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Bolts of white-hot pain were shooting across Xie Lian’s body as she perched on the edge of the window sill, holding open its heavy wooden shutter. It was fine though. 

Never mind the weird talisman that had hit her in the stomach moments before. Forget about the ominous characters that had been scrawled across it in still-wet blood. The design had been vaguely familiar and had triggered an uncomfortable sense of foreboding in her hindbrain, but that was no matter. Really! This strange, burning pain was probably unrelated. 

Unlucky as she was, she bumped into things and injured herself all the time. Case in point: the needle that was already lodged in her foot. The fetus spirit had tricked her into stepping on it, hoping she would cry out and it could take the opportunity to crawl down her throat and into her belly. In that frantic rush to get away, she could have easily knocked into something else, gotten a scrape, and just not noticed it until now. 

There was no time to focus on the pain, anyway. She was too busy diving out of the window into the lake. She closed her eyes the moment before she hit the water. A rush of cold enveloped her, washing the burning sensation away, if only for a moment.

She had successfully drawn the fetus spirit out of the wealthy merchant’s home and bought herself a little time to think of a plan. Now she just had to figure out what to do before she ran out of air. 

Assuming the lotus position, she let her body sink deeper into the murky water. She thought through her limited options. 

…

Okay, so the pain in her side — rapidly returning — was making it a little hard to focus, but she could do this. She had pushed through much worse pain a hundred times before. A little pain was no big deal. 

…

It was kind of a weird pain, was all. It didn’t quite feel like a scrape, or a burn, or a stomach ache. It was very heated. Something about it made her want to wiggle around and rub her legs together. 

If she had to describe it, the closest thing might be a growing, unsatisfied itch. Like there was a restless energy just under her skin, and she had to do something — she didn’t know what — to release it. 

Just focus. Just… focus. Come on.

The fetus spirit was waiting for her above the surface of the water. The moment she came up for air, it would surely take the opportunity to jump her.  

Well… that was fine, Xie Lian realized. She might as well let it. Afterwards, she could just swallow Fang Xin, and the whole case would be done with! Swallowing swords hurt, but at least that pain would be a familiar, predictable burden.

She unfurled her limbs and started to kick up towards the surface, but before she could make it very far, all of a sudden Hua Cheng was there, and they were kissing. 

Xie Lian’s brain sort of… melted. 

Only, in the end, it turned out not to be kissing. Hua Cheng had just come down to give her air. 

Interestingly enough, in those first confusing, desperate moments right after their lips touched, the burning sensation in her side started to calm down. When she opened her eyes, saw who it was and understood what was going on, however, the pain came back even worse than before. So weird. 

With their lips still pressed firmly together, Xie Lian struggled like a fish. Confused, disoriented, and flustered, Hua Cheng had to wrap both of her arms and legs around her, pinning her limbs down like a vise to wrangle her into a manageable state. 

She quickly took charge of the situation. Her silver butterflies captured the fetus spirit in no time, and she pulled Xie Lian up to the surface to get a real breath of air. Then she was pulling her under again, her hands as strong as iron manacles. She rolled her red dice distance-shortening array and manhandled Xie Lian back out of the water, onto the rocky shore. The wealthy merchant’s house was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m hungry!” Xie Lian blabbered, distraught. “No, I’m tired! No… no wait, I need to find my bamboo hat. Where did I put my bamboo hat?”

The entire lower half of her body was just heating up and up and up. Was she going to burst into fire or something? Maybe she was about to throw up. She sort of felt like she wanted to. 

Frazzled and completely at a loss for what to do, her foot still bleeding from the fetus spirit’s trick, she started to crawl away. 

Hua Cheng, elegant even while dripping wet, had only managed to clamp a hand around her ankle when the crowd of ghosts found them. 

“MY LADY!” They cried, “DO YOU NEED OUR HELP SUBDUING THIS VIRGIN?” 

“SCRAM!” Hua Cheng shouted back. 

One thing led to another, and before she knew it, Xie Lian was being carried back to Paradise Manor in the powerful ghost king’s arms. 

Slowly, her wits came back to her.

“... San Niang.” She said in a small voice, tilting her head away to hide her face. Oh god. “Sorry about that. I… I think I got a little confused back there… how embarrassing. Pray you weren’t offended.” 

“No, it’s this San Niang’s fault.” Hua Cheng insisted in a low voice. She sounded upset. “I was the one who crossed the line. San Niang is in the wrong and apologizes."

Seeing that she wasn’t mad at her, Xie Lian relaxed and wiggled her hips a little, shifting to a more comfortable position in her arms. She was quick to reassure:

“I was in dire straits and you came just in the nick of time. It wasn’t a big deal, so there’s no need to apologize.”

Hua Cheng hummed, noncommittal. 

The strange pain had settled somewhat. It was a little worse now than it had been in the water, but it was bearable.

Xie Lian chewed at her lower lip thoughtfully, then remembered — “Oh, right! San Niang, why did you suddenly arrive? Where did you take that fetus spirit?” 

Hua Cheng’s expression remained grave, however. Instead of answering her questions, she insisted, “Treating injuries comes first.” 

Deep inside paradise manor, Xie Lian surprised herself with her unexpected squeamishness as Hua Cheng removed the silver needle from her foot. Normally, she could suffer through this sort of thing without blinking, so why was she feeling so affected today? Could this have something to do with that strange talisman?

Unfortunately, her ability to hide her second injury was somewhat lacking when put to the test against Hua Cheng’s hawk-like perception. 

“Were you hurt here too?” Hua Cheng asked, moving a hand up to her side, hovering right over where the talisman had hit her. 

“No!” Xie Lian yelped. 

Hua Cheng raised an eyebrow. 

“N-no, it was just the needle.” She insisted.

Going off of Hua Cheng’s face, she wasn’t being very convincing. 

Oh, god. Taking her boot off was one thing, but there was no way Xie Lian could let her take off the rest of her robes too. Especially not after what had happened back there in the lake—!

“I NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!” She blurted out. 

Hua Cheng blinked. 

Xie Lian’s face flushed bright red. 

“Okay,” she agreed slowly. “It’s just over there, I can help you—”

“I can walk on my own!” Xie Lian cried as she jolted to her feet.

“... Alright.” Hua Cheng pulled back and held her hands up, giving her space. When Xie Lian immediately stumbled, she added, “Be careful.” 

“Mmm,” Xie Lian nodded, hobbling over in the direction of the bathroom as fast as her bandaged foot would allow her. 

Once inside, she quickly stripped off her robes and got a look at what was going on with her stomach. 

A large, milky-white welt had appeared right where the talisman had landed. It was center left, a few fingerwidths off from her bellybutton. Splotchy and amorphous, small white lines radiated outwards, wrapping around the circumference of her waist, each of them no thicker than a thread of spider silk. 

It was unmistakably a curse mark, and what was worse: Xie Lian knew exactly which curse it was.

Oh boy, she thought to herself, sinking into a crouch and threading her fingers through her hair. Her loose robes bunched up awkwardly around her. 

She was usually a master of picking out the silver lining in even the bleakest of situations, but this one… this one was rough. 

There weren’t many curses that she hadn’t been inflicted with over the past eight hundred years, to be honest, but the heavenly paradise bunches of flowers and white silk strings curse was one of them. … Or had been one of them, anyway. 

It was a flowery name for a simple but brutal affliction. Essentially, it was an energy imbalancing curse. The only way to stop it was by releasing the excess curse energy through intercourse. If she waited too long to treat it, she would eventually become unbalanced to the point of a meridian-destroying qi deviation. 

