Chapter 96: Xuanhuan Cultivation BL (XII)

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Chapter 96: Xuanhuan Cultivation BL (XII)

“Master?” Miao Lichen lowered his gaze to the arm wrapped around his waist. If it had only been necessary to hold him in order to teleport, then this embrace had already lasted far too long. He looked up and met Jiang Lingwen’s eyes. The darkness within them felt strangely familiar, carrying an unmistakable aura of danger and violence. Yet on the surface, they remained as gentle as ever, quietly eroding one’s defenses.

“Hm?” Jiang Lingwen met his gaze as though nothing were amiss. The fleeting trace of impatience that crossed Miao Lichen’s face, however, stirred every one of his desires. Perhaps because no one had ever made him act with such caution before, everything Miao Lichen did seemed special to him. Even the smallest gestures he normally ignored now struck him as oddly endearing.

“This is your residence, Master. It isn’t appropriate for you to bring me here. Does Senior Brother Feng know what you’re doing?” Miao Lichen lowered his eyes. The coldness that flashed across his face was completely undisguised. His rosy lips pressed into a thin line, lending his features an unexpectedly sharp edge. He tried to push Jiang Lingwen away, only to realize his wrists could no longer move. At some point, a red silk ribbon had been tied around them.

Allowing Jiang Lingwen to hold him, Miao Lichen fell back onto the bed. The sky-blue sheets gave the room a fresh, elegant atmosphere. His red robes spread across them like brilliant morning clouds, breathtakingly beautiful yet carrying an untouchable aloofness. Dawn clouds were beautiful, but ordinary mortals could never reach them. Yet Jiang Lingwen was a cultivator who defied the heavens. Since he could soar through the skies, why shouldn’t he be able to grasp the dawn?

∇ Capture Target Jiang Lingwen Favorability: 60.

“What I do as your Master is none of Feng Yingruo’s concern. As my disciple, what right does he have to restrain me?” Jiang Lingwen pinned Miao Lichen’s wrists with one hand. His fingers rested casually over several meridians, cutting off the flow of spiritual energy and making it impossible for Miao Lichen to break free by force, despite the ribbon itself being fragile enough for any cultivator to tear apart.

With his other hand, he toyed with Miao Lichen’s snow-white hair spread across the bed. The long ribbon had become his binding, while the loose white hair fanned out over the sheets. Miao Lichen showed no trace of panic. He simply looked back at him calmly. The growing indifference in those dark eyes extinguished the excitement Jiang Lingwen had only just begun to feel.

He made no further move. Remaining above Miao Lichen, Jiang Lingwen gazed down at the youth who had always seemed unreal, like an illusion cloaked in mist. Even looking down at him, even knowing he could pull him into his arms with the slightest effort, he still felt no sense of closeness, let alone the satisfaction of possession.

His fingers slipped between Miao Lichen’s bound wrists, tugging lightly on the silk ribbon. What had seemed tightly secured came undone with ease. The ribbon brushed lightly against smooth skin, leaving behind an irresistible sensation that caused Jiang Lingwen’s grip on Miao Lichen’s wrist to loosen slightly. In the next instant, their positions were completely reversed.

“I don’t mind games, but I don’t enjoy being the passive one.” Miao Lichen said evenly. His voice remained as calm as ever, yet to Jiang Lingwen’s ears it sounded almost like a pout, causing his eyes to narrow slightly.

The silk ribbon, still carrying the warmth of Jiang Lingwen’s wrists, now bound him with practiced ease. It was a binding method he had used countless times before. Only this time, he was the one being restrained. Smiling leisurely, Jiang Lingwen made no attempt to struggle. Instead, he spread his arms as though encouraging Miao Lichen to continue.

∇ Capture Target Jiang Lingwen Favorability: 70.

Suddenly, the door burst open with a violent crash. The fragile wooden panels exploded into splinters, filling the room with drifting dust. The sky-blue bed curtains fluttered wildly in the gust, veiling the figures on the bed behind a hazy screen.

“A’chen, are you alright?” A frightened girl’s voice rang out through the dust. Bai Yingqi rushed into the room almost instantly. The moment she pushed aside the curtains and saw their positions, she froze as though struck mute. Yan Yangxi, who had followed closely behind her, silently turned his head away.

“Damn it! What does Miao Lichen have that I don’t? Why did you choose him and abandon me? I’ve already degraded myself enough to do everything you wanted. Isn’t that still enough for you? Jiang Lingwen, what else do you want from me?” Feng Yingruo clenched his fists so tightly that blood dripped from his palms, the sharp scent of iron filling the room.

