60: Chapter 60 Tonight You Are Mine

The banquet ended, and the glass lamps in the main hall were extinguished one by one, leaving only the lamps under the eaves, sealed with the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame, burning quietly in the night. When Hun Feng was brought out of the main hall, supported on either side by Yao Yao and Mu Xiao, his steps were already a bit unsteady. Tonight, he had been plied with alcohol by Gu Dao and Gu Qingyang in turns. That group from the Ancient Clan seized every opportunity to force him to drink, saying things like, "The Ancient Clan's son-in-law cannot refuse to drink." Even the usually stern Gu Dao had held a wine bowl and downed three bowls with him in a row. Hun Feng refused nothing. By the end, Gu Qingyang had collapsed first, and while Gu Dao was still holding on, his speech was already distinctly slurred.

Yao Yao handed Mu Xiao over to Lin Qingwan to take to the side hall to sleep, then had Hun Qian carry the drunken, limp Gu Qingyang to the guest room, before supporting Hun Feng back to the East Courtyard. Medusa walked in front. When she pushed open the bamboo curtain of the East Courtyard, she looked back at Hun Feng. Her purple eyes swept across his face, and she said indifferently, "You can still walk in a straight line; you aren't completely drunk yet." Hun Feng replied with a raised eyebrow.

Behind the bamboo curtain, the lights in the four bedchambers were all lit. Gu Xun'er's room was at the innermost side of the East Courtyard, right next to Medusa's. Xiao Yi Xian's room was next to Gu Xun'er's; the light was soft, and the window paper cast the silhouette of her bending over to tend to those newly acquired purple clay flower pots.

Hun Feng stood under the veranda, looking from left to right. Yao Yao's lamp was warm, Medusa's was steady, Gu Xun'er's was newly lit, and Xiao Yi Xian's was soft—four colors, four personalities, now all in his courtyard. The corners of his mouth slowly curled up, curling higher and higher, until he finally leaned against a veranda pillar, grinning so wide his teeth were exposed. Yao Yao poked her head out from behind him, followed his gaze, and pinched his waist hard. "What are you thinking about? Your mouth is stretched almost to your ears."

"Thinking about how lucky I am." Hun Feng wrapped his arm around Yao Yao's shoulder and planted a forceful kiss on her face. The smell of alcohol mixed with his hot breath sprayed onto her ear, causing her to push his face away in disgust, muttering, "You stink, you're all covered in the smell of alcohol." Medusa brought out some hangover tea from the inner room and handed it to him. He took it and drank half a pot in one go, then suddenly lowered his voice, as if announcing a major decision: "Tonight, I'm going to Xiao Yi Xian's room."

Yao Yao froze for a moment, then two flashes of intense light burst from her peach-blossom eyes. She grabbed Medusa's sleeve, her expression of watching a show even more excited than when they had intercepted the Sky Mansion Alliance at the Corpse Burial Mountain Range back then: "Sister Cai Lin, did you hear that? The first person he's going to is Xiao Yi Xian! Not Xun'er, but your old nemesis Xiao Yi Xian!"

Medusa's hand holding the teacup paused, and a faint, cold light flashed in her purple eyes. Her feud with Xiao Yi Xian was not a matter of a day or two—back then, Xiao Yi Xian had been bewitched by the Hall of Souls and, as the Sect Leader of the Poison Sect, had led the Izumo Empire's army to attack the Jia Ma Empire, with the Snake-People Tribe bearing the brunt of it. In that battle, countless clansmen had fallen under the Poison Sect's poison mist, and even several tribe elders who had followed her for many years had not survived. As the Queen of the Snake-People Tribe, she still remembered the sight of Xiao Yi Xian standing at the very front of the Poison Sect's army, her purple robes fluttering, radiating killing intent. Later, although the two had to share the same camp because of Xiao Yan, she had never truly trusted Xiao Yi Xian—always feeling that beneath that cold, innocent exterior lay hidden, unspeakable motives. And Xiao Yi Xian was no pushover; clearly knowing that Medusa was wary of her, she would still take the initiative to provoke her every time they met, her words laced with barbs, and several times they had even come to blows. What bothered her even more was that she had seen Xiao Yi Xian's feelings for Xiao Yan at first glance; that bitterness of deeply loving Xiao Yan yet being unable to have him made them both rivals in love and allowed them to see shadows of themselves in each other.

