Chapter 8: Offering Himself?

Qin Miaoyan held a pile of torn fabric strips, seriously contemplating which Gu would be most suitable for this troublemaker.

His current energetic state was truly irritating.

She quickly decided on the Motor Gu. Its effect was somewhat similar to creating a half-Puppet—while the person retained their own thoughts and actions, their movements would become extremely sluggish, as if slowed down a hundredfold. Every limb movement would feel like lifting a thousand pounds, leaving him no energy to bounce around anymore.

While Qin Miaoyan plotted how to deal with Li Fuguang, he was still stunned that a dusty bedsheet could be more precious than the legendary Silk of the Merfolk.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!” Li Fuguang finally snapped out of his daze, standing up in a fluster and circling around Qin Miaoyan while apologizing repeatedly.

He looked like a wild donkey pulling a millstone.

“Your Eminence, I didn’t know, I really… didn’t know,” Li Fuguang said guiltily. “How about I go home now and figure out a way to compensate you for this… whatever worm, silk bedsheet?”

Qin Miaoyan sneered, “Compensate? The Cloudsilk Worms are already extinct. The only two left are in my backyard. Where do you think you’ll find Cloud Silk?”

Li Fuguang had never even heard of such a thing but knew it was far too valuable for him to ever repay.

He had always faced his mistakes head-on, never running away from them.

So he stepped forward, slightly bending down to look at the cold-faced Qin Miaoyan, and said, “I really can’t compensate you…”

Qin Miaoyan: “Hmph.”

Li Fuguang continued, “Then… is there anything else that could replace it?”

“Just tell me where to find it, Your Eminence, and I’ll do everything in my power to get it for you!”

His eyes were utterly sincere as he half-knelt, placing his hands on the torn fabric strips draped over Qin Miaoyan’s knees, his gaze full of remorse.

Qin Miaoyan gave him a “gentle” smile, deciding she could tolerate him at most until after dinner. She would quietly administer the Motor Gu while he ate, and then he would surely be much less annoying.

If he didn’t calm down, Qin Miaoyan found it hard to feel any desire toward his wild-dog personality… Wow.

Just as she was imagining how he’d behave once subdued, she happened to glance down at Li Fuguang, who was squatting in front of her with his legs spread.

Having already removed his Silk of the Merfolk undershirt, he was barely covered—his shorts, made of the same material, left very little to the imagination.

Like a mountain ridge faintly visible through thick post-rain fog, vast and majestic.

Qin Miaoyan, having “appraised countless mountains,” could tell at a glance that the dormant peak before her was truly impressive.

All that food the fool ate hadn’t gone to waste.

He was… well-endowed.

The anger in Qin Miaoyan’s heart evaporated like morning dew under the scorching sun.

Suddenly, she thought that with looks like his, she could tolerate him a little longer.

The Motor Gu was effective, but it would impair his physical abilities—including *those* abilities.

Perhaps Qin Miaoyan’s gaze was too intense, because Li Fuguang followed her line of sight and looked down at himself.

His face instantly flushed crimson, and he quickly let go of Qin Miaoyan, squatting down and clamping his legs together.

Qin Miaoyan raised an eyebrow, making no effort to hide her appreciation, her eyes burning as she prepared to compliment him on his… assets.

She never hesitated to praise her companions.

But before she could speak, Li Fuguang hugged his legs and yanked the torn fabric from Qin Miaoyan’s knees, wrapping it around himself before hopping back a couple of steps in a flurry as he struggled to pull on the tattered scraps.

With his back turned to Qin Miaoyan, he dressed hastily while saying, “Don’t look, Valley Master. Dinner will be here soon. I told you my leg hair is thick… You’ll lose your appetite if you see it.”

Once, during a sweltering summer, Li Fuguang had eaten bare-legged. His mother, sitting beside him, took one look and vomited halfway through the meal. Since then, he’d been traumatized, too afraid to let anyone see his legs.

Qin Miaoyan, who had assumed he was shy about being seen *there*: “…”

But truthfully, Qin Miaoyan wasn’t the least bit angry anymore. Among humans, she’d never encountered one with such… *exceptional* attributes.

Some men were tall but built like tender bamboo shoots—utterly useless.

To stumble upon someone whose face was so pleasing and whose *other qualities* were equally impressive was rare indeed.

She hadn’t planned to see him so soon. Honestly, Li Fuguang’s words and demeanor had initially bored her. But now that she’d gotten an unexpected glimpse, she felt it was fortunate she hadn’t thrown him out.

Wouldn’t it be a shame not to *play* with such a specimen to her heart’s content?

