After a moment's thought, Xu Yuan immediately understood Su Jinxuan's intentions.
This woman was actually still thinking of running away.
Xu Yuan realized he had somewhat overestimated Su Jinxuan's resolve.
Her warning truly had been nothing more than a warning; she had never intended to risk her life against his.
If Su Jinxuan alerted Ying'er, who was keeping watch outside, she would certainly face certain death. Thus, she chose to moderate her force, seeking to extract his intent-soul and knock him unconscious.
Only this way would she have a chance to escape alive.
Pity this woman was too arrogant.
Oh, no, that couldn't truly be called arrogance. At most, it was a misjudgment born of an information disparity.
After all, in this entire world, aside from Ran Qingmo, no one else knew how many times he had brushed with death.
Thinking to this point, Xu Yuan relaxed slightly.
Had Su Jinxuan gone all out from the start, he might truly have been in mortal peril if Ying'er failed to arrive in time.
As for things being like this now...
Heh.
Even so, the spores' siphoning speed was noticeably faster than Xu Yuan's absorption.
After all, after Xu Yuan swallowed them, he still needed to refine them, whereas these spore particles only needed to suck frantically and then burst.
Time ticked by, minute by second.
Within the bed curtains, the man and woman lay embracing like a newlywed couple.
Su Jinxuan propped herself up against the man's chest below her, her beautiful eyes half-lidded, the pale weakness on her face already hard to conceal.
In merely half a quarter-hour, her exhaustion had exceeded the cumulative toll of the past few days.
However...
Su Jinxuan looked down at the closed eyes of the sleeping man beneath her and lightly pressed her red lips together.
Yet thankfully, this Xu Changtian was finally on the verge of falling unconscious; she could clearly sense that his devouring speed had grown extremely sluggish.
Just a little more, just a tiny bit more...
As long as this fellow fell completely unconscious, she would have a chance to take advantage of it and escape.
Wave upon wave of spore particles shattered, and wave upon wave surged forward.
Yet to Su Jinxuan's despair, even though nearly half the intent-soul in his sea of consciousness had been drawn out, the man beneath her still hadn't fallen unconscious, and his devouring still hadn't stopped.
One quarter-hour...
Two quarter-hours...
The man beneath her finally ceased his devouring.
This development caused Su Jinxuan's beautiful eyes to brighten slightly. She immediately halted the spore particles, preparing to verify whether he had truly fallen unconscious.
But at that very moment,
she suddenly saw the man beneath her open his eyes.
"..." Su Jinxuan froze.
The distance between them was very close.
His narrow eyes were fixed on her, glinting with a cold light.
Su Jinxuan's breath caught.
A wisp of panic rippled across her heart like a drop of water disturbing a calm lake, gradually spreading outward.
Why... why was the man before her still able to remain conscious even now?
The question arose, but no one was here to answer it for her.
The woman before him had grown visibly weak, and Xu Yuan no longer bothered to feign a muddled consciousness. His secret art once again began to circulate at full tilt.
"No... don't..."
Su Jinxuan's originally alluring, enchanting voice took on a trace of panicked pleading, and she instinctively tried to get up and pull away.
Xu Yuan directly grabbed her wrist.
"Let... let go of me."
"..."
Xu Yuan did indeed let go, because the mayfly-like spore particles clinging to the surface of his intent-soul began to pulse again, seizing control of his body.
Yet following his release, Su Jinxuan, who had sat up, made no further move. She merely sat atop him in a daze.
Where... where could she run now?
Xu Changtian hadn't passed out, and powerful experts guarded the outside. How could she run? Where could she run to?
There was no way up to heaven and no path into the earth.
Despair.
Time ticked by, minute by second.
Since his body had been taken over again, Xu Yuan paid no heed to the outside world, focusing entirely on devouring and refining.
As he continued, Xu Yuan noticed that the mayfly-like spore particles clinging to the periphery of his intent-soul gradually began to fall away.
First hundreds, then thousands, and finally tens of thousands detached and fell away in their entirety.
