"Ah! The formation!" the Pink Enchantress cried out in dismay.
"What?" The two maids were also baffled.
With the concealing formation dismantled, the true situation revealed itself to Leyvi. While the environment remained mostly the same, he now saw that the bewitching beauty had not been alone. Two other beautiful women stood several meters behind him, positioned apart from each other to block any escape.
From the very beginning, he and Ava had been surrounded in a triangle by these three women, yet the lead beauty had acted as if she were entirely alone. Even if he had listened to Ava and tried to run earlier, he would have likely been intercepted.
In the split second of realization, Leyvi cursed inwardly. These women are full of tricks! They had deliberately made him believe she was alone, goading him into either fleeing or attempting a rescue, only to be stopped by the hidden pair.
Fortunately, his own methods were also something they could not have anticipated. Despite the sudden appearance of the two additional women, Leyvi executed his plan without a moment's hesitation, capitalizing on their momentary confusion following the formation's collapse.
Cut!
Leyvi screamed the command in his mind.
Suddenly, the thread constricting Ava's neck snapped, severed by an invisible, razor-sharp pair of scissors Leyvi had conjured with his Spiritual Touch. This was why he had needed to buy a little time. He had never created such a precise shape before and required a brief moment of mental practice.
Removing the string was the absolute priority, and it had to be done both secretly and swiftly to prevent the bewitching beauty, or whoever controlled the thread, from using it as a threat again.
"My string!" one of the maids, Liyan, exclaimed in shock. She stared, bewildered, at the snapped end of her energy thread, utterly confused as to how it had been severed.
With the frozen ground now shattered by Leyvi's fiery stomp, and the intense heat radiating from his body rapidly melting the surrounding ice, Ava was finally freed from her immobilized state.
Once the three women fully grasped what was happening, Ava had already regained enough of her strength to run, and she did exactly as Leyvi had instructed. She obeyed his order without stubbornly trying to stay and fight. In her current weakened state, she knew she would only be a burden.
In the blink of an eye, Ava vanished into the darkness. All that remained was the broken ice that had fallen from her body.
Liyan reacted instantly, firing multiple new energy strings from her fingertips in an attempt to bind Ava. The five-fingered ring bracelet she wore glimmered, a spirit artifact clearly designed to amplify the power of her energy threads and likely the source of Ava's earlier weakness. Unfortunately for her, Ava was already gone, and the strings only snared a few harmless plants in the distance.
Leyvi did not flee immediately. He only retreated a few paces, ensuring he was no longer surrounded by the three women. He decided to stay behind for a little longer, to buy Ava more time to get away safely.
"Lily, Liyan, do not let this country bumpkin escape!" the Pink Enchantress commanded, her voice rising with cold fury. "I no longer wish for him to join our faction. I want him to suffer humiliation for the rest of his life! Nobody gets to call me ugly!" Her ethereal face, usually a mask of serene allure, was now visibly twisted with anger, a fact Leyvi did not miss.
I really made her angry, huh? he thought. Wait a minute. Lily? Liyan? Why do those names sound so familiar? Where have I heard them before?
The answer came to him in a flash.
What the heck! Aren't those the names Lilian gave to her... melons? Lili and Lian?
After reuniting with Lilian back then, she had introduced her "two melons" that she had named after surviving her life and death ordeal. She had recounted to him the sheer horror of losing them right before her eyes. At the time, he had been rendered completely speechless by the entire story. What was even more ridiculous was that she had then suggested he should also give a name to his own "holy rod."
She kept saying that you never truly know how precious something is until the moment you lose it. He agreed with the sentiment, but was naming such things really necessary? During their intimate nights together, Lilian would often ask him which one he liked more, her Lili or her Lian? It was night and day how much she appreciated her assets now compared to before.
"Lili and Lian, I like them both. Equally magnificent." Leyvi blurted his thoughts aloud without thinking.
"What?" The two maids, who had been poised to capture him, were utterly dumbfounded. Why is he suddenly confessing to both of us?
Leyvi's words only enraged the Pink Enchantress Rose further.
