Volume 3, Chapter 305 – Something Has Happened to Chi Muxue!

Lu Zhuxin was a great Eighth Realm demon. The drug’s effect on her was limited at best. On top of that, the Pure Yang mark Qu Qingtang had left inside her body exerted a powerful suppressive force on desire, so the drug barely touched her conscious mind at all.

She rose from the bed. A faint heat stirred inside her as she breathed.

The drug was taking effect.

For this performance to be convincing enough, she would have to commit to the role.

“Just the right amount,” Lu Zhuxin murmured softly to herself.

She lifted her gaze toward the door.

“Now. Time for the next step.”

Lu Zhuxin raised her hand. A sword materialized in her grip.

It was a peachwood-carved ritual sword, two characters etched along its length: Yuzhen.

The Yuzhen immortal sword. Qu Qingtang’s personal blade, and a sacred relic of Lingxiao Sword Sect.

This sword was the foundation of her entire gambit.

She gave the flat of the blade a light, unhurried stroke.

Then she pressed her foot lightly against the floor and sent a subtle force rippling outward beneath her step.

Outside, the Chi family guard was still dutifully keeping watch over Lu Zhuxin’s safety.

Then, several zhang away, a sudden crash rang out.

“Who’s there?!” The guard’s hand flew to the spirit-treasure saber at his waist, eyes snapping to the direction of the sound.

A moment later, a chill crept up the back of his neck.

Wrong. It isn’t over there. It’s a feint. The danger is behind me.

The instinct hit him like cold water.

By the time he thought to turn, it was already too late.

A blade drove through him from behind, piercing clean through his chest. Razor-sharp sword qi surged straight toward his spiritual core.

The guard’s body went rigid. Cold swept through him from head to toe, and the world tilted and spun.

He wanted to turn and see who had struck him. But there was no strength left anywhere in his body. The icy sword qi pressed his consciousness down into a lightless dark.

In the last moment before it took him, he recognized the origin of that sword qi.

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“Lingxiao Sword Sect…”

Lu Zhuxin withdrew the blade, flicked her wrist in a brief flourish, and shed the blood from the edge.

Her command of sword techniques was still far from refined. If both guards had been here, she doubted she could have landed a clean strike under the second one’s watchful eye.

Taking down two opponents at once with sword techniques was still a few steps beyond her as a beginner.

Fortunately, Bu Lianshuang had kicked up enough commotion to draw one of them away.

“Now. Time to wait for the next fish to take the bait.”

***

On the other side of the estate, Song Shutao was running at full speed.

Escape techniques were prohibited inside commandery cities, and the same rule applied within the Chi residence.

‘Hm? Someone’s there.’

She caught sight of a figure up ahead, moving toward her at a hurried pace.

The young woman looked flustered, too preoccupied to notice Song Shutao until they were nearly on top of each other.

“S-Song… Young Master Song…”

She stared at the suddenly appearing Song Shutao, so tense her teeth were chattering.

Song Shutao’s brow arched. “Have you seen the second young miss?”

“Th-the second young miss? She… she…” The young woman seemed to catch herself, and immediately changed course. “No. I haven’t seen her.”

Song Shutao’s expression cooled.

This woman was hiding something.

A sharp ring of metal as Song Shutao drew her sword.

“I’ll ask one more time. Where is the second young miss?”

The young woman trembled all over, eyes fixed on the sword point in front of her, wide with fright.

“I-I-I… I really don’t know…”

“Oh?” Song Shutao advanced the tip one more inch.

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“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! The second young miss drank too much. I brought her somewhere to rest. She’s fine. There’s a guard watching over her!”

Song Shutao studied her for a long moment before sheathing her sword.

This woman was clearly involved. But there was no time to press her right now. Confirming Chi Muxue’s safety came first.

“What is your name?”

“Chi… Chi Chun…”

Song Shutao fixed the woman’s face in her memory. “Get out of my sight. I’ll come back for you later.”

