Contrast

Dai Yueying had left Lianshan Xin at a complete loss.

Because, from what Lianshan Xin could tell, Dai Yueying... didn't seem to be acting?

He could hit the jackpot like this, too?

As a test, Lianshan Xin wrapped his hand around Dai Yueying's throat again and squeezed lightly.

Dai Yueying let out a soft moan. "Xin, squeeze a little harder."

Lianshan Xin: "..."

Fuck.

He'd ended up rewarding her.

"Dai Yueying, I just drove your father to his death."

Lianshan Xin had to remind this woman that her behavior was wildly inappropriate right now.

Dai Yueying calmed down a little, too.

Then her gaze grew even more complicated.

"Childhood sweethearts who know and love each other, yet stand divided by a father's death... Xin, what's happening between us is becoming more and more like those stories about immortal lovers in the martial world."

Lianshan Xin had no answer. He recalled that Dai Yueying really had spent a lot of time reading storybooks.

And the martial artists in Great Yu's storybooks were no different from those in the third-rate martial arts novels of his previous life. The heroine always fell in love with her enemy's son, as though there were no other men under heaven.

Or the hero and heroine simply had to belong to the righteous and evil factions, with their opposing sides sworn to never coexist beneath the same sky. Yet the leads declared that love surpassed everything. Even if the entire world opposed their relationship, they would stay together and fight the whole world.

Reading too many stories like that really could damage a person's intelligence.

Dai Yueying was a textbook case.

"Your father just died," Lianshan Xin emphasized again.

A person couldn't-or at least shouldn't-do this in front of her own father's corpse with the enemy who had just driven him to his death.

Even Lianshan Xin's moral standards wouldn't let him do something like that.

Demon Cult temptresses really had no bottom line.

But Dai Yueying had her own reasons.

"Once Father was exposed as an undercover agent of the Demon Cult, death was his only path. Xin, letting him keep an intact corpse was already mercy beyond the law. I should thank you."

Lianshan Xin was stunned. "You and your father... you're practically dish detergent reincarnated."

Dai Yongzhen hadn't even been getting paid, yet he'd still remembered to scrub the Demon Cult's leadership clean. Blood Guanyin hadn't even bothered to glance at him, and he'd managed to spin that as Blood Guanyin not wanting to gouge out his eyes.

Dai Yueying was no less impressive. Her father had died, and she could still thank his enemy.

As a normal person, Lianshan Xin really had trouble accepting this.

"What's dish detergent?"

Dai Yueying didn't understand the term.

Lianshan Xin couldn't be bothered to explain.

He slowly loosened his hand.

He looked at Dai Yueying with an equally complicated gaze.

This woman really had just handed him a difficult problem.

A moment earlier, Lianshan Xin had genuinely intended to kill her.

But Dai Yueying's "illness" had allowed her to find life in a dead end, right before the gates of death.

Faced with a choice offering nine chances of death and only one of survival, she seemed to have found the sole path out alive.

That left Lianshan Xin feeling rather strange, and somewhat hesitant.

Killing a princess really was a considerable risk.

At the very least, if his strength skyrocketed again in such a short time, he wouldn't be able to hide it from Qi Shiyun.

Whether he could hide it from the Chosen of Heaven far away in the Divine Capital was uncertain.

Qi Shiyun's willingness to shoulder the matter of the Millennium Snow Lotus for him had already been a pleasant surprise. He couldn't test her again with a princess's life. The consequences of that were far too unpredictable.

And Lianshan Xin still didn't know whether Thousand Faces knew Dai Yueying's true parentage.

Killing Dai Yueying would bring substantial gains in the short term. In the long term, it might leave endless trouble in its wake.

But in Lianshan Xin's view, keeping Dai Yueying alive was even more dangerous. He had clearly offended her beyond reconciliation, and he couldn't gamble on her being magnanimous.

Betting his life on a woman's magnanimity would be even more irresponsible.

Yet, of all things, Dai Yueying's illness had flared up.

At that thought, Lianshan Xin reached out and slapped Dai Yueying.

Not because he enjoyed hitting women, but because he was observing and experimenting.

"More pain, or more pleasure?"

Lianshan Xin asked very seriously.

Dai Yueying clearly realized, too, that this was a multiple-choice question with her life on the line.

Tears slowly gathered in her alluring, affectionate, peach-blossom eyes.

The sight stirred pity even in Lianshan Xin.

Yet through the haze of tears, her gaze also grew somewhat dazed.

"Thirty to seventy, I think. Xin, could you hit me again?"

Lianshan Xin readily obliged and slapped Dai Yueying again.

A hint of tears entered Dai Yueying's voice, but seduction outweighed it. "It seems... the pleasure really does outweigh the pain. Xin, I'm not lying to you. It must be because of my constitution."

At that moment, Lianshan Xin also realized that this must be her innate alluring constitution at work.

Then he recalled how Blood Guanyin never showed men the slightest warmth, yet had said something like, "Are you worthy of raising his child?" to Dai Yongzhen.

Blood Guanyin truly lived up to being Dai Yueying's biological mother.

Dai Yueying's innate alluring constitution had clearly been inherited from Blood Guanyin.

Blood Guanyin, that temptress renowned throughout the world, was probably just like the Dai Yueying before him-a woman of staggering contrasts... a two-faced slut.

His Majesty the emperor... what a lucky man.

Lianshan Xin felt a little envy toward the emperor he had never met.

But he wasn't sure whether His Majesty knew that Blood Guanyin had such a contrasting side.

"You really have handed me a difficult problem."

Lianshan Xin's hand lingered around Dai Yueying's neck.

But there wasn't the slightest intimacy in his gaze, tone, or movements.

Dai Yueying did her best to tempt Lianshan Xin. "Xin, I can feel that you're responding."

Lianshan Xin neither blushed nor grew embarrassed. Instead, he said calmly, "It would be strange if I had no reaction to a stunning beauty with such extreme contrasts as you. But that's nothing more than a natural bodily response."

Naturally, he lusted after women.

But he wouldn't let his little brother control his brain.

"Xin, I... Master said that my constitution can help others cultivate."

Lianshan Xin narrowed his eyes. "In that case, why doesn't he use you to help himself cultivate?"

"Master is a Dharma Form Realm expert. The gap between us is too great for me to help him. He said that perhaps once I reach the Grandmaster Realm, I'll be able to help him a little."

Lianshan Xin silently committed that information to memory.

"But you're different, Xin. Your cultivation realm is still low. I can definitely help you cultivate. I'm very useful. Don't kill me."

Lianshan Xin's hand remained beneath Dai Yueying's chin.

"You can indeed help me cultivate."

In every respect.

Dai Yueying was more useful than she herself realized.

But her identity and the trouble that came with it were also greater than she realized.

"Xin, can I be your little slave?"

Lianshan Xin: "..."

Who the fuck could withstand this?

"Xin, you know my body is pure. You're the first man I've ever loved. Don't kill me. From now on, I'll be all yours."

Dai Yueying had completely cast aside every shred of dignity.

This would absolutely be enough to soften the hearts of ninety-nine out of a hundred men under heaven.

But Dai Yueying discovered, to her shock, that Lianshan Xin's gaze was actually growing colder.

"Dai Yueying, you're lowering yourself this far... if you turn the tables one day, where will that leave me?"