I didn't ask for it

Min Ning, a Thousand Household of the Western Depot, looked at the three corpses in the alley.

"Both had their throats slit with a single stroke. Clean, decisive cuts. They died before they could even draw their weapons."

Min Ning casually surveyed the corpses and stepped forward, her brows valiant and her expression stern.

When she saw Song Shengbao's corpse, she glanced over it, then her pupils contracted.

"His saber was cut straight through. These edges... both sides are curved. It bent under the blow, then suddenly snapped. Heavy force, an abrupt burst... was it the Jiao-Slaying Saber Technique?"

Astonishment appeared on Min Ning's face.

She could think of only one other person in the Capital City who knew the Jiao-Slaying Saber Technique.

"Chen Yi... but didn't he only steal the technique a month ago?"

At the thought of him, Min Ning's slender brows knitted slightly.

"Could he be an exceptional talent? Has he really concealed himself this deeply?"

When she met this man a month ago, a man of unknown origins who had suddenly attained high office, Min Ning had scoffed at him.

Nobody liked someone who got in through connections.

What was more, Chen Yi was in his twenties, yet he was not even a ninth-rank martial artist. He was like a blank sheet of paper.

Min Ning, however, was already an eighth-rank martial artist in her early twenties. Her extraordinary talent, her solving of a major case, and the fact that her grandfather, formerly of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Southern Pacification Office, had once aided the Western Depot's superintendent, had earned her the position of Western Depot Thousand Household upon reaching adulthood. She had also been assigned to supervise the Eastern Depot.

Her achievements at such a young age should have commanded respect. In fact, the opposite was true: the Eastern Depot's people were far from pleased with this superior parachuted in above them.

She was too blunt, too upright, and tolerated little filth.

After a cursory investigation, Min Ning left the alley.

"I need to see my sister and investigate his background. If there's nothing wrong, then... I'll ask him to help stop those Demonic Cult remnants."

The Capital City had many pleasure quarters, and Hundred Flowers Tower was one of them. Here there were chaste courtesans whose virginity was difficult to purchase, who sold their talents but not their bodies, as well as enchanting courtesans who tumbled amid crimson bedclothes.

"I remember that Chen Yi you mentioned."

Min Ming waved her fan, smiling sweetly.

She was utterly enchanting, with naturally supple bones and watery, peach-blossom eyes. Her red clothing was propped up into a full moon. Because she was good-natured and accommodating, her sisters in the brothel often teased her, saying she would certainly make a fine mother who could feed herself someday.

"Yes, Sister, investigate him as thoroughly as you can. There's something strange about him. Don't underestimate him."

The Thousand Household repeated her warnings.

"Ning'er, are you pining for this man? Going on and on to your sister like this. Oh, I remember he was quite handsome."

Min Ming teased her softly.

Dressed as a man, Min Ning blushed slightly, then shook her head in disgust.

If possible, she would rather never see this corrupt, undeserving man again.

It was hostility born of conflicting values. What was more, he had stolen her family's Jiao-Slaying Saber Technique.

"Sister, you're too frivolous. However handsome and distinguished he looks, he's nothing but a pewter spearhead polished to look like silver."

Min Ning spoke quietly.

"A little dirty talk between women doesn't matter. Besides, I never talk like this with men."

Min Ming smiled as she spoke.

Before long, Min Ning left Hundred Flowers Tower.

Min Ming turned her face toward the shadows in the private room.

"Granny Qingmei, come out."

A white-haired old woman with a stooped back emerged from the shadows. Min Ning, a Western Depot Thousand Household, had never detected her presence.

"That Hundred Household Chen's background is indeed a mystery."

Granny Qingmei spoke flatly.

"Do Not Use Tower has wanted you to investigate him for some time. You're one of the few capable operatives in the tower."

Min Ming knitted her pretty brows.

Granny Qingmei was undoubtedly treating her as a tool of Do Not Use Tower.

When Min Ming remained silent, Granny Qingmei misunderstood.

"Don't tell me you lack confidence?"

