My Arch-Nemesis is the R-Rated Male Lead - Chapter 15

The warm, delicate sensation of her skin traveled up his snake tail and straight into Zhou Li’s mind. He realized the tip of his tail had slipped into her sleeve and, upon touching an even softer place, had tightly coiled itself around it.

The unconscious Lu Rong let out a strained, uncomfortable breath.

He thought of the painting he had confiscated from her earlier. The figure’s chest was wrapped in red silk.

And now his uncontrollable tail was brazenly wrapped around her chest in the same way.

Zhou Li had never imagined something this absurd. He forced his tail back, the tip still burning hot, his entire body temperature rising with it.

Hot sweat gathered at his jaw and dripped down his neck, sliding into his collarbone and soaking his already-rumpled collar.

He closed his eyes, intending to clear his mind, but the sensation lingering at the tail-tip threw his thoughts into chaos.

“Master, your mind is in turmoil. If you force it down, you’ll suffer backlash,” Bing Lie warned.

Of course, Zhou Li knew. But he couldn’t bring himself to think about what he had done while out of control. He opened his eyes, a bead of sweat slipping down from his brow bone, his thick lashes trembling.

He quietly steadied his breath. Lowering his gaze to his chest, he touched the spot where blood had flowed moments ago; the wound was now fully healed.

He pulled open his collar and saw a faint patch of scales appearing over his chest, the color still very pale.

He touched the birthmark; it didn’t feel the same as when Lu Rong touched it earlier, but a vague sense told him that this scale pattern would affect him, though he didn’t know exactly how.

Zhou Li rose and walked to the bedside, his gaze lowered as he looked at Lu Rong’s wrist, reddened from being wrapped.

His cool fingertips brushed against it. The warm sensation felt just like what had come through the snake’s tail. His eyes dimmed slightly as he erased the red marks.

“There’s still some inside,” Bing Lie said, its hilt pointing at her chest. “You wrapped too tightly just now.”

Zhou Li: “…”

He turned his gaze away and silently extended his hand. A beam of light enveloped her, intending to remove all the wounds on her body.

Feeling the chill in her sleep, Lu Rong curled up slightly, her chin tucked in, looking like a pitiful little creature that had been bullied.

Zhou Li had no way to pull open her collar to see whether the red marks underneath had healed.

He could only estimate the time. After about a quarter of an hour, he withdrew his hand, his chaotic emotions settling like falling dust.

As long as she wakes up tomorrow morning, she won’t remember anything.

His gaze fell on her hands held against her chest, and he reached out to pull the blanket over her.

He meant to leave, but thinking of her restless sleeping habits, he added another layer of restriction to the blanket. “Watch her. Don’t let her roll off the bed.”

With that, Zhou Li disappeared from the room. He needed something to do, anything, to steady himself.

He intended to investigate exactly what kind of demon in Luo City had caused the demonic fire within him to flare so suddenly.

Luo City lay silent in the dead of night. The tremors earlier on East Street had been blocked by his barrier, and the human-faced snake hadn’t affected ordinary people.

So how did Mo Chou and Mo Jianlan find out?

Both of them had been outside the barrier. They shouldn’t have learned about the Yin-Yang Spring so quickly.

Zhou Li headed straight for the Mo residence. It had to be the demon at Mo Jianlan’s side.

He stood again on the same tree as before, plucked two leaves, and blew into them.

The drifting notes slipped into the barrier-shrouded room.

In the pitch-black chamber, the white snake coiled on the bed suddenly lifted its head, its tongue flicking as it shrank back.

It was the aura it feared.

A’Miao instinctively wanted to escape and hide—but a heavy, oppressive shadow fell over her.

She looked up and saw a handsome face, sharp and cold as a blade in the darkness.

She kept retreating, trembling under the gaze of those eyes as cold as tempered stars.

“Who are you?” A’Miao asked. “Are you here to capture me?”

Zhou Li’s indifferent gaze swept over the small white snake curled on the ground. It was clear she had been well cared for, but the hostility clinging to her was far from little.

“You’re a demon,” Zhou Li said.

“I didn’t harm him,” A’Miao explained quickly. “I didn’t hurt him at all.”

“Heh.” Zhou Li gave a cold laugh. “You’re using mating with him to increase your cultivation.”

A’Miao shook her head. “No, it’s me… It’s me…”

She struggled to say it, but under Zhou Li’s sharp stare, she finally forced it out: “It’s because I’m in heat. Every spring is my heat season. I don’t want to be with anyone else—I only want Jianlan.”

Zhou Li’s brows furrowed deeply. Heat season.

“Most of us demons have mating seasons. We can’t control it. I don’t want to hurt Jianlan, but if I’m not with him, I’ll lose control and seek someone else.”

Zhou Li knew many demons were indulgent by nature and affected by the cycles of the seasons.

“All snake clans have this?” Zhou Li asked.

“Yes, but the Xuan Snake clan is different. They aren’t influenced by the seasons.” Zhou Li thought of his own Xuan Snake body. Indeed, for all these years, he had never felt any other kind of desire.

A’Miao said things Zhou Li had never found in any book, so he followed her question with another: “They don’t have a mating season?”

“It’s not that,” A-Miao said. “They’re extremely hard to stir emotionally, but once their desire is triggered by someone, they’ll cling to that person until death.”

Seeing Zhou Li’s brow tighten again, she thought she had said something wrong and immediately fell silent.

Zhou Li asked, “What does ‘until death’ mean?”

“It means that unless they die, they’ll be in heat for that one person their entire life—more frequently than other demons and for a much longer duration.”

Zhou Li: “…”

He thought of his dream—the constant closeness he shared with that woman, day and night.

