"Brother Ying!!!"
Wu Guanyue jolted in fright and darted forward to catch Wenren Ying.
Wenren Ying was clearly tormented beyond recognition. The moment Wu Guanyue's hands made contact with him, it felt as if she had touched a red-hot branding iron, the searing heat making her tremble uncontrollably all over... right after that, that scalding, heated aura wrapped around her overwhelmingly.
Even the sharp scent of blood had been steamed away into some strange, thrumming tension. Every inch of Wenren Ying's body seemed to be convulsing, the muscles of his upper arms bulging in gnarled, knotted ridges, thick blue veins popping out and pounding wildly under the skin.
This was obviously very wrong!
Even Wu Guanyue, a girl who had zero experience with any kind of intimate contact, could tell perfectly well that Wenren Ying was in a deeply abnormal state right now.
And what's more—the system had already alerted her!
[Reach 10 hearts of affection with any friend to unlock the [R-18 Play Content]!]
[R-18 Play Content has been unlocked—come claim your mysterious gift pack!]
[Mysterious Gift Pack has been opened—congratulations on obtaining the one-time skill card [The Room You Can't Leave Unless You OOXX]!]
[The Room You Can't Leave Unless You OOXX: Old, overused tropes never go out of style for a reason. Who wouldn't want to get all hot and flustered over a plot beat like this?]
...Who on earth wants to get all hot and flustered over a plot like this!
Wu Guanyue was absolutely stunned—this game! How could it act so unseemly at such a critical, dangerous moment!
Right at that second, the face of the Young Master of Wiles twisted into a hideously vicious grin.
Vicious, yes, that was exactly the right word.
—That slap to the face Wenren Ying had dealt him, now he had the perfect chance to pay that debt back!
He was the kind of person who never forgot a grudge. Wenren Ying had slapped him once, so he'd gone to fetch the evil cultivators from the Joyous Union Sect of the Red Dust Valley to deal with him, determined to reduce Wenren Ying to a living death, a meat slave for the Joyous Union Sect that would never see redemption. But even that hadn't dulled the burning resentment in his chest, because he hadn't gotten to see Wenren Ying's miserable state with his own two eyes.
Now it turned out perfectly. Wenren Ying had escaped the clutches of those Joyous Union Sect evil cultivators, but he'd been drained of every last bit of his strength, completely incapable of putting up any resistance at all—at a time like this, wasn't Wenren Ying entirely at his mercy, to be squashed or kneaded into whatever shape he pleased?
What a delight! He never expected the heavens to be so kind to him, the Young Master of Wiles!
He'd completely forgotten that his original goal was to refine Wu Guanyue into a tool, and Wenren Ying was nothing more than someone who had slapped him once... Or perhaps, people like the Young Master of Wiles had long been used to the mindset that only they were allowed to kill and bully others, and no one else was ever allowed to lay a hand on them.
The Young Master of Wiles drawled leisurely, "If it isn't Brother Wenren? What, the two senior sisters from the Joyous Union Sect couldn't satisfy you?"
Wenren Ying snapped his head up, staring daggers at this arrogant, petty little man. His jaw was clamped so tight he couldn't get a single word out, and besides, he had no interest in spouting useless lines like "so it was all you along".
Anyone who walked the martial arts world knew that life and death turned on a hair's breadth, and people used every trick in the book. At a moment like this, yelling about how shameless the Young Master of Wiles was wouldn't do a single bit of good.
But... Wenren Ying had never been the kind of person who would accept defeat gracefully.
That simply wasn't his personality. He would never give up until the very last possible second—especially not when Little Yue was right by his side. He would never allow the Young Master of Wiles to harm her.
Wenren Ying suddenly let out a sharp, mocking snort.
His voice was hoarse, mixed with ragged, unstable gasps that betrayed just how wretched his current state was, but his tone was so sharp, so full of unmasked disdain.
"Who do I think this is? It's you, a scrawny little bottom, going to all this trouble to drug me. Did you really think I had any interest in messing around with catamites?"
The Young Master of Wiles' fury surged straight to his head in an instant, his face twisting into a ferocious, cruel scowl as he snarled, "What did you say?!"
The Young Master of Wiles was naturally fair and pretty, with red lips and white teeth, a pair of peach blossom eyes that looked soft and affectionate. A man like that was a natural at seducing women, and it was normal for other men to be jealous of him. Back in the days when Donghua City was still standing, he'd been insulted with slurs like that more times than he could count—and now that he made his living seducing women, he still got called those names all the time.
But Wenren Ying wasn't done provoking him, digging deeper into his raw nerves. "You're so desperate for a man's attention, why don't you dress yourself up all nice and go find yourself a patron at the South Wind Gentlemen's Pavilion?"
