Yan Zhen had thought capturing Water Spiritual Rhymes would be a simple matter. After all, he could even use his Mental Tentacles to fish up fish from beneath the Ice Lake. But when he tried it in practice, he found it far from easy.
His Mental Tentacles simply couldn’t grasp the Water Spiritual Rhymes. They scattered the moment he tried, just like water slipping through bare hands.
Yan Zhen changed his approach. He reshaped his Mental Tentacles into spoons, trying to scoop and ladle them up. But the Water Spiritual Rhymes slid away like wet noodles, impossible to contain no matter what he did.
This stumped him completely. After fussing around for quite a while, he hadn’t managed to snag even a single one.
Yan Zhen opened his eyes and furrowed his brows.
From behind him, where she held him in her arms, the Yu Shizun spoke faintly.
“Spiritual Rhymes aren’t solid objects. You can’t capture them directly—you have to ‘absorb’ them.”
Absorb? Yan Zhen pondered for a moment, then closed his eyes again. He activated his Water Symbol, transforming his Mental Tentacles into Water Tendrils.
Sure enough, the Water Tendrils effortlessly captured the Water Spiritual Rhymes. When he drew them back, the rhymes were pulled straight into his Sea of Consciousness.
—It worked!
Excitement surging through him, Yan Zhen kept channeling the Water Tendrils to absorb more.
The pale blue tendrils resembled greedy snakes as they devoured the lingering Water Spiritual Rhymes inside the Tree Cave. In mere moments, they had “eaten” seven or eight of them.
He was just about to continue when a wave of dizziness hit him like a whirlwind. His Mental Tentacles dissolved on their own, and he toppled backward. His back landed heavily against two soft, yielding mounds.
“What’s going on? Everything’s spinning.”
Yu Shizun shifted Yan Zhen’s head to rest on her shoulder as she explained.
“Spiritual Rhymes are potent tonics. Absorbing too many at once is naturally more than you can handle.”
Ah… Yan Zhen possessed Extreme Flame, which made fire intent largely redundant for him. As such, the Beautiful Female Master had never taught him anything about it. He genuinely hadn’t known that overdosing on the Spiritual Rhymes that formed intent could leave him this woozy.
“Rest for now. You can’t rush cultivation.”
As she spoke, the Yu Shizun even reached out and stroked his head.
Yan Zhen’s cheeks flushed faintly. He couldn’t help thinking of the Beautiful Female Master, struck by the odd sensation that the Yu Shizun was deliberately mimicking her.
From what he remembered of the script, the Yu Shizun hadn’t been this intimate with him. She’d simply appreciated him as a junior of immense potential.
He wondered how she saw him now. A “highly promising but incorrigibly flirtatious junior,” perhaps? She didn’t seem to mind the flirtatious part, though.
In Yan Zhen’s eyes, the Yu Shizun’s temperament bore some resemblance to that of the Yu Family Head Mother-in-Law. Both were “cold,” yet in different ways.
The Yu Family Head Mother-in-Law’s chill kept strangers at arm’s length, while the Yu Shizun’s was the aloof detachment of one untouched by the mortal world.
So far, she was the most perfectly fairy-like beauty he had ever encountered.
The Beautiful Female Master didn’t suit labels like “fairy” or “celestial maiden.” She was more akin to Nüwa or the Queen Mother—beings of exalted status and godlike power.
Yun Xiu, by contrast, evoked a “Sword Immortal” or “Sword Princess,” the archetype of a righteous powerhouse walking the human path, not some fairy tumbled from the heavens.
Only the Yu Shizun matched his ideal of a fairy in every word, gesture, and glance. That image shattered only when she called herself “Shishi” in front of the Beautiful Female Master, reverting to a more ordinary cool beauty.
The peculiar thought flickered through Yan Zhen’s mind, but his dizziness soon chased away any deeper rumination.
“……”
Abruptly, the Yu Shizun sensed something. Her brows furrowed ever so slightly. Moments later, a pink head topped with a pair of dragon horns poked into view at the Tree Cave entrance. Long Ying’s emerald slit pupils stared intently inside before flying wide in shock.