As an immortal, the curse wouldn’t kill her… probably. Xie Lian was pretty sure she couldn’t die, not even from something like this. If she didn’t handle it soon, however, the outcome wouldn’t be pretty. 

Unlike most sex curses, which usually had some sort of loophole, the conditions of this curse’s remedy were strict. Throughout recorded history, its victims had tried venting energy in all sorts of ways, and while some had been able to slow its progression, no one had managed to find a true work around. Dual cultivation was the only cure. 

It was a straightforward solution, but for someone like Xie Lian, out of all of the cures in the world, this was the worst kind. 

Terrible afflictions causing pain or disfigurement or ill fortune all could be swallowed, but in the past eight hundred years, even after undergoing all sorts of adversity — even during that time when she’d been poisoned by the land of tender! — she had never needed to resort to dual cultivation.

The problem wasn’t that her base of cultivation would be destroyed. Given her circumstances, that sort of thing didn’t mean much these days. 

The issue was that… well… could she really bring herself to— in front of someone else…?  

And then in terms of logistics, there was also the problem of finding (or rather, seducing?) an acceptable partner. Even if she knew where to look, she was the infamous laughing stock of the three realms. Who would want her?

Xie Lian had never had an appetite for sex. With her cultivation path’s focus on bodily purity, she had happily wielded the excuse of spiritually-mandated chastity her whole life. Unlike the prospect of pain or injury, which were as familiar to her as the freckles on her hands, the idea of having sex with someone made her feel… very strange. Maybe if she’d just gone ahead, plugged her nose, and gotten some experience already then it wouldn’t seem so awful, but she hadn’t. 

Of course she knew the gist of how to go about it; the theory was not the problem. People made all sorts of fuss over a woman’s maidenhood, and there were even several times that she’d contemplated absolving herself of it, just to be done with the whole thing. But in the end, each time, going through with the ordeal had never seemed worth it. 

She was so screwed. 

Her spiraling thoughts were cut off by a firm knock on the door. 

“Jiejie, are you sure you’re alright?” 

Shit. She must have lost track of time. How long had she been in here? 

“I’m fine!” She called back. “I’m sorry, one moment!”

“As long as Jiejie is okay….”

As she shot up and hurried to retie her robes, she heard Hua Cheng’s light footsteps move away. 

It’s okay, she told herself. This is fine. It’s just a little curse. How bad could it be? 

“Jiejie…. Jiejie!” Hua Cheng shouted, running after her as she sprinted down the busy market street in the middle of Ghost City. There was alarm in her voice when she finally caught up and asked, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Bent in half with her hands on her knees, panting, Xie Lian gasped out, “I’m sure.” 

“Jiejie.” Hua Cheng complained. 

With eyes squeezed shut, still catching her breath, Xie Lian flapped a hand at her placatingly. “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. My stomach is a little upset, that’s all.”

Her stomach, in fact, was cramping so hard she was having trouble figuring out how to breathe. 

Hua Cheng’s eyes swiveled back to the stall they had just been eating at, the one serving “delicacies of the mortal realm,” which she had just personally vetted. In an instant, her usual mild manner was gone, replaced by a fierce killing intent that quickly sharpened into a dangerous point. 

“No! No, it’s not their fault!” Xie Lian hurriedly cried, trying to avert what was clearly about to become a bloodbath. “I’ve just run around a little too much today, that’s all!” 

Hua Cheng took a quick step closer, reaching out to support her arm and help her stand up straight. 

Xie Lian kept her face composed, carefully hiding the extent of the pain. She hoped Hua Cheng didn’t try to get any closer. She could feel the curse mark on her stomach radiating heat like an oven. 

“Let me take you back to Paradise Manor.” 

She frowned, glancing around the lively market. “But I wanted to see more of….” 

If Hua Cheng took her back to Paradise Manor now, this flare up was sure to turn into a whole ordeal. She would definitely insist on helping Xie Lian with her “stomach ache”, and might even find out about the curse. That would be…. 

Well. Logically speaking, it probably wouldn’t be that bad. Hua Cheng was so knowledgeable, she would definitely know where to go to resolve the issue. Knowing her friend, she would be nothing but kind and supportive. The whole situation would probably be resolved by the end of the day. 

If she was being rational, Xie Lian should really just tell her. 

Except for…

Except…

Xie Lian couldn’t even explain it to herself, but she didn’t want to. She just… really, really didn’t want to.

Hua Cheng looked like she was gearing up to insist, so she quickly interjected—

“San Niang, do you know where Qiandeng Temple is?”

While they toured the enormous, beautiful building that Hua Cheng had apparently decided to dedicate to her on a whim, she managed to get the pain mostly under control. 

The trick of it was that it came in waves, and if you timed things just right — which Xie Lian was getting better at — then you could pulse energy through your spiritual veins in the opposite direction at exactly the right moment to cancel everything out. 

This meant that she was able to explore the atrium of her new temple and even give Hua Cheng an impromptu calligraphy lesson without arousing any more suspicion. She couldn’t help but wonder just how long she would be able to hold on, though. As time went by, the curse was definitely getting stronger. 

She was almost rethinking her decision not to tell Hua Cheng when a big commotion started up outside and suddenly ghosts were shouting that Paradise Manor was on fire. 

Through some sort of minor miracle, Xie Lian managed to hold it together during the investigation of the stolen fetus spirit and the dramatic discovery of Lan Chang. She was kind of hoping for the opportunity to take a break, but resolving the matter of the fetus spirit’s father was important enough that she just couldn’t justify one. 

Hiding her clenched teeth behind a smile, she bundled her two captives up to the heavens and kickstarted the official proceedings. 

All in all, it got off to a bit of a rocky start. It didn’t help that Lan Chang simply refused to cooperate.

“The father of my child is you!” 

“...”

“...”

“...”

Everyone in the Great Martial Palace swiveled their heads between Lan Chang, clearly the fetus spirit’s mother, and Xie Lian, another woman.

“... Just how would that have happened?” One of the middle court officials wondered aloud. 

They all pondered this for a moment. 

“Wait, but what if the Crown Princess shapeshifted?!” Someone else cried out. 

Now that was an idea. At once, the whole court burst into conversation. 

Before it could get too out of hand, Jun Wu cleared his throat, silencing the room. He looked at Xie Lian pointedly. 

Taking the cue, Xie Lian spoke up: “My lady, I don’t practice shapeshifting.” 

Even back during the height of Xianle’s war, when many of her worshipers would have much rather followed a male god into battle, Xie Lian had never tried to change her form. 

“Yes you do!” Lan Chang insisted. “It’s you! The father of my child is you, the Crown Princess of Xianle!” 

The whispering started to pick back up and many outlandish theories were tossed out. 

Finally, Jun Wu cut in, “Xianle, I remember that your cultivation method demands a body of purity, lest your spiritual power be greatly damaged.”

“That’s right.” Xie Lian agreed. 

When the virginity testing sword was brought out, she thought, I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t tell Hua Cheng about the curse after all. If she had already gone through with getting the cure, this whole situation would have been a lot more complicated. 

After her innocence was proven, the situation wrapped up pretty quickly. The Palace of Ling Wen carted off Lan Chang and her son, and the crowd of heavenly officials dispersed. Xie Lian left the Great Martial Palace with them and found a small secluded garden tucked away between two golden palaces where she could stretch out her tired, tension-strung muscles. 

