Chapter 65 Disdain: When have I ever offended you?

In the cold wind and rain, the usually unruly young man in black had red eyes, and raindrops dripped down his arrogant face.

The palace doors finally opened, but the person who had entered stopped at the entrance and made no further move, seemingly waiting for something.

Looking at the pale face of the person in his arms, Wen Yizhan knelt down on both knees, adopting an unprecedentedly humble posture, "Wen Yizhan of Zhenyang Peak, Kunlun Mountain, begs the Heavenly Palace to lend me Chen Shui."

"Please, save her."

His words struck the stone slabs, resounding loudly in the empty palace square on a rainy night.

The people inside the hall did not respond, silently watching the two people on the ground.

The black coat, soaked by the rain, turned into an even deeper, darker black than the night itself. The dark black embraced the dark black, as if trying to merge into the rainy night.

"Why should I lend it to her?" The white-robed Tianque Sect Master raised his eyes, his icy blue eyes still as ruthless as a god's.

His gaze swept over the two men, finally settling on a certain spot. The man's eyes were tightly closed, his face deathly pale, showing no trace of the arrogant and unrestrained spirit he had displayed on the dueling stage the day before. His blazing flames were now on their last legs.

Without seeing those clear, black and white eyes, one cannot fathom her thoughts, much less know what was hidden in her eyes when she first saw him.

On the high platform, he had seen her every move in the final. She truly deserved the title of "extraordinary talent" bestowed upon her by everyone. The death of such a person might be a pity for the immortal sect, but to him, she was just an insignificant person.

As if sensing that his gaze had lingered for too long, the young man in black stretched out his sleeve, obscuring most of the face of the person in his arms. Under the cloak of darkness, only half of the person's profile was visible.

"If you are willing to save her, I will grant you three requests."

How could a dignified disciple of the Heavenly Palace Sect be moved by the promise of a nameless swordsman? Jia Yue thought he was simply delusional. But before she could utter her sarcastic words, the black-clad youth released a powerful and profound sword aura. In an instant, the wind and rain stopped, the tangible raindrops froze in mid-air, and the invisible night wind vanished without a trace. Time stood still at that moment.

With just one move, it was enough to demonstrate this man's extraordinary strength. The swordsmanship of the woman in his arms was already unparalleled in the world, and he was even superior to her junior sister. This offer was undeniably sincere; exchanging the use of the sinking pool once for three uses of a top-tier cultivator was certainly a worthwhile trade.

But Jia Yue was not satisfied. His cold blue eyes held a hint of barely perceptible sarcasm. "You are a Kunlun person, yet you have to be driven by me. Would you be willing to betray your sect if I asked you to?" He paused. "Is it worth it for a junior sister?"

The young man in black suddenly laughed, "I can't worry about that anymore. I want her to live well." His dashing eyes softened with a touch of warmth. "If I were the one who was injured right now, she would do the same for me."

The young man's words were believed without a doubt.

What a touching story of brotherly and sisterly affection.

Jia Yue stepped out of the palace gate, and with a flick of her sleeve, the drizzling night rain began to fall again. Through the rain, she spoke slowly.

"I can lend it to her, but you must set off immediately to retrieve something for me."

*

For a long time, Jiang Yuhuo spent his time in fragmented dreams.

She was first trapped in the inferno of the Liyue Village and the Mermaid Temple, watching in excruciating pain as the flames devoured everything. Two great fires, one burning down her home, the other burning down her past. Then she sank into the icy waters, into the pitch-black depths where she could see nothing, surrounded only by the deafening roar of the water. She desperately tried to float to the surface, but the water seemed endless, suffocating and filled with despair.

The suffocating feeling in the dream was so real that it jolted Jiang Yuhuo awake.

She opened her eyes and was shocked to find her mouth and nose submerged in water. Instinctively trying to get up, she slipped and fell into the deeper part of the pool. She opened her eyes underwater and found herself in complete darkness, just like in her dream; the water was black.

She paddled a few times, trying to surface. Usually, this would have made it easy to rise to the surface, but this body of water seemed to have lost its buoyancy; she would just sink straight down, unlike in normal waters. Fortunately, she wasn't afraid of water, and after the initial panic subsided, she gradually found the key to surfacing.

