VHSTS CH13

A thunderous boom echoed throughout the stone chamber.

Li Xiuchen’s body slammed violently against the stone wall amidst flying rubble. While the wall itself remained completely unscathed, he was wracked with unbearable agony. Every single bone in his body felt as though it had been crushed to powder, with at least four ribs snapped; had he been an ordinary mortal, he would surely be dead by now.

Worse still, an immense, suffocating spiritual pressure pinned Li Xiuchen firmly beneath its weight, leaving him sprawled flat on the floor and unable to move a muscle.

At this very moment, although fierce desire still boiled and surged within Li Xiuchen’s chest, he could no longer spare a thought for it. Struggling to lift his head, he finally saw clearly who had arrived.

The newcomer possessed a cool, handsome, and graceful bearing, clad in flowing white robes with pristine black hair. Faint golden radiance shimmered around his form, while an eight-petaled golden lotus bloomed brilliantly between his brows, radiating dazzling light too blinding to look upon directly.

Li Xiuchen’s teeth chattered uncontrollably. He had already recognized who this person was, yet he still couldn’t believe why he would appear here.

Xuanlingzi lowered his eyes indifferently to look at the battered, pathetic Li Xiuchen lying on the ground. There was neither sorrow nor joy in his gaze, and even the earlier fury and resentment had vanished—replaced instead by the cold detachment of someone looking at a dead object. A bone-deep chill washed over Li Xiuchen, leaving him certain that if he so much as twitched, this man would kill him without the slightest hesitation.

“Moments ago, was it with this pair of hands that you touched my disciple’s robes?”

The deep, pleasant, yet icy voice rang out calmly.

Thoroughly tormented by both excruciating pain and the aphrodisiac poison, Li Xiuchen couldn’t utter a single sound and naturally offered no reply.

Yet Xuanlingzi hadn’t been waiting for his answer anyway. With an impassive expression, he simply raised his hand—and in a split second, a streak of golden sword light flashed across the chamber! Razor-sharp sword qi aimed straight for Li Xiuchen’s hands, piercing clean through both of his palms in an instant!

“Aaargh!!!”

Tears of agony streamed from Li Xiuchen’s eyes as mucus smeared across his face; he stared up in sheer terror at the lofty Zunzhe towering above him. Only to hear the other man speak once more in that same flat, indifferent tone: “Moments ago, was it with this pair of eyes that you looked upon my disciple’s body?”

“Aaargh!!!”

Tears of blood gushed forth from Li Xiuchen’s eyes. Even as ominous, ferocious rumbles of thunder began echoing ominously from the heavens, nothing deterred Xuanlingzi’s actions. Pressing two fingers together with golden sword qi still flowing between them, Xuanlingzi fixed his narrow phoenix eyes quietly upon the ruined body sprawled across the floor.

Xuanlingzi said, “Moments ago, was it you, Li Xiuchen, who intended to lay hands on my disciple once more?”

Sword light flared brilliantly at his fingertips as Xuanlingzi narrowed his eyes and pointed directly at Li Xiuchen. Clutching his bleeding eyes, Li Xiuchen rolled around on the ground in excruciating torment, utterly unable to comprehend why the man who was supposed to be his Shifu was suddenly trying to kill him—every single word spoken laced with boundless hatred.

Just as that lethal sword qi was on the verge of shooting forth from his fingertips, the thunder roaring in the sky grew even fiercer. In an instant, a massive bolt of silver lightning crashed down from the heavens, tearing straight through space itself to strike directly at Xuanlingzi!

This lightning was nothing like the bolts Luo Jianqing had summoned before—thicker than the entire width of the stone chamber, with silver serpents of electricity darting wildly around it. Just looking at such lightning struck terror into one’s soul; this was a heavenly tribulation capable of obliterating even a Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse!

As the first bolt of silver lightning came crashing down, Xuanlingzi raised a hand to block it.

Next came a bolt of crimson lightning, radiating enough destructive force to annihilate heaven and earth!

A full thirty-six bolts of tribulation lightning rained down relentlessly. Even Xuanlingzi’s face gradually turned pale as he flipped his hand to deflect yet another bolt of violet lightning. Above them, storm clouds churned violently, seemingly preparing to unleash even more tribulation strikes. Narrowing his eyes, Xuanlingzi spoke coldly in anger: “I have already sacrificed to this extent—do you truly think you can stop me?!”

