Chapter 10: Ambiguous Feelings

She threw the two embroidered shoes directly at Tan Ye’s head.

The soles were clean, as she was too impatient to walk on the ground with both feet. She was used to being fastidious, not allowing a speck of dust anywhere on her body, even the shoes on her feet.

Tan Ye was hit squarely on the head by the two shoes.

He had just managed to catch the shoes when he saw a flash of fiery red attacking him out of the corner of his eye. He immediately raised his hand to block.

The wound had just healed and his spiritual power could not circulate, making him no different from an ordinary person. However, even so, his body’s reflexes remained nimble. The spiritual power strike sent out by Su Heng barely grazed his sleeve, cutting a slit in it.

Tan Ye lowered his gaze to look at the slit cut in his sleeve, his expression inscrutable. He had long known that this enchantress’s skills were extraordinary, but he didn’t expect that she could enter without making a sound, undetected by everyone. He realized that he may have underestimated her before.

In the next moment, his body was locked in place by a beam of light.

It was not any advanced technique, just condensing spiritual power into a tangible form to restrain him.

“Can’t escape now?” Su Heng raised her hand and pushed on his shoulder. He was injured and his body was very weak, unable to withstand the force from her hand. He was immediately pushed down onto the bed.

Su Heng sat on top of him in a carefree manner. The instant their bodies made contact, a blush rose on Tan Ye’s jade-white face. “What are you doing?!”

Su Heng frowned, seeing him acting like an innocent maiden being assaulted by a ruffian. She found it very strange. She bent down, pressing her hands on either side of his head. Her slender figure leaned over, the faint fragrance of tea blossoms accompanying her movements and wafting gently around him.

“What do you think I’m doing? Of course I’m punishing you!” Su Heng declared righteously. She looked down at him from above. “Or what else do you think?”

“Get off!”

Tan Ye had never encountered such an embarrassing situation in his life. He struggled, trying to push her away. As soon as he moved, his hands were pinned down. Maintaining her ruffian stance of harassing an innocent maiden, she pressed his hands down on either side of his head.

With this, she finally noticed something. Her eyes swiveled around a few times.

“It seems like us being in this position is a bit inappropriate.”

Seeing the confusion on her face and in her tone, the flush on Tan Ye’s face receded slightly. “Since you know that, then get off.”

That enchantress looked at him in total bewilderment, seeming to half-understand his words. However, she did as he said and lightly lifted herself up. The awkwardness eased as she raised herself. But she had only lifted up slightly when Tan Ye saw the mischievous intent on her face. A sense of unease immediately welled up in his heart.

Sure enough, in the next moment, she heavily plopped back down.

Su Heng saw that on Tan Ye’s originally cold and angry face, after suffering her action, a deep crimson immediately flushed his cheeks. This time it was different from the beginning. His cheeks were vividly red. His original appearance was extremely handsome to begin with. Anger surfaced in his eyes and his whole being became vibrant and spirited, unlike the outwardly warm but inwardly cold stone-like demeanor he had towards her before.

“Is this not okay?” she asked knowingly.

“Get off!”

“Are you teaching me what to do?” Su Heng retorted. She was used to being unrestrained. Unless she was willing herself, she refused to listen to anyone.

“Do you know what you’re doing right now?!” Tan Ye asked, suppressing the embarrassment and annoyance in his heart.

As expected, he saw the enchantress’s face full of incomprehension. Just as he was about to speak again, he heard her say, “So what?”

“I’ve seen more than you have.”

She spoke bluntly. “But I’ve heard that truly powerful cultivators have an undistracted mind. Even if someone stripped naked in front of them, they would act as if nothing was there and pay no heed.”

She laughed. “Young man, what are you thinking that’s making you so anxious? What do you think I want to do to you?”

She saw the young man’s face turn even redder from embarrassment and unease. Unfortunately, she was someone inconsiderate. Having gone this far, she simply leaned down, completely suppressing his movements.

“Or rather, what do you think I would do to you?”

The usual gentleness on Tan Ye’s face had been completely disrupted by her, turning everything upside-down. The faint scent of tea blossoms lingered between them.

“Shameless!”

“Oh my!” She became gleeful. “I was shameless to begin with. And why would I need that?”

Tan Ye was stunned. He saw the undisguised delight in her eyes and actually calmed down instead. He slowly breathed, but each breath was filled with the light fragrance of tea blossoms from her body.

“By the way, did you think I was going to do something bad to you just now, like dismember you or do something else to kill you?”

Without waiting for him to speak, she continued, “It seems I really don’t look like a good person?”

“Even if you don’t say anything, it doesn’t necessarily make people think you’re a good person.”

“That’s great then!” The enchantress instantly became elated. She sat up straight on top of him, proudly putting her hands on her hips.

At this moment, Tan Ye was restrained by her, unable to move. With her sitting down like this, the situation became even more embarrassing. She seemed to both know and not know about the differences between men and women, and didn’t care at all, not taking it to heart.

“It means I look very imposing and daunting, able to make people shrink back. That’s a good thing!”

“If I was considered a good person, that would be humiliating.”

With her hands on her hips, the joy on her face increased. “Thank you.”

The young man beneath her closed his eyes.

“Let me ask you, how do you know about my situation?”

Su Heng blinked. “You mean how I knew you were injured?”

“I did save you before, so naturally I left a bit of my spiritual power in your body. With you injured like this, of course I would sense it.”

“Take it back.” Tan Ye opened his eyes and looked at her.

There was no room for debate in his words.

“Alright.” Su Heng raised her hand and a green light emerged from his body. Following that, pain welled up from within him.