"If he wants to go, let him go. What does it have to do with me?" Medusa placed the teacup on the stone table, her tone indifferent, but Yao Yao noticed that her action of putting down the cup was a bit heavier than usual.

Yao Yao leaned in close to her, lowering her voice, her peach-blossom eyes flashing with a teasing light: "Sister, don't be stubborn. You two fought several times back then, and now you're going to sleep with the same man. Don't you feel awkward? If she brings up you chasing after Xiao Yan back then, what will you use to retort? You are living in the same courtyard as her now, after all."

Medusa did not answer, simply picking up the teacup to take another sip. Seeing that she wouldn't speak, Yao Yao didn't press her, just gently patted the back of her hand and turned to prepare tomorrow's clothes for Mu Xiao. When she walked under the veranda, she looked back at Medusa; her purple eyes were still fixed on Xiao Yi Xian's lit room. No emotion could be seen on her face, but her knuckles holding the teacup were slightly pale. Yao Yao laughed secretly in her heart, didn't expose her, and walked away on her own.

When Hun Feng pushed open Xiao Yi Xian's door, the alcohol had dissipated a bit, but his courage had not. Xiao Yi Xian was sitting at her vanity, combing her hair. She had already changed out of the pale purple dress from the engagement and was wearing a plain white house robe, her white hair draped behind her shoulders. The bronze mirror reflected her face—cold, pure. Between her brows and eyes, there was no longer the chilling killing intent from when the Calamity Poison Body erupted back then, nor was there the timid shyness of that frail female doctor in Qingshan Town. She was now a fairy who had mastered the poison body and experienced life and death, her temperament between cold elegance and gentleness, like a cluster of dark fire suppressed beneath an ice layer that would no longer hurt anyone. Hearing the door, she turned her head, and after seeing who it was, a flash of surprise crossed her eyes, and she immediately stood up.

"Why did you come here?" Her voice was very soft, with a bit more unnaturalness than usual.

"Came to see you." Hun Feng latched the door behind him and walked up to her. He was more than half a head taller than her, and when he looked down at her, he could see her eyelashes trembling slightly. He reached out and pinched a strand of her white hair; the texture was finer and softer than he had imagined. He gently rubbed it between his fingertips, "Your hair looks better down than tied up."

Xiao Yi Xian's ears turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye. She subconsciously took half a step back, her lower back pressing against the edge of the vanity, her fingers gripping her cuffs tightly. Back in the Jia Ma Empire, she had seen countless experts poisoned by her; in the Izumo Empire, as the Sect Leader of the Poison Sect, she had made a million-strong army bow down; in the Central Plains, as the Purple-Robed Heavenly Poison Girl, she had made all factions tremble with fear. But at this moment, facing this man who was already engaged to her, she found that she actually didn't know what to say—the poison that made the entire continent turn pale at the mention of her name posed no threat to him, and the scorching aura on his body, mixed with the smell of alcohol and strange fire, made her heart skip several beats.

"What are you nervous about?" Hun Feng laughed, reaching out to wrap his arm around her waist and pulling her closer, leaning down to her ear, "Back when you led the Izumo Empire to attack the Jia Ma Empire, that posture of yours standing at the very front of the army with your purple robes fluttering—even Cai Lin was three parts afraid of you."

