64 Chapter 64

◎The Truth Through His Eyes◎

Pei Xueyan gazed at him, her heart filled with a myriad of emotions.

She could never figure out what Jiang Qiye really thought of her back then.

In conclusion, he did not take her life.

"Yes," she replied softly.

Jiang Qiye breathed a sigh of relief, his tension easing slightly, and slowly said, "My master taught me the Illusion Technique last year. I've never used this technique lightly. I think it was probably because I felt you were young and kind-hearted at the time, and I couldn't bear to kill you. So I thought that if I could use the Illusion Technique to remove your Core Formation, making it impossible for you to cultivate, it would also prevent you from being killed in the future because of this special cultivation, and avoid greater physical and mental damage. The Illusion Technique requires a trigger, a task to guide you. Some of the methods I used at the time might seem like emotional deception to you. But it was also my first time using this technique, and I was already uneasy. Faced with the various things in the illusion, I couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion, and I felt a strange sense of guilt towards you. Isn't that the case?"

Pei Xueyan opened her mouth, unsure how to answer.

What Master Wangyu said in the past is exactly the same as Jiang Qiye's explanation at this moment.

But back then, Jiang Qiye clearly did not agree with this statement.

Jiang Qiye noticed the hesitation in her eyes and patiently continued to explain, "Master Pei, perhaps you have been wrong all along."

"What?"

"The things you're so insistent on may have been wrong from the start, and I may have made mistakes as well."

Pei Xueyan looked at him, somewhat bewildered.

"Your master Ye Xiuluo's cultivation inherently carries the hidden danger of absorbing the spiritual power of others. This kind of cultivation is harmful to both the practitioner and the recipient. Since you say that this cultivation is detrimental to your physical body, then when you grow older and reach your thirties, when the cultivation backfires, you will definitely need to find someone else to transfer the damage to in order to save your life, right?"

His tone was serious, his gaze intense: "My master has always known Ye Xiuluo's ways and would not truly kill her. He also understands that I am not a bloodthirsty person, so his intention in sending me there might not have been to kill you, but rather to eliminate the hidden dangers of your cultivation. Otherwise, why didn't he investigate me more thoroughly when I disobeyed his orders and did not take your life?"

“He cherishes you, how could he blame you?” Pei Xueyan lowered her eyes, her voice tinged with self-mockery. “In his eyes, I’m just a little vixen.”

Jiang Qiye smiled faintly, not changing the subject with these words, and continued to speculate logically: "To save your life, I entered the illusion to meet you, and naturally developed feelings for you. All of this was just a necessary step for me to complete the mission. Even your body was fake and doesn't count. Are you a peasant woman? How can things in a dream count? This magic is originally a technique for saving lives, no different from a doctor practicing medicine. Originally, once it's over, it should all be forgotten."

"Perhaps I did feel pity for you back then, but it was nothing more than pity. Later, when I passed on my cultivation to you and helped you with your training, it was only to try to purify the demonic energy within you, and it had nothing to do with romantic feelings." He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "How absurd! For the sake of the false things in the illusion, one wrong step leads to another."

He looked at her, his gaze clear and open: "Besides, illusions are always a matter of mutual consent. If I had truly forced you, you could have resisted; if you had remained steadfast and undisturbed by the illusions, I would have been the one to suffer the consequences in the end."

Pei Xueyan listened quietly. Every word he said was like a dull knife, slowly cutting open the scabbed wounds in her heart, dismantling the deep-seated obsessions and resentments one by one.

As he dissected this relationship bit by bit, it became clear that everything stemmed from why she woke up in the third illusion.

My mind went completely blank.

When she woke up in the third illusion, she clearly intended to toy with him and could have turned against him, but in the end, she fell in love with him.

Yes, she kept harping on his motives, calling him a hypocrite, resenting him forcibly abolishing his cultivation, and standing on moral high ground to criticize everything he did.

