Chapter 80. As dusk falls, there is still one month left.

The bathtub was shrouded in mist, and the lights lay lazily by the edge, chin in hand, letting the warm water wash away their fatigue.

She slept for a day and a night.

She had never slept for such a long time since she could remember. When she woke up, she had no idea what day it was. It wasn't until Shen Zhou carried her here and she soaked in the hot spring that she became a little more awake.

But as soon as she saw Shen Zhou, her legs went weak—no, her whole body went weak—so the first thing she did after regaining her senses was to kick him out.

He raised an eyebrow and smiled, but didn't insist on staying. He helped her get some clothes to change into and then left.

"well."

Hua Deng turned around, leaned against the pool wall, rested his elbows on the shore, and sighed with a headache.

There's no need for a mirror; you can see exactly what she looks like just by looking down.

As a Golden Core stage healer with a sacred body and a wood spiritual root, she was practically blessed with maximum buffs. Those traces should have been eliminated long ago, but they weren't.

As far as the eye could see, his collarbone was covered in red marks, and the area below was even more mottled, making it too shameful to look at. Hua Deng still remembered how he had tortured him there.

Damn it!

He pinched and slammed her too hard in the waist; now the light fixture aches with every movement, as if it's about to fall apart.

Further down, the scene became increasingly gruesome. Tooth marks, hickeys, and pinch marks. She remembered the look in his eyes under the dim light; even she felt a moment of fear.

Whenever these traces disappear or fade, he becomes unhappy and then takes his revenge on her even more.

And now, no one knows what method he used, but all these traces have been left behind.

Hua Deng punched the water's surface and muttered under his breath, "Why does he act like a dog?"

The bath has a warming effect on the body. After the light bulb had been lit for a while, she went up to the ground. She took a couple of steps, gently bit her lip, and a hint of awkwardness crossed her face.

Even though a day and a night had passed, she had the illusion that he was still inside. After all, back then, he had wrapped his arms around her from behind, forcing her to move forward.

She didn't want to admit it, but the first thing that came to mind when he wasn't there was a sense of unease.

Just as she was thinking of something, another hand suddenly appeared, took the clothes from her, and dressed her personally.

His gaze swept over the marks on her body without any reaction, but Hua Deng knew he was checking if they had disappeared.

The result was, of course, no.

So he didn't do anything extra, he just helped her get dressed, then carried her back to the room and let her sit on the bed.

He grasped her left ankle and lifted one of her legs.

The streetlights were so startled that they quickly shrank back inside.

Shen Zhou chuckled and pulled her back: "What are you afraid of? I didn't mean to hurt you."

His promise was utterly unreliable. Hua Deng's foot stepped on his knee, his toes curling nervously: "What are you doing?"

"I'll give you something," he said, conjuring up a string of anklets and putting them on Hua Deng's ankle.

After gazing at it for a moment, he nodded slightly and said, "A return gift of a hairband."

The marks he left were all along the area where his palm had been rubbing upwards, all the way to the base of Hua Deng's legs.

It seems he was too indulgent at the time, taking advantage of the fact that she had been through a lot, and readily agreed with "okay," "sure," and "I like it," becoming somewhat unscrupulous.

However, at that moment, he found it difficult to restrain himself from possessing her, especially since he had already been very restrained.

Even so, Hua Deng cried and called him a pervert. If he actually did it, she probably would never talk to him again. So she could only keep those thoughts to herself and never let them show.

Hua Deng had no idea what dangerous thoughts he was having. He pulled his leg back and examined the extra anklet.

These weren't jewels, but bones. There were ten carefully polished bone beads, resembling human finger bones. As for whose they were or where they came from, she didn't want to think about it; thinking too much would only give her nightmares.

"What are you giving me this for?" She reached out and tugged at it, but it didn't budge. Clearly, he was determined to hang it on her.

If she's talking about defensive artifacts, she already has that ring, so why bother with another one?

Shen Zhou only said, "You'll know later, just wear it for now."

Hua Deng said "Oh," indicating that the thing was in no way of getting in the way and had little weight, so he could wear it.

Seeing the trust in her face, Shen Zhou couldn't help but lean forward and kiss her eyes, then picked her up with one hand and placed her down in front of the dressing table.

Hua Deng was used to this.

In the past few days, through frequent spiritual communion, she glimpsed a little of her daily life during her coma. He did not keep her in the coffin day and night, but rather carried her out during the day, washed and dressed her like this, and then slept with her in the coffin at night.

It was only after their spiritual communion that she realized his divine consciousness had always been around her and had never left.

It's true that he once wanted to kill her.

It's true that I want to see her every moment now.

After Hua Deng finished tidying up, Chen Zhou carried her to the entrance of another palace. Many people passed by along the way, and Hua Deng felt embarrassed and asked him to put her down, but he said, "They're all puppets, no one will remember."

The lanterns had to be put on hold.

After she returned, he discontinued most of his puppetry skills, and no one remembered what had happened. Only the territory of the Demonic Sect remained under his control, wherever there was a possibility of getting close to Hua Deng.

Upon arriving at the palace gate, Shen Zhou put her down and said, "Didn't you want to find Su Yiqing? She and Pei Jianming are both inside."

Hua Deng nodded and waved to him, "Then you go ahead and do your thing. I want to go out and play with Yi Qing today."

Shen Zhou stared at her for a moment, then said calmly, "Okay."

Hua Deng turned around and knocked on the door. She was actually a little uneasy, but more so, she felt guilty, because Su Yiqing and Pei Jianming had suffered an undeserved disaster because of her.

Just as she took a deep breath, preparing her words of apology and repentance, the door opened.

A rich aroma of spicy hot pot wafted out.

Hua Deng: "..."

