As they spoke, the two reached the dormitory building and ran into Huo Yuhao and Ma Xiaotao coming the other way.
"Yuhao, you haven't left yet?"
Jiang Nannan was surprised and puzzled.
"Sister Nannan!"
Huo Yuhao was walking beside Ma Xiaotao. He was delighted to see Jiang Nannan, but his feelings turned complicated when he saw Tang Ya.
Actually, he hadn't run away because Tang Ya scared him. She had simply been too persistent, and he had been afraid that a moment of weak resolve would make him agree to join the Tang Sect, so he had decided to run.
He planned to come back and deal with that vexing little temptress once he had made something of his cultivation and his body had finished growing.
Huo Yuhao pointed at Ma Xiaotao. "This is Ma Xiaotao, your senior from the inner court. Her Martial Soul is the Evil Fire Phoenix, and she needs my help purifying her Evil Fire. Once I've helped her, I'm planning to leave in a few days."
Jiang Nannan's feelings immediately became complicated, and her expression turned subtle.
She knew all about the Evil Fire Phoenix, the Martial Soul of Ma Hongjun, one of the first Shrek Seven Devils.
But didn't purifying the Evil Fire of that Martial Soul require a man and a woman to have sex?
Yuhao, what on earth happened? Have you really fallen so low that you have to sell yourself?
Jiang Nannan's heart ached for him. She could only hate how weak she was, unable to help Huo Yuhao with anything and leaving him to suffer such an enormous humiliation.
"Scumbag!"
Tang Ya ground her little canine teeth, widened her phoenix eyes, and spat out the word. She glared at Ma Xiaotao too, hostility in her eyes.
Ma Xiaotao sensed Tang Ya's inexplicable hostility and raised an eyebrow. She had the feeling the two of them had misunderstood something.
Huo Yuhao smiled. "Sister Xiaoya, let's talk later. I'm going to help Ma Xiaotao purify her Evil Fire first."
He turned to Jiang Nannan. "Sister Nannan, I have something to tell you when we're done."
"All right!"
Jiang Nannan pressed her lips together and looked from Huo Yuhao to Ma Xiaotao.
She was like an incompetent husband, helplessly watching his wife fall into someone else's arms for the sake of their family and his future.
"Yuhao, do you need me to stand guard? I'm a little worried about you."
In the end, Jiang Nannan still couldn't put her mind at ease.
Huo Yuhao thought for a moment and nodded. "All right. If anything goes wrong, sorry to trouble you, Sister Nannan, but please notify a teacher at the academy."
They entered the dormitory building, and Huo Yuhao found his room.
Jiang Nannan stood at the door and refused to go in, no matter what. Instead, she turned to Ma Xiaotao, lowered her eyes, and spoke in a voice tinged with sorrow and worry:
"Senior, Yuhao is young and weak, and his body hasn't finished growing. Please be gentle and don't hurt him."
"Don't worry, I'll protect him!" Ma Xiaotao waved her hand readily and pulled Huo Yuhao into the room, unable to wait any longer. The door shut with a bang.
Jiang Nannan and Tang Ya stood guard outside, their hearts aching as they stared blankly at the door.
Huo Yuhao's expression turned subtle. The scene just now had given him a strong sense of déjà vu. He seemed to have seen it in some movies in his previous life, but weren't the roles a little off?
He shook his head, casting aside the jumble of thoughts, and looked around the room.
The room was simple but reasonably tidy. Wang Dong wasn't there.
Ma Xiaotao looked at it with distaste. "You didn't want to go to the inner court, so we'll just have to make do here."
Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow. "Even you look down on Shrek's dormitories?"
Ma Xiaotao said crossly, "I lived in this lousy dormitory for three years too. Honestly, my teacher insisted it was to make the students work hard through hardship and never forget their original aspirations. I think it's just putting up with hardship when there's no need. Why doesn't he live in a dormitory like this himself?"