But the martial arts world is inherently a dog-eat-dog world, with a clear distinction between the strong and the weak.

It's certainly a pity to lose one's cultivation, but looking across the martial world, how many people have lost their lives because they were inferior in skill? Should all those people demand justice?

He was right; time and again, it was always she who was moved.

The victor is king, the loser is villain; he won, she lost.

If their positions were reversed, even if she won, he might not escape unscathed and would certainly suffer heavy losses.

This long-standing and complicated relationship may really need to be resolved.

Pei Xueyan slowly stood up. Her body, still recovering from a serious illness, was somewhat unsteady, and her steps were light and unsteady, as if she were walking on clouds.

She walked step by step outside the hall. The sunlight shone through the clouds, so bright that she squinted slightly.

Yes, it's all time to end it all.

This time, she didn't shed a tear; her mind was unusually calm, and she was unusually clear-headed.

It turns out that letting go of obsessions is so easy.

She leaned against the vermilion pillars outside the palace gate, standing there for an unknown amount of time, before returning to her room and lying down to sleep in the side room.

In her dream, she saw Xue Lian, A Bao, and Wei An, who resolutely committed suicide. Their faces were still clear, smiling and waving at her.

I can no longer see Jiang Qiye's face clearly, and he no longer appears in my dreams.

After waking up, he leaned against the outside of the hall, lost in thought.

For some reason, my eyes suddenly welled up with tears, which streamed down my cheeks without warning.

He was very, very good to her, at least he used to be.

The reason I'm so sad now is simply to transfer the pain from other places onto him, hoping for his forgiveness and love again.

For the first time, I stayed up all night with my eyes wide open.

It was still very dark, and she wanted to go for a walk.

Where to go?

In a daze, I suddenly recalled the time when I was a child, I would get up at this time and go up the mountain in the dark to cultivate.

We did it right away.

She slowly moved up the dew-dampened stone steps, one by one.

The sky gradually brightened as she walked.

The mountains in the morning are shrouded in mist, making them exceptionally fresh and beautiful.

With her head down, lost in a thousand thoughts, she was completely unaware of the passage of time.

When I came to my senses and looked up, I was surprised to see the pavilion on the mountaintop.

I used to think that hiking up the mountain would take forever, but today it only took two hours and I arrived so quickly.

As the sun rose, most of the clouds and mist that lingered in the mountains dissipated in an instant.

She walked up quickly.

The moment I looked up, it was truly unbelievable; I had actually bumped into Jiang Qiye here.

He was dressed in white, as white as snow, floating and sitting cross-legged in mid-air, practicing his martial arts.

That's right, this is an excellent place to practice martial arts.

My heart, which had been pounding with excitement, suddenly sank. How embarrassing!

Almost simultaneously, Jiang Qiye suddenly opened his eyes and made eye contact with her precisely.

As if about to speak, Pei Xueyan turned around, hurriedly stepped down the stone steps.

Over the course of a few days, the intense love, hate, anger, and infatuation gradually calmed the turbulent waves in my heart, making it quiet and empty.

Finally, she mustered her courage and stepped into the hall again.

Jiang Qiye was fiddling with the candle flame on the table, his fingertips twirling the wick, his expression silent, lost in thought.

Pei Xueyan spoke softly, "I want to go down the mountain and wander around."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Qiye slowly turned around, his gaze falling on her face. His deep eyes held a complex mix of emotions, making it impossible to tell whether he was happy, sad, or simply deep in thought.

After a moment, he nodded slightly and said in a gentle voice, "Alright. I also need to go down the mountain on business, so I'll travel with you."

This time, the descent from the mountain was different from usual; there was no need to sneak around anymore.

Jiang Qiye also brought a disciple with him.

Perhaps out of concern that the two of them might feel awkward living together as husband and wife, he sent a disciple to accompany them.

He certainly has the air of a sect leader.

Pei Xueyan calmly walked out of the main gate of the Qingzong Sect for the first time.

