The Jiangshi Master, otherwise known as Sheng Jing Wu, stood atop the active volcano with a supremely arrogant glint in his piercing, obsidian eyes. The boiling lava framed his shadowy figure with a malevolent luminescence, gleaming red and orange around the edges. His dark robes and ink black hair cascading down his back and shoulders made him a terrifying thing to behold, as the smoke from his materialization continued to swirl around him eerily like a living essence.
"I assumed that my stratagem involving those empty-headed sect members would be enough to lure you here, but…" Sheng Jing Wu's snarky grin didn't waver as he reached down a long arm and grabbed Snowball by his foot, holding the fox's limp body up in front of him with apparent disdain, "Who would have believed that a simple, powerless little fox would do the trick instead? This is absolutely comical! This way, I shall have the added bonus of a new fur coat!" His voice grew higher as he spoke, as if he were getting positively giddy at the idea.
"Let. Him. Go."
Li Meirong uttered the words one by one through gritted teeth, holding in her fury for having to deal with this lunatic, yet again. One wrong move and the Jiangshi bastard could decide to fling Snowball into the bubbling volcano. Her arms were already trembling violently from having to hold on to the mountain-side for so long, but she had remained as calm as possible.
The sound of her voice called his attention to her and away from the fox, although he didn't seem to have noticed at all what she had actually said. Instead, when he looked at her, he covered his mouth daintily with his free hand in mild astonishment, his entire demeanour shifting from malicious to almost coquettish.
"Oh my... Look at you! You have become such a feast for the eyes since the last time I saw you. Did you prepare yourself for me?" He hardly waited for a response from her before continuing, "I was going to treat the scars on your skin, but it seems you took care of that for me! It truly warms my heart that you have been thinking of me just as much as I have thought of you."
The man was deranged. He was having an entire conversation with himself, changing moods on a dime. How was such a maniac to be dealt with? Li Meirong spoke again, slowly and softly as if trying to soothe a rabid beast.
"Please let the cub go. He has nothing to do with this."
"Stop telling me what to do!" she had inadvertently triggered Sheng Jing Wu's rage, his eyes widened and, as if on cue, an eruption of sparks flew out of the mountain behind him.
"You want me to let him go?! Very well!"
The Jiangshi Master spun around and held Snowball dangling over the bubbling lava.
"No! Please don't do this!" Li Meirong cried out, "What do you even want from me?! Why go to all these lengths-"
"Hahahaha!" she was cut off by his cynical laughter, "Women line up for miles, offering themselves to me. I was going to make you mine, bestow upon you the honour of my ownership, even though you were such an ugly little thing then. But you… you tossed me away like trash! Had your plant nearly devour me alive! No one has ever dared reject me, let alone make an attempt on my life, and now you ask what I want from you?!"
"I'm-I'm sorry!"
There seemed little sense in reminding him that it wasn't that she rejected him as a lover, but that he, in fact, had planned to kill her by slowly raping her and draining her of her blood for the mere fact that she was a furnace.
One of Li Meirong's feet gave way, slipped off the jutting rock she was trying to balance on. She nearly lost her grip and plummeted to the ground below. The demonic cultivator reacted immediately, reaching the cliff's edge at unnatural speed and one-handedly yanking her languid body up to the flat surface with ease.
When she looked up at his face she saw that his mood seemed to have shifted again, if only slightly, into one of concern for her wellbeing. She had to work this temporary tenderness in her favour, and somehow get Snowball out of his hands.
"I apologize for how I behaved." She said softly, looking as doe-eyed and innocent as she possibly could, "We never really had a chance to talk before, to get to know each other. Please, give me a chance now."
"Mmm... that's better." Sheng Jing Wu muttered his approval of the change in her demeanour, and wrapped an arm tight around her waist, forcing her body closer to his. Li Meirong did her best not to cringe. It wasn't that he was repulsive, but simply that she was terrified of him. She felt as though she was being constricted by a large, venomous snake.
"Were you to act as you are supposed to previously, I would never have had to resort to plot against you thus. That Fire Drake you blew up was a rare and expensive beast, by the way."
"Oh, I-I'm so sorry about that as well! It was a mistake. I made a mistake…"
"I will forgive your foolishness, just this once." every word slithered out of his mouth with such loathsome glee. He was enjoying her submissiveness far too much.
The fox dropped to the ground in a furry heap behind them as Sheng Jing Wu grasped both Li Meirong's bruised and raw hands. She tried and failed to suppress a pained yelp at the touch, still sensitive from what her palms had suffered from her climb up the mountain.
"I will take care of you from now on. You know now what to expect, should you dare to displease me again…" He hissed as his face moved gradually closer to hers. He was mesmerized by her long, beautiful eyelashes and large irises. Even with dry, chapped lips and dripping with sweat, she was more alluring than any of the clean, perfumed and eager beauties waiting for him back at his court.
Those poor lips, he thought. He could begin by moistening them for her.
Bai Qingyue slowly opened his eyes and found himself sprawled on hot volcanic rock. The last thing he remembered was being knocked out by a snake-like man while running away from the exploding Fire Drake. When he finally managed to regain consciousness and take in his surroundings, the sight that greeted him brought his blood to a murderous boil.
Li Meirong was locked in a lovers' embrace with that same demonic man, the one who had captured him! He held her body tight to his and pressed his horrid lips to hers.
Fury built up inside him, causing his body to expand. Still a fox, for he hadn't yet the power to transform into his human figure just yet, he enlarged to twice the size of an average man. His golden eyes flashed violet, and a low snarl rumbled from his elongated muzzle, filled with sharp, glistening fangs. He breathed down the oblivious Jiangshi Master's neck, preparing to strike.
Li Meirong, who had witnessed the entire transformation, stared wide-eyed and dumbstruck past the man's head. Clearly, there was more to little Snowball than what initially met the eye!
It was Li Meirong's stunned expression that alerted Sheng Jing Wu to the fact that something was amiss, enough for him to turn around and stare into the open jaws of an immense, silver monster.
"How dare you touch my woman?!" roared the beast.