"At that time, I was bewitched by the Hall of Souls and did wrong things." Xiao Yi Xian raised her eyes to look directly at him, her tone returning to indifference, but there was still a tremor in her voice she couldn't suppress, "The matter of the Snake-People Tribe is what I owe her. She hates me, I accept that. If you want to vent your anger for her, I accept that too."

"We aren't bringing up old accounts tonight." Hun Feng's thumb gently rubbed her waist as he looked down into her eyes, "Tonight, we only talk about you and me."

Xiao Yi Xian was silent for a moment, then lowered her eyelashes, her tone calm but honest: "You are my fiancé. But the old grudge between me and Cai Lin won't be written off just because I marry you. She can't stand me, and I can't stand her—before it was because of Xiao Yan, and now it's because of you. I don't think she will truly accept me, and I don't expect her to."

"That's a matter for the future." Hun Feng lowered his head and kissed her lips. Her lips were cool, with a sweet, fresh taste, and her whole person had a faint fragrance from the inside out. Her fingers gripped his lapels tightly, her fingertips still trembling slightly, but she didn't push him away; instead, after a brief moment of stiffness, she slowly relaxed, letting him deepen the kiss. He tightened his hold on her waist and lifted her from the vanity, walking a few steps to the bedside. The plain white robe fell silently to the floor, folding next to the bright red ceremonial robe; the bronze mirror on the vanity reflected two overlapping figures. He leaned over by her ear, his voice husky and deep from the alcohol: "Xiao Yi Xian, tonight, you are mine." She didn't answer, just raised those cold eyes to look at him, then reached out and gently removed the jade hairpin from her hair. Her white hair cascaded like a waterfall onto the silk pillow, gleaming with an ivory-like, gentle luster under the candlelight. Her fingers slowly climbed onto his shoulders; the touch was cool, but her palms were shockingly hot.

Later, Hun Feng realized that this fairy, who had once been frail, once cold and elegant, and now still carried thorns within her gentleness, was so inexperienced in bed. She was even a bit clumsy when catching her breath, almost choking herself several times, yet she was too embarrassed to cough out loud, only able to turn her head away and bury her face in the pillow. Hun Feng reached out to gently turn her face back, lowered his head to kiss away the tears brimming from the corners of her eyes, and whispered: "Your hands were so steady when you were giving people acupuncture in Qingshan Town, why don't you know how to do anything now?"

Xiao Yi Xian glared at him; that glare contained shyness, annoyance, and embarrassment, but not a shred of genuine resistance. She replied sullenly: "I... I studied medicine, I never learned this." Hun Feng looked at her cold, ethereal face paired with ears that were about to burn up, and suddenly remembered how she used to squat by the medicine basket in Qingshan Town brewing antidote for him—back then, she had also been that serious, to the point of being a bit clumsy. Now, she had the sharpness and coldness of the Calamity Poison Body, but the clean essence deep in her bones remained.

He whispered something in her ear, the sound swallowed by the darkness, heard only by her, and then her ears turned even redder than before. She turned her head slightly in the dark, her lips brushing lightly against his jaw, like a toxic-core begonia tentatively touching a flame it shouldn't approach. On that face, usually calm and distant, only the most primitive confusion remained at this moment, yet she still insisted on not giving in, only her hand clutching his lapels refused to let go no matter what.

In the second half of the night, when Hun Feng woke up slightly, the moonlight had moved from the windowsill to the foot of the bed. Xiao Yi Xian was curled up in the crook of his arm, sleeping quietly, her breathing steady and long. That face, usually cold and distant, had no defenses at this moment, and a faint arc even hung at the corners of her mouth, as if she were having a very good dream. He looked down at her for a long time, then very lightly planted a kiss on her forehead and closed his eyes again.

From Qingshan Town to the East Courtyard of the Soul Realm, this road had been long. From the war banners of the Izumo Empire to the borders of the Snake-People Tribe, that scar had been deep. But now, she was in his arms, and the old accounts would be for him to settle for them slowly. Anyway, both of them were his wives, and there would be plenty of time in the future.