But before she could surface on her own, a powerful force suddenly pulled her out of the water, forcibly bringing her head above the surface and dragging her towards the shallow water at the edge of the pool.

This scene seems somewhat familiar.

Jiang Yuhuo inexplicably recalled the little silver snake he had once seen by the stream, which had also been dragged downstream in the same way.

Jiang Yuhuo coughed up a mouthful of blood as her back slammed against the hard stone wall, coughing incessantly. After she finally calmed down, the pent-up emotions in her chest seemed to dissipate along with the blood. Only then did she realize that the burning pain in her body had disappeared, and that she was in a dark pool of water.

She instinctively turned around to look at the source of the force that had pulled her out of the pool.

On the shore of the pool, a handsome white-robed merman stood behind her, holding a silver snake that seemed to be leaping towards her.

Xiao Hai?

Jiang Yuhuo was in a daze for a moment, but she quickly came to her senses.

No. He was the eldest son of the Heavenly Palace. She recognized the silver Jianmu on his chest and remembered how Mo Sheng addressed him on the day of the competition.

But why is she here?

Her gaze moved upwards, and she saw tall white marble pillars all around her. The only thing in the vast hall was a pool of water; this was a completely unfamiliar place to her.

The person by the pool slowly walked towards her. She instinctively tried to back away, but her foot slipped, and she almost slipped into the bottomless pool again. A force pulled her back, allowing her to regain her balance. This time, she was wiser and clung tightly to the edge of the pool, watching the familiar yet unfamiliar merman before her warily.

What do you want to do?

Jia Yue looked down at the woman in the pool, her clear black and white eyes filled with vigilance, completely different from the way she looked at him when she first saw him on the competition stage.

“If I hadn’t done something, you would have already drowned.”

An arrogant demeanor, a cold tone. Even the expression of the person in front of her was very similar to that of Xiao Hai, whom she had first picked up.

Having grown accustomed to the silence of Xiao Hai, Jiang Yuhuo found it very unsettling to hear this man speak. Although his voice was pleasant, it only served as a reminder that the merman she once knew was unwilling to even speak to her.

Back then, she tried everything she could to communicate with him, using all sorts of exaggerated gestures. It must have seemed ridiculous to him.

"Is that so? Then thank you for saving me." Jiang Yuhuo's tone was so sarcastic that even she was surprised.

"No need to thank me. It was your senior brother who knelt down and begged me that allowed you to use the Deep Water Healing Technique here." Jia Yue was equally resolute; few would treat him with such disrespect, but he wasn't angry. If he guessed correctly, that young man in black was her Achilles' heel; with just a slight squeeze, she would explode.

Sure enough, her expression immediately changed, and anger rose from her eyes, bringing her pale and indifferent face to life.

"You!" she practically screamed through gritted teeth. "Where is my senior brother?"

Jiang Yuhuo desperately wanted to ask the man before her why he was doing this, but she immediately remembered that he was no longer her Xiao Hai; he was the patriarch of Tianque Mountain, and she was no longer Jiang Yuhuo of Liyue Village. She had no right to criticize him. She only wanted to see Wen Yizhan as soon as possible and leave with him. Even if it meant death, she would not allow Wen Yizhan to be humiliated.

“If you want to find him, you should go out and find him yourself, instead of asking someone who has nothing to do with you.” Jia Yue frowned slightly. He didn’t like her overly casual tone. As a Kunlun disciple, even if she won the grand competition, she shouldn’t be so careless about etiquette in front of him.

"Okay, I won't ask you, I'll find it myself." As she spoke, she was about to stand up from the pool. Before she could stop her with magic, Jia Yue only had time to close her eyes, but she still saw the small section of her fair and smooth breasts that were originally hidden under the water.

Taking advantage of his closed eyes, the small snake on his wrist tried to break free and leap into the pool, but Jia Yue noticed and pulled it back forcefully. Not content with just pulling it back, he also covered the snake's eyes with one hand.

She seemed to realize something was wrong, and with a "thump," she retreated back underwater.

