"Monster King..." Yang Kai called out weakly, his fist hammering the ground with dull thuds.
Things weren't looking good. In his prime, he wouldn't have feared a demon woman like Zhu Qing, but right now he'd just fought a massive battle and was utterly spent. Being alone with her offered absolutely no sense of security.
Better to call Ying Fei over for protection — that would be the safer play.
"What are you shouting for? He won't find this place anytime soon." Zhu Qing watched Yang Kai's half-dead state with considerable delight, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. She squatted down in front of his head, bending her knees to pin down her skirt hem and prevent any embarrassing exposure, then rested her chin on her hand and studied him with great interest.
Yang Kai regarded her like a formidable enemy, staring warily. "Then how did you find me so quickly?"
"Dragon Qi, obviously. I'm of the Dragon Clan — once I sensed your dragon aura, finding you was easy!" Zhu Qing reached out and poked the dragon scales on Yang Kai's chest.
"Hssss..." Yang Kai sucked in a sharp breath, his face contorting in pain. There was already a wound deep enough to expose bone in that spot, and Zhu Qing's poke, carelessly heavy, nearly made him jump up in agony.
"Oh dear, I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" Zhu Qing covered her red lips with one hand, gazing at Yang Kai with an expression of shame, like a child who'd done something wrong. But the cunning glint at the corners of her eyes made it perfectly clear she knew exactly what she was doing.
"A trivial scratch — hardly worth mentioning!" Yang Kai let out a proud, cold snort. It hurts, but I won't show it. Weakness in body is one thing; weakness in spirit is another entirely.
"Is that so!" Zhu Qing smiled with ill intent, delicately extending one slender finger toward the wound on Yang Kai's shoulder.
"What are you doing?!" Yang Kai seethed inwardly, thinking that if he had any strength left, he'd give her a spanking she'd never forget.
Zhu Qing smiled without answering, simply continuing to poke at the wound — poke, poke, poke, poke, poke...
She even asked with feigned concern, "Does it hurt? Such a big wound — it must hurt terribly, right?"
Yang Kai's expression grew wonderfully varied, but he clenched his teeth and said not a word, secretly vowing that if he survived this without being killed by her, he would repay her a hundredfold someday.
"Does it hurt?" Zhu Qing asked again, her face full of concern while her hand grew bolder — a finger actually slid into the wound, twisting back and forth.
A single tear traced down the corner of Yang Kai's eye. He couldn't help but feel the sorrow of a dragon trapped in shallow waters bullied by shrimp, a tiger fallen to the plains tormented by dogs.
Suddenly, Yang Kai turned his head and stared intently between Zhu Qing's legs. "Little lady, your underwear is showing."
Zhu Qing froze and quickly looked down.
In that instant, Yang Kai surged the Origin Essence of the Golden Sacred Dragon. Golden light blazed forth, enveloping both him and Zhu Qing in its radiance.
Zhu Qing let out an involuntary muffled groan, as if struck by some tremendous impact. Her face paled slightly.
Yang Kai reached out with one long arm and seized her by the neck, dragging her forcefully downward. Zhu Qing was pulled to her knees before Yang Kai, utterly unable to resist.
Their skulls collided with a resounding crack.
Yang Kai felt a wave of dizziness crash over him, nearly losing consciousness, but still managed to catch her soft lips with his own, biting down, then deployed a wandering dragon emerging from its cave to pry past her pearly teeth, freely savoring that sweet taste.
"Mm—" Zhu Qing muffled against his lips, her eyes flying wide open.
Though this wasn't their first time, she still couldn't handle such intimate contact. Inside her mouth, it was as if an indestructible lance swept left and right, radiating some miraculous force that bombarded her very soul. Her entire body was instantly suffused with a tingling, numbing sensation — power that rivaled a third-stage Emperor Realm cultivator's could not be gathered at all. Gradually, her body felt as though it were on fire, burning with a restless, scorching heat.
In this plaza strewn with corpses, blood, and viscera, the two of them seemed frozen in place, as if the very flow of time had stopped.
The golden light gradually faded, and the Origin Essence of the Golden Sacred Dragon slowly withdrew.
Without the suppression of the Origin Essence of the Golden Sacred Dragon, Zhu Qing finally wrenched her head free of Yang Kai's reckless advance. Her beautiful eyes blazed with fury, like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Her chest heaved violently as she snarled through clenched teeth, "You... insolent wretch!"
A mere human had taken liberties with her time and again — it was enough to make her lungs explode with rage.
"Heh heh heh heh..." Yang Kai lay sprawled on the ground in the shape of the character for "big," looking absolutely wretched, yet cackling without shame like the thick-skinned rogue he was. "Go ahead and do it! To die beneath a peony is to be a gallant ghost even in the afterlife. Kill me, and you'll be a widow!"
As if Zhu Qing were already his woman.
Zhu Qing's face turned deathly cold, cold enough to scrape frost from. Her pearly teeth clenched, she raised one delicate fist and hammered it straight into Yang Kai's face.
"You... absolute bastard!" Yang Kai cursed, his vision going black as he passed out completely.
...
Dizzy, his head splitting, his entire body weak and powerless — it felt as if he'd been transported back to the days when he'd been small and frail. It had been so long since he'd felt this way.
His consciousness drifted in and out. Faint, familiar voices reached his ears, and through his hazy vision, familiar faces appeared one after another. He tried to focus but couldn't make any of them out clearly. He reached for them, but they scattered like moonlight reflected on water and flowers in a well.
Then, in a sudden moment, Yang Kai's eyes snapped open. His clouded mind cleared in an instant.
"Young Master Yang!"
"Yang Kai!"
"Sect Master!"
Calls rang out from every direction. Yang Kai looked and saw Ying Fei at the fore, with Ye Hen, Ye Jinghan, Chi Yue, and the others all gathered nearby. Every pair of eyes brimmed with concern. Seeing him finally awake, they all wore expressions of visible relief.