Volume 4, Chapter 166 – Dalliance

At daybreak the next day, Bai Zhuqing woke from a deep sleep.

The moment she opened her eyes, she saw a figure seated directly in front of the bed, working on a laptop at the table.

She glanced out the window. The curtains had only been pulled open by a narrow slit, and only from the angle of the head of the bed could she catch a faint thread of daylight.

Bai Zhuqing instinctively judged that it should be around six-thirty in the morning, but she quickly realized that with Loss of Order phenomena growing more and more frequent, that kind of estimate based on daylight could no longer be trusted.

“It’s 4:26 a.m.,” Bai Xiang’s voice came from the front.

“There’s an electric kettle on the floor, and instant noodles in the drawer.”

“The bowl and chopsticks are on the nightstand. If you’re hungry, help yourself.”

After that, she said nothing more. Only the dull sound of keyboard tapping came from time to time, making the room feel all the more hushed. To Bai Zhuqing, that quiet felt indescribably peaceful.

In truth, she had been a little scared after waking up.

What she had done to Sister Bai Xiang last night had been far too much. Given the seriousness and dignity Bai Xiang usually displayed, it was hard to say she would not be angry afterward.

After all, it really had been far too intense.

Whether it was the thing that had trembled together with the pair of golden cicada earrings, or her older sister’s delicate chin tipped back, all of it was a breathtaking sight rarely seen in ordinary times… no, it should be said, never seen before.

But if she had to name the most unforgettable part, Bai Zhuqing felt that her attention had lingered most on her sister’s lifted ankle and those soft, tender, fair toes.

From that angle, she had gotten a clear look at the sole and arch of that foot. It had also been the first time she had tried using her hands to grasp those soft feet, using the Vibration Art and her own will to control and guide the rhythm below.

In any case… mm, they were all scenes worth savoring. She had indeed recorded all of them with the Jade Spirit.

Naturally, she had been worried Bai Xiang would be angry.

But the moment she heard Bai Xiang’s voice, and the tone hidden within it, Bai Zhuqing knew Bai Xiang did not mean to blame her.

That steady, indifferent, almost cold tone usually only appeared when Bai Xiang was occupied with something else and had to split her attention to talk to someone.

As long as she sounded like this, it meant that no matter what had happened before, she would not devote much more energy to it. In other words, the matter had more or less been put behind them.

At last, Bai Zhuqing let out a sigh of relief.

Curled up in the blankets, she enjoyed the quiet peace of the room while carefully watching Bai Xiang’s back.

Bai Xiang had probably bathed. She wore only a gauzy white nightdress.

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Perhaps because she did not want to disturb the still-sleeping Bai Zhuqing, she had not turned on the lights, and the room was dim overall.

The laptop screen cast a faint blue glow. Passing through the nightdress from the front, the light instead outlined the silhouette of a woman’s body.

Her sister’s hair had already been pinned up.

The thick white hair had been gathered into a round bun at the back of her head. From here, Bai Zhuqing could see the shadow of the Buddha’s-hand hairpin running through it. It had probably already been dried with qi.

Bai Zhuqing stared at Bai Xiang for a while and, from the shifting patterns of light and shadow, judged that aside from the most basic undergarments, Bai Xiang wore only a pair of black silk pantyhose on her legs.

A reflective curve rose slightly. Her right leg was probably crossed over her left knee.

Bai Xiang normally cared a great deal about propriety. Sitting like that in private meant she was utterly relaxed inside.

But the more Bai Zhuqing watched, the stranger she felt.

Because she did not think things should have developed like this.

I did something so excessive to my sister, so how can she not scold me when I wake up?

She’s acting so calm. Could it be because she simply doesn’t care about this kind of thing happening at all?

All the effort I put in… all the feelings I tried so hard to convey through my actions, all the feelings at the tip of my heart… did she really understand them?

Bai Zhuqing suddenly wanted to ask those questions outright.

But in the end, she had done something she felt guilty about. After wavering for a while, she still did not dare.

Then… should she eat first?

Bai Zhuqing looked at the cup of instant noodles on the nightstand and hesitated.

Then, as if remembering something, she pulled open the drawer. Looking at the two full multi-packs of instant noodles stuffed inside, her expression turned awkward and amused.

They were martial artists and cultivators. With so little flour, even filling the gaps between her teeth would probably not be enough.

So was her sister still angry after all?

Was this her way of “punishing” me on purpose?

She had clearly only been “teased a little,” yet instead of feeling upset, Bai Zhuqing’s heart leaped with joy.

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Joyful enough that when she lowered her head and saw Bai Xiang’s boots propped by the cabinet, she found herself, as if possessed, leaning over and secretly sniffing at the opening of one boot.

So my sister doesn’t not care…

Doing something ridiculous while indulging in her own fantasies, the girl thought,

She cares about me very much after all, and she’s even willing to show me her little temper…

“I wouldn’t target you over something like that.”

Just as her emotions reached their peak, Bai Xiang’s voice came again.

“Noodles alone obviously won’t fill you up.”

