My Arch-Nemesis is the R-Rated Male Lead - Chapter 35

Lu Rong once again confirmed just how bottomless the limits of the restricted-content system truly were.

Teaching Zhou Li the art of dual cultivation? That was basically throwing herself straight into a tiger’s den.

Now she finally understood—although Zhou Li looked safe, he was in fact the most dangerous existence of all.

The saying that the more beautiful someone is, the more dangerous they are was absolutely true.

There was no way she would complete such a stupid task. She climbed to her feet, brushed the wood chips off her clothes, and then heard a voice sound in her mind.

[Host, if you fail to complete the task within three days, you will also go into heat.]

Lu Rong: “???” 

I’ll go into heat too?

[Host, you obtained a cheat from this task. Naturally, failing to complete it will result in corresponding punishment.]

Lu Rong thought that made a certain amount of sense, but this punishment was way too perverse.

This meant she had no choice but to complete the task.

And besides, she only had theoretical knowledge of dual cultivation and had never put it into practice.

Lu Rong felt a bit dizzy. Just as she bent down to pick up her sword, it suddenly whooshed away and flew straight into the hands of Zhou Li, who had appeared at some unknown moment.

“Why are you here?” Lu Rong asked. Seeing him now made her instinctively want to run, like a mouse spotting a cat.

Zhou Li glanced at her expression and didn’t say much. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Lu Rong asked, confused.

[He’s not going to grab me and do me to death, is he?]

Zhou Li: “???” 

So does she want that or not?

Since he wasn’t being controlled by a heat cycle, Zhou Li’s rationality still held the upper hand. He wasn’t completely driven by desire, and naturally had no intention of doing anything with Lu Rong.

[Why isn’t he saying anything? Why is he just staring at me?]

[Don’t tell me he wants outdoor play? He’s so perverted!!]

Lu Rong’s face flushed bright red. “Give me the sword—I’m going back!”

After watching her fall from the sky three times, Zhou Li had no way of letting her return on her own.

But seeing her face red like an overripe fruit, he still handed the sword back to her.

Lu Rong took her sword, just about to leave on it, when she saw Bing Lie had already grown larger and flown to her feet.

“It’ll take you back,” Zhou Li said, turning around and leaving immediately. Bing Lie would certainly be able to deliver her home safely.

Only then did Lu Rong realize that Zhou Li had come specifically to see her off.

She wanted to say thank you, but he was already gone. Unable to help herself, she muttered, “Why did he run off so fast? Didn’t even give me a chance to say thanks. So annoying.”

Despite grumbling, she still stepped onto Bing Lie.

Bing Lie carried her straight back to Zhuiyu Tower, where she unexpectedly ran into her father.

Her father looked at the sword beneath her feet, clear surprise showing on his face.

“Dad? You’re done eating already?” Lu Rong stepped off Bing Lie and happily walked over to Lu Wen.

“That was Bing Lie?” Lu Wen still looked doubtful.

“Yeah.” Lu Rong hadn’t yet noticed the shock in his eyes.

When Lu Wen kept staring at her, she grew a little nervous. “What’s wrong?”

“How did he let you step on his sword?” Lu Wen knew Zhou Li’s nature well—his sword was something not even he himself was allowed to touch.

“I fell off my sword, so he had Bing Lie bring me back,” Lu Rong explained simply.

Lu Wen frowned slightly. “Aren’t you two on bad terms?”

Lu Rong laughed awkwardly and brushed it off. “That’s just kids’ stuff. You adults shouldn’t pry.”

She patted her old father on the shoulder. “And also, I’m still young. Don’t start arranging men for me. If I want one, I’ll find him myself.”

Hearing this, Lu Wen couldn’t help but overthink it. “You and Li’er wouldn’t be…”

“How could that be!” Lu Rong’s voice rose instinctively. “Dad, stop talking nonsense!”

Her heart was pounding. “If there’s nothing else, you should go back. I’m going to sleep.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she fled guiltily into the room and shut the door, cutting off her old father’s concerned gaze.