Granny Qingmei said slowly:

"That's understandable. To become a Western Depot Hundred Household so young, even with the Lin faction behind him, he probably enjoys the Empress Dowager's favor. To receive such regard, he's probably loyal to the state and unyielding in temperament."

"Be careful, Miss Min. Don't provoke his murderous intentions and make him get rough with you."

Min Ming snickered.

Granny Qingmei had never seen Chen Yi, but she had.

He was indeed handsome. Yet precisely so, he was also fine on the outside and rotten within. Her intelligence included plenty of accounts of his corruption, selling favors, and extravagant spending.

"You jest, Granny. Men of the martial world have their romantic attachments. If I dress up splendidly to see him tonight, why would he get rough with me?"

Then she uttered a teasing line that only a chaste courtesan would say.

"Even if he comes at me stiff and hard, he'll soften sooner or later."

Before long, Chen Yi arrived outside the imperial palace's Donghua Gate, opened the gate to his inner residence, and brought the Xiang Prince's Daughter into the hall.

All along the way, Yin Tingxue had been dazed, as though she had lost her soul, her cheeks still flushed. The Xiang Prince's Daughter had never experienced such liberties before. More frightening still, she was a concubine, with no knowing what torment awaited her.

Chen Yi paid little attention to her fear. He simply led her inside, showed her around, and finally sent her off to the bedroom.

Returning to the hall, Chen Yi touched his lips and savored that kiss. It had felt good, but he had no intention of kissing her again, nor was he in a hurry to go further.

If he kissed her until she grew numb to it, her emotions would no longer fluctuate so strongly, and that would be no fun.

"She feels... pretty easy to bully?"

Chen Yi laughed self-mockingly.

He felt a kind of spiritual satisfaction, one that satisfied not only his desire for revenge, but also a trace of... faint tenderness.

That tenderness brought a tightness to his chest, far more pleasurable than a wedding night. Of course, if the two were combined, perhaps...

After a moment, Chen Yi stopped his wandering thoughts.

"Let's look at the martial manual I found on Song Shengbao first."

Chen Yi took out a martial manual.

People of the martial world often carried a manual or two, both to study diligently and to offer up in exchange for their lives when necessary.

What Song Shengbao had carried was a lightness technique, and also... a Demonic Cult token.

After he leafed through it, the words "Eagle-Fall Art" appeared on the panel.

Checking his remaining true qi, Chen Yi hesitated over whether to pour all of it into this technique or save some for emergencies.

"There's no hurry. I'll wait until I have more true qi. A bath first."

Chen Yi stood up.

After his bath, a thick, strange fragrance had enveloped the courtyard outside at some point.

Night had fallen. Chen Yi abruptly raised his head.

Wisps of fragrance now filled this courtyard outside the imperial palace's Donghua Gate, drifting toward the window.

Chen Yi silently rose and took the Embroidered Spring Saber hanging on the wall.

A breeze passed, carrying a faint sense of lovemaking, and a rich fragrance assailed his nose.

Lifting a lamp, Chen Yi walked to the doorway and discovered that the courtyard gate had somehow swung wide open.

Chen Yi frowned.

To reach the Western Depot, someone would have to get past the guards outside the imperial palace. Such stealth was no simple feat.

Chen Yi saw a dark shape shift.

"Who's there?"

At his voice, the dark shape startled, then slowly emerged. A veiled woman waved a folding fan, her figure graceful beneath her red dress. Fragrant air instantly assailed his nose as her swelling curves slowly approached.

She drew closer at a leisurely pace, covering her face as she chuckled.

"Young master, it's me."

She smelled of wine.

As soon as she spoke, the courtyard's fragrance suddenly intensified considerably.

Her smiling peach-blossom eyes watched Chen Yi as she said:

"I believe I've seen you at the pleasure house, young master. You're one of my patrons, aren't you? Please come inside with me for a chat."

The rich fragrance washed over him. Chen Yi's thoughts kept wavering, and his head grew drowsy.

The woman swayed alluringly.

He lowered his head and said:

"...You really want to go inside with me?"

Hearing Chen Yi's trembling voice, the woman knew she had succeeded and spoke seductively:

"Just one night. Even if... I have to pay you."

