Chapter 37: Li Yao
The early morning sun filtered faintly through the translucent jade curtains that lined the windows of the cultivation chamber, its light casting a warm, golden hue upon the ornate floor tiles. The room was scented with a subtle blend of crushed lotus petals and a lingering trace of last night’s incense—used to both heighten spiritual perception and mask more carnal undertones.
Li Yao sat quietly on the wide jade bed at the center of the chamber, her knees drawn to her chest, her gaze lost in the intricately carved ceiling above. Her hair, long and disheveled, spilled across her shoulders like ink flowing across snow. The bedsheets beneath her were rumpled and stained with traces of passion, the fragrance of dual cultivation still subtly hanging in the air like a guilty whisper.
The atmosphere was quiet—too quiet.
Around her, the cultivation arrays embedded in the room’s corners pulsed with a soft, rhythmic glow. They shimmered with spiritual energy, their arcs weaving gently like silver serpents in the air. The gentle hum of these arrays served as the only sound, echoing softly across the polished walls, amplifying the weight of silence in the room.
Li Yao chewed on her lower lip, her mind restless. After some hesitation, she closed her eyes and focused her divine sense, reaching out telepathically to her master.
"Master..." she asked, her voice tentative in the mental realm, soft as a whisper carried on the wind. "Do you think... was it too much?"
The silence that followed was brief, but it hung heavily in the space between master and disciple, like the stillness before a storm.
Far away, on a floating peak veiled in lavender mists and celestial clouds, her master, Cheng Yue, was lounging upon an obsidian throne shaped from an ancient spirit tree, its bark still glowing faintly with residual divine qi. Her chambers were high in the heavens, surrounded by clouds that never dispersed, where time seemed to slow, and even the chirping of spirit birds came muffled by layers of thick fog.
Cheng Yue’s lips curled into a mischievous smirk as she received the mental message from her disciple. She sat with her legs elegantly crossed, one hand supporting her chin while the other gently swirled a cup of warm spiritual tea. She allowed a small chuckle to escape her lips, one that rolled through the link with a tone of both amusement and provocation.
"Oh? Now you ask me?" her voice purred into Li Yao’s consciousness, playful and sharp like the glint of a blade hidden behind a smile. "You went so rough on him, like a little vixen in heat. You sucked him dry last night... and now you want to know my opinion?"
Her laughter, soft but mocking, echoed like the tinkling of wind chimes during a passing breeze. Li Yao’s face turned red in an instant, her entire body trembling slightly as she recalled the events of the previous night.
Her fingers gripped the bedsheets tighter, her nails digging into the fine silk. Her heart pounded against her ribs. Every movement of the blanket sent subtle shivers up her spine as she became aware of the soreness and lingering warmth in her lower body.