Because of Hou Danxue’s heavy expectations, Wu Ming took up her body-tempering cultivation once more.
Her last experience had terrified her; later, once she felt her strength was sufficient, she hadn’t thought about improving further, constantly putting the matter off.
To sit upon countless materials and yet slack off—the old Wu Ming could never have imagined she would become such a person. She had truly grown too accustomed to a life of pampered luxury!
Wu Ming condemned herself fiercely and then dealt herself a harsh hand—she used a vast hoard of treasures, refining them all at once.
Looking at the liquid, which had visibly changed color, Wu Ming felt a sense of trepidation.
She didn’t pity the treasures she had destroyed now; she pitied herself, for she was about to endure hellish torture!
“And then, let them submerge you, right?”
Hou Danxue stood by her side. As her hand reached toward the liquid, Wu Ming immediately grabbed it.
“Wife, don’t touch! It will hurt you!”
“Why would it hurt me? I don’t practice the technique you do. To me, isn’t this just ordinary liquid?”
Wu Ming froze; she truly hadn’t considered that layer of logic.
It was true; these powers could only enter her body because she was circulating her energy. Hou Danxue did not interfere with these forces, so there was no need to worry about her being harmed.
Watching Hou Danxue play with the water with her fingers, Wu Ming grew even more afraid.
She suddenly didn’t want to go in. She felt that the Hou Danxue beside her was more terrifying than the forces she was about to absorb.
“Cough… Wife, I’m not feeling very well right now. How about another day?”
She would wait until Hou Danxue was busy, wait until she was alone, and then perform the body-tempering.
“Can these things really be left sitting? Won’t the power inside dissipate?”
Of course, it had a time limit! The faster she absorbed these powers, the better.
Meeting Hou Danxue’s clear gaze, Wu Ming felt inexplicably anxious.
How could she be so wasteful? Just because she was afraid of Hou Danxue causing trouble by her side, was she going to waste so many treasures that she once wouldn’t have dared to dream of?
It was truly unacceptable! Her past self would have loathed her current self!
Hardening her heart, Wu Ming stepped into the medicinal liquid.
Hou Danxue did not leave; she hooked one arm around Wu Ming’s neck, her body pressed tightly against her, while her other hand continued to play in the water.
The moment Wu Ming circulated her technique, she knew she was in trouble. She had overestimated herself again, and this time was more severe—she had almost no strength left to resist.
With blurred vision, she turned her head to look at the person beside her, hoping the other would notice something was wrong. But clearly, the other was more interested in the medicinal liquid. Her stirring of the liquid was also a stirring of the forces crashing through Wu Ming’s body.
Wu Ming summoned a surge of strength and grabbed Hou Danxue’s mischievous hand.
“Oh?”
Hou Danxue easily broke free from her grasp and instead caught her limp hand.
“Weren’t you very strong last time?”
Great! She had noticed something was wrong!
Wu Ming attempted to use her eyes to plead with Hou Danxue for help, only to find that Hou Danxue’s gaze was off—it held that familiar, sparkling light.
Wu Ming fell into despair. She gave up struggling; she couldn’t rely on someone who only wanted to toy with her.
“Ha—do you trust me so little?”
Realizing she couldn’t tease Wu Ming any further, Hou Danxue dropped a pill into the medicinal liquid.
The pill dissolved, and Wu Ming suddenly felt the pressure lighten. It felt as if she had come back to life.
“What good thing is this? I thought you only knew poison?”
“This is naturally poison as well.”
Poison? Her… how could her wife poison her?
Hou Danxue watched Wu Ming’s face turn pale before supplementing unhurriedly: “It is merely a poison directed at the medicinal liquid. Now they have been drugged unconscious by me; seize the moment and circulate your energy quickly!”
With the crisis averted, Wu Ming relaxed completely. She began absorbing the power while kissing the Hou Danxue who was pressed against her.
Her wife was so good; not only did she provide materials for her practice, but she even helped her with it!
Wu Ming felt that her current laziness was largely due to Hou Danxue. With Hou Danxue around, everything was too smooth; she could easily obtain things she couldn’t have gotten in the past even if she had exerted all her strength.
She only needed to move her muscles occasionally to kill someone; the rest of her time was spent enjoying the life of a wealthy, idle person.
Hou Danxue’s hand brushed over Wu Ming’s skin, and Wu Ming suddenly felt she had thought too highly of her.
Her wife was a black-hearted one!
She wouldn’t hurt her, but she would toy with her! Her wicked whims were endless!
The familiar surge of medicinal power struck again. Wu Ming stopped the kiss, her hand tightly gripping Hou Danxue’s arm.
“You’re pinching me. If you don’t learn to cherish me, then I won’t cherish you either.”
“Didn’t you… drug them… unconscious? Why… are they… active again?”
“Ha—I am the one who makes the poison; naturally, I also have the antidote.”
