411: Chapter 411 Different Paths

Canglan Peak courtyard.

Inside the wing room, the candlelight flickered, casting their shadows onto the wall, overlapping.

Shui Liuli was pulled into Ling Hao's embrace by his hand on her waist. She stood on her tiptoes, wrapping her arms around his neck, looking up with her small face, her purple eyes shimmering with light.

Ling Hao lowered his head and kissed those slightly upturned lips. Shui Liuli's lips were soft and warm, carrying the unique sweetness of a young girl. She responded clumsily, her tongue tentatively reaching out, only to be gently caught by Ling Hao.

The kiss spread from her lips to her cheeks, earlobes, and neck. Shui Liuli trembled slightly, tiny whimpers escaping her throat like a kitten acting spoiled.

Ling Hao's hand began to slip inside her thin nightgown, stroking her smooth back, his fingertips trailing down her spine bone by bone. Her body stiffened, then softened in his arms, as if her bones had been removed.

"Revered Master..." she murmured, her eyes misting over.

Outside the window, the bright moon hung high, its clear light like white silk.

Faint, fragmented sounds came from the wing room, mixed with suppressed panting, only to be gently scattered by the night wind.

"It hurts... Revered Master, be gentler..."

"Be good, it'll be better in a moment."

...

Under the bright moon, outside the White Rock Giant City.

Liu Ruyan tossed the Jade Slip in her hand and caught it, saying nonchalantly:

"I can give you the complete 'White Rock Cauldron Control Art' to let you control the rock cauldron."

Ji Xuanming's pupils constricted slightly:

"Once I have the rock cauldron, I will be invincible in White Rock Province. Aren't you afraid I'll turn around and deal with you?"

Liu Ruyan laughed and mocked:

"You think you're invincible just by controlling the rock cauldron? In ancient times, the Old Ancestors of the three major Yao Races used secret methods to borrow the ley lines of White Rock Province. Now, the ley lines of White Rock Province are already broken and battered. You've just broken through to the Mahayana Realm; even with the rock cauldron, you'll only rise by a few minor Realms. You still want to be invincible?"

Ji Xuanming didn't believe her:

"Impossible! If that's the case, how could the rock cauldron have suppressed the main root of the Fallen Immortal Ancient Banyan for so long?"

Liu Ruyan didn't answer, just looked at him with a meaningful smile.

"Seven days from now, come here. If you don't..."

She smiled and didn't continue.

Ji Xuanming suddenly felt a sense of suffocation, as if his heart was being gripped by something, a faint pain throbbing.

He snapped his head up, staring intently at her—

"You..."

"Was the wine in that illusion just now good?" Liu Ruyan blinked, her tone as innocent as if she were asking about the weather.

Ji Xuanming's face turned pale.

He was—his life and death were now held in the hands of a woman!

Liu Ruyan stood up, jumped down from the bluestone, and stepped on the fallen leaves, walking toward him step by step.

With every step, her waist twisted in a breathtaking curve. She walked up to him, her peach blossom eyes shimmering:

"Don't worry, you won't die. It's just to make you behave."

"Once the matter is settled, I will naturally give you your freedom. At that time, whether you want to be the Grand Supreme of the White Rock Holy Land or something else, it's up to you."

Ji Xuanming lowered his head, humiliation and anger flashing in his eyes, along with a hidden trace of fear.

Freedom, would there really be such a thing?

"What do you want me to do?"

Liu Ruyan smiled with satisfaction:

"It's simple. Aren't you all going to the Ten Thousand Miasma Demon Forest? When the time comes, find an opportunity..."

Ji Xuanming snorted coldly.

"That adulterous couple ordered me to guard the Holy Land. I can't go to the Demon Forest at all, so naturally, I won't have a chance to strike."

Liu Ruyan was stunned, then flew into a rage:

"Who are you calling an adulterer!"

Her voice suddenly rose, her peach blossom eyes widening.

Ji Xuanming was startled by this sudden fury and said subconsciously: "Supreme Moonshadow..."

"You are not allowed to insult him!"

Liu Ruyan's eyebrows arched sharply, and she struck Ji Xuanming to the ground with her silk fan.

"He is so handsome; it must have been that Lady Shi Ji who seduced him!"

Ji Xuanming was stunned.

Looking at the glamorous face filled with anger before him, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind. He opened his mouth and blurted out:

"You like Supreme Moonshadow?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, even he felt they were absurd.

