Subduing Dugu Yan, the Girl Who Posed Seductively

"Hehe."

"I'll be leaving first. Don't take what I said just now too seriously."

"It's getting late. I should be going too."

"I bought you a residence in Heaven Dou City. It's quiet there; you should like it."

Seeing that Li Qinglian had not answered for a long while, Qian Renxue said with a smile.

She then tossed a ring of keys into Li Qinglian's hand, turned, and left.

She knew it was still too early to talk about such things.

Even if Li Qinglian was a lecherous man, he could not possibly agree to her so quickly.

"Qian Renxue, Hu Liena..."

Li Qinglian watched Qian Renxue's departing figure, feeling deeply moved.

After cultivating anew, he had somehow incurred so many romantic debts.

"But it's not bad, either."

"In the original plot, these women all ended up deeply in love with Tang San."

"Now that they secretly harbor feelings for me, does that mean Tang San's fortune is being taken by me as well?"

Li Qinglian pondered deeply.

In his previous life, Li Qinglian would never have believed in something like fortune.

But in this world, it undoubtedly existed.

The auspicious beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, was a soul beast born from the fortune of heaven and earth, an emperor among soul beasts from birth.

Tang San had been able to become a God King in his previous life, even becoming the hidden ruler of the God Realm. Such fortune had undoubtedly played a major role.

Fortune was difficult to perceive, but Li Qinglian vaguely sensed that he was replacing Tang San as this era's child of fortune.

Fortune was too important.

Once one lost fortune's blessing, even the Dragon God would instantly fall from heaven and earth's favored child.

If Li Qinglian were already a supreme powerhouse, he would never allow his future to be influenced by such intangible fortune. But he was still weak, and only with fortune lifting him up could he go farther.

Li Qinglian gathered his thoughts, put away the keys, and rose to head for the residence Qian Renxue had mentioned.

The residence lay deep within a quiet alley on the eastern side of Heaven Dou City. After turning two corners, the bustle of the main street was completely cut off.

Blue tiles and white walls surrounded it. The door stood slightly ajar, and when he pushed it open, a small courtyard came into view.

Several slender bamboo stalks leaned against the walls. A few dead leaves lay atop the stone table and stools, while an old, unnamed tree grew in one corner, its luxuriant branches casting a cool patch of dense shade over the ground.

"This really is a nice place."

Li Qinglian nodded in satisfaction and was about to enter the main house for a look.

Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind struck from behind him!

It carried a rich, sweetly fishy scent and wrapped around a flash of dark green light as it shot straight for the back of his head.

The corners of Li Qinglian's lips curled upward slightly.

He did not even turn around. He merely shifted one step to the side, and the dark green light brushed past his ear, leaving a charred, corroded mark on the floor tiles before him.

"Hm?"

A soft cry of surprise came from behind him.

The attacker had clearly not expected her sneak attack to be evaded so effortlessly.

Only then did Li Qinglian turn around.

The assailant was a young woman of around seventeen or eighteen. Her long dark green hair fell over her shoulders, and though her face was lovely, she exuded a gloomy, cold, ruthless aura.

Her pupils were vertical like a snake's, staring intently at Li Qinglian with curiosity filling her eyes.

Dugu Yan.

The inheritor of the Jade-Scaled Serpent Emperor, a student of Heaven Dou Royal Academy, and the granddaughter of Poison Douluo Dugu Bo.

"It's you? What are you doing?"

Li Qinglian looked at the girl before him in surprise.

The moment Li Qinglian finished speaking, her second strike was already underway.

The five fingers of her right hand spread open, her fingertips glowing with intense dark green light. Carrying a pungent, venomous stench, they shot straight for Li Qinglian's throat.

Li Qinglian did not dodge.

He simply raised his hand and precisely gripped Dugu Yan's wrist with five fingers, holding it utterly still like an iron shackle.

Dugu Yan's expression changed. She tried to pull back her arm, only to find that his palm pressed down on her wrist like a mountain. She could not break free at all.

"Ah! That hurts."

"Please spare me, Holy Son."

Dugu Yan had only wanted to test whether Li Qinglian's strength was truly as monstrous as the rumors claimed.

She had never expected her strength to be completely suppressed in Li Qinglian's grasp.

And it seemed he had not even exerted any force.

"You know me?"

Li Qinglian froze.

"When Your Highness fought Yan on Pope Mountain, my grandfather and I were there to watch."

Dugu Yan hurriedly explained.

"But six years have passed, and my appearance has changed drastically."

Li Qinglian was surprised.

He truly had not expected Dugu Yan to recognize him.

"Your Highness's eyes haven't changed."

"They're black to the extreme, with a trace of eerie white deep within the pupils."

"They look rather strange."

"My pupils have always differed from ordinary people's, so six years ago, I remembered Your Highness's eyes at a glance."

Dugu Yan explained.

"Your eyes..."

Li Qinglian raised his head and glanced at Dugu Yan's eyes.

Dugu Yan's eye color and hair color were indeed both bizarre, but that was all because of poison.

In the original plot, Tang San had determined that Dugu Yan was poisoned beyond cure after seeing the abnormalities in her hair and pupils.

"That's right. Your Highness, are my eyes pretty?"

Dugu Yan stuck out her tongue.

"Pretty, my ass."

Li Qinglian rolled his eyes and released Dugu Yan.

"Hmph. So Your Highness really doesn't like women?"

Dugu Yan's words nearly made Li Qinglian lose his footing and fall over.

"Your Highness is so impressive. Even a man like His Highness the Crown Prince has submitted beneath Your Highness's crotch."

Dugu Yan's eyes gleamed brightly.

Qian Renxue had submitted beneath his crotch?

Well, but... wasn't that phrasing a little too crude?

Still, considering Dugu Yan's carefree nature, Li Qinglian understood.

"Who told you I don't like women? My sexual orientation is perfectly normal."

Li Qinglian was utterly speechless.

Though he had just played a prank on Qian Renxue, he seemed to have taken the blame too.

"Could it be that Your Highness swings both ways?"

The smile in Dugu Yan's eyes deepened, as though she were greatly surprised.

"Do you believe I'll throw you out?"

The smile vanished from Li Qinglian's face.

He did not understand it, but he could roughly guess what Dugu Yan meant.

More importantly, with the Pure Heart Eyes at work, Dugu Yan had no secrets from him at all.

"Hehe. I was wrong."

"Your Highness, since you're not uninterested in women, then why... Could it be that Yan isn't pretty enough?"

Dugu Yan pushed out her chest, lifted her hips, and struck a seductive pose.

She was genuinely curious about Li Qinglian's sexual orientation.

For someone like her, no matter how strange a preference was, she would not find it surprising.

But Li Qinglian was the Holy Son of Spirit Hall, while the other was the crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire. This...

"Your figure is passable. But I don't like sickly women."

Li Qinglian pinched his chin as he looked at the girl posing seductively.

As someone who possessed both the attributes of life and death, Li Qinglian was instinctively unable to love people with too little vitality. Of course, he did not reject purely dead things, either.

In other words, Dugu Yan felt too lacking in life.

At a glance, he could tell that this woman did not have many years left to live.