My Obsessive Master Has Too Many Avatars - Chapter 3

My heart raced. I opened my mouth, not daring to show fear in front of him—and even less willing to let him know I loved him.

So I said the opposite of what I meant.

“Que Nian, of course.”

Fuchen’s smile deepened, though it never reached his eyes.

“Why?”

I racked my brains and finally came up with a reason.

“In the language of flowers, pea shoots mean ‘no old ones, please.’”

Fuchen bit my collarbone, his teeth clenched. “Why don’t you try me and see whether this body of mine is old?”

Cold fingers slipped inside my collar. A muffled sound escaped me, and goosebumps rose on my skin.

His teasing sent tingles across my scalp. I pushed his hand away.

“What do you want?”

“What do I want? A-Bai, you may have betrayed me, but we never dissolved our bond. I’m still your rightful cultivation partner. You bowed to heaven and earth with me. Our names are engraved on the Stone of Three Lives.”

Fuchen lifted a leg and straddled my waist.

“As for those sluts who seduce you and drive a wedge between us, I’ll take care of them. One by one.”

I scoffed. “My cultivation partner? You? If you hadn’t seduced me, would I ever have done such a thing?”

“Have you no conscience, A-Bai? Which of us seduced the other? Who put drugs in my water?”

I was so furious I wanted to bite him to death.

He hadn’t seduced me? After filling every important role in my life, making my life all about him until he was all I had left, until he was the only person I trusted and depended on, until I couldn’t live without him—he could casually tell me he hadn’t seduced me?

To me, every word, every act, steeped in that all-pervasive possessiveness, had been seduction.

But I hated being that person.

I hated having him as my entire world. I hated that I could hide nothing from him, that I had no secrets, that he could see right through me.

So…I had betrayed him and escaped.

His rubbing against me was making me burn all over. Embarrassed and angry, I kicked him.

“Either fuck me or get out!”

Fuchen’s kisses traveled slowly down my body.

“I remember. You liked this best…”

Outside the mirror, the comments flew past.

[AAAAAAH! Why did the villain get dragged into the mirror?!]

[Why is the whole mirror pixelated? What’s in there that a distinguished paying member like me isn’t allowed to see?]

[That figure that flashed past in the mirror just now looked like Immortal Venerable Fuchen.]

[Welp. Zhubai’s kidneys won’t survive that much sex.]

[I’m thinking…Master can split himself into avatars, right? So couldn’t they…]

[I get you. A sandwich cookie, right?]

[Hehehe…who’d understand me without you degenerates online?]

[Hello. Vice squad.]

…

The next morning, I woke in bed exhausted, feeling as if half my life had been wrung out of me.

I was about to go back to sleep when someone knocked.

“Are you awake, Senior Brother?”

I was just about to answer when a hand reached over and covered my mouth.

Fuchen’s breath brushed my neck. “Do you think he’ll come in if we keep him waiting?”

When I didn’t answer, there was another knock.

“Senior Brother?”

The door opened a crack. Que Nian swept a glance around the room.

My heart nearly leaped into my throat.

Behind me, Fuchen stroked my lower belly.

“Relax. His cultivation isn’t high enough to detect us.”

Only when Que Nian’s footsteps had faded completely did I let myself relax.

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

The man behind me coiled around me like a cold, clammy snake.

“Drag you down into Avici Hell with me… My dear A-Bai, you said it yourself. From the highest heavens to the underworld, tangled together until death.”

“When you were coaxing me into bed, your mouth was full of sweet words. Such a silver tongue. Once you had me, you hated me as if I were a disease eating into your bones and cast me aside like a worn-out shoe.”

“For ten years, lying beneath that barrier, I kept thinking: come and see me. Just come and see me. If you still cared, I’d forgive you… But you never came. Not once, before I broke free.”

Cold sweat soaked my back. I opened my mouth to defend myself and couldn’t find a single excuse.

“Why so nervous?” He gave a quiet laugh and wiped the sweat from my forehead.

“You know I can never bring myself to be cruel to you. So…you know what to do.”

That much, I believed.

Even when I’d betrayed him, when his rage was at its height, he hadn’t actually struck me or hurt me.

But constant control and oppression with no end in sight were far harder to endure than physical pain.

“I know what you want, and I can give it to you. But you…have to give me freedom.” I caught his collar and looked straight into his eyes.

“You can’t watch me every moment anymore. You can’t interfere with my choices. Only then will I go back to how I was—to being your disciple, your cultivation partner, trusting only you and depending only on you.”

“What makes you think you can bargain with me?” Fuchen’s eyes curved with amusement, his lips lifting. “But very well. I agree.”

I stared. He’d agreed, just like that.

I’d thought I’d have to spend much longer maneuvering around him.

“As a reward for agreeing…kiss me.” Fuchen lifted his face, aloof and proud as a cat.

I barely hesitated before leaning down to peck his thin, pale pink lips.

Once I’d finally managed to get away, I immediately secured one of the sect’s places on an expedition to an ancient secret realm.

As for going back to how I’d been, being his good little partner and disciple—of course I’d lied.

If he could change that easily, I would never have left him so readily in the first place.

“Senior Brother, this journey will be dangerous. I’ll go with you.”

Que Nian leaned against the doorway, his sword in his arms and his eyes fixed on me.

I looked him over, remembering the comments had called him the male lead.

In that case, if Fuchen came after me, he could at least hold him off for a while.

I lowered my head and agreed.

“All right.”