“Immortal Lord, please don’t kill me. I don’t harm anyone,” A-Miao pleaded.

Zhou Li returned to himself and lowered his head to look at her calmly, no longer wishing to dwell on these matters.

Meeting her mismatched eyes, he asked the real question: “You are the guardian spirit beast of the Yin-Yang Spring. Why has the spring lost its source?”

“I…” A’Miao lowered her head. “Someone deliberately tampered with it and dug out the spring’s source. Now only the spiritual core is crushed beneath the stones.”

“The human-faced snake was refined within the spirit eye of the Yin-Yang Spring. And the demons hiding underground are certainly more than one.”

The human-faced snake had been refined using the spiritual essence of the Yin-Yang Spring.

“If you are incapable, I’ll destroy it.” Zhou Li had only wanted to check whether his demonic fire was reacting to her, but it remained as still as ever. Clearly, this little demon had nothing to do with it.

“If you destroy the Yin-Yang Spring, the entire spiritual vein of Luo City will collapse, and the city’s fortune will scatter completely.”

“You mean Mo Jianlan’s fortune will scatter. But what does that have to do with me?” Zhou Li’s voice was icy. He cared neither for Mo Jianlan’s fate nor for Luo City’s fortune.

All he needed was to eliminate the source of Luo City’s chaos to complete the Xuanyang Sect’s mission.

A’Miao grew anxious. “I’ll find the spring eye! Please don’t destroy the Yin-Yang Spring.”

“One day,” Zhou Li said. He did not intend to waste time. The spiritual spring was inside the Mo residence—either Mo Jianlan was preventing her from finding it, or she was hiding it herself.

He had no interest in probing further and left immediately.

When he returned to the inn and entered the room, he instantly saw someone slumped over the edge of the bed, about to fall.

He walked over, pushed her toward the inner side of the bed, and sat on the outer edge.

“Master, you have demonic energy on you.” Bing Lie was still wrapped around Lu Rong.

“It’s not mine.” Zhou Li dispelled the demonic aura from himself, smoothed his sleeves, and settled down to cultivate for a moment.

Suddenly, a sharp bite landed on a sensitive spot, drawing a muffled groan from him. When he turned his head, he saw Lu Rong, dreaming of who-knows-what delicious thing, clamping her mouth directly onto his sword hilt and even giving it a lick.

Zhou Li sucked in a harsh breath, immediately recalling Bing Lie, a faint blush rising again on his face. He stood and flew out of the room with the sword.

She was truly too dangerous.

***

Lu Rong woke with a thud, having slammed into the floor. Groggy, she opened her eyes and realized she had actually rolled off the bed.

Her backside hurt. Her chest hurt.

Still dizzy, she pushed herself up, touching her sore tailbone and then her chest. Once she lay back down, she thought, My butt hurts… why does my chest hurt too?

She lowered her head and pulled open her collar, spotting a ring of redness that hadn’t faded. “Hmm?”

Why a ring?

Lu Rong instantly sobered. She looked around and saw no one, and she couldn’t remember anything about last night.

She only remembered coming to find Zhou Li, watching him kill a human-faced snake, and after that—nothing.

“Zhou Li?” she called out, but no reply came.

Zhou Li had actually heard her, but thinking that Lu Rong, freshly awake, was probably quite dangerous, he didn’t answer.

Lu Rong hurriedly took out her jade pendant to contact him, only to remember she hadn’t added him. Annoyed, she tossed it aside. She hadn’t wanted to contact him anyway. Besides, who adds someone they dislike?

Hearing her thoughts echo in his mind, Zhou Li’s expression turned icy.

Lu Rong, flailing on the bed, figured Zhou Li wouldn’t take advantage of her. The ring-shaped mark was probably just from when he lifted her. She looked down again and felt something was off.

It’s a little scratched. How did he do that?

Hearing this, Zhou Li’s expression shifted. Had the marks from last night not completely faded?

It’s so red! Damn it, how did Zhou Li lift me up like that?

Zhou Li was momentarily speechless, his ears warming—like his overheated tail from the night before.

Still fuming, Lu Rong found another question surfacing in her mind:

What does the birthmark on the male lead’s chest look like?

She hadn’t even pulled open Zhou Li’s clothes before, yet her mind automatically conjured the scene from last night—her leaning against his chest, telling him his lips were nice to kiss, then reaching out and tugging open his collar.

Lu Rong: “???” 

No—what did she even do last night?

Was it that intense?

She looked down at her hands, incredulous.

“Did I take an aphrodisiac last night?” At most, she’d only indulged in a wild fantasy, wanting to pounce on Zhou Li. But in reality, she never dared put even a claw on him.

How did she even survive last night?

[Host, please answer.]

Lu Rong recalled the small scar she’d sensed in her mind moments ago, like a mark left after flesh had been carved away.

“A scar?” She remembered the sensation of touching it, as if she’d even felt his heartbeat. A little fast, too.

[Nope.]

But she had only seen the scar. Was she supposed to be… spicier?

“It’s his sensitive spot.” Zhou Li had even trembled yesterday.

[Fifty percent correct. The birthmark is concealed. The host must continue exploring.]

“Then what about my reward?” How was she supposed to see a covered birthmark?

[Reward: One day of the male lead’s inner monologue. System repaired 99.7%.]

Whether it fixed itself or not didn’t matter—just a machine anyway. But the reward? Absolutely necessary.

She could already see Zhou Li’s thoughts.

“Zhou Li, Zhou Li!” She couldn’t wait to try.

After being called several times, Zhou Li finally returned, gaze flat. “What is it?”

Lu Rong instantly stared above his head.

A line of text popped up:

[She actively adds other people’s jade inscriptions but won’t add mine, yet still calls for me.]

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