Lu Wen had felt for some time now that something between his daughter and Zhou Li seemed a little off.

But now that she had grown up, she refused to tell him anything at all.

He sighed softly, still uneasy, and called toward the room, “Rong’er, Zhou Li can be considered your older brother. Even if you treat him as such, don’t bully him. He may not take issue with it now, but one day he might turn on you.”

Listening to her father’s voice from inside the room, Lu Rong fell silent. So this was what her father thought, that she had bullied Zhou Li and forced him to let Bing Lie send her back.

She was completely speechless. With Zhou Li’s level of cultivation, how would it ever be her bullying him?

He could tear her apart in no time.

“I won’t!” Lu Rong shouted back.

Lu Wen sighed again. “A daughter grows up and no longer listens to her father.”

Lu Rong: “……”

With no other choice, she went back out, comforted her father for a while, and finally sent him home.

She hadn’t expected Qiu Ling to show up again.

Lu Rong felt that her residence was unusually lively today.

She didn’t even have a moment of peace to think about how to complete her mission.

She went to the painting studio, with Qiu Ling following along. Qiu Ling leaned to the side, staring at her so intently that it made Lu Rong’s back prickle with unease.

“You didn’t come here just to stare at me, did you?” Lu Rong asked while mixing pigments, glancing sideways at Qiu Ling.

“I think something’s very off between you and Venerable Jian,” Qiu Ling said keenly, leaning in as if to sniff her.

Lu Rong hurriedly pushed her face away and said nervously, “Don’t act like you’re catching someone in the act.”

“You have Venerable Jian’s aura on you,” Qiu Ling muttered mysteriously. “Did you sleep with him?”

Those words nearly made Lu Rong’s hands tremble.

“I’d sleep with you before I’d ever sleep with him,” Lu Rong said, forcing herself to stay calm.

Qiu Ling looked a little disappointed when she heard that. “I thought you’d already slept with Venerable Jian.”

Lu Rong hadn’t expected her to still be trying to bait her, but luckily she held steady.

“Why would I sleep with him?” she said confidently. “What—does he have a big package and good skills in bed?”

No one knew about her relationship with Zhou Li anyway, so she could spout whatever nonsense she wanted.

And not all of it was nonsense. Some of it was true—like being well-endowed.

And very much so.

As for being good in bed, she wouldn’t dare compliment that.

“Venerable Jian has such a high, straight nose—he can’t be bad,” Qiu Ling said lazily as she lay to the side, flipping through the illustrated book Lu Rong had tossed onto the desk. “But I still think the atmosphere between you and Venerable Jian is different.”

“How is it different?” Lu Rong asked cautiously.

“He’s more indulgent toward you. He was indulgent before too, but now it’s like, even if you rode right on his face, he’d still smile and praise you for being amazing.”

Lu Rong almost choked.

The other night, he really had pinned her waist, grinding against her while kissing her lips and praising her for being so obedient, for looking so beautiful when she cried.

Of course, he hadn’t said it with a smile. His voice had been low and steady, so intoxicating it made her bones go soft.

Just thinking about those images made her lips and tongue dry.

She instinctively lifted her teacup to take a sip of water.

“Still,” Qiu Ling went on, “a Sword Master at that level probably cultivates the Path of Ruthlessness. If he really broke his cultivation, his power would likely plummet.”

Those words instantly swept the indecent images from Lu Rong’s mind.

That was right, many sword cultivators followed the Path of Ruthlessness.

If Zhou Li truly broke his cultivation, wouldn’t that mean he could no longer ascend?

After Qiu Ling finished speaking and saw that Lu Rong didn’t respond, she muttered to herself, “Once Venerable Jian ascends, our entire sect will be able to cling to his thigh.”

Lu Rong propped her chin on her hand, lost in thought. But Zhou Li was a demon.

Cultivating the righteous Dao with a demon body was already hundreds, even thousands of times harder than for ordinary people. Ascension would only make it more difficult.

One wrong step, and he could be completely annihilated.

Which meant that awakening his heat was also one of the reasons she had doubled his danger.