The thunderclouds paused in silence for a brief moment, yet refused to disperse, continuing to hover ominously in the sky outside the ruins.

For three hundred li surrounding the Yitian Mountain Range, those dark, oppressive storm clouds were clearly visible. Tens of millions of mortals knelt prostrate upon the ground, praying fervently and begging the heavens not to send down divine wrath. Meanwhile, inside the Yitian Sect, all three Golden Core Supreme Elders had gathered together, staring in shock at the storm clouds spanning hundreds of li.

Second Elder asked in terror, “Is a Tribulation Transcendence powerhouse undergoing heavenly tribulation?”

First Elder shook his head. “Even when Xuanlingzi Zunzhe underwent his tribulation back in the day, rumor says he only encountered storm clouds with an eighty-one-li radius and eighty-one tribulation strikes. Who else in this world could possibly surpass the Zunzhe of Taihua Mountain? This must be a celestial omen—chaos is about to erupt in the Demon Realm!”

Third Elder suddenly thought of something: “Shixiong, could it be those ruins of Beidou Zhenjun…”

“Nonsense! Those are merely the ruins of a Nascent Soul cultivator—how could they possibly trigger a phenomenon of this magnitude?”

For a time, mortals everywhere knelt in prayer while countless cultivators debated endlessly.

Meanwhile, inside the ruins, not a flicker of emotion crossed Xuanlingzi’s aloof, handsome face. He lifted his head silently to look toward the heavens before ultimately retracting his sword qi. Raising a foot, he kicked Li Xiuchen over into the corner of the chamber, then reached out and drew a streak of white light straight out of Li Xiuchen’s forehead.

“Forget everything that happened here. Today, I spare your life.”

After struggling in agony for a brief moment, Li Xiuchen finally lost consciousness. His face was flushed bright red as the aphrodisiac poison transformed into wisps of purple mist coursing wildly through his body, yet he remained completely unable to wake up, left at the mercy of the poison ravaging his meridians.

Paying no further attention to him, Xuanlingzi turned around and looked calmly toward his disciple—only for his gaze to freeze abruptly the moment his eyes landed on him.

“Jianqing!”

Xuanlingzi hurriedly stepped forward, took hold of Luo Jianqing’s hand, and channeled pure spiritual power into his body.

Luo Jianqing’s cheeks were flushed crimson, and he had long been panting heavily. Suddenly receiving an influx of spiritual power, he regained the strength to move—and with it, he could no longer suppress the aphrodisiac poison raging inside him. Abruptly grabbing onto that cool, refreshing source of energy, he rolled over and pinned the other man beneath him.

Xuanlingzi stared up at this scene in stunned silence.

Straddling his waist, Luo Jianqing lowered his eyes, gazing down at him with hazy, unfocused eyes.

Those lips that had always addressed him as “Shifu” were now as red as dripping blood, irresistibly alluring; his exquisite eyes shimmered brightly with moisture, and his disheveled robes hung loosely open, exposing a stretch of delicate, fragile collarbone.

Luo Jianqing slowly opened his eyes, looking at the person pinned beneath him. Seeing the other man’s face, he showed not a hint of surprise—instead, he let out a hoarse chuckle and murmured softly, “Another… illusion? An illusion, just an illusion… mmh…”

A low, ambiguous moan escaped his throat. Unable to hold himself back any longer, Luo Jianqing slowly leaned down, bringing his face close to the man beneath him. He gazed at that face with complicated eyes, his stare sliding down from those cool, aloof brows and eyes to rest upon those thin lips—until finally, he lowered his head and pressed his lips against them!

Xuanlingzi’s eyes contracted slightly.

Hot, damp breath mingled where their lips pressed together. Closing his eyes, Luo Jianqing kissed the person beneath him with earnest devotion. His lips ground softly against the other’s, gently sucking and nipping; he tried to pry open the man’s teeth, only to find his jaw tightly clenched, refusing to yield even a fraction.

After kissing him for a long while, Luo Jianqing lifted his head. Beneath him, the noble Xuanlingzi Zunzhe still hadn’t changed expression, gazing back at him as calmly as ever—only the red, slightly swollen state of his lips betrayed what had just transpired.

Luo Jianqing felt neither shame nor anger; it was only natural for his Shifu to remain unmoved by him forever.