It was a bit hard to tell, but it felt like she might be running a fever. 

Now that she’d been left to her own devices, she should probably head back to the mortal realm. This curse was getting pretty difficult to manage. Having had to stand upright and feign a casual posture all day had left her feeling like she’d taken a tumble off a mountain. She couldn’t keep stalling. 

Her best bet would probably be to find some monastery somewhere and ask a daoist master for assistance. It would be deeply uncomfortable, but these sorts of life or death situations were not unheard of, and they would be able to help her. 

With a steadying breath, she got up and prepared to make the jump down. Only, in that moment, a new wave of curse energy, stronger than any that had come before, welled up out of nowhere and bowled her over. 

With a muffled grunt, she crumpled to the ground and blacked out. 

Xie Lian woke up on a plush bed under a red gauze canopy with one of her arms propped up on a small pillow and a delicate band of silk draped carefully over her bare wrist. 

It was not hard to guess where she was, but she had to wonder: how had she gotten here? Hadn’t she just been in heaven? 

She turned to the side and, as expected, there was Hua Cheng sitting by the edge of the bed. Her face was as hard as stone. 

“Is Jiejie going to tell me what happened now?”

Her voice, usually cajoling and teasing, had turned demanding, like a general’s. 

Xie Lian swallowed and cast her eyes up to the red canopy overhead. Her tongue felt like lead in her mouth. 

“I, um… that is to say, I… how did you know—?”

“How did I know when you collapsed?” Hua Cheng sounded unimpressed. “Jiejie has surely already guessed that I have spies in heaven.” 

At that, Xie Lian glanced back at her. Hua Cheng waved one hand and a silver butterfly appeared out of thin air. It perched delicately on one of her outstretched fingers. 

“Ah.” 

“Yeah,” Hua Cheng agreed. She flicked her finger and the butterfly took off, then disappeared. She leaned towards Xie Lian and leveled her with a stern look. “What happened?” 

Awkwardly, Xie Lian cleared her throat. It wasn’t enough, so she cleared it again. “... When I was extracting the fetus spirit from that merchant’s house, right before I jumped into the lake, I got hit with a talisman that, ah. Well, you see….” 

Hua Cheng didn’t look surprised. “Which curse is it?”

At this point, she had to look away again. “Heavenly paradise bunches of flowers and white silk strings.” 

There was a pause. The air between them was suddenly so still that she wondered if Hua Cheng was even breathing. She didn’t dare check.

“Show me.” Hua Cheng said at last, her voice strained. 

Still not daring to meet her eyes, Xie Lian kicked the covers off, scooched back a little, and plucked at the ties of her robes, bunching and tugging the fabric just enough that she made a small window through which the bare skin on the left side of her stomach was visible. 

There, the ugly white welt made things clear enough.

It took a long time for Hua Cheng to say anything. Xie Lian felt nauseous. Unable to bear it any longer, she turned her head and looked at her. 

Hua Cheng didn’t notice. Her eye was fixed on the curse mark. Her expression was… scary. She looked so intense that, for a moment, Xie Lian had a glimpse into just what those thirty-three heavenly officials must have felt when they faced down Crimson Rain Sought Flower. But then, like a great storm rolling out to sea, she inhaled, closed her eyes, and it all washed away. She turned back into San Niang and looked up. 

“Okay, your highness.” She whispered roughly. “Okay. Don’t worry, it’s going to be alright.” 

Xie Lian, who had been pretending very hard this whole time that nothing was wrong, inexplicably grew a lump in her throat. 

“Okay.” She whispered back. 

What was Hua Cheng going to do, she wondered. 

She clearly knew that there was only one antidote to this curse. As she’d proven over and over again, the infamous lord of Ghost City knew everything. Hua Cheng had treated her with such overwhelming gentleness up to this point, there was no way she would suggest some obvious and cruel solution, like making Xie Lian visit a brothel. Maybe she knew somewhere better to go.

Getting anyone to dual cultivate with her would be asking for an act of charity, and while that was fine — Xie Lian’s thick face could take it — the idea of Hua Cheng knowing that caused a wretched feeling to well up in the pit of her stomach. 

“Jiejie, I know you’re probably feeling a little apprehensive about this situation,” Hua Cheng started, and Xie Lian’s stomach swooped up to her throat. “—but, you can trust me when I say I would never, ever harm you.”

“O-okay,” Xie Lian croaked, raising her eyes back up to meet Hua Cheng’s serious gaze. Her face felt like it was on fire. No — more than her face, her whole body had become enflamed!

A strange thought popped into her head. Hua Cheng wasn’t about to offer… no, surely not….

With the deepest sincerity, Hua Cheng told her, “I have a path that should allow us to release the curse energy without hurting your cultivation. There is a medicine that can put you to sleep for several days, during which time you won’t be able to feel any pain. We can stay in Paradise Manor. No one will disturb you here, and I have artifacts and herbs that can vent your imbalanced energies until the curse wears out. I know it might sound dangerous and untested, but even a curse like this only has finite power, and—”

“...” 

Xie Lian zoned out. She couldn’t hear anything through the sound of the sudden loud rushing that had filled her ears. It took several long moments and Hua Cheng waving a hand in front of her face before she came back to awareness. 

“—highness? Your highness, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

Hua Cheng’s perfect, eternally-poised mask had cracked, and she looked almost as off-kilter as Xie Lian felt. Her single, gorgeous eye was wide, nearly frantic. 

Xie Lian bit her lip and shook her head. She managed to unstick her tongue from the roof of mouth, and through numb lips insisted, “No — cough — no, um. No, San Niang is fine, it wasn’t that. I just, ah. Hahaha, I just got distracted for a moment. Um…. What were you saying about putting me to sleep for a while?”

Hua Cheng’s expression turned pained. “Your highness, I know how scary this situation must be for you. I swear—”

“It’s not that!” Xie Lian rushed to reassure her. “I trust San Niang, I really do.”

Hua Cheng, amazingly, flushed a little. “I mean I understand why your highness might find the thought of being forced to dual cultivate difficult.” 

“Oh, it’s not that either!” Xie Lian insisted. “San Niang, please don’t worry about me. I’m really not so… look, I know what you must think, but I’m okay. It’s not…” she made a vague motion with her hand, “it’s not an ideal way to lose my— well, you know, but it’s not the end of the world either. With the way things are now, it won’t be much of a hit to my cultivation, and even though I don’t have any firsthand experience, it’s not like I’m totally clueless. I can handle it. I will handle it. It’s going to be fine.” 

“You shouldn’t have to!” Hua Cheng insisted. “I can’t stand the thought of you being forced like this!” 

She looked so genuinely, terribly upset that Xie Lian couldn’t help smiling. “San Niang…”

“Jiejie, please let me try to fix this. Don’t go to someone else.” 

“I can’t put you out like that.” 

“You won’t, you won’t.” 

“San Niang, no one has ever managed to cure this curse another way.” 

“None of those people had the resources I do.” 

“And what if, after all of that, it still doesn’t work? What will we do then?”

Hua Cheng bit her lip. “I…” 

Xie Lian smiled at her kindly. “I can’t ask that much of you.” 

There was a long, aching pause. Then Hua Cheng said in a small voice, “... You can.”

Xie Lian’s smile froze. 

“I don’t want– that is to say, I couldn’t bear to hurt you, but if it's for Jiejie, then this San Niang would do anything to keep you safe. Whatever– whatever you need. Absolutely anything.” 

