"Xue Qinghe" felt alarm bells ringing in her mind. She struggled harder and harder to regain control of her consciousness, yet she still couldn't do anything.
She watched helplessly as that hand drew closer and closer. Then it pinched her cheek.
The fingertips were cool, and the pressure was neither light nor heavy. They lifted her head, making her meet those golden eyes.
The indifference in those eyes was as constant as ever. They studied her in silence, then a certain domain spread over her, enveloping her body.
Almost instantly, another layer of this domain covered the disguise that had concealed her true appearance.
The disguise vanished.
Her true appearance was revealed.
Her short hair turned into dazzling golden locks, cascading over her shoulders like a waterfall.
The shape of her face changed as well. The handsome, gentle features of "Xue Qinghe" became those of a stunningly beautiful, holy-looking woman.
Qian Renxue.
Her disguise, maintained for so long, was stripped away without mercy, leaving her laid bare before this unfamiliar young man.
This time,
Qian Renxue's thoughts came to a halt.
She had imagined all sorts of ways she might be exposed, and had prepared for each of them.
But she had never imagined that her disguise would be stripped away so casually by a young man who had appeared out of nowhere.
And she could only watch helplessly, unable to do a thing.
An uncontrollable surge of humiliation and fury welled up inside her.
Who the hell was this guy?!
Qian Renxue ground her teeth in her mind. If she could move, she would probably have leapt up and attacked him by now.
The young man before her, however, seemed completely unaware of her fury. He remained as unhurried as ever. The hand pinching her cheek didn't withdraw; instead, he applied a little more pressure and turned her face this way and that, as though examining an item from every angle.
The young man was very close.
Close enough for her to clearly feel his warm breath brushing her cheek, stirring up a strange, indescribable feeling.
He seemed to be studying her face, but somehow it also felt as if he wasn't. His gaze seemed to pierce through her skin and delve deeper.
This felt even more unbearable than having her body restrained. It was as if she were being peeled open layer by layer, every part of her exposed without reserve before this unfamiliar young man.
Everything laid bare.
That made her even angrier, and even more ashamed.
An inexplicable sense of humiliation surged within her, and Qian Renxue's emotions began to roil.
Once again, she summoned all her strength and desperately circulated her Soul Power, trying to break through the invisible restraint and take back control of her body.
Yet she still couldn't move.
She couldn't even lift a finger.
At that moment, she was like a self-aware puppet, forced to let the young man do as he pleased, with no right to resist.
Then, at some point, the young man's golden eyes, which had been fixed on her all this time, finally shifted slightly, as though he had confirmed something.
"Is this the disguise ability granted by the Head Soul Bone?"
The young man nodded thoughtfully.
Then his gaze began to move downward.
From her face, to her neck, and finally to her chest.
At the same time, the hand on her cheek slowly moved down as well.
???
Qian Renxue completely lost her composure.
Humiliation, fear, anger—every kind of emotion exploded inside her.
At that moment, her consciousness became clearer than ever. She summoned all her strength to communicate with her Martial Soul and draw on her Soul Power!
A holy, sacred aura quietly emerged.
The next moment, Qian Renxue managed to shift her eyes slightly.
She had done it.
Her lips parted slightly. Qian Renxue stared fiercely at the young man, straining with all her might to force out a few words:
"Stop... it!"
Her voice was faint and halting, but she had truly made a sound.
The young man's hand stopped.
He looked at her and blinked those golden eyes, surprise plain in his expression.
"You can move?"
Now Jiang Ci'an was genuinely a little surprised.
He looked at the Angel Lady before him, who was clearly furious and bristling like a cat with its fur standing on end, and paused.
He checked the states of his "Indifference" and "Time Control," confirming that the two domains had indeed covered the study. One sealed off the study from the outside world, while the other immobilized the Angel Lady, making it impossible for her to move.
His abilities were working normally, but they had failed against this Angel Lady?
No, they hadn't failed completely. They had only met with partial resistance.
Jiang Ci'an blinked and watched Qian Renxue with some curiosity.
Qian Renxue watched him too. Her exquisite, beautiful face was full of wariness as she glared at Jiang Ci'an.
They stared at each other for quite a while before Jiang Ci'an finally broke the silence.
He reached out and pinched Qian Renxue's cheek again.
Qian Renxue: ???
Qian Renxue couldn't take it anymore.
She opened her mouth to bite him, but unfortunately, she was too slow. The moment her mouth opened, Jiang Ci'an's hand had already moved to the other side.
She snapped at him several times, missing by the tiniest margin each time. Her teeth clacked "ka-ka" in the air, but she couldn't bite the hand that was running riot across her face.
Was this guy messing with her?!
Qian Renxue gritted her teeth and glared at Jiang Ci'an with her pale blue eyes. A thin layer of moisture had inexplicably welled in them, though she couldn't tell if it was from anger or something else.
She was using all her strength just to keep her consciousness clear enough to think and speak normally. She could turn her head a little, but that was her limit.
Aside from that, she still couldn't move at all, like a puppet forced to watch this guy toy with her however he liked, powerless to stop him.
Qian Renxue took a deep breath, trying to make her voice sound less furious. It barely helped. She kept her gaze fixed on Jiang Ci'an and gritted out:
"Who are you, exactly?"
Jiang Ci'an paused slightly, withdrew his hand, and smiled.
"I'm just passing through. Don't mind me."
Qian Renxue didn't believe him at all.
What kind of passerby stripped someone's disguise, made them unable to move, and then pinched their face?
Though she didn't know why, after the unfamiliar young man realized she could move, something in his gaze changed.
The indifference in those golden eyes faded quite a bit. The aloofness with which he had looked at her like a piece of merchandise gave way to the look of someone seeing another person.
But that did nothing to ease her wariness.
There was no way this guy was a decent person!
Jiang Ci'an had no idea how the Angel Lady was cursing him in her heart. Looking at her wary expression, he had more or less figured out what was going on.
He had already learned from the Silver Dragon King that his abilities weren't truly unlimited.
Against god-level beings, his abilities could be resisted to a certain extent.
And now, the Angel Lady before him was the same.
Before you continue