“A’Ling,” Lu Rong asked worriedly, “what do you think would happen if Zhou Li failed his ascension?”

“A lot of people fail ascension,” Qiu Ling replied. “Most have to start over from the beginning. Some people, if their minds aren’t steady, go straight into madness.”

Just as Lu Rong had thought.

She couldn’t keep drawing. Slumping onto the table, she thought it might be better not to interfere with Zhou Li at all.

But if she didn’t complete the task, she would go into heat herself.

Lu Rong grabbed her hair in misery. Right now, whether she faced it head-on or avoided it, it was a blade either way.

She’d think about it later.

Trying to dodge the issue, she noticed Qiu Ling leaning closer, staring at her furrowed brow with curiosity. “What are you doing?”

Lu Rong found it hard to explain and could only shake her head. “Nothing.”

“Lu Rong! You don’t tell me anything anymore,” Qiu Ling said, grabbing her by the neck. Her eyes immediately landed on the bite mark at the back of Lu Rong’s neck.

“What’s this?”

Qiu Ling touched the bitten spot. Lu Rong hurried to block her, but she was no match for Qiu Ling.

“Have you been secretly having an illicit affair with some wild man behind my back?” Qiu Ling’s expression turned severe. “Lu Rong, tell me the truth.”

“Oh, don’t be so fierce,” Lu Rong said, forcing a guilty smile.

“Are you going to tell me or not?” Qiu Ling showed no sign of softening.

Lu Rong could only fall back on the same old trick. “Zhou Li bit me. When I was applying medicine to him, he inexplicably bit me.”

The moment she heard Zhou Li’s name, Qiu Ling’s keen sense of smell kicked in again. “Where did you apply the medicine? Where were you when you did it?”

Lu Rong sprang to her feet. “Why do you always think about me and him like that? I’m leaving—stay here by yourself.”

After saying that, she didn’t dare slow down for even a second and fled.

If she asked anything else, she really wouldn’t be able to hold her ground.

But once she was outside, she had no idea where to go. She wandered aimlessly through the darkness and, in the end, still made her way to the Wuhui Ravine—helping herself to Zhou Li’s peaches.

After all, in the entire Xuan Yang Sect, only the peaches grown by Zhou Li tasted the best.

She picked a few peaches and lay down by the stream, gazing at the sparse stars scattered across the night sky, the gentle sound of flowing water in her ears.

The restlessness in her heart gradually eased.

A butterfly fluttered over and landed on the tip of her nose, and Lu Rong’s eyes immediately lit up.

She didn’t dare move at all, afraid of startling the little butterfly.

But when a cold, sharp presence swept over, the butterfly still beat its wings and flew away. She let out a soft sound of regret, sat up, and turned her head—only to see Zhou Li.

The butterfly landed on Zhou Li’s shoulder, then was guided onto his fingertip. He seemed to murmur something, and it soon returned to Lu Rong’s shoulder, its wings affectionately brushing against her cheek.

Feeling the soft touch against her face, Lu Rong’s mood lifted a little.

Still, her tone toward Zhou Li was far from pleasant.

“Why is it you again?”

She lay back down, looking utterly world-weary.

Zhou Li walked over to her side. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”

“None of your business. I can be wherever I want,” Lu Rong huffed.

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw Zhou Li bend down. His long black hair fell loose, and eyes darker than the night fixed steadily on her.

Lu Rong felt her heart skip a beat.

Before she could react, he scooped her up by the waist, lifting her effortlessly and holding her against his chest with one arm.

He carried her straight into Wuhui Pavilion.

Lu Rong struggled and asked urgently, “What are you doing?”

Zhou Li set her down on the bed, which was layered with thick quilts. “We agreed. I’d apply the medicine for you tonight.”

“No!” She lifted her leg to kick him away, but her foot landed squarely on his shoulder instead.

She tried to pull back, but Zhou Li’s broad palm closed around her ankle first, drawing her toward him without room for argument.

“Should I help you take it off,” he asked calmly, “or will you do it yourself?”

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