Xie Lian’s mouth was hanging open now. She closed it and swallowed once, opened it again, tried to speak, couldn’t. 

Staring at her face intently, Hua Cheng only seemed to grow more anxious.

“It’s all up to you, we’ll go with whatever you want. Just tell me how to help, and I’ll do it right away. We don’t have to– it’s not important if I’m involved or not, only Jiejie’s comfort—”

“You would…” Xie Lian interrupted her, “...really be willing?”

“Yes,” Hua Cheng breathed. 

“You mean it — you’re not just saying that.”

“I mean it.” Hua Cheng replied, voice firmer this time. 

They stared at each other for a beat.

“Just to be clear, you’re talking about dual cultivation, right—”

“I’m willing to fuck you to get rid of the curse, yes.” 

“Right. Okay.” 

“Okay?”

“Okay.” 

They stared at each other for a while longer, mutually astounded.

“But, San Niang… you know I don’t know how— I mean, I kind of know how, but I’m afraid I might not be able to make it pleasant for you, the way it should be.”

Hua Cheng paused for a long moment, like she was evaluating what to say. “… Honestly, it’s not that hard, Jiejie. You’re a talented fighter and dancer. You’re going to be good at this too.” The bridge of Hua Cheng’s nose went pink again as she said it. 

Xie Lian bit her lip, her cheeks just as pink. 

“If you and I are both willing,” she said slowly. “... then maybe it's better not to waste all of those rare artifacts?”

“You mean, just go straight to…?”

“Only if San Niang is comfortable with it!” Xie Lian hurried to say. 

“Okay!” Hua Cheng replied, just as quickly. 

They stared at each other for a beat.

“San Niang, this bedroom is…” Xie Lian started.

“One of the guest suites. Like I said, we’re in Paradise Manor. No one will intrude.” Hua Cheng assured her. 

“So we can—“ her tongue seemed to trip over itself and she broke down into a coughing fit. Curling forward, she clutched her stomach, trying to get herself back under control. 

Hua Cheng leaned forward and put a supportive hand on her back. 

“Sorry,” Xie Lian gasped. She couldn’t believe that she was already messing this up. “I meant to say, we can try it… here?”

Hua Cheng nodded. “The curse has already progressed far. We need to get it off you, the sooner the better.” 

There was an odd pause then, where they just looked at each other. Neither of them seemed to know how to proceed. 

“Maybe you should get into bed?” Xie Lian tried.

“… Yeah.” Hua Cheng breathed. 

Standing up, Hua Cheng leaned over her and, as gracefully as anyone could, crawled on top, positioning her knees on either side of Xie Lian’s hips. She bent forward, her hands tucking under Xie Lian’s shoulders. Their faces ended up hovering just inches apart. 

They stared at each other, both of them stunned by this turn of events in spite of all the words that had just been exchanged. 

“How do people usually start?” Xie Lian whispered into the silence. 

“Like this,” Hua Cheng whispered back, and kissed her. Kissed her for real this time.

Xie Lian opened up immediately. Hua Cheng’s mouth was firm and soft. Like a stone cutting through water, she had Xie Lian molded against her in an instant. 

There was no need to pass air, no need for excuses. The only purpose of this kiss was to be pleasurable, to prepare them both for what was to come. 

Wetly, Xie Lian let her lips part and Hua Cheng’s tongue swept in. There was so much of her everywhere, but she felt like she couldn’t get enough. She felt like she was drowning and aching and starving. She was a raw mass of desire. She wanted something from Hua Cheng, this huge and amorphous thing that she didn’t fully understand, and she wanted it so badly that she felt a little crazed. 

“Ah!” She squeaked when Hua Cheng bit her plump bottom lip. “Mmm!” When it was followed by a decadent slide of her spit-slick mouth. 

She forgot where she was and what they were doing. Kissing Hua Cheng was everything: the point of being alive, the point of the whole world.

After some amount of time passed, Hua Cheng moved from kissing her lips to kissing along her jaw and down her neck. Her clever hands reached down and, without looking, started undoing the various ties holding Xie Lian’s robes together. 

“Jiejie,” she breathed, when the outer layer came undone and she wrenched it off her. “Is this okay? Is it still okay?”

“Yeah. Yes,” Xie Lian reassured her between kisses. Her hands had flown up to Hua Cheng’s hair and were carding through the thick, silky tresses. It was addictive, getting to touch her like this. Hua Cheng was so beautiful, she had seemed so untouchable up until now that every caress made her feel like she was stealing — getting away with something she shouldn’t. But Hua Cheng allowed it, even pressing up into the touch a little, like a friendly cat. 

Xie Lian was wearing three layers in total and Hua Cheng methodically pulled them off her, one by one. In the end she was left naked, lying spread out on the mattress with her white robes puddled underneath her as Hua Cheng, still fully clothed, sat back on her heels. 

Hua Cheng’s eyes roved across her body. Her cheeks had gone pink again and her mouth had gone slack. Her gaze was very focused. 

Xie Lian had been told her whole life that she was exceedingly beautiful, but that had only ever been with clothes on. No one had ever seen her like this. 

The skin of her chest, arms, and back was mostly smooth and even-toned, save for the curse mark around her stomach and the cursed shackles around her neck and ankle. The muscles underneath her skin were hard and unyielding… not very lady-like. 

She hadn’t given much thought to whether this sort of body was desirable or not. For a moment, she worried that Hua Cheng didn’t like it, that she would have preferred a soft and giving stomach, larger breasts, cuter thighs….

Hua Cheng made a noise — a sort of wet gulp. It was as flustered a sound as Xie Lian had ever heard from her. She asked, “Jiejie, can I touch you?”

Meeting her dark gaze, Xie Lian nodded. 

She started tentatively. A hand brushed down Xie Lian’s chest, from her clavicle down her sternum, fingers a little ticklish. Then she reached up and gently cupped one of her breasts.

“You’re so pretty,” Hua Cheng breathed, and Xie Lian’s toes curled. 

Focusing on her breasts, she reached forward with her other hand and cupped them both. A squirmy pleasure shot through Xie Lian’s stomach as her palms brushed her nipples. She bit her lip. 

Hua Cheng started mapping out the extent of her with little brushes of her hands and careful, possessive squeezes. Her wandering hands moved down her body, over her ribs, across the plain of her abs, avoiding the curse mark, down to her hips, where her hands curled over the bone. 

Then they moved further down. 

Hua Cheng repositioned herself. Moving one knee into the gap between Xie Lian’s legs, she nudged them apart, then brought her other leg in so she was kneeling in the space in between. 

She dragged her hands down over the tops of Xie Lian’s thighs, trailing her fingers back and forth a couple of times in teasing strokes. 

“San Niang…” Xie Lian complained. 

“Does Jiejie not like it? Should I stop?” She grinned.

“No!” 

Her grin curled into something closer to a smirk. Xie Lian wished she could kiss her again and taste it. 

After another moment of playing, Hua Cheng focused her attention on the space between her legs. If no one had ever seen Xie Lian without her clothes on, they really had never seen her there. For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, Hua Cheng’s gaze made her feel acutely embarrassed. 

Everything they had done so far had simultaneously eased and inflamed the roiling energy in her body. Nowhere felt more heated than where Hua Cheng was staring, and in the time they’d been making out, much of that heat had sublimated into a slick wetness that was starting to drip out of her. 

Hua Cheng slid her hands back up to her hip bones and rested them there for a moment. 

“Your highness, I’m going to start now.”

