Just as Yun Shou Xi couldn’t resist going into the water to investigate, he heard a splash as someone surfaced.
Ling Luo emerged from the water, shaking water droplets from her face, wiping her lips with her hand. She opened her eyes and looked at Yun Shou Xi. Water droplets slid from her jaw down her neck, revealing her slender neckline as she raised her head.
Yun Shou Xi watched, his gaze deepening slightly.
Ling Luo said: “Master, I don’t want you to see me in this state during water punishment. Please go back first.”
Yun Shou Xi sighed softly, lowering his eyelids and placing medicine on the shore.
“I’ll come back for you when your punishment is complete,” he said.
Ling Luo replied: “Thank you, Master.”
Please leave quickly!
Yun Shou Xi also felt he should leave.
Otherwise, if he kept looking, he feared he might not resist pulling her out of the water and taking her back to Qing Shi Quarter to keep her confined.
Seeing Yun Shou Xi leave, Ling Luo was about to dive in to retrieve Yue Liang Ze when she heard a splash—the man had somehow swum far away from her and surfaced.
Seeing this, Ling Luo was furious: “Why did you swim so far away?”
Yue Liang Ze had his back to her, thinking at that moment how bone-chillingly cold the pond was. It was remarkable that she hadn’t fainted despite soaking in it with internal injuries.
He raised his hand to wipe water droplets from his face, turning to look at Ling Luo only after reaching the shore.
Both were soaking wet.
Ling Luo slightly raised her chin, her face showing a hint of annoyance, but mostly the same as usual—like a little wildcat extending and retracting her claws toward him, vigilant yet provocative.
When their eyes met, the underwater scene flashed through Yue Liang Ze’s mind, his fingers at his side tightening slightly.
Ling Luo: “You—”
She had barely uttered one syllable when the divine lock dragged her down.
Seeing Ling Luo suddenly disappear, Yue Liang Ze instinctively reached out his hand, but it was useless.
He realized the divine lock had taken her down for punishment.
Cold pond water dripped from his hair tips onto his nose bridge, causing a slight itch. Yue Liang Ze raised his hand to wipe it, picking up the food box to leave, but stopped when he saw the medicine on the shore.
She struggled to hold chopsticks after being punished, so how could she apply medicine herself?
Ling Luo, pulled down into the deep pond mud, wasn’t thinking about medicine.
In the boundless darkness and cold, she clenched her fingers in pain, yet thought of those clean, bright eyes that had reflected only her many times.
Underwater, she had covered Yue Liang Ze’s eyes because she didn’t want to see surprise, shock, or rejection and dislike in them.
Ling Luo didn’t know what she wanted to see, but she knew what she didn’t want to see.
Besides, today she was merely giving him air through a kiss, without any improper thoughts.
Unlike that year—
She had leveled Xiao Yao Sect, was being hunted by various great immortal sects, and during that time was cultivating various evil and demonic techniques in Nan Jiang City.
Since she had turned to demonic ways, she naturally should practice more demonic techniques, such as taking men’s yang essence, blood sacrifices, and various evil spells.
At that time, Ling Luo practiced whatever the righteous sects despised, then used these techniques against those who came to kill her, ultimately mocking them for dying by the very techniques they despised.
Back then, there was a forbidden demonic technique called Beauty’s Point.
It was both a spell and a poison; those who mastered it could instantly kill cultivators at the Life and Death Realm and above.
However, the forbidden technique had many requirements. Named Beauty’s Point, it required beauty—dual cultivation with beautiful people, taking their essence to refine into its purest form, requiring many, many beautiful people.
The righteous sects despised it because this technique violated their concept of dual cultivation.
In their eyes, dual cultivation was only about cultivation levels, not desire, and both parties benefited.
But Beauty’s Point required pure desire, and those whose essence was taken would die.
So the righteous immortal sects called Beauty’s Point a vulgar technique, and no one was willing or dared to practice it.
Ling Luo didn’t care.
She sent spirit demons to capture beautiful men back to Nan Jiang City. The mysterious disappearances of handsome men from multiple regions caused panic. Soon, news that she intended to cultivate Beauty’s Point spread throughout the cultivation world.
But looking at the captured beauties, Ling Luo found them either crying and kneeling to beg for mercy, or full of righteousness cursing and swearing they would never submit, or excessively flattering and obsequious—with such good-looking appearances making these expressions, it was unbearable to watch.
She scolded the spirit demons beside her: “I told you to capture beautiful people, but why did you bring back these misfits!”
These people’s attitudes disgusted her, destroying her desire to practice Beauty’s Point.
The spirit demons, berated, transformed back into small round balls, bouncing at her feet to please her and try to make her happy.
Ling Luo looked at the men in cages with various expressions, her face showing slight disdain. She said softly: “I’ll give you the time of one incense stick. If you can escape this Bewildering Bamboo Formation, you’ll live. If not, figure it out yourselves.”
This back mountain was full of green bamboo. In the morning, the bamboo fragrance drifted gently, and the sunlight was soft, watching the wind play through the groves.
When the cages opened, the men frantically rushed out, all hoping to escape from the seemingly endless bamboo forest.
Ling Luo sat leisurely in a rocking chair, watching these men’s ugly behaviors while spirit demons served her tea, water, and peeled fruit.
Some people broke down crying, while others still cursed her as a witch, demonic heretic, and more.