Volume 1, Chapter 87 – The Empress’s Flirtation

She cast aside the regal bearing she had maintained all this time and leaned forward slightly, resting an elbow on the low table and propping her chin in her palm.

Deliberately narrowing the distance between them, she softened her voice, adding a faintly seductive undertone.

“Palace Master Gu… you seem a little uncomfortable?”

“Could it be that my bedchamber makes you uneasy?”

She paused, her eyes shimmering as her smile deepened.

“Or is Palace Master Gu simply that unwilling to let me look at you?”

The teasing in her words was already unmistakable.

Gu Han’s scalp tingled upon hearing them, and she was left speechless.

What was wrong with this empress?

They had been discussing serious matters just moments ago. How had the entire mood suddenly become… like this?

With that half-smile and those alluring eyes, she looked nothing like the ruler of an entire region. Instead, she resembled…

She resembled a dashing libertine from a storybook teasing an innocent… ahem, an innocent young woman!

Gu Han felt the calm facade she had maintained beginning to crack.

I can’t back down! Gu Han told herself.

She was, at the very least, a late-stage Immortal Ascension cultivator, the Palace Master of Yaochi Immortal Palace, with plenty of Mahayana and Tribulation Transcendence experts under her command.

How could such a minor assault of “beauty”… ahem, such a little teasing throw her into disarray?

Since you want to play…

Gu Han took a deep breath and suppressed her discomfort.

She abruptly turned her head back and met the other woman’s mischievous gaze head-on.

When Empress Qingxuan saw Gu Han suddenly look back, the smile in her eyes grew even brighter. She was just about to say something else.

But in the next instant, Gu Han moved.

She did not use any spiritual power or divine ability. She merely shot out a hand as fast as lightning.

Under Empress Qingxuan’s slightly stunned gaze, Gu Han seized the fair wrist resting on the low table.

Empress Qingxuan stiffened slightly, clearly not expecting Gu Han to act so suddenly.

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With her cultivation, she could naturally have evaded it.

Yet for some reason, perhaps she was drawn to the rare, aggressive gleam in Gu Han’s eyes.

Or perhaps she wanted to see just how far this mysterious Palace Master would go.

She did not immediately break free. Instead, her beautiful eyes widened slightly as she watched Gu Han.

Gu Han tightened her grip and gave a gentle tug.

Empress Qingxuan’s forward-leaning body instantly lost its balance. With a soft cry, she involuntarily pitched forward!

In the next moment, Gu Han’s arms were filled with warm, fragrant softness.

Empress Qingxuan had already been pulled into Gu Han’s embrace and was now sitting on her lap.

The distance between them vanished in an instant.

Empress Qingxuan could smell Gu Han’s cool, snow-lotus-like scent and feel the warmth of her body beneath the fabric of her clothes.

Time seemed to stop completely at that moment.

Of the two meditation cushions beside the tea table, only one remained empty.

On the other, two peerlessly beautiful women with heaven-reaching cultivation leaned against each other in an extremely intimate, even ambiguous posture.

The composed, mischievously smiling expression on Empress Qingxuan’s breathtaking face froze completely.

Her long lashes trembled like butterfly wings. Her beautiful eyes opened wide, filled with shock, bewilderment, and a trace of rapidly spreading… helplessness.

She was Empress Qingxuan, ruler of the Eastern Region and a mighty mid-stage Immortal Ascension expert.

Yet now… someone had pulled her into an embrace?

And in this posture, almost as though she were being cradled on someone’s lap?

Never before!

As for Gu Han, the instant she pulled the empress into her arms, she was also stunned.

That had been impulsive!

She had done it purely out of an unwillingness to be teased without fighting back!

But now, with warm, fragrant softness in her arms, Empress Qingxuan’s delicate perfume lingering at the tip of her nose, and one arm wrapped around that slender waist…

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Gu Han’s heart uncontrollably skipped several beats.

Their eyes met from only inches away.

The initial shock in Empress Qingxuan’s eyes gradually gave way to something more complicated.

Her surprise slowly faded, replaced by a strange… fascination that arose after being offended.

Interesting… Far too interesting!

In more than thirty thousand years, who had ever dared treat her like this?

Forget pulling her into an embrace. Merely approaching within three feet of her required extraordinary courage and status.