“You’ve been in the cultivation world for quite some time now. Have you still not learned the most basic respect owed to one’s Master?” Jiang Lingwen’s smile vanished the moment he heard Feng Yingruo’s voice. “Jiang Lingwen? If I remember correctly, I am still your Master. At least until I officially expel you from my tutelage.”

Watching Miao Lichen step off the bed the moment Bai Yingqi entered and calmly straighten his robes, Jiang Lingwen smiled faintly. Had it not been for the youth’s loose white hair cascading down his back instead of being neatly tied, no one would have guessed what had just occurred.

“Yingruo, you’ve done very well these past days. Better than I expected.” Jiang Lingwen’s voice was low and hoarse, carrying a seductive quality that seemed to rise straight from the depths of hell. As a Dom, he naturally possessed the skills his profession demanded. He knew exactly how to strip prey of their reason, and how to maximize his own pleasure while slowly eroding his prey’s wild instincts. He enjoyed spirited prey. Yet what he enjoyed most was watching that spirit gradually disappear.

“But precisely because you’ve been so obedient, you’ve become utterly boring. Haven’t you heard that people rarely cherish what comes too easily? Unfortunately, your Master happens to be exactly that sort of person. It’s been long enough. Our little game should end here. Your body no longer offers me anything new.”

“So Miao Lichen is your next prey? That means you’ll grow tired of him eventually too. I raised him myself. I know every inch of his body better than he does. A body covered in scars… is that really what stirs your desire to conquer? How laughable. Jiang Lingwen, have you simply eaten too many delicacies and decided to sample plain porridge for a change?” Feng Yingruo sneered viciously.

“Do you know how I left those whip marks all over his body? Do you know where a strike hurts the most? Ah, I nearly forgot. You’re quite skilled with a whip yourself. The difference is that yours brings pleasure, while mine taught him what real pain was. Tell me, Miao Lichen. Back when you were in the Feng Family, didn’t you wish for death every single day? If not for that dull-witted servant, you would’ve died countless times over.” Feng Yingruo’s beautiful face twisted with hatred as he glared at Miao Lichen.

“Oh, right… I’d forgotten. That fool sealed away your most painful memories. Otherwise, I never would’ve known that blockhead was actually a cultivator. My current achievements owe a great deal to what he left behind. He left behind everything a Soul Formation cultivator possessed. I’d wager it was the fortune of an entire lifetime. You really should feel fortunate to have had such a foolish servant devote himself to you.”

Why? Why did Miao Lichen possess everything Feng Yingruo desperately wanted but could never obtain? Everyone else overlooked the indulgence in Jiang Lingwen’s eyes as he lay beneath Miao Lichen without resistance, but Feng Yingruo did not. Whenever Feng Yingruo resisted even slightly, Jiang Lingwen’s eyes would darken with violent fury. Why, then, did Miao Lichen receive nothing but tolerance? What did he lack compared to Miao Lichen?

“A’chen…” Bai Yingqi wrapped her arms tightly around him. Though she had meant to comfort him, she was trembling far more than he was. If she had merely been an outsider, reading this as a novel or watching it unfold on television, she might have laughed awkwardly and felt a trace of sympathy.

But now this was no story, this was Miao Lichen’s past. She could barely imagine how he had survived long enough to grow up. Perhaps that was exactly why the original Miao Lichen had ultimately died.

“Qiqi, don’t worry. Those things belong to the past. I recovered those memories long before I began cultivating. They can no longer affect my Dao Heart.” Miao Lichen looked at the nearly hysterical Feng Yingruo. There was neither hatred nor affection in his eyes, only complete indifference, as though looking at a stranger. “Miao Lichen cut all ties with the Feng Family long ago. Neither this body nor I will remember anything connected to them.”

Perhaps because he had trusted Lovely too completely, Miao Lichen had never imagined this body still contained sealed memories. Not merely memories of whip scars. The memories that lingered most vividly were of blades cutting across skin, and countless depraved scenes unfolding before the eyes of a child. Fortunately, no one had stooped so low as to violate a child. Otherwise, even after experiencing the Phoenix Nirvana, he would have demanded that the system replace this body entirely.

