He had only flown three or four li when Shui Die Lan popped up out of nowhere and clicked her tongue. “Looks like you’re getting along pretty well at the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect.”
“Yeah, I can’t let every tom, dick, and harry walk all over me.” Li Xun looked back and smiled. He said it in the exact same tone Shui Die Lan had used before, which made her laugh.
She quickly turned pouty, though. “How could you be so affectionate with that woman right in front of me?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me. Don’t forget what our relationship is. The reason I put up with that little fling before was because she at least had some loyalty to you. Don’t you use that as an excuse to push your luck.”
Li Xun snorted. “Wait a minute. You said… relationship? What relationship are we talking about?”
“We’re husband and wife.” Shui Die Lan said it confidently, not caring how ugly Li Xun’s face went the moment she spoke.
“When did we become husband and wife?” he blurted out.
“You don’t remember? That ‘Heart Knot’ we tied before was created for the very purpose of letting me experience the life of a married couple. Since we’ve used it, that naturally makes us husband and wife. What’s so strange about that?”
Li Xun opened his mouth, then only let out a short, awkward laugh, dry and uncomfortable.
Reason told him that this so-called marriage didn’t mean much. With it or without it, things would be the same.
But in his heart, the thought of accepting Shui Die Lan -- this female cultivator, or rather, this demoness -- as his first, and perhaps only, wife was something he just couldn’t swallow.
He wanted to protest further, but Shui Die Lan cut in first. “I’m being very serious about this. Whatever you or I may think, for at least the next hundred years we’ll be living for each other.
“As far as I know, when it comes to men and women, there’s no title more fitting than ‘husband and wife.’ And I want to try what that feels like. This isn’t up for debate.”
Li Xun gave a helpless smile. “Try it? Just from the way you say it, it’s already wrong. Sharing life and death doesn’t automatically make two people husband and wife. There are still so many other things… You make it sound so easy, but I just can’t do it.”
“It’s not that you have to do it right now. As for the future, who can say? As long as you’ve got the guts!” Shui Die Lan replied with a playful smile.
Was she teasing him?
Looking at her expression, Li Xun suddenly realized his attitude had been too weak. From any angle, he wasn’t the one who stood to lose here.
The human mind is subtle. A moment ago he’d been completely unwilling, yet with a single shift in thought, the whole thing suddenly felt amusing.
When their eyes met, Li Xun began to understand Shui Die Lan’s thinking. Whether it was as partners or as husband and wife, to a great demon who had lived in this world for ten thousand years, a hundred years was nothing more than a brief and unusual episode in her long life.
At first she might find it fresh and even hold to a resolve ordinary people could never understand. But as time passed, that curiosity would fade. And the clarity born of endless years would eventually cut straight through the very nature of such “fun.”
Perhaps that would be the day she grew tired of it.
Li Xun even found himself wondering: back then, with the affair between the Demon Phoenix and Lin Ge, could the same mindset have been at play?
Just as his thoughts were clearing, Shui Die Lan suddenly said, “But you know, I just decided. I’m going to leave you for a while.”
“Huh?”
She gave a soft laugh. “We’re married, so we have to be together all the time? Don’t worry. Even if we’re separated by millions of miles, the ‘Heart Knot’ still works. The only difference is the reaction will be a little slower. About the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, right?”
She was clearly changing the subject. But whatever she planned to do, Li Xun neither wanted to interfere nor could he. In any case, during these hundred years, Shui Die Lan would never do anything foolish.
Once the first surprise passed, he gave a quiet “mm,” which was enough to show he understood.
The two of them might not truly share one heart, but in some ways, they knew each other well.
Just by watching his expression shift, Shui Die Lan could more or less guess what was on his mind. So she didn’t press the matter, only smiled and said, “I’ll be going now. But before I leave, I need a promise. I want the right to come and go from Mist-Hidden Pavilion whenever I please.”
“Of course,” Li Xun replied without a hint of hesitation. “At least for these hundred years, that won’t change.”
The two exchanged a smile, and Shui Die Lan turned to leave. But then something seemed to occur to her. She looked back and said, “For the sake of both our lives, let me add one more thing. Your body has serious hidden dangers. If something unexpected happens during this time, cultivate the Blood God’s Child. I can see the mark of the ‘Unmoving Evil Heart’ in your heart aperture.”
Li Xun silently admired her sharp eye, and nodded honestly. “I know. But ever since reaching the realm of the Unmoving Evil Heart, I haven’t cultivated it any further.”
“That’s fine. The Blood God’s Child’s body-refining method may be of the demonic path, but it stands unmatched in the world. It can’t cure the root of your problem, but at the very least it can protect your life. Hopefully you’ll never be forced to that point. Good luck!”
Her figure rose into the air. With one last glance over her shoulder, Shui Die Lan flashed him a smile. “Remember... staying alive comes first.”