"...All right."

The woman gradually reached Chen Yi. Before she could take his hand, he placed his hands on her shoulders.

"So impatient..."

Her breath was sweet as orchids. A dagger slowly emerged from her palm as her body swayed lightly like a dancing celestial maiden.

Chen Yi's hands rested on her shoulders.

Just as she narrowed her eyes and waited for an opening,

"Sorry, miss."

Chen Yi uttered those words.

"I've read the walkthrough."

The next instant, the woman's face turned deathly pale. Her entire body went weak, and she felt the true qi she had cultivated for years being drained away without cease.

"Thank you for paying me, miss."

At first she still wanted to strike, but weakness gradually overwhelmed her. In the blink of an eye, seventy or eighty percent of her true qi was gone. Her body collapsed helplessly to the ground, and she lost consciousness.

[Min Ming possesses ten years' worth of foreign true qi by an ordinary person's measure.]

Chen Yi's face was deathly pale as he struggled to calm the foreign true qi.

Min Ming...

Lifting her veil, he studied her lovely face and compared it with his recollections. Chen Yi immediately realized who she was.

"Soft-Boned Sword, Min Ming?"

"Wait, shouldn't she be at Hundred Flowers Tower, working as a chaste courtesan and spy right now?"

Had taking Yin Tingxue away caused a butterfly effect that changed the plot?

If he remembered correctly, in Beyond the Heavens, she was something of a know-it-all in this Capital City. When first entering the game, players would generally follow the prompts to ask her for information about the city.

And with a little effort in pursuing her, it was easy to form a romance with Min Ming. In the later stages, however, her low cultivation meant she appeared less and less, making her one of the least memorable heroines in the entire game.

Compared with her, her younger sister gradually shone in the middle and late stages of the game. Not only did she enter the top ten of the Martial Ranking before thirty, but after the Heavenly Gate cracked open, she ascended with sword in hand.

Looking at the limp woman on the ground, Chen Yi's fingers twitched.

Still, she was not his enemy.

"Her cultivation was low to begin with, and now I've drained all her true qi."

Something occurred to Chen Yi, and he said sinisterly:

"I could cultivate her properly."

"I'll take her inside first and question her when she wakes up."

The foreign true qi battered his meridians, making Chen Yi terribly uncomfortable.

He found hemp rope in the courtyard, tied Min Ming up, and placed her in the guest room. Then he waited patiently.

As soon as Min Ming woke, her mouth gagged, she saw Chen Yi and struggled to rise from the bed. From her expression, she practically wanted to tear him to pieces.

Having all her painstakingly cultivated true qi stolen was a humiliation second only to having her limbs broken outright.

"Hello, Miss Min."

"I'd very much like to know who sent you."

Chen Yi opened the window, and moonlight fell across his face.

At that instant, the chaste courtesan started slightly. It was not that she had never seen him. A month ago, he had visited Hundred Flowers Tower to ask for information, but the lighting had been dim, and she could not make out his face. She had only caught a striking outline, which she soon forgot entirely. Only those eyes had left a fleeting trace.

But now, she finally saw this Western Depot Hundred Household clearly. It was a face that seemed unremarkable at first glance, yet stunning at the second.

In short... he really was handsome.

Chen Yi removed the rag from her mouth. Her hands and feet remained bound. He glanced aside at the panel.

[Negative emotions: 40]

"Hundred... Hundred Household Chen..."

Min Ming swallowed and unconsciously spoke in a sweet voice.

Chen Yi, however, grabbed her ear and asked again:

"Who sent you?"

Min Ming cried out in pain, the corners of her eyes pinching slightly and her dark brows faintly knitting. This pitiful look was precisely what she used to make men lavish fortunes on her.

"To answer you, Hundred Household Chen, I came of my own accord... I heard that you had recently taken a beautiful maid from the prince's household, so I decided to come and see for myself...

"Please have mercy, Hundred Household Chen, and spare my life."

A smile appeared on Chen Yi's face.