“So you’ve remembered everything? Excellent. A toy that even servants despised in the Feng Family. Miao Lichen, you may forget, but the marks on your body remember everything perfectly.” Feng Yingruo grew even more dissatisfied seeing Miao Lichen remain completely unmoved. How could he not care? Back then, he had been driven nearly to the brink of collapse. Without Hè Liancheng’s equal exchange, and without Feng Yingruo’s later protection, who knew how many more times he would have suffered?

Did pretending to be aloof truly make him pure again? Once stained, how could anyone ever return to being spotless? Even cultivators couldn’t erase the past completely. Otherwise, how could forgotten memories ever return?

“When one reaches the Nascent Soul stage, the body undergoes a complete cleansing,” Yan Yangxi said as he stepped protectively in front of Miao Lichen. “A’chen is already at the Nascent Soul stage. Any marks left by the Feng Family disappeared long ago. There isn’t a single trace of your family left on him. If he ever bears marks again, they will be ones he chose to accept. In a cultivation world where strength determines everything, what gives a cultivator who hasn’t even reached the Golden Core stage the right to speak to us like this? If you’re relying on your status as an elder’s disciple… ”

∇ Capture Target Yan Yangxi Favorability: 50.

“I, Jiang Lingwen, have no disciple who cannot even address his Master properly.” Effortlessly, Jiang Lingwen undid the bindings around his wrists. Dressed in blue robes, he looked every bit the righteous cultivator. With a single sentence, he severed all ties between himself and Feng Yingruo.

Disrespecting one’s Master would forever remain Feng Yingruo’s greatest stain, no matter how high he climbed in the future.

“What right do I have? Simply because I am Feng Yingruo. Only Feng Yingruo. Not anyone’s disciple. Not anyone’s possession.” The demonic aura surrounding Feng Yingruo grew increasingly chaotic. Black demonic energy surged from his body as his cultivation rose rapidly from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Formation, and finally halted at the early Fusion stage.

His jet-black hair gradually took on a red hue. His eyes turned blood-red, and his once-rosy lips darkened like ink. Every smile now carried an eerie, ghostly charm.

“So he succumbed to demonic cultivation. How disgraceful.” Miao Lichen’s tone remained as calm as ever. Before anyone could react, two silver swords had already pierced Feng Yingruo’s chest. Staring at the face so familiar to him, Feng Yingruo’s eyes filled with unwillingness. He opened his mouth to speak, only for a hand to press lightly against his bloodstained lips.

“A’chen.” Bai Yingqi felt as though her mind had completely stopped working. What was happening? The person who should have succumbed to demonic deviation was standing here perfectly fine, while the one who should not have succumbed had done so instead and had been killed by the protagonist together with another supporting character. And the child she knew best turned out to belong to the Feng Family… the Phoenix Tribe? Was this some kind of joke? Did that mean the position of Spirit Emperor… also belonged to Miao Lichen now?

“I’m here.” Miao Lichen gently covered her eyes, his voice gentler than it had ever been before. “Qiqi, be good and get some sleep. When you wake up, everything will already have been settled. I promise.”

“A’chen, Feng Yingruo was my disciple. If I killed him myself, no one would object. Especially after the overwhelming demonic energy he released just now…”

“No need. I’ll leave the Heavenly Sword Sect.”

“A’chen, if you leave, what about Qiqi?”

“I’ll take her with me.” Miao Lichen curved his lips into a smile. The natural allure that radiated from him was mesmerizing, while a faint red light flickered within his eyes. Having just witnessed Feng Yingruo’s demonic deviation, both men instantly grew tense. “I don’t belong in the Heavenly Sword Sect, so there’s no reason for me to remain here and cause you trouble. As for Qiqi, she only wishes to stay with me.”

“You…” Yan Yangxi wanted to continue speaking, but Jiang Lingwen stopped him. The faint aura drifting in from outside the window caused him to purse his lips.

“He truly doesn’t belong in the Heavenly Sword Sect,” Jiang Lingwen said quietly. “Leaving is the best choice for him.” The energy that had just appeared around Miao Lichen had not belonged to a demonic cultivator, but to a spirit. Moreover, Jiang Lingwen could now sense an overwhelming presence somewhere within the Heavenly Sword Sect, one whose strength even surpassed his own. The Spirit Clan? He had unknowingly accepted quite an extraordinary disciple.

Even so, Jiang Lingwen had never let go of anyone who caught his interest. At the very least, not until he had completely lost interest in them and found someone else. This was the first time in his life he had remained so singularly focused on someone he wished to tame.

∇ Capture Target Jiang Lingwen Favorability: 70.

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