His words got more and more vicious, more and more scathing, so sharp he could practically poison himself just by licking his lips. Those eyes that were usually deep and gentle now blazed with a sharp, dangerous light, a look that was more than enough to push the Young Master of Wiles over the edge.
The Young Master of Wiles lunged forward in a rage, snarling, "If I let you die a quick, comfortable death, I'll write my name Young Master of Wiles backwards from this day on!"
Wenren Ying leaned against Wu Guanyue, barely propping his own body up. He was tall and broad-shouldered, radiating a heavy, imposing presence. Even in his terrible state, the Young Master of Wiles standing in front of him looked like a tiny, helpless chick next to him.
Wenren Ying looked right at him, and said each word slow and clear, "Why don't you just change your name to Little Courtesan?"
The Young Master of Wiles roared and lunged straight for him!
At the exact same moment, a cold, glinting dagger flew out of nowhere from behind him—heading straight for the center of his back!
It was the dagger Wenren Ying had been controlling this whole time!
Wenren Ying had roamed all over the Nine Provinces even with his shattered spiritual mansion, and he was incredibly skilled. He was never the type to think in straight, rigid lines—his mind was sharp and flexible, capable of using every single factor around him to seize victory.
It was common knowledge that cultivators could use their spiritual energy to fly with their swords, but ever since Wenren Ying's spiritual mansion was shattered, he couldn't do that anymore. Every time he breathed, the flow of his spiritual energy would stutter, unable to move smoothly and continuously. If he tried to fly with a sword in that state, he'd just fall straight out of the sky.
But not being able to fly on a sword didn't mean he couldn't control a flying weapon. His precision over his spiritual energy was so fine that he could make the dagger slide slowly out of his sleeve, hide it completely with a Hidden Return Talisman, circle all the way around behind the Young Master of Wiles, wait until he'd goaded the man into a furious frenzy, and only then strike.
But who could have guessed that the Young Master of Wiles had been on guard this whole time! He'd already seen Wu Guanyue use this exact trick earlier!
The Young Master of Wiles roared, twisting his body mid-leap. His hands moved in a quick, fluid flourish, and before anyone knew it, he'd snatched the sharp steel dagger right out of the air. Then he let out a sharp, piercing whistle, and hurled the dagger he was holding straight at Wu Guanyue!
"Little Yue, look out!"
Wenren Ying shoved Wu Guanyue out of the way hard. A dull, pained groan escaped him as the dagger buried itself in his shoulder, making his already dire, injured state even worse.
Wu Guanyue paled in horror, rushing over to try to hold him up, but Wenren Ying snapped at her in a sharp, urgent voice, "Run!"
He held his long sword horizontally in front of his body, stepping to stand right in front of Wu Guanyue, blocking the Young Master of Wiles' path. At that moment, he'd clearly made up his mind—no matter what, he would buy Little Yue enough time to escape.
But how could Wu Guanyue ever run away and leave him behind?
There was no way she could bring herself to abandon Wenren Ying and flee alone at this very moment — what was more, her real body was far away in another world, so she could not die. She simply could not die.
Even if the price of losing her in-game life was that she would never be able to log into the game again, never be able to make her legs truly recover, and spend all the rest of her days as a paralyzed patient lying in a hospital bed, cut off from the rest of the world — that would still be more than worth it.
She had been a paralyzed patient all this time, and she was already used to that kind of life!
Wu Guanyue stepped forward and called out loudly, "I'm not leaving!"
Miaojunlang had already started fighting with Wenren Ying!
This time, the tables had well and truly turned. Wenren Ying had been poisoned with Hehuan San, an aphrodisiac that sapped his strength, and he could barely even hold his sword steady at this point. How could he possibly be a match for Miaojunlang? He could only barely block Miaojunlang's attacks, and he would not be able to hold on for much longer.
He knew just how much Little Yue cared for him, and he knew that she was a pure-hearted girl who probably truly believed in vows like "living and dying together". But — but he had already lived a long life, while Little Yue was still so young. She was never supposed to die here, not like this.
Wenren Ying shouted sharply, "Hurry up and find Bai Yunsheng to help!"
Miaojunlang cackled loudly, "Oh my, what a pair of ill-fated lovebirds! You still won't be split apart even at a time like this... Wu Guanyue, he's telling you to go find Bai Yunsheng, but that's just a trick to get you to run away. Are you going to leave? Are you going to abandon your lover and live on in cowardice?"
Wenren Ying's face twisted in an instant, "Shut up!"
Miaojunlang summoned a surge of soul fire in his palm and slapped it straight toward Wenren Ying — he was going to get back all the humiliation he had suffered earlier!
