CHAPTER 118: 118- DU JUAN [2] (BONUS)

Du Juan stumbled back as the embrace released, sucking in ragged lungfuls of the tainted air.

Her gaze, almost against her will, flickered from Lin Zhaoyue’s imposing silhouette, specifically the generous curves emphasized by her fitted robes, down to her own modest figure.

The sheer disparity in size was... depressing.

A sigh escaped her before she could censor it, the muttered words slipping out: "Size isn’t everything. Personality is."

A beat of chilling silence followed. Du Juan’s blood ran cold. I said that aloud?!

Slowly, dreadfully, she lifted her eyes.

Lin Zhaoyue was still smiling. But it was a smile laced with predatory amusement, her head tilted curiously.

"Oh my," she purred, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Is Little Sister... perhaps feeling inadequate?"

Du Juan flushed crimson, snapping her head away to stare fixedly at a pulsating azure stalk.

A low, melodic laugh bubbled from Lin Zhaoyue, the sound both beautiful and terrifying. "Relax, Little cuckoo."

Her tone shifted, becoming brisk. "Now, I want you to stay exactly here. I’ll retrieve those flowers and be back..." she snapped her fingers, "...in a jiffy."

Du Juan instantly wanted to say NO! but the protest died in her throat, replaced by a tiny, strangled squeak.

"P-Please... be quick."

The unspoken terror screamed in her mind: Because if even a wandering golden core beast sneezes in my direction right now, I’m dead before I can blink!

Lin Zhaoyue merely winked.

Then, without a ripple of displaced air, she flowed forward.

One moment she was beside Du Juan; the next, she hovered gracefully above the vibrant, deadly clearing, a dozen paces from the nearest cluster of hypnotic blooms.

Her expression shifted from playful to focused intensity.

She knew the game.

The Viper Seduction Flowers weren’t just plants; they were lures, sprouting directly from the tails of twenty Golden Core realm Swamp Lurker Vipers hidden beneath the muck and blossoms.

Plucking the flower meant provoking the beast attached.

With a serene smile that didn’t reach her coldly calculating eyes, Lin Zhaoyue dove.

Chaos erupted.

As her fingers closed around the first radiant crimson bloom, a flower shaped like a fanged maw, the murky water beneath it exploded.

A viper the thickness of Du Juan’s thigh lunged, jaws distended, dripping corrosive venom.

Its speed was blinding to a mortal eye, but to a Nascent Soul cultivator, it was languid.

Lin Zhaoyue didn’t flinch.

Her free hand snapped out, not in a fist, but fingers splayed.

A shimmering, iridescent dust, like pulverized opals mixed with pollen, erupted from her palm:

Heavenly Timber - 2nd Form: Sleep Dust.

The dust washed over the viper’s head.

Its furious hiss died mid-strike.

Momentum carried it forward, but its eyes glazed over, its massive body going limp mid-lunge, crashing harmlessly back into the stagnant water with a heavy splash, already deeply unconscious.

Simultaneously, Lin Zhaoyue yanked.

The Viper Seduction Flower tore free from the base of the viper’s tail with a sickening, wet rip.

A shudder of agony passed through the unconscious beast even in its drugged state.

This was the signal.

Like disturbed hornets, vipers erupted from their floral coverts all around her.

Scales gleamed like poisoned emeralds and obsidian in the eerie light, fangs bared, hissing fury filling the clearing.

Golden Core aura flared, potent enough to make Du Juan whimper and shrink back, her rusty sword trembling in her grip but utterly insignificant before Lin Zhaoyue’s Nascent Soul presence.

She became a whirlwind of serene, bare-handed devastation.

Dancing effortlessly between lunging strikes, Lin Zhaoyue’s hands were a blur.

Sleep Dust bloomed in shimmering clouds wherever she gestured.

One viper, leaping from behind, was engulfed mid-air and plummeted asleep.

Another, coiling to strike from the water’s edge, received a palmful of dust to its snout and slumped instantly.

