Yin Na sought to renew the slave contract that Mao Shiqi was under.

Yin Na was really unique and daring in mentality, even for most demonic cultivators they did not tend to enslave Yao Guais and raise them for long-term usage as an army. Most cultivators, both righteous and demonic, preferred killing Yao Guai and harvesting them for their beast cores and other materials outright, as they were simply too costly to assist with the cultivation process.

Yao Guai and humans co-existed in a state of eternal rivalry at best, and perpetual war at worst. This is because they were viewed as little better than spirit beasts. Yao Guai were already smaller in population; they lacked resources, and required more for the cultivation process, therefore humans always dominated Yao Guai. To have amorous relationships with each other was viewed as a perversion of nature, and it was viewed the same from the Yao Guai perspective. Despite this, it was the ultimate goal of Yao Guai to reach a human form upon breaking through into the Foundation stage.

Once they took on human forms, they could live the rest of their lives passing off as humans, free of the bias and hatred of other human cultivators, and their cultivation journey could progress far more smoothly.

It took 5,000 years of breathing deep, rich qi and absorbing light from the moon for Mao Shiqi to turn into a humanoid beast. By then, she looked like a cat-human beast thing like Liao Ya Shu, which she remained at the Qi Refining and Qi Condensation stage.

It was because Yin Na relied on the persecuted state of Yao Guais that he found the method to raise a unique fighting force as a weak lone Foundation cultivator. He sought and defeated Yao Guai, sparing their lives but enslaving them through some form of contract.

To enslave a Yao Guai was as difficult but no different from enslaving a human cultivator. You just had to be more creative.

Yin Na’s contract terms with Mao Shiqi upon defeating her was simple: accept Yin Na as her master, fight for Yin Na when summoned, in return for assistance with the cultivation journey as well as the teachings of the Dao of Benefits!

Yin Na’s several methods of enslavement ranged from simple Dao oaths one could take together beneath qi-rich trees or mystical architecture, to the more powerful restricting Jade collars that could tighten and crush the throat of Yao Guai who defied him.

For Mao Shiqi, all he did was exchange bodily fluids.

“By consuming each other’s essence, this is the strongest way to enforce the contract,” explained Yin Na.

Mao Shiqi was a cat-beast humanoid. The quickest way for them to exchange bodily fluids was through kissing!

It was either she join her split cat lips with Yin Na’s smooth pink lips, or die. Mao Shiqi obviously chose the former option.

They drank each other’s saliva, her rough cat tongue wrapped around Yin Na’s soft human tongue. Yin Na’s essence was within his saliva which entered her body and dantian as miniature versions of his malignant will that was maintained by the contract spell. Similarly, her essence was also within his dantian. If either of them broke the terms of the contract, the essence within each other would implode, causing significant damage to their cultivation base.

If Mao Shiqi defied Yin Na, the malignant will of his would explode at the power of a self-detonating Foundation establishment expert, it would completely undo 5,000 years of cultivation!

But once Yin Na was reborn as a mere Qi Refining martial artist, the various contracts Yin Na formed with Yao Guai and maintained as a Foundation Establishment cultivator lost their power. Liao Ya Shu got bold because of this and was the first to die for his folly. Regardless, even without the threat of breaking a contract, the Yao Guai he enslaved when he was still in the spiritual realm never dreamed of defying him, because Yin Na’s brutality, as well as his mentality alone scared them into ever rebelling.

“In order to revise our contract,” said Yin Na. “We simply must overwrite it by performing it again.”

“You bastard…” thought Mao Shiqi. “In a perfect world…if I had perfected my transformation, I would have probably welcomed these words in joy. But now I, a Yao Guai cultivator who is many leagues in strength and spiritual power above this mere mortal before me, am forced to…”

Mao Shiqi squirmed.

“...forced to kiss this man who’s much weaker than me! Who just unraveled my plan, and killed two of my co-conspirators before my eyes.”

Yin Na was still naked this entire time. His arms were crossed, his face wearing a grin as he looked down at the shorter Mao Shiqi from his height.

“Well, Xiao Qi,” said Yin Na. “What are you waiting for? Take your clothes off.”

“HA?!!” Mao Shiqi cried. She looked down and what she saw made her blush, even the insides of her cat-ears turned red.

Yin Na’s sleeping dragon had awakened.

Mao Shiqi let herself be undressed slowly by Yin Na, as he caressed her now-human limbs slowly and tenderly.

“Oh, Xiao Qi,” said Yin Na. Hearing her Master finally call her in such a nonformal, intimate way made her shiver.

“I won’t be fooled,” she thought, as Yin Na began kissing her neck. “I won’t be fooled!”

“Xiao Qi,” Yin Na cried. “Xiao Qi! Master is sorry that he messed up your breakthrough, my heart is wracked with guilt and sorrow for my mistake of giving you ineffective materials and ingredients!”

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They held each other on the forest floor, aside from Yin Na’s brief apology very little words were said. Rather, their bodies communicated their understanding of the other party’s motives and schemes with each movement and eye contact.

“By finally joining our bodies, I am pretending that I longed for your human appearance and your romantic partnership all along.”

“But in actuality, you are simply rewarding me for making the mistake of returning to you.”

“Sure, but why not enjoy it while you can? Do you want me to stop instead?”

“Ugh, you bastard!”

Yin Na teased Mao Shiqi by denying her pleasure, it drove her insane. But then, abruptly out of nowhere he’d resume, causing sweet, rapturous sounds to flow out of Mao Shiqi’s lips.

