Tales of Destiny Snake and Spider 2

This was a highly inefficient study thod.

The task at hand would have been completed by now in proper workshop conditions, with full access to tools and reference docunts. Yet, Bao Qingling had found that efficiency had found its place on her internal priorities list usurped in recent days.

Under specific circumstances only, naturally.

Said circumstance spoke. “Hm, what do you think? I had thought this design acceptable, but as we saw, the results were not as desired.”

The movent of Bai izhen’s hands caused a shift in the weight on Bao Qingling’s lap, and sent a tingle up her spine. They hung together above the workshop, in a hammock of thick webbing. She was not yet wholly certain how she had been convinced of this. She might have suspected so hypnotic Bai art, however she had already thoroughly tested herself for external ntal influences. It had been expensive.

This madness was internal.

Bai izhen glanced back at her, the dim glow of her eye’s standing out from the blurred colors of the dim workshop and her own pale silhouette. Her weight was light on Bao Qingling’s legs, and her gown was soft and smooth. The typical heat of contact between human bodies was muted. It seed that Bai ran several degrees cooler than baseline.

Bao Qingling glanced at Bai izhen’s hands, and the web of glimring qi spread between them. In the physical realm, it was a shimring sheet of pale pink toxin. This mixture was drawn from the Dreamspinner Spider, the Skull Lotus, and Bai izhen’s internal venom reserve. The purpose of the venom was interrogation, disrupting a captured enemies senses and thoughts such that useful information extraction was possible.

The test subject spirit beasts had suffered severe aneurysms and spiritual hemorrhaging, then death.

“Well?” Bai izhen asked.

“It is not a matter of potency or dosage,” Bao Qingling replied. For one irritating second, she hesitated before reaching over Bai izhen’s shoulder to trace the shimring web of qi that made up the effect in the liquid. “My asurents were correct.”

“So it was my error?” Bai izhen asked archly. She shifted in her seating, and Bao Qingling had to make an effort for her breath not to hitch.

“Yes,” she replied bluntly, jabbing a finger into a glowing crimson strand of toxicity. The pulse of qi sent ripples through the rest of the structure. “The intersection between the Skull Lotus’ narcotic effect and the Dreamspinner’s spiritual projection effect converged to damage the binding between the subjects spirit and flesh. Total identity degradation was inevitable.”

“I had not considered that a point of failure,” Bai izhen admitted. Bao Qingling held back a twitch as Bai izhen leaned back, resting against her chest.

“It isn’t necessarily,” Bao Qingling grunted, lowering her hand. She paused for a second, and instead of bringing it back to her side, she let her palm rest on Bai izhen’s leg. “The effect is rely too quick.”

Much like what had been happening over the course of the last few weeks.

Bao Qingling had been aware of her own proclivities. She had simply deed them irrelevant. She was no backwater idiot or hand wringing conservative who imagined that sa sex relations were a thing of story and myth. One had to live under a particularly large rock to do so under the court of Duchess Cai.

Which explained so of her kin certainly.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The issue was the girl in her lap. Bao Qingling had never prepared to actually act on her interests. Indeed, she had assud that she would remove the troubleso things during the course of her cultivation. Bao Qingling regarded her eventual marital relations as a thing to be avoided at best, and tolerated at worst. Maintaining an additional relationship should have been an intolerable interference in her ti.

At first, she had tried to convince herself that it was her… companions’ status, that rejecting her advance would be dangerous.

However, such a lie could not hold.

For the first ti since she had reached the third realm, Bao Qingling wondered what in the world she was doing.

***

Not for the first ti, Bai izhen wondered what in the world she was doing.

Sohow, the heat of Bao Qingling’s hand on her thigh felt like a brand. Why were outsiders so very overheated!

She knew that her choices were deeply improper. While there was no shortage of stories in which extramarital affairs were alluded to or outright depicted, the fact remained that she was risking significant status, for both herself and her lo-paramour. She was no Cai Shenhua or Bai Guzhen, too mighty by far to be affected by a faux paus such as this.

She shifted again, trying to get comfortable. Bai izhen had no idea what had possessed her to make such an embarrassing suggestion. She could only bla the silly storybook scenarios that persisted in the back of her mind. As usual, reality fell short. Bao Qingling’s legs were not the most comfortable seat. She had rather bony knees, it turned out.

Although, the softness on which she rested her head was pleasant. Bao Qingling hid a significant endownt beneath her shapeless smocks. Bai izhen felt heat rise in her cheeks as she wondered, briefly if she could convince her to wear sothing more fitting.

Only in private, naturally.

“Yes, the breakdown is far too swift,” Bai izhen said, valiantly turning her thoughts back to the sheet of venom suspended between her hands. “Interrogation requires ti. I am uncertain how to weaken the degrading effect without reducing the actual efficacy of the venom.”

“I would suggest testing different ratios of Dreamspinner venom,” Bao Qingling said gruffly. It was a consolation that Bao Qingling seed uncertain as well. It would not do otherwise.

“Ah, it is partially a digestive, isn’t it,” Bai izhen mused. “I desired for their sense of self to be damaged, so that my venom could act as a dium for influence, but if the information sought is damaged as well, it’s rather useless.”

Bao Qingling gave a grunt of agreent. Bai izhen began to draw the water suspended between her fingers back into the container in her sleeve.

“...Why did you suggest this?” Bao Qingling said gruffly, and Bai izhen stiffened. “You didn’t need my advice for sothing so simple.”

Bai izhen was silent, and she felt her cheeks heating further, of course Bao Qingling would not be wholly fooled by such a charade.

“I had thought you would be more anable if we were to do sothing productive,” Bai izhen said softly.

To be able to touch soone for an extended length of ti was the height of trust and intimacy. It was sothing shared only between parents and children and between lovers. She… Bai izhen could only rember a bare handful of such instances, after Mother had died.

The kindness of the old servant who had inford her of mothers death, allowing her to weep into his robe.

Aunt Suzhen’s hand, ruffling her hair in pride after she had spoken to Cui for the first ti.

Grandfather allowing her to hug him after her first kill.

In her heart, she had always wanted more.

“My apologies for the deception,” Bai izhen said.

There was silence for a mont, and Bai izhen squeezed her eyes shut. She was always making mistakes. She began to get up.

She almost started as she felt Bao Qingling arms encircle her waist, halting her movent.

“It’s fine, this is fine,” Bao Qingling said gruffly. “I don’t dislike this.”

Bai izhen huffed, hiding her smile behind her sleeve. “Truly great praise.”

She settled herself. Bony knees weren’t really so terrible.