Watching Tao Yao in her spitting fury, Gu Ning was briefly lost for words, but the memory of that smug face a moment ago wiped out every trace of guilt.
Tao Yao was still going, letting fly with some very fragrant language, small pink fists clenched, itching to put one into the girl in front of her.
But little by little she noticed that the flush was draining out of the face opposite, giving way to its original cold ground, and that the way she was being looked at resembled nothing so much as a kitten waiting for the knife.
Only then did she come back to herself. As things stood she did not have the strength to truss a chicken.
Her cultivation had gone backward, her spiritual power had been wrung dry, and forget fighting, even running would be a difficult business.
Feeling her own weakness, and Gu Ning's aura climbing by the moment.
Tao Yao's voice grew smaller and smaller, and at last it stopped short.
"Finished cursing?"
Gu Ning raised an eyebrow and studied the red-faced Tao Yao with considerable interest.
The corner of Tao Yao's eye twitched, and her body took half a step back without her meaning it.
She had heard of this god of slaughter long ago. Kill any demon she met, and even a rat that had picked up a thread of a demonic disciple's scent got a couple of kicks for it.
Demonic sect disciples lost their nerve at the mere rumor of her.
Before this, Tao Yao had thought it was all exaggeration. The orthodox path, after all, loved nothing better than gilding its own face.
On her own ground, and with the phantom-form puppets, she could take her easily, and just when she thought she had her, it turned out Gu Ning was holding a card back.
Which left her cultivation looted clean, and her clinging to the woman and rubbing her face against her for half the afternoon...
She was beginning to regret ever taking this assignment.
"Today's exchange has taught me what Fairy Gu is truly capable of."
"Especially that... Great Suck-Suck Art!"
Tao Yao ground the last line out through her teeth.
Gu Ning blinked.
The Great Suck-Suck Art?
The corner of her mouth twitched. As if she had wanted to! It was that nameless secret art of yours that did it.
Watching the girl hiss at her like a cat, Gu Ning began to understand why she and the original owner had been at odds at every turn in the original book.
So the pair of them were both hard bones, and neither would give an inch to the other.
"Looks like this cat needs her teeth pulled."
Gu Ning thought it over. If she let Tao Yao go back, wasn't that the same as raising a great enemy for herself?
Better to grind her edge down, plant enough fear in her that she would not dare stand against her.
"That little mouth just will not stop." Gu Ning walked up and pinched her cheek with a slender hand. "Do you truly think I would not dare kill you?"
Forced to lift her face, Tao Yao's phoenix eyes met that frigid gaze.
Furious as she was, her lips had been squeezed into a pout, and all she could manage were muffled sounds with no words of protest in them.
But the distance between them had closed, and Tao Yao seemed to catch that intoxicating orchid scent again.
Her pretty face took on a thin coat of pink once more, and her heart sped up.
Tao Yao looked at that cold and flawless face and lost herself in it for a moment, then caught herself at once and turned her head away.
"What... what's the matter with me?"
The simpering picture she made brought back the courtesans of Yihe Court. Hadn't they worn exactly this look of refusing while inviting?
"No, no, no, what am I even thinking?"
"I'm a straight woman! How could I ever feel this way about a woman who only ever wins by dirty tricks!"
Tao Yao cursed herself inwardly, and a whimper came from her throat, as though she were yielding.
Gu Ning caught the small change.
Her heart lifted, thinking her threat had done its work.
"So the way to handle this one is to be hard about it."
Since the point had been made, Gu Ning had no intention of pushing too far. What if the girl turned into a hissing cat and lashed out in her death throes?
Give her a way down, and get her cooperating quietly. That was enough.
At that thought, Gu Ning let go.
The instant she did, Tao Yao's slender body swayed and she nearly failed to stand.
She lifted her head, eyes faintly rimmed with red, looking at Gu Ning as though she had suffered some tremendous humiliation.
Gu Ning pretended not to see it.
"So long as you obey the arrangements quietly, I naturally will not execute you where you stand."
Gu Ning put the Azure Frost Sword away and regarded her coldly.
"Hmph. Should I thank you for your mercy, then?"
Tao Yao seethed silently.
Gu Ning glanced at the phantom-form puppet slumped nearby in a soft heap like a slime, and could not shake an uneasy feeling.
"I had better put this thing away."
Gu Ning waved a hand, and the thing went into her storage pouch.
Watching the puppet she had refined at the cost of a great heap of heavenly treasures being carried off, a flicker of real pain went through Tao Yao's eyes.
But as a prisoner she could only watch helplessly, angry and not daring to say so.
The surroundings changed back into the room as it had been.
Then Gu Ning felt a ripple of spiritual power from behind the folding screen.
She went over and pulled the screen aside. On the floor lay a girl of surpassing beauty with an oval face.
There was no doubt about it. This was the real Bai Zhi.
Gu Ning turned her head toward Tao Yao.
"Got it, got it, got it—"
Tao Yao walked over to the girl with visible reluctance and undid the spell she had laid on her.
"I only put her under a spell that sank her into a dream. She'll wake up before long."
Tao Yao explained, afraid Gu Ning would think she was pulling some new trick.
Watching Bai Zhi's breathing steady, Gu Ning finally relaxed.
Gu Ning stood and drew from her storage pouch a sheet of talisman paper giving off a faint golden light.
Talismans of this kind could seal away most of a cultivator's cultivation and spiritual energy, made specifically for use on prisoners.
Seeing Gu Ning's hand extended and no further movement behind it, Tao Yao was left speechless and rolled her eyes.
"Fine. So I have to put the thing on myself."
Wearing an expression of open distaste, Tao Yao pinched the "shackle" between two fingers and pressed it to her own forehead.
The moment the talisman touched her, it scattered into motes of golden light and vanished.
The peach blossom mark on Tao Yao's forehead, red and pulsing before, went dark and dull.
"There. Satisfied?"
Tao Yao spread her hands, signaling that she was ready to be a prisoner.
Gu Ning looked her over. Her aura had drawn in by more than half and her spiritual power had stalled.
She nodded, thinking the girl was being rather cooperative, though her face stayed cold and untroubled.
"In that case, come out with me and join my sect brethren."
So saying, Gu Ning pushed the door open and walked out.
"The Great Suck-Suck Art... hmph."
Tao Yao muttered it under her breath and lifted a foot to follow.
The two of them passed through the crowd of orioles and swallows and came out to the mouth of the street.
A girl was standing there on her toes, her small head swaying back and forth, her twin ponytails bouncing with the movement.
Catching sight of a familiar figure, her eyes flickered and she came running.
"Senior Sister Gu~"
Seeing Gu Ning unharmed, Su Qiuyin's held breath finally came out and she greeted her happily.
Then she saw the person following behind Gu Ning, and her eyes filled with confusion.
"Who is she?"
"The Saintess of the Mystic Nether Sect. Tao Yao."
Gu Ning introduced her in the fewest possible words.
The instant Su Qiuyin heard the name, a shudder went through her and she hurried behind Gu Ning, leaving only a small head showing to look at Tao Yao.
"S-Senior Sister Gu, how... how did she end up here?"
Su Qiuyin had been raised on the teaching that the disciples of the demonic sect were cultivators guilty of the ten unpardonable crimes, who did nothing but murder people and seize their treasures.