After Provoking the Mad Beautiful Deity - Chapter 26.2

The fragrance enchanted her soul and threw her thoughts into chaos. Suddenly, a soft cough broke the spell. Yan Lai snapped awake. Overcome by shame, she pushed the person before her away.

San Meng approached, swaying slightly. Her eyes were hazy and unfocused as she walked toward Yan Lai with a lingering smile. Yan Lai was mortified, keeping her gaze lowered, unable to face those knowing, smiling eyes.

Hongchen took the opportunity to delve back into the clusters of mist, searching for the specific visions she wanted to see.

“Yan Lai, why are you here?” San Meng asked, her voice lazy and slurred. Her face was flushed, and her eyes shimmered with a watery glaze. She reached out to touch Yan Lai, but Yan Lai dodged, causing San Meng to stumble forward and nearly fall.

Yan Lai’s scalp felt numb, but she did her best to maintain her composure. “San Meng, where is the Ningzhu Immortal Grass?”

“Sweeping the floor,” San Meng replied dizzily. She answered whatever Yan Lai asked.

Yan Lai intended to go find the grass, but she spotted Hongchen standing before a bank of white mist, watching something with great relish. She stepped forward in a few strides, brushed the mist aside, and hauled Hongchen back.

“You are not allowed to look! If you look again, I will gouge your eyes out!” Yan Lai snapped, her cheeks burning with a rouge-like blush.

Hongchen let out a long sigh of dissatisfaction. “I was just looking so I could learn. Why are all the dreams here so… indecent?”

“Because she is drunk, and her essence is releasing ‘Beautiful Dreams,'” Yan Lai said, pressing a hand to her forehead. Their timing was terrible; had she known, she wouldn’t have come.

Hongchen asked in surprise, “Then… then can she see these exquisite dreams every single day?” How delightful!

Yan Lai performed a hand seal, and a white veil covered Hongchen’s eyes. “Do not remove this until we leave.”

Hongchen huffed. So prudish. She has no sense of romance.

As Hongchen simmered in her discontent, San Meng walked up to her, frowning slightly. She reached out to tilt Hongchen’s chin, but just as her hand touched the soft skin, Yan Lai’s sleeve swept her hand away. “San Meng, watch your manners.”

The courtyard fell silent. San Meng was too drunk to stand straight; she wobbled, nearly crashing into Hongchen. Hongchen didn’t care about San Meng, but she did care about the dreams, so she stepped forward to steady her. “I wish to stay here for a few days. Is that possible?”

“Yes,” San Meng slurred.

“No,” Yan Lai countered.

San Meng forced herself to focus on Yan Lai. “Why are you refusing? This is my home. You go back to your Phoenix Mountain. Little Immortal, you can stay as long as you like.”

As San Meng reached out to touch Hongchen again, Yan Lai’s eyes turned dark. She cast a spell that bound the drunkard tightly. Instantly, the “Beautiful Dreams” filling the courtyard vanished into thin air.

Hongchen was devastated. She desperately wanted to give San Meng another jar of wine.

San Meng was tossed onto her bed. While Yan Lai went to find the Immortal Grass, Hongchen sat by the bedside, chin in hand, watching the drunkard. After a quick thought, she used her magic to remove San Meng’s bonds.

San Meng sat up immediately, her eyes shimmering. “Little Immortal, you are truly beautiful.”

“Am I? I think so too,” Hongchen teased, her eyes curving with joy. “Do you like me?”

San Meng shook her head, nearly falling over again. “I don’t like you. I like Hongyan… little Hongyan…”

Hongchen froze, looking at the woman in disbelief. Her throat felt tight. San Meng tilted her head and laughed like a child. “You’ve never seen Hongyan. She was so beautiful…”

“Do you truly not remember what Hongyan looked like?”

Yan Lai was now standing behind Hongchen. She was even more shocked than Hongchen was. San Meng liked Hongyan.

San Meng toppled over onto the bed with a thud, hissing in pain. Yan Lai grabbed her by the collar and hauled her up. “You told me before you had only seen her once. Were you lying to me then, too?”

“Hongyan… who is Hongyan?” San Meng hung like a ragdoll in Yan Lai’s grip, giving a silent, empty smile.

Hongchen watched the two of them, her heart unmoved. Celestial people were truly fickle; one moment they said they had only met, the next they spoke of love. She wondered which was the truth.