Yet this mysterious Palace Master Gu from the Southern Region had not only done so, but had done it with such ease and dominance.

Moreover, a nearly imperceptible ripple had now appeared in those eyes that were normally so calm.

Was that… embarrassment?

Awkwardness?

Or… something else?

Empress Qingxuan found this experience unprecedentedly refreshing.

She did not immediately struggle free, nor did she become angry.

Instead, while still half-held in Gu Han’s embrace, she turned slightly and adjusted herself into a position that was more comfortable and also more… intimate.

Their bodies pressed even closer together.

She could even clearly feel Gu Han’s body tense for an instant, along with the heartbeat that had quickened slightly beneath the layers of fabric between them.

“Palace Master Gu…”

Empress Qingxuan’s red lips parted. Her voice was lower and softer than before, carrying a faint trace of languor and teasing.

She raised the jade-like hand that Gu Han was not holding.

Rather than pushing Gu Han away, she naturally rested it on the arm encircling her waist.

Her fingertips lightly brushed the fabric covering Gu Han’s arm.

“You… wanted to hold me this badly?”

She tilted her face upward until it was only an inch or so from Gu Han’s chin.

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Her beautiful eyes shimmered, seemingly filled with endless charm and curiosity.

“Wasn’t Your Majesty the one who asked whether I felt uncomfortable?”

Gu Han forced herself to remain composed, maintaining her outward calm.

The fingers clasped around the empress’s wrist did not loosen. Meanwhile, the arm around her waist unconsciously tightened a little.

“I merely wished to tell Your Majesty…”

Gu Han met those captivating eyes from close range and tried to make her voice sound firmer.

“Even at such a distance, I would not feel uncomfortable.”

“But I wonder… does Your Majesty still feel at ease now?”

Despite her words, Gu Han could feel the roots of her ears burning.

The warmth and fragrance of the woman in her arms, along with that undisguised, playfully amused gaze…

All of it presented Gu Han with a kind of… challenge she had never experienced before.

At her words, Empress Qingxuan suddenly let out a quiet laugh.

Her laughter was clear and enchanting, like jade striking jade, yet it also carried the unique allure of a mature woman.

Not only did Gu Han’s words fail to make her retreat, but the hand resting on Gu Han’s arm slowly moved upward.

In the end, she gently wrapped it around Gu Han’s neck.

The movement caused her entire body to nestle almost completely into Gu Han’s embrace.

Their cheeks were nearly touching.

“At ease?”

Empress Qingxuan’s breath was as fragrant as orchids, and its warmth gently brushed Gu Han’s ear.

“I have lived for so long, yet this is the first time I have ever conversed with someone so ‘comfortably.'”

“Palace Master Gu’s cultivation is not only unfathomable, but even your… way of putting others at ease leaves quite an impression.”

The ear brushed by the empress’s breath went numb and tingly, and the composure Gu Han had forced herself to maintain nearly collapsed.

Why did this empress refuse to follow common sense at all?!

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Wasn’t she supposed to become angry, rebuke Gu Han, or at least modestly push her away?

Why had she instead become… even more forward?!

“Your Majesty… flatters me.”

Gu Han nearly had to grit her teeth to keep her voice steady.

“I have always acted as I please. Should Your Majesty feel uncomfortable, simply say so.”

As she spoke, she made as though to release the empress and set her down.

However, the arm Empress Qingxuan had wrapped around her neck tightened slightly.

“Who said I was uncomfortable?”

Empress Qingxuan narrowed her eyes as though she had discovered some priceless treasure.

“I merely feel that… Palace Master Gu’s embrace is considerably warmer than that cold imperial throne.”

“And… far more interesting.”

As she spoke, she actually rested her head lightly in the hollow of Gu Han’s shoulder.

Gu Han: “!!!”

She froze completely.

Her mind went blank for an instant.

What… what was happening?!

She had tried to tease the empress, only to be… flirted with instead?

And she was being flirted with by a woman who had lived for tens of thousands of years?!

Gu Han felt her heartbeat fall completely out of rhythm, while heat rose uncontrollably across her face.

She could even feel the slender body in her arms, which contained boundless power, trembling faintly with suppressed laughter.

She was laughing!

She was actually laughing at Gu Han!

How could Gu Han possibly let that stand…?