Legend of Fu Yao

Book 1: Winds Begin to Blow in Tai Yuan

Chapter 9 - I"ll Follow Your Lead

Meng Fuyao only stared speechlessly. The man never stoppedshaking his head.

Following a gust of wind, he dropped down from the tree likea patch of soft cloud. Without seeing him do much moving, he had already arrivedat Meng Fuyao"s side. Lightly laughing he said, "Little lady, looking atyour shaking, I"m guessing you must be pretty cold, how about we ... get warmtogether ..."

Shameless! Meng Fuyao glared at him with her wide eyes, itwas clearly because I was scared!

Face to face, the appearance previously covered by shadowswas now revealed. That kind of facial radiance, was like a bright moon risingfrom the horizon of a jade sea, in an instance shining through the limitlessheavens. In that moment, Meng Fuyao was struck into a daze.

After that moment she immediately shook herself awake,rebuking herself a thousand times inside her heart for being such aflower-obsessed idiot1. Continuing to shrink backwards, she plastered on a lookfull of nervousness on her face, while her finger was furtively reaching forher soft whip.

However before managing to touch the handle of the whip, herfingertip suddenly trembled, as if flicked back by some invisible force.Opposite, the smiling guy retracted his finger while shaking his head,"Girl, acting won"t work every time."

In the cool moonlight, the man"s long clothes flutteredloosely in the wind, containing a bit of carefree laughter. The scatteredappearance even seemed to slowly float forward, the wide robes and long sleevesdrifting like clouds, making one think of Luan birds soaring high above thenine heavens.2

There is a type of appearance, that could be called sacredlypure.

There is a type of bearing, that could be calledmesmerizingly charming.

Yet very few could meld such purity and charm togetherwithout so much a watery ripple, transforming into a unique aura whereinsouciance arose from n.o.bility, and profoundness arose from warmth.

The ground"s gravel lightly crunched, and a type of lightlyintriguing fragrance floated. The man had an elegant demeanor, yet heimpolitely sat down nearby; in the blaze"s glow, he slightly turned his head.

Meng Fuyao"s breathing hitched a little.

The slant of his long eyebrows that reached the temples helda flowing, relaxed aloofness; it invoked scenes of natural willows by azureponds, containing within the scented flowing light of spring.

The refined, almost divine tracing of his side profile, madeit seem like all of heaven and earth"s colorful brilliance was gatheredunderneath his eyes.

Beauty beyond the mortal realm will cause loss of one"sability to speak - and right now, Meng Fuyao felt that she had forgotten how toform words.

The man only smiled smoothly, casually brushing at the dustbeside him. After seeing that the ground wasn"t going to get any cleaner, hedidn"t fret over it, but instead suddenly extended an arm to hug her shoulder,pulling her down onto the ground.

Meng Fuyao tumbled away in a flash, falling onto the wetground with a "gu dong" sound while yelling, ".. you, what areyou doing?!"

Resting his head on his arm, the man didn"t get up butslightly looked at her askance. An udumbara-like3 smile blossomed on his lips."What am I doing? The night frost is heavy, and I am cold. If I sleepalone I"ll be even colder, so I"ve decided to be together with you."

Meng Fuyao"s face turned red. "Um, I can"t takeadvantage of your moment of weakness ..."

"I like taking advantage of moments of weakness."The man"s robe sleeves lifted up, and the long winding cloth wrapped aroundMeng Fuyao"s waist and impolitely dragged her over. "Shush now, begood."

His body"s light, strange scent was fragrant like wine. Whenhis robes wrapped around her, the mesmerizing fragrance drifted into the air,igniting all of Meng Fuyao"s logical faculties with a bang. Fuyao froze inplace, afraid to move, and was temporarily unable to respond to this impendingcrisis. She faintly heard a low chuckle by her ear, his breath brushing againsther earlobe and lightly tingling.

That tingling sensation was an itch inside her heart, anitch she wanted to relieve herself of like a cat. Meng Fuyao heard herheartbeat fly upwards, while her face burned so hot that she fell into afeverish haze.