Her thoughts swirling, Qin Miaoyan eyed him meaningfully. “Why the rush to cover up? It’s not bad at all. What grown man doesn’t have hair? A lush growth means good health.”

Li Fuguang had already managed to pull on the fabric—somehow, it now vaguely resembled a pair of pants.

“Really?” He scratched his head. “Once when I ate with my legs bare, my mother vomited from disgust.”

Qin Miaoyan burst out laughing. “Hahaha… Was your father a fish or something?”

Qin Miaoyan truly had a knack for unpleasant remarks. She spoke this way to everyone, and no one enjoyed her words—even the occasional willing lover would grow disheartened after a few rounds of her barbs.

But Li Fuguang, with his missing brain cells, didn’t mind her tone in the slightest.

Having grown up without peers his age, surrounded by stuffy elders who all spoke to him with condescending lectures—yet doted on him dearly—he was long accustomed to it.

In fact, he even took Qin Miaoyan’s manner of speaking as a sign of affection.

So when he saw her laugh, he grinned too, shuffling to the bedside and plopping down beside her. “I wondered the same thing! Is my father hairless? I even tried pulling down his pants while he slept to check…”

“HAHAHAHAHA—!”

Qin Miaoyan couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed like this. She slapped Li Fuguang’s back, giving it a couple of lingering strokes—both taking advantage and unable to resist asking, “So? Did your father have hair?”

Li Fuguang shook his head. “Didn’t get to see. He’s too sharp. Before I could pull them down, he caught me and chased me around with a whip.”

“HAHAHAHAHA—!”

Qin Miaoyan laughed uncontrollably, gradually pressing herself against Li Fuguang until her entire body trembled with mirth.

Her ample curves crushed against his sturdy arm. No man could resist such an advance from a woman—especially when that woman was a breathtaking beauty, the untouchable Valley Master of Nether Valley whom others dared not even glance at twice.

At this moment, any man’s vanity would have soared to its peak.

However, Li Fuguang simply sat there, waiting for Qin Miaoyan to finish laughing. He reached out to steady her shoulder, and only after her laughter subsided did he say, “I’m sorry, Your Excellency.”

Qin Miaoyan was nearly tumbling into his arms, just a hair’s breadth away from resting her head on his lap. Seduction radiated from the corners of her eyes and brows as she slightly parted her lips, her red tongue half-revealed, enticing one to taste.

“Hmm?” Her voice was ambiguously husky.

“It was my ignorance that led me to tear Your Excellency’s Cloud Silk bedsheet,” he said with utmost seriousness, still hung up on this matter.

Qin Miaoyan chuckled, then suddenly sensed something amiss. She sat up straight, her seductive gaze slightly receding as she studied him.

Could it be that his earlier feigned ignorance was just an act to amuse her?

If he truly possessed such cunning…

Qin Miaoyan observed him discreetly and said, “Actually, it’s not a big deal.”

“The Cloud Silk bedsheet can cleanse impurities from the meridians and ensure peaceful, dream-filled nights,” Qin Miaoyan explained truthfully. “As you know, I’m plagued by heart demons. Without it, I can hardly sleep at night.”

Upon hearing this, Li Fuguang looked as if struck by lightning, his guilt almost tangible, ready to spill over.

“Then… what should we do?!”

He tugged at the makeshift “pants” wrapped around him. “If I take them off, can we still piece it back together?”

“Such a precious item—how could Your Excellency let me sleep on it?!” His remorse was genuine, much like his refusal to wear the Silk of the Merfolk, sincerely believing himself unworthy.

He was so rough on clothes, shoes, and pants that even his mother had said he didn’t need nice things!

Seeing him pace around anxiously again, Qin Miaoyan scrutinized his expression and suddenly felt like she’d been walking in the dark for too long, mistaking a dog for a ghost.

She rolled her eyes.

Before she could say anything, Li Fuguang had another epiphany: “Ah! It must be because my injuries were too severe, and my meridians were tainted with demonic energy that needed purification…”

He stopped beside Qin Miaoyan. “I’ll take this off right now and sew it back for Your Excellency!”

Seeing his earnestness, Qin Miaoyan replied airily, “It’s no use. Cloud Silk is extremely fragile. Once torn, it loses its efficacy.”

“Ripped like this, it’s definitely ruined.”

After a moment of silence, Li Fuguang said, “If you can’t sleep without it and have nightmares… since the sheet is destroyed, let me accompany you instead?”

Qin Miaoyan: “I already said you can’t make up for it. Drop the subject!”

If not for his… impressive physique, she’d have poisoned anyone this nagging into silence.

