Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Stepped Underfoot?
‘Go take a bath first,’
Scarlet Moon tossed the nightdress onto the bed, then pointed at an inconspicuous little door in the corner of the room. ‘The hot water has already been prepared for you.’
‘After you wash up, change into the new clothes.’
‘Then, get a good night’s sleep.’
Every instruction from Scarlet Moon had been clear and precise.
After her words fell, Ling Xi’s body began moving toward the bathroom against her will.
‘Wait…’ Ling Xi’s mind resisted. She wanted to stop, wanted to question what exactly the other party was trying to do.
Yet her body faithfully carried out the command, step by step, walking into that small compartment filled with rising steam.
The door gently closed behind her.
Ling Xi’s body walked to the edge of the bath and stopped.
The bathroom was not large. Both the walls and the floor were laid with a kind of dark cyan stone.
The air was thick with moisture, mixed with a faint fragrance.
Her gaze inevitably fell on the huge full-length mirror beside the bath.
In the mirror, a few damp strands of hair clung to the young girl’s smooth forehead and cheeks.
The frost-white dress had been snagged and torn in several places while fleeing, making her look somewhat bedraggled.
Beneath the hem of the skirt, her legs were straight and slender, her calves wrapped in pure white over-the-knee stockings. A small withered leaf was even still caught at the edge of one stocking on one side.
This body still made her feel unfamiliar.
Her body lifted one leg and stepped into the bath.
Warm water immediately wrapped around her.
This should have been a temperature capable of soothing exhaustion, yet Ling Xi only felt a chill rise from the bottom of her heart, rapidly spreading through her whole body.
Time slowly passed amid this strange sense of disconnection.
By the time she stood up from the bath and used the soft towel beside it to dry the droplets of water, Ling Xi’s mind was already somewhat dazed.
The bathroom door did not open immediately.
In the depths of Ling Xi’s consciousness, the instinctive sense of shame had taken over her thoughts.
Go out? In this completely naked state?
Absolutely not!
Outside the door, Scarlet Moon’s voice drifted in lightly, carrying a smile that seemed to see through everything.
‘Oh my, did I forget to prepare a bath towel for you?’
‘What an oversight on my part.’
‘Look, it’s right there on the rack to your left.’
The moment her words fell, Ling Xi’s body mechanically turned.
Her gaze landed on the rack by the wall, where, sure enough, a large, thick white bath towel had been folded neatly on top.
Her body automatically reached out and took down the towel.
Scarlet Moon was sitting on the edge of the bed. She had taken off those delicate little leather shoes and casually set them on the carpet.
She sat with her legs elegantly crossed, one leg over the other, the toe of her foot clad in a black long stocking precisely pointing toward the bathroom door.
The stocking was made of a semi-transparent material, with fine, slender stripe patterns on it that only revealed themselves when the angle shifted under the light.
It clung tightly to her calf, tracing a smooth and beautiful curve as it extended upward, finally vanishing into the deep shadow cast by the black skirt’s hem.
This posture was casual, yet full of deliberate suggestiveness. Ling Xi felt like a lost prey animal.
And the other party’s hunting gun had long since been aimed at her.
‘You’re out. I thought you were planning to soak in there until you dehydrated.’
Scarlet Moon lightly tilted her chin toward the beige-white nightdress on the bed.
‘Actually, there’s no need for you to insist on wrapping yourself in a bath towel. Since you’re about to change into your nightdress anyway, right?’
Ling Xi stood where she was, her body trembling slightly.
The only thing covering her now felt more fragile than paper.
Seeing her like this, Scarlet Moon revealed a smile.
The raised tip of her foot gently swayed, causing the subtle patterns on the black stocking to flow beneath the light.
‘What’s wrong? Do you need me to help you?’
As she spoke, she lifted a slender finger.
Ling Xi could feel that familiar dark magic returning again.
Invisible shadows were taking shape in the air, preparing to coil around the hand clutching her bath towel and complete the action she resisted.
No.
This could not go on any longer.
If even the most basic movements of her body had to be controlled by the other party, then she would truly have been reduced completely to a plaything.
Ling Xi’s thoughts suddenly turned in an entirely new direction.
This was the world of Era of the Divine Throne.
This world had magic, sword techniques, and all kinds of extraordinary powers.
And Ling Xi, this character, had originally been, in the game’s background setting, a magically gifted prodigy.
Perhaps it was only because of the transmigration that everything had been reset to zero for now.
As long as she could stay alive, as long as she had a chance to come into contact with this world’s system of knowledge, then she might be able to grasp power again.
Magic, sorcery, divine speech—any one of them would do.
As long as it could give her the strength to resist.
And right now, the only one who could let her survive and come into contact with those things was the woman before her, the one who regarded her as a toy.
Scarlet Moon.
Seeing the serious yet conflicted expression on Ling Xi’s face, Scarlet Moon did not make things difficult for her again.
‘Alright, get a good rest tonight. A toy that has lost its strength stops being fun too.’
Scarlet Moon stood up and walked two steps barefoot across the carpet. She picked up those black little leather shoes, but did not put them on, merely carrying them casually in one hand.
She walked toward the door, her footsteps light and soft.
As she left, Ling Xi’s taut nerves gained a brief moment to breathe.
Just as Scarlet Moon’s hand came to rest on the demonic crest on the door, her movement stopped.
She did not turn back, merely tilted her face slightly, her blood-red eyes looking over through the strands of hair falling across her shoulder.
That gaze pierced through the dim yellow lamplight in the room and pinned itself precisely onto Ling Xi.
‘Come to think of it,’ her voice was brisk, as though she were sharing an interesting discovery, ‘I vaguely heard someone say before that they wanted to come to my world and stomp me underfoot.’
Ling Xi’s mind stopped.
Time became blurred at that moment.
Only Scarlet Moon’s face remained, wearing that sweet expression.
She knew.
She actually knew!
That had been something said in another world, a remark made through a screen.
It belonged to “Gu Chuan,” a memory that should not have existed here.
Ling Xi’s fingers tightened around the bath towel.
‘Surprised? I was surprised too.’
Carrying the shoes in hand, she turned half a circle in place on her bare feet.
‘That voice came from very far away.’
‘It crossed through the barrier between worlds and rang directly in my ears.’
‘The look on your face is so interesting.’
She opened the door. ‘The look on your face is so interesting.’
‘Still, you do not need to be so nervous.’
‘I am not going to eat you, at least not for now.’