Lin Yue closed the book.
It was the third romance novel she had finished that night.
The first told the story of a young master who kissed a maiden beneath the moon, then climbed a mountain of swords the very next day to prove his devotion.
The second followed a prince who abandoned his kingdom to confess his love.
The third was even more outrageous.
After an accidental kiss, the protagonist spent a hundred chapters trying to explain his feelings.
Lin Yue slowly closed the book.
She didn't understand.
Not because the stories were complicated.
Precisely because they were too simple.
The pattern was always the same.
The man did something.
Then came the explanation.
Then came the choice.
But Adrian Valmont had broken that sequence.
He had done the first.
And ignored the second.
Lin Yue hadn't slept.
Not because her Qi was disturbed.
Her breathing remained flawless.
Her cultivation was perfectly stable.
Her mind could recite any of the great Dao scriptures from memory without missing a single word.
And yet...
Every time she closed her eyes, she relived the same moment.
The kiss.
It wasn't the closeness that unsettled her.
It was everything that came afterward.
Ever since that night, it seemed everyone in the sect understood something that she did not.
The female disciples fell silent whenever they saw her.
The elders discreetly looked away.
And every time someone mentioned Adrian Valmont's name, the atmosphere shifted in a way she couldn't comprehend.
It was...
...uncomfortable.
And Lin Yue hated not understanding something.
The next morning, she summoned four inner disciples.
She wasn't wearing the Saintess' crown.
She hadn't called them to give instructions.
She simply stood before them.
"I have a question."
The four girls exchanged glances.
That alone was extraordinary.
The Saintess never had questions.
"Please ask anything, Saintess," one of them replied.
Lin Yue folded her hands before her chest.
As though she were about to explain a profound principle of the Dao.
"When a man and a woman kiss..."
She paused briefly.
"...what happens afterward?"
Silence.
The four disciples froze.
"...Afterward?" one of them repeated in a trembling voice.
"Yes."
"After... the kiss?"
"Correct."
Another disciple swallowed.
"Saintess..."
"It wasn't a spiritual ritual."
"..."
"There was no deliberate exchange of Qi."
"..."
"There was only prolonged contact between our lips."
All four girls blushed simultaneously.
One of them covered her face with both hands.
"S-Saintess!"
Lin Yue tilted her head slightly.
"Did I ask the question incorrectly?"
"N-No..."
"It's just..."
The young women exchanged uncertain looks.
Finally, one of them took a deep breath.
"Normally... a kiss means two people want to become closer."
Lin Yue remained perfectly still.
"Closer?"
"Talking more."
"Spending time together."
"Looking for each other."
"Thinking about each other."
Another disciple, her face much redder than the others, added,
"Holding hands..."
"Hugging..."
The last one spoke so softly she was almost whispering.
"And... if the relationship continues..."
"...it can become even more intimate."
Lin Yue listened to every word with absolute concentration.
As though she were learning an entirely new cultivation technique.
"More intimate?"
The four disciples hesitated.
None of them wanted to answer.
At that moment, an older disciple entered the garden.
She had overheard enough to understand the situation.
Smiling with almost maternal patience, she said,
"When two people fall in love, a kiss is rarely the end."
"It's usually the beginning."
Lin Yue slowly raised her eyes.
The older disciple continued.
"After that come the conversations you never have with anyone else."
"The comfortable silences."
"The desire to see each other again."
"The habit of thinking about the other person even when they're not there."
"And if both people wish it..."
"...they gradually find more and more reasons to be close."
Nothing more needed to be said.
Because Lin Yue's imagination had already begun filling in the gaps.
She remembered Adrian's face.
She remembered the restraint in his expression.
She remembered that, even though he could have taken advantage of the situation...
...he hadn't.
Then an entirely new image appeared in her mind.
They weren't arguing.
They weren't negotiating.
There were no enemies.
Only Adrian...
...walking toward her slowly.
Not by accident.
Not because he had to.
Because he wanted to see her again.
Warmth slowly rose to her cheeks.
The disciples watched in stunned silence.
Never before had they seen the Saintess blush.
"Saintess..." one of them whispered.
Lin Yue reacted as though awakening from a dream.
She immediately stood.
"I need to meditate."
"Now?"
"Yes."
"Is it urgent?"
She paused.
For the first time in many years...
...she wasn't completely certain of the answer.
"Very."
She left the garden with her usual calm, graceful steps.
Only after she disappeared behind the bamboo grove did the disciples finally breathe again.
One of them let out a nervous laugh.
"I think..."
She looked toward the path where Lin Yue had vanished.
"...the Saintess has just discovered that a kiss is never just a kiss."
That same night, Adrian returned to the sect.
Every step reminded him of the tournament he had deliberately lost.