“Can’t you dissolve a pill into the soup and drink it?”

So she wasn’t deliberately venting her temper…

Whoosh.

Bai Zhuqing felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her.

She immediately lowered her head, not daring to look at Bai Xiang, her eyes filling with thick disappointment.

Why did adolescent girls like to think so much…

Bai Xiang had originally been rapidly skimming information on the web. Sensing the simulated image coming from behind her, she frowned slightly and sighed inwardly.

Target her?

Punish her?

If she had truly harbored that sort of intention, Bai Zhuqing would never have succeeded last night.

After all, she had only been caught off guard by the first wave and had briefly lacked the strength to withdraw her soul-abilities. A few seconds later, control had already returned to her.

In other words, if she had truly resisted, then with Bai Zhuqing’s amateur skills, she would not have been able to complete a single step.

It had all happened only because Bai Xiang had tacitly allowed it, because she felt she also had a certain obligation in that regard.

Mm…

In any case, she would not say that directly. The feeling of her Qi Sea being filled with sword pellets was not something she found particularly unpleasant.

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“I saw it.”

“You were sniffing my boots just now.”

Her tone lifting, Bai Xiang rose onto her black silk-clad foot and turned halfway around in the chair.

Looking at her younger sister, who stared up in shock, she curved her lips faintly and deliberately reached toward her toes, tugging up a hazy fold of stocking over them.

“So compared to when there’s no scent at all, you really do prefer it when I’ve worked up a little sweat?”

“So my Qing’er has tastes this unusual. Truly eye-opening.”

“N-no… it’s not like that!”

Hit with such an accusation out of nowhere, Bai Zhuqing froze first, then hastily tried to defend herself in panic.

But this sort of thing was especially hard to explain.

I mean… if Sister Bai Xiang really saw me sniffing them, then wouldn’t I… even if I jumped into the Jing River, I’d never wash myself clean?

Eyes wide and mouth open, the girl turned completely into a statue, her whole brain crashing on the spot.

It was only when she heard a soft laugh that she moved again.

When she looked up, Bai Xiang was already sitting at the bedside, helping her tear open the noodle packaging while dissolving a medicinal pill into the bowl with hot water.

Sister…

How could she not know that all her guesses about Bai Xiang had been nothing but fantasies? Her eyes immediately grew misty with tears. Suddenly lunging forward, she wrapped her arms around Bai Xiang’s waist and murmured while leaning against her lap, “I’m sorry, Auntie.”

“What are you sorry for?”

“I’m sorry anyway… I want Auntie to feed me the noodles.”

After indulging the girl’s somewhat coquettish request to be fed, Bai Xiang returned to the desk and continued tapping away while browsing webpages.

“Auntie, what are you looking up?”

Wiping her mouth, Bai Zhuqing scooted closer, wanting to peek at the text and images flashing across the screen as well.

But she quickly discovered that this was not easy, because Bai Xiang had four webpages open at once on the not-so-large screen. Much of the text flickering past… was even in a foreign language, the comparatively unfamiliar script of the Federation.

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“Some miscellaneous overseas news,” Bai Xiang said.

Knowing that saying only that would certainly not be enough for her younger sister to understand, she continued, “If Zhou Yi’s abnormality was caused by that bamboo-staff weapon, then this matter must be connected to Blood Soul Heaven.”

“Auntie suspects Blood Soul Heaven is making similar moves outside as well?”

Bai Zhuqing immediately grasped Bai Xiang’s line of thought.

Because clearly, judging from the successful cases of the Seven-Meridian Demon Dragon Spear and that bizarre bamboo staff, this ‘demon-weapon method’ must have gone through a great many experiments.

It had been a long time since Wang Xiu obtained that ‘demon-weapon method.’ Most of the experiments had definitely taken place in the Void Realm.

But on the planet of the main world… outside Great Yu, other regions had swiftly replaced their ruling powers after the first wave of Loss of Order disasters. Even if only a small number of those countries were under Blood Soul Heaven’s control, then given how unrestrained, how downright mad those people were in the way they acted, they would inevitably have left corresponding traces in those places.

So this really was another possible breakthrough!

“Then did Auntie find anything?” the girl asked with great concern.

“I did find something…”

Bai Xiang frowned slightly as she spoke.

“I’m just not sure how strong the connection is.”

She pulled up two sets of online news pages and enlarged each to half the screen so Bai Zhuqing could see them more clearly.

On the left side of the screen was a bold headline:

“Demonic Disaster Runs Wild! Entire Rattlesnake Mercenary Group Wiped Out, Found Fused Together with the Metal of Their Firearms!”

On the right was what looked like a photograph taken in a museum. In the picture was a glass display case, and inside it stood a rust-covered spiral long spear.

Bai Zhuqing looked further down at the news article and saw smaller text beneath it:

“Supernatural Phenomenon: The ‘Augu Divine Spear’ Is Actually Bleeding!”

So that wasn’t rust. It was blood?

Bai Zhuqing froze.

When she looked at the image again, she vaguely felt that same nausea she had experienced when facing a Divine-Meridian Demon.