"Truly beautiful."
Ye Feng admired Mei's exquisite foot as he held it.
"Feng, Feng-kun..."
Mei stood on one leg, maintaining her balance perfectly, but Ye Feng's continued grasp on her foot made her a little shy.
Kiana, inside the wardrobe, watched with her heart in her throat.
In ancient times, so-called well-bred young ladies from noble families never stepped out of the inner courtyards, their confinement a symbol of their chastity. The noble families of the Far East still followed this tradition from Shenzhou to this day; the jade-like feet of their young ladies were absolutely not to be peeked at or played with by outsiders.
For Mei's jade foot to be desecrated by Ye Feng in such a way symbolized that she now belonged exclusively to him, that her entire body and soul had fallen to him.
"This dog bastard..."
Kiana nearly ground her molars to dust.
She finally understood why Ye Feng was focusing so much on Mei's feet this time.
That triumphant look in his eyes seemed to be declaring, "Kiana, you will probably never in your life be able to play with Mei's slender feet like I can. Bwahahaha."
Ye Feng suddenly said, "Mei, can you perform that for me?"
"...W-What?"
Mei looked down, gazing at her lover.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his head exactly level with the area below her abdomen... Her mind wandered to something, and her legs felt a little weak.
Ye Feng said, "You know, the 'Ye Feng, submit to me' line."
"Eh?"
Mei's expression faltered for a moment, then she said with a bashful timidity, "...Feng-kun, don't tease me..."
Although she was incredibly shy, another voice within Mei's heart seemed to be stirring restlessly: Perhaps it wouldn't be impossible?
"I'm not teasing."
As if interlocking their fingers, Ye Feng slid his four fingers between the girl's toes. Mei subconsciously tried to struggle, but she was held firmly in place. Ye Feng said:
"Can you? I want to hear it."
Meeting Ye Feng's expectant gaze, Mei finally relented.
"Mmm, o-okay... I'll try. But, Feng-kun, you can't laugh at me..."
Mei, standing on one leg, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
When she opened them again, her gaze had become calm, even possessing a hint of majesty.
"Feng-kun, submit to me!"
Although it lacked the wild arrogance of the Herrscher of Reason, her凛然 posture and cold, haughty aura gave her the air of a queen.
Kiana's pupils contracted. Her throat felt itchy, and the glands inside her mouth began to secrete saliva involuntarily.
In her eyes, Ye Feng was like a lowly slave who was only worthy of licking the queen's feet. The queen, without a word, merely looked down from on high, coolly bestowing upon him his reward.
Kiana swallowed hard, feeling her entire body tremble.
This tremor that touched her very soul came not from Mei, but from... Ye Feng.
The always superior, omnipotent Ye Feng was now being stepped on like mud underfoot.
Kiana felt as if she had opened the door to a new world.
Up!
Up! Up!
Up! Up! Up!
The pink progress bar above her head shot up rapidly.
The stark contrast seared Kiana's nerve endings, and her breath slowly grew hot.
Because Ye Feng truly did as Mei commanded, "submitting" at the queen's feet.
The moonlight spilled softly into the room, and the wall clock ticked away with a quiet rustle. The room was tranquil.
None of the three spoke or moved much. The only sound in the room was that of licking and eating.
---o---
Divination Commission.
It was dim and mysterious, as if time had stood still here.
The towering stone walls were built from ancient bluestone, on which hung bronze divination plates. Their trigrams were intricate and complex, emitting a faint coppery-green luster. Each plate seemed to carry the secrets of heaven and earth, exuding endless mysteries in its silence.
Divination matrices constructed from jade abacuses were scattered throughout like a starry sky, twinkling with a cosmic brilliance.
Fu Xuan stood at the center of the Matrix of Prescience, the surrounding runes flickering with a faint light in the darkness, like stars drifting in a void. Her fingertips lightly traced the edge of the matrix, feeling the "fate" that flowed within.
However, her heart could not find peace.
More than a week had passed since Qingque's "insubordination"...
The once-tranquil lake of Fu Xuan's mind was now in a state of constant turmoil.
Her dignity had been trampled, her purity stained.
But she felt no hatred for Qingque, nor could she call it anger.
What she felt, mostly, was an unspeakable shame.
Shhhh~~
The light at Fu Xuan's fingertips suddenly shattered, and the star matrix dimmed along with it.
"Mmph..."
Fu Xuan let out a muffled groan.
The Dharma Eye on her forehead felt like it was burning, searing her nerves.
This "third eye" of Fu Xuan's, which could see all, was less a tool for seeking knowledge and more an eternal instrument of torture. From the moment she obtained the all-seeing Dharma Eye, it meant accepting eternal pain.
But if she could catch a glimpse of the ripples of "fate," then such a price was worth it.
Fu Xuan had accepted it willingly.
But now that her "state of mind" had been broken, it was difficult for Fu Xuan to "enter a meditative state" as she had before. For a Diviner, this was nothing short of a devastating blow.
Without a state of mind as clear as a mirror, how could one capture that thread of destiny's mystery from the myriad phenomena of the universe?
Fu Xuan closed her eyes again, trying to concentrate and activate the matrix. However, the image of her body bound by red rope kept flashing in her mind...
"No, this cannot go on. This Seat is one of the Six Charioteers of the Luofu, in charge of the entire Divination Commission, and bears the heavy responsibility of guiding the Xianzhou's course."
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. Her fingertips trembled slightly, and the matrix began to operate.
Countless images of the future flashed in her consciousness like shattered mirror fragments, each reflecting a different possibility.
She saw victory, she saw failure; she saw hope, and she saw despair; she saw elation, and she saw pain...
However, these images could not be pieced together into a complete answer. She tried to grasp the clues within, only to find them slipping through her fingers like sand.
"Is it still... like this?" Fu Xuan murmured, her voice trembling slightly.
Broken clues leading nowhere, useless scraps of information.
Fine beads of sweat formed on her forehead, and a confusion as thick as a dense fog enveloped her heart. She had never felt so powerless. Even when facing the most formidable enemies, she had never wavered. But now, she was lost in the mist of the future.
She opened her eyes. The light in the matrix gradually faded, eventually returning to silence.
Fu Xuan stood where she was, the glow of the Matrix of Prescience illuminating the side of the Grand Diviner's face.
Her eyes stared blankly ahead.
Her heart was filled with confusion—where exactly was the path to the future?
"This Seat... what exactly should I do?"