"Are all the female cultivators of Kunlun so informal?"

A cold voice came from above; the other person had their eyes closed and their indifference bordered on the frigid.

Jiang Yuhuo frowned, a hint of embarrassment flashing across her face, but not much. She had woken up in the pool and had no idea when her clothes had been removed.

But if she was naked in the pool, why did he come in?

"Do all the adults in your Heavenly Palace like to go into other people's bathrooms?"

The person in the pool showed no shame in their voice; instead, they rebuked him righteously and sternly. Such assertiveness suggested they had already concealed themselves underwater.

The water was a deep, dark color, making it difficult for people on the surface to see what was beneath. Jia Yue opened her eyes; only her head was visible above the water. She stared intently at Shangjiang Yuhuo. Perhaps from being in the water for too long, her cold, sharp eyes were tinged with a watery hue, her anger burning through the steam, clear and bright.

As Jia Yue loosened her grip, a slender silver shadow immediately flew into Jiang Yuhuo's arms.

Jiang Yuhuo looked down at the silver snake stretching its neck in the water, its shimmering skin the same one she had met by the stream that day. Seeing Jiang Yuhuo looking at it, the silver snake immediately flicked its tongue at her in a fawning manner, its body writhing in the water as it struggled to swim towards her.

Jia Yue raised an eyebrow slightly. "Now you understand, it sneaked in and I caught it."

Jiang Yuhuo was half-believing and half-doubting, staring at the silver snake, not understanding what this spirit beast saw in her, why it didn't try to please its master but instead kept getting closer to her.

Seeing that she did not resist its touch, the silver snake took advantage of the situation and climbed onto Jiang Yuhuo's shoulder. The cool and slippery touch startled her, and her shoulder involuntarily emerged from under the water.

The man on the shore glanced discreetly over her snow-white shoulders and delicate collarbones. He wasn't exaggerating; ever since she arrived at the Washing Flower Palace, the silver snake had been restless, escaping whenever he wasn't careful. Jia Yue knew where he was going without a second thought; he went straight to the sinking pool to catch it, and saw the silver snake about to dive into the water.

He grabbed the silver snake, intending to leave, but the unconscious person in the pool suddenly woke up and even slipped into the bottom of the pool without realizing it.

If he hadn't intervened, she might have drowned in the sinking pool. He could have simply stayed put; he'd only promised Wen Yizhan the pool's use. But her eyes resurfaced in his mind—the look in her eyes when he first saw her. He desperately wanted to know why she'd looked at him like that. Her first glance at him wasn't one of gratitude for saving her eyes, but rather one of astonishment, a mixture of mockery and sorrow. She looked at him as if he were a traitor.

He couldn't tell whether he agreed to lend the sinkhole because of Wen Yizhan's conditions or because of her.

So he pulled her back from the bottom of the pool, not immediately turning away even though he knew the person underwater was naked. He wanted to know how she would see him.

Jiang Yuhuo was furious. She grabbed the silver snake that was coiled on her shoulder and threw it back into Jia Yue's arms.

"Now, take your snake and get out of here."

The silver snake was slammed heavily onto its master. The turn of events was too sudden; it didn't know what it had done wrong, and its slender body trembled violently at being treated like this. Jia Yue comforted it a few times, but a rare hint of anger rose in her icy blue eyes, and her voice was icy, "Is this how you treat the person who saved you?"

"Come to think of it, this is the second time I've saved you."

Jiang Yuhuo immediately sneered, knowing he was referring to Mo Sheng's sneak attack at the end of the competition.

"Yes, you knocked away Mo Sheng's hidden weapon. But don't think I didn't see that the reason that arrow shattered the jade on my forehead was also because you did it on purpose." She stared into his eyes, gritting her teeth, "Mo Sheng's behavior is certainly despicable, and you had to stop him for the sake of Tianque's reputation, but when have I ever offended you?"

If he hadn't shattered her jade pendant, she wouldn't have been so badly affected by the fever.

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Author's Note: I just discovered that Jinjiang even charges a handling fee for lottery draws! How infuriating!! [Angry]