“Okay,” Xie Lian whispered. Have we not already started? she didn’t say.

Hua Cheng’s hands followed the arc of her pelvis down to her inner thigh. Then they moved inward, until the pads of her fingers were touching her outer lips. She started to stroke them. 

Xie Lian choked on a little gasp. 

Hua Cheng pet her a few times, then positioned her thumbs on either side of her slit and spread her apart. Xie Lian’s body opened with a quiet wet click.

“San Niang,” she breathed, panicked. 

“You’re lovely. You’re so lovely here, Jiejie, and so wet.” 

“San Niang, I—”

“Shh, you’re perfect. Don’t be nervous, don’t worry, you’re perfect.”

Very carefully, with the tip of her index finger, she drew a line right down the center of Xie Lian’s cunt. 

“Oh!”

“Okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“This is how I’m going to start venting the curse energy. Are you ready?”

Xie Lian nodded. 

“Alight. I’ll start.”

Hua Cheng’s finger kept stroking around Xie Lian’s opening, collecting slick, before she moved up a little and started carefully petting her clit. 

Xie Lian sucked in a breath. 

Hua Cheng stayed there for a moment, transitioning from little strokes to circles, pressing down progressively harder and harder until Xie Lian was bucking up into her hand, a wave of pleasure rapidly building. The heat ratcheted up and up and up, making her feel delirious. 

“Ah, ah, ah,” she panted, but before she could arrive at a destination, Hua Cheng’s hand suddenly pulled back. “Ah?”

Glancing up at her face, Xie Lian found her grinning again. Her dark eye was blown wide, so dilated it looked solid black. 

“Feels good?” 

“Mmm,” she nodded. 

“Let’s try this then.” She placed the tip of her finger right at Xie Lian’s opening, then slowly pushed in, sliding down to the first knuckle.  

“Oh,” Xie Lian gasped. 

Hua Cheng started moving. In a little. Out a little. In a little deeper. Out again. 

It was an intense sensation. With every push in, Xie Lian’s pussy spasmed. She could feel her most acutely right at her opening, but as Hua Cheng pressed deeper, making space in this tight, unexplored cavity of her body, she suddenly brushed past a point that lit up her nervous system. She whimpered. 

“That’s it?”

She had no idea what ‘it’ was, but Xie Lian nodded. 

Hua Cheng rocked her finger in even deeper, curling it up. She made a ‘come here’ motion that sent a bolt of pleasure down Xie Lian’s spine so strong that she went light-headed. With her free hand, which had been gripping Xie Lian’s thigh for leverage, she reached up and started playing with her right breast. 

It was at this point that Xie Lian realized she was still fully dressed. 

“San Niang, you—” she gulped when Hua Cheng pinched her nipple between two of her fingers, then plucked. 

“Yes, Jiejie?”

“You’re still wearing — ah! — you’re still wearing clothes, you don’t want…?”

Hua Cheng’s eye widened and she looked down at herself in surprise, like she’d been so focused on Xie Lian this whole time that she’d forgotten. “Ah. Of course.” She pulled her hands back, and started working at the buckles of her silver vambraces. The fingers of her right hand caught the light, visibly wet with Xie Lian’s slick. “If Jiejie wants me undressed, then naturally, this San Niang will comply.”

Xie Lian blushed. “O-only if San Niang wants. I thought you wanted to… you know.”

Hua Cheng glanced up, meeting her eyes, and smiled. The warmth there melted away some of Xie Lian’s anxiety. 

Her outfit was much more intricate than Xie Lian’s humble affair and she had to scoot back a bit to shimmy out of some of the layers of skirt and armor. Xie Lian swallowed hard as, little by little, her perfect, immaculate body was revealed. 

Hua Cheng was taller than Xie Lian, her shoulders broader, and even under all the elaborate layers she wore, it was clear that her figure was fuller. She still wasn’t prepared for the kick low in her gut when she first got a look at her breasts. 

Without thinking, she sat up and reached out to get her hands on them, only remembering halfway through that they had never talked about this. Hua Cheng had agreed to help her out, not to actual sex. She was already doing her such a huge favor, Xie Lian shouldn’t impose by pushing for more. She quickly drew her hands back. 

“Sorry, San Niang, I should have asked first. Do you want me to—?”

Hua Cheng’s hand shot out and grabbed Xie Lian’s wrist, bringing her hand back to her breast and directing her to latch on. Xie Lian’s fingers dug in. She was mind-bogglingly plush. 

“Naturally, I want Jiejie however I can get her.”

“Ah—?” Xie Lian gasped out. 

“You really didn’t know that?” Hua Cheng asked. At the same time she drew closer, bringing her hand back to Xie Lian’s cunt and sliding her index finger back in, this time adding her middle finger with it. Her usual teasing sounded almost sadistic when combined with the thrust of her hand. 

“I—” Xie Lian gulped. She started again, “I didn’t think—”

Her voice cut off when Hua Cheng’s other hand drifted back to her breast and started up where it had left off, pinching and twisting and plucking. 

“You didn’t think?” Hua Cheng crooned. “Now, I know that’s not true. How could my Jiejie not think when I know she’s the most thoughtful person in the world?” 

Any reply that Xie Lian could have made to that was quashed by the press of Hua Cheng’s lips to her own. 

It quickly turned into a wet and dirty kiss. Overheated and aching, Xie Lian took over this time, pushing her tongue into Hua Cheng’s mouth, where she licked and sucked, exploring every surface. It startled a startled moan out of her — a heady victory — followed by quick and brutal retaliation. 

Hua Cheng pushed her back down and her body engulfed hers. She was everywhere: over her, around her, in her. Her nimble fingers were stroking and exploring parts of Xie Lian’s body that had never been touched before. 

“Do you like it? Do you like it like this?” Hua Cheng was asking against her lips, over and over again. 

She could only frantically nod. She liked it all, and was fairly sure at this point that she would like just about anything, so long as Hua Cheng was the one doing it to her. 

Hua Cheng pulled back and showered kisses across her cheeks. She kissed the corner of her mouth, then pressed in again, licking into her like she was delicious — like she wanted to be inside her in every way she could. 

“Does Jiejie like men? I can be a man, if that’s what you want.”

“I don’t know,” Xie Lian panted. “I—” she cut herself off with a mewl. Hua Cheng had pressed another finger into her pussy now and made a twisting motion with her hand. The sensation was so powerful, the raw desire that had apparently been locked within her body so strong, that involuntary tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. 

Hua Cheng noticed immediately, of course.

“There, there. That’s a good girl, that’s okay. Shhh,” she said. The hand not buried in her cunt stroked the curve of her cheek, soothing. “You don’t have to know, that’s okay. We can figure out what you like.”

Mortifyingly, the kindness in her voice made Xie Lian sniffle. She swallowed wetly and tried to explain, “Before San Niang, I didn’t know I liked anything.”

Hua Cheng’s expression darkened. All of a sudden, the palm of her hand was thumping against her pussy with each powerful thrust of her fingers. 

Xie Lian cried out, throwing her head back against the pillows.

“You like your San Niang’s fingers, right?” Hua Cheng’s voice could have lit a fire.

She nodded frantically. 

“What about San Niang’s thigh? Do you want to try grinding against it?”

Biting her lip, she nodded again. 

“Okay, let’s start with that. We can go step by step.”

With two warm hands slotted perfectly into the dips of Xie Lian’s hips, Hua Cheng twisted around, flipping them so that she was laying back on the bed and Xie Lian was pulled on top of her. Propping one leg up, she maneuvered her so that her wet cunt was pressed right up against the smooth skin of her thigh. 

