In a hotel room, Ye An slowly opened his eyes on a luxurious bed.
The pounding in his head, like a hangover, had yet to fade, but a faint, delicate fragrance had already reached his nose.
He turned his head slightly. A breathtakingly beautiful sleeping face came into view.
Her long, jet-black hair spilled across half the pillow like a waterfall of silk.
Her flawless, fair oval face was no bigger than his palm, with brows like distant hills, long lashes, and lips like rouge-tinted cherries.
Even in sleep, she carried an innate air of cool elegance and nobility.
His gaze lowered. The snow-white silk quilt had slipped to her waist.
The buttons on the woman’s white blouse were long gone.
Her astonishingly full breasts stretched the fabric taut, revealing the sky-blue lace bra beneath and its striking contours.
Lower still, her black tights, torn by a large gash, clung to her rounded, pert buttocks and long, straight legs, giving her a wild allure.
“Hss…”
Ye An sucked in a sharp breath. Fragments of last night’s madness flashed through his mind, and he jolted upright.
He remembered now.
At his old master’s command, he had come down from the mountain to settle a few worldly ties, seeking, amid the mortal world, a chance to break through the bottleneck at Houtian Perfection[1]The peak of the Houtian, or “acquired,” stage of cultivation. In Chinese martial arts and cultivation fiction, this generally represents a level of development before the higher Xiantian stage. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740526_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740526_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and enter the Xiantian Realm[2]Xiantian literally means “before heaven” or “innate.” In cultivation fiction, it commonly refers to a higher level of martial or spiritual development beyond Houtian. Its exact abilities and … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740526_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740526_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
But before he’d even had a chance to seek out his first betrothed, a drunk woman had barged into his hotel room last night.
Without a word, she had shoved him onto the bed.
Despite his eighteen years of cultivation and his pure-yang physique[3]Yang is the active, masculine-associated principle in traditional Chinese cosmology. A pure-yang physique is a concept found in Chinese cultivation fiction, often associated with concentrated yang … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740526_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740526_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, he had been utterly unable to resist her forceful yet alluring advances.
“Master, oh, Master… Could this be what you meant by worldly ties?”
Ye An gave a wry smile, feeling as though eighteen years of cultivation had gone to waste in a single night.
Just then, the woman in his arms seemed to sense the movement. Her long lashes fluttered, and she slowly woke.
A flicker of confusion crossed her clear, limpid eyes.
Then she saw Ye An beside her, looked down at herself, and her pupils abruptly contracted.
“You…”
Her voice was slightly hoarse from the previous night’s drinking, but it held even more shock, embarrassment, and anger.
Ye An had just started to explain when she shoved him away with lightning speed and curled up in the corner of the bed, wrapping herself tightly in the quilt.
Only her blazing eyes showed as she glared at him.
“Last night… was it you?” Her voice was ice-cold.
Ye An spread his hands, looking utterly innocent.
“Big Sis[4]A translation of the Chinese address dajie (大姐), literally “elder sister.” It can be used informally for a woman who is older or perceived as older. Here, the woman takes offense at the … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740526_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740526_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, you’re the one who barged into my room and… forced yourself on me.”
“What did you just call me?” Her brows shot up, and her whole demeanor turned sharp in an instant.
“B-big… beauty?” Ye An hastily changed course.
Only then did her expression soften a little, though she remained cold.
She drew a deep breath, seeming to force her feelings under control, and said icily, “Let’s pretend last night never happened. Name your price.”
Ye An froze.
He could get paid for sleeping with a woman? So this was what the world below the mountain was like?
When he didn’t answer, contempt flashed in her eyes. She assumed he was about to ask for an outrageous sum.
She took a wad of red banknotes[5]Modern Chinese 100-yuan banknotes are predominantly red. In contemporary Chinese fiction, stacks of red banknotes commonly represent substantial amounts of cash. The currency is not explicitly named … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740526_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740526_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); from her purse on the bedside table and tossed it onto the bed.
“Ten thousand. Is that enough?”
Ye An’s brows drew together slightly.
He could hear the disdain in her voice, as if she thought he was a gigolo.
“I don’t want your money,” he said calmly.
“Not enough?”
She gave a cold laugh and tossed down another wad.
“Twenty thousand. Take it, get out of my sight, and never show up again.”
Ye An sighed, picked up his trousers and his faded T-shirt from the bed, and dressed at an unhurried pace.