“Yan Zhen Zhen?”
There he was, Yan Zhen Zhen, clutched tightly from behind by the Yu Shizun—looking for all the world like he’d been utterly drained dry.
—Oh no, big trouble!
Whoosh!
Before the Yu Shizun could silence her, Long Ying bolted, channeling Spatial Power to rocket straight out of the cave mansion. She nearly bowled over Mentor Yu Xuan and Cai Lian, who stood guard at the entrance.
“How did it go, Your Highness Long Ying?” Mentor Yu Xuan inquired. “Is the Supreme occupied?”
Long Ying was too flustered to form words at first. She flailed her hands for what felt like ages before blurting out:
“Yan Zhen Zhen got squeezed dry by the Yu Shizun!”
The other two women froze in stunned silence.
“What did you say, Long Ying?”
“How could the Supreme possibly do that to Yan Zhe—”
“It’s true! I saw it myself!” Long Ying clapped her hands over her flushed face. “Yu Shizun is so sneaky. She waited till everyone was gone, lured Yan Zhen Zhen into her cave mansion, and secretly drained him dry. Boo hoo~”
Long Ying’s heart ached with sorrow. Yan Zhen Zhen was her favorite, but she’d held back her own desires for him, never crossing any lines. Yet the Yu Shizun had thrown caution to the wind and dragged him off to her cave for a draining session. That just wasn’t right!
“Might there be a misunderstanding?” Mentor Yu Xuan said calmly. “The Supreme isn’t the type.”
“Right, you might have seen wrong, Long Ying,” Cai Lian added coolly. “The cave mansion’s sealed, though—we can’t check for ourselves what’s really happening inside. Long Ying, go back in and take another good look.”
Her two big sisters’ disbelief left Long Ying miffed, but she still did as Cai Lian asked. With a pout, she slipped back into the Yu Shizun’s cave mansion.
Inside the Tree Cave, Yan Zhen remained oblivious to Long Ying’s first visit. He was slowly recovering, only to realize he was drenched in sweat from head to toe. A closer look confirmed his clothes were thoroughly soaked.
What the heck? He was a fire attribute Mystic Cultivator—sweating like this wasn’t normal for him. Had he been influenced by those juicy, water-sweet mentors and his little aunt?
He was a grown man; the last thing he wanted was to end up with a soft, dewy constitution.
Realizing he was still cradled in the Yu Shizun’s arms made it all the more awkward. He spoke up.
“Yu Shizun, since we’re taking a break from cultivation… could you let go? I’m soaked in sweat—I’ll ruin your clothes.”
Yu Shizun released him and replied faintly.
“I’ve suppressed the Extreme Flame inside you, causing your water and fire energies to clash. That’s why you’re sweating. It’s laced with traces of mystic power, so it’s not unclean. If it’s bothering you, I can help remove your upper garment. It’ll keep you from getting distracted when we resume.”
Yan Zhen had been thinking the same thing. The sticky, sweat-soaked fabric was miserable. Without the Yu Shizun there, he’d have stripped down completely for cultivation.
Still lightheaded, he didn’t feel like doing it himself. He nodded.
“If it’s no trouble for you, Yu Shizun.”
She treated Yan Zhen like a child, unburdened by any qualms about physical intimacy between men and women. From behind, she undid his belt, then gently peeled his upper garment away, bunching it around his waist to bare his chiseled chest muscles.
Just then, the Yu Shizun sensed Long Ying intruding into her domain once more. Sure enough, the dragon girl soon peeked around from outside the Tree Cave, her sharp emerald eyes slyly peering in.
She caught sight of the Yu Shizun stripping Yan Zhen’s shirt—and her eyes bulged in horror all over again. With a whoosh, she fled even faster than before, as if racing off to rally reinforcements and rescue the hapless Yan Zhen Zhen.
Yu Shizun’s brows knitted faintly. Clearly, Long Ying had gotten the wrong idea. But given her own position, there was no need to bother explaining.
