Shen Nanyin had cultivated for a hundred years, and never once had he carried a memory that cut to the bone.
His master always said he was the type most suited to cultivation—outwardly mild and easy to get along with, yet never truly close to anyone.
Over the years, aside from his master, even his relationship with Yu Buran, his own direct junior brother, had grown ever more distant.
Yu Buran often said he was sanctimonious, hypocritical and repulsive—that was part of why.
That night with Cheng Xueyi, everything that happened in the dark, the tormenting pleasure he could never quite reach, her sweet laughter brimming with amusement, and the reckless abandon so utterly at odds with that laughter—it was the one experience in his entire life he could not forget.
So many days later, and it was still fresh in his memory.
He wasn’t in the habit of deliberately ignoring things—that would make it look like he was “afraid.” He often forced himself to recall it deliberately; the more he thought about it, the more even the most unforgettable things would grow ordinary. There would surely come a day when it faded.
In a sea of blood thick with demonic energy, one kiss undid all of Shen Nanyin’s desensitization efforts.
Water was supposed to muffle sound, but he seemed to hear that soul-shaking bell again.
That night, aside from her hands, he had not been able to touch any other part of Cheng Xueyi’s body.
She had remained fully dressed the whole time, laughing and talking with ease, which only made him look more disgraceful by comparison—breath ragged, body betraying him.
Peach Blossom Intoxication was potent, but Shen Nanyin truly wasn’t afraid of it.
He was a high-level cultivator, a talent not seen once in a thousand years, the next Sect Master everyone in Qiantian Sect knew was coming.
A little dose of Peach Blossom Intoxication—so what if he was struck by it. Perhaps it would leave him dazed and unconscious for an instant, but it wouldn’t truly overpower him to the point of being toyed with and played at someone’s mercy.
Besides, at the back of his mind he’d still been thinking about the demon-capturing mission.
Why things had ended up the way they did—he’d turned it over tens of thousands of times, and the answer no longer meant anything.
At the very least, this time, it could not happen again.
Shen Nanyin abruptly shoved Cheng Xueyi away, and the Red Dust sword’s light swept both of them up from the water below.
By the time Cheng Xueyi came back to her senses, she was already lying soaked on the deck.
“Move aside.”
It was Fu Jinghua speaking. Cheng Xueyi, her face streaked with water, raised her eyes and saw her chase her brother off, hurrying to her side instead, murmuring a spell under her breath—the dampness covering Xueyi began to fade away.
Cheng Xueyi studied this Saintess, so beloved by all, then looked over at Fu Xiaoran, brows drawn tight as he watched over his sister’s safety. Her gaze fell on him now and then, and as the dampness on her own clothes gradually dried, it lingered, bit by bit, on his face.
Damp strands of hair clung to her pale cheeks; her clear, bright eyes swept past Fu Jinghua’s face and landed, almost absently, in Fu Xiaoran’s direction. Fu Xiaoran paused slightly, realizing it was rude to stare at her drenched form, and quickly looked away.
In truth, none of this weighed on Cheng Xueyi’s mind at all.
She’d grown up in Heart-Devouring Valley; just staying alive was already an achievement. She had no energy to spare worrying about whether she’d been shown proper respect.
She really had been distracted for a moment—watching the Fu siblings together had made her think of Yu Fuguang.
He absolutely could not let anything happen to him.
He was the only family she had left in this world.
Cheng Xueyi slowly climbed up, bracing herself on her arm to stand steady, and said quietly, “Thank you, Saintess.” Black Lotus Novel Chapters | BlackLotusNovel
She was utterly spent, her spiritual sea in turmoil—never mind using a spell to dry herself off, even standing steady took considerable effort.
She needed to leave this place soon.
In the distance, several flashes of spiritual light appeared—people from Yujing Shenzong had tracked their way here.
Shen Nanyin had already taken to his sword to meet with them, to learn the full story behind the water sprite’s descent into demonhood.
