Chapter 144: I Will Be Your Blade, Darling~
The silence reigned inside the meditation chamber, a vast room whose walls were made of raw obsidian blocks that absorbed the light to let only a dark and unsettling glow filter through.
BaiShe stood near a narrow window, observing the volcanic peaks that tore through the sky of this wild era, his hands joined behind his back in his usual posture of perfect serenity. At his side, Yilan whom he had just snatched from the auction, seemed to be nothing more than a splash of bright color in this icy half-light. Her long silky hair of a vibrant pink fell in disarray over her shoulders, and her nine tails twitched with feline nervousness, betraying the instability of her internal energy. She fixed the back of the man she now called her master, her sapphire eyes shining with a confusion she could no longer repress.
"BaiShe..." she murmured, her voice a suave melody that made the silence of the room vibrate. "You speak to me of Cultivation and domination... but I feel the void in you... Your Dantian is a desert expanse, devoid of the slightest spark of original Qi."
BaiShe slowly turned toward her, adjusting his sage monocle with a methodical precision that accentuated his image of a detached scholar. He showed no embarrassment, no sign of shame at the revelation of his own physical weakness. His silver pupils scrutinized the heart-shaped face of the young woman, analyzing every micro-expression with strategic intelligence.
"That is a pertinent observation, Lan’er ..." he replied in a monotone voice, his voice resonating with an authority that contradicted his stature as a simple mortal.
"At this precise moment, this young scholar is indeed only a human, a creature that the Dao did not deem worthy of endowing with spiritual roots or divine lineages for this life... I cannot devour others to survive."
Yi Lan took a step toward him, her opulent bust rising under the effect of an increasingly rapid breath. She did not understand how a being so vulnerable could inspire such terror in the Origins lords and the Rakshasas around him. She felt her own seduction Qi boil, that pink and vaporous essence that drove men mad with desire, but which seemed to slide off BaiShe like water on jade.
"Why help me, when your own Qi is so weak?" she finally asked, her hands trembling in her sleeves as she searched for a trace of truth in her savior’s gaze.
BaiShe approached her, reducing the distance until Yi Lan could smell the frosted lotus scent emanating from his white clothes. He raised his pale hand and gently caressed the contour of her jaw, a gesture of poisoned tenderness that made the fox shiver.
"Because in this world dominated by the beasts of Origins, I will need you." he declared, his eyes briefly tinting with a predatory violet glow. "The Dao cursed you by giving you a beauty capable of consuming minds, but it forgot to give you the user manual... This young scholar will teach it to you."