Compared to what he had experienced before, the pain was much milder, but it still made him frown uncomfortably and cover his chest.

“Since the matter is resolved, Miss, please…”

Before he could finish speaking, the enchantress’s beautiful, enchanting face pressed directly in front of him. “I think you may be mistaken. I am never bound by anything. I come as I please and do as I wish. I never take to heart any of your messy rules and they can’t be imposed on me.”

The tip of her nose only needed to move a tiny bit forward to touch his. The mingling of their breaths made him instinctively want to retreat, but his back was already tightly pressed against the headboard with nowhere to go.

“You’d best remember my words. You can coax me, but don’t expect to use lectures to make me do what you want me to do. Otherwise, you’ll have to slowly endure the consequences yourself.”

Tan Ye stared intently at the beautiful, bewitching face in front of him, her eyes glimmering with clarity.

“I’m in a good mood today, so I didn’t give you any punishment. Otherwise, even this place of yours would be in jeopardy.”

“Why?” Tan Ye asked.

“I don’t have anything you could covet.”

“Who says there isn’t?” Su Heng lowered her head and retorted.

This body of his, covered in blood, was all good stuff – sweet and tasty. And drinking it could strengthen the body. Such a great treasure was impossible to find a second one. She couldn’t bear to consume it all in one gulp and would raise him to be slowly eaten. In any case, there were so many opportunities for him to get injured. She would always have chances to partake. When the time came to investigate, it couldn’t be traced back to her anyway.

Even mortals knew to pay the doctor when seeking treatment. A dignified divine being couldn’t possibly let her work for free.

“What do you want?” He asked while lying down.

“You smell quite nice. That’s what I’m after.”

She saw the person underneath her blush again. “Do you even know…”

Tan Ye recalled what she had said earlier, that she didn’t care about propriety.

“Since your injury is healed, I’ll go attend to my own matters then.”

Tan Ye’s expression grew solemn. “What are you going to do?”

As soon as the words fell, the weight pressing on him vanished in an instant, along with the person sitting on him.

Tan Ye flipped over and sat up, surveying his surroundings. He discovered that there was no trace of her, just like how she had appeared soundlessly. In this moment, she had also disappeared in a flash.

She came and went like the wind, doing as she pleased.

Su Heng attached herself to the female disciple and took the opportunity to place red threads on several disciples connected to Tan Ye.

The red threads were concealed on those disciples’ bodies, transmitting everything they heard and said to her.

Tan Ye had just been punished with forty lashes of the Dharma whip. Those disciples would more or less mention him in their conversations.

After doing this, she had a general understanding of the entire story.

Tan Ye was not a disciple personally selected by Dao Zhen. When Tan Ye was young, he was recommended by someone to join the Chaoyun Sect. The Chaoyun Sect was extremely strict in selecting disciples. Regardless of one’s background, everyone had to go through the selection process. Out of a thousand people, there might not even be one who was chosen. When he was young, he passed the extremely rigorous selection and was favored by Xuan Jing, a Daoist of the Chaoyun Sect. Xuan Jing was known as the foremost swordsman in the world, but he did not take Tan Ye as his disciple. Instead, he had Dao Zhen accept him as a disciple, and then Xuan Jing entered a long period of seclusion.

At first, Dao Zhen treated this disciple well. Tan Ye had exceptional talent, unmatched among the disciples and even surpassing some of the elders. However, as time passed, Dao Zhen’s attitude towards this disciple became ambiguous. Naturally, the other disciples below also noticed and began targeting him overtly and covertly.

She leaned against a towering tree, listening to the information gathered by the red threads. No wonder, when she had seen Tan Ye’s master’s behavior, it seemed off. Without distinguishing right from wrong, he directly convicted Tan Ye without any evidence.

Perhaps there was no witness or physical evidence, so there was no way to convict him. They could only find an excuse to punish him harshly and humiliate him. If there were any witnesses or evidence, Dao Zhen would probably torment him to death.

“How pitiful. So miserable,” Su Heng sighed a few times, covering her chest, and wiped the corners of her eyes that had no tears at all.

“But being this pitiful is not enough. He needs to be even more miserable. How can he attain the Dao without experiencing the horrors of the human world? Cultivating the Dao is about enduring hardships.”

The next second after saying that, she laughed, propping her hands on the tree branch and swinging her legs merrily.

The thin silver chains on her feet jingled as she swung them.

Tan Ye had received forty lashes from the Dharma whip. With Su Heng’s intervention, he was not fundamentally harmed by the lightning power. However, after a day or two, without even giving him time to rest and heal, he was told to come out and cultivate.

He was summoned by Dao Zhen to kneel before him and was reprimanded in front of many disciples.

The content of the reprimand was nothing more than not being willful and ignoring the sect rules. As for the previous accusations of fearing death and abandoning fellow disciples to save himself, those were not mentioned.

Some newly admitted disciples who had received his protection couldn’t bear to watch and wanted to stand up and speak for him, but they were held back by the disciples beside them, shaking their heads to indicate not to intervene.

Tan Ye was also a core disciple. Being reprimanded like this in front of so many people, the junior disciples would probably have no respect for him in the future.

After Dao Zhen finished speaking, he turned around with a sweep of his sleeve. “You should conduct yourself properly!”

Throughout the entire speech, there was not a single substantiated accusation, only some empty words that could be applied to anyone. Yet Dao Zhen spoke with the air of expelling someone from the sect.

“Thank you for Master’s guidance.” Tan Ye knelt down and said to Dao Zhen above.

His expression was calm, without any resentment.

Su Heng observed with interest, suddenly curious whether he truly had no resentment or if he had one face in public and another in private.