Hou Danxue’s fingers held the antidote. It did not dissolve into the water; it only affected a small portion of the liquid around it, making them regain their power.
Her movements were small, but the liquid around her was influenced by her actions. They were like extensions of her limbs, loyally executing her thoughts. The gathered power caused a devastating stimulus to Wu Ming’s senses.
“I’m not affecting you, am I? You’d better hurry and absorb these powers, otherwise… my antidote will wake them all up.” At that time, it wouldn’t be such simple ripples.
Wu Ming understood Hou Danxue’s threat. She knew that Hou Danxue wouldn’t actually let the energy spiral out of control—Hou Danxue wouldn’t hurt her—but that didn’t stop her from having many wicked whims. She probably looked forward to seeing Wu Ming tortured to the brink of collapse. Wu Ming wouldn’t let her have her way!
Wu Ming wanted to stop all this; she wanted to snatch the antidote from Hou Danxue’s hand. But unfortunately, her own hand was injured and couldn’t touch the water; she couldn’t reach into the liquid to stop Hou Danxue from tormenting her body.
Damn it! Why did her hand have to be injured! Now her hand was her greatest weakness; she absolutely could not let her injured hand come into contact with these wild forces.
Could it be… she would just let Hou Danxue toy with her like this?
Wu Ming was preparing to give up struggling and focus solely on absorbing the power, only to find Hou Danxue’s other hand also reaching into the water.
Wu Ming felt she was already being excessive, but she hadn’t expected Hou Danxue to be even worse. She had underestimated the extent of her perversion!
Hou Danxue’s hand scooped up water and splashed it onto the parts of Wu Ming’s body exposed above the surface. Wu Ming was in the middle of her technique and was caught off guard; the violent power, controlled by Hou Danxue, left faint red marks on her skin.
Wu Ming’s body was powerful; it had been a long time since she had felt this tingling pain.
If it weren’t for the help of these frenzied forces, Hou Danxue could never have left such marks on her!
“Wife…”
“Lady, be good…”
Seeing that Hou Danxue did not intend to let her go, Wu Ming knew that focusing only on absorbing power was not a good idea. Doing so would only result in her being eaten clean by Hou Danxue!
She had to strike back!
At least to the point where the other wouldn’t even have the strength to make small movements!
Otherwise, these frenzied powers… Wu Ming didn’t want to endure them…
It was too hard to bear…
She would rather endure the initial overwhelming pain than the current teasing from Hou Danxue…
When pleasure reaches the extreme, what difference is there from pain…
Taking advantage of Hou Danxue’s inattention, Wu Ming pulled Hou Danxue into her arms.
The small space still limited her performance; otherwise, she could have dragged Hou Danxue completely out of the water. However, now Hou Danxue’s hand remained in the water, tormenting her.
“What are you doing?”
Hou Danxue wasn’t actually very panicked. Wu Ming’s hand was injured, and she was at a critical moment in her practice; she couldn’t possibly use her injured hand to mess with her, right?
Even if she wanted to, Hou Danxue wouldn’t allow it. The thought of an intimacy mixed with blood was chilling to imagine.
Wu Ming sneered. She couldn’t use her hand, but she still had her mouth.
Just treat it like last time!
“Ah—”
Unlike last time, Wu Ming had consumed much energy resisting the medicinal power then. This time, with Hou Danxue’s help, she absorbed the medicinal power effortlessly, and her energy was largely preserved.
However, the indignation in Wu Ming’s heart was the same as last time.
She had to severely sanction Hou Danxue, or else Hou Danxue would only get more and more out of hand!
Little did she know, because she couldn’t handle the stimulation, Hou Danxue lost control of the rhythm of her hands. The water splashed wildly, and Wu Ming relied on immense willpower not to let go of Hou Danxue.
Fine, now they were both wounded.
When the water finally calmed, Wu Ming had finished absorbing the power, and Hou Danxue had lost her leverage over her.
“Wait! The water is getting cold! Why haven’t you let me go yet!”
Wu Ming released Hou Danxue. She was certain Hou Danxue had been worn out by her, yet to her surprise, Hou Danxue’s weary eyes sparkled again the moment she looked at her.
Wu Ming followed Hou Danxue’s gaze downward. Because of those ripples, her body was covered in marks.
On the contrary, because Wu Ming had used both arms to hold Hou Danxue, she had no chance to leave marks on her. Hou Danxue’s body was clean.
Seeing the other about to pounce again, Wu Ming wore an extremely grim smile.
Hou Danxue weighed it in her mind and gave up—without the help of those forces, she would be at a disadvantage. She simply couldn’t do what she wanted to do.
Sigh, what a headache. When would Wu Ming finally be locked up by her? That way, she could be good and let her do whatever she wanted without worrying about a counterattack.
