Xiao Li gripped Yuan Shu’s hand tightly. His chest heaved violently with every breath, while his head throbbed with unbearable, needle-like pain.
The divine soul connected to Bai Ze continued to tremble violently, sending wave after wave of agony through him.
When the pain finally subsided, his entire body was drenched in sweat, as though he had just been fished out of water. He lay unconscious on the bed.
Yuan Shu reached out and touched his forehead. It was cold to the touch.
Frowning, she cast a Cleansing Dust Spell and wiped away the cold sweat covering him.
A faint, unusual aura drifted from Xiao Li’s body.
“Shushu, did you smell that?” The voice of the Hehuan Divine Tree suddenly echoed in her mind.
Yuan Shu raised an eyebrow. “Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura?”
“That’s right! And it’s definitely the power of its source. There are probably secrets about this Xiao Li that we know nothing about!”
Yuan Shu’s brows drew together slightly as she said in a low voice, “He’s outrageously bold!”
In the eyes of the righteous immortal sects, the Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura was an evil force capable of overturning the entire cultivation world.
Xiao Li actually possessed the power of its source—and he had even dared to conceal it openly within the Beast-Taming Garden.
If anyone discovered him, he would be doomed!
Just as she was thinking this, a noisy rush of footsteps suddenly came from outside the door. There were quite a few people, and they all stopped in the courtyard.
The steward of the Beast-Taming Garden bowed and scraped before the person at the front of the group. Seeing the other party’s stern expression, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, hurried forward a few steps, and knocked on the door.
“Master Xiao, Elder Lu is here. He says he’s searching for suspicious individuals. Please come out and take a look!”
Normally, whenever Xiao Li heard any commotion, his voice would already have sounded—or he would have walked out of the room himself.
But today, the room was utterly silent. Not a sound came from within.
“What are you dawdling for? Just go up and open the door!”
Lu Huai, standing in the middle of the crowd, frowned and gave one of the disciples beside him a meaningful glance.
Someone immediately stepped forward and raised his foot, about to force his way in.
The steward was startled and hurriedly tried to stop him. “E-Elder, Master Xiao is one of the foremost beast tamers in the Beast-Taming Garden. You can’t do this, you can’t…”
“He’s nothing more than a minor beast tamer. Does he really think he has the right to interfere in Elder Lu’s affairs? Get out of the way!”
The disciple’s expression turned cold. At Elder Lu’s signal, he kicked the steward directly.
With a cry of pain, the steward was sent sprawling to the side. The disciple stepped forward and followed up with another kick, this one aimed at the door.
…
“We only just discovered the presence of the Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura, and now someone has come looking for us? What are the odds of such a coincidence?”
The moment Yuan Shu heard the arrogant voices outside, her heart tightened.
Only a faint strand of the Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura had escaped. She had been able to sense it because she was nearby, but there was no reason for the people outside to detect it and come straight here, was there?
“Perhaps there’s something else on Xiao Li that has attracted their attention,” the Hehuan Divine Tree suddenly said.
Regardless of why they had come, Xiao Li was in grave danger.
Anyone with even a little ability who approached Xiao Li and sensed carefully would be able to detect the Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura.
This was the territory of the Immortal Descent Sect, an orthodox immortal sect. It could not tolerate the presence of such an aura!
Yuan Shu frowned. “The fluctuations of this Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura are unusual. Ordinary methods would have difficulty concealing them. Unless… we cover them with another aura that is equally extraordinary.”
“And the only aura capable of concealing the Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura is probably… your divine power.”
The gaze in Yuan Shu’s sea of consciousness settled on the Hehuan Divine Tree.
The Hehuan Divine Tree’s thoughts stirred, and it asked, “Shushu, do you want to save him?”
Yuan Shu nodded. “Considering the fate that brought us together through our three encounters, I should save him.”