"'If anyone enters another's home at night without cause, the owner shall bear no guilt for killing them on the spot.' Under Great Yu law, I can kill you right now."

Min Ming's face paled.

But after that white slug's mind raced, she thought of a way. Working both hands and feet, she all but pressed against him and feigned a plaintive voice:

"I can no longer protect myself. My life is now in your hands, Hundred Household. But I'm a chaste courtesan with no money to spare at home. What could I possibly use to buy my life from you?

"I've always served others with my beauty, but I've kept to a virtuous path and never sold my virginity..."

The implication in her words was already obvious.

Chen Yi stared straight at her.

She spoke with coy hesitation:

"If you do not disdain me, Hundred Household, I would gladly take you as my adoptive husband."

Min Ming acted so alluringly because she had something to rely on.

She had a silver-mounted knife strapped somewhere on her body, the sort of small blade often carried by women who bore burdens and suffered frequent harassment from the Hu. It was as thin as a cicada's wing, delicate and compact.

Once Hundred Household Chen became blinded by lust and let down his guard, she could end his life with a single stab.

As for her True Qi... she could simply cultivate it again.

"You certainly have beauty enough to make fish sink and geese fall."

Chen Yi smiled.

Min Ming secretly rejoiced.

It worked.

But killing him would be something of a pity.

Perhaps giving him my first night would not be such a bad thing.

Such looks were rare even in Capital City. The only people Min Ming could think of were the star male entertainers, but they were steeped in effeminacy. In bearing alone, they could not compare at all with this martial artist.

Why not cripple his martial arts and have him serve me as a eunuch?

Min Ming entertained the sinister thought.

She drew a deep breath and looked at Chen Yi even more seductively.

Chen Yi was all smiles.

He reached out, grabbed her ear, and yanked it upward.

Min Ming screamed in pain.

Chen Yi spoke casually and dismissively:

"You think you can use your beauty to lure me in.

"But have you ever considered that I'm not interested in you?"

Hearing those words, Min Ming froze and looked up in disbelief. When she found no lust in his eyes, her face instantly went pale.

[Negative emotions: 50]

Catching her look, Chen Yi sneered.

He had not lied to her.

When he cleared his first save, he had already gotten to know every inch of her.

What remained out of reach always stirred desire, but what one had already possessed was not nearly so attractive.

"You're merely a courtesan who hasn't sold her virginity, not a woman from a respectable family. What do you have besides your looks?"

Chen Yi's words struck Min Ming where she was most vulnerable, and her negative emotions climbed rapidly.

"All you have is your looks, yet you're constantly selling them. Why make yourself so cheap?"

"Do you really think getting your first night would be difficult?"

Min Ming was seized with fear.

Chen Yi unfastened his waist token, pressed it against her cheek, and patted it against her skin.

"This alone would be enough to claim your first night."

[Negative emotions: 60]

At those humiliating words, Min Ming shuddered.

As a courtesan who had yet to sell her virginity, she had spent years watching the women around her serve men with their beauty. Amid the chatter of the pleasure houses, she often heard rumors of a thousand gold pieces spent on a single night, leading her to mistake beauty for the most expensive thing in the world.

But Chen Yi's words exposed a cruel truth.

It was not beauty. It was power.

Chen Yi released Min Ming and drew his Embroidered Spring Saber.

Silver light flashed.

Min Ming jerked backward, crying out in terror.

Whoosh.

The silver light fell.

Under the precise blade, every hemp rope binding Min Ming was severed. She sat frozen where she was, her face as pale as a corpse.

[Negative emotions: 80]

[Conditions met. Grudge Yin-Yang Art activated.]

[Grudge Yin-Yang Art, beginner proficiency: of ten years of foreign True Qi, thirty percent can be absorbed, yielding three years of True Qi. Min Ming's negative emotion reward: three years of True Qi.]

[True Qi remaining: twelve years]

After that speech, her hatred for him had risen from forty to eighty. Chen Yi was very satisfied.

He truly had little desire for her.

But that did not mean he would not take her.

Since this was to be a perfect save,

He wanted it all!