The temperature at Tianhe Palace is always moderate and never feels cold, but I never imagined that winter had already arrived at the foot of the mountain.

Logically, the mountains are higher and should be colder, but the immortals' abodes have their own magic, so they always live better than mortals in the mundane world.

For some reason, neither of them spoke a word the whole way, and the atmosphere was quite awkward. Even after entering the bustling city, they remained quiet and ignored each other.

Jiang Qiye knew that she was hiding something, but he did not expect that this secret was so heavy.

Looking back on the time we spent together, she was always quirky, lively, and carefree. She loved to tell harmless lies, was also greedy and sleepy, and seemed carefree.

He never imagined that she harbored so many past entanglements with him, nor did he expect that his previous confession would make her, who was usually cheerful, so taciturn, unwilling to utter a single unnecessary word.

Jiang Qiye broke the silence first: "There's a restaurant up ahead, let's go get something to eat first."

Pei Xueyan stopped and shook her head slightly, her voice calm: "Master Jiang, you may go about your business. I want to wander around by myself. We can meet at the pavilion at the crossroads over there in three days."

Jiang Qiye stared at her.

Humans are truly strange creatures.

Previously, her cheerful and carefree nature had often annoyed him and made him feel weary; but now, seeing her so forlorn, he felt a pang of pity.

I feel sorry for her.

He pitied her for not being able to distinguish the entanglements of her feelings for so long, not being able to distinguish whether his feelings for her were pity or love, and not being able to distinguish her true heart's desire.

When the truth was revealed, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

After all, they are still officially a married couple.

Jiang Qiye slowly approached her and spoke in such a gentle tone for the first time: "You have no money on you and are all alone out there. How will you find a place to stay?"

Pei Xueyan refused to meet his gaze, looking into the distance, her tone distant: "I have many things to do."

Since the other party had already made such a clear rejection, Jiang Qiye was not the type to pester them relentlessly.

The accompanying junior disciple had already bought a thick cloak and quickly stepped forward to hand it over.

Jiang Qiye was never good at being considerate of women, so he simply handed the cloak to her and said, "Put this on, it's cold down the mountain."

How could Pei Xueyan accept such a somewhat stiff attitude? She turned around and walked away.

They agreed to meet again in three days.

However, neither of them had been in the mood to enjoy the scenery these past few days.

Pei Xueyan couldn't eat anything all day and spent most of her time in a daze.

She wasn't the type to wallow in melancholy, it's just that so much had happened lately.

Once upon a time, Jiang Qiye was the person she had the most confidence in and could rely on the most, but now, he is the first to choose to give up.

She was already prepared to forgive him for everything, and decided to stop holding a grudge. She wanted to gradually heal the wounds caused by her master's past in her interactions with him.

The truth is always cruel.

She wouldn't mistreat herself.

Even if troubles come one after another, sadness is only a temporary emotion, and there's nothing to be too upset about.

She decided to return to Yishui Manor to become its owner and head.

Perhaps I will stay there for the rest of my life and never go anywhere else.

As for whether or not to see Jiang Qiye in the future, after we break up, we'll treat each other like strangers, and treat him the same way we would a stranger.

Anyway, he will never wake up.

The three-day period arrived quickly.

She even considered flying out to the mountains to meditate for a few hours.

When I returned to the pavilion, I had just smiled for a moment when I noticed that it was snowing lightly outside.

Suddenly I felt a deep sense of loss and sadness.

"Snowflakes dance in the wind, each one a poignant reminder of parting."

Jiang Qiye soon came over. This time, the junior disciple did not accompany him; he came alone.

Neither of them seemed to be afraid of the freezing cold, as they were dressed very lightly.

He casually draped the cloak he was holding over Pei Xueyan's shoulders and tightened the sash for her.

Perhaps because they were close enough, or perhaps because of the chill, the white breaths they exhaled mingled and intertwined in the cold air.

Pei Xueyan said bluntly, "You don't need to be so close to me."