The next moment, before Mu Cangwu could react, the sound of something cutting through the air came towards him. He subconsciously hugged Ruan Qing'an tightly in his arms. He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, the sword was already close to his neck.

Lou Yunqi placed his longsword directly against Mu Cangwu's neck, his arrogant smile undiminished: "Don't talk nonsense, Mu Cangwu, or else—I can kill you too."

"...You did indeed lay a hand on me."

Mu Cangwu neither dodged nor flinched, but simply stared at Lou Yunqi.

After a long while, Lou Yunqi finally sheathed his longsword and said, "Back in Sanyue City, I accepted a bribe from the Yang family and promised to help them stop Ruan Qing'an at Duobao Pavilion, and... preferably kill her."

“I recognized her as soon as she walked in, so we chatted for a bit, but I thought about killing her twice.”

Mu Cangwu sneered: "It's not that you wanted to, it's that you took action."

But this time Lou Yunqi did not avoid the question. Instead, he raised his eyes and stared at Mu Cangwu: "Yes, I made my move. The first time she came in, as a test—if she died, it would prove that I had waited all these years, only to be met with a piece of trash."

"The second time was when she left. I also wanted to kill her because she was rushing to save another man."

Lou Yunqi closed his eyes briefly, his voice tinged with coldness: "Mu Cangwu, we've guessed before—who we are. After we gained our memories, we were in the cultivation world, we gave ourselves names, and we wandered the world alone, our existence meant to wait for someone."

"I don't want to put my significance on one person, Mu Cangwu. Compared to me, you are the one who really wants to kill her."

Mu Cangwu paused, then remained silent.

Lou Yunqi continued, "I've given up, but I don't know if you'll stay. You're the one with the most resentment."

"...Our obsession and feelings for Qing'an are part of us, including me. When we see her, none of us can escape this predestined emotion."

Mu Cangwu casually changed the subject: "Since you can't bring yourself to do it, neither can I, Lou Yunqi."

The atmosphere between the two in front of the waterside pavilion was tense and on the verge of conflict.

Just as Lou Yunqi was frowning, trying to forcibly take Ruan Qing'an from Mu Cangwu's arms, a corpse puppet maid ran out of the small building, bowed to Mu Cangwu without even looking at Lou Yunqi.

"Young master, everything you instructed has been prepared."

"Let me see it."

The maid lowered her head even further, respectfully presenting a jade slip for communication with both hands.

Because he was still holding the woman's soft body in his arms, Mu Cangwu was obviously wary of Lou Yunqi, who was watching him intently from the side. Therefore, he flicked the puppet string connected to his fingertips, and the communication jade slip flew up in response.

But while flying halfway—

With a flick of his longsword, Lou Yunqi intercepted it, grasping the communication jade slip in one hand: "Are you guarding against thieves, you surnamed Mu?"

"...It was my fault, I should have been more careful to avoid robbers."

Seeing Lou Yunqi open the book and start reading without any hesitation, Mu Cangwu's gentle and refined smile froze for a moment, and his tone was filled with barely suppressed anger.

Unfortunately, Mu Cangwu looked down on Lou Yunqi, a notorious demonic cultivator who fought alone, but when it came to a real fight, he was completely outmatched and could only endure it.

Just as Lou Yunqi disliked his underworld cultivation method of playing with puppets, he also had to admit that Mu Cangwu could easily overwhelm him with money.

It's as if there are some limitations imposed by the laws of nature.

The two have conflicting yet complementary attributes—they are guarding against each other, and it seems... they are guarding against another formidable opponent.

As Lou Yunqi broke open the communication jade slip, Mu Cangwu finally released his hold on Ruan Qing'an. With a flick of the puppet strings at his fingertips, the woman's soul stood beside the maid like a puppet on a string. As soon as he finished doing all this, alarm bells rang in his heart!

Mu Cangwu instinctively dodged to the side!

Immediately afterward, the sword light landed where he had just been, tearing through the deep black void before the killing intent finally arrived.

"Admiring, Cangwu!"

Lou Yunqi held a long sword in one hand, his smile growing wider, but his killing intent remained undiminished: "You want to die, don't you?"

That jade slip was clearly an invitation for Daoist couples to form a bond!

Lou Yunqi stopped wasting words with him and said directly, "Either you die here today, or I take Ruan Qing'an away. Otherwise, don't blame me for killing you and devouring your power."

"Lou Yunqi, I—"

Just as Mu Cangwu was about to speak, Lou Yunqi almost chopped off half of his arm with a sword. If he had been a step later, his head would have been severed!

Suddenly, Mu Cangwu was also in the news, and his face darkened.

"You're crazy, don't go too far."

"This is my lush and secluded paradise, do not be presumptuous!"

His blue robe fluttered in the wind, and his slender fingertips moved as if playing a zither. As he did so, countless puppet strings silently spread out, while Lou Yunqi's sword light was so sharp that it could pierce through the void, rushing straight towards Mu Cangwu!

As the puppet strings were pulled along the eaves of the small building, Mu Cangwu's figure moved directly over, avoiding the sharp sword light.

Immediately afterwards, the medicine servants who were originally in the field all raised their heads, their faces equally pale and bloodless, looking at Lou Yunqi in the air. The next moment, they rushed forward in unison.

There were countless corpse puppets in the entire Lush Secret Realm, but Lou Yunqi was not flustered at all, and even showed a bit of contempt.

"I told you long ago, unorthodox methods are useless!"

Soon, an overwhelming surge of sword energy, mixed with the unstoppable momentum of the sword cultivators and the bloody killing intent of the demonic cultivators, intertwined with the yin energy of countless puppets, caused an endless sea of ​​blood with every sword move of Lou Yunqi, with cries of agony filling the land and the blood surging to the heavens.

When the two clashed, the entire Wei Rui Secret Realm trembled, but it avoided Ruan Qing'an and the corpse puppet maid guarding her.

Just as the secret realm was on the verge of shattering—

"Alright, alright!"

"You madman, stop right now!"

Mu Cangwu suddenly raised his voice, his blue robe fluttering, and he only managed to stop after leaping back several meters.

He glanced at his sleeve, which had been ripped by the sword energy, and his face turned ashen.

"These clothes of mine are worth tens of millions of spirit stones, and these corpse puppet medicine servants I've refined are worth hundreds of millions of spirit stones, not to mention the entire secret realm."

"Ha, what a money-grubbing bastard."

"Yes, yes, yes, you can wear rags and eat garbage yourself, just don't let Qing'an live such a hard life with you."

Lou Yunqi paused, then said, "..."

Seeing that he didn't make any more moves, Mu Cangwu finally breathed a sigh of relief and straightened his tattered sleeves: "We know what we are. To put it bluntly, we have an inextricable relationship with the Heavenly Dao, and we can devour each other's power."

“And you know very well that if we are not accepted by Qing’an, we will die, because we were born to love her, and we were born to exist for the love of her. Neither of us can escape this.”

"The moment I saw her, I knew my wait hadn't been in vain. Lou Yunqi, I can't escape the fate I wanted to run from, and I'm even willing to accept it. You feel the same way."

Finally, Lou Yunqi sheathed his sword and remained silent.

Mu Cangwu's voice deepened slightly: "No matter how much we fight, it doesn't matter. Even if you kill me and devour my power, we are still one. I am also you."

“But no one else will do, so she has no choice but to choose us.”

After a long silence, Lou Yunqi spoke again, his voice hoarse beyond recognition: "What do you want to say?"

"Now that you're here, Lou Yunqi."

Mu Cangwu suddenly smiled: "Then let's do it together. Let's form a three-person pact and keep her by our side for now, how about that?"

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