Chapter Ninety-Six: Collecting a Debt

Chapter Ninety-Six

By the time Mei and Ye Jingxuan had finished their meal and stepped out of the house, it was already past noon.

The moment they emerged, a figure burst from the house across the way and ran straight toward Mei.

“Little cutie, you’re finally out! I’ve missed you to death! Come here, let me hug you!”

Wanqi Wenyue spread her arms wide to embrace Mei, only for someone to beat her to it and sweep Mei out of reach.

“What are you doing?” Wanqi Wenyue failed to get her hands on the little beauty she had set her heart on, and immediately shot an unhappy glare at Ye Jingxuan, who had blocked her.

Unfortunately, Ye Jingxuan did not pay her the slightest attention. He merely held Mei and kept walking. Before, he had had no choice; now, he would not let this inexplicable woman lay a finger on his Mei.

Seated in Ye Jingxuan’s arms, Mei looped her hands around his neck and peered over his shoulder at Wanqi Wenyue.

“Did you catch the other three?”

Her voice was cool, nothing like the innocent act she had once put on in front of strangers.

Truthfully, Mei did not want to be this way either. It was just that the two fragments of the Source of Darkness in her spiritual world were still in the process of merging, their power unstable. The dark energy constantly spilling out had inevitably affected her temperament to some extent, leaving her able to preserve her usual self only when facing Ye Jingxuan for the time being.

Ye Jingxuan was slightly surprised by the change in her, but he did not mind. To him, no matter what Mei became, she would always be the pure and beautiful person in his heart, the one he wanted to protect. That would never change.

Wanqi Wenyue, however, did not know what Mei had been like before. Seeing her behaving so obediently in Ye Jingxuan’s embrace while wearing an expression as cold as ice, she only found the contrast unbearably adorable.

After waiting all day, Wanqi Wenyue, who had already been somewhat irritated, finally suffered a nosebleed.

“A-Yue, why is she bleeding from her nose?”

Mei did not understand it. She had only said one sentence, so why was the other woman suddenly bleeding from her nose?

“It’s nothing. She’s probably been cooped up here with no exercise and worked herself up,” Ye Jingxuan said, glancing at Wanqi Wenyue, whose eyes were practically shining at Mei. His resolve not to let her near Mei only deepened.

“You’re the one lacking exercise! Your whole family lacks exercise!” Wanqi Wenyue had been busy looking for something to wipe away the blood when she heard Ye Jingxuan’s slander. Instantly furious, she planted one hand on her hip and shouted at him.

Seeing that the blood on her face had not yet been fully wiped away, while she stood there with her waist cocked and her eyes blazing, Mei found the sight funnier by the second and could not help laughing aloud.

Ye Jingxuan saw Mei smile for the first time since waking and felt his own mood lift. Magnanimously, he decided not to quarrel with Wanqi Wenyue anymore.

To Wanqi Wenyue, the way Mei’s beautiful eyes curved into crescents when she smiled was beyond adorable. She wanted nothing more than to hold her in her arms and kiss her fiercely a few times.

Alas, with the troublesome Ye Jingxuan standing there, such a wish was destined never to come true.

Hateful men were truly the worst.

Wanqi Wenyue glared at Ye Jingxuan’s back. After a moment, still unwilling to let it go, she hurried after the two of them.

Ye Jingxuan carried Mei all the way to the house that represented the chief’s authority, receiving many looks of fear and resentment along the way.

Word that He Zhong and several of his trusted men had been trapped by a barrier had already spread throughout the entire stronghold.

The reason he had been able to become the leader of this place was that most of the people here relied on his protection to survive in the apocalypse. Now that their support had been cut off, they naturally felt hatred toward Ye Jingxuan and Mei. Yet fearing their strength, which far surpassed He Zhong’s, and with Wanqi Wenyue, the second leader, suppressing them, none dared disturb the two of them while they rested.

Ye Jingxuan did not spare those looks a single thought. So long as they did not come looking for trouble, he would not touch them. But if anyone was foolish enough to provoke him, he did not mind showing them the methods of the Bloodthirsty Asura.

When they reached the main hall, Mei withdrew the dark barrier, and five silhouettes appeared before them.

Compared with the light barrier, which was suited to defense, the dark barrier was far better for imprisonment. Those trapped within it would have all forms of power slowly drained by the barrier, until they were left unable even to summon the strength to kill themselves, let alone escape.

The five of them had been confined by the dark barrier for so long that, now that it vanished, though they were all agitated, they remained sprawled on the floor and unable to get up, much less flee.

Of the five, He Zhong was in the best condition. Although Mei had destroyed his ability, his body had already been enhanced, so he was naturally far better off than the other four ordinary men.

He struggled to his feet and looked unwillingly toward Ye Jingxuan, who stood at the door with Mei in his arms.

He Zhong could not understand it. That day, Ye Jingxuan had clearly been badly injured. How had he recovered as if nothing had happened in just a little over a day?

Could it have been the little girl in his arms?

If only he had killed her then.

Seeing He Zhong once again reveal killing intent toward Mei, Ye Jingxuan’s eyes darkened. A savage violence surged in his heart, and with a flick of his hand, two beams of golden light flashed out, severing the man’s hands at once.

