My Arch-Nemesis is the R-Rated Male Lead - Chapter 12

Lu Rong noticed that Bing Lie seemed to be… blushing.

Its originally clear, ice-like color now seemed as if scorched by flames, even emitting wisps of white mist. Furthermore, the places her palm and lips had touched were radiating warmth.

She was just about to turn her head and tell Zhou Li that Bing Lie was malfunctioning.

But the moment she turned, both the man and the sword had vanished.

“???” Why has he been so elusive lately?

Zhou Li’s neck was flushed crimson now, hot sweat sliding down his jawline. He couldn’t let her see him in such an embarrassed state.

With Zhou Li gone from her side, Lu Rong obediently squatted where she was, intending to send him a mental message.

“Where did you go? Where are you?”

She sent the message twice before he finally replied in a strained voice, “Other side.”

Lu Rong craned her neck to look at the other side of the tree, but saw no one. Just as she was puzzled, a leaf drifted down. She looked up and spotted a flickering hem of a robe at the tree’s very top.

The tree was likely an ancient one, its branches thick, straight, and tall, with a posture that seemed to spear into the clouds.

Lu Rong tilted her head back, squinting up at the figure farthest from her. “???” Why doesn’t he just fly up to the heavens?

Lu Rong: “Why are you flying so high up?”

Zhou Li: “To stay away from danger.”

“So you’re putting me in danger instead?” He’s such a dog!

[Later, I’ll strip him bare to vent my anger.]

Zhou Li: “……” It truly is dangerous.

So the two of them remained separated, one high, one low. Without Zhou Li beside her, Lu Rong felt insecure. “Come down! Or take me up with you! What if someone captures me?”

Zhou Li: “I’ll save you.”

Lu Rong said through gritted teeth, “Well, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Zhou Li replied blandly, his gaze fixed on Mo Jianlan’s residence below. “Look inside the room.”

Lu Rong thought, Look at what? I can only see tightly shut doors and windows.

Then a wisp of cold energy brushed past her eyes. Her vision suddenly cleared, and she could actually see right through the doors and windows into the room inside.

Lu Rong blinked, discovering she truly had an unobstructed view of the scene indoors.

This is proper X-ray vision.

For the first time, she felt Zhou Li was actually somewhat useful. She craned her neck to look inside. The indoor light was rather dim, with motes of dust drifting in the interplay of light and shadow.

Lu Rong’s observation shifted from outside, attempting to see into the more concealed interior. “The room seems empty.”

Zhou Li, standing high above, closed his eyes. “Keep looking.” As long as she wasn’t mulling over him in her mind, it was fine.

“Oh.” Lu Rong, hidden stealthily in the tree, craned her neck to continue peering into the even darker inner chamber.

Her brow furrowed slightly. “There’s a barrier. A demon’s barrier.” A barrier formed by demonic aura would be wreathed in a black mist. With one glance, Lu Rong could tell that the demon’s cultivation level surpassed her own.

Zhou Li had already seen through everything here and naturally also knew what was inside Mo Jianlan’s room. “Figure out a way to look inside yourself.”

Although Lu Rong had hitched a ride to the Golden Core stage thanks to Zhou Li, she had still learned what she needed to learn beforehand.

She formed a hand seal with her fingers and swept it across her eyes. Her vision pierced directly through that barrier, finally revealing the licentious scene within.

Mo Jianlan was trapped on the bed, clothes in disarray, face glistening with rolling sweat. Through the loose collar, one could see a slender tail tightly coiled around his skin, leaving behind many red marks.

Lu Rong was momentarily stunned. Was this… happening?

However, there was no woman’s figure to be seen upon the bed.

She focused even more intently, peering into the bed’s interior. But just as her gaze was about to sweep past the fluttering bed curtains, a pair of crimson, vertical pupils suddenly fixed on her with deadly intent.

Lu Rong was so startled her heart seemed to stop. A sharp, needle-like pain shot through her eyes, and she almost toppled backward. A sword blocked her back. Then, a cool sensation spread over her eyes, and the pain vanished instantly.

“What did you see?” Zhou Li’s voice sounded. Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly, tickling his palm.

Zhou Li felt a faint itch in his palm. He withdrew his hand and looked down at her.

