The cavern was dim, and the two of them were pressed tightly together. Soft, involuntary moans mingled with the faint sound of water.
Shi Shuchen was forced back against the stone wall, one hand braced in the corner where it met the ground.
Yuan Shu held his face between both hands, tilting it slightly upward as she did whatever she pleased.
So this was what it felt like to kiss someone?
Shi Shuchen’s thoughts had begun to scatter.
He had made a name for himself at a young age, blessed with extraordinary talent for cultivation.
In the past, many female cultivators had confessed their feelings to him, but for some reason, he had always found them bothersome.
He found it especially irritating when he realized they were approaching him with ulterior motives under the pretense of asking about cultivation.
So he had simply gone into seclusion—one month, two months, gradually turning into one year, two years, and then ten or twenty.
He had thought his heart had become as still as water. He had thought he simply had no interest in matters between men and women.
Yet he had never expected…
The moment Yuan Shu had clung tightly to him in the Azure Radiance Formation, he had felt no disgust whatsoever.
Instead, he had found the scent of pear blossoms on her body pleasant. It was as though the fragrance had been mixed with honey—rich, sweet, and intoxicating.
It made him want to inhale it a few more times.
But his good upbringing and ingrained habits had always made him maintain his distance from her.
Even when Yuan Shu had been forced to cling tightly to him, he had done his best to turn his face away, afraid of offending her.
However, the array disk had not jolted for just a moment or two. It had continued for several hours.
As time passed, their contact had inevitably grown more intimate.
And he, too, had gone from turning his head aside at the beginning to resting his head against her shoulder while studying the formation and thinking of a solution. Little by little, he had grown accustomed to the contact.
The reaction in his body had been entirely unexpected. It seemed Yuan Shu had even noticed.
He had seen the smile at the corner of her lips, and embarrassment had flooded him.
But there had been no disgust on Yuan Shu’s face, no disdain, and certainly no anger.
His heart had suddenly grown warm.
At the time, he had not known what that feeling meant. It was only later, after rescuing Yao Qianci, when he saw the two of them showing affection without a care behind the array disk, that a flame called jealousy had suddenly ignited in his chest.
He could not bring himself to block out the sounds with a barrier, taking in every movement the two of them made.
For a brief moment, he had even fantasized about being the one with her!
Unfortunately, Yuan Shu seemed to have no interest in him.
Until they had left the Azure Radiance Formation, she had not initiated any further contact with him.
After leaving the formation, she had merely stood quietly in front of Yao Qianci.
He had secretly looked at her several times, and every time he saw the love in her eyes for Yao Qianci, his heart had ached with a sour, bitter feeling.
Yet at this very moment, this dazzling woman, as fierce and radiant as a blazing fire, was kissing him with such passion and intensity.
Not Yao Qianci.
Him!
His heart was both nervous and exhilarated.
His bright, dark eyes fell half-closed, his attention entirely captivated by the fragrance of pear blossoms lingering between their lips and teeth. A strange, indescribable sensation enveloped his entire heart.
He heard the hurried pounding of his own heartbeat.
When Yuan Shu knelt astride his legs, he even worried that his injured hand might dirty her clothes. With swift fingers, he cast a Dust-Cleansing Spell, cleaning his palm and sleeve before wrapping his arms around her slender waist.
After a while, Yuan Shu finally released his lips, and he was finally able to stammer out a few words.
“Miss Y-Yuan…”
“Mmph.”
But he had barely begun when Yuan Shu sealed his mouth again.
“Don’t talk. I’m detoxifying you!”
There was a faint scent of ancient wood about Shi Shuchen, much like the fragrance from his array disk. It was not unpleasant.
Yuan Shu was aroused.
No—more accurately, she had deliberately stirred the power of the Acacia Divine Tree, deliberately allowing herself to become aroused.
Her palm slid down Shi Shuchen’s fair neck and slipped beneath the opening of his robes. Through the thin inner garment, she stroked his chest.
The man beneath her immediately tensed, his long lashes trembling even more violently.
However, this degree of arousal was not enough to draw out the formation spirit of the underground palace.
As she kissed him, Yuan Shu reached down and caught hold of his belt, pulling it loose.
The instant his robes fell open, Yuan Shu’s hand began to roam restlessly.
The pressure of her fingers shifted, sometimes light and sometimes firm, teasing his chest with practiced ease. Before long, she heard the uneven breathing of the man beneath her.
This was also Shi Shuchen’s first time understanding why the storybooks spoke of male cultivators in the Body Integration stage being held down beneath female cultivators in the Divine Transformation stage.
At this moment, was a dignified expert of the Divine Transformation realm not being held beneath Yuan Shu, a cultivator of the Nascent Soul realm?
Because they were willing.
But was this really detoxification?
Shi Shuchen did not dare say anything, nor did he dare ask. He could only tense the muscles throughout his body and allow that small hand to pass over him, neither too lightly nor too heavily.
Until his body grew hot and, little by little, began to react.
Shi Shuchen’s gaze trembled, turbulent darkness surging through his ink-black eyes.
When Yuan Shu released his lips and drew back slightly, he took the initiative and kissed her.
Yuan Shu froze for an instant when Shi Shuchen covered her lips. In the next moment, he began to imitate what she had done, entangling himself with her.
A moment later, Shi Shuchen’s lips moved to the side of her ear. From there, they traced the skin down to her elegant neck, then to her collarbone, and then…
Yuan Shu hurriedly raised a hand to stop him. Shi Shuchen lifted his eyes in confusion. Threads of red had appeared in his dark eyes.
He stared at her with unmistakable desire.
Yuan Shu’s brows drew together almost imperceptibly.
Her original intention had been to use the power of the Acacia Divine Tree to attract the formation spirit’s attention and locate it.
But she did not know whether too many people had entered the forbidden grounds, or whether there was Acacia power somewhere else as well. Even now, with everything on the verge of happening, the formation spirit remained completely unresponsive.
If this continued, she was going to devour him.
“Peak Master Shi, are you all right?” Yuan Shu asked with an awkward smile, searching for something to say.
The red in Shi Shuchen’s eyes paused. Seeing the proper, composed expression that had returned to Yuan Shu’s face, he swallowed and lowered his lashes slightly.
Just as Yuan Shu thought he had managed to compose himself, Shi Shuchen suddenly raised his eyes to look at her. He reached down, abruptly lifted the hem of his robe, and guided Yuan Shu’s gaze downward.
“Miss Yuan, looking at me like this, would you say I’m all right?”
Yuan Shu saw it.
With his naturally alluring physique, combined with the power of the Acacia Divine Tree that she had stirred, even if Shi Shuchen had initially felt only the faintest stirrings of desire, he had been influenced by her afterward, becoming increasingly uninhibited.
Now, his heated eyes were fixed straight on her, silently voicing their accusation.
When she remained silent for a long while, Shi Shuchen pressed his lips together and reached down to straighten the front and hem of his robes.
“Miss Yuan, are you… playing with me?”
She had clearly been the one to kiss him first under the pretense of detoxifying him.
She had even pulled loose his belt and touched him all over!
Yet now she was unilaterally refusing his advances.
That day, Yuan Shu and Yao Qianci had not been like this. They had clung to each other, and Yuan Shu had never rejected his approach!
Shi Shuchen’s heart had gone from burning hot to gradually sinking into stillness, the disappointment plain on his face.
He looked like… an innocent young man who had just been abandoned.
The thought amused Yuan Shu. She curved her lips and suddenly shifted forward, moving closer to Shi Shuchen.
“Peak Master Shi, then what… do you want to do?”
