Chi Yun's head snapped to the side from the force of the slap. He was completely stunned by the sudden turn of events, frozen in place.
His mind went blank.
A few seconds later, a fiery sting spread across his cheek, and rage began to burn fiercely in his chest.
Chi Yun clutched his face, his voice sharp with disbelief as he demanded, "You hit me?!"
'Jiang Qingli hit me! She actually dared to hit me?! What gave her the right?!'
"So what if I did?"
Jiang Qingli sneered, stepped forward without a hint of fear, and raised her hand to slap him again, this time on the other cheek.
This time, she used all her strength.
Chi Yun grabbed her by the shoulders, his dark red eyes burning with flames. "Jiang Qingli! Are you insane? I was worried about your injury! Why do you have to repay kindness with hatred!"
"And didn't I get injured because you pushed me?" Jiang Qingli said coolly. "You didn't come looking for me because you were concerned. You came to ease your own guilt with some small act of charity."
Her words were like a needle, stabbing straight into Chi Yun's heart.
His eyes widened, and the hands gripping Jiang Qingli's shoulders trembled.
He wanted to argue, but he couldn't find the words.
When Jiang Qingli had fallen earlier and been targeted by the Vermilion Bird, Chi Yun's heart had indeed skipped a beat. An image from a match six months ago had flashed through his mind.
His opponent that day had been vicious. He'd been knocked down, and Jiang Qingli had rushed into the arena, demanding they stop the match, only to be thrown to the ground by a blast of energy.
The memory of her slender form, superimposed on the present, made his chest feel heavy.
While Bai Yiyi was being examined, Chi Yun had grabbed the ointment and followed Jiang Qingli.
'Jiang Qingli is just a pathetic bootlicker,' he had thought.
In the past, no matter how much he cursed her or how much he hated her, she'd come running at the crook of his finger. If he gave her some medicine, she'd surely be ecstatic and forget all her wounds, just like always.
But he never expected Jiang Qingli to actually lay a hand on him.
The strength of females and males was unequal. Jiang Qingli's slap was only a slight sting, but the burning pain on his face was real, and his heart felt like it was being squeezed by a giant hand, aching horribly.
Chi Yun suddenly grew desperate and tried to explain, "I didn't know it was you…"
Jiang Qingli didn't say a word. As the traffic light behind her turned red, she raised a hand and shoved Chi Yun.
Caught off guard, Chi Yun stumbled backward. He barely missed a hovercraft that was just starting to move, his arm clipping it as he fell to the ground.
The blare of a horn and the driver's curses filled the air, but Chi Yun heard none of it.
"JIANG! QING! LI!"
Chi Yun's gaze lingered on her ankle for a few seconds before he snapped his head up to glare at her, his teeth clenched. "Are you trying to kill me?!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't do it on purpose…" Jiang Qingli stood by the side of the road and bent down, a supposedly guilty expression on her face. She tossed the ointment into Chi Yun's lap. "This ointment is for you, as compensation."
She was throwing his own words and actions right back at him.
Chi Yun's expression had become impossibly dark.
Jiang Qingli looked down at him, her crimson lips hooking into a slight smile. A few seconds later, she turned and walked away.
The wind caught the hem of Jiang Qingli's dress, making it ripple like a beautiful wave.
She didn't look back.
A sharp pain pricked her palm, right where she'd been injured when she fell.
Chi Yun stared at his own palm, but his mind flashed back to what he had glimpsed while he was on the ground: the bite marks and love bites on Jiang Qingli's snow-white ankle.
They were left by a male.
A very possessive male, at that.
It dawned on Chi Yun.
'So that's why she's treating me like this! She's found a new target!'
Logically, this should be a good thing.
Just a few days ago, he'd been thinking about introducing her to someone else just to stop her from pestering him.
But now that Jiang Qingli had actually found another male, Chi Yun was filled with an overwhelming sense of irritation!
-
Jiang Qingli rubbed her hand, which was sore from the slap, as she followed a map toward the meeting place.
The location wasn't remote; it was a private club the Jiang Family had gifted to Jiang Qingli.
On the way, Jiang Qingli kept feeling like someone was watching her.
But whenever she turned her head, she only saw people hurrying on their way, no suspicious figures anywhere.
Jiang Qingli frowned and quickened her pace, entering the club.
The moment she opened the door to the top-floor private suite, a cold, damp, and slick snake's tail shot out, coiled around her calf, and yanked her forcefully inside.
Her vision swam for a moment, and by the time she came to her senses, Jiang Qingli was already pinned to the plush wool carpet.
Ye Linyuan was panting heavily, his serpentine tail coiled around Jiang Qingli's waist and legs as one of his hands slipped under the hem of her clothes.
But as his chin drew near Jiang Qingli's neck, he froze.
From Jiang Qingli's point of view, Ye Linyuan's expression was terrifyingly grim.
