8. His Punishment

The bustling marketplace thrummed with the comings and goings of people, the cries of street vendors weaving through the lively crowd. A pristine fox fur coat, untouched by dust, bore smudges from the alley walls, starkly conspicuous. Its owner’s veil had been discarded in a deserted corner, revealing a face so strikingly handsome that a few onlookers gathered in the alley were momentarily captivated.

Xuan Yi’s footsteps did not falter as he cast his gaze downward, fixating on the faintly glowing jade beads encircling his wrist. Though appearing ordinary, the beads were a high-level magical talisman inscribed with a spell, enabling him to sense the whereabouts of Zi Yi and Jin Zhuo, the two in purple robes. The closer they were, the brighter the golden light on the beads shimmered.

Xuan Yi pondered the conversation between Jiu Wu and that mortal woman. Her words had been flawless, leaving no room for doubt. In Lan Ya City, where demons were regarded as enemies, the woman’s acceptance of Jiu Wu’s request to stay seemed almost too casual, despite her impartiality toward demons owing to a child named Nian’er. He resolved to investigate thoroughly once contact with the two in purple was established.

Lost in these thoughts, he reached the alley’s mouth, where the glow from the jade beads intensified. The moment Xuan Yi stepped out, a strong hand yanked him back.

“Senior Brother, you must have known I wouldn’t let you go to that mortal’s house. You were already planning to leave, weren’t you?” Jiu Wu’s eyes reddened at the corners as she spoke, pulling the jade beads from his wrist.

Her slender fingers crushed one of the jade pearls into powder, shattering the beads and extinguishing the golden light.

“Or perhaps you intended to run away the moment you descended the mountain.”

Her delicate fingers traced the bite marks on Xuan Yi’s neck.

He met her gaze, perplexed. He had left as soon as she entered the mortal’s home, purposely choosing a different path to avoid her. The secluded alley was sparsely populated; she shouldn’t have arrived so swiftly—unless…

Xuan Yi glanced down at the sound transmission talisman in his palm.

“Are you testing me?”

Jiu Wu did not deny it. “Yes.”

She had gone to great lengths to hide him. How could she afford to let him slip away?

The talisman bore a tracking spell she had cast; no matter where he was, she could find him.

“Is it fun, Senior Brother?”

That tracking spell was one he taught her.

In their childhood, seeing her gloomy nature, he had devised tricks to enliven her, including a game of hide-and-seek. She had never understood why, no matter how well she hid, he always found her. Later she discovered it was not her failing, but his cheating through a tracking spell.

She had been angry, but to appease her, he not only bought her sweets but also taught her the spell.

Jiu Wu looked at Xuan Yi. Though he was the one who betrayed and tried to flee, why did he still wear an expression of innocent righteousness?

Pushed against the wall, Xuan Yi’s fox fur slid down his shoulder.

Jiu Wu closed the distance, her snow-white garment trampled underfoot. “Ah Jiu has an even more fun game. Senior Brother, want to play?”

Xuan Yi’s brow furrowed, sensing another mad act from Jiu Wu. He grasped her wrist. “No.”

She smiled, her face shifting into an unfamiliar visage swirling with black mist around the brows.

Dark fog thickened around her. Passersby in the alley caught sight, their eyes darting as they fled, shouting, “Demon! It’s a demon!”

Fortunately, the alley’s seclusion muffled their cries beneath the marketplace’s din—except for Zi Yi and Jin Zhuo, who had just passed the Xiangjiang Pavilion.

Exchanging a glance, they immediately pursued the sound!

Meanwhile, Jiu Wu, suffused with demonic aura, pinned Xuan Yi firmly against the wall. She gripped his chin, forcing his head down to bite his pale lips. The pain brought moisture to his cold eyes.

One hand clutched his neck, the other ruffled his neatly buttoned snow-white shirt. When the taste of blood touched her tongue, Jiu Wu lowered her lips to the still-healing bite marks, sinking her teeth in hard. Feeling his shallow breath falter, she flicked out her tongue to lick the wound.

Her touch disheveled his garment, revealing glimpses of pale, delicate skin. Xuan Yi’s eyes reddened, his trembling collarbone betraying his fury.

How dare she?

How dare she!

His usually clear, composed thoughts shattered in that moment. The laughter and chatter from the street echoed sharply in the quiet alley, where everyone could see the noble Immortal Lord, powerless and subjected to such indignity.

No, this was no mere mortal—it was a demon, the most detested to the Immortal Lord.

“Senior Brother, guess how close your most loyal subordinates are?”

The demon’s voice whispered in his ear. His pupils contracted, his face drained of color.

Jiu Wu parted the loosened shirt, her fingertips tracing the exposed whiteness of his chest, staring at the sprawling blush of shame blooming across his skin.

“You’re truly beautiful, Senior Brother—more wanton than those demons who rely solely on dual cultivation for their power.” She bit into the unspeakable area beneath the shirt.

Pain caught Xuan Yi’s breath, his eyes wide with disbelief.

His earlobes flushed as if bleeding, his chaotic breaths slipping from parted lips; yet more humiliating and unacknowledged was the unexpected stirring within his body.

“Zi Yi and Jin Zhuo must be arriving soon. I wonder what look they’ll give you after seeing their revered Young Lord disgraced by a demon like me.”

No sooner had the words left her lips than footsteps and familiar voices echoed from a distance.

There was no moment he wished less to see those two.

He even felt some relief that the jade beads had been destroyed.

Jiu Wu’s smile widened, her eyes turning eerie with demonic patterns.

Eventually, Xuan Yi lowered his proud head, a trace of pleading in his eyes. “Leave here.”

“Please.”

Though his heart was as clear as the moon, andI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.