Chapter Nineteen: Unrest (1)

As soon as he heard that the City Lord had been injured, Uncle Cai panicked. “What kind of injury? Is it serious?”

Li Chengzhu patted him on the shoulder. “Relax. With me here, Linglong will be all right.” Then he lowered his voice. “You only need to get everyone else out, then stand guard at the main gate for a day and keep anyone from barging in to disturb me. By tomorrow, Linglong will be lively and well again before your very eyes.”

“Then I leave her in your care, young master,” Uncle Cai said, bowing deeply to Li Chengzhu.

“What are you saying, Uncle Cai? We’re all family, aren’t we?” Li Chengzhu beamed.

While Uncle Cai was busy driving people away, Li Chengzhu slipped into a random room and hid there. Only after the sound of footsteps had faded into the distance did he emerge. He nodded to Uncle Cai, who was standing outside the door, and then made his way deeper inside.

Having stayed in the City Lord’s residence for several months, he knew the layout of the house by heart. Without taking many wrong turns, Li Chengzhu found the room where Gu Linglong was resting.

Before he even pushed the door open, he heard Gu Linglong’s voice from inside. “Is that you, Chengzhu?”

Li Chengzhu put on a smiling face, opened the door, and then quietly shut it behind him. “How did you know it was me?”

Gu Linglong glared at him with her beautiful eyes. “My cultivation may be gone, but that feeling is still there.”

Seeing Li Chengzhu standing in the room, performing one hand seal after another, Gu Linglong could not help asking in surprise, “What are you doing?”

Li Chengzhu looked back and smiled. “Setting up a barrier. An acoustic barrier.”

“An acoustic barrier?” Gu Linglong frowned in confusion. Then she seemed to remember something, and her cheeks instantly flushed crimson. She spat softly, “You little lecher.” Straightening her clothes, she rose and said slowly, “You came up from Earth too, so you should know the customs of our homeland. Before we are married, you are not allowed to touch me.”

Li Chengzhu gave a wicked grin. “Those customs are long out of date. These days, people prefer to board first and buy the ticket later.”

“Absolutely not!” Gu Linglong declared, pouting stubbornly. But when she saw him finish setting the barrier and start walking toward her with that lascivious smile, panic finally set in. Her voice trembled. “Don’t come any closer. If you do, I’ll call for Uncle Cai.”

“Hmph.” Li Chengzhu sneered, clenching his fists until they cracked. “Uncle Cai was already taken care of by me.” With that, he cast a binding spell and froze Gu Linglong in place. Then he strolled up to her, lifted her chin with one hand, and said, “Little woman, you’d better surrender to your husband.”

Gu Linglong did not know whether to laugh or cry. How could this man look like nothing so much as a street thug? Before she could say another word, Li Chengzhu pulled her roughly into his arms and pressed his mouth fiercely against hers.

“Mmm—!”

Gu Linglong was tasting a kiss for the first time; before she could react at all, Li Chengzhu had already broken through her defenses and invaded her inner world, so much so that she nearly lost her breath on the spot.

A lewd smile played at the corner of Li Chengzhu’s mouth as he watched her eyes widen in astonishment.

At last their lips parted.

Li Chengzhu even licked his lips afterward, still unsatisfied. Gu Linglong could not help but draw back both hands into fists and pound them against his chest. “You scoundrel.”

“All right.” Li Chengzhu caught her little hands and held her tightly, pressing her head against his chest. “Linglong, I know that what happened last time was my fault.”

“There’s no need to say that.” Gu Linglong slowly shook her head. “Without you, I would not even be here now.”

“I also forcibly took the Immortal Guidance Radiance that should have belonged to you.”

“If I hadn’t tried to be clever and used the Hollow Mirror to reflect the heavenly lightning away, you would never have been brought to the Immortal Realm.”

“And I even made you take a sword for me, leaving you in this condition.”

“I think it’s fine,” Gu Linglong said softly, tracing circles on his chest with a finger. “If I hadn’t blocked that sword for you, I wouldn’t have known what I truly needed.”

Li Chengzhu’s eyes grew wet.

With trembling hands, he turned Gu Linglong to face him, drew a deep breath, and said gravely, “Linglong, perhaps I have a way to repair your immortal infant.”

“Really?” Gu Linglong cried in astonishment. That was an immortal infant, the very essence of an immortal’s spirit and life force, far above the level of a nascent soul. Repairing it was no easy matter.

“Mm.” Li Chengzhu nodded. “But I’m not very confident.”

“I believe in you.” Gu Linglong looked at him tenderly. Even if it could not be repaired, she did not have much time left anyway.

“There’s only a thirty percent chance of success. Do you want me to try?”

Li Chengzhu moistly licked his dry lips and asked her softly.

Gu Linglong smiled, then nodded with firm resolve.

“Good.” Li Chengzhu said in a low voice. With a flip of his hand, the lewd immortal powder appeared. After several hand seals, a drop like a bead of water flew out of the porcelain bottle and shot directly into Gu Linglong’s body.

“Chengzhu, what are you doing?” Gu Linglong instantly felt her whole body grow feverishly hot. She had only ever felt this way once before, during that night, and as the blurred memories returned, panic seized her.

As he fumbled to untie her clothes, Li Chengzhu said, “Linglong, I need to use dual cultivation first to clear the obstructed channels in your immortal infant before I can repair it.”

“Even so, you don’t have to do this! As long as I’m willing, isn’t that enough?” Gu Linglong could not help but place both hands over her chest. Her lips parted slightly as she bit down on her words.

How could this man do this to her? And not just once, but twice. Did he think she had no spiritual power left to resist? He was even using such a vicious aphrodisiac against her. If she had any strength at all right now, Gu Linglong felt she might have beaten him senseless.

“Heh.” At last Li Chengzhu had removed Gu Linglong’s white gown. He lifted it to his nose and inhaled, and a fresh, delicate fragrance immediately drifted into his lungs. He could not help but twitch his nose in delight.

“The dual-cultivation method Xiao Ying taught me requires you to reach a state of desire without attachment. In your current condition, you can’t possibly be free of attachment.”

“So... you had to... use drugs?” Gu Linglong touched her chest with one hand while the other slipped into her hair, undoing the coiled bun. Her black tresses cascaded down like a waterfall, faintly concealing her tempting form.

Seeing the white thigh that peeked in and out beneath a short robe, and the faint glimpse of the red chest wrap inside, Li Chengzhu could not help swallowing hard, his body stirring with desire.