57 She was going to kill someone

Ariunbayar was going to kill someone.

It was one thing being the third-wheel to random flirting, but it was a whole different thing when they had just escaped a precarious situation but were still trapped underground, and the two were making out! Worst, their objective was yet unachieved as well!

Ariunbayar's face burned with shocked embarrassment as she watched the two entangle. She looked away, huffing and stomping her feet, heart thundering in her chest. She was about to retract her spirit lights but…

"..." Just…another little peek…it's not like the two were being discrete so it's not her fault if she was caught staring right? With a gulp and holding back her shame and embarrassment the Princess of the Steppes made a slow and cautious peek at the two handsome men k-kissing.

No, not just any old kissing. This was full on French kissing!

To Ariunbayar, who had lived more winters in this life than her last, and yet to bed anyone in both her lives, this was both scandalous and exciting at the same time!

Yu Yanlin and Zhang Wang were completely caught in their own little world. The rocky face of the cavern was rough on Zhang Wang's back but he didn't care. After being drowned in uncertainty and despair, Yu Yanlin's lips and breath were like a euphoric heaven that showed him light. He kissed hungrily, greedily, arms tight and pulled the demon down by his shoulder and neck.

The demon king had one hand against the cave wall, next to Zhang Wang's head and the other wrapped around the man's waist, pulling them close together.

Heat swelled, from the tip of Zhang Wang's head, traveling all the way down to his crotch. His hands moved on their own, lust driven and almost desperate. Fingers clawed at Yu Yanlin's blindfold. But it was then that the demon king let go of his waist and reached up to peel his hand off. Zhang Wang frowned, confused at first and stupidly said, "What?"

"Not now," Yu Yanlin suddenly reminded him with a gently hum.

It was then that Zhang Wang remembered that they weren't alone. With a cough, he pushed the demon away, face red with awkwardness.

"Are you two done?" Ariunbayar grumbled with her hands crossed over her chest, face equally as red as his.

He felt a little sorry, but only a little. Zhang Wang rubbed the back of his neck. Nervous laughter escaped his lips, "Yup. Done. Totally doner than done." A part of him also urged him to say 'I'm not gay!' but it was already way too late for that when they were supposed to be lovers in the first place.

Yu Yanlin, being the strange man that he was, still wrapped his arm around Zhang Wang's waist and pulled him close. A kiss was planted into Zhang Wang's temple, words teasing, "Later."

And Zhang Wang was stunned frozen, his heart stuttering in his chest like some sort of enchanted maiden. What was even wrong with him!? "Erm-" He even completely forgot about their act and instead was already thinking about all the wonderful things they were going to do after this whole worm-snake thing was solved.

Speaking of which.

What even happened!?

"We need to get a move on!" Ariunbayar was still grumbling, her eyes now looking aside, unable to meet either of them. "That damned snake must be close-by. I don't really want to fight it in this part of the cave again, it's going to fall apart at any second!"

"Wait!" Zhang Wang shouted, "Don't you think it's weird?"

"What?" Ariunbayar blinked.

"We came for a worm not a snake!"

"..."

"..."

"So?" This was Ariunbayar.

Zhang Wang simply glared at her, feeling incredulous, "So!? That's all you have to say?"

"Hmph. Logically, the snake must have eaten the worm, right? Then the Dawn Star is surely in the snake!"

Surely…? Just how was she sure about that? "What makes you even believe that? Zhang Wang raised his voice, trying hard not to facepalm outright.

"I have 64% luck, remember?"

As if Zhang Wang had forgotten! "That's not reliable at all!"

Ariunabayar pouted, twirling around and already selecting her next route. It just happened to be the closest tunnel to her, "Do you have a better idea? I don't want to sit around and idle! Not when my precious debugger is still out there."

Zhang Wang let out a long sigh and began to follow after her. There were spirit lights dancing around them once more, the weird darkness now gone, and Zhang Wang almost felt he could breathe easy. But only almost. It was still dark, still creepy and he still felt extremely claustrophobic. "Ahh! Stop this already, if you just wander around aimlessly, at some point you're just going to wear yourself out and die, don't you think?"

