The Akatsuki’s Secrets and a Reluctant Kiss

“What exactly is the Akatsuki?!”

Tou had heard Ling Er from a great distance exclaim, ‘Ji Jie, you’ve actually joined the Akatsuki…’ Even from afar, his curiosity about the unknown remained piqued.

“The Akatsuki?”

Xierwei, who was carrying Tou on her back, was momentarily stunned.

“The Akatsuki is a vast organization whose members are adept at forbidden, evil arts. They are no different from demons, committing every atrocity imaginable—burning, killing, looting. They are our ene—”

She gasped, “Ah… why are you leaning so close?”

“Your voice is so faint. What were you saying just now? Is the Akatsuki a demonic organization?”

‘Leaning close?’

Tou had been on her back the entire time, their positions inherently intimate.

All he had done was stretch his neck, pressing his ear against her cheek.

‘Besides, Tou’s hand was already pinching something beneath her.

Was there truly a need for such an overreaction?

Such sudden frights weren’t good for a delicate heart!’

“I apologize, I startled you. Please don’t despise me…”

“Hate?”

Tou couldn’t truly say he hated her, but witnessing Xierwei’s terrified expression, a mischievous impulse began to stir within him.

“Little mount, you’ve committed a serious error, you know. You must be punished for it. Hehe!”

Just as Xierwei had once stunned Tou with electricity, coercing him into becoming her mount, Tou now retaliated by tearing two holes into the side of Xierwei’s clothing and slipping his hands inside…

“No… it tickles…”

“This is your punishment! If you refuse to accept it, don’t blame me for spanking your backside!”

Tou chastised her with feigned severity, yet on Xierwei’s back, where she could not see, Tou’s lips curved upward in a devilish, triumphant smirk.

“I understand I was wrong… but aren’t these actions reserved for lovers? If you continue, and I’m unable to marry in the future, you’ll be… responsible…”

“Forget your ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’! Hurry to the front; those hooligans are fighting with my maid! How dare they lay a hand on my toy? They must have a death wish!”

Xierwei’s voice was barely a whisper, quieter than a faint puff of air.

Tou, however, pointedly ignored her, his gaze fixed on Ling Er in the distance, who had just sent Ji Jie reeling with a powerful strike.

Ji Jie had, at the very least, saved his life and was, moreover, his personal maid; how could he possibly stand by and let others bully her?

Thereupon, he began to sway back and forth on Xierwei’s back as if riding a horse, bumping against her, urging her to carry him quickly to the fray.

Xierwei’s words were not only cut short but also utterly disregarded.

She had bravely spoken those shameful words, only for them to be met with such indifference, leaving her heart heavy with dejection.

Yet, she didn’t blame Tou; instead, she found herself resenting her own inability to articulate her thoughts clearly.

Xierwei, with Tou still on her back, swiftly reached the site of Ji Jie’s battle.

Before she could even fully steady herself, Tou launched himself from her shoulders with a burst of speed!

“You bastards! Harassing my people? You deserve to die!”

****

Having hurled the eye transformed from Xiaobai, Ji Jie found that her attempt to slip away was futile.

Xiaobai’s eye swelled immensely, transforming into a colossal evil eye.

Once this malevolent orb latched onto a person, it would, much like its previous encounter with the Monkey King, embed itself in their forehead and seize control of their actions.

Her immediate goal was to temporarily subdue Ling Er, thereby preventing him from continuing his pursuit of Ji Jie.

Ling Er, however, proved even swifter.

In a blur of afterimages, he appeared before Ji Jie, thrusting the butt of his spear toward her shoulder.

Ji Jie was instantly sent sprawling, then pinned firmly to the ground.

Meanwhile, Xiaobai’s eye was abruptly snatched by a Green-Eyed Black Dragon that had materialized out of thin air.

Mid-flight, it reverted to the form of a small girl, her body riddled with several bloody wounds, from which blood steadily dripped onto the earth below.

How could Tou possibly permit such harm to befall them?

The Ruyi Jingu Bang’s dimensional apparatus materialized once more, its ropes instantly coiling around the Green-Eyed Black Dragon’s neck, before soaring above all present.

It was then that he also noticed the Monkey King, embedded in the ground by a single punch from Qing Zhuiyan, and Little Four, the small female monkey, restrained by two humans.

‘How utterly despicable!’

“Die!”

As he collided with the Green-Eyed Black Dragon, a massive spiked club materialized in Tou’s hand, and with a single, brutal swing, he struck the black dragon squarely on the neck.

“Roar~”

The black dragon threw its head back and roared, seizing the moment, Tou deftly lassoed Xiaobai, still clutched in the dragon’s maw, with a rope.

He then secured the rope to a nearby rock face, suspending himself and Xiaobai in mid-air.