Liu Ruyan did not deny it.

The anger on her face suddenly dissipated, replaced by an infatuated expression. She looked toward the White Rock Holy Land, her peach blossom eyes shimmering as she murmured:

"My beauty... why didn't you come to the East Gate, leaving me to wait all night..."

Ji Xuanming had lived for thousands of years and considered himself to have seen all walks of life. At this moment, looking at this woman—who was seductive to the bone just now, turned furious in an instant, and now showed such infatuation.

Only one thought remained in his mind:

Absurd!

"What was so good about this Supreme Moonshadow? To think even this woman from the Niding Alliance, an enemy, was so infatuated? Could it be that Supreme Moonshadow had abandoned her? And so she joined the Niding Alliance out of resentment, preparing for revenge?"

Ji Xuanming reminded her: "Supreme Moonshadow is our enemy!"

Liu Ruyan glanced at him sideways and said righteously: "So what if we're enemies? That doesn't conflict with love."

Two cold glints shot from her peach blossom eyes: "Only I can scold him. I'm warning you, even if you control the rock cauldron, you are not allowed to lay a hand on him again, nor are you allowed to play any more tricks!"

"Impossible! That adul—"

Ji Xuanming had only uttered half a word before he was frightened into silence by the killing intent in those peach blossom eyes.

He tactfully changed his tune: "I will definitely be extremely respectful to him."

In his heart, however, he had already cursed her a thousand times.

Bitch.

Liu Ruyan smiled like a blooming flower. She took a step back, her silk fan swaying gently, her eyes like water, her voice seductive to the bone:

"Supreme Mingxuan~ Do you think I am beautiful~?"

That voice was like a feather, gently brushing against the heart. Ji Xuanming felt his mind sway; the woman before him suddenly became unimaginably beautiful, and an uncontrollable impulse surged in his heart.

"Beautiful."

Liu Ruyan breathed like an orchid, "Then do you like me?"

Ji Xuanming's mind wavered, and under the lingering effects of the charm technique, he blurted out: "I like you..."

"Then—"

A curve hooked at the corner of Liu Ruyan's mouth, her voice as soft as a lover's whisper:

"Then let me hear you bark like a dog."

"Woof woof! Woof woof..."

After two barks, Ji Xuanming suddenly stiffened—

The illusions fully receded.

The charm technique dissipated, and before him was still that dense forest and the cold moon. Liu Ruyan stood three steps away, her silk fan swaying gently, a smile on her lips as she watched him like a spectator at a play.

Ji Xuanming looked down and found himself kneeling on the ground, his hands propped up, looking exactly like a dog begging for mercy.

He stood up abruptly, his face flushed red, the fire of anger in his eyes almost erupting: "You—!"

Liu Ruyan chuckled and said slowly: "This is punishment for your previous actions against him and for insulting him just now."

Ji Xuanming's chest heaved violently, his lips trembled, but he couldn't say a single word.

What... what had he gone through these past few days?

Kneeling in public, being called 'the weakest' by Shi Yunyu, and now being toyed with by a woman from the Niding Alliance...

Liu Ruyan turned around, her skirt swirling out like a flower. With her back to him, her voice was flat:

"Go back for now."

Ji Xuanming stood in place, staring at her back, countless complex emotions flashing in his eyes. He took a deep breath and turned to leave.

Liu Ruyan didn't look back.

She gazed toward the White Rock Holy Land, the moonlight spilling over her glamorous face, reflecting a pair of blurred peach blossom eyes.

"Truly no sense of romance... stood me up last time, making me wait in vain all night..."

After discovering that the man she encountered in White Rock Giant City was Supreme Moonshadow, Liu Ruyan had come here, handling the matter of the jade pendant along the way.

She bit her lip, a trace of resentment flashing in her eyes, which then turned into infatuation.

She reached out, her fingertips stroking her own cheek, from her eyes to her lips, inch by inch, as if caressing some precious treasure.

Under the moonlight, on that glamorous face, infatuation and obsession intertwined, distorted and magnificent.

"I am so beautiful, why won't you even spare me a glance?"

"If I could spend a night of passion with him..."

Liu Ruyan murmured softly, her voice carrying an uncontrollable tremor, like anticipation, like longing, "What would it feel like?"

She closed her eyes, a soft smile playing on her lips.

"I really want to know..."

"It's just, our Daos are different..."