern border of the desert when she encountered a human youth near an oasis.

The youth looked to be in his teens and had suddenly appeared before her alone.

Yue Mei had assumed it would be an easy battle, and then she got beaten up.

She lost cleanly and decisively, without the slightest suspense.

Her cultivation as a Seven-Star Dou King had been like paper before that youth. Within three moves, she had been pinned to the ground, unable to move.

That alone would have been one thing.

What Yue Mei found hardest to let go of was that the bastard had spanked her.

Smack. Smack. Smack.

Yue Mei's snake tail lashed the ground,