A Mountain Spirit’s Schemes - Chapter 3

Afterward, I cried.

Heaven and all my ancestors! I’d finally released my very first spores!

I just didn’t know what would grow when spores joined with a human.

A human? A human-spirit hybrid?

I couldn’t work it out, and I didn’t care to.

As far as I was concerned, getting the spores out could only help me.

Now I just had to sow every last one.

Looking at Lord Wang lying there, I wanted to transfer more into him. I thought he was strong enough to contain them.

But he had regained his clarity of mind. He touched the snakebite on his calf, suspicion gathering in his eyes. Clearly, he was questioning the absurdity of what had just happened.

Fair enough. Desire snakes lived in the southwestern borderlands, a thousand li away. Finding them here was distinctly odd.

My tears, however, stirred his pity.

Abandoning his train of thought, he hurriedly wiped them away.

His touch was rough, but there was concern in his voice.

“Does being my lover for a night upset you so much?”

Not exactly. But if a fleeting affair was all I could have with you, that really would upset me.

“I’ve lost my chastity. If I enter the palace like this, I’m afraid…”

I was making things up, trying to put him off.

Lord Wang didn’t like that. He pulled me into his arms and gripped my chin hard with his rough fingers.

“You still want to enter the palace?”

His teeth were clenched. Displeasure filled every inch of his face.

“Am I not enough for you?”

I wasn’t human. How could one possibly be enough?

His fury was so fierce, though, that the slightest nod might have made him devour me alive.

I wasn’t afraid he’d kill me. Even the strongest mortal was no match for a thousand-year-old mountain spirit.

But my spores were inside him. I didn’t want to kill him, either.

“You said you were only examining me on His Majesty’s behalf.” I put on an injured air. “I’m just an object to be passed from hand to hand, for you or the emperor to dispose of. How could I dare ask for a proper place at your side?”

I leaned against his shoulder and let the tears fall.

That worked splendidly.

He narrowed his eyes, stroked my hair, and muttered that I was a fool.

“You’re my woman now. Do you think I’d send you into the palace?”

Men could be very possessive. But how long could a single night sustain that?

Over the centuries, I’d seen too many men abandon women they once adored.

At the height of their passion, they would promise the moon. Each vow sounded sweeter than the last. But some coveted beauty, others wealth. A night together wouldn’t make them faithful forever.

Power was the one thing they never stopped chasing.

Wang Zhi was only an ordinary mortal.

Of course he coveted power, too.

I wasn’t the power that ruled the human world. I couldn’t hold his heart.

If power ever beckoned, he would abandon me without a backward glance.

Fortunately, I wasn’t an ordinary woman.

I was a mountain spirit, free to come and go.

I wasn’t besotted with love or bound by mortal propriety.

Leaning against his chest and listening to his strong heartbeat, I was already planning my escape.

I was going to the capital to get close to that tyrant.

The pursuers had long since reached the foot of the cliff.

They hadn’t found us only because I’d concealed the cave with my power.

Without that protection, they would probably have reached us already.

I thought Wang Zhi must have noticed these peculiarities, too.

He was a skilled fighter and had crossed blades with the assassins. He knew what they could do. He must have guessed I wasn’t some helpless woman.

But I couldn’t read him. I had no idea what he was thinking.

Had that night’s encounter made him possessive, eager to keep me caged as an ornamental plaything? Or was he testing my strength and obedience, hoping to use me for some purpose?

I couldn’t tell. I didn’t need to.

I hadn’t come among humans to fall in love. I had neither the need nor the time to guess at someone’s heart.

My spores, on the other hand, did require some concern.

I looked at Wang Zhi’s wounds. There were two holes in those taut muscles, and after the night’s exertions they had begun to fester. They looked awful.

He was deathly pale. Had I not fed him a few mouthfuls of thousand-year-old ginseng the day before, he probably wouldn’t even have been able to keep his eyes open.

Looking at him frightened me.

What if he died before my spores could take root?

“You’re so badly hurt. I’ll look for herbs outside.”

I gazed at him with aching concern, tears pattering down.

Wang Zhi shook his head and caught my hand.

“The pursuers can’t have gone far. You’ll be walking to your death.”

Ignoring him, I picked up his dagger and ran out without a backward glance.

Outside, just as he’d said, a large number of assassins were searching for him.

I ran into two of them almost as soon as I left the cave.

They didn’t recognize me, but they knew Wang Zhi had fled with a young attendant. They put the pieces together.

Unfortunately for them, I slit their throats with mycelial threads before they could act.

Mortal lives were so fragile.

Their bodies would draw the other assassins’ attention, of course.

That was part of the plan.