Each graceful dodge, each fluid sidestep, ended with her fingers closing on another impossibly vibrant flower.

Rip. Rip. Rip.

The sounds were sharp counterpoints to the thuds of unconscious vipers collapsing.

She moved with lethal precision, plucking flower after flower, azure pulsating stalks, spiraling violet blooms, iridescent spheres each extraction eliciting a reflexive spasm from its owner, even under the Sleep Dust’s influence.

Twenty vipers.

Twenty flowers.

In less time than it took for Du Juan’s panicked breathing to steady, it was over.

Lin Zhaoyue stood untouched amidst a circle of comatose giant serpents, her arms cradling a dazzling, dangerous bouquet of the Viper Seduction Flowers.

Not a single petal was bruised, not a drop of venom marred her robes.

She hadn’t needed the destructive force of Wood Explosions; the Sleep Dust had been the perfect, surgical tool.

She floated gently back towards Du Juan, the terrifying bouquet held almost tenderly.

"I got them," she whispered sweetly.

Then she added, eyes gleaming as she handed Du Juan a single flower:

"Now let’s bring this flowers to my husband first. I want him to see it bloom... just like his affection for me will."

Du Juan took the flower, her hands shaking.

And her voice was a frayed thread, low and strained as she fought to keep respect layered over her rising panic. "Matriach Fang..."

The title felt like a shield, flimsy but necessary. "Clan Head Fang sent us here for the Seven-Ring Lotus. If we return without it..."

She swallowed, the words tasting like ash. Her grip tightened on the rusty heirloom sword until her knuckles cracked. "...he won’t be pleased."

Lin Zhaoyue, paused, her head tilted with unnatural, birdlike swiftness.

A single, bright syllable cut through the swamp’s gurgle: "Oh?"

It wasn’t a question.

It was the sound of ice cracking beneath Du Juan’s feet.

Zhaoyue blinked slowly, her wide, obsidian eyes refocusing as if Du Juan’s words were distant echoes finally reaching her.

"Right..." she murmured, a flicker of something almost like genuine recollection passing over her features before vanishing like swamp mist. "...that was the mission, wasn’t it?"

Du Juan’s world tilted. Her eyes widened, pupils dilating with pure, unadulterated dread.

No.

No, no, no—!

Her mind screamed. You didn’t forget. You couldn’t have just—!

And then, like the strike of a hidden viper, the truth pierced her consciousness.

Not like a slap. Like a poisoned spear thrust straight through her heart.

Lin Zhaoyue hadn’t come for the Lotus.

She never intended to find it.

Du Juan’s throat seized, parched as desert stone.

She clutched her head, fingers digging into her temples. A low moan escaped her.

"No..." The whisper was raw, ripped from her chest, horror blooming thick and suffocating within her. "No, no, no... this can’t be happening—"

The dam broke. Louder, a raw cry of despair: "NO!"

Lin Zhaoyue blinked at her, her expression one of mild, detached curiosity.

"What’s wrong, Little Sister?"

Her voice was light, almost singsong. "You look pale. Did a gnat bite you?"

Du Juan stared back, her face as bloodless as bleached bone.

What’s wrong?

The question echoed absurdly in her mind.

Everything.

From the moment you decided I was your ’little sister’ to this gods-forsaken swamp. Everything is catastrophically, lethally wrong.

But voicing that was suicide. She drew a shuddering breath, forcing her trembling limbs still.

Survival meant playing the game.

Playing her game.

"Matriach Fang," Du Juan began again, her voice scraped thin but deliberately calm.

She gestured towards the deeper, darker reaches of the shattered swamp.

"Let’s go get that Seven-Ring Lotus now. And return."

She met Lin Zhaoyue’s unnerving gaze, injecting every ounce of false deference she could muster.

"I want... I need you to follow me this time. Please."

The ’please’ was a lifeline thrown into treacherous waters.

(2/8 bonus)