The Sorceress: Blossoming Power

As Nianshi pulled her from his head, Xinyi shouted, "What are…," but before she knew it, the dragon flung her on the air while saying, "Catch your wife, Governor."

"Ahh, No!!" Before Xinyi could voice her protest, two strong arms received her and her face hit Ming's steady chest and her hand involuntarily wrapped around his neck to keep her body from falling. And that familiar fresh pine scent entered her nose again.

"Gotcha!" said Ming, whatever the single word suggested, only Ming knew. The stallion flew under Ming and he straddled on the stallion's back with no difficulty. He positioned her with her legs on one side of the horse, while a hand rounded her waist pressing her tight on his front and the other held the horse's reins.

Xinyi slowly looked up to him and her shock heightened when she saw his expression. But she blinked several times first to make sure her vision didn't fail her. Yet, same as before, she saw his face beaming with delight with his heart-stopping smile. She never expected to see him smiling silly, and it made her heartbeat drumming unsteady. Also, his cute dimples were like a magnet keeping her from looking away.

Her hand touched her chest and moved back a bit from him as she felt the hard pounding of her heart. 'What is wrong with me?'

While Ming let his mount fly away in a hurry, believing the dragon had something dangerous to do that's why he entrusted Xinyi to him. Somehow… his eyes did not leave her face. They sat together… staring at each other while the flying horse soared in the blue sky. Time seemed to stop for them at this very moment.

Xinyi suddenly sensed a strong emotion from Nianshi and turned her head to check on what her dragon was up to this time, while the flying stallion brought them far but enough for them to view the dragon's move with clarity.

Everyone present heard whooshing, howling, and whirring sounds as the dragon flew around the whole hectare of miasma with a speed of a raging whirlwind... and getting faster until a n.a.k.e.d eye could only see thick white lights circling in great momentum and becoming smaller toward the center.

Nianshi gathered the dark ominous gas toward the center, giving the snake not a second to react or strike. When all the miasma were already in the middle, he breathed out a cold wind without wasting a second and enclosed the poisonous mist and the snake in a transparent ball.

After the dust settled, what they saw was a black ball, while the dragon flapped his wings beside it. But Xinyi felt strong hate from the snake. "Be careful, Nianshi," she said as she watched with horror on what would take place next.

"Thud! Thud! Awwng!! Nggg!!! Thud!!!"

They heard loud cries of the snake and thumping noises as the snake's body pounded on the sturdy wall of the ball but couldn't even scratch it. Then red liquid splattered on the wall as the snake continued rampaging. Later the noise weakened until the whole atmosphere became still.

Silence…

Only the rustles of Nianshi's wings entered their ears. They all looked down, waiting for what would come next.

"What happened to the snake? Send me back to my dragon," said Xinyi as she tried loosening Ming's hand from her.

"No, we need to talk first," he said as he held her tighter.

"What's to talk about? There's nothing to talk about. Bring me down and stop hugging me," she said as she tried to wriggle out from his hold.

"Stop squirming, wife. You're only causing a scene. Look… my men are watching us…" The last statement made Xinyi obey and glanced around. Indeed, the guards' focus was on them. She was not used to be the center of attraction and afraid to be ridiculed so she gave up and sat in silence, for now.

"Let's wait for a while, for a signal from your dragon." What Ming said was true, but unknown to the wife, he had another selfish motive, to keep her in his arms as long as possible. He did all these without even realizing the extent of his actions; that he was implying to the male spectators that he was a possessive husband. However...

"I, too, would be possessive if I have such a pretty and a talented beast tamer as a wife," Zang Wei and the other guards said to their pitiful selves while looking at the two newly wedded couple's intimate sitting position.

Beast taming was a famous luxurious job sought by kingdoms… and the price varied according to the type and difficulty of taming the beast. So, if the Governor's wife tamed a mythical lion dragon, that only meant she was a trophy wife awarded by the king to their new governor through the imperial edict. If that is so, then, perhaps, their governor was someone of great importance to the king. The guards' eyes lit with pride thinking about this.

However, for Xinyi, he was nothing but a jerk who acted totally out of character. 'Damn this man. Why is he getting chummy now? He doesn't want me so why is holding me this tight? He even tossed me away before.' Her eyes scanned the area for any huge animal she could ask for help but she couldn't even see one.

Suddenly, Xinyi felt the agitation of both Nianshi and the snake and diverted her attention back to the scene below. She saw Nianshi exhaled two more rounds of cold air and formed two more layers on the ball. It seemed he knew the snake would make its last attempt to break out and to annihilate his attackers.

The snake suddenly hissed and cried a high-pitched sound which broke the inner wall and penetrated a crack on the last wall... but that's just that. It ended its life with this suicidal act.

"Is it over?" shouted Xinyi to Nianshi.

"Yes, it's dead," replied the dragon.

"Can I go to you now?" asked Xinyi but already preparing her next plan.

"Yes, you can come down now," replied Nianshi.

With no warning, she used all her strength to jerk Ming's hand from her and jumped down from the horse. "Nianshi, catch me," yelled Xinyi.

"What?" Ming exclaimed, caught unprepared and tried to reach her but failed since Xinyi fell fast downward. "Kuaisu," shouted Ming. The horse had already moved before his master's command and swooped down tripled his usual speed to let Ming catch her. While Nianshi, as the Sorceress' mount, naturally stood and looked up to catch her as she descended fast nearer to him.

However, Ming threw a smoke screen on Nianshi, partly blurring the dragon's eyes from seeing her. "Yes!" This gave Ming the chance to catch her in his arms again and proudly said, "Nice try, wife." Then he pulled the reins and let the horse fly its fastest away from there.

"Nooo!?!" shouted Xinyi.