"Nonsense! We're OP cultivators for a reason you know? We're not going to drop dead from lack of food and water for a few days, even normal humans can survive that long by drinking their own pee." She stalked off into a tunnel. Zhang Wang had failed to stop her, their footsteps echoing as they went.

Zhang Wang sighed, resigning to following. He couldn't help but feel that if they were truly going somewhere off, then Yu Yanlin would have said something about it, right? "That's disgusting, why would you even say that?"

"It's true though, haven't you read news articles like that before? Never mind. If we're ever in any sort of real pickle, your absurd lover is here to punch a way out for us, no?" She went back to grumbling again.

Zhang Wang was seriously at a loss, did he do something to upset her? What was she even talking about, 'absurd lover'? Behind him, Yu Yanlin was quiet again, mysterious and vigilant.

The Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms chanced a glance at him, and felt that insatiable flare of lust again. Uh, bad idea. Junior was developing an unhealthy desire for Yu Yanlin and he couldn't even stop it.

With a gulp he asked, "What did you do this time?"

"This time?" Yu Yanlin parroted with a cute tilt of his head. Zhang Wang couldn't stop thinking about how he wanted to kiss those lips. "I merely saved Zhang Wang from his predicament. I don't think I did anything special."

Ariunbayar rolled her eyes, her voice exasperated, "Nothing special, he says! Right. Let's just pretend you weren't holding back when we were fighting the dumb snake. And that you totally didn't obliterate that evil spirit with a single punch. Why did gege even give you his sword? When you can just oneshot everything with a single punch!"

Ahh, wait a second, wasn't that a copyrighted storyline? Zhang Wang thought absently before shaking himself back into focus. "Just because my Huhu is super strong doesn't mean we can just use him however we want, you know?"

Ariunbayar turned around just to glare at him.

But before she could make a comment, Yu Yanlin finally cut into the conversation, "Wait, perhaps you are mistaken about something. I did not obliterate that evil spirit at all."

The two cultivators blinked at him, pausing in their steps.

Ariunbayar was deadpan, "What?"

While Zhang Wang was a bit confused, "What evil spirit are you guys even talking about?"

Yu Yanlin was calm, as unconcerned as ever. "The evil spirit that was corrupting the snake. You were the one that destroyed its initial layer of protection," the demon helpfully supplied. "I didn't defeat it, merely displaced it."

The Princess of the Steppes groaned, hands on her hips, "Why the heck did you do that! We could have just purified it and gotten it over with, it was seriously creepy!"

"I didn't see a major problem with it."

She threw up her hands and then pointed a finger at Zhang Wang accusingly, "If something terrible happens because of that stupid OP side character, I'm blaming you!" She then began to stomp off in a fury.

It took Zhang Wang a moment to realize who it was she was even referring to. "Wait a moment! Why am I the one being blamed!? I didn't do anything!"

He chased after the girl, while Yu Yanlin chuckled after them.

…

In a different part of the cavern, a ghost was plagued with heart-numbing angst. She shrieked and groaned as she whizzed through the damp stone.

How dare they!

How dare they!!

HOW DARE THEY!!!

She had once been a simple village girl with simple dreams of marrying a simple man and living life on the farm with seven kids. She never wanted to travel, never wished for adventure nor riches. She was always kind to her parents and to her siblings and never wanted for more than they could afford.

She had never done anything wrong aside from stealing a pear from the neighbor's orchid. That was the worst she had ever done!

So why did she deserve such a terrible death? Why was the man she married an evil bastard who only wanted her for her dowry? Killing her not a week later and burying her in the mountains while there was still breath upon her lips.

Just why!?

She seethed at the thought, haunted with anger and rage for years, decades perhaps even centuries since, unable to let go of her unjust death.

Luckily there was still that giant serpent that was already affected by her power, making the beast easy to take over completely.

With this, she could finally enact her vengeance!

And even if the three people who came into her caverns had nothing to do with her murderer she didn't care, no longer able to tell the difference between humans. To her, they were all the same evil bastard that left her in the dirt to die.