Chapter 68

Su Zhen fell into a subtle silence.

She looked around at the barren desert where not a blade of grass grew, at the churning hurricanes in the distance, and the yellow sand flying all across the sky, revealing only a hazy expanse of dimness.

"This place isn't particularly romantic, is it?"

As she spoke, she moved her fingers again, tracing the man's well-defined jawline. "I thought my senior would at least..."

Xiao Yu was stunned the moment he heard the first sentence, recovered his senses at the second, and grabbed the slender wrist before him.

In the next second, the world around them flipped, the scenery changed instantly, and the vast desert vanished.

Ahead lay misty mountains, verdant bamboo groves, and a clear, mirror-like lake. Clouds and mist drifted lightly over the water, and exquisite pavilions loomed faintly in the haze.

The two of them stood by the lake, flanked by winding stone paths. Along the roadside, snow-white fringe trees and lush purple orchids bloomed, while water grasses swayed gracefully in the breeze—a truly poetic and picturesque scene.

"...be a bit more romantic?"

Xiao Yu pinched her wrist with a smile. "Is this place alright? I remember you quite like the scenery here. If you don't like it, we can change it again."

Su Zhen offered a noncommittal response.

She could certainly feel that they had not truly returned to the Lixiao Peak; this was merely the art of the universe within a pot, bringing people into another miniature world.

Once they stepped out of here, they would still be in the previous illusory realm.

"How is it?" Xiao Yu asked again.

Su Zhen sighed softly. "I thought Senior was a very patient person."

Xiao Yu sighed with feigned melancholy as well. "Alright, I'll wait for you to slowly make up your mind."

Amused inwardly, Su Zhen put on a deliberately picky expression on the outside, slowly looking around at everything before giving a very reluctant nod.

She stood on tiptoe once more, leaning close to him with a hand pressed against the man's chest. "I can only say it's barely passable—"

Xiao Yu lowered his body, looking down at her. His gaze turned subtle, as if he were weighing something in his mind.

Before he could hear the rest of those words, he cut his thoughts short, reached out to wrap his arms around her waist, lifted her entire body into his arms, and kissed her fiercely.

At the same time, Su Zhen raised her arms to hook her fingers around the back of his neck, meeting him without the slightest concession.

Their intertwined profiles cast shadows onto the stone slab path.

Their trembling eyelashes brushed against each other like the wings of a pair of bonded butterflies. Their noses gently collided and brushed past, lips grinding against lips, tongues tangling and wrestling as they swallowed each other's breath.

Their faces were reflected and distorted in each other's pupils, two pairs of richly colored eyes locking gazes, gradually revealing an otherworldly, demonic allure at the same instant.

The distance was too close; even their hair strands were nearly twisted together. Stray locks fell beside their ears, brushing against the curves of each other's chins and jawlines in a hesitant, lingering friction.

The two parted slightly.

Xiao Yu kept his gaze fixed on her, raising a hand to smooth the disheveled hair beside her ear.

His fingertips wiped away the moisture left at the corner of her lips, and then he gripped her chin, dragging her once more into a lingering, deeply tender kiss.

The hand Su Zhen had pressed against his neck also exerted a slight force, her five fingers sinking entirely into his warm hair.

"As long as you're satisfied—"

Amidst such an intimate posture, he bit her lips, uttering a broken and blurred murmur imbued with a heat that felt as though it might melt someone away.

Then it grew hotter still.

That heat swirled around her auricles, blooming outward like an invisible flame winding down along her blood vessels, creeping past the side of her neck and searing across her skin in a roving burn.

The palm locked around her waist tightened slightly, his fingertips nearly sinking into the contours of her flesh.

With amused surprise, Su Zhen realized that for some unknown reason, this fellow truly possessed a strange fixation on abdominal muscles.

On second thought, there were far too many strange things about him.

"I know I lack practical experience, and if it's truly terrible, you can criticize me," the man in front of her suddenly whispered with a hint of grievance. "Just don't pretend it's good, or zone out entirely, otherwise I won't have any room for improvement in the future."

Su Zhen was momentarily startled, then realized, "Senior, you, um, not because of that, I was just thinking that your fetish seems a little—"

Xiao Yu let out a noncommittal hum of amusement. "My fetish is you. I advise you to be careful with what you say next."