But a vision of Wu Ming’s desperate look from earlier suddenly appeared in Hou Danxue’s mind. Wu Ming had been certain she wouldn’t save her, and so Hou Danxue’s heart softened.
At that time, Wu Ming’s state was still acceptable; she could have waited until Wu Ming was teased to the point of collapse before suppressing the medicinal power. If she had done that, she wouldn’t have had to worry about Wu Ming’s counterattack.
But her heart had softened.
Perhaps having gone through certain things had given her expectations. She wanted to get more from Wu Ming—not just her body, but also her tenderness and her love.
These extra desires made the things she wanted to control become uncontrollable.
She was actually pinning her hopes on another person…
Perhaps, even if that chain were forged, she wouldn’t use it on Wu Ming.
If… if she could stay by her side forever, she wouldn’t mind giving her a tiny bit of freedom.
She had softened her heart in the end.
Hou Danxue didn’t pounce, which surprised Wu Ming. She quickly changed her clothes to prevent the other from seeing her body and losing control.
Of course, she liked doing those things, but Hou Danxue was unpredictable, and being pinned down all the time… forget it. Being the one on the bottom was truly exhausting for Wu Ming.
Wu Ming hadn’t expected that the warmth that was now daily life would soon leave her—Hou Danxue became too busy.
Peach Blossom Spring did not have a stable structure like the Hou family. Hou Danxue had taken over the Hou family easily, but there were too many things for her to consider regarding Peach Blossom Spring.
How this unique organization should develop and how it should stabilize in this world were all problems Hou Danxue needed to consider.
This newborn organization required her full devotion. The time Hou Danxue spent at the Hou residence grew shorter and shorter.
Now it was Wu Ming’s turn to cling to Hou Danxue. She pestered her for indulgence, but unfortunately, Hou Danxue now regretted the indulgence.
She would condemn Wu Ming for making her too happy, so much so that she forgot the responsibilities on her shoulders and neglected her official business.
“You don’t move, let me do it. I have a sense of propriety, so it won’t interfere with your business!”
Wu Ming’s bottom line kept lowering for Hou Danxue’s sake. To make Hou Danxue willing to indulge with her, she could actually accept lying there and catering to Hou Danxue!
Wu Ming used all her spare time for body-tempering. Progress in martial arts could help her forget the emptiness in her heart. However, later on, the progress grew less and less. Wu Ming kept increasing the dosage to no avail—she had touched a bottleneck.
Because she never left the house, Wu Ming had no chance to cross paths with anyone. She didn’t even know her own level.
Hou Danxue claimed she wanted Wu Ming to protect Peach Blossom Spring, but in reality, she managed it so well that no one came looking for trouble. Wu Ming had no opportunity to take action.
Occasionally, when Wu Ming caught an opportunity, she would test her palm techniques on Hou Danxue’s body. Facts proved that her progress was great; the time Hou Danxue could hold out grew shorter and shorter, and consequently, the opportunities she could find grew fewer.
Hou Danxue noticed Wu Ming’s anxiety regarding martial arts. She specifically held a martial arts competition, inviting the world’s talents, hoping to let Wu Ming fight to her heart’s content.
Hou Danxue was wealthy; the treasures she put up as prizes tempted countless people. Many came, including even the seniors Wu Ming had once admired.
But… Wu Ming defeated these people with ease.
She hadn’t been able to experience the pleasure that fighting brought at all!
Because of her extremely powerful body, even if she stood perfectly still, those common weapons couldn’t leave a scratch on her.
The opponents usually gave up after a few tries and truly recognized Wu Ming’s strength. Thus, Wu Ming’s reputation as number one in the world spread.
She had become the world’s best, but she wasn’t happy.
So it turns out being invincible is so lonely! If she had known, she wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to improve herself. At least she should have enjoyed the pleasure of constant advancement! She had improved so fast that she had lost so much joy!
A thought suddenly popped into Wu Ming’s head: why didn’t she go out and travel, to meet those hidden masters?
She was still young; at her age, how could she be the world’s best? There must be someone in the world who could fight her!
Thus, one day when Hou Danxue returned, she proposed this idea to her.
Anyway, Hou Danxue was very busy. Her traveling while Hou Danxue was busy wouldn’t interfere with their reunion time.
Hou Danxue’s shops were all over the world; they didn’t even have to worry about communication!
Wu Ming thought her request was very reasonable, yet Hou Danxue’s reaction was intense.
“I won’t allow it! I don’t care what kind of eagle you are! I’ve taken a liking to you, so you will be my caged bird!”
“An eagle is an eagle! If you do this, the eagle will be raised to death!”
“But haven’t I raised you well? I know, I have neglected you. Now that Peach Blossom Spring’s development is on track, I won’t be so busy in the future. I can accompany you… In a few days, Peach Blossom Spring will hold a grand ceremony; we can go together.”