Chapter 313: Curse of Affection

Xiao Nanfeng headed into the Yao Pool.

As he took his first steps into the area, golden light surrounded him and pulled him deeper within.

"As expected, something's wrong!" Xiao Nanfeng cried out.

He immediately released his silver moon, forming a domain of moonlight around him. The Divine Emperor suddenly appeared and executed a palm strike.

"Spirit Emperor, you really aren't going to leave us alone, are you?!" she thundered.

Her palm hit the void and shattered the golden light.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Xiao Nanfeng and the Divine Emperor landed by an exquisite lake, one filled with pitch-black water. However, above the surface of the lake floated bright red flowers representing all manner of species: orchids, lotuses, almond blossoms, peach blossoms, and so on. The only common feature they shared was their color.

In addition, there were buildings and pavilions all around the lake, all possessing an elegant and understated beauty. Bright red flowers festooned them, glowing with light and illuminating their surroundings in the same color.

The Divine Emperor's body suddenly tensed up.

Not far from the lake, the Spirit Emperor appeared, dressed in gold. He seemed to have been waiting there for quite some time.

"Divine Emperor, I knew you would come here. Do you see all this? I've gathered this lake of cursed spiritual power for you." The Spirit Emperor smiled.

"What are you trying to pull?" The Divine Emperor looked around at her surroundings with some fear.

"I proposed to you here back then. Today, I plan to do so again. As long as you marry me and complete the unfinished ceremony from back then, my heart will be restored in full. You are the most potent pill I could ingest for handling my mental trauma. Today, let the world know us as husband and wife." The Spirit Emperor smiled confidently.

"Spirit Emperor—are you crazy? Don't you have many concubines? Why are you so obsessed with the Divine Emperor?" Xiao Nanfeng pulled the Divine Emperor behind him.

The Spirit Emperor laughed. "Kid, you don't know anything. Your cultivation's too weak; you're only cultivating the spirit and body for now, not the heart. The heart is the origin of all life. A pure heart can render you invincible; a flaw in your heart would be magnified many times over. Why did I perish during the calamity that struck me and the Divine Emperor down? It was because my heart was incomplete. My flaw is the Divine Emperor. Cultivating the heart will be straightforward to me: if the Divine Emperor marries me and ascends Mt. Wu with me, all will be well. Unfortunately, she's not been cooperative. Demons of the heart have plagued me for countless years, and I have no choice but to take matters into my own hands."

Xiao Nanfeng gave him an odd look, then turned to the Divine Emperor. "Is he crazy because of a mental illness? Or is this normal for cultivators beyond a certain stage?"

The Divine Emperor was silent. She didn't explain things further, but Xiao Nanfeng easily understood from her response that the Spirit Emperor's claim had at least some truth behind it.

"Let Xiao Nanfeng go, and I'll stay to fight with you," the Divine Emperor said coldly.

"Impossible! He's foiled my plans multiple times and even gained your affection. I won't let him live. There's a cursed effigy in that moon of his, isn't there? Unfortunately, it's too weak. That cursed effigy only managed to attack me because I was injured. This time, I'm on my guard, and no one will be able to save him."

"Divine Emperor, don't worry. Didn't you say that his main body is in the Thousand Spirits' Hall? This is only a fragment of his will. We've already taken down two such fragments. What's one more?"

"It's different this time!" the Divine Emperor replied anxiously.

"Kid, don't you see what's different about the Yao Pool? Do you still think you can take me on?" The Spirit Emperor chuckled.

"See what's different? The fact that your subordinate spirits have vanished?" Xiao Nanfeng frowned.

"I've sent them out of the Yao Pool. Only you, me, and the Divine Emperor remain," the Spirit Emperor said.

"It's the red flowers," the Divine Emperor said with exasperation. "There are red flowers everywhere in the vicinity, even within and around my cursed spiritual power. He's transformed the entire domain into a cursed cage. Even my cursed spiritual power has become part of the curse. If I try to reclaim it. I'll be cursed too."

"A cursed cage? What curse?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

"The curse of affection," the Spirit Emperor replied, smiling.

"The curse of affection?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

He had seen the Spirit Emperor use such a curse within the peach orchard, but he still didn't understand it well.

"Don't touch the red flowers. All the red flowers are manifestations of the curse."

"If the curse is the issue, can't we simply kill the fragment of the Spirit Emperor's will here? I'll go!" Xiao Nanfeng swung his blade at the Spirit Emperor.

"Don't!" the Divine Emperor cried out.

However, it was too late. Xiao Nanfeng had already made his move. His blade struck with incredible strength, as though he were trying to kill the Spirit Emperor in just one blow.

The Spirit Emperor smirked and retaliated with a punch.

The punch met the blade in a gust of energy. Red flowers were dislodged from the impact, but mysteriously, they floated toward the two cultivators rather than away.