Yan Lai swallowed her words. San Meng’s true form was “Dreams”—whether she was good or evil was likely something even San Meng herself couldn’t distinguish. She released the woman; now was not the time to tangle with her.

“We are going back to Phoenix Mountain first,” Yan Lai reminded Hongchen. “This is the Nine Heavens. If your identity is discovered, do you think you can escape?”

“Right, right.” Hongchen didn’t argue. Instead, she knocked San Meng unconscious with a chop to the neck.

“What are you doing?” Yan Lai gasped.

“Tying her up and taking her to Phoenix Mountain so we can deal with her later,” Hongchen grinned. She wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip by.

Yan Lai saw right through her. “You just want to take her back so you can get her drunk and keep watching those dreams, don’t you?”

Hongchen beamed like a flower. “I don’t like hearing the truth. Stop talking.”

As they packed to leave, Little Ten found them and burst into tears upon seeing Hongchen. Yan Lai frowned and, before Hongchen could react, transformed Little Ten back into her original form as a sprig of grass.

Hongchen slung San Meng over her shoulder and walked boldly out of the palace. At the Southern Heaven Gate, they met the same guards. Yan Lai showed her credentials. The guards were suspicious and looked at the sack on Hongchen’s shoulder.

“My maid fainted,” Hongchen chirped. “Do you want to check?”

The guard stole a glance at the formidable Yan Lai, shut his mouth, and signaled them to pass. Once clear, Yan Lai spread her golden wings, which shone brilliantly in the light. She grabbed Hongchen and took flight.

Halfway there, Hongchen remembered the Qilin. “I left it at Phoenix Mountain,” Yan Lai realized.

“You have a mount but chose to fly yourself? Aren’t you tired?” Hongchen grumbled.

They arrived at Phoenix Mountain to find a pile of petitions from various sects seeking to become disciples. Yan Lai, who preferred solitude, burned them all with a wave of her sleeve. Hongchen pursed her lips. She acts so cold and heartless now, but she didn’t refuse my kiss back in the Nine Heavens.

At Yan Lai’s residence, the Fengyin Pavilion, Hongchen dropped San Meng on the floor and collapsed onto a seat, panting. Little Ten was returned to her human form. She started to cry, but a sharp look from Yan Lai made her swallow her tears. The Mistress is so scary.

Hongchen reached out to poke San Meng on the floor. “Stay away from her,” Yan Lai warned.

San Meng was dual-natured. Her public face was “Good,” but she had indeed turned into a demon ten thousand years ago. After she returned to her senses, she had forgotten those dark events entirely.

“She said she likes me,” Hongchen noted.

“I heard you. You don’t need to repeat it,” Yan Lai said irritably.

San Meng lay there with her hair in disarray. Hongchen leaned in. “I’ll use my divine sense to probe her past.”

“It won’t work,” Yan Lai said. “She doesn’t even remember it herself.”

Hongchen pouted. “She’s actually quite pretty, isn’t she?”

“So what?” Yan Lai said dismissively.

“Then why did I choose a bad-tempered person like you instead of her back then?”

Yan Lai’s eyes flared with anger. “You are incredibly conceited.”

Hongchen didn’t reply but sent her divine sense into San Meng’s mind. It was a void. San Meng was a being made of countless dreams; her mind held the dreams of others, but no memories of her own past. Hongchen withdrew, frustrated. “She’s so strange.”

“She is the manifestation of dreams. Now that she’s drunk, she has no consciousness of her own,” Yan Lai explained.

“Fine then. What use is beauty if she’s a madwoman with no brain?”

Yan Lai breathed a sigh of relief, fearing Hongchen might actually try to befriend her. But then Hongchen asked, “If we turned her back into a demon, would she remember what happened ten thousand years ago?”

“If she becomes a demon, the Celestial Tribe will execute her,” Little Ten whispered, finally working up the courage to speak to her Master.

Yan Lai shook her head. “She is immortal and indestructible. That’s how she survived turning into a demon the first time. Her source is dreams. When the sun sets and people sleep, her power is at its peak.”

“I see,” Little Ten chirped. “She’s a lamb by day and a wolf by night.”

Yan Lai froze. Hongchen nodded in approval. “Exactly. She has no strength during the day when people aren’t dreaming, but at night, she’s full of energy. What’s wrong with that?”

Yan Lai pressed her hand to her forehead. Like Master, like disciple. The root is truly crooked.