They would need to deal with the trouble here before they could leave.
Cheng Xueyi glanced indifferently at her busy Eldest Senior Brother. He stood in profile toward her, speaking with a Yujing disciple in fine silk robes holding an ornate fan—someone who, even if not the Sect Master himself, was at least a Vice Sect Master of secondary rank.
Even standing beside someone like that, the man seemed to lose his color by comparison.
Cheng Xueyi noticed a line of red on Shen Nanyin’s lips, especially visible when he spoke. He himself seemed unaware of it—after all, that small wound barely registered as pain, and with his mind elsewhere, he had no attention to spare for something so trivial.
Cheng Xueyi quietly licked her lips.
She was the one who’d bitten him.
The suffocating pressure underwater had been too much; that kiss of hers had been less a kiss than a pure theft of breath.
Her sharp teeth had bitten down hard on his soft lips, forcing him to surrender all his air to her.
And it was that very bite that had snapped the stunned eyes in the bloody water back to clarity—Daoist Lord True Martial and Bright Splendor had shoved her away with sudden force.
After they’d reached shore, whatever had happened to her there, he stubbornly refused to so much as glance at.
…The road to taming him was long and arduous.
Cheng Xueyi decisively took her leave of Fu Jinghua. “It’s getting late, and the flying boat probably won’t be going anywhere for a while. I still have a mission to complete, and there’s nothing I can help with here—I won’t stay and be a burden. I’ll go tend to my task.”
“Thank you, Saintess, for letting me ride along this stretch of the way.”
She stood at the stern of the boat. Once the people from Yujing Shenzong had arrived, they’d already set up a spirit-bridge, letting the Desireless Heavenly Palace disciples on board move elsewhere to settle.
Fu Jinghua looked somewhat worried. “This place isn’t safe. It doesn’t seem wise for you to leave alone like this. Why not wait a while longer?”
“With Eldest Senior Brother and the various Daoist Lords of Yujing Shenzong here, the water sprite certainly won’t escape this time. I’ll be fine—the Saintess needn’t worry.”
Cheng Xueyi’s mind was made up; the moment she finished speaking she stepped onto the spirit-bridge. Unable to keep her, Fu Jinghua simply pulled Fu Xiaoran over instead.
“Brother, go see that junior sister off—make sure she gets back to Water Cloud Expanse before you come back.”
Fu Xiaoran refused. “There’s no way I’m leaving you alone in a place this dangerous.”
Fu Jinghua pointed at Shen Nanyin. “Isn’t Daoist Lord True Martial right here?”
“But—”
Fu Xiaoran wanted to say that no matter how formidable Shen Nanyin was, he still wasn’t her own brother.
He carried a great deal in his heart, but at least for now, Jinghua wasn’t the first priority in it.
Yet thinking of Jinghua’s future, he found himself considering that this might be a good chance to build some rapport.
Weighing it all, Fu Xiaoran gritted his teeth and said, “Then you must stay close to him—don’t leave his side for a moment. This matter with the demonic race is no small thing. You absolutely cannot be careless.”
“Understood. Go on, hurry. I’ll go find Senior Brother Shen now.”
With that, Fu Jinghua lifted her skirts and walked off. Only once Fu Xiaoran confirmed she’d reached Shen Nanyin’s side did he set off after Cheng Xueyi.
Xueyi’s cultivation was low; she wouldn’t get far in a short time. Fu Xiaoran moved quickly and was certain he could catch up to her.
Fu Jinghua watched her brother’s retreating figure for a moment, a little wistfully, when she suddenly heard Ye Ruobing of Yujing Shenzong calling out to Shen Nanyin nearby.
“Nanyin?”
“Shen Nanyin? Are you listening?”
Fu Jinghua startled, glancing at Shen Nanyin in surprise—first she saw his eyes, misted with something like fog in the night air, and then the blood staining his lips.
