Chapter 4709 — Back on the Road

Rounding the boulder, he saw the little spring in full for the first time: clear and faintly cool, veiled in a thin white mist, with something of a fairy realm about it. Huo Yudie was curled up in the hollow behind the rock, her whole body tucked carefully beneath the water so that only her head showed above the surface, her cheeks flushed as she looked at Wei Zhao.

She was bathing, so naturally she wore no veil now. It was the first time Wei Zhao had seen her face—and though he had grown used to beauties beyond counting, the sudden sight of a lotus rising pure from clear water struck him like a thunderbolt. Only eight words remained in his mind: white as jade, flawless beyond compare.

No wonder the girl wore a veil. With a face like that, and that alluring, incendiary figure besides, any venture into the world would have brought endless trouble—the kind where she'd be carried off to be some bandit chief's wife at any moment.

At the sight before him, Wei Zhao could not help swallowing. Her beauty was only part of what stunned him; the more tempting part lay further down.

Huo Yudie's whole body was hidden under the water, but the spring was so clear to the bottom that without that layer of white mist above it, it would have concealed nothing at all. Even with the mist, Wei Zhao's eyesight let him make out, faint and indistinct, something of the scene beneath the surface.

Had Huo Yudie not happened to hide in the hollow of the rock, with her lower half wholly blocked from view, Wei Zhao would have wondered whether his nose might start bleeding. Even as it was, just looking at her pure, lovely face and that patch of cream-white skin at her throat, he could scarcely hold himself in check.

The hazy view below her neck especially set the imagination running without end. Any other man of weaker restraint would likely have leapt in, beast-nature and all.

"Eh? What clothes are those?" Huo Yudie had been a little shy at first—especially when Wei Zhao came in, she had nearly ducked completely under. But once she saw what was in his hands, her eyes lit up at once.

Women are ever sensitive to things like clothes. Even though she had never seen garments from the mundane world, she could tell good from bad with ease.

"Put them on and you'll see." Wei Zhao smiled a little stiffly. Given the male body's instinctive reactions, there was no being natural in such a situation. He set the clothes on a stone nearby and withdrew.

"Oh…" Eyes shining, Huo Yudie stared at the set of denim sportswear. Before Wei Zhao had even fully stepped out, she scrambled up out of the water, cheering and skipping toward it like a little girl.

That instant—a lotus emerging from clear water—made Wei Zhao stumble in his step. He stood there dumbstruck until Huo Yudie herself came to her senses, gave a red-faced "aiya," and ducked back down. Only then did he hurry out, his mind a muddle, filled entirely with the sight of that one moment.

Shaking his head to dispel the tangled thoughts, Wei Zhao waited outside for a good while before he heard the sound of Huo Yudie emerging, followed by the rustle of clothes being put on—which set him imagining things again. After all, that scene was simply impossible to banish.

After a time, just as Wei Zhao's thoughts had drifted unbidden to the nine heavens, a fresh, refined figure suddenly appeared before him. It was Huo Yudie, fully changed.

"What? Don't recognize me anymore?" Seeing Wei Zhao staring fixedly at her, Huo Yudie spat out a flustered little rebuke, her pretty face flushing—yet for some reason she felt rather pleased inside, and even turned a full circle before him, pursing her lips to ask, "Does this look good on me?"

"It looks good," Wei Zhao nodded.

Huo Yudie's beauty was rare to begin with. Before, in her ancient-style robes and veil, wrapped up tight from head to toe, she had still given off a most alluring, exquisite impression.

Now, changed into denim sportswear, her fine figure was set off all the more smartly. A ten-out-of-ten figure became twelve-out-of-ten temptation, and with that youthful, radiant, flawless face besides, she looked for all the world like a girl of the mundane world.

To be honest, looking at Huo Yudie now, Wei Zhao could not help feeling as though a lifetime had passed. Since coming to Cloud Terrace Island he had not seen a beauty dressed like this; even Han Jingyi and the others had followed local custom and put on ancient-style robes. Yet on this girl from the Eastern Continent he found that long-lost feeling again.

He had to admit, the girl fit the mundane world rather well. At least, if she walked through it in these clothes, no one could possibly guess her origins—they would take her for a native through and through.

Seeing Wei Zhao so utterly captivated, Huo Yudie was not angry at all; shy as she was, she felt a little smug besides. All along the way Wei Zhao had shown not the slightest sign of craving, which had left her confidence somewhat lacking—but now she had found it again. So she did have some pull over him after all!

"Hey, do you want to go in and wash up?" Huo Yudie asked, pursing her lips.

"Oh, no need." Wei Zhao shook his head mildly at that, his spirit-platform clearing at once; the look he turned on Huo Yudie again held none of its former desire.

Bathing, like eating, was no necessity for a high-level cultivator—merely a natural habit. Even after days of dusty travel through a wasteland, Wei Zhao need only think it and his true qi would cleanse him. Only a girl with a cleanliness obsession like Huo Yudie would want to bathe.

Huo Yudie pouted and looked him up and down with a rather odd expression, seeming to carry a note of regret.

Wei Zhao was taken aback by that look. He had no idea what was going on in the girl's head, and could only say, "We should get ready to go. Aren't you going to put your veil back on?"

"Ah?" Huo Yudie started, and only then remembered she had no veil on. Her cheeks flooded red in an instant—hadn't her face been seen clear through by the other party?

Watching Huo Yudie fumble the veil back on, Wei Zhao was speechless again. So the girl had never realized it at all, from beginning to end…

Back on the road, the mood between them somehow turned strange again—just as after that awkward scene earlier. Huo Yudie kept her head lowered, cheeks red, drifting off into frequent reveries, no telling what she was thinking now; in any case, she said not a word.

Since she did not speak, Wei Zhao found it odd but would not press her. (August 10—the iQIYI web series goes live! For more news, follow the official WeChat account 22.) (To be continued)