“Little Ten is still young,” Yan Lai said. “Leave her at Phoenix Mountain. I will find a proper teacher for her. If you keep raising her, she’ll be ruined.”

“Fine. Phoenix Mountain is a spiritual place; it suits her,” Hongchen agreed, then looked at her disciple. “Are you willing?”

Little Ten shook her head. “I miss my senior sisters. They must be worried. Master, the Demon Realm is good too.”

Yan Lai looked at the girl, then at Hongchen. “Phoenix Mountain has countless artifacts and spirit stones. We have accumulated wealth over tens of thousands of years. Think about it.”

Hongchen was annoyed, as if Yan Lai were calling the Demon Realm poor, but the offer was tempting. Resources split between ten disciples were always limited.

Yan Lai sat down gracefully. “Little Ten, think it over. If you stay, I won’t stop your senior sisters from visiting.”

“Aren’t you afraid of being labeled a collaborator?” Little Ten asked.

Yan Lai laughed softly. “Do you think I care for such empty titles?”

San Meng finally woke up, rubbing her head. She saw Hongchen’s face peering down at her. “High Immortal, you’re awake,” Hongchen teased. “You said you liked me earlier. Was it true?”

“Like you? I don’t like children,” San Meng said, as if she’d seen a ghost. She clearly remembered nothing. Yan Lai pulled Hongchen away, but Hongchen wasn’t finished. She used her magic to restrain San Meng again.

“What are you doing?” San Meng pushed Hongchen away. Hongchen laughed. “Are you hitting me or tickling me?”

San Meng scrambled to Yan Lai’s side. “I remember you. Demon Sovereign Hongchen! Why are you at Phoenix Mountain?”

Yan Lai, leaning against a cushion, didn’t answer. San Meng looked at her. “Did you capture the Demon Sovereign?”

“You have it backward, High Immortal,” Little Ten said. “Master captured you. You got drunk, and she carried you out of the Nine Heavens. You’re a prisoner now.”

Hongchen grinned. “I brought you back to see the dreams in your head.”

“Master, show some restraint,” Little Ten whispered, tugging at Hongchen’s sleeve. “Mistress is still right there.”

Yan Lai watched the pair with cold eyes. If there were any justice in the heavens, a lightning bolt would strike them both dead.

San Meng was bewildered. Yan Lai, wanting to know the truth of the past but finding only a blank wall in San Meng, eventually ordered her out. Hongchen, however, refused to let San Meng go, circling her curiously.

“Do you want to know the more… intimate secrets?” San Meng asked suddenly.

Hongchen’s eyes lit up. She ignored the dark gaze from Yan Lai behind her and nodded.

San Meng gave a low laugh. “The Demon Sovereign doesn’t even know such small things?”

“No one taught me.”

“And where is your Master?”

Hongchen instinctively looked at Yan Lai. Yan Lai’s voice was cold as she cut in: “I didn’t teach her that.”

“A failure on the Master’s part,” San Meng mused. She looked at the strangely innocent Demon Sovereign. “High Immortal San Meng, I’ll buy you a drink. Will you come?” Hongchen asked.

“Why the drink?” San Meng felt a chill. Was she being led to her execution?

Yan Lai, her patience exhausted, spoke up: “She wants to watch your indecent dreams while you’re drunk.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” San Meng laughed awkwardly. “No need for wine. I can show you now. I am happy to be of service to the Demon Sovereign.”

Another one! Yan Lai put her head in her hands. Hongchen was wild, and it seemed the original Hongyan hadn’t been much better.

The two began chatting happily, San Meng completely forgetting that Hongchen was the Demon Sovereign. “You should take me as your Master,” San Meng offered. “I’ll teach you everything without holding back.”

Hongchen thought it over. San Meng was a stunning beauty, and now that her guard was down, she seemed gentle. “I’ll trade you a magical artifact for the lessons. How about the Heavenly Mysterious Wheel?”

“Jiu Han’s artifact?” San Meng was shocked. To trade such a legendary item for “those things”? The Demon Sovereign was truly mad.

Yan Lai stood up. “Demon Sovereign, I believe that wheel was a gift you gave me. Are you trying to take it back?”

“Did I say it was a gift?” Hongchen muttered. “I thought I just left it on the bed for you to use.”

Yan Lai’s expression turned instantly dark. The atmosphere became dangerously subtle.