Before he even realized it, Li Lanhao had slapped the Blood Demon Empress dozens of times, to the point where even his hand, as a Tianwu Master, was glowing red.
Looking down at Wusha crying on the ground, Li Lanhao's gaze softened, and he felt a pang of reluctance. Yet he knew he could not afford to be soft-hearted; he had to slap her into submission, otherwise this woman's stubborn nature would bring her endless misery wherever she went.
"Beast, do you submit or not?"
"Sob, sob, sob... I do not submit! This Empress does not submit! If you have the guts, kill me instead of humiliating me. If you spare me today, I swear I will hunt you to the ends of the earth!"
*Slap! Slap! Slap!*
Three more slaps landed.
"Ah—! Li Lanhao... let me go! Do you even know who this Empress is?"
*Slap! Slap! Slap!*
"You really are stubborn to a fault. Is admitting defeat that hard?"
"You... sob... to think that I, the peerless Blood Demon Empress of my generation, an undefeated God of War with never a single loss, should be reduced to such an end today! Sob... I won't submit! This Empress refuses to submit!"
Wusha struggled desperately, weeping and shouting with every ounce of strength she had left. Crystal-clear tears streamed like a little brook from her phoenix-like eyes. This time, she was truly heartbroken and plunged into despair.
Li Lanhao's head spun in confusion. What on earth was this woman babbling about?
"What Blood Demon Empress? Never heard of it. And what undefeated God of War? You're just full of boasts. Do you have any idea how powerful the peak of the Tianwu Continent truly is? Let me put it to you this way: take that pillar of red light from fifteen days ago, for instance. That was definitely a top-tier powerhouse breaking through to the ultimate realm. You must have witnessed that world-shattering might back in the Snowy Wasteland!"
Wusha felt even more thoroughly and utterly hopeless. Clearly, explaining anything was utterly pointless. How could anyone on the Tianwu Continent possibly know of the legends of the Tianmo Continent?
Yet, surrender and beg for mercy? Hmph! As an Empress of her generation, that was absolute impossibility. Even if this shameless junior beat her to death, she would never lower herself to beg for mercy.
"Sob... Li Lanhao... you'll die a horrible death! If you don't finish off this Empress, I, the Blood Demon Empress, will make sure you... make sure not even your bones remain, and your soul is scattered to the winds!"
"It seems you still haven't learned your lesson. Today, if I don't slap that fine ass of yours until you admit your mistake, my name isn't Li Lanhao!"
Clearly, Li Lanhao and Wusha were locked in a stubborn standoff.
*Slap, slap, slap...*
"Ah, sob..."
After several hundred more slaps, the thick snow piled on the surrounding mountain col finally gave way under the harsh, echoing impacts.
Suddenly—
*Rumble, rumble!*
A series of deafening roars surged from all directions. The earth trembled, the boundless mountains suffered a continuous chain of avalanches, the high plateau seemed to split apart, and snow danced wildly across the sky.
Li Lanhao, bouncing up and down astride Wusha's waist, raised his right hand, frozen mid-air before delivering another blow, completely dumbfounded.
How on earth could a good ol' butt-slapping session trigger an avalanche? Had he gone just a teeny-tiny bit too hard? Or was he crossing a line here?
Beneath Li Lanhao, Wusha stopped crying. All her feelings of bitter resentment were swept away by the magnificent sight of the avalanche. Her mind went completely blank as well.
*Rumble, rumble!*
Dust filled the sky and rocks flew in all directions. Fortunately, the immediate area where Wusha and Li Lanhao were located was spared the brunt of the avalanche—a stroke of sheer luck!
...
After a long while, the avalanche finally subsided. A dusting of cold snowflakes sprinkled over both of them. Li Lanhao raised his hand, just about to continue slapping Wusha's invincible, peerlessly beautiful backside.
Suddenly, the fellow noticed that the fierce beauty who claimed to be an Empress was lying utterly still in the snow, neither making a fuss nor crying. For some reason, he felt he might have gone a bit too far, yet he had no idea how to comfort Wusha.
At that moment, Wusha's inner defenses had completely collapsed. Too weak to resist, she simply gave up struggling. She hated Li Lanhao to her very core; she hated him for snatching the Ice Ridge Eagle, and she hated him for ending the undefeated myth of her legendary life.
Wusha hated him for slapping her bottom hundreds of times, and she swore to survive. Once she recovered her health and regained a fraction of her strength, she would return this humiliation a thousand- or ten-thousandfold, making him wish he were dead.