Su Zhen hesitated, momentarily at a loss for how to handle him. Out of petty spite, she reached out and tugged at his lapels; after just two pulls, her fingertips slipped right through the gap.

Her slightly chilled fingers covered his muscular chest.

Xiao Yu froze once more.

With the cool fingertips lightly tracing across him, even though he did not look down, he could still feel it—

Those slender, elegant fingers, every delicate knuckle, rolling across his chest, alongside slightly pointed nails that rubbed against his skin with a vague, teasing friction.

"Senior." Su Zhen blinked. "Do you want me to go further down?"

The powerful muscles suddenly tightened.

That ape-backed, wasp-waisted torso was like a tautly pulled bowstring full of tension—

Then she touched the jade buckle of his belt.

Xiao Yu lowered his head and bit her earlobe, his scorching breath scattering around her neck. "I want you to do whatever you want to do."

Tch.

This guy.

Her hand paused for a fraction of a second, her pearly-white fingers suddenly turning dim and dull, while her delicate, tender skin became covered in a layer of tough, hardened texture.

Her scallion-like fingertips twisted and elongated, transforming into slender, verdant branches.

Those soft twigs fluttered and swayed in the air.

Soon, they extended further, slipping through the gaps of the jade belt.

Xiao Yu shuddered all over, lowering his head to bite down on the side of her neck.

Su Zhen did not feel any pain; she only found it amusing. "...Is this an animal instinct or what?"

Xiao Yu chuckled softly, as if suppressing something, his deep voice carrying an added layer of huskiness. "Perhaps so."

"...Fine. Is there anything else?"

Su Zhen regretted asking the moment the words left her mouth.

The heat that had previously lingered at her waist roved downward, and a powerful palm gripped her thigh.

Xiao Yu looked down at her. "Of course. It wouldn't do to make you do all the hard work alone, would it?"

A single hand of his could circle her leg; beneath his palm, the muscle of her thigh was smooth, resilient, and brimming with explosive power, pressing tightly against the arc of his palm—

His thumb stroked that patch of skin and then slowly traveled downward.

Su Zhen's body trembled.

The sensation was exceedingly strange; it was hard for her to say whether it felt good or bad.

Her mind went blank for a brief moment, only to be awakened swiftly by the surging wave of heat, making her realize that the temperature both inside and outside her body was lower than that of an ordinary person.

Wait.

This fellow wasn't human either.

The body temperature of a Shura-human hybrid—

Though at his realm, unlike a half-demon who needed to draw upon bloodline power, those lineages should not have much impact on him.

Su Zhen thought distractedly, soon casting these stray thoughts to the back of her mind.

In her mind's eye, she traced his hand.

The outline of his thumb, the protruding curve of his knuckles, grew more pronounced as his fingers curled.

The circular patterns of skin on his fingertips, and even the pressure and grinding force of his presses, became distinct and clear at this moment.

Su Zhen also touched something entirely different.

Although she was not touching him with human hands, it made no practical difference to her.

...It certainly felt different for Xiao Yu, though it was hard to say what he preferred more.

At least judging by his expression, he didn't resist much at all.

In fact, he seemed quite willing.

Su Zhen desperately wanted to tease him a couple of times, but the words on the tip of her tongue were replaced by a soft whimpering.

The hand she rested on his shoulder was trembling; the veins on the back of her hand bulged, her fingertips sharpened, tree bark coated her skin, and threads of green patterns flickered among her pale-cyan veins.

That light coursed along her blood vessels, flowing and wandering beneath her skin, quickly converging onto her torso, flashing incessantly within her opened lapels before climbing upward to spread across her cheeks.

"...I was just curious, if you change into your demonic form, is it deliberate, or is it beyond your control?"

Xiao Yu's voice grew even lower and huskier, carrying an undertone of laughter. "I was just curious. I rather like this development..."

"Mhm," Su Zhen answered vaguely. "Instinct, nothing more. It won't be a full demonic form; if it were, I'd lose interest, so it can only be a half-form... I can control it anyway, but as long as it doesn't scare you into uselessness, I don't care..."

Her emotions oscillated between entanglement and pleasure.