“I’m listening,” Shen Nanyin answered. “As Senior Brother said, the water sprite showed no sign of demonic corruption at first. It fled to this location, and only turned demonic after drawing close to the flying boat.”
Ye Ruobing said, “Exactly so. You didn’t say anything for a moment there—I thought you’d zoned out, and it startled me. I’ve known you this long, and I’ve never once seen you lose focus.”
Fu Jinghua said nothing, but she was thinking the same thing as Ye Ruobing.
Shen Nanyin, losing focus while talking to someone? Impossible.
“Has it been determined why the water sprite turned against us?” Shen Nanyin asked, steering things back to business, and with that no one brought up the matter of whether he’d been distracted again.
Ye Ruobing answered seriously, “The people down there say the town was suffering a drought. A few Daoists showed up claiming they could call down rain, performed some kind of formation ritual, and it drew the water sprite here to bring down heavy rain. It was fine at first, but the rain kept getting heavier and heavier without stopping, until it caused a flood.”
“And those Daoists?”
“Nowhere to be found.”
Hearing this, Fu Jinghua frowned. “If we could find their clothing or ritual implements, I might be able to track their location.”
Ye Ruobing scratched his head. “We’d better search properly then, see if they left any traces behind.”
“But I suspect they were probably just wandering cultivators from who-knows-where, doing it for coin to help the common people pray for rain. I checked their rain-summoning formation myself—there was nothing wrong with it. Why the rain kept falling without end, and why the water sprite turned demonic here of all places, is the urgent matter we need to figure out.” B L A C K L O T U S Novel Archive | BlackLotusNovel
Shen Nanyin didn’t say yes or no, only stepped off the flying boat first, going to capture the water sprite that had retreated earlier because of the Red Dust sword.
Ye Ruobing, meanwhile, took people to investigate what might be unusual in the area now that the floodwaters had receded, and what could have caused the water sprite’s corruption.
Fu Jinghua hesitated a moment, then, following her brother’s instructions, caught up with Shen Nanyin.
Shen Nanyin noticed her following and gradually slowed his pace.
Once Fu Jinghua caught up, it was hard not to keep noticing his blood-stained lips.
“Senior Brother Shen, are you injured?”
Fu Jinghua couldn’t hold back the question.
Shen Nanyin’s footsteps stopped short. He raised a hand abruptly and covered his lips.
The bite was light—if he wasn’t paying close attention, he couldn’t feel any pain from it at all.
Shen Nanyin recalled the sight of Cheng Xueyi walking away alone, with Fu Xiaoran going to see her off; at the very least, her safety wouldn’t be an issue.
Wiping the blood from his lips, Shen Nanyin heard Fu Jinghua ask, “How did Senior Brother get hurt there?”
She truly didn’t understand—her tone was full of confusion.
Shen Nanyin drew his sword, and the sword-qi of Red Dust startled Fu Jinghua into a step backward.
She raised her sleeve to shield her eyes, and heard Shen Nanyin’s flat reply carry to her ears.
“Bit through it myself.”
Oh, I see.
Fu Jinghua nodded, as if that made sense.
Must have accidentally bitten his own lip while fighting—that would explain it.
Shen Nanyin: “…The Saintess needn’t follow me.”
He left behind a barrier, sheltering Fu Jinghua within it.
“This is my life-bound barrier. Stay inside it and nothing will happen to you,” he explained. “Coming with me to subdue the demon would only put you in more danger.”
Fu Jinghua looked at the shimmering barrier surrounding her, wanting to say something, but held back.
Shen Nanyin gave a slight nod, and took to his sword and left before she could summon the courage to object.
This was the attitude and manner he’d always shown his junior sisters.
Never once had he been one to let urgent matters wait while he stopped to check on some trivial injury of theirs.
What happened with Cheng Xueyi had been a mistake—the first, and the last.
He would never make it again.