“I saw a pair of snake eyes,” Lu Rong said. Thinking of those vertical pupils sent a shiver down her spine. Snakes were what she feared most. “And Mo Jianlan was… mating with it.”

Lu Rong recalled her earlier impression at the tavern—that Mo Jianlan seemed like someone who’d been ravaged all night. It turned out it wasn’t her wild imagination; it was real.

When a human and a demon mate, the human is undoubtedly doomed. Because demons and ghosts possess formidable cultivation, humans become their source of nourishment. Most people are drained alive until they’re empty husks.

Who knew if Mo Jianlan was aware of this or not?

Just as Lu Rong was pondering this, she saw Mo Jianlan walk out. His expression was perfectly normal, as if the person who had just been tumbling passionately with a snake inside wasn’t him at all.

Mo Jianlan’s gaze swept towards the tall tree where she and Zhou Li were concealed. Lu Rong instinctively held her breath, trying her best to suppress and lower her own presence.

She turned her head to see Zhou Li standing there openly and upright. Hastily, she reached out and tugged his sleeve. “Crouch down! You’ll be discovered!”

Zhou Li had also set up a barrier. Mo Jianlan couldn’t see the two of them.

“Let’s go back.” Zhou Li had seen enough. He reached out once more and simply took her away. Lu Rong had the feeling she’d just been along for the ride.

Mo Jianlan stood at the doorway, his expression grave. Having found no one, he went back inside. A small white snake climbed onto his shoulder and asked, “Didn’t you see who it was?”

Mo Jianlan shook his head. “That person’s cultivation is very high.”

“But the one who was peeping on us had average cultivation.” The small white snake perched on his shoulder, its pair of scarlet eyes fixed on the tall tree outside. “And I smelled an aura that frightened me.”

“A’Miao, don’t worry. I will protect you completely,” Mo Jianlan soothed, leading the little white snake back into the inner chamber.

Meanwhile, Lu Rong was taken back to the restaurant by Zhou Li, who directly brought her to his own room.

The moment Lu Rong landed, she asked curiously, “Aren’t you here to capture demons? How come you knew there was a demon inside but didn’t capture it?”

Zhou Li sat down and drank a cup of tea. “She’s not the one I was asked to capture.”

“What do you mean?” She sat beside him, propping her chin on her hand and looking at him inquisitively. “That snake demon is… good?”

Zhou Li’s hand, pouring tea, paused slightly. “Demons can be… good?”

“Of course,” Lu Rong said, pursing her lips. “Just as people can be good or bad, demons must be the same.”

Zhou Li lifted his gaze and looked at her quietly, as if observing a peculiar creature.

“Why are you staring at me?” Lu Rong felt awkward under his gaze. “Ugh, I know the sect’s rule is to never spare any demon, regardless of good or evil.”

“Then aren’t you afraid of being exposed for keeping a demon in Zhuiyu Tower?” Zhou Li asked.

“How do you know that!” Lu Rong looked at him defensively, realizing that Zhou Li had taken her back after her breakthrough. He must have seen Xue’er.

“You must not hurt Xue’er!” Lu Rong said to him urgently.

“She’s a rabbit demon who just recently assumed human form. If I’d wanted to kill her, she wouldn’t have lived past the day I saw her.” Zhou Li said this only because he didn’t understand why she would take the risk to shelter a seemingly useless rabbit demon.

Lu Rong also let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Xue’er is very well-behaved. She won’t harm anyone, and she won’t run off.”

“So you simply indulge her living within the immortal sect? Aren’t you afraid others might discover her one day?”

If discovered, no one would tolerate that innocent demon.

“She has nowhere else to go,” Lu Rong said, chin in hand. “I’ll protect her. You’re not allowed to tell anyone.”

“What’s in it for me?”

Lu Rong hadn’t expected him to demand a reward. “What do you want?”

For a moment, Zhou Li also didn’t know what he wanted. He looked into her eyes.

Lu Rong was the first person to tell him that demons could be good or bad.

But she detested him.

“Haven’t decided yet.” He also wasn’t clear what he wanted to obtain from her.

“Do you know talking like that will get you beaten up?” Lu Rong looked at him with displeasure.

“Who’d be hitting whom?”

Lu Rong: Goodbye.

She left with a clenched fist and a smile on her face. She was afraid that if she hit him, she’d instead be cleaved in two by Bing Lie with a single stroke.