“I told you, I don’t want your money. Let’s just call last night an accident. You go your way, and I’ll go mine. Let’s part here.”
With that, he turned to leave.
But when the woman saw his clear, untroubled gaze, she found herself taken aback.
The men she knew either fawned over her, lusted after her body, or coveted her wealth.
She had never met anyone like Ye An, who had slept with her and then neither clung to her nor tried to extort her— but instead looked as if he were thinking, “Just go already and stop bothering me.”
“Stop!” she called out, almost against her will.
Ye An turned back.
“What’s your phone number?”
The woman bit her lip as she asked, a complex look in her eyes.
She might have said they should pretend nothing had happened, but this was too important. She had to stay in control!
What if he tried to use it to blackmail her later?
Ye An shook his head with utter sincerity.
“I don’t have a phone.”
“…”
The woman was struck speechless. Her ample chest rose and fell—that was how angry she was.
What era was this? Who didn’t have a phone?
Was he a caveman?
“Fine. Just fine!”
She glared at him furiously, grabbed her clothes, and stormed into the bathroom.
Ye An shrugged and was about to open the door when, at that very moment, his true qi[6]Qi is a concept of vital energy in traditional Chinese thought. In martial arts and cultivation fiction, true qi (zhenqi) generally refers to refined internal energy developed and controlled through … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3740526_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3740526_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); suddenly surged.
Then the Xiantian bottleneck that had plagued him for a year, as solid as a rock, actually… shifted a fraction!
The shift was almost imperceptible, yet it was like chiseling a narrow crack into a pitch-black iron room and letting in a sliver of light!
Ye An’s whole body jolted, and an unprecedented brilliance flashed in his eyes.
“So… it was true!”
“Master didn’t lie to me. There really is an opportunity to break through hidden in the mortal world!”
Last night’s mad encounter hadn’t damaged his cultivation at all.
On the contrary, his entanglement in this worldly tie had caused his bottleneck to show signs of yielding!
Ye An was instantly overjoyed.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Just then, someone outside pounded wildly on the hotel room door, followed by the voice of an unbearably arrogant man.
“Su Wanqing! Get out here! I know you’re in there!”
“Don’t think you can get away with hiding from me! If you don’t agree to be my girlfriend today, I’ll make sure you don’t leave this hotel!”
The sound of running water in the bathroom stopped abruptly.
Ye An’s brows knitted at once. His hand froze halfway to the doorknob.
The shouting outside continued, growing filthier by the moment.
“Su Wanqing, you bitch! You act so high and mighty in front of me, but who knows how many other men have fucked you behind my back? Open up!”
“Not opening it? Then break it down!”
“Bang!”
A tremendous crash shook the heavy door as a powerful blow slammed into it.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Under the brutal assault, the door shuddered on the verge of giving way. The area around the lock had already warped visibly.
The bathroom door clicked open. Su Wanqing had changed into a spare business skirt suit, but all the color had drained from her face, leaving her deathly pale.
She had obviously heard the shouting outside. Anger filled her eyes, along with a trace of fear she couldn’t conceal.
“Wang Kai! That lunatic!” Su Wanqing bit her lip hard.
“You know him?” Ye An glanced back at her and asked calmly.
“He’s a spoiled rich kid who thinks having a little money at home means he can do whatever he wants. He’s been hounding me relentlessly. He was at last night’s business meeting too. And what happened last night… I suspect he drugged me!”
Su Wanqing drew a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
“Get out through the window and take the fire escape. This has nothing to do with you. He wouldn’t dare do anything to me.”
She might dislike Ye An, but this had happened because of her, and she didn’t want an innocent person dragged into it.
Ye An acted as if he hadn’t heard her. Instead, he regarded the shuddering door with an interested air.
“He wouldn’t dare do anything to you? I wouldn’t be so sure.”
The moment the words left his mouth—
“CRASH!”
The door burst open.
Several burly bodyguards in black suits crowded in, ushering a foppish young man with slicked-back hair and a powdered face into the room.
The young man at their head looked about twenty-five or twenty-six. He wore designer clothes, sported a flashy hairstyle, and had an arrogant, crazed look in his eyes.
He spotted Su Wanqing in the room at once—and then Ye An standing in front of her.
Wang Kai’s face twisted in an instant, jealousy blazing in his eyes.
“Well, well! Su Wanqing! So you really were hiding some bastard in here!”
References[+]