She activated her movement technique and was gone from Chi Chun’s view in a handful of steps.

After Song Shutao disappeared, Chi Chun sank to the ground, her expression hollow and lost.

“It’s over… it’s all over now…”

***

As she ran, a quiet unease settled over Song Shutao.

Something may have already happened to Chi Muxue.

She pushed herself faster.

When she reached the courtyard the woman had described, the smell of blood hit her at once.

Song Shutao’s eyes went sharp.

In front of the room, a guard in dark fitted clothing lay crumpled in a pool of blood, his breath faint, his fate uncertain.

Song Shutao knelt at his side and pressed her spiritual consciousness into his pulse.

“Still alive. The sword pierced his inner organs but left his heart meridian intact.”

She stood and turned toward the closed door.

The door swung open with a creak as Song Shutao stepped inside.

Without warning, a figure flung itself at her.

Song Shutao barely had time to react before a soft, yielding body threw itself into her arms.

Scorching warmth. A rich, dizzying fragrance, heady as strong liquor, searing where it touched.

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Something tightened in Song Shutao’s chest. Heat spread through her like a lit fuse.

“Second young miss… what is…”

Her instinct was to push Chi Muxue away, but the girl clung to her like she had no intention of letting go.

That burning heat. That intoxicating scent. It flooded Song Shutao’s senses until her head swam.

Even as slow as she was, even Song Shutao understood by now that something was very wrong with this room.

That fragrance. A pleasure-inducing poison, almost certainly.

“Second young miss, you’ve been poisoned! Wake up!”

She called out, trying to rouse the girl in her arms. It did nothing.

Sunken deep in the drug’s pull, Chi Muxue could only reach blindly for her, fingers working at her clothes.

Song Shutao pressed her lips together hard. She tightened her hold around Chi Muxue and tried to pull her toward the door.

She had barely taken one step back when the door clicked shut on its own.

It had locked itself.

Song Shutao channeled her spiritual power and drove her back against the wood. The door did not budge.

‘Damn it.’ She bit off a curse under her breath.

The scent in the room was making her face burn. The moment she circulated her spiritual power, it only became harder to resist.

And now Chi Muxue had worked her way up along her side, arms tightening around her.

Song Shutao tried to push her back. But soft, restless hands had already found her face.

Delicate fingertips, faintly damp, pressed against her lips.

Song Shutao went still.

What followed was gentle and unhurried, and thoroughly beyond her ability to deflect. A faint sweetness dissolved against her tongue.

In that instant, something ignited inside her. A fire that spread through every part of her, restless and consuming.

Song Shutao caught those wandering hands and stilled them.

Her gaze swept the room and landed on the shattered teacup on the floor. Something cold slid through her.

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‘Could it be…’

‘The real poison was in the tea…’

‘Chi Muxue’s fingers touched the tea… the pleasure poison transferred to her hands…’

‘Damn it all. Who did this?’

Song Shutao’s jaw went tight.

That heat was already moving through her, burning inward from her throat.

A deep, relentless restlessness seeped out from her very bones and scattered her thoughts.

The arm around Chi Muxue’s waist tightened before she could stop it.

Here she was, wearing her nephew’s face, doing what she should never be doing to his future sister-in-law.

She knew it was wrong. She could not make herself stop.

There are things you cannot understand until you have felt them yourself, and once you have felt them, you understand why they are so hard to resist.

Somewhere in the depths of it, Song Shutao felt as though she had fallen into a dream.

Something she had never once experienced in her life.

Weightless. Adrift in something soft that kept slipping from her grasp. Warmth without edges.

A dream made of mist. There and not there.

Leaving only a long, slow sweetness that wouldn’t fade.

***

“Tsk tsk. ‘Intoxicated Life’ is even more potent than I imagined.”

“It took an entire pool to bring down Qu Qingtang. One cup was all it needed for Song Shutao.”

“And I haven’t even used the ‘Dreaming Death’ yet.”

“How about I give her something special to dream about.”