Demonstratively, she pushed Xie Lian’s hips forward a little, then back, dragging her clit against the firm surface, drawing a slick trail. 

“You try,” she suggested, lightening her grip. Xie Lian took over. 

Up a little, then back.

“You can press down harder. Come on, Jiejie, I know you want to.”

With a little gasp, she did. 

The feeling of firm pressure along her sensitive lower lips sent a shiver across her back, right up through her shoulder blades. It was so good. Knowing that it was Hua Cheng’s strong, perfect thigh she was grinding against made her feel crazy.

On instinct, she canted her hips into more of a sinuous roll, putting pressure on her clit.

“Good girl.” Hua Cheng praised, drawing her hands up the length of Xie Lian’s naked body. “Good girl, yes, are you going to—?”

With a cry, Xie Lian’s spine curled forward, her legs clamping down around Hua Cheng’s thigh as her pussy spasmed through her first orgasm. 

For a moment she couldn’t hear anything but white noise. Then she felt something deep within her crack. Something like a scaffolding around her meridians crumpled and disappeared. It was her cultivation base, she realized. That had been enough for it — with that orgasm, she had defiled herself. Her bodily purity was gone. 

If it had happened at the height of her power, the impact would have been shocking. Without a drop of spiritual energy in her veins, nothing much seemed to change. She had frozen when the crack started, and for a moment afterwards she just sat there, pussy pressed flush against Hua Cheng’s thigh, unmoving.

Hua Cheng’s hand continued its arc up and down her back, both soothing and stimulating, almost unbearable in how tender it was.

All things told, it was kind of anticlimactic. She felt a little bit looser, maybe, and oddly raw… sort of like she had scrubbed off a top layer of skin. That was all. 

“—Such a good girl. So beautiful, so perfect for me,” Hua Cheng was saying. Beneath her, her thigh was absolutely drenched. 

“Oh—!” Xie Lian frowned when she realized. 

Hua Cheng grinned. She looked wild like this, long black hair fanned out across the pillows, teeth sharp, eye shining. “Was it good, Jiejie? How do you feel?”

Xie Lian thought about it. She worried her lip between her teeth. “Good. I’m good. A little hot still, but I’m not sure….”

“You’re not done yet?” Hua Cheng asked sympathetically, “Don’t worry, we’re just getting started.”

She dragged her up so she was lying fully on top of her, their legs loosely tangled, and kissed her again. Xie Lian melted. 

She surely knew what had just happened, had probably felt it when her cultivation broke, but she didn’t stop to check in on her — they simply moved on to the next thing. 

Xie Lian was glad. 

“Do you want to try scissoring next? If it’s not good, I’ll start fingering you again. Then we can work you up to taking my cock.” Hua Cheng suggested between sweet, open mouthed kisses. 

“Okay,” She agreed easily.

“It’s a lot for your first time, ” Hua Cheng explained apologetically, “but it’s really the best way to get yang energy into you.” She leaned up and kissed her again.

“It’s okay.” Xie Lian mumbled into her mouth. “I like San Niang. I want it, whatever part of you it is.” 

“Jiejie…” Hua Cheng whispered against her lips, sounding a little awed. 

She pulled Xie Lian down a bit so that their hips were at a level, then threaded their legs together. 

From the get go, even just barely touching, it felt hot and wet. Xie Lian took a steadying breath. This was going to be a lot, she could already tell. 

“It’s going to be just like what you did before, but instead of my thigh, I want you to grind against my pussy. Can you do that for me, sweetheart?” 

Xie Lian nodded. She felt strangely shy. 

Hua Cheng tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, gazing up at her sweetly. She was so… the feeling in Xie Lian’s chest was impossible to put to words. 

Hua Cheng tilted her hips back and their legs slotted into place. She made a little rolling motion, and at once, they both moaned. 

“San Niang.” Xie Lian said, just to say it. “San Niang, it feels good.” 

Hua Cheng kept her hips rocking, like a boat in the ocean. The wet slide was so messy — she was dripping as much as Xie Lian was. Xie Lian’s vagina was coated now in the mixture of their slick. The soft sound of their wet folds rubbing against each other felt loud in the room. It almost was like they were kissing but… but down there. 

The best feeling was when the angle of their hips aligned just right and Xie Lian’s clit ground against Hua Cheng’s body, hot and perfect. Her orgasm had released some of the energy from the curse, taking it a notch down, but she felt hotter than ever. She had thought that the shivering, roiling desire in her chest had been part of the curse, but it was still there, just as strong as it had been in the beginning. Was this just what sex felt like?

Hua Cheng picked up the pace, grinding against her faster. Her breathing was stuttering a little, Xie Lian noticed. Was she going to come? Did she want to? This was supposed to be just to get rid of the curse. Technically speaking, there was no need for Hua Cheng to come… but she wanted her to. 

In the next roll, Hua Cheng jerked her hips forcefully enough that Xie Lian actually came up off the bed. 

“S-san Niang!” 

Hua Cheng grabbed at her legs, her fingers hard and needy, digging into the meat of her thighs and pulling her back into her even harder. 

“Yeah Jiejie? Is it good? Do you like it?” She sounded breathless. 

“It’s sooo good.” Xie Lian moaned. “San Niang, San Niang—”

She wanted to ask her if she was going to come, she wanted to know if she was making Hua Cheng feel good too, or if she was just going through the motions, but she was too embarrassed. Even when they were already like this, she couldn’t bring herself to say it. 

Hua Cheng, focused on the point of connection between them, didn’t notice her struggle. 

“What about San Niang’s cock?” She moaned. “Are you ready for it now? Do you want it?”

Squeezing her eyes shut, her cheeks burning, Xie Lian nodded.

“Yeah? You want it? San Niang’s cock, filling you up? I would make you feel so good, Jiejie, if only you would let me.”

She let go of her thigh with one hand and reached it in between them, slipping two fingers into Xie Lian’s cunt. They slid in like nothing, curling up and pressing down hard on that overwhelming spot Hua Cheng had discovered earlier. 

She sobbed. Her toes curled in, feet flexing almost painfully, and her back arched off the bed. 

It made Hua Cheng laugh brightly, delighted.

“Another one, huh?” She rolled up, crawling over Xie Lian so that she was the one on top, and pecked her on the lips. “Let me give you a third.”

Pulling her fingers out, Hua Cheng settled her back against the pillows and knelt between her legs. Looking down at her soaked entrance, she remarked, “Ah, it’s so cute and puffy, Jiejie. You must be really turned on right now.”

When Hua Cheng shuffled in closer, Xie Lian saw that where her vagina had been, now a long and heavy cock hung down between her legs, halfway erect.

She propped herself up on her elbows, looking at it with great interest. She had never seen a penis before… or, well, that wasn’t quite true. Over the years, she’d caught glimpses of several in passing, but she’d never seen one like this. 

“Here, I made it a good size for you. Not so big that it will hurt, but thick and long enough to feel filling.”

Biting her lips, Xie Lian nodded. She didn’t have the first clue about that sort of thing, but she trusted Hua Cheng. 

“What do you think, Jiejie? Do you want to try it?”

Hua Cheng’s eyes sparkled. It wasn’t so different to her mischievous look — the way she smiled at Xie Lian when she was letting her in on a private joke — but this time, that smile was undercut with something darker. It almost reminded Xie Lian of… hunger. 