“Xiao Qi,” Yin Na said. “This is regarding the contract: I swear I will not only continue to assist you in your cultivation journey…I will also rectify my mistakes and help you purify your Foundation sea! Do you agree with this term?”

“O-okay!” Mao Shiqi moaned.

“Xiao Qi,” Yin Na continued. “Master will continue to help you with your human transformation. When you become truly human, Master will marry you, and you will no longer need to call me ‘Master.’ In fact, I will let you call me ‘Yin Na’ from now on!”

“Okay!” Mao Shiqi agreed. “Yes, mas-Yin Na…”

“I am weak, I cannot withdraw you into the Yao Guai living realm within my void ring whenever I feel like it. Do you agree to stay by my side at all times, assisting with my cultivation journey as well, and protect me with your life?”

“I…I don’t know about ‘with my life,’” Mao Shiqi said.

“Very well. Do you agree to stay by my side, assist my cultivation journey and never attempt to kill me either directly or indirectly with the help of another Daoist or Yao Guai?”

“What’s the deadline?”

“The contract will be void if either of us dies.”

“Deal!”

The terms of the contract were vague, but they were all Yin Na needed.

Yin Na and Mao Shiqi stared into each other’s eyes, their fingers interlocked in each other’s hands, and even though Mao Shiqi saw Yin Na feigning passion and empathy in his eyes, she knew Yin Na was ultimately just humoring her. Yin Na knew Mao Shiqi would not be completely fooled by his performance either, but he did not care.

Without warning, Yin Na abruptly stood up.

“Alright, we wasted too much time,” he said. “I was supposed to be long gone, on my way out of the Southern Domain by now, but that battle with Brother Ji Han took several days out of my schedule. His reinforcements might be here any moment now, and I don’t even want to think about any Yellow Fox Sect people somehow catching wind of what happened to their empty auxiliary branch.”

Mao Shiqi could not believe what was happening for a second. She was lying on her clothes laid out in the grass while soaked in sweat, Yin Na’s essence within her.

“Yin Na!” tears sprouted in her eyes, fury rising within her. “You-!”

She felt like something precious was taken from her, that once again Yin Na had outsmarted her right before her eyes.

“Get dressed,” Yin Na snapped. His voice was cold and threatening. “We need to go.”

Yin Na was overly cautious. He did not want to collect too much of Mao Shiqi’s essence, she had a far greater foundation, the consequences were far heavier for him to break the contract than it was for her. Yin Na himself was obliged by the terms of his original contract to feed the Yao Guai army with cultivation materials, while regularly holding lectures. He had given Mao Shiqi extra promises with his contract, which he did not truly intend to fulfill.

Either way, he had ensured that Mao Shiqi would not overtly attempt to betray him or do him harm.

Although he had more qi in his qi reserves after drinking the 1,000 year spirit sap wine, it still cost him a lot to use the void ring. He had to figure which meridians he’d explore and activate later when he got away from this place and into somewhere safe, like Spring Wind Village. He deposited the evil-looking, poisoned dagger into the void ring, while keeping the golden dagger and the 9-yin Treasure Jade Black, putting them into a fresh pair of clothing.

Yin Na was now dressed in a clean-looking hemp shirt with white fabric, and matching pants. He looked like an intelligent martial scholar of humble peasant origin. He had also retrieved from the void ring new clothing for Mao Shiqi.

Mao Shiqi put the clothing on quietly sulking in anger. Although the clothes were washed, she could infer the fate of the original owner of these clothes from the faint smell of blood that her human nose with the strength of a cat’s could still detect on them.

She ditched the assassin pitch-black clothing and wore the traditional dress of a villager from Spring Wind village. Her new headdress bedecked with jewels and beads covered her ears completely. She wrapped her tail down her left leg, which was covered by the long skirt of the dress.

“These clothes aren’t suitable for a martial arts expert,” said Yin Na. “But all the better, it enforces the image of me being your handsome martial arts lover escorting the villager back to her home, no?”

Yin Na gestured for her to hop on the Spicy Oil Boar runt. Mao Shiqi obeyed, and Yin Na quickly jumped after her, sitting snuggly behind her on the saddle.

“While our disguises are good, we’re also going to have to take on aliases. Got any ideas?”

“...”

“I think Lin Haotian 林浩天 sounds good for me, what do you think, Li Jiao Jiao 李娇娇?”

Jing Haotian sounded like a respectable, heroic martial artist name of the Jianghu. It was a good name. As for Mao Shiqi, the “Jiao’s” in her alias referred to the cries of a cat, it was a strange name.

Regardless if Yin Na was mocking her or not, Mao Shiqi cared little for nicknames, especially if they were fake. She made no comment and sulked quietly.

“Okay, Li Jiao Jiao,” smiled Yin Na. “Let’s go home to Spring Wind Village!”

He took one last look at the Golden Treasure Dragon Sword of his mortal enemy Tian Ji Han that he planted so boldly onto the forest floor, and smiled.

The two figures on top of the desolate beast looked charming, like a romantic picture of a Jianghu couple. The goofy martial scholar and his pouting but endearing girlfriend. Who could possibly know that they were demons, who could slaughter people as easily as knife cutting tofu?

Thus Yin Na restarted his cultivation journey by entering the mortal and deadly Jianghu realm as a mere Qi Refining Martial Artist. With a surplus of reserve qi and untapped potential in his unopened meridians that are currently unopened, Yin Na left the Green Valley in high spirits and confidence.

Despite experiencing some delays, Yin Na still managed to leave the Green Bamboo Valley in high spirits, even while improvising a song on his lips!

How were his foes going to feel once they arrive to discover that Tian Ji Han had long been dead and that their mission to rescue him had failed?