95: Chapter 95 I'm doomed! I got forcibly kissed by that little girl Ye!

A dead-end alley.

Lu Chen leaned against the wall, his hands tucked into his sleeves. Looking at the little girl with twin tails in front of him—head tilted up, hands on her hips, and brimming with fierce Aura—he suddenly lost all his temper.

"Little Ancestor."

He sighed, his tone conveying thirty percent sincerity and seventy percent acting.

"What exactly are you after from me? I'm just a poor Loose Cultivator, my pockets are cleaner than my face, and the most valuable thing I have is myself. Do you want that?"

Ye Qingxian stared at him with her large eyes, looking righteous and bold.

"I do! I'm just after your handsome face!"

When she said this, she didn't even blink, so frank that it made Lu Chen's back teeth ache.

"Come back to the Ye Family with me, and I guarantee you'll eat well and live luxuriously! Cultivation Technique and Magic Treasure, take your pick! There will be plenty of Spirit Stone! Whatever path you want to Cultivate, this Young Miss will arrange the best resources for you!"

Ye Qingxian counted on her fingers.

"A personal bodyguard gets a monthly salary of three hundred High-Grade Spirit Stone, meals and lodging included, double pay during festivals, and ten days of paid leave every year—"

"Wait." Lu Chen interrupted her, "Paid leave?"

"Yeah, this Young Miss is very humane."

The corner of Lu Chen's mouth twitched.

[This benefits package is eight hundred times better than the 996 internet giant I worked for in my past life.]

[If this were two hundred years ago when I first arrived in Zhongzhou, poor enough to be drinking the northwest wind, and I had met such a sucker, I would have probably knelt down and started licking their boots right away.]

Looking at Ye Qingxian's earnest expression, he suddenly felt that this girl was quite interesting.

She was just a child spoiled by her Family, unaware of the vastness of heaven and earth, and ignorant of the dangers of the human heart.

"Fine."

Lu Chen straightened up from the wall.

"I won't be your bodyguard, but if you want to treat me to shopping and dining, I won't refuse."

Ye Qingxian's eyes instantly lit up, with a brightness comparable to two High-Grade Spirit Stone.

"Deal!"

"By the way, what's your name?"

Lu Chen replied without hesitation.

"My name is Lu Guan!"

——

The main street of Tianyuan Ancient City.

Two people walked side by side on the street.

One wore simple brocade clothes and a wooden hairpin, looking like a poor Loose Cultivator; the other wore a purple-gold brocade dress with twin tails, looking like the apple of the eye of an ancient Family.

The scene was so incongruous that passersby turned their heads repeatedly.

Ye Qingxian activated her wealthy spender shopping mode.

In a spiritual clothing store, she picked up a dark cyan spirit-silkworm brocade robe and held it up against Lu Chen.

"This one is nice! It matches your skin tone! Boss, wrap it up! How many Spirit Stone?"

"Young Miss, this is an Earth-Grade Magic Treasure robe, with three layers of Saint Grade spirit patterns embedded for defense. The price is eight thousand Top-Grade Spirit Stone."

"Cheap, give me two."

Lu Chen stood to the side, hands tucked in his sleeves, unmoving.

At the second store, Ye Qingxian dragged him in again and picked out a pair of spirit boots woven from heavenly silkworm silk.

"This pair looks good! Put them on and try them!"

"Not trying."

"Try them!"

Lu Chen didn't try them, so Ye Qingxian bought three pairs in different colors.

The third store, the fourth store, the fifth store...

After half an hour, the unhappy expressions on the sixteen dark-armored guards behind Ye Qingxian were piled higher than their faces.

Ye Qingxian turned back and glared at the guard group, her little face wrinkling.

"Stay further away! Why are you following so closely! You're disturbing this Young Miss and—" She glanced at Lu Chen, "—and my person while we're shopping!"

The leader of the guard group, Ye Cheng'en, had the corner of his mouth twitch. He hugged the parcels and took three steps back, squeezing out a smile that looked uglier than crying.

"Young Miss, it is our duty..."

Lu Chen spoke up.

"That is their job."

His tone was very casual, but what he said made Ye Qingxian pause.

"It concerns their little lives, so they cannot slack off. You should understand."

Ye Qingxian blinked.

"How is that possible? They are people of the Ye Family, who would dare to touch them?"

Lu Chen turned his head to look at her and pointed his finger at Ye Qingxian.

"You! You big Families, with one decision, one sentence, can determine the fate of many Mortals and the life and death of many Loose Cultivator."

"Even many forces weaker than you can be wiped out just by saying so."

He spoke slowly, and everything he said was a fact.

"Your guards block blades for you and run errands for you. You reward them when you're happy and punish them when you're not. They aren't afraid of you; they are afraid of that 'Ye' character behind you."