He sat up, his brow furrowed deeply. His slit pupils were filled with profound disgust and killing intent.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Qingli was wary of this unpredictable element. "You don't seem right."
Ye Linyuan shot her a cold glance, his voice chilling. "Have you forgotten? I'm still in my estrus period."
After reaching maturity, Beastmen enter estrus periods that vary depending on their animal genes.
The estrus period is incredibly difficult to endure.
A male without a female master can only endure it alone, and even that is barely manageable.
But once marked, only their female master can provide relief.
Typically, females awaken a Healing Ability at the age of eighteen, allowing them to perform Spiritual Healing for their Beast Husbands to prevent them from losing control.
After everything that had just happened, Jiang Qingli had, in fact… forgotten all about it.
She looked away, a hint of guilt in her eyes, but insisted stubbornly, "Uh, I remember."
"Remember?" Ye Linyuan's voice was ice-cold. "Is that why you came to me reeking of some fox and some bird?"
He paused for a few seconds, his expression darkening further. He lifted the hand Jiang Qingli had used to slap Chi Yun. "Seeing several males in one day. You're quite the busy one."
Jiang Qingli sniffed her own arm, but didn't smell anything.
"Didn't you say you wanted to remove the mark?" Jiang Qingli thought back to last night, her back and waist still aching. "Is there a way to do it?"
Her resistance was plain on her face.
Ye Linyuan couldn't help but let out a cold scoff.
'Last night, in his own territory, she had grabbed his hair and forced him to please her with his mouth, then scratched and clawed and cursed at him. Once she was satisfied, she just flopped down and went to sleep.'
'If he weren't physically incapable of harming her, Ye Linyuan would have flayed her alive!'
And yet, the moment he was near Jiang Qingli, his snake tail would instinctively coil around her, yearning to press every inch of his skin against hers, to possess her every breath.
'This pathetic, groveling version of himself… Ye Linyuan didn't even want to admit it was him.'
But he couldn't resist.
As if being consumed by fire, Ye Linyuan held tightly to Jiang Qingli, his only sanctuary. A clear plea was audible in his ragged breaths. "Give me… perform Spiritual Healing."
Jiang Qingli was a little surprised by the speed at which they acquired information.
It had been just over an hour since the incident with the Vermilion Bird was resolved, and the captain of the guard had sworn the matter would be kept confidential. How had Ye Linyuan found out so quickly?
Jiang Qingli was honest. "I haven't learned that skill yet."
"I'll teach you."
He looked particularly vulnerable.
"I can help you, but before that…" Jiang Qingli raised a hand and pushed his head slightly away, her expression lucid. "Ye Linyuan, I have to ask you. My Beast Husbands went from three to five. Did you have something to do with that?"
He was being tormented to the brink of losing control, yet she remained perfectly lucid, exploiting his vulnerability to extract the information she wanted.
'He really wanted to bite her to death.'
But when he opened his mouth, an irrepressible groan was the first thing to escape.
Ye Linyuan bit his lip, drawing blood, and used what little lucidity he had left to bargain with her. "Do it first."
Last night, even though Jiang Qingli hadn't used her spiritual power, Ye Linyuan could sense its immense strength. It was enough to snap even a congenitally aberrant beast like him out of a frenzy.
So, he wasn't surprised to learn that Jiang Qingli had managed to control the rampaging Vermilion Bird.
But it also confirmed for Ye Linyuan that only Jiang Qingli could cure him.
He needed Jiang Qingli.
Seeing him relent, Jiang Qingli nodded in agreement.
Ye Linyuan pressed his forehead to hers, rapidly speaking instructions as he pulled her into his Spiritual Domain.
In a brief instant, she blinked, and when her eyes opened again, the scene before her had completely changed.
Jiang Qingli had seen the promotional videos at the marriage and maternity center—the ones showing a female master calming a male—so she had a rough idea of what the various levels of Spiritual Pollution looked like.
However, Ye Linyuan's Spiritual Domain was far more severe than any of the examples she had seen in the videos.
A blood moon hung low.
The forest was shrouded in black fog. Charred, broken husks of trees twisted under the crimson light. The hoarse caw of a crow occasionally echoed through the darkness, mixing with gusts of sinister wind that sent a shiver down one's spine.
Something seemed to be writhing, slithering closer.
Jiang Qingli looked down and almost screamed out loud.
On the ground, dozens of pitch-black venomous snakes, their scales glinting with a bloody light, were slithering toward her.
They stopped less than a meter away, rearing up the upper halves of their bodies. Their blood-red, slitted pupils locked onto her as they hissed, flicking out scarlet tongues and baring sharp, blood-stained fangs.
Jiang Qingli wanted to flee, but then she remembered what Ye Linyuan had said: these snakes were his Spiritual Body, and they would not harm her.
Half-convinced, she crouched down and reached a hand toward one of the snakes.