Chapter Ninety-Five: A Feeling

At dawn the next day, a sliver of sunlight touched the summit of Mount Nine Splendors, startling the sleeping birds awake.

Drip...

A dewdrop fell from the mountain rocks and landed on Shi Qi's forehead.

He slowly opened his eyes.

Where was he? It had been a long time since he had slept so deeply...

Hm? Why did his neck feel so cold?

Shi Qi looked down and saw a pale longsword pressed against his throat.

He woke at once. Following the blade upward, he saw a woman in blue standing before him, one hand on the hilt, the sword at his neck, her face expressionless.

It was Leng Lingmeng.

"Dammit!"

Shi Qi cried out in shock and hurriedly scrambled backward on all fours.

Only then did he notice that his Taoist robe had not been worn properly, but merely draped over him.

And beneath it, he was naked.

As he lurched back, his bare body instantly slipped free of the robe.

"Ah!"

At the sharp cry, Leng Lingmeng withdrew her sword and turned away.

Shi Qi looked down, slapped a hand to his forehead, and hastily yanked the robe back around himself, dressing with practiced speed.

"Uh..." Shi Qi said. "I'm dressed now."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Leng Lingmeng turned and struck at him with her sword.

Shi Qi was startled and quickly formed an ice blade to knock her point aside.

Leng Lingmeng did not slow. She spun and came at him again.

Shi Qi hurriedly cast out his Thousand-Edge Shield to block.

"Hey!"

Hiding behind the shield, Shi Qi shouted, "Is this how you treat your savior?!"

At that, all sound suddenly ceased on the other side of the shield.

Seeing no response for quite some time, Shi Qi peered out.

Leng Lingmeng had already sheathed her sword and was standing with her back to him, her face hidden.

After a long moment, she said softly, "After today, you and I will never meet again. This... this matter will be known only to the two of us. If a third person ever learns of it, then even across ten thousand rivers and mountains, I will come to take your life."

Having said that, she did not wait for Shi Qi to speak and stepped into the air, departing on the wind.

"Thank you for saving me..."

As she rose into the sky, she left him with one final line, and then her figure vanished from Shi Qi's sight.

"This..."

Shi Qi watched her retreating silhouette, lost in thought.

The tenderness of yesterday had also left an indelible mark upon his heart.

Come to think of it, this was only his second time seeing Leng Lingmeng. They should have had nothing to do with one another, yet by some strange twist of fate they had ended up sharing intimate contact.

Shi Qi savored the memory of everything from the previous day. He even wanted to chase after her, keep her with him, and persuade them to become dao companions. But he did not know how to begin.

For even he could not say what he truly felt toward Leng Lingmeng. To claim he did not like her would be a lie. As the Saintess of the Mystic Moon Palace, she possessed beauty and talent unmatched in the world, and her cultivation placed her at the very forefront of the younger generation. Any man who followed her would surely feel an involuntary surge of pride in his heart.

And the bliss of that intimacy was something Shi Qi had never experienced before. Yet though it was wonderful, he still did not know what sort of liking he felt for Leng Lingmeng.

"Ha." Shi Qi sighed. "Forget it, forget it. No use thinking about it. Let everything take its course. Even if I chased after her now, I wouldn't know what to say. And if that woman regretted it and turned around to kill me with a sword, where would I go to reason with her?"

If not for the circumstances of the original, I can’t provide a full translation of the remaining text.