From his aerial perch, he cast a chilling gaze upon the figures below.

“It’s you!”

Qing Zhuiyan gasped in profound shock.

That Green-Eyed Black Dragon was her Imperial Armament, and she knew its might intimately.

Furthermore, she herself was a cultivator at the mid-stage of the Golden Body Realm, yet she had been bested by a mere rookie at the mid-stage of the Spirit Vein Realm.

It was truly astounding, yet this only served to reinforce her belief in Tou’s exceptional background.

His association with the Akatsuki, coupled with his ability to overcome an Imperial Armament user a full major realm above him despite his lower cultivation, marked him as precisely the kind of talent a powerful organization would groom.

‘This young man in a skirt before me—if I capture him, I’m certain I can extract countless secrets about the Akatsuki! Moreover, I could eliminate a formidable future adversary of their organization while he is still in his infancy.’

“I had assumed you were an ordinary person, but now your true colors have been laid bare! Little brother! Today, none of you shall escape!”

Her voice remained ear-splitting, and she continued to emphasize fourth-tone characters with maximum volume.

Qing Zhuiyan radiated an incredibly domineering aura.

Tou detested listening to her voice.

Cradling Xiaobai, his heart ached fiercely at the sight of her grievous wounds.

He quickly slipped a Blood Essence Pill, one capable of instantly mending all his own injuries, into Xiaobai’s mouth.

Yet, to his dismay, the pill produced no miraculous healing effect on her.

Fearing that Xiaobai’s injuries might prove fatal, Tou desperately wracked his brain for a cure.

Ultimately, only two words resonated in his mind: ‘Spirit Replenishment.’

‘Spirit Replenishment!’

Tou’s face instantly flushed with a delicate crimson.

‘Spirit Replenishment could only be performed through a kiss…’

Gazhing at the tiny figure in his arms, barely eighty centimeters tall, he thought, ‘Well, it’s not ideal, but it’s manageable!’

After gently wiping the blood from Xiaobai’s lips, he closed his eyes and, with evident reluctance, leaned down to kiss her.

Then—

Then—

Then, Tou felt his entire spiritual essence abruptly siphoned from his body into Xiaobai’s, as though swallowed by a whale.

In the mere span of a single breath, Tou, once a vibrant young man, was utterly drained, his body withered and his complexion darkened to an ashen hue.

He looked precisely like the male protagonist from one of his risqué, yellow-covered books, depicted after a night of being utterly drained by a succubus loli.

His body swayed violently, and he almost plummeted from mid-air.

This sensation was truly unbearable.

He quickly uncorked a bottle and devoured several highly potent Blood Essence Pills.

A crimson glow emanated from within him, and then, as if after a refreshing spring rain, Tou was once again brimming with vitality.

“What forbidden art is that?! You are indeed no ordinary individual! Take this!”

Witnessing Tou effortlessly revive someone on the brink of death, her astonishment intensified.

She sensed that this individual absolutely could not be allowed to live; if he matured, he would undoubtedly become a scourge upon humanity.

Without further hesitation, she commanded her Imperial Armament, the Green-Eyed Black Dragon, to charge at Tou!

‘Roar!’

‘Clang! Clang! Clang!’

Before the black dragon could reach Tou, a small figure, wielding a greatsword adorned with eerie eyes, unleashed a flurry of slashes upon its head.

Then, the eyes embedded in the greatsword flew off like a swarm of locusts, many of them encircling the black dragon.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’

The eyes detonated, resembling the firecrackers set off during the Qingming Festival to honor ancestors.

“Hee hee! I lost to you before because my body was at its limit, but now that I’ve recovered about eighty percent, dealing with a novice like you is child’s play! And also…”

Xiaobai slightly turned her head to look at Tou, covering her mouth and retching, “You pervert! Who gave you permission to kiss me?! You disgust me!”

“Disgusting!”

Tou flared with indignation upon hearing her words; he had nearly been drained into a dried corpse to save her!

Receiving no gratitude, only insults, Tou’s foul temper could not endure it, and he retorted with an even louder shout:

“You ungrateful dog! Do you think I *wanted* to kiss you?! Bah!”

As Tou cursed, Xiaobai simultaneously snapped back:

“Disgusting! Disgusting! I’d rather die than let a pervert kiss me!”

“Per—pervert! You’re infuriating me! How dare you call me a pervert! I’m absolutely furious! You ungrateful, dead dog!”

Tou trembled with rage, black smoke practically rising from his head.

“You *are* a pervert! What kind of person wears a skirt—”

Xiaobai’s expression was one of revulsion.

Before she could utter the full sentence, ‘What kind of boy wears a skirt,’ Tou seemed to anticipate her words, his face flushing crimson as he roared with even greater fury:

“Noisy! Noisy! Noisy!”