By the time she returned to Qiu Ling’s room, Senior Brother Lin was also there. The two of them were in the middle of discussing something.

Seeing Lu Rong return, he also asked, “Where did you go?”

“Went to the Mo residence with Zhou Li,” Lu Rong said, sitting down and gulping a glass of water. Then she noticed the strange, suggestive look in their eyes.

“Just you and Venerable Jian? Alone?” Qiu Ling asked.

“Mm,” Lu Rong acknowledged. She had initially intended to mention Mo Jianlan’s entanglement with the snake demon, but remembering Zhou Li had said that wasn’t the demon he was after, she didn’t elaborate for now. “We went to check on Mo Jianlan’s situation.”

“Did you find out anything?” Senior Brother Lin asked.

“Under that rock on East Street, there’s an illusion of the Yin-Yang Spring.”

“The Yin-Yang Spring.” Qiu Ling stood up and walked to the window, looking down. “How do you know? Did you see it?”

“Yes, it appeared when I got close.”

“Then what did you see?” Qiu Ling asked curiously. “I remember the Yin-Yang Spring is divided into two springs: the Yin Spring shows you what you hate most, and the Yang Spring shows you what brings you the most joy.”

“I didn’t see anything before Zhou Li hauled me away.” At the time, she had only seen water.

“Then it seems there really are demons in Luo City.” Senior Brother Lin’s expression was filled with a righteous sense of wanting to save all living beings.

Looking at him, Lu Rong suddenly thought of Zhou Li.

Filled with a righteous sense of mission to eradicate demons—such an expression seemed never to have appeared on his face.

He was always aloof, as if whether it was humans, demons, ghosts, or even cultivators like them, it had little to do with him. He faced all things with the posture of a cold, detached observer.

So she always felt he was cold-hearted and hard to get along with. But remembering how he’d guarded that last spoonful of tofu pudding today, she also thought he was rather interesting.

Strange Zhou Li.

Her mind was wandering far away. Qiu Ling and Senior Brother Lin saw her frowning, troubled expression. Senior Brother Lin muttered, “Is she thinking about Venerable Jian?”

“Mm, most likely. The look of a maiden pining for love,” Qiu Ling affirmed with a nod. “I told you before, hatred is always born from too much love.”

“Ah? Are we having all my favorite dishes tonight?” Lu Rong snapped out of her reverie and looked at them expectantly.

“Dream on.” Qiu Ling ruthlessly shattered her illusion.

When it came time for dinner, Lu Rong understood why she’d been “dreaming”—because both of them were eagerly asking Zhou Li what he liked to eat. After all, the bill still had to be paid with Venerable Jian’s bag of gold bars.

Before Zhou Li had even ordered, a string of dish names popped into his head.

[Sweet and sour fish, sweet and sour fish, sweet and sour fish fish fish fish fish.]

[Pan-fried tofu, tofu, I want to eat tofu!]

[And there’s spicy stir-fried beef, super spicy, super spicy!]

Zhou Li gave a soft sigh. With his long fingers, he pointed out these three dishes. Lu Rong, who had been idly fiddling with her chopsticks in utter boredom, saw the dishes he’d ordered. Her eyes instantly lit up, and she beamed at him with a radiant smile.

[I hereby declare Zhou Li the kindest soul today!]

Zhou Li found that when her mind wasn’t occupied with improper thoughts, she wasn’t so… noisy.

[Then I’ll be a bit gentler when I rip his collar off later.]

Zhou Li: “……”

Lu Rong, of course, hadn’t forgotten her own mission.

Being able to see Zhou Li’s inner thoughts as bullet comments would definitely be fascinating. He was so outwardly stoic yet inwardly passionate. It was entirely possible the messages would be explosively scandalous.

Thinking this, her gaze had already stealthily landed on his Adam’s apple. Her peripheral vision trailed down from it, as if trying to slip past the tightly fastened collar, eager to glimpse the secrets and alluring sights hidden within.

Zhou Li’s mind began to uncontrollably conjure the very scene she was picturing.

Lu Rong sat on his lap, her fair fingertips hooking his collar. He saw his own slightly raised jaw and hot sweat trickling down his neck, soaking a dark, damp patch at the collar.

And the originally tightly fastened collar was now completely loose. She lowered her head as if to bite a piece of the fabric, but instead made contact with his Adam’s apple.

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