Come to think of it, when he started the save, he had treated it as nothing more than a game. To secure his early-game start, he had done plenty of things solely to maximize his gains. It was like slaughtering a village after turning in a quest in Baldur's Gate, though he had not gone quite that far. Still, embezzling funds to buy ink, cheating, and swindling-he had done them all. He had been nothing but a cold, unfeeling opening-game machine.

For instance, he had acquired the Jiao-Slaying Saber Technique by selecting steal and taking it from Min Ning.

Chen Yi kept Min Ming locked up overnight.

After confirming that no more assassins had come calling, he washed up early the next morning and went to the guest room.

"You can leave. I don't care where you came from. Don't investigate me again."

Chen Yi's tone was flat.

Min Ming looked at him in disbelief. As she gradually came to her senses, those words not only reached her ears but stabbed into her heart.

[Negative emotions: 80]

Remembering the previous night, she was overcome with shame and indignation. A flush rose through her thick rouge and powder, but she dared not say anything now and could only lower her head sullenly.

"Hundred Household Chen!"

An urgent shout came from outside the courtyard.

Hearing that somewhat familiar voice, Chen Yi immediately thought of who it belonged to.

He crossed the threshold into the courtyard, and a face full of heroic spirit appeared before him.

The brows slanted upward from their inner ends, lending the face a measure of effortlessly commanding, chivalrous bearing. Unfortunately, youth still left it somewhat immature. With a high, straight nose and fingers resting on a saber hilt, the figure looked valiant and spirited.

In fact, this person's features naturally carried a hint of melancholy-sorrowful brows, yet a heroic air. The two did not clash; instead, they complemented each other with a distinctive beauty.

Come to think of it, she counted as his superior, and she had always disapproved of him.

"Thousand Household Min, what brings you to my humble home so early?"

Chen Yi spoke slowly.

Min Ning, courtesy name Moon Pond, was one of the main heroines of Beyond the Heavens. Early on, she disguised herself as a man and served as a Thousand Household in the Western Depot, overseeing the Eastern Depot. She and Min Ming operated openly and covertly, one righteous and one wicked. According to the usual walkthrough advice, winning over both of them would make one practically omniscient within Capital City.

That heroic face, together with her disguised Adam's apple and deeply chivalrous disposition, had fooled him on his first save back then. He had treated her as a brother he could confide in.

Moreover, the fragility beneath her heroic bearing had been heartbreaking, prompting one to wonder how exactly to regard the Southern Liang dynasty.

As everyone knew, what came after Southern Liang was...

"Hundred Household Chen."

Min Ning's androgynous voice interrupted Chen Yi's thoughts.

"Have you seen... a courtesan from Hundred Flowers Tower who has not sold her virginity?"

Her tone grew heavier despite herself, as though she meant to intimidate Chen Yi.

"Hundred Household Chen, yesterday you interrogated a female offender without authorization, in violation of our Great Yu Law...

"If you listen to me, I could make an exception and help cover it up a little."

It took enormous effort for her to say those words.

Full of chivalrous spirit, she normally despised nothing more than colluding in wrongdoing.

Chen Yi looked at her and gave a derisive laugh.

Min Ning gripped her saber hilt even harder, her knuckles standing out sharply as though they would pierce her skin.

Over the past month, this Hundred Household Chen had relied on Grand Secretary Lin's backing to commit no shortage of evil deeds upon taking office, and he had repeatedly humiliated her as well. She had pointed at the river and sworn that, once she had avenged the disgrace brought upon her family, the first head she took would be that of this parasite.

"Relax. She's perfectly fine."

Chen Yi gestured behind him. Min Ming slowly walked out with her head lowered and her face utterly lifeless.

Seeing her elder sister's lifeless face, veins bulged on the backs of Min Ning's hands. Her eyes blazed with fury, and she wished she could devour Chen Yi alive.

[Negative emotions: 60]

She could bow her head, set aside the chivalry she treasured, and endure humiliation to preserve what mattered, but what she could least tolerate was harm to her family.

Chen Yi turned his face and said with a teasing smile,

"She begged me to take her first night. I turned her down."

Min Ning froze in astonishment.