It certainly couldn't be counted as pain.

Even if it truly hurt, given their thresholds, neither of them would regard that as pain.

Su Zhen only felt that language had become impoverished, making it difficult to summarize her own feelings.

She moved instinctively, yet the palm at her waist remained utterly unmoving, firmly imprisoning her in place while his other hand shifted to a different angle.

By the lake, the shadows of the trees flickered and the mist gradually dissipated.

The lake surface reflected the starry night, resembling the night they drank together under the eaves, as if time had been frozen forever.

Yet for her, this state constantly switched between motion and stillness.

She occasionally slipped into a state of disorder and bewilderment.

For instance, not being sure what she was actually thinking; for instance, not knowing why she was doing this at such a critical juncture.

Soon enough, she found her answer, knowing full well that she *did* want to do this.

Because this might be the first and last time, and she might transform into something she could never imagine.

Or perhaps die.

Su Zhen drew a breath, pressing her forehead against the broad shoulder before her. The hand at her waist still did not loosen, and his other hand reached up to cup the back of her neck.

She buried her face in the crook of his neck, turning her head slightly to look at the twinkling stars in the firmament. Those points of light flickered and trembled, bursting into dazzling, mesmerizing sparks.

The entire world seemed to dim, the sparks burning and expanding into a raging inferno that crashed against the deep, dark curtain of the night, as if the whole world shook because of it.

The night sky trembled continuously, the flames illuminating the starry vault and casting a decadent, gorgeous glow.

The lake mist grew dense once again, moisture rolling across the water and dampening everything around them. A fine, misty drizzle fell upon the mountains, nourishing the dense forest in the night.

It was as if the awakening of insects had brought spring and all vegetation sprouted, awakening the slumbering deep forest.

A thousand branches swayed, flowers blossomed with extravagant beauty, countless twigs sprouted and elongated, leaves layered upon one another, and blooming flowers cascaded in strings of deepening green.

The black-haired, green-eyed tree demon raised her head, returning to her half-form amidst the bliss.

One of her arms remained tightly wrapped around his neck, and the fingers that had plunged into the man's hair transformed quietly, curling and stretching to extend into flexible vines.

Her other hand looped around his back, the vines extending silently to stroke his knotted, well-defined back muscles, while the bones beneath seemed to pulse faintly.

"..."

Still very strange.

Yet the pleasure felt was far greater.

Su Zhen thought in a muddled daze.

She called out "Senior," and then she called Xiao Yu's name, along with all sorts of messy, venting, curse-like endearments.

The one being called accepted it all willingly, swallowing both the harsh and the sweet.

Of course, he probably didn't have much spare breath left to argue anyway.

Su Zhen heard the sound of bones shifting once more.

Xiao Yu lowered his head in silence.

Their foreheads pressed together, their breaths entangling.

At the same time, long, massive black horns sprouted from his head, blue-gold flames leaping across the horizontal ridges.

On that handsome face, golden-blue light patterns also emerged, spreading from his cheekbones down to his jaw, and creeping from his shoulders and back down to his chest and abdomen like the ghost fires of a deep night, burning fiercely.

He leaned back slightly, shadows flickering across his spine as a pair of heavy, broad black wings unfolded, obscuring the brilliant starry sky.

"...I'll boldly guess that you don't detest this form either?"

Having revealed the true appearance of a Shura-human hybrid, Xiao Yu extended similarly sharp claws, pressing against the half-demon's chin to force her to look up at him.

The latter gazed at him with a smile, her damp eyelashes trembling lightly.

Those deep green eyes were brimming with viridescence, a dense vernal intent almost dripping over, while green patterns wound across her cheeks, making her look all the more eerily seductive and bewitching.

Two pairs of non-human eyes stared quietly at one another.

"It doesn't matter."

Su Zhen opened her arms once more to hug him, branches and vines intertwining and overlapping to circle him completely within her embrace.

"Senior looks gorgeous no matter what."

A moment ago, they had seemed like ordinary human men and women.

At this moment, it was as if a bird of prey perched upon a flowering tree, and a Shura slept in peace amid a cluster of leaves and branches.

The two cast a bizarre yet harmonious reflection upon the lake.