In the span of drinking a cup of tea, not a single foreign particle remained on the surface of Xu Yuan's intent-soul.
With control over his body restored, Xu Yuan slowly opened his eyes.
The woman atop him had her eyes shut, her cheeks flushed with a morbid crimson and blood at the corners of her lips, enchanting as a demoness.
Su Jinxuan had passed out.
Xu Yuan calmly pushed Su Jinxuan's body aside as he slowly sat up.
"Ying'er, come out."
"..." No one answered him.
Xu Yuan took a deep breath and barked, "Get out here! Didn't you see this woman had me under her control for five whole days?!"
"..."
The window opened soundlessly, and Ying'er appeared inside Su Jinxuan's wing room without making a sound.
Still dressed in her form-fitting black attire, Ying'er stood before the bed. Her gaze swept over Su Jinxuan lying beside Xu Yuan. After a moment of silence, she said in an indifferent, hoarse voice, "Third Young Master, she has no cultivation."
Xu Yuan took a deep breath, preparing to take this chance to give Ying'er a good scolding, but before the words could leave his mouth—
"...It's an intent-soul."
A soft, effeminate male voice suddenly spoke up beside Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan glanced sideways, only to see a man with effeminate features who had appeared barely a meter away from him at some unknown point, currently keeping his eyes closed as though sensing something.
Xu Yuan subconsciously frowned.
In his memories, this man had appeared in the wing room along with Ying'er.
Yet before he spoke, Xu Yuan had failed to notice his presence at all.
It was as though...
the man's presence here was completely natural and expected.
Rewriting others' perception...
Xu Yuan's gaze tightened as he stared at the man.
Si Ziyu slowly opened his eyes, bowed to Xu Yuan, and said, "Si Ziyu greets the Third Young Master."
"Mm." Xu Yuan nodded.
Si Ziyu turned his gaze toward Ying'er opposite him. "The Third Young Master was indeed attacked. The lingering aura of an intent-soul remains here."
Hearing this, Ying'er's eyes flickered for a moment. With slight hesitation, she said, "I examined this woman. She is not a practitioner of the soul path either."
Si Ziyu nodded. "Indeed. This woman is merely an ordinary person."
Their exchange caused Xu Yuan's brow to furrow deeper.
An ordinary person?
If not for his Innate Soul Body, he would have been brainwashed into Su Jinxuan's dog by now.
Could someone like this be called an ordinary person?
As their words fell, the wing room sank into a brief silence.
Knock, knock, knock—
In the quiet, the door was tapped lightly, and Zhou Chen's leisurely voice drifted in from the doorway:
"Aiyo, if there's neither intent-soul nor Source Qi, then it's a physique talent. What is there to guess about?"
As he spoke, he pushed open the wing room door.
Zhou Chen stood in the doorway, clutching an unconscious woman in his hand.
Walking into the room, he casually tossed her onto the floor.
Xu Yuan glanced over and recognized her as Zuixian Tower's brothel madam, Madam Yue.
Noticing Xu Yuan's look, Zhou Chen gave a chuckling bow. "Third Young Master, Zhou thought you would surely have me capture this woman afterward, so I brought her in advance. Please forgive me for arriving a bit late."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan pondered for a moment and realized that Zhou Chen was already preparing to make a move against Mister Qin. He gave a slight nod. "Thoughtful of you."
"It is the Third Young Master's brilliance."
"..." Xu Yuan was speechless.
Clearing his throat, Xu Yuan murmured, "Ahem, enough. Mister Zhou, what did you mean by 'physique talent' just now?"
Zhou Chen hesitated slightly, sobering his expression. "Third Young Master, do you still remember that six-revolution Seven-Life Python you and Ran Qingmo killed together?"
Xu Yuan's eyelid twitched. "Mm... I remember."
"That Seven-Life Python's seven shedding revolutions were its physique talent."
Pausing, Zhou Chen glanced at the unconscious woman on the bed and whispered, "The same applies when a physique talent is found in humans. It has nothing to do with cultivation. Just like your Innate Dao Body—even before entering the ranks, your intent-soul could leave your body."
Chapter 45