"Don't you know? The bigger the fuss you make within the domain of the curse, the more it'll affect you. With such a heartfelt attack, you'll surely be stricken by the curse."

The red light was just about to seep into Xiao Nanfeng's body when the Divine Emperor quickly pulled him back and punched forward. A cavity appeared in the wave of approaching red light. She tossed Xiao Nanfeng into the cavity as countless red flowers dove into her body.

"Run!" the Divine Emperor shouted in panic.

"Run? He won't be able to run. He'll have to stay and witness our wedding. I want him to scream his heart and lungs out in pain." The Spirit Emperor sneered, then pulled Xiao Nanfeng back into the domain of the curse.

"Stop it!" the Divine Emperor thundered.

"Wouldn't it be boring if he were to leave? A curse of affection between three people will only produce one true couple. The third person, that odd one out, will go crazy as a result of the curse, torturing himself until he dies. Defeating him in a fight would be too trivial. I'd rather he suffer from the curse. He has to stay behind to witness our wedding, after all, haha!"

"No! Spirit Emperor, I'll die here with you!" the Divine Emperor shouted.

"So what if we do? We're just cursed effigies. We'll regenerate even if we die, and I'm only a fragment of will, after all. I won't be able to die. We'll finally be able to get married now!"

By then, Xiao Nanfeng had been dragged right over to his side. His eyes flashed as he tossed out his purple seal.

"An imperial seal that you haven't fully attuned to? Do you really think this will do anything? If one of your cursed effigies struck, I might have to be a little more careful—but you're hardly that strong on your own." The Spirit Emperor smirked as he struck at the seal with a palm.

However, the moment his palm struck the seal, he blanched. "Something's wrong. What sort of imperial seal is this!?"

The purple seal suddenly grew larger and trapped the Spirit Emperor beneath him. With a huge bang, the Spirit Emperor was smashed to pieces and left countless flames in his wake.

"What?!" the Divine Emperor, rushing over, exclaimed in surprise.

Just then, because Xiao Nanfeng had been too aggressive, a large cloud of flowers rushed into his body.

Xiao Nanfeng radiated with red light.

"The Spirit Emperor's fragment of will wasn't that strong after all. See?"

"What's this purple seal? That fragment of will was just about as strong as I am. How could this purple seal have caused him to explode?" the Divine Emperor exclaimed.

"Don't you know where I got this seal?" Xiao Nanfeng asked in surprise.

"You never told me."

Xiao Nanfeng blinked. That was true. He hadn't ever explained the source of the divine purple rock to the Divine Emperor.

Red flowers continued to swarm their bodies. They glowed with red light.

"Divine Emperor, I feel something amiss. Are these flowers guiding the curse of affection toward me? What will happen? What might go wrong?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

The Divine Emperor watched Xiao Nanfeng in silence. She suddenly had the notion that she wouldn't much mind being trapped in a curse of affection with Xiao Nanfeng.

"I feel uncomfortable all over!" Xiao Nanfeng cried out. He immediately sat cross-legged in meditation.

The Divine Emperor didn't waste her breath talking, either. She too did the same.

The two cultivators reached a meditative state quickly. Their bodies brimmed with red light, and the light emanating from their bodies seemed to be linked. The disparate sources of energy tangled together.

Suddenly, Xiao Nanfeng shook his head. He seemed to have arrived in a world filled with seas of flowers. In the middle of one such sea, he could see a tall, curvaceous woman with a pair of long legs. She looked beautiful, her hair scattered behind her shoulders, her white neck like jade, her collarbones exquisite, her features fine and pert.

The woman blushed faintly red as she walked over, affection in her eyes.

Xiao Nanfeng was in an unusual state. He had forgotten who he was. All he could sense was the desire in his heart. When he saw the woman, he felt an unusual sense of familiarity, as though she were his destined lover in life. He was unable to resist his impulses of love.

He hugged the woman before him. The two cultivators locked eyes, their identities forgotten. All that remained was their affection. Xiao Nanfeng reached forward and kissed the woman in the lead.

Just then, both cultivators' mental strength seemed to have risen considerably.

Xiao Nanfeng felt as though he were having a dream. Within the dream, he had forgotten everything but the beauty before him.

In reality, Xiao Nanfeng and the Divine Emperor's physical bodies were still seated cross-legged. As all the red flowers filled their bodies, the red light around their head intensified and linked as though they were sharing the same dream.

Within Xiao Nanfeng's mindscape, the black lotus formed some text with black light. "He really is lucky, isn't he? He managed to take full advantage of the Spirit Emperor's planning. The curse of affection strikes at the very heart. What a pity! I want to have a look, but I can't sense them in a dreamscape. I've only heard of the curse of affection in the past, and I never saw it for myself.Superior Yin Pearl, do you know what'll happen?

The aloof superior yin pearl didn't respond to the black lotus.