The peerless Eldest Shixiong of Taihua Mountain laughed softly—a sound that seemed half like laughter and half like weeping. Ultimately unable to endure the aphrodisiac poison burning inside him, he rubbed his hands restlessly against his own robes, trying to relieve his own desire. His lower half had long hardened like iron, pressing tightly against Xuanlingzi’s lower abdomen, yet he continued only to torment himself, refusing to take any further initiative with the man beneath him.

Earlier, Luo Jianqing’s sash had already been pulled loose by Li Xiuchen. Now, amidst his restless tugging, his robes fell completely disarrayed, exposing large expanses of snow-white skin to the air. Flushed with an alluring tinge of pink, his skin looked like the finest white jade under heaven, breathtaking enough to steal one’s breath away.

Sitting atop Xuanlingzi, Luo Jianqing stroked himself helplessly, lost in desire.

He failed to notice that the eyes of the man beneath him were growing darker and darker. When he saw Luo Jianqing’s hands stray toward the two peaks on his chest, Xuanlingzi narrowed his eyes and abruptly flipped over, pinning Luo Jianqing beneath him instead. Gazing down at his disciple with a deeply complicated expression, he paused for a long moment before finally catching hold of Luo Jianqing’s hands.

Luo Jianqing looked up at him in a daze, his eyes brimming entirely with desire.

Maintaining a calm expression, Xuanlingzi leaned down gently, pressing his cool lips against that burning-hot body and kissing every inch of skin Luo Jianqing had just touched. Finally halting at Luo Jianqing’s left shoulder, he kissed it tenderly, sucking until a bewitching crimson mark bloomed on the fair skin, before lifting his head once more to look at his disciple drowning helplessly in passion.

At Xuanlingzi’s touch, Luo Jianqing had already been gasping softly without pause; now, gazing back at him with shimmering, watery eyes, he murmured with a trace of bitterness, “Shifu, hehe, Shifu… mmph…”

A scorching kiss descended, sealing away the rest of Luo Jianqing’s words.

An icy tongue slipped past his feverish lips, sweeping over every burning inch inside his mouth and sucking on his full lips with soft, wet sounds. Luo Jianqing couldn’t suppress a moan, wrapping his arms around the man above him in passion and pressing himself closer, yearning for the other’s touch.

Yet Xuanlingzi only kissed him.

He kissed him with unrestrained abandon, as though unleashing emotions suppressed for countless years—biting forcefully at those soft lips and tasting the sweet nectar within, drawing helpless, unbearable whimpers from his normally strict and self-disciplined disciple.

Xuanlingzi reached up into Luo Jianqing’s hair and pulled out the blue-green jade hairpin. In an instant, cascades of black silk spilled loose across the stone floor; framed by his dark hair, that radiant, captivating face looked overwhelmingly seductive. Lowering his eyes to take in the sight, Xuanlingzi softened his kisses into something far gentler.

He kissed him tenderly, lingering for a long time before finally pulling back.

Trembling all over, Luo Jianqing clung to him, pressing his bare chest against him, yet Xuanlingzi’s gaze remained tranquil and unmoved.

A moment later, Xuanlingzi lowered his head and pressed his lips to Luo Jianqing’s once more. This time, a faint crimson glow illuminated the place where their lips met. Luo Jianqing’s entire body stiffened before going completely limp against the stone floor, allowing the other man to kiss him freely. The crimson light grew brighter and brighter; as time passed, the scorching heat faded from Luo Jianqing’s skin, his fair complexion returning to its normal jade-like hue.

Meanwhile, a red light flickered between Xuanlingzi’s own brows. The exact instant the crimson glow vanished from between their lips, Xuanlingzi immediately released Luo Jianqing. As if unwilling to linger for even a single extra second after drawing all of the aphrodisiac poison into himself, he gently laid his unconscious disciple down onto the floor.

Xuanlingzi’s robes were neat and immaculate, his demeanor noble and aloof, not even a single strand of hair out of place—as though nothing at all had happened. He carefully dressed Luo Jianqing back into every layer of his garments, his expression so detached it truly seemed he was merely tending to his disciple without a shred of extraneous emotion.

Once everything was set in order, he slowly rose to his feet and turned his gaze toward the meditation cushion in the stone chamber.

Narrowing his eyes, Xuanlingzi spoke in an ice-cold voice: “Since you have been watching for so long, why continue hiding in the shadows? You sullied my disciple’s reputation, slandered him as a demon, and nearly caused him to be possessed by that demon fox—are you prepared to atone for your crimes?!”