But Li Fuguang circled around to stand in front of her. “What I meant was, I can sleep with you at night.”

Qin Miaoyan: “Huh?”

Sudden enlightenment? Offering himself up?

Li Fuguang immediately pitched himself: “I can watch over you while you sleep! If you have nightmares, I’ll know right away and use my Spirit power to soothe you. Wouldn’t that work?”

He thought this plan was foolproof and even feared Qin Miaoyan might refuse. “My stamina is incredible! Before I even began cultivating, I once went two months sleeping only fifteen minutes a day and still had energy to spare!”

“At home, I outlasted seven Spirit Horned Eagles and tamed them all as spirit pets. I just didn’t bring them this time.”

“Later, my mother found out, worried I’d exhaust myself to death, and force-fed me medicine to make me sleep.”

Qin Miaoyan thought he was full of it.

But of course, she wouldn’t refuse a fool offering himself up like a naive deer.

That night, Qin Miaoyan experienced sharing a bed with a man for the first time in her life—purely sleeping under the covers without any intimacy.

Before lying down, she had indeed thought that mere skin contact could easily stir desire. Though she wouldn’t claim to possess peerless beauty, she was at least the kind of woman most ordinary men couldn’t resist.

Yet even as she coquettishly giggled, her breath sweet as orchids, half-draped over Li Fuguang while asking about his childhood, he showed not the slightest reaction.  

He kept rambling about the mischief he’d gotten into as a boy—like stuffing firecrackers into a demon beast’s… *ahem*—his eyes growing brighter as he boasted about how incredible he was, single-handedly driving off a demon beast at just seven years old!  

Qin Miaoyan had zero interest in learning *how* he’d stuffed them in.  

Exhausted from her failed seduction and aching from laughter, she fell asleep suspecting Li Fuguang was all show and no substance—*impotent*.  

Logically, though she needed the Cloud Silk, she didn’t require it nightly. After all, she had reached the Cocoon Soul Realm in cultivation, and those traumatic events were centuries behind her.  

Time had dulled the edges of those unpleasant memories, allowing her heart to gradually settle into calm.  

But perhaps the emotional turbulence before bed had been too intense. Unbeknownst to her, she had smiled all night long.  

Li Fuguang’s childhood was something Qin Miaoyan could never have imagined.  

Listening to his tales felt like watching a farce—how had a child that unruly not been beaten to death?  

Thus, that night, her joy turned to sorrow.  

Without the Cloud Silk bedding, Qin Miaoyan truly had a nightmare.  

In her dream, she was thrust back over three hundred years, when she had been gifted to the Valley Master of Nether Valley as a plaything—not as a woman, but as a *toy*.  

Her face had been disfigured, her body festering, thrown into the Venom Pit to live among venomous snakes, insects, and vermin.  

She didn’t want to die.  

She *couldn’t* die!  

She refused to die!  

For seven months, she survived in that pit, eating poisonous insects to cling to life. By sheer twist of fate, she emerged with Gu Blood that rendered her immune to all toxins.  

The old bastard, impressed by her tenacity and needing her blood for elixirs and Gu refinement, finally pulled her out and took her as a disciple.  

Qin Miaoyan’s nightmare relived those torturous months in the Venom Pit.  

She would never forget the horror—every inch of her flesh gnawed, every orifice vulnerable to venomous invaders.  

She had revisited this hellish memory countless times in dreams.  

But this time, just as she felt a scorpion sting her finger and retaliated by biting it back, a thick fog rose before her eyes.  

The next moment, she was yanked out of the pit, wrapped in scorching, solid arms that shielded her from the venomous creatures.  

A searing breath brushed her ear, warmth cascading over her like a hot spring.  

A voice murmured, *”Don’t be scared, little sister. Big brother’s here…”*  

Qin Miaoyan jolted awake in terror at those words—*”Don’t be scared, little sister. Big brother’s here.”*  

She had no brother.  

Assuming this was another layer of nightmare—a common plunge from one horror into a deeper abyss—she opened her eyes.  

Yet in the dim light, she met a pair of eyes brimming with concern and comfort.  

Those eyes glowed with a crystalline, faint green light, reminiscent of the frost-lotus stamens she’d once seen in the Icelands of Overlapping Reflections.  

Or like the luminous gaze of a wolf king leading its pack across snowy peaks.

Qin Miaoyan had just woken from a terrifying dream, her spine still tingling with an eerie sensation of being watched. But soon, she heard Li Fuguang speak in that tone of his—the one that always made her feel he was wasting such a fine voice.  

He said, “Your Excellency, were you dreaming of eating braised pork knuckle?”  

“Look how you’ve bitten me…”