Her playful words still lingered in the air as her body suddenly blurred, and the next moment she was gone.
Li Xun stared at the spot where she had just been and let out a bitter smile. “If you want me to cultivate it, at least give me a reason. This woman…”
He couldn’t quite put his feelings into words. Somehow, despite his current strength being more than enough to count him as a major figure, he still felt he lacked the ease and composure that Shui Die Lan carried so effortlessly. The bearing of someone truly powerful.
That was why, in their conversations, he often found himself unconsciously falling into the passive role.
Was it simply a matter of experience? Or was there something else?
Still, there was one thing he understood very clearly. With Gu Pin’er and Shui Die Lan both gone, the endless fighting among the factions in the southeastern forest sea no longer meant much to him.
Without a doubt, he was the greatest winner in this chaotic struggle. That alone gave him the right to look down upon the farce still playing out in the forest, with a gaze full of contempt.
And it felt wonderful.
Now he had Mist-Hidden Pavilion in his hands, the foundation that placed him in an unshakable position.
His standing in both the Mingxin Sword Sect and the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect was rising by the day. That was capital he had steadily built up. And then there was something more. An enormous resource he was about to obtain, one that could bring him a qualitative leap forward.
At that thought, his heart stirred. As if in response, Nether Two’s slender fingers reached out of the void, holding a scented letter. Li Xun stretched out his hand to take it, already familiar with the elegant script written upon it.
“The meeting at Mocang Ridge is set. This disciple will return with the complete Yin Charm Scripture to pay respects to Master.”
“Mocang Ridge…” Li Xun drew in a deep breath. Then he suddenly seized Nether Two’s slender hand, still lingering in the air, and yanked hard, dragging the puppet straight out of the void.
Just as he expected, Nether Two’s expression remained perfectly calm in the face of the abrupt change.
No matter how he looked at it, there wasn’t a trace of life in her aura.
He reached out and gently pinched her delicate chin. Gazing at that calm, or rather vacant face, he clenched his teeth and made up his mind. “Sixty years… this has to be settled! At worst, it’ll just be the cruel act of crushing a flower.”
Handing the scented letter back, he spoke coldly: “Reply with this. Tell her: we’ll speak in person.”
Those last two words fell like two beads of ice, rolling with a chilling weight.
Qin Wanru’s “communication” with Nether Two had lasted nearly thirty years.
After Nether Two regained her past memories, Li Xun hadn’t waited for her mind to fully recover. He had decisively “reestablished contact” with Qin Wanru.
And in truth, that had proven to be a very effective move.
Through a secret channel known only to master and disciple, Li Xun crafted a letter in the tone of Yin Wanderer and sent it off. That single letter revived Qin Wanru’s confidence, which had been wavering after decades, and made her firmly believe that Yin Wanderer was still alive, hidden away somewhere to recover from his wounds and preparing for a return.
From then on, the two of them never lost contact.
Although “Yin Wanderer” often used seclusion as an excuse and could go three or five years without a word, over the decades Li Xun had accumulated nearly seven hundred of these letters.
In them, Qin Wanru spoke with complete candor. She laid out her progress in cultivation, matters of the sect, and even the most trivial details of her daily life, pouring everything out without reservation.
Naturally, this also included the times she tried to threaten Li Xun in order to get her hands on the complete Yin Charm Scripture.
From such letters, Li Xun carefully drew out her opinions, impressions, and judgments of him, and then made his plans accordingly. Because he knew her as well as himself, every arrangement he set up was flawless, leaving not even the keen and shrewd Qin Wanru the slightest suspicion.
Still, after so many years of words on paper without ever seeing a living face, doubts were bound to arise.
In their recent exchanges, Qin Wanru often asked questions like “How is Master’s injury?” “When will you come out of seclusion?” and “May this disciple come to pay her respects?” Between the lines, her words carried a sense of urgency, hinting that she wanted Yin Wanderer to come forward and take charge of the situation.
If he kept avoiding her much longer, Qin Wanru’s suspicions would surely rise again, and once they took root, there would be no stopping them.
Li Xun understood this better than anyone. That was precisely why, under the pretense of returning the Yin Charm Scripture, he had arranged the meeting at Mocang Ridge.
Hands clasped behind his back, Li Xun walked along the steep, rugged mountain path of Mocang Ridge, his thoughts heavy and conflicted. At this moment, he had already taken on the guise of “Spirit Bamboo,” awaiting the encounter to come.
He had actually arrived five days earlier and taken meticulous precautions in the surrounding area, just in case.
Even now, he couldn’t help thinking: if Nether Two failed to fool her and things turned hostile, Qin Wanru would certainly be no match for him, but decades of his painstaking effort might all be wasted.
He absolutely could not allow that to happen. After all, over these long decades, he had labored under Yin Wanderer’s name and contributed to the Yin-Yang Sect no less than Qin Wanru herself. To see all of that vanish like drawing water with a bamboo basket…