“My Hehuan Sect has always been both righteous and wicked. We’ve never believed that the Earthly Baleful Demons, the demon race, and the orthodox immortal sects are all that different. They merely stand on different sides.”
“I once met an Earthly Baleful Demon who saved an entire city of innocent people.”
“Which sect or faction has no good people or bad people? Who would dare claim that they themselves are completely innocent?”
The Hehuan Divine Tree nodded. “Since Shushu has made up her mind, I’ll do everything I can.”
“Only… Shushu, if you do that, you… Ahem, I’m afraid things will be difficult to resolve afterward.”
The Hehuan Divine Tree coughed, its tone somewhat hesitant.
Taking the initiative to release the Hehuan Divine Tree’s aura and conceal the fluctuations of the Earthly Baleful Demonic Aura was equivalent to Yuan Shu activating her innate Charming Physique and releasing a dense, intoxicating fragrance.
When that happened… let alone someone carrying the Hehuan Divine Tree—even an ordinary person would be unable to withstand it!
Yuan Shu narrowed her eyes slightly. Before she had time to speak, the door was suddenly kicked open from outside.
“There’s no time. Do it!” Yuan Shu’s gaze turned cold. She reached over, pulled the quilt from the side of the bed, and covered herself and Xiao Li with it.
At the same time, Lu Huai led the others into the room.
A dense, intoxicating fragrance drifted out from within. The instant they smelled it, everyone shuddered involuntarily.
“Hiss!”
One after another, soft gasps rose from the crowd.
The disciples exchanged glances, their eyes involuntarily settling on the transparent screen inside the room.
Through the screen, they could vaguely see two people rolling together on the bed.
A graceful, smooth back was exposed to the air—fair, beautiful, and impossible to ignore. It was clearly the back of a naked woman.
In front of her, she held a tall, broad-shouldered man in her arms.
At that moment, their faces were pressed close together, their lips touching as they kissed passionately on the bed, completely lost in the moment!
None of the disciples who entered had expected to witness such a scene. Their faces flushed crimson.
Combined with the intoxicating fragrance permeating the air, their bodies reacted uncontrollably, and their eyes kept drifting toward the screen.
They could vaguely hear a woman’s soft, delicate cries and the low, breathy moans of intertwined breathing.
“Gulp.”
Someone swallowed, wishing desperately that he were the person on the bed. His eyes remained fixed on the scene without blinking.
“Hmph!”
Lu Huai was the first to recover. Realizing that he, too, had been affected by the intoxicating fragrance, his face darkened like the bottom of a pot. With a cold snort, he jolted everyone else back to their senses.
The steward wiped the sweat from his forehead. He truly had not expected things to turn out this way, and he hurriedly began to explain.
“E-Elder Lu, young people have strong passions. D-Doing this dual cultivation during the day doesn’t violate the sect’s rules. You’re a magnanimous man, so please don’t hold it against them. Hehe… hehe…”
The steward forced a smile. Elder Lu narrowed his eyes and glanced at the figures still embracing one another inside the room. His expression suddenly turned cold.
“This elder has been ordered to search the sect for suspicious individuals. Just now, I keenly sensed a special fluctuation of spiritual power coming from this direction.”
“We followed it here, yet instead of coming out to kneel and greet me, you continue behaving like this. Do you truly think nothing of me, an elder?”
The steward knelt on the ground in terror and stammered as he tried to explain, “E-Elder, M-Master Xiao, he, he didn’t mean to, he…”
“Silence! I wasn’t asking you!”
After being shouted down, the steward collapsed to the ground with a thud, kneeling prostrate and not daring to say another word.
At that moment, a soft yet cool female voice suddenly came from behind the screen.
“The elder of the Beast-Taming Garden isn’t one of the elders of the Five Peaks. To put it nicely, he’s called an elder—but put less nicely, what difference is there between you and a steward?”
“What an imposing attitude. He actually expects people to go outside and kneel to welcome him?”
