‘How did things end up like this again…?’ Mikael mused inwardly as he watched Yulan’s seduction continue, the rest of her group watching her, mortified.

His gaze passed from the fairy seducing him, landing on Bai Qiang and Bai Wenjie. ‘Wasn’t this supposed to be a dangerous moment where I’d need to bluff my way out? How did it come to something… like this?’ He gave the group of four a quick glance before returning to Bai Qiang and Bai Wenjie.

‘The two guys… they could potentially become aggressive if they discover how bad my current condition is, but this is honestly pretty improbable with their current attitude. As for the girls…’

His gaze fell on Lifen, who was playing with one of her twin-tails while occasionally looking at Yulan with despair. Occasionally, she would throw a glance toward Mikael before quickly diverting her eyes away.

His gaze then moved to Yulan, who was standing not far from him, using her charm to seduce him in an adorably clumsy way—he’d admit. ‘I think the chance of them attacking me is nearly non-existent. Hell, this Bai Yulan would probably be happy to nurse me back to health or something!’

As he had this thought, his expression instantly became strange. Fortunately, he was able to mask it before anyone noticed, the next moment Yulan's voice brought him out of his musing.

“They say a single gaze from a fairy can tempt even the coldest hearts… Tell me, did I make yours skip a beat?”

“Yes…” He took a small pause—just long enough to let a victorious smile appear on Yulan’s visage—before continuing, “It’s chilly after all,” he said, rubbing his naked torso.

Yulan’s gaze was attracted to his toned, bare chest as she gulped, freezing. But then she processed what he had said, and angrily tapped her foot on the ground while puffing her cheeks. “Not fair… I thought I was getting the hang of it…” she murmured the last part in a low voice, but Mikael was a cultivator, of course he heard it.

“Now you truly made my heart skip a beat with your aggrieved look, which is just too cute,” he declared, giving her a teasing smile.

Yulan froze for a moment before her entire face reddened like a tomato. She looked toward the ground, fidgeting with her fingers, and began to murmur incoherently, “Yeah, i-it’s true after all… I… cute so it’s normal… you fell for me… falling for me… normal after all I… femme fatale.”

Seeing her dazed rambling, Mikael was amused and wanted to continue teasing her—but at that moment, he realized something. ‘Why do I take the time to flirt with her?’ His gaze fell on Yulan. ‘Sure, she’s a beauty, but in my current state wouldn’t it be more logical to try to find a way to have them leave? That way I’d be safe.’

‘They may currently look harmless, but in my current condition I’m essentially defenseless if even one of them decides to attack! In this case, wouldn’t it be safer to just find a way to make them leave?’

He gave the group of four another quick glance before returning to Yulan. ‘I could say it’s because flirting is the best way to temporize, allowing me to recuperate without danger, but… this would be a lie. The reason I do it is…’

He introspected for an instant before finding the response in his heart. ‘It’s because this is what I want to do!?’

For a moment he didn’t understand, but then he mentally repeated it. ‘It’s what I want to do.

‘Want to do.’

‘Want to do!’

Each time he repeated it, his eyes lit up further as he understood. ‘I see, it’s simply because I want to do it. Not because it’s the most optimal path, but because this is what I want…’

‘This is the difference… I see. Now I understand!’

Just as he had this ‘revelation,’ Mikael’s attention was brought back to reality by something Yulan said. Following that, he resumed his flirt-mixed conversation with her—to the black-haired beauty’s great joy.

After a while spent talking, Yulan suddenly thought of something and began to guide the conversation in a ‘sneaky’ way to include her sister.

In this way, under Yulan’s ‘sneaky’ machination, Lifen was also brought into the conversation. Lifen protested verbally, ‘not’ wanting to intrude, but after a while she couldn’t bear her sister’s obvious efforts—especially not the amused smirk that Mikael sent her way—so she adopted a “I don’t care anymore” attitude.

Of course, that’s what she told herself, but the truth… was probably different. Because even as she complained, she seemed oddly interested in talking with Mikael. And even when she offered what could be classified as occasional tsundere replies, she still remained deeply invested.

Oddly enough, she was especially interested when, after a while, the conversation’s light flirt switched to Mikael’s rather unique clothing choices. Or more precisely, the fact he didn’t have an upper robe.

At that moment, Mikael let out an annoyed sigh before launching into a detailed explanation of how his upper robe had been destroyed some days ago during an attack by a type of demonic beast he’d never seen before.

The attack had shredded his robe in a way that he don’t know how, made it so that it couldn’t be repaired. Even when he tried using his Qi, the cloth didn’t mend, it was permanently damaged. And since he hadn’t bought any other taoist robes, he was stuck shirtless… at least until he returned to his sect.

This topic led to Yulan innocently asking about his sect, which Mikael then explained, along with his current status. Of course, that revelation hadn’t been made on a whim. No, it had come only after thinking it through carefully.

After weighing the fact that the Stillwater Palace and the Wandering Sword Sect weren’t enemies, revealing his status might give him an additional layer of protection if they sensed his weakened state.

Up till now, the conversation had been going well, and honestly, he didn’t think that either Bai Yulan or Bai Lifen would attack him. Both clearly had crushes—if he used a modern term—on him.

As for the two men, who now sat meters away chatting while occasionally throwing glances at the trio?

Attacks from them were also improbable. He had caught subtle signs that the two seemed subservient toward the girls—not in the way of lackeys to a boss. No, their relationship seemed closer than that.

