Dual Cultivation: Gathering SSS-Rank Wives in the Cultivation World Chapter 187 - Did She Just Quit?

He chuckled at the accusation.

"Do you hate ?"

She stared at him for long monts, her expression cycling through confusion, anger, and sothing she couldn’t na.

"I don’t even understand you, let alone know the reason to hate. You’re... confusing."

The admission seed to frustrate her even more. n were supposed to be simple—driven by pride, lust, or power. But he defied every category she tried to place him in.

"So tell ," he said, his voice carrying that gentle insistence, "what do you want?"

Her jaw set with determination.

"I will never give up my dignity."

Looking at her, he chuckled, but there was sothing different in his expression now.

"You know what? I always thought you were an ambitious woman who, to be honest, could fall to any low."

Her body flinched as if he’d struck her, her heart thumping irregularly.

Why did his judgnt matter?

Why did the thought of him seeing her as soone without dignity cause such a strange ache in her chest?

It was strange, maybe he was different from other n in a way that was unpredictable. That’s why she felt his judgnt of her seed to matter so much.

"But hearing you say that," he continued, his voice softer now, "it feels I wasn’t wrong at choosing you."

He retreated a step, then another, giving her space as he extended his hand toward her in a formal gesture—as if asking for a dance.

The absurdity of it, given his still-exposed state, should have been laughable.

"I am a pervert but a gentleman," he said, his crimson-gold eyes eting hers directly.

"You are ambitious but dignified. How about we have children together who will be both gentle and dignified?"

Yu Xiang blinked, her violet eyes wide with disbelief as his words echoed in her mind.

Children?

With him?

Her mouth twitched, lips parting as confusion and shock warred across her features.

"What?" she breathed, the single word escaping before she could stop it.

But before the question could fully form, he moved.

His hand shot forward, fingers wrapping around her wrist with gentle but insistent pressure. One smooth pull, and her body was flying toward him, her feet stumbling over the silk carpet as montum carried her forward.

’!’

Her chest collided with his in a soft thud, the impact sending tremors through her as her breasts pressed against his muscled torso.

Her face buried itself against his shoulder, black hair spilling over his arm as his other hand ca up to rest on the crown of her head.

The embrace was warm, solid, completely enveloping her smaller fra.

For a mont, she froze in his arms, her body rigid with shock.

His scent filled her nostrils—the scent of two won and sothing distinctly masculine that made her pulse quicken as she instantly recognized what it was.

"Let —" she started, her hands pressing against his chest as she tried to push herself away.

But then the mory hit her.

The sharp crack of her palm against his cheek.

The way he’d simply stood there and taken it, never flinching, never retaliating. His calm acceptance of violence from soone so much weaker than him.

Guilt crashed over her like a cold wave.

She knew no man would have been able to hold back after such humiliation... it was how their brain worked.

It was how she knew how to ta them... it was how...

’I don’t know anything...’

Her fingers trembled against his chest, then slowly clenched in the fabric of his robes instead of pushing.

The silk was smooth between her fingers, expensive and fine, but all she could focus on was the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her palm.

"Let leave," she whispered, but there was no force behind the words. No cultivation-enhanced strength, no attempt to break free.

Just a quiet plea that sounded more like surrender than demand.

His chuckle rumbled through his chest, vibrating against her cheek.

"I’m not even hugging you."

The words made her freeze completely.

Slowly, as if waking from a dream, Yu Xiang beca aware of her own actions. Her arms had sohow wound themselves around his waist.

Her fingers were fisted in his robes, clinging to him like he was an anchor in a storm.

She was the one holding him.

Heat flooded her cheeks as the realization struck.

When had she—? How had she—?

Slowly, so slowly it felt like moving through thick honey, she lifted her head to et his face.

He was looking down at her, those crimson-gold eyes holding sothing she couldn’t quite na. Not mockery, not triumph, just... attention.

As if she were the only thing in the world worth watching.

Her mouth parted, lips trembling as she tried to find words.

Her analytical mind—so sharp, so calculating—seed to have completely abandoned her.

Finally, she managed to speak, her voice barely above a whisper:

"How can a man like you even exist in this world?"

The question carried all her confusion, all her frustration at being unable to categorize him.

Every man she’d ever encountered had been predictable in their desires and weaknesses.

But him? He was strong but weak at heart, loyal but to too many, pervert but even that had love, manipulative but not cold-hearted... soone like him.

How had a man like him not vanished or lost one of those qualities that made her see his loophole?

She couldn’t even seduce him—yet she could. But strangely she didn’t want to, because she knew she couldn’t.

’It’s frustrating!’

He shrugged, the motion causing his shoulders to shift under her hands.

"They do exist everywhere," he said simply, his voice carrying that sa casual confidence that had both infuriated and fascinated her from their first eting.

"It’s just they don’t get to have such a beautiful woman beside them."

The complint hung in the air between them, and Yu Xiang felt her lips tremble as she processed his words.

Despite everything—even though she had heard this word many tis from n as they flirt—she knew she could still not guess anything even if she tried.

Her teeth caught her lower lip, biting down gently as conflicting emotions warred across her features.

"So you know how to flirt," she said finally, her voice carrying a note of accusation mixed with sothing that might have been admiration.

Tianlong raised an eyebrow, that familiar smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

"I know too much about won."

The statent should have sounded arrogant, boastful even. Instead, it ca out matter-of-fact, like soone observing the color of the sky.

Yu Xiang’s violet eyes locked onto his crimson-gold gaze, and she found herself unable to look away.

"I saw in their eye," she murmured, more to herself than to him, as if she had already seen how even Zhao Chen’s mother looked at him.

There was sothing hypnotic about the way his eyes seed to see straight through her carefully constructed facades, past all her ambitions and calculations, down to sothing raw and honest she’d forgotten existed.

He began to lean closer, his face descending toward hers with deliberate slowness.

The scent of him—masculine and complex, tinged with the lingering traces of his other won—filled her senses as his breath ghosted across her cheek.

"I promise," he whispered, his voice soft and surprisingly gentle, "I will not hurt you."

The words sent a tremor through her entire body.

Her hands, still fisted in his robes, tightened involuntarily as she trembled against him.

He was not the first man who had ever made such a promise to her. Most had wanted to use her, to take what they could, only to later discard her.

That’s how she used n. They were so predictable.

But his words carried a weight of sincerity that made her chest ache—as if recalling how dangerous he was.

"I am a woman who is ambitious and heartless," she said, her voice barely above a whisper as he continued to lean in.

"I will ruin your life."

Even as the warning left her lips, she could feel them parting unconsciously, as if her body was preparing for sothing her mind hadn’t yet accepted.

Her violet eyes fluttered, lashes casting shadows on her cheeks as she blinked slowly, like soone erging from a long dream.

He slowly leaned, his lips hovering just inches from hers, close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating from his skin.

"Can you be gentle while ruining it?" he asked, and there was sothing almost vulnerable in the question—as if he were asking for rcy from soone who held all the power in the world.

Yu Xiang’s breath caught in her throat.

"Shouldn’t it be a woman saying that?" she muttered, confusion evident in her voice even as her body leaned into him.