Her body that had never been felt by a man before was nowinstinctively going soft. Her mind, however, was continuously reminding herselfto stay clear-headed. Meng Fuyao stretched out her two hands to desperatelybrace herself against his chest, and just when she was about to exert force tofree herself, her palms suddenly heated up.

Like a river breaking through its dikes, a warm streamsurged through the places where the two connected, gathering in Fuyao"sslightly blocked four limbs and eight meridian channels4. Thearriving energy was dense and mellow, like the spring sun or a hot spring,vigorous and drawn out.

The warm flow was like a pair of tender hands, displaying amysterious technique inside Meng Fuyao. The torn meridians from her injurieswere surgically healed one by one, the toxins driven out bit by bit, and eventhe almost completely evaporated inner qi within her dantian5 startedto slowly recollect together and condense, the qi rippling and swirling moreplentiful and lively than ever.

Her pale face gradually recovering its healthy red, MengFuyao stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the smiling while eyes-closed man. Hewas actually using this method to heal her wounds? Who was he? How did he knowher situation? Why was he helping her?

Her eyes couldn"t help but search his body up and down. Menof the Five Regions Continent liked wearing accessories on their clothing toshow their status, and looking at the extra stuff they wore could give ageneral idea of their background. Unfortunately this person clearly did notfollow the common trends, as besides his inconspicuous light-colored robe thatwas made of uncommon materials, nothing else could be seen.

Meng Fuyao"s vision finally fell on the man"s slowlyretracting right hand, where the previously noticed mark was now seen a littleclearer to be vaguely shaped like a flower petal.

Feeling her sight, the man still didn"t open his eyes butlightly said, "The inner qi that I have lent to you will only have effectin the next three hours. If you want to use it, you"d better hurry."

Meng Fuyao started, only reacting to what he said after afew seconds. She suddenly leapt up, looking at him in shock and stuttering,"Who are you? How do you know ... do you know ..."

"You should have known that overdosing on "FingerFrost" would harm your meridians, yet you ate four strands in one gulp, and wasin such a hurry to meditate and recover. If not for revenge, then whatfor?" The man sat while smiling and raising his eyebrows at her,"Although, I will give you a warning, Pei Yuan"s family background is notcommon power. Are you sure you want to continue?"

"It"s not like she can rely on her family to walk overeveryone." Meng Fuyao laughed with a few hints of slyness and arrogance."A debt must be repaid! As for what happens in the future, if she doesn"t comefor me then just as well, but if she does, I"ll escape, and once she relaxesher guard I"ll turn around and bite her. You know," she blinked her eyes,"those born into n.o.bility, sometimes actually have less freedom thanwandering cultivators like me."

The man glanced at her, laughingly praising her. "Good,pretty good."

Meng Fuyao elegantly smiled.

"Pretty despicable of you."

Not looking at the darkened face of Meng Fuyao, the managain began to speak. "Pity that the Profound Origin sect has so manypeople, and Pei Yuan"s martial ability is not weak. As you are right now, justwinning against her will be difficult. If you wanted to punish her while alsonot alarming anyone else, it"s going to be easier said than done."

Meng Fuyao examined him. This person must have long beenwatching on the mountain cliffs, and saw the previous events clearly. Afterthinking of this her anger welled up, and she hatefully said, "That"s noneof your business! You didn"t help me before, why are you trying to be the goodguy now?"

"Before I wasn"t on the same mountain, I only saw themovements of you two from far away." The man was not angry, "So doyou want it or not? If not I"ll take it back."

Meng Fuyao paused, then realized he was talking about thelent internal qi, and grumpily yelled, "I want it!"

Right after her yell the man let out a low chuckle. With acolorful brilliance flowing in his eyes like a galaxy, and a voice withunconcealed humor, "En ... you want it?"

The "En" was said soft and caressingly, full ofprovocation. Meng Fuyao"s words had just come out of her mouth before sherealized her wording, and her face flushed red. Before she could think of anappropriate response, the man already grinned while pulling her hand."Since you want it, then I"ll follow your lead ..."

1. A flower = slang for a hot young guy. Why you ask?Probably cuz girls like to gaze at both pretty flowers and pretty guys

2. Luan = type of mystical bird like the Phoenix

3. Flower of a fig tree in southern Asia sacred to Buddhism