Quietly, she nodded. 

Hua Cheng leaned in, pressing their foreheads together. She stared deeply into Xie Lian’s eyes, intense and overwhelming. 

“You’re ready for your San Niang to fill you up with her thick cock?” 

“O-okay.” 

“Yeah?” Hua Cheng was holding herself in one hand, supporting her weight with the other. As she spoke, she brought the meaty head up to the edge of Xie Lian’s slit and just held it there, a warm, soft pressure. “Mmm, after all of that foreplay, I’m going to slide in like nothing. Your body is so warm, sweetheart.”

Xie Lian started trembling as Hua Cheng rubbed her cock up and down along her folds. She dragged the head up to Xie Lian’s clit, pulling her foreskin back with her thumb and pressing in, rubbing little circles, grinding their flesh together. 

“A-ah!” Xie Lian yelped.  

“You’re going to feel so good around me, baobei. I’m going to slip my cock into you and you’ll eat me right up. I bet your sweet little pussy is feeling so empty right now, huh? Don’t worry, I’m going to fill you up. I’ll slide myself in until I’ve taken up all the room there is. You’re going to be stretched so wide, look at how thick I am.”

She pulled back a little so Xie Lian could see, then slapped her cock against her wet folds a couple of times. Each little slap made Xie Lian flinch, though it hardly hurt. She hadn’t thought she could get any wetter than she already was, but a new wave of slick oozed out of her. Hua Cheng’s smile took on a sharper air. 

“You won’t ever have to feel empty again. Whenever Jiejie wants a cock, she only needs to ask. This San Niang will always oblige.”

Xie Lian had never heard anyone talk like this before, least of all to her. With every word out of Hua Cheng’s mouth, she grew dizzier. She could only nod and whimper, gasping for air. 

Hua Cheng seemed to be getting carried away with herself. She was still rubbing her erection against Xie Lian’s pussy, pushing harder and harder, until it almost hurt when the bulbous head circled back over her clit. She had grown even larger from when they had started — thin, soft skin stretched tight over the heavy, blood-engorged rod.  

The longer Xie Lian looked at it, the less she understood how it was supposed to fit. It was so much bigger than San Niang’s fingers. Would it really be okay?

She couldn’t bear the anticipation. She felt hot and cold, nearly sick with nerves, like she was about to die. 

“S-s-san Niang—” She begged. 

Hua Cheng immediately understood. She surged forward, lining up with the entrance of Xie Lian’s cunt and immediately sank down three inches. 

They both gasped.

Xie Lian was so wet that Hua Cheng’s cock slipped in easily, but as she thrust deeper, the pressure quickly became too much. 

“Ah–!” Xie Lian hissed and a glimmer of panic flashed across Hua Cheng’s face. She quickly pulled back until only the tip was still inside. 

“Jiejie, is it okay?”

Swallowing, Xie Lian nodded. She shifted her weight, leaning further back, and gestured for Hua Cheng to come closer. She did, pressing their bodies together and dropping down to her elbows. 

“T-try again now?” 

Slower this time, Hua Cheng pushed forward. In one continuous glide, she slid in until she hit that pressure again. Xie Lian made a little warning noise and she stopped, paused, then slid back out. 

“Again?” She asked when she was back to only the tip. Her voice wavered as she said it. 

Fervently, Xie Lian nodded.

With each slide, little by little, Hua Cheng managed to fit more of her cock inside, opening her up. What she’d said at the start really had been correct — Xie Lian was so ridiculously wet, as soon as she’d excavated the space, it was easy for her to slide back in. 

As they kept going, the strangeness of the new sensation faded away and was rapidly overtaken by an enormous pleasure. Hua Cheng’s cock really was filling her up, exactly as she’d described. It was alighting nerves that Xie Lian hadn’t known she’d had, injecting her with a heady jolt of satisfaction every time she thrust her hips in or out.

After a minute or so, Hua Cheng finally bottomed out. 

The sensation of her cock pressed up against her cervix was even stranger than when she’d first slid in. Xie Lian could feel the pressure all the way at the base of her throat, like Hua Cheng was pushing in much deeper than she actually was, penetrating all the way through her body. 

The ghost king sighed a little and adjusted her hips, grinding her pelvis against Xie Lian’s. She pulled back, then thrust in again. Pulled back, then thrust in.

“Mmm, Jiejie, your pussy is stroking me so well. Your cute little hole is holding my cock so nicely.”

Xie Lian couldn’t respond. At some point after Hua Cheng had entered her, she’d lost the ability to talk. She could only whimper and moan.

Without thinking about it, on the next thrust, she rolled her hips up a little, then down again. It felt so good — like it was scratching that hard to describe itch in exactly the way she needed, so she did it again. And again.

“You’re a natural,” Hua Cheng crooned, her fingers pressing firmly against her ribs. “What did I tell you?” 

The next time Xie Lian raised her hips, Hua Cheng thrust down at the same time. 

“Oh!” 

They quickly fell into a rhythm. 

“Look at you, so needy, stroking me so nicely like that. Jiejie, you’re going to kill me”

“Mmm!” Xie Lian panted, and, “Ahh!” 

She really was going crazy. Now that she had taken control, the angle was a little different. Hua Cheng’s cock felt even larger somehow. When she tilted her hips back just so, she could feel the perfect glide of her thick length all the way down her internal walls. She found a way to get the head of Hua Cheng’s cock to nudge the spot just past her entrance and suddenly, with every stroke, she was seeing stars. She picked up the pace. 

Underneath her, Hua Cheng went wide-eyed. 

“Jiejie,” she gasped. 

Xie Lian kept at it, rocking her hips up and up and up. Much too quickly, it became more than Hua Cheng could bear. 

Shifting her weight, she hooked her arms under Xie Lian’s knees and tilted her back, pulling her hips up off the mattress. With her leverage taken away, Xie Lian was suddenly at her mercy.

There was a determined slant to Hua Cheng’s mouth. “If we keep going like that, I’m not going to be of any use.” She said darkly. 

She started pistoning her hips with some force, pulling her cock nearly all the way out, then pounding back in. 

“Oh, oh, oh!”

Xie Lian’s body liquified. It was yet a new sensation. Every time Hua Cheng slid home, it felt like staticy bolts of lighting erupting under her skin. 

“Your pussy is getting me all worked up. It’s taking everything in me just to hold back this much. To release the curse, I’m going to need to finish inside you. Is that alright, love? You want that?”

Frantically, Xie Lian nodded.

Hua Cheng grinned, a touch of maina entering her eyes. “Yeah? You want me to come inside? You want my release deep inside of you?”

With each thrust, they were shaking the entire bed now, knocking it back against the wall. Thank god Paradise Manor was so large, the last rational sliver of Xie Lian’s mind thought. Between the knocking and all of her moaning, they were making so much noise, she would have died of mortification if anyone heard. 

Hua Cheng’s fingers dug deeper into the meat of Xie Lian’s thighs, holding her tight enough to bruise. Her cock by this point had completely molded Xie Lian’s body to its shape. She felt like she had grown a new body. They’d only been at it for what, thirty minutes? — but in that time, she’d been transformed. 

Xie Lian’s legs were wrapped around Hua Cheng’s waist, her ankles crossed over her lower back. Even half-raised in the air, she was still trying to rock her hips against each of Hua Cheng’s thrusts. 