His ribs still ached.
So did the "educational beating" his future father-in-law had given him afterward—with a flawless smile and just enough force to leave no visible bruises.
His cultivation was stabilizing.
His body wasn't.
He was walking along the stone path toward the Inner Pavilion when a shadow silently stepped into his way.
A young disciple from the Saintess' Hall.
"Follow me."
It wasn't an order.
It was a certainty.
"I'm busy," Adrian replied.
The disciple looked at him for a moment longer.
"Follow me," she repeated. "The Saintess is waiting."
The System trembled faintly, like a wounded beast remembering how to roar...
...only to realize it no longer had any teeth.
Adrian let out a slow breath...
...and changed direction.
The garden of the Saintess' Hall was wrapped in an unnatural stillness.
No wind.
No insects.
Only moonlight filtering through trees that seemed to grow according to a rhythm different from the rest of the world.
Lin Yue was waiting there.
No crown.
No symbols of authority.
Only a simple white robe that seemed to drink in the moonlight before returning it purified.
She didn't look like a ruler.
She looked like the world's point of balance.
"You never came to see me," she said.
There was no accusation in her voice.
Only curiosity.
"You never came to claim your... reward, either."
"My reward was a batch of pills," Adrian replied. "I've already received them."
Lin Yue looked at him as though those words belonged to an entirely different language.
She walked toward him.
She didn't float this time.
She walked.
"If you're my..."
She hesitated, testing the unfamiliar word.
"...boyfriend..."
"...why don't you come to see me?"
Too close for a Saintess.
Too distant for a woman.
[DING! DING! DING!]
[SYSTEM: CRITICAL ALERT!]
[HEROINE CORRUPTION IN PROGRESS]
[DESTINY HAS DEVIATED BY 180°]
Immediate provocation required!
Reject her!
Humiliate her!
If the Saintess deviates before her destined ascension...
I WILL KILL YOU!
Adrian clenched his teeth.
"I lost that right," he said quietly.
"I lost the tournament."
Lin Yue slowly raised her hand and gently touched the bandage on his cheek.
"That doesn't matter."
"The Dao said nothing when you kissed me."
Her brows furrowed ever so slightly.
It was an awkward expression.
A human one.
"Everyone says..."
"...that when someone kisses you..."
"...they come back."
She looked directly into his eyes.
Not as the Saintess.
As a young woman waiting for an answer no one had ever taught her.
"I didn't do anything wrong," she said softly.
"So..."
"...why didn't you come?"
She took another step forward.
"That was my first kiss."
"No one ever explained what happens afterward."
Her fingers lightly gripped the fabric of his robe.
"Did I do something wrong?"
And at that exact moment...
...the man who had manipulated entire markets...
...bent destiny...
...and survived the System itself...
...had no answer.
She stepped closer.
Adrian barely had time to react.
Lin Yue leaned forward with a determination born not from desire...
...but from empirical investigation.
Her lips touched his gently at first, as though faithfully reproducing a ritual she had memorized.
Then, recalling every word...
...every embarrassed laugh from her disciples...
...she repeated the gesture exactly as they had described it.
The kiss deepened.
Not because of passion.
Because she wanted to understand.
She wanted to experience it for herself.
To satisfy her curiosity.
It wasn't clumsy.
It wasn't particularly graceful, either.
And then something happened...
...something no explanation had prepared her for.
The touch of his tongue.
The uneven rhythm of shared breathing.
The faint tremor running through her body.
Everything...
...was new.
Adrian blinked once.
Then again.
⚠ WARNING
⚠ DON'T YOU DARE STICK YOUR TONGUE IN THERE, YOU IDIOT!
The System exploded.
⚠ CRITICAL ERROR
⚠ EMOTIONAL VARIABLES OUT OF PARAMETERS
⚠ EVENT NOT FOUND IN DECISION TREE
⚠ ERROR: "INTIMACY CANNOT BE CALCULATED"
Warnings flooded over one another.
Contradictory commands.
Punishments searching desperately for somewhere to apply themselves.
For a single instant...
...the world itself seemed uncertain.
Lin Yue slowly pulled away.
Only far enough to study him.
Her eyes weren't burning with emotion.
They were analyzing.
The sensation.
The taste.
The feeling.
"So..."
She murmured quietly.
"...this is what it's like."
Only after she felt she had learned enough did she finally let him go.
Talking about it...
...and experiencing it...
...were completely different things.
Adrian opened his mouth.
To say anything.
An excuse.
A joke.
A strategy.
Nothing came out.
Then, for the last time that night, the interface appeared.
Not in crimson.
Not threatening.
Not commanding.
Just a single line.
[SYSTEM:]
I hate you.
There was no punishment.
No mission.
No narrative correction.
Only silence.