He called me ugly, but Lily and Liyan are magnificent? Unforgivable! I will capture you myself and turn you into my life-bound love slave!
The Life Bound Love Slave technique was the ultimate secret art of the Love Ecstasy Sect, taught only to its Holy Maidens. Once cast upon a man, it would transform him into a love slave who would perform any task his love master asked of him. The effect lasted as long as the slave lived, could never be cured, and was virtually undetectable by others.
Apart from this lifelong infatuation and absolute obedience, the spell did not affect the victim's other faculties. A cultivation genius would remain a genius and could still ascend to become a top-tier expert.
However, the technique could only be cast on a single person. Once used, it was permanent and could never be transferred. This irrevocable bond was precisely why it was named "life bound."
Even the current Moaning Kingdom's King was a life-bound love slave of a Holy Maiden from a few generations prior, and not even the Royal Family's ancestor, a Dao Manifestation Realm powerhouse, had ever detected the spell's influence. Since the Dao Manifestation Realm expert no longer interfered with royal politics, focusing solely on his cultivation, it effectively meant the entire Moaning Kingdom was under the covert control of the Love Ecstasy Sect. Over the generations, there had been many such victims. If the sect ever came under threat, countless powerful experts would emerge to aid it, all bound by this unseen devotion.
All of this was made possible by the heaven-defying power of the Life Bound Love Slave technique.
But now, driven by a rage that warped her judgment, the Pink Enchantress Rose was prepared to cast this ultimate spell on Leyvi simply so she could vent her anger upon him every single day.
Liyan shot multiple energy strings at Leyvi, but he easily incinerated them with a flare of his blazing Fiery Qi.
Next, Lily acted. Using Liyan's attack as a distraction, she threw several array disks to precise locations around Leyvi, finishing her preparations in seconds. Standing next to the primary control disk, she activated the formation.
Leyvi, who had just dispelled the last of the strings, was suddenly slammed flat against the ground by an immense, crushing pressure. It felt similar to being under a powerful Spiritual Pressure, with the key difference being that this force was generated by a formation.
Yet, Leyvi did not panic. Now that he knew it was a formation, the next step was straightforward.
"Break!" He slammed his fist into the ground, and the familiar, shattering crash echoed through the air once more.
Every single array disk simultaneously disassembled itself into multiple inert pieces in an instant. The overwhelming pressure vanished.
Leyvi immediately sprang back to his feet.
"How can this be? Liyan, did you see that? This is the second time he has disabled my formation! And I am certain he did not use any kind of spirit artifact this time! How is this possible?" Lily exclaimed in frustration. "Country bumpkin! What method are you using?"
"I saw it too," Liyan confirmed, her eyes narrowed in scrutiny. "He did not use any tool. Could he possess some kind of Unique Heavenly Body?"
Leyvi chuckled inwardly.
Another Unique Heavenly Body? How many of those am I supposed to have by now?
By this point, Leyvi had realized that these women were not overwhelmingly strong in direct combat, as long as he could see through and counter their various tricks. However, he understood that their methods were not easy to overcome. Without his Formation Dismantler benefit and his Spiritual Touch, freeing Ava without injury would have been impossible.
He felt it was about time to leave. Ava should have gotten far enough away by now. Since these women had not made any lethal attempts on his life, he decided he would let them go as well.
At that moment, a melodious song drifted into the air from his side. He turned his head and saw the bewitching beauty, the Pink Enchantress Rose, playing a violin and singing along to its haunting melody.
The music felt like a living entity. Each note flowed seamlessly into the next, soft yet penetrating, as though it were brushing directly against the soul rather than merely reaching the ears. The violin wept and whispered in equal measure, its sound carrying an intoxicating warmth laced with deep, unspoken yearning. Her voice, delicate and alluring, rose and fell in perfect harmony with the strings. It was neither loud nor forceful, yet it wrapped completely around Leyvi's senses.
It was the kind of song that made the world slow down, that blurred the line between reason and impulse, beautiful enough to make any resistance feel utterly pointless.
The sight was breathtaking, and the heavenly melody completely captured his attention.