Ye Feng's Disappointment

Li Guanqi knew his emotions were tangled right now. He simply rose and said, "I'll go check on the others. You... spend some time by yourself." Ye Feng nodded blankly, and Li Guanqi vanished from the roof of the White Jade Tower. Li Guanqi had exerted far too much this time. Upon returning to the Nirvana Pagoda, he entered a meditative state to cultivate. Meanwhile, Ye Feng sat alone on the roof the entire night. Early the next morning, already thoroughly drunk, Ye Feng rose and flew toward the Xianling Wine Shop. At this hour, the shop was completely deserted. Li Qingchan was just opening the front doors. The moment she pushed them open, she saw Ye Feng leaning drunkenly against the doorframe. Their eyes met, both flickering with emotion, yet neither spoke a word. Dressed in a flowing blue gown, Li Qingchan turned to head back inside. Ye Feng grabbed her hand and shoved her back against the door! Pinning her slender wrists with both hands, he roughly held her against the wooden panels. A flash of anger sparked in Li Qingchan's eyes. Drunken patrons were the ones she welcomed least of all. Had it not been for Ye Feng—the man who had once helped drive away troublemakers for her—she would have thrown him out long ago. Ye Feng's hair was somewhat disheveled, stubble peppered his face, and his breath came thick with alcohol and burning heat. The sudden wash of masculine presence momentarily caused her to forget to resist. Ye Feng's face was flushed, his eyes shot through with fine red veins as his deep gaze locked onto Li Qingchan's. For a moment, the atmosphere between them grew awkward—and even charged with tension... Li Qingchan had kept her heart locked away for many years, yet right now, Ye Feng was forcing that door wide open. Her breathing grew ragged, warmth crept across her cheeks, and even her neck flushed a soft pink. A trace of petulant annoyance flickered across her breathtaking face. "Ye Feng... what... what are you doing?!" *Buzz!* An incomprehensibly powerful pressure erupted from within Li Qingchan. Yet Ye Feng found brute strength from somewhere; though his face paled slightly, he still held her arms firmly down. Leaning forward, his chest pressed nearly flush against hers. With barely three fingers of space between their faces, his eyes bore into hers with overwhelming complexity. Time seemed to freeze at this very instant. Yet just as the tension between them reached its peak, a rough male voice boomed from outside in the distance. "Proprietress, two jars of good wine to go!" The shout broke the spell, and Li Qingchan seized the opportunity to twist free from Ye Feng's grasp. She smoothed her lapels, which were hardly disarranged to begin with, calmed her breathing, and answered evenly, "Right away, give me a moment!" With that, Li Qingchan went toward the back room. Lifting the curtain, she leaned against the doorway, gasping for breath. Her heart hammered uncontrollably against her ribs, and she could not even tell why. Glancing past the curtain at the man standing near the entrance, her mind churned in turmoil. Before the customer could step inside, Li Qingchan brought out the jars and handed them over. Once she had seen off the cultivator, both of them had calmed down. Li Qingchan closed the front doors once more and laid down a powerful barrier over the wine shop. Her expression turned calm, finally restoring her haughty demeanor as the Guardian of the First Domain. As a mighty cultivator in the mid Tribulation Transcendence realm, the oppressive aura of a superior figure was far from weak. Yet Ye Feng completely ignored her aura. To him, Li Qingchan's current display looked like nothing more than a disguise. Masking herself behind a facade of unyielding strength, hoping to scare him off. Yet Ye Feng had already prepared for the worst before coming here. Ye Feng lowered his head and downed the remaining wine in one gulp. Standing barely three paces in front of him, Li Qingchan watched him finish the drink and said in a heavy voice, "What on earth do you want?" Unexpectedly, Ye Feng looked up at her and said softly, "Fetch me... a jar of Red Dust Brew." As he spoke, his eyes were faintly bloodshot, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on the woman. Li Qingchan fell silent, a complicated glint surfacing in her eyes. She did not ask why. She simply turned and went into the back to fetch a jar. Only, it took her slightly longer to bring the wine this time than before. Slapping off the clay seal, Ye Feng stared down into the nectar-like liquid. In anguish, he closed his eyes, a single tear slipping from the corner of his eye. Head bowed, his voice trembled hoarsely as he murmured, "Wh... why?" Li Qingchan feigned composure, keeping her face neutral, but grit her teeth and whispered, "Why what?" *Boom!* A burst of black flames suddenly erupted from within Ye Feng! The Yinming Profound Flame wrapped around the jar, revealing a wisp of dark green liquid drifting within the wine. Poison! Ye Feng looked at the woman with profound sorrow, his eyes wide with fury and fraught with tangled emotions. His knuckles turned white around the wine jar, his lips trembling slightly. "Once I drink this wine... everything between us is finished. "Wine intoxicates, but it also destroys. "I don't know what you've gone through, or who is pulling the strings behind you. "Why you are willing to become a puppet and try to assassinate my eldest brother. "I even wondered why you would seemingly run into me by chance from time to time... "The killing intent revealed on the Dao platform in the Third Domain, the stone pillar beneath the black river in the Second Domain!" As Ye Feng spoke each word, suppressing his burning rage, the panic on Li Qingchan's face gradually smoothed into calm. She kept her head lowered, as though afraid to meet his searing gaze. "So... you knew all along." Ye Feng's voice grew raspy as he muttered, "I may have feelings for you, but if you wish to kill my eldest brother..." Ye Feng tipped his head back and swallowed the fiery wine, downing the undisguised poison along with it. The spirit burned down his throat, eclipsed by the tearing agony in his heart. The poison scorched his flesh and scraped his bones, yet it could not compare to even half of his heartbreak. The violent agony brought Ye Feng down to one knee, convulsing in torment. Li Qingchan's face drained of color, and she cried out in frantic alarm, "Are you out of your mind?! You knew it was poison—why did you still drink it?!" *Boom!* Crisscrossing Gengjin sword qi and the terrifying Yinming Profound Flame detonated outward! The searing wave of fire forced Li Qingchan back by more than a zhang! Eerie, dark-green lines squirmed beneath Ye Feng's skin. The strange venom was surging straight toward his heart. Looking at the woman before him with utter grief, Ye Feng whispered with a trembling voice, "I asked you for wine... just to see if you would turn your hand against me. "Li Qingchan, you... have disappointed me so deeply." Tears welled in Li Qingchan's eyes. She had reasons of her own, reasons she could not escape... She raised her hand, reaching out through the air, yet right at that moment— "Second Brother! You sneaking off to drink by yourself again?" "Seriously! Not even calling us along." "Man, it's been exhausting lately... finally a chance to unwind." Gu Li's teasing voice drifted in. "Oho, door's locked?" "Did we show up at a bad time?!" "Hahahaha! Second Brother, open up!" *Creak!* The door swung open. Inside, everything seemed normal; Ye Feng sat by the window, drinking alone. Li Guanqi walked up to Ye Feng with a smile and patted his shoulder, then turned around to say warmly, "Proprietress, three jars of Red Dust Brew for each of us." Ye Feng's body stiffened as an overwhelmingly formidable burst of lightning power instantly sealed away all the poison in his heart! He looked up at Li Guanqi, only to find not the slightest hint of anything unusual on Li Guanqi's face.