From what he observed, their dynamic was more in line with cousins, with the female cousins holding slightly higher status. So the male cousins, unconsciously, placed more weight on their opinions.

Considering all that, him being attacked had an extremely low probability, but it never hurt to be cautious. Of course, this didn’t mean that Mikael was manipulating Yulan and Lifen by flirting with them to be safe—in reality, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Mikael was simply doing what he wanted.

And what he wanted was to flirt with the two beautiful ladies who were obviously attracted to him. Even if Lifen seemed determined to play the tsundere while the other played the femme fatale, their attraction toward him was so obvious that even a blind man would have noticed. So someone as sharp as Mikael?

He noticed, and he didn’t hesitate to flirt with both sisters at the same time—even in his still weakened state, which, although improved since the beginning of his interaction with the group of Core Disciples, was still awful. Awful to the point that even talking was painful. But so what?

It was just a little bit of pain.

Mikael didn’t even compute it. He automatically ignored it, not caring even when a lesser man would have wished for death to escape a pain so intense. So continuing to talk, even through the pain?

It was something unthinkable for a more ‘normal’ man—but Mikael was anything but normal. He simply endured it without showing a single sign or caring about the unimaginable pain coursing through his body each time he spoke.

In this way, the conversation between the three of them continued. After a while had passed and they’d all grown more familiar, Yulan suddenly remembered that Bai Qiang and Bai Wenjie were, in truth, not statues, and actually existed.

Hitting her forehead with her palm, producing a loud smacking sound, she quickly rose from her position and dragged Bai Qiang and Bai Wenjie along before once again presenting them to Mikael and integrating them into the conversation.

At that moment, Lifen wanted to facepalm like her sister had moments ago—but for an entirely different reason. She had, of course, noticed her cousins a while ago. She wasn’t an airhead like her sister, after all. Even then, she hadn’t brought them into the conversation.

The reason?

She wasn’t self-sabotaging like her sister! She was having a flirt-mixed conversation with her crus, someone that didn’t interest her at all, so of course she didn’t want to include her cousins in it. It would entirely ruin the mood!

Which would be an extremely self-sabotaging action, and she was proven right when, in the following minutes, the mood changed entirely from flirty to a normal conversation between the five of them.

Seeing this, Lifen could only helplessly sigh while giving her sister a reproachful glance. But when the latter returned a clueless look, she let out another helpless sigh. ‘A true femme fatale, I don’t doubt…’

It was on that note that the moment quietly passed, and time slipped away in silence.

***

Two days later.

With an effortless motion, Mikael rose from his current seated position, Sangrelia at his waist—after all, he couldn’t put her on his back as his upper robes were destroyed. As for using his Divine Sense to make her float and ‘carry’ her on his back?

Forget it, it’s far too tiring, especially in his current condition.

With an obsidian black longsword emanating a bloodthirsty aura and with his still naked upper chest, Mikael emanated an aura of power and wildness. He was a ‘bad boy’ that some girls found impossible to resist.

Gulp.

Both sisters gulped at this scene, showing that the effect of the ‘bad boy type’ was pretty efficient on both of them. Even after two days together, they were still affected by the scene—but at this moment, they didn’t care much, a certain sadness plaguing the air.

Yulan lowered her head slightly, a faint gloom clinging to her like mist. Her lips formed a subtle pout, and her voice carried a quiet sadness. “Mikael… do you really have to leave today? Couldn’t you stay with us a little longer?”

Mikael offered a quiet sigh before looking upward at the sky that was now a beautiful blue, the previous storm having entirely disappeared like it was never here. “You know how it is, I was waiting for the storm to go away but now that it’s gone I need to leave.”

“Yeah…” sadly murmured Yulan.

Lifen looked at her sister, exasperated, before fiercely glaring at Mikael. “Dummy, stop saying things like that! My sister is an airhead so she won’t remember what you said yesterday and would believe it. Also the boys aren’t here, so no need to lie to us.”

Yeah, they knew he was lying—because two days ago the excuse he gave for wanting to stay at his current location was that he was waiting for the storm to pass. After all, he couldn’t stay; he was critically injured and recovering.

But after a while, the urge to keep this lie began to pass. With him continuing to flirt/talk with the girls—the cousins having left, understanding that they were the fourth and fifth wheels—it began to feel like it was leaving a bad taste in his mouth to lie on that point when he was having a pleasant ‘discussion’ with the girls.

Consequently, he followed what his heart said, and without caring about the potential consequence, he directly revealed the truth. He knew that it could have unfavorable consequence for him, but if the worst happened, he would… simply live with it, that’s all.

💬Got Thoughts? I read every comment, and your words genuinely shape Mikael’s path.

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A/N:

The flirt continue and it was really hard to write, at least at the start but after a while I think I somewhat got the hang of it and it wasn’t as bad neither in end result neither in the time it took me to write it.

At the same time we can see Mikael's actions beginning to change, becoming more reckless in a way but at the same time they become more true, as he follow his heart and do what he want, in the following chapters we can expect Mikael attitude changing, at least this is what I will try to write but whether I will succeed?

This is to be seen, hope you liked the chapter and the result was where I was aiming toward.

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📚 Chapters ahead await on Patreon: www./SDASLUMMY

⭐ A single rating or follow helps more than you’d expect. 

Glad you’re walking this path with me.

— End of Chapter —