The air inside the cave was so still you could hear a pin drop. It was Tian Yan. Her face still carried a faint, sickly flush. Presumably, the aphrodisiac poison of the Beguiling Sakura Flower had yet to fully leave her body, and the injury from Wang Yuchu’s final attack before they entered the illusion did not seem to have healed either.
There was a tear at the side of her pale-red palace dress, revealing a slender waist, fair and luminous as jade.
Several breaths passed in dead silence.
“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Tian Yan smiled. Her voice sounded cool and calm.
The instant Xu Yuan heard it, a chill crept up his spine, like the eerie stillness before a storm. After a brief silence, he looked at her and replied, “If I said you were, would you leave?”
The hand hidden beneath the sleeve of her palace dress clenched slightly. The young woman curved her eyes into a smile. “No.”
“Then why ask? Pointless.” Xu Yuan smiled faintly. “You’re not interrupting. Sit.”
He took a skewer of boar meat off the campfire, the fat still sizzling and dripping. “Here. For you. Didn’t you want some too?”
Tian Yan did not take it. She merely stared at him with a cold smile, saying nothing.
Xu Yuan held the skewer out for a few seconds. Seeing that Tian Yan still had no intention of accepting it, and having no desire to humor her temper, he simply pulled his hand back and began eating it himself.
The porcupine meat skewer had just the right balance of fat and lean. One bite gave way to a crisp, charred outside and tender flesh within, while the unique numbing fragrance of the spices spread across his tongue.
Mhm. If you want some, just take it yourself.” Xu Yuan said lightly. Then he glanced at Ran Qingmo. “Put your sword away.”
With a gloomy little face, Tian Yan gathered up the hem of her palace dress and sat down on a large rock to the side.
Silence spread through the cave once more.
Ran Qingmo laid her sword flat across her lap, her eyes fixed warily on Tian Yan.
Xu Yuan quietly ate his meat skewer.
Tian Yan sat nearby, her gaze sweeping over the two of them with open hostility.
After enough time had passed to finish one skewer, Xu Yuan wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth with an embroidered handkerchief. Then he glanced at Tian Yan and smiled. “How did you find this place?”
Tian Yan stared at him. Instead of answering, she asked him a question of her own, each word deliberate. “Xu Changtian, you don’t seem nervous at all.”
Xu Yuan thought about it for a moment, then smiled back. “Why should I be nervous? If I’m nervous, will you leave?”
Tian Yan’s beautiful eyes narrowed slightly. “No.”
That was the second time.
Xu Yuan gave a barefaced shrug. “In that case, why should I be nervous? Life has to go on. Might as well take things as they come. At least that way, you suffer a little less.”
Tian Yan lightly bit the corner of her lip. Hearing him speak in that familiar tone, saying those familiar words, she was seized by the urge to twist this bastard’s head clean off.
Seeing that she remained silent, Xu Yuan paused for a second, glanced toward the cave entrance, and asked in a low voice, “There’s no way you could have found us on your own. My guess is that, in the end, you still borrowed outside help.”
“Outside help?” The hand hidden beneath the girl’s sleeve clenched so hard her knuckles creaked. “What outside help?”
“Demonic beasts.”
“Demonic beasts?” Tian Yan frowned.
Xu Yuan stared at Tian Yan for several breaths, then said quietly,
“Stop pretending. Earlier, when that Ji Qingyue came to kill me while Ran Qingmo was carrying me off, that was your Heavenwatch Pavilion’s doing, wasn’t it?”
Tian Yan fell silent.
Xu Yuan shook his head lightly. “At first, I thought you were just guiding them by taking advantage of the situation. But now it seems you must have some kind of cooperative relationship. Otherwise, there’s no way demonic beasts would help you track us down.”
Tian Yan’s chest began to rise and fall slightly. After a long while, she said softly, “No...”
“What?”
“I said we are not in a cooperative relationship with the Ancient Abyss.” Tian Yan stared at Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan was silent for a moment, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “Fine. Let’s say you aren’t. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
He picked up another porcupine meat skewer and handed it to Ran Qingmo beside him, saying casually, “As long as you know the truth in your own heart.”
After a pause, he smiled gently at Ran Qingmo. “Here...”
“Xu Changtian!” Tian Yan seemed to finally lose control. With a sharp cry, she stood up. “What do you mean by that?!”
Xu Yuan turned back, looking somewhat surprised as he stared at the young woman before him. Outside the cave, everything was silent and dark. Inside, the swaying firelight illuminated the anger on her face. He asked with a strange expression, “What do you mean, what do I mean?”
Tian Yan’s breathing trembled faintly. “What do I mean? Xu Changtian, do you truly not understand what I mean?”
“Understand? How am I supposed to understand if you don’t say it?”
“How could you not understand?”
Xu Yuan took a deep breath and raised a hand to rub the space between his brows. His thoughts drifted outward.
After a long while, he lifted his eyes and said, “Is this because of Wang Yuchu’s dream?”
“Dream?”
There was something almost amused in Tian Yan’s eyes, but even more than that, there was an indescribable hurt.
Seeing her expression, Xu Yuan thought for a moment, then continued in a low voice, “You’re this angry because, at the end of the dream, I had Wang Yuchu temporarily trap you?”
Tian Yan’s breathing quickened, but she did not speak.
For a moment, the cave fell silent again.
Ran Qingmo sat off to the side with her sword in hand, looking at Xu Yuan, then at Tian Yan. She clearly had no idea what the two of them were talking about.
After a long while, Xu Yuan exhaled softly and said, “So that’s it.”
“Yes. That is it.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“Wasn’t it just a dream? Is it really worth getting this ang—”
BOOM! The change came without warning.
A golden beam of light shot past the side of Xu Yuan’s head.
Source qi surged, and the earth shook. A perfectly round hole appeared in the cave wall, punching straight through the entire mountain.
Through the circular opening, the pitch-black sky outside could be seen.
Waves of freezing air poured in. Xu Yuan shrank his neck from the cold. He had been only a few miserable fractions of a centimeter away from attending his own funeral. When he came back to his senses, he realized Ran Qingmo had already stepped in front of him.
Seeing this, Tian Yan stared at the two of them. “Xu Changtian, the two of you really are close, aren’t you?”
Ran Qingmo ignored her. She looked back at Xu Yuan and said softly, “She hasn’t fully recovered from her injuries yet. Xu Yuan, call Senior Luo out. We can try fighting her.”
Xu Yuan was silent for a moment, then patted Ran Qingmo on the shoulder. “It’s fine. Step aside for now.”
A trace of confusion appeared in Ran Qingmo’s eyes.
“Don’t worry. Trust me.” Xu Yuan smiled faintly at her.
At the sight of this, Tian Yan practically bristled, like a little cat whose fur had been rubbed the wrong way. “Xu Changtian, trust you? Trust your seventh rank Meridian Tempering cultivation?!”
“I wasn’t talking to you.” Xu Yuan glanced at her.
Tian Yan clenched her fists. Golden light flowed around her body, as if the slightest provocation would make her lose control completely.
Ran Qingmo was silent for a moment, but in the end, she stepped aside. She chose to trust him.
Once he stood before Tian Yan again, Xu Yuan looked into those beautiful golden eyes, now filled to the brim with anger. “I don’t know why, but judging from your reaction, the illusion Wang Yuchu created wasn’t merely a dream to you.”
He paused, then asked with some puzzlement, “Can you remember everything that happened in the illusion?”
Tian Yan stared at Xu Yuan and sneered. “What business is that of yours?”
“If you don’t want to say, then forget it.”
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