And Wenren Ying was already too weak to dodge.
At this critical, life-or-death moment, the wind whistled, and a plate that Wu Guanyue had thrown came flying straight for Miaojunlang's face... If Miaojunlang did not want to get a face full of large intestine sashimi again, of course he had to dodge it.
That single moment of pause was all Wenren Ying needed to stagger backward out of harm's way.
Right then, a person stepped in front of him — and that person was none other than Wu Guanyue.
Wu Guanyue spoke in a calm, steady voice, "Miaojunlang, your target is me, isn't it? I'll stay here, so let Brother Ying go."
Wenren Ying exclaimed in shock, "Little Yue!"
Miaojunlang laughed heartily, "Little girl, are you kidding me? Now that both of you are in my grasp, do you really think you have any bargaining chips to negotiate with me? I could violate you first, then kill him, and finally refine you into a powerful artifact, and what could either of you possibly do to stop me?"
The unvarnished truth is often a sharp blade, and Miaojunlang's words were vicious, unbridled, and completely correct.
Wenren Ying's expression turned ferocious in an instant, his whole body tensed up with agony. This was his mistake. He had underestimated Miaojunlang, and that was what had landed Little Yue in such a desperate situation. If he had just killed Miaojunlang decisively the first time they met...
But if Wenren Ying was the kind of person who would kill others just based on suspicion, he would not be Wenren Ying.
It was precisely because he refused to kill innocent people arbitrarily that he had given Miaojunlang the chance to pull off this poisonous scheme, and landed both of them in this perilous situation. Wasn't this almost an inevitable outcome?
Miaojunlang's smug, triumphant look was more than enough to drive anyone mad.
Yet Wu Guanyue remained perfectly calm.
She looked at Miaojunlang calmly, and said thoughtfully, "So your real goal is to refine me after all."
Miaojunlang said leisurely, "So what if it is?"
At this point, there was no need for him to hide his intentions any longer.
Wu Guanyue nodded and said, "But if I do this, how are you going to refine me?"
With those words, she logged out of the game without hesitation.
Right in front of Miaojunlang and Wenren Ying, the twin-tailed young girl finished her sentence, and then her whole body suddenly collapsed —
Her eyes turned utterly vacant, all signs of life vanished from her body in an instant, and the soul fire aura that had been attached to her, protecting her, also disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
"Little Yue!"
Wenren Ying was horrified, and he lunged forward to catch her in his arms.
Wu Guanyue's body went limp in his embrace, she did not even have a breath left. Her eyes were still open, but they were completely hollow, like two pitch-black caves, brimming with ominousness and utter stillness...
But Miaojunlang was even more shocked, because he saw something unknown that no one else had noticed from Wu Guanyue's now-lifeless body —
"A Donghua Spirit Puppet?!"
Wenren Ying jerked his head up and snapped sharply, "What did you say?!"
Miaojunlang stared at Wu Guanyue's completely lifeless body in disbelief, and he seemed to have frozen entirely.
A Donghua Spirit Puppet was the most famous specialty of the old Donghua City. These puppets had fully simulated internal organs, looked incredibly lifelike, and when powered by spiritual energy, they were completely indistinguishable from real humans.
Wenren Ying was originally from Donghua City, but he had no connection to the Donghua Duan clan that made the spirit puppets, so it was only normal that he had not recognized what Wu Guanyue was for so long.
But Miaojunlang had been a member of the Donghua Duan clan three hundred years ago. He was the youngest, most unpromising son of the clan, who spent all his time lingering in pleasure houses and neglecting his duties, never even learning the proper skills to make or control spirit puppets.
But he had grown up surrounded by these puppets, after all. The sight of Wu Guanyue losing all her vitality in an instant was exactly the same as what he had seen when a spirit puppet had its spiritual energy drained back then, not the slightest difference!
Wu Guanyue, the granddaughter of old man Wu Guizhen, was not even a real human — she was just an incredibly lifelike Donghua Spirit Puppet!
Old Man Wu had poured three souls and seven spirits into this puppet, and used soul fire as its power source, letting it move and act freely — until it became the girl called Wu Guanyue.
What on earth was that old man planning to do?!
Of course... that was not the main point. The main point was — Wu Guanyue's three souls and seven spirits had just vanished, and the soul fire had vanished too. His soul fire! His soul fire!
Right at that very moment, Wu Guanyue logged back into the game.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Wenren Ying and Miaojunlang, both completely stunned and rooted to the spot.
Wu Guanyue smiled, two dimples appearing on her cheeks, and said to Miaojunlang in a perfectly calm voice, "Now do I have the capital to negotiate with you?"