With her mouth full of grease, Su Yiqing exclaimed in delight, "Dengbao, you're finally back!"

Pei Jianming popped his head out from behind, his lips also red: "Holy crap! Holy crap! Can I get out now?!"

He was different from Su Yiqing. Su Yiqing lived a life of luxury, while he was forced to endure the soul-searching technique and had to mooch off the food that Su Yiqing could get.

Hua Deng: "You guys... uh, are you alright?"

Su Yiqing: "It's great! Nobody's bothering me here, I don't even want to go back!"

Pei Jianming chuckled and gritted his teeth, saying, "Yes, it's pretty good."

Hua Deng was relieved. She said to Pei Jianming, "You can leave now. I'm sorry for the past few days. Go to the Hua family's shop. Someone there will give you 100,000 spirit stones."

Pei Jianming: "!"

Hua Deng then turned to Su Yiqing: "Let's go out too, it's so boring staying here."

Su Yiqing readily agreed, and all three of them were very satisfied.

Hua Deng and Su Yiqing flew away on their swords and found a bustling town to stroll around and have tea.

The two sat down in the teahouse, and Hua Deng said, "Is it alright that you haven't contacted Yun Mingyu for so long?"

Su Yiqing shook her head firmly: "Even when you're in a relationship, you need personal space. He's so clingy I can hardly breathe. If I look at someone else even twice, he'll ask me why."

Hua Deng asked curiously, "So how do you usually answer?"

Su Yiqing: "Because that person is good-looking, what else could it be!"

Hua Deng: "..."

Su Yiqing: "Besides, he's too innocent. He doesn't dare to do anything with me, so it's not interesting."

The streetlights remained silent.

Su Yiqing let out a soft "Eh".

In the past, at times like this, Hua Deng shouldn't have replied, "Let's just do nothing!"

Upon closer inspection, despite it being summer, her friend was completely bundled up, not a single inch of skin showing from neck to toe, as if it were winter. Hmm... something's not right.

She said in a serious tone, "Hua Deng, what's going on here?"

Hua Deng feigned ignorance: "What?"

Su Yiqing gave her an "I understand" look: "After all, you're in that kind of book, so it's understandable. I heard that in your books, it's all about seven times a night, so life is promising!"

Hua Deng paused for a moment, then cautiously asked, "What about a seven-day period at a time?"

Su Yiqing: "...?"

Sisters, sisters.

Su Yiqing was filled with respect and reached out to pat her shoulder: "You're lucky, girl."

Hua Deng's ears turned red, and she waved her hands repeatedly: "That's not what I meant, I was just asking casually, haha..."

Su Yiqing: "Sigh, I'm envious."

Hua Deng blushed: "What's there to envy? I'm under house arrest right now. He won't let me leave his spiritual range. I have no freedom at all."

Su Yi was slightly taken aback: "But we've already traveled dozens of miles on our swords, how wide is his spiritual sense range?"

Hua Deng pondered seriously: "I don't think I've ever heard him mention it. It should be a few hundred miles, right? Could it be several thousand miles? Tens of thousands of miles is unlikely."

Su Yiqing: "?"

Isn't this the entire Kyushu region?

She felt that she was less free.

The two chatted and laughed, and the afternoon flew by.

This town is inhabited by ordinary people and is unaffected by the magic of cultivators. It happens to be summer and rainy, so as evening approaches, Hua Deng can hear the pattering of raindrops by the window.

She glanced down at the communication device and said, "Chen Zhou is coming to pick me up, you—"

Su Yiqing said in alarm, "I suddenly miss my boyfriend so much. I'm going to go find him now. See you next time!"

"……OK."

Hua Deng watched as she flew away on her sword, cutting through the rain as she went.

After thinking for a moment, she left the teahouse, ran to a nearby stall, and bought a plain oil-paper umbrella.

She had just paid and turned around with her umbrella when she saw Shen Zhou standing in front of her. His originally indifferent expression turned into the familiar one when he met her smile.

He asked, "Who should I give the umbrella to?"

Hua Deng smiled and placed the umbrella in his hand: "Here, do you want it?"

Shen Zhou didn't hesitate: "Yes."

He opened the umbrella and pulled her under it. The edge of the umbrella was tilted slightly, but even though she didn't use magic, her sleeves were still inevitably a little wet.

He frowned, but Hua Deng stopped him from casting the spell, smiling and saying, "Let's leave it like this, it's fine too, isn't it?"

People came and went around them, some rushing to find shelter from the rain, others strolling leisurely with umbrellas, like them. Standing among them, they didn't look like monks, but rather like an ordinary... couple.

He silently dispelled his magic, and in the rain, pulled her closer, leading her forward, saying, "Yes, this is fine too."

Rainwater flowed down the umbrella ribs, forming a thin curtain of water that automatically separated them from the crowd. The noisy sounds seemed to be pulled far away, and the world became so quiet that only they remained.

Shen Zhou accommodated her bouncy pace, walking at a leisurely pace. When they passed a shop, she even ran in and bought a box of local specialty candies.

As dusk falls and smoke rises from chimneys, a scene that appears every day, it somehow feels like a distant memory.

"Come on, open your mouth."

When her voice came, Shen Zhou subconsciously opened his mouth.

When you put the candy in your mouth, it doesn't really have much flavor, just a very faint sweet and sour taste.

Hua Deng's eyes crinkled into crescents: "Let's eat here tonight. I've heard the roast goose here is famous, and I'd love to try it."

Shen Zhou replied, "Okay, if you like it, you can come often in the future."

Hua Deng smiled and nodded.

She silently counted in her mind that there was about a month left before the contract ended.

Hopefully, this month will be filled with wonderful memories for them.