Great Li Martial God

At Li Musheng’s words, the Cloud Immortal, her face still flushed with apparent shyness, went visibly still for a moment.

But she quickly recovered her composure, her water-clear eyes fixed on Li Musheng, and an expression of apparent alarm crossed her face as she asked quietly, ”Why would Your Highness say such a thing?”

Li Musheng looked at the Cloud Immortal before him and said with a thoughtful expression, ”There is an extraordinarily heavy air of decay and death about you. Though it’s well concealed, it hasn’t escaped my notice.”

At those words, the Cloud Immortal’s mind raced rapidly, marveling inwardly at this young demon lord’s remarkably sharp perception while simultaneously working out how to explain herself.

In the next instant, the Cloud Immortal suddenly withdrew her gaze, lowering her head with a downcast expression, her eyes fixed blankly on her own bare, snow-white feet.

”Your Highness truly lives up to being the one Yun’er admires most in this world, to see through Yun’er’s incurable, fatal illness with a single glance.”

The Cloud Immortal’s gentle voice was filled with wistful sorrow, and without waiting for Li Musheng to press further, she continued, ”In my childhood, an enemy of my father’s placed a strange, malicious curse upon Yun’er. Though it does not affect my appearance, my body’s life force withers and ages at an unnatural pace. A physician once predicted that Yun’er would not live to see her twentieth year.”

At this point, the Cloud Immortal slowly raised her head, her eyes rimmed with red, faint tears welling within them, her exquisitely beautiful face looking all the more pitiable and moving as she gazed at Li Musheng, and said, ”Even so, that Yun’er has been able to meet Your Highness, whom I have longed for day and night, is enough to leave this life without regret. Life and death no longer truly matter to Yun’er.”

At those words, Li Musheng’s brow furrowed slightly.

This devoted admirer before him seemed genuinely infatuated with him, and though he still harbored some lingering doubt, her flawless, seamless response had undeniably dispelled a considerable amount of his suspicion.

With that thought, Li Musheng studied the Cloud Immortal before him carefully for a moment, then shook his head and said, ”Unfortunately, I’m not skilled in medicine, or else I would certainly examine Yun’er’s condition properly.”

At those words, tears suddenly began falling uncontrollably from the Cloud Immortal’s eyes, and she gazed at Li Musheng with an expression full of tender affection, saying, ”What has Yun’er, a mere woman of the martial world, ever done to deserve this? Even these words from Your Highness alone are more than enough.”

With that, the Cloud Immortal suddenly rose to her feet, intending to bow to Li Musheng in thanks.

But perhaps because she had risen too hastily, she lost her footing and stumbled, falling sideways directly toward Li Musheng.

At the sight, Li Musheng’s eyebrow lifted slightly.

But in the next instant, the Cloud Immortal’s bare feet pivoted deftly, catching her graceful frame just as it was about to fall, restoring her to a standing position, leaving only a faint, barely perceptible trace of pleasant rouge fragrance lingering in the air.

The Cloud Immortal then reached up as though startled and patted her chest, a look of apology crossing her face, still marked with the traces of tears, and said, ”Yun’er’s emotions became too overwhelming for a moment, and I very nearly offended Your Highness. I ask for Your Highness’s forgiveness.”

The Cloud Immortal spoke these words with the utmost care, but inwardly she was quietly laughing to herself.

This particular tactic was what one might call reeling in by letting the line out. An ordinary woman of the pleasure quarters would likely have deliberately faked the stumble to fall into a man’s arms, using her body to seduce him directly.

But such a shallow trick was, in the Cloud Immortal’s eyes, entirely beneath her, and would certainly have been seen through by Li Musheng, likely backfiring on her entirely.

By deliberately stumbling and then catching herself just in time, she left this young demon lord before her completely unable to determine her true intentions, unsure whether it had been deliberate or a genuine accident.

This, without question, was a far more effective way of drawing his attention, stirring within him the desire to understand her more deeply.

”It’s fine. There’s no need for such formality, Yun’er.”

Li Musheng waved a hand. This beautiful, young admirer with such an excellent figure standing before him naturally stirred a protective instinct in anyone who looked at her.

Even so, Li Musheng couldn’t shake a faint, nagging sense that something about her was slightly off, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly it was.

Of course, Li Musheng wasn’t worried the Cloud Immortal before him might try to harm him. After all, there was virtually no one throughout the entire martial world under heaven capable of killing him.

”Well then, since Yun’er has traveled such a long distance to see me, I should show some gesture of my own.”

Li Musheng rubbed his chin, his eyes settling on the Cloud Immortal, and said, ”Though I’m not skilled in the art of medicine, my martial cultivation is quite formidable in its own right. If Yun’er doesn’t mind, I could use my martial aura to examine your core and meridians right now, and see whether there might be some way I could help.”

Had this been anyone else, Li Musheng would simply have examined their condition directly without bothering to ask permission at all.

But this was, after all, his own devoted admirer standing before him, and he felt he ought to be somewhat more gentlemanly about it, obtaining her consent first.

At those words, a look of hesitation crossed the Cloud Immortal’s face, and after a moment she said timidly, ”Wouldn’t this be too much trouble for Your Highness?”

She then lowered her head as though genuinely troubled and said, ”Though Yun’er is overjoyed that Your Highness would be willing to show her such care and concern, Yun’er has no wish to burden Your Highness with any inconvenience.”

”Besides, Yun’er has already made peace with her own circumstances. To have had the good fortune of meeting Your Highness in these final days remaining to me, Yun’er feels her life is already complete.”

In truth, the Cloud Immortal had no fear whatsoever of Li Musheng examining her condition.

Before coming here, she had already taken a ”Cultivation-Dispersing Pill.”

This pill could dissolve away all of a person’s martial true qi, and only once its effects had worn off would the person’s true strength gradually be restored.

At this moment, the Cloud Immortal was, for all practical purposes, no different from an ordinary person. To seduce this young demon lord, she had genuinely gone to considerable and drastic lengths.

After all, in her current state, she was much like the cultivation-stripped Rakshasa Holy Lord, with extremely limited means at her disposal.

”You have to be willing to sacrifice to catch the wolf. This old woman has given up quite a bit to land you.”

The Cloud Immortal raised her head, her eyes gazing gently at Li Musheng, the very picture of gratitude and tender affection, while inwardly she felt considerable confidence in herself.

She had already gone to such lengths, and this Li Musheng before her was still far too young. Perhaps she wouldn’t even need the Earth Guide Old Ancestor’s assistance at all, and could easily bring this man under her sway on her own.

At this point, seeing that the Cloud Immortal showed no resistance to his examination, Li Musheng, having obtained her consent, flicked out a thread of martial aura and let it settle into the Cloud Immortal’s body.

Sensing Li Musheng’s aura entering her body, the Cloud Immortal’s delicate frame trembled instinctively.

Even so, this was not a deliberate performance on her part, but a genuine, instinctive reaction from her own body.

The Cloud Immortal’s own martial cultivation had long since risen to the very top tier of the entire Western Desert’s martial world, and the ”Six Harmonies Cloud-Riding Divine Art” she cultivated had already reached its tenth and highest level of mastery.

”Where the wind follows the tiger, the cloud follows the dragon.” The Cloud Immortal herself had long since achieved the realm of riding dragons and ascending to the heavens amid the clouds’ own sensation, her formidable martial will and perception far surpassing that of any ordinary person.

Though she had now dispersed her own martial true qi, leaving her much like an ordinary person, the moment Li Musheng’s aura entered her body, that profound and mysterious ”cloud sense” state of hers immediately gave her a warning of danger unlike anything she had ever experienced before.