"That makes sense!" Huo Yuhao agreed, pointing at the bed. "Let's get started. No point wasting time."
"How should we do it? Through cultivation or some other way?"
Ma Xiaotao folded her arms across her chest, her tone half teasing and half warning as she said:
"I'm telling you, don't even think about taking advantage of your big sister."
"Heh!" Huo Yuhao sneered. "Given what I have going for me, it's hard to say which of us would be taking advantage of the other."
Ma Xiaotao looked Huo Yuhao up and down and nodded in agreement.
Huo Yuhao might not have been exceptionally handsome, but he wasn't bad-looking either. His talent was first-rate, not to mention his advantage in age. Senior Han Ruoruo of the inner court liked his type.
Oh, didn't her old rival Ling Luochen seem to like his type too?
The thought made Ma Xiaotao inexplicably excited.
The two sat on the bed, and Huo Yuhao placed his hand against Ma Xiaotao's back.
"Keep a firm hold on your mind, and don't resist my power."
Huo Yuhao gave her the warning. The next moment, a faint golden light shone in his eyes, and the Holy Domain enveloped Ma Xiaotao. Soul Power imbued with the power of holy purification flowed into her body.
An involuntary soft moan escaped Ma Xiaotao's lips.
The Evil Fire in her body had met its natural enemy and abruptly fled deeper inside her, toward her dantian, her Sea of Consciousness...
Ma Xiaotao felt her whole body grow even hotter, and what remained of her reason was rapidly being eroded.
Huo Yuhao concentrated on controlling his power, surrounding and purging the Evil Fire in Ma Xiaotao's body.
A wisp of Evil Fire was purified, and a stream of pure Soul Power flowed back into Huo Yuhao's body where they touched.
Huo Yuhao was surprised. His Soul Power cultivation had actually increased a little.
He had only just purified one wisp of Evil Fire. If he purified all the Evil Fire Ma Xiaotao had accumulated in her body, wouldn't his cultivation rise by five or six levels?
Ma Xiaotao would keep accumulating Evil Fire in the future, and he could purify it again. Wasn't she a ready-made power bank?
Huo Yuhao's gaze grew heated.
The Evil Fire in Ma Xiaotao's body continued to melt away, while her hold on reason grew ever more precarious.
At last, another wisp of Evil Fire invaded her Sea of Consciousness, and the taut string inside her finally snapped.
Flames rose from her body, reducing all her clothes to ashes in moments and revealing her impressive curves.
The young woman turned to face Huo Yuhao, her fair face red as fire and her long, narrow phoenix eyes completely tinged pink. Years of suppressed desire erupted at that moment, filling those already alluring eyes with longing and making them even more enchanting as she stared fixedly at him.
The next moment, Ma Xiaotao lunged at him, her delicate body burning hot.
Huo Yuhao unleashed his powerful spiritual power, sending a Spiritual Shock straight into Ma Xiaotao's mind.
Ma Xiaotao felt a sharp pain, and some of the Evil Fire in her Sea of Consciousness was purified by the Spiritual Shock as well.
Her eyes grew considerably clearer. She bit her red lip, her long eyelashes trembling as she closed her eyes and struggled to suppress the torment of the Evil Fire.
"If you really can't control yourself, use your own hands and provide for yourself!"
Huo Yuhao kindly reminded her.
Ma Xiaotao was filled with shame and anger. She opened her bright eyes a crack and glared at Huo Yuhao, then parted her lips to curse him. But the next instant, a sound she couldn't hold back slipped from her lips, and she quickly pressed them shut.
After an unknown length of time, Ma Xiaotao's consciousness gradually began to blur again. Once more, she was on the verge of losing control.
She gritted her teeth, her shimmering eyes full of shame and anger, and glared viciously at Huo Yuhao. Then she closed her eyes again and buried her head in the bed.
Huff, huff, huff-
Huo Yuhao shook his head.
Why bother?
It's not like I haven't seen scenes like this before. I've even done it myself.
Did I boast about it?