Staring at Wusha's back, Li Lanhao found himself momentarily dazed. Feeling a strange discomfort in his posture, he swung a leg over and straddled her properly. Then, deciding the distance was still too close, he shifted his weight and settled firmly onto her backside. Instantly, he found it immensely comfortable—countless times better than any chair in the world, soft and with infinite bounce. It was absolute bliss.
Wusha felt a sharp wave of intense pain bloom across her backside, but she bit her lip and held back her voice.
Even with the formidable physical constitution of the Tiger Demon Queen, enduring hundreds of slaps in a state of extreme weakness, followed by someone sitting squarely on top of her—the fact that she managed to keep quiet was already remarkable.
Finding his view much improved, Li Lanhao reached out to brush away Wusha's disheveled hair, and even tied a few strips of cloth around her horned forehead—oh wait, weren't those horns the ones he had accidentally smashed into her head with a rock?
*Gurgle, gurgle...*
Suddenly, a strange sound broke the silence. Li Lanhao blinked in confusion for a moment before snapping back to reality. With a mixture of apprehension and hesitation, he spoke up.
"Hey, beautiful beast... are... are you feeling hungry?"
How could Wusha possibly deign to answer him? She wished she could slaughter him on the spot! According to the traditions of the Tiger Demon Clan, a tigress could only ever let her husband touch her backside. Any other man who dared touch her...
Either he dies or... wait! But just now, this shameless little thief hadn't just touched it—he had beaten it and even used her bottom as a stool! Was this Empress supposed to marry him just because she got beaten up? Absolutely not! She had to kill him with her own hands.
Li Lanhao felt as though he were talking to the air, but Wusha's visibly weak state made it obvious she was completely exhausted and lacking strength. Without further ado, Li Lanhao rummaged through his Spatial Ring, pulled out an expired, hardened white wheat pancake, and casually handed it over.
"Here. Do you want this pancake? It's just a bit hard to swallow—alternating bites of snow and pancake helps ease the hunger."
Wusha was starved out of her mind. The moment she heard the word "food," her head snapped up. She snatched the pancake in one hand, took a close look, and instantly felt a blazing rage erupting from the depths of her soul.
"Accursed little thief! Do you really think humiliating the Blood Demon Empress by slapping her backside isn't enough, that you now dare to mock this Empress with a mere stone?!"
"Th... this is a pancake! It's just hardened because it's been too long..."
"You'll die a wretched death! I, Wusha, swear as I live that I will never rest until I kill you!"
Wusha was so furious she felt ready to breathe fire, followed immediately by a crushing wave of despair, loss, and heartbreak. Her delicate fingers loosened, and the pancake tumbled into the snow. In all her three hundred-plus years of life, this was the first time she had ever heard of a stone being edible.
"If you won't eat it, I will!"
Li Lanhao felt somewhat displeased. Finding even a single wild creature across the boundless snowfields for dozens of days was nearly impossible, and this pancake was his only hope of survival. Yet this ungrateful creature dared to turn her nose up at it!
*Crunch, crunch.*
Sitting upon her living cushion, Li Lanhao exerted every ounce of strength to chew through the stale pancake, alternating bites of snow and pastry. Under the circumstances, it tasted utterly delicious.
Lying on the ground, Wusha drooped as saliva pooled in her mouth, forced to grab handfuls of white snow just to stave off her hunger.
"So, beast, sure you don't want a bite?"
"Hmph, little thief. Careful you don't choke and die on that rock."
"This is a pancake, not a rock!"
"Get lost!"
"Sigh, we really have delayed too long. Time to hit the road. How about this, beautiful beast—how about I carry you out of the Snowy Wasteland?"
"Get lost, shameless junior! You remember this, this Empress will hunt you to the ends of the earth! As long as I draw a single breath, I will grind your bones to dust and scatter you to the winds!"
Too lazy to argue further with Wusha, Li Lanhao finished off the last of the pancake a moment later and abruptly stood up.
He was entirely speechless when it came to this suicidal beast. He had been kind enough to offer to lead her out of the Snowy Wasteland, yet she was still swearing oaths to kill him?
He thought it over for a moment. *Sigh, forget it! Leaving her here to fend for herself is for the best. Rather than dragging her out of the Snowy Wasteland only to cultivate a powerful enemy for himself, he might as well let nature take its course!*