He Zhong screamed out in agony. Blood gushed from both severed wrists.

Ye Jingxuan had no intention of letting him bleed to death, so golden light flared again at the stumps, and two metal shells sealed the wounds shut.

At last the pain subsided enough for He Zhong to stop crying out. He struggled upright and stared at Ye Jingxuan, venom flashing in his eyes.

“Congratulations, Young Master. Your ability has finally recovered. Still, I wonder whether your body has fully healed. The delightful taste of Young Master’s body that night before last was truly unforgettable for me. I trust it has been equally unforgettable for Young Master as well? Ha-ha!”

At those words, Ye Jingxuan’s body tightened for an instant. Though he quickly relaxed, Mei, still in his arms, felt it clearly.

Mei looked up at him, her eyes full of concern.

She was not ignorant. The moment she had seen him that day, she knew what he had endured. She thought such a thing was much like being bitten by a dog; once the wound healed, it would be over. But she was not the one who had suffered it, and she could not truly understand how he felt about it.

Still, she knew very well that men cared deeply about such things.

One only had to look at An Ziyou to know that much. Back then, he had not even gone all the way, and it still took him a long time to emerge from the shadow of it. Now that it had happened to Ye Jingxuan, how would he bear it?

Thinking of this, Mei grew self-reproachful once more. If not for her, he would never have had to suffer such humiliation.

Ye Jingxuan saw the worry and guilt in her eyes, and warmth stirred in his chest. He reached out to stroke her head and said softly, “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

It would be a lie to say he did not care at all. No normal man could calmly accept such a thing. Yet compared with that, what concerned him far more was Mei’s reaction. He feared seeing rejection or disgust in her eyes, even the slightest trace of it.

What he had forgotten was that Mei was unlike anyone else. She would only blame herself for dragging him down, only worry over his feelings. She would never care that he might have been tainted.

He Zhong was therefore disappointed to find that the other man did not erupt in rage as he had imagined. Ye Jingxuan’s gaze remained calm, as though he were simply waiting for him to finish his last words before sending him on his way.

But Ye Jingxuan not losing his temper did not mean that Mei had not.

After hearing his comforting words, Mei did not feel better at all. Instead, she felt even more guilty.

She rarely felt sorry to anyone. In this world, Ye Jingxuan was the first.

Not knowing how to make it up to him, the guilt in her heart kept piling higher and higher, until she urgently felt the need to vent it somewhere.

“A-Yue, how are you planning to deal with these people?”

She had not forgotten that these men had originally been left for Ye Jingxuan to handle personally.

Sensing the violent aura growing ever heavier around her, Ye Jingxuan knew that if he did not let her release it, she would only feel worse. He therefore patted her soothingly and said, “Leave He Zhong to me. The others are yours to handle. Do whatever you want with them.”

“Mm.” Mei nodded, slipped from his arms to the floor, and looked toward the other four.

Ye Jingxuan walked over, grabbed He Zhong by the collar, and dragged him into the inner room, leaving the hall to Mei.

He could let go of what the man had done to him, but the account for hurting Mei had to be settled.

“Do you people enjoy forcing others to mate that much?” Mei asked once Ye Jingxuan had gone, her expression icily cold as she faced the four men.

Her black eyes held not the slightest trace of emotion. There was only darkness, as though it might swallow a person whole.

The four men lay on the ground, staring at what should have been a very cute little girl, yet for some reason an immense terror rose in their hearts. Their mouths opened, but not a single word came out.

“If you like it that much, then I’ll let you enjoy it too.”

Mei did not wait for an answer and spoke on.

Dark energy spread from her body, gradually taking shape in the air as a giant black vortex. Mei quickly formed several hand seals, and from within the vortex came strange, guttural roars.

The four men then saw a pack of bizarre creatures appear inside the whirlpool, clawing and thrashing as they tried to force their way out, only to be blocked by an invisible power.

Terrified by the sight of those grotesque beings, the four of them desperately tried to drag their powerless bodies away from the black vortex.

“You’re scared? Don’t worry, these things don’t eat people. They only like mating with them. And their most remarkable trait is that no matter how you play, they won’t actually kill their partners. So you can spend the rest of your lives slowly experiencing the pleasure of being forced.”

Mei arched her brows slightly, yet from her sweet little mouth came words of utter despair.

“No, no, please, spare us! It was all He Zhong’s order! We didn’t want to do it either!”

The four could no longer endure it and begged for mercy again and again.

Mei seemed not to hear them at all, and merely fixed her gaze on the youngest of the four.

“I hear you’re very skilled at making all kinds of potions. The medicine given to A-Yue was all made by you?”

“I, I, I—”

The already terrified little four could not get a complete sentence out.

Mei had no patience to listen. She snapped her fingers, and four vials appeared out of thin air. One contained an intense aphrodisiac, one a drug that kept the mind clear, one a bone-softening potion, and one a nerve-sensitizing agent. She forced each of them down little four’s throat in turn.

“Enjoy the rest of your lives well.”

With that, Mei opened a passage in the mouth of the vortex and let the monsters drag the four men slowly inside.

Once they were all swallowed up, the black whirlpool dissolved once more into black mist and returned to her body.