200: Chapter 200 Mirror Flower... Subject to the Lord's Judgment

Wen Yiran stood in the middle of the room with her arms wide and legs mid-stride, her eyes wide as copper bells.

Those two useless mounds of softness on her chest, driven by inertia, broke free from the embrace of her bath towel, bouncing under the soft lighting.

Like two jubilant rabbits.

As for the bath towel...

It slipped silently from her body and piled up at her feet.

Wen Yiran glanced down, looked up at Jing Hua, and then glanced down again.

The air froze for about two seconds.

Jing Hua quickly lowered her head.

Her expression didn't change, still maintaining that restraint and sense of propriety unique to the Merfolk Tribe.

But her gaze trembled slightly the moment she looked down.

That tremor wasn't because she saw something she shouldn't have.

Rather, it was because she wasn't sure how she should conduct herself in this situation.

At that moment, Wen Yiran finally snapped out of it.

She immediately let out an "Ah!" and squatted down to pick up the towel, her movements fast as lightning, yet the more she hurried, the clumsier she became.

The towel slipped from her hands twice before she finally grabbed it on the third try, wrapping it haphazardly around herself.

Wen Yiran's face was completely flushed, the red spreading from her neck all the way to the tips of her ears.

Two more people walked out of the bathroom.

Jiang Wanwan was wrapped in a bath towel, her hair half-dry, holding a comb in her hand.

Seeing Jing Hua kneeling on the floor, her footsteps faltered slightly, but her expression didn't change much, only her brow quirked up a little.

Tian Xiwei followed behind her, also wrapped in a towel with her hair half-dry.

Her reaction was a bit stronger than Jiang Wanwan's.

Her eyes widened slightly and her lips moved, but in the end, she said nothing, simply standing quietly behind Jiang Wanwan.

The air was thick with a damp scent.

The fragrance of body wash, the steam from hot water, and a certain indescribable, warm aura.

Jing Hua buried her head even lower.

"I am sorry, My Lord."

She didn't move, remaining on her knees.

"Perhaps... I have come at an inopportune time. I shall..."

"No."

Lin Xiao spoke up, interrupting her as she was about to stand.

He stepped forward, slowly squatted down, and reached out, gripping her jaw with his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to look up.

Jing Hua's body trembled slightly.

The scorching heat from his palm seeped through her skin, constantly stimulating her nerves.

Jing Hua blinked, her purple pupils reflecting Lin Xiao's face.

That face was getting closer and closer to her.

"You've come at exactly the right time."

Lin Xiao's lips moved, his voice clearly audible.

His tone was clearly gentle.

But Jing Hua's gaze trembled violently.

She heard in it an unquestionable command, one carrying a natural sense of oppression.

Lin Xiao released his grip.

His fingertips slid down Jing Hua's neck, then lightly tapped her battle-damaged Bio-Armor.

"Remove your armor!"

"My Lord..."

Jing Hua's expression began to lose control. "I..."

She only felt her heart rate accelerating, her breathing becoming shallow and rapid.

The scales hidden beneath her collar flared slightly due to her emotional fluctuations, like a startled fish raising its dorsal fin.

In over a decade of war, she had seen too many greedy and brutal humans who treated the Merfolk Tribe as cargo or playthings.

A hundred years of exile had long accustomed her to using indifference and distance for protection.

Time had forced her to turn the soft parts of her heart into callouses.

But now, kneeling before this human, she suddenly discovered she wasn't as strong as she had imagined.

Some long-suppressed instinctual reaction was awakening in an uncontrollable way.

Jing Hua wanted to flee.

To return to her people.

There, there was no such suffocating pressure, no such gaze that left her at a loss.

But, she could not do so.

Not because of fear.

But because she knew clearly the price of refusal.

She had come entrusted by Princess Xiyao.

The Princess was unwell and could not come in person, so she had asked Jing Hua to come and offer her thanks.

If this visit angered My Lord, if My Lord rescinded his orders...

Would those private rooms they had just been assigned, those clansmen who finally didn't have to sleep on the floor, and that hard-won stable life return to square one overnight?

Jing Hua didn't want to speculate about Lin Xiao's intentions in this way.

But from the previous battles, she could see that Lin Xiao was decisive in killing, every move carrying an aura of violence, and he was skilled at using benefits to bind the soldiers under his command.

Such behavior was, in fact, no different from that of Cang Ming.

At this moment, Lin Xiao didn't know what Jing Hua was thinking.

He only felt an unbearable heat within him.

But seeing those reddened eyes, seeing that tear that refused to fall, seeing her bitten lower lip and slightly trembling shoulders...

He let go.

"I was being presumptuous."

Lin Xiao stood up and took a step back.

The edge of the bath towel swayed around his waist.

"You may leave."

Hearing these words, Jing Hua was stunned.

She remained kneeling, maintaining the posture of her chin being held up, her gaze slightly out of focus.

Her expression shifted from fear to bewilderment, and then from bewilderment to something even more complex.

He... was letting her go?

Jing Hua thought Lin Xiao would continue to apply pressure.

She thought he would use that irresistible tone to make even more excessive demands.

But just as she felt a sense of relief, a thought suddenly rose in her heart.

Lin Xiao gave up so easily; could he be planning to shift his target to Princess Xiyao?

According to Merfolk Tribe age, Xiyao had only just reached adulthood...

No, absolutely not!

Jing Hua slowly closed her eyes.

She took a deep breath and changed her posture, kneeling on both knees.

Then, she reached out, untied the straps across her chest, removed her pauldrons, and shed the Bio-Armor that had accompanied her for countless years.

The grayish-white armor slipped from her shoulders and piled up silently on the floor.

She was wearing nothing underneath.

The Merfolk Tribe's Bio-Armor was originally a skin-tight combat suit.

Jing Hua knelt there, her bare upper body shimmering with a pale purple luster under the lights.

Those were tiny, soft scales, their edges shimmering like mother-of-pearl, pulsing slightly with her breath and refracting delicate glints of fire under the light.

The curves of her chest were full and upright—not exaggeratedly large, but a natural arc that perfectly matched her physique.

Her waist was extremely slender, the curve from her ribs to her hips perfect, without a single ounce of excess fat.

But that slenderness wasn't frailty; it was a lean toughness forged through a thousand trials, every inch of muscle tight and powerful, ready to explode with staggering strength at any moment.

Not far away, Tian Xiwei stood at the bathroom door, her gaze falling upon Jing Hua.

She maintained strict body management and had received professional physique training, yet compared to the female Merfolk Tribe before her, her own figure was still somewhat inferior.

"Jing Hua... is at My Lord's disposal."

Jing Hua lowered her head.

Her pearly teeth bit her lower lip, leaving a white mark on her lip.