Chapter 8

Shen Xingyan:?

Wrong. It was all wrong!

This Yao was not that Yao. The whole thing had been a mix-up. The person who came was not Ye Qingyao, but Luo Bingyao, an outer disciple of the Kongtong School.

Luo Bingyao was somewhat famous in the sect as a beauty best admired from behind. Her figure was exquisitely curved and stirred plenty of fantasies, but her facial features were rather coarse. She lacked Ye Qingyao's delicate beauty entirely and gave off a gaudy impression. She was the sort who called herself one of the guys, and also a vicious

supporting female character

in the original book. She was always chasing after Shen Xingyan, pretending they were close friends while flirting with him. She made life difficult for Ye Qingyao day after day, though she often served as a catalyst for the romance between the male and female leads.

After all, jealousy could deepen love.

Shen Xingyan understood that well. Not only did he indulge Luo Bingyao's ambiguous advances, he also kept his relationships with the other women who admired him just as murky. He had Ye Qingyao firmly in his grasp, making her lose her dignity and principles step by step for love, until she humbled herself into the dust for him.

Back when Ye Zhenzhen read Peerless Furnace Cauldron, every time she saw Shen Xingyan entangled with Luo Bingyao and Ye Qingyao weeping over it, she was so furious she wanted to stamp her feet.

Hah, friends? What kind of friend shares a bowl of soup with a female friend, lets her ride beside him on his flying boat, and teaches her swordsmanship up close? He's really mastered the whole playbook for a man with a pond full of women.

Since Shen Xingyan's pond is so big, I'll fish one out and have some fun with him.

An idea struck Ye Zhenzhen. She had Ye Qingchuan sneak into the Kongtong School's Outer Sect and use a Communication Talisman to send Luo Bingyao the Recording Stone's footage of Shen Xingyan saying, "A-Yao, Spirit Spring Valley at midnight. I'll see you there."

Proud Luo Bingyao had never been content to remain an Outer Sect disciple. But she was unwilling to work hard at cultivation or take the proper path; she wanted a shortcut by seducing Shen Xingyan, the young master. When the Communication Talisman arrived, her heart burst with joy. Persistence could win a man over, and Senior Brother Xingyan clearly saw her differently. Moving into the inner division, then rising to become a personal disciple, was surely only a matter of time.

She dressed with meticulous care, even spending the 200 Superior Spirit Stones she had saved for more than half a year on a rose-red tencel gauze dress. Its sheer fabric showed just enough to trace her curves perfectly. She knew her figure was her greatest weapon. Ignore her face, and she truly could steal a soul away.

"Senior Brother Xingyan, are you so happy to see me that you've gone silly? What are you talking about?" Seeing Shen Xingyan standing there in a daze and spouting nonsense, she wrapped her arms around his strong waist. Her restless hands roamed over him. "Look how lovely the moonlight is tonight. Why not make the most of this beautiful night..."

A strange birdcall suddenly rang through the darkness. Shen Xingyan looked around, but saw no sign of any bird or beast. His body grew hotter and hotter, and the flame inside him flared up in an instant.

Heavenly thunder ignited earthly fire.

Early the next morning, after nearly a whole night of tangled passion, the two emerged from the spirit spring glowing and ready to dress and return to the sect.

To their surprise, their clothes had vanished.

"People say the sea is deep, but it cannot match half the depth of longing." — "Lament of Longing," Li Zhi, Tang dynasty

"All my life I knew nothing of longing. The moment I learned it, longing took hold of me." — "To the Tune of Moon Palace: Spring Love," Xu Zaisi, Yuan dynasty

"Of all the countless beauties in the world, you alone hold my heart." — Farewell My Concubine

Chapter 8

A Demon Beast with a dragonlike head, a bird's body, and scales covering it from head to toe had draped both their sets of clothes over itself. It even taunted them with a string of "Jiu, jiu, jiu, jiu, jiu!"

Luo Bingyao's red gauze dress hung from its long neck, much longer on one side than the other. It looked both bizarre and ridiculous.

"Oh no. It's a Clothes-Stealing Beast."

Clothes-Stealing Beasts delighted in stealing other people's clothes, especially brightly colored fabrics. This one had fallen in love at first sight with the red magical dress that shed roses. It swung the dress around its neck in excitement, chasing the falling roses in circles. It was also quite taken with Shen Xingyan's sect uniform, embroidered with a golden flood-dragon pattern. It wound the pattern around itself and imagined it was a flood dragon, looking mighty indeed.

"You wretched bird! How dare you steal my clothes? I'll teach you a lesson!" Shen Xingyan was furious. He swung his sword, sending several fierce streaks of sword light at the thief. He meant to give it a beating it would never forget.

The Clothes-Stealing Beast dodged nimbly, flapped its wings, and shot into the sky like lightning, vanishing into the vast sea of clouds. Red roses kept drifting down from above, a beautiful shower of flowers. Admiring the scene it had created as it flew, it cried "Jiu, jiu, jiu, jiu, jiu!" even louder and more cheerfully.

Shen Xingyan sprang from the spirit spring, mounted his sword, and sped after the Clothes-Stealing Beast.

Seeing someone give chase only excited the beast more. It shot upward at a forty-five-degree angle, plunged downward at ninety degrees, glided through a sweeping one-hundred-and-eighty-degree curve, then looped a full three hundred and sixty degrees in the air. It kept changing direction like an airborne roller coaster, leaving Shen Xingyan dizzy. All he could see were roses falling before his eyes.

The roses he had found romantic last night now gave him a headache.

"Shen, my love, come back! You aren't wearing any clothes!" Luo Bingyao was still in the spirit spring. Watching Shen Xingyan chase the Clothes-Stealing Beast without a care for anything else, she cried out anxiously. After their night together, she felt they had grown much closer. She had changed what she called him from Senior Brother Xingyan to "Shen, my love."

Of course Shen Xingyan knew he was naked, but he could not swallow the insult. He was the son of an Immortal Venerable and the young master of the Kongtong School. He had been treated like the moon surrounded by stars since childhood. How could he let a mere Demon Beast run circles around him? But the Clothes-Stealing Beast was too cunning. It led him on a wild chase through the sky, flying several times faster than his sword, and he could not catch it.

Helpless, he returned to the spirit spring in a foul mood.

"That bird-bodied Demon Beast is infuriating. If it has any guts, it should fight me head-on instead of dodging all the time." He lashed out in anger with a blade of energy, sending the water around him splashing more than ten meters high.

"It's all right, Shen, my love. I have spare clothes. Why don't you wear those for now?" Luo Bingyao soothed him as she opened her Storage Pouch and searched for clothes.

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