Ye Qingxian was quiet for two breaths, then she waved her hand and grinned at the guards.

"It's okay, it's okay! As long as I don't let you die, it'll be fine!"

All sixteen guards' mouths twitched in unison.

Lu Chen shook his head and didn't say anything more.

[Foolish and rich, not bad-hearted, just a bit peculiar in her thinking.]

He calmly accepted the skewer of newly bought fruits handed over by Ye Qingxian and took a bite. It was sweet.

[Having a free ATM following me around isn't bad either.]

——

Evening.

The Spirit River of Tianyuan Ancient City runs through the east of the city, its surface wide and sparkling.

Every beginning of the first lunar month, the city sets off spirit-fire fireworks over the Spirit River, a Mortal tradition that has continued for tens of thousands of years.

Lu Chen and Ye Qingxian sat on the stone steps by the river.

The guards had been driven three hundred zhang away by Ye Qingxian, leaving only Ye Cheng'en to watch from afar.

Spirit-fire fireworks exploded in the night sky.

Red, gold, cyan, purple—the spiritual lights intertwined and reflected on the river surface, shattering into a river full of stars.

Lu Chen leaned against the stone railing, his phoenix eyes slightly raised, watching the fireworks filling the sky.

The wind blew from the river, carrying water vapor, stirring the broken hair on his forehead.

The firelight shone on his profile, outlining the contours of his nose bridge and the lines of his jaw clearly.

He was rarely quiet, without his usual cheeky smile or his cunning trickster style. He just leaned there, half-squinting his eyes, as if thinking about something very distant.

Ye Qingxian sat beside him, swinging her legs, the heels of her little boots tapping against the stone steps.

She had been eating candied fruit, but stopped halfway through.

She was looking at Lu Chen.

The firelight flickered on and off, and his profile followed suit, brightening and darkening.

She put down the candied fruit and licked the lingering sweetness from the corner of her mouth.

Her large eyes stared unblinkingly at Lu Chen's lips.

Ye Qingxian was a woman of action; she stood up abruptly.

Lu Chen noticed the movement and turned his head to look at her.

"What—"

He didn't finish his sentence.

Ye Qingxian grabbed his collar.

The little girl didn't have much strength, but her movement was fast and fierce, using all the explosive power of her Xiantai Realm Middle Stage cultivation on that one pull.

Lu Chen's body was pulled down by half an inch.

Then, a pair of warm, soft lips pressed directly onto his.

Lu Chen's pupils constricted sharply, and his double pupils almost reacted instinctively.

The sensation on his lips was very real—soft, warm, carrying the sweetness of the candied fruit, along with the unique scent of a young girl.

Ye Qingxian's eyes were closed, her eyelashes trembling.

She was actually panicked too, her heart beating so fast her ears were buzzing, but her lips remained firmly pressed, not letting go.

One breath, two breaths.

Ye Qingxian let go and took a step back.

Her face was flushed red, from the roots of her neck to the tips of her ears, and even the ribbons of her twin tails were swaying.

But she held her chin very high.

"It's been stamped."

Ye Qingxian's voice trembled, but her tone was very firm.

"From now on, you are this Young Miss's person."

She extended her index finger and poked Lu Chen's chest.

"I tell you to open your legs, you can't kiss me, just serve this Young Miss well! This Young Miss finds you quite pleasing to the eye!"

Lu Chen stood there.

He was a Great Emperor, dominating an era, sweeping across his contemporaries.

Just now, he had been forcefully kissed by an eighteen-year-old girl, by the Spirit River, under the fireworks filling the sky.

He raised his hand and wiped his lips.

The sweetness of the candied fruit remained on his fingertips.

His Dao Heart was cracked—not by the quasi-emperor-level fierce attacks of Jiang Yi or Nangong Waner, but by a brat in the Xiantai Realm Middle Stage, with her mouth, kissed until it cracked.

Lu Chen took a deep breath, about to open his mouth to teach this ignorant girl a lesson.

In his mind, a loli voice exploded.

[Ding~]

[Host, are you capable or not? You weakling!]

The System's voice carried undisguised schadenfreude.

[Still not a weakling? You're already at the Great Emperor Peak, and yet you got teased and forcefully kissed by a little girl!]

[Tsk tsk tsk, I see this girl lost her father when she was young, and she talks about the father her mother drew every day; she's quite pitiful.]

[You should just hurry up and be her father! Give her a harsh, strict education! Let her know the dangers of society!]

[By the way, I looked at her bone structure... hehe, Host, guess what?]

The System's tone suddenly changed; the loli voice lowered a bit, carrying an excitement of discovery.

[I see her bone structure is extraordinary; she is a one-in-ten-thousand cultivation prodigy. Maintaining peace in the Cultivation world will depend on her!]

[Host, you must have some Secret Manual; you have a fated connection with this little girl... hehehe!]