“Baobei–” Hua Cheng cried when she managed to slam back at precisely the moment Hua Cheng jerked forward, amplifying their shared pleasure. She started to babble, “I didn’t… I’ve never…” 

After a couple more thrusts, Xie Lian couldn’t take it anymore. She came with a shriek, kicking down and hitting Hua Cheng in the small of her back with her heel. Choking on air, Hua Cheng’s expression was stunned, like she’d missed the bottom rung of a ladder. She ground her hips in as deep as they could go, opened her mouth in a silent scream, and came. 

At once, a torrent of yang energy rushed into Xie Lian. It suffused her body, crashing up against the tidal pool of curse-induced yin energy that was beneath her lower dantian. The two opposing forces swirled together and balanced. 

For the first time all day, the tightness in Xie Lian’s stomach released. 

“San Niang,” she gasped, finding her words again. “My San Niang is perfect.” 

Hua Cheng’s head fell forward. She took a great heaving breath, shuddered, and then collapsed. With their bodies crushed together, she hid her face in Xie Lian’s neck, reached up and clamped one hand around her wrist. Her fingers pressed firmly into her pulse point. 

“Ah—” Xie Lian cleared her throat. “I, um. I think it’s passed. It feels like the energy is draining.”

“Mmm.” Hua Cheng rumbled into her neck, agreeing. 

She’d felt something snap against her stomach when all the yang energy came in. Hua Cheng was blocking her view of the curse mark, but she thought it might have been those strange white strings. 

Hua Cheng’s cock was still buried inside of her, but she could feel it softening. That whole area of her body, especially where their skin was pressed together, felt sticky and wet. 

When she was finally satisfied with the state of Xie Lian’s internal energy, Hua Cheng started to get up. She got her knees under herself, gained purchase on the mattress, and finally slid out. Xie Lian’s breath hitched at the sensation. 

“You’re okay?” Hua Cheng asked. Her voice came out a little raspy. 

“Mmm.” Xie Lian nodded. “... are you?” 

Her eyes softened. “Yeah.”

Untangling their limbs, Hua Cheng climbed out of the bed and surveyed the damage. The headboard had cracked, the pillows had been knocked all over the place, and the sheets were thoroughly ruined. 

Xie Lian, who could feel Hua Cheng’s come sliding out of her, grimaced. She sat up and caught her eye. 

“Maybe it’s time for a bath?” 

There was one awkward moment as Xie Lian danced around whether they should bathe separately or together. Hua Cheng was obviously trying to be supportive, accommodating whatever made her the most comfortable, but that only made it harder to piece out what she wanted to know, which was what would make Hua Cheng the most comfortable. 

The absurdity of the situation quickly came to light and they laughed it off. Hua Cheng pulled her into the tub, arguing that it was plenty large enough and it wasn’t like either of them had anything left to hide. 

She insisted on helping Xie Lian wash too, which made her embarrassed all over again. By the time Hua Cheng was rubbing shampoo into her scalp, however, that feeling too had melted back into the quiet, comfortable intimacy that characterized the whole of their friendship. 

Xie Lian liked her so much. 

“San Niang, really, thank you.” 

“There’s no need for that, Jiejie. I’ll always help you. I’m here for whatever you need.” 

Not for the first time, Xie Lian wondered why this ghost king was so good to her. It had been like this from the moment they’d met on Mount Yujun. 

Of course, their personalities were very compatible — Xie Lian had never met anyone so like-minded to her, or whose companionship had felt so easy. She thought it might be the same for Hua Cheng, but that still didn’t explain the start. 

It felt like there was something she was missing — some piece of information that Hua Cheng was acting on that Xie Lian didn’t know. 

“It’s the same for me too, you know. If you have a problem that I could help with, please come to me.” 

“I will.” Hua Cheng assured her, a smile in her voice. 

Xie Lian smiled too. In the aftermath of this whole ordeal, she was just so grateful it had been Hua Cheng who helped her. Her first time could have been so awful, she realized now. With anyone else, it could have so easily turned into a horrible experience, but instead it had felt like a gift. 

Who would have imagined that she could enjoy having sex — her! As it turned out, the secret was that you just needed to do it with someone you lo—

Her train of thought ground to a halt. 

Blinking rapidly, she flinched a little, disturbing the water. 

“Jiejie?” Hua Cheng asked. The fingers in her hair stopped moving. 

“I’m—” Xie Lian’s voice came out high pitched and raspy. She coughed. “I’m fine!” 

“What is it?” Hua Cheng asked, leaning forward to get a look at her face. 

Thinking quickly, Xie Lian flushed and explained, “I just remembered something! I, um. I— well, it’s been a couple of days now, and I left Lang Ying and Guzi at that wealthy merchant's house. I need to go back and get them! I need to get going, I–”

Hua Cheng’s brow stayed furrowed, but her mouth curled halfway into a confused smile. “Jiejie, it’s fine. You took care of the fetus spirit, so that merchant is in your debt. He won’t care about feeding two more mouths for a couple of days. Let’s finish the bath first, then I’ll take you to go pick them up.” 

This was all said so reasonably that Xie Lian had no choice but to squeak, “Okay!” 

She couldn’t help but feel awkward for the rest of the bath, carefully averting her eyes when Hua Cheng finished up with her hair and started rinsing out her own. 

The way she toweled off in a hurry and scrambled into her robes earned her another weird look, but Hua Cheng didn’t say anything. This was a relief, because if she had asked, Xie Lian really didn’t know what she would have said. 

Having sex and taking a bath together with your friend was one thing, but now that she’d put a name to the feeling in her chest, didn’t that make it something totally different?!

Her mind was in total disarray. Even looking at Hua Cheng made it worse. She needed space to think. 

“Okay, Jiejie.” Hua Cheng said when she’d finished buckling on the last of her clothes. She pulled her red dice out of one of her pockets and gestured to the door. “Whenever you’re ready.” 

Many days and several dramatic events later:

“San Niang,” she called out. “Just who is that ‘noble, gracious, special someone’?”

She watched as Hua Cheng’s hands twitched, tensing like she wanted to ball them into fists before stopping herself. She was silent for a while, then slowly answered—

“If your highness has already found out, then why ask?”

Xie Lian nodded. “I see. So I didn’t misunderstand you. It really is true.”

Hua Cheng didn’t speak. 

“You don’t… want to know how I feel about this?”

“...”

Hua Cheng’s body was one straight line of tension. She stood with her back facing Xie Lian, like a string pulled taut. It seemed that at any moment she was liable to snap and run away. 

“Will your highness… not tell me?” Her deep, lovely voice cracked as she said it. 

“I’m sorry, but I think in matters like this, it’s best to say things clearly.” 

Hua Cheng didn’t need to breathe, but at this she sucked in a quick breath. Although she was trembling slightly, there was the hint of a resigned smile in her voice when she replied, “That’s true. You’re right, it’s for the best.”

Just underneath that smile was the tone of someone bracing for a brutal rejection.

Xie Lian took a deep breath, gathering her courage. Then she burst out— 

“Honestly, San Niang, I feel really stupid! After everything we did together to cure me of that curse, afterwards I didn’t know how to bring up what I felt. When you started talking about your beloved, I really didn’t think you were talking about me. How could you possibly have been talking about me? This whole time, I felt like I was going crazy, I really can’t believe that all the while you—!”

Xie Lian’s tirade was cut off with a thump as the ghost king whirled around and hurled herself against her chest. She wrapped her strong arms around her waist and buried her face in her shoulder. 

Hua Cheng’s voice came out muffled. “Your highness… you really are going to be the death of me.”