I came to save you.
Chapter Twenty-Four
A willow branch peeked out from the window, and incense smoke curled from the burner inside the room. The woman awoke with a start from her bed. Zhou Yulin, clutching her aching arm, slowly got up from the bed, her brows furrowing as she looked around.
The wooden furniture around her was the familiar Yue Ling Pavilion, but Zhou Yulin couldn't understand how she had suddenly returned here from Jinling. She remembered that she seemed to be watching a play in a tree, and then... then she lost all consciousness.
The sound of the door opening startled her. Zhou Yulin looked up and her eyes met those of Chen Muyao, who was dressed in a bright red wedding gown. The young man's eyes couldn't hide his mockery and amusement. "Awake?"
The red robes suited the young man perfectly. The jade bell at his waist jingled with each step he took, and the jade ornaments on his earlobes, along with the layers of red robes, outlined Chen Muyao's figure, which was somewhere between a boy and a man.
Seeing her nemesis dressed in such a flamboyant red outfit, Zhou Yulin was stunned for several seconds, still not understanding what was going on. Why was Chen Muyao wearing a wedding dress again? So she blurted out, "Are you getting married again?"
"Don't act innocent now that you've gotten the better deal, Zhou Yulin," the young man retorted sarcastically, his dark eyes sweeping over her indifferently, his tone full of meaning, "Don't you know best how this marriage came about?"
I know best.
Zhou Yulin felt that the scene was very familiar, but she couldn't remember when she had seen it, when it happened, or what happened afterward.
In short, she still didn't understand what had happened.
However, she quickly seized on the loophole in Chen Muyao's words, "You know I'm Zhou Yulin?"
"Who doesn't know the pure and virtuous Fairy Lingyue of the Xuanling Sect?"
These words were sarcastic and sarcastic, but Zhou Yulin had no time to pay attention to them. Her mind was completely focused on the words "finished." She had spread so many rumors about Chen Muyao. If this person held a grudge, wouldn't she be... finished?
A light drizzle had started falling outside the door sometime earlier.
The sound of rain pattering on banana leaves is pleasing to the ear.
Seeing Gu Ling squatting next to Zhou Yulin crying, Chen Mu rubbed his temples and whispered, "Get up."
Gu Ling stood up, his eyes red and swollen, and looked at the tall, composed Chen Muyao. He asked hesitantly, "Young Master, is Zhou Yulin really beyond saving?"
Chen Mu glanced at Jiang Zanghua, who was writhing like a maggot beside him, and instructed, "Take him away first, I'll catch up in a bit, there's a problem here."
Gu Ling nodded. He wasn't very strong and couldn't lift Jiang Zanghua, who had well-developed muscles. So he had to hang Jiang's arm around his neck and help him out little by little. But when he tried to open the door, he couldn't push it open even a little bit.
0.01 seconds later, the gate to the valley was locked.
A fraction of a second later, he belatedly realized that the group had probably fallen into Yu Tao'er's trap.
He turned to tell Chen Muyao, but Jiang Zanghua's hand touched the door frame first, activating the teleportation array. The two of them vanished instantly. Only Chen Muyao and Zhou Yulin remained in the room.
It took a long time before the boy got up from the wooden chair next to him.
He looked at Zhou Yulin, who had fallen into a deep sleep, with an extremely complicated expression.
Chen Mu sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up Zhou Yulin. It was at this moment that he realized how frail the woman who had been arguing and challenging him was. He lowered his eyes. After preparing himself for so long, he was still hesitant when it came time to actually start.
"Zhou Yulin, you must remember this." The fearless young man looked at the girl calmly, his tone unquestionable and resolute, "I entered the primordial spirit realm to save you, nothing else matters, not now and not ever again." In this brief moment, his eyes reflected only her.
Perhaps that's why I had fewer reservations.
Chen Mu lowered his head, his forehead gently touching the vermilion mark between the girl's brows. Pure white spiritual energy swirled around them.
Amidst the whispered tinkling of bells, their lips met.
The fusion of primordial spirits is not a dual cultivation technique, but it is even better than that.
He wanted to investigate the spirits; it was the only way.
However, the boy's usually composed and self-possessed demeanor was gradually shattered by what he saw in the dream. He trembled slightly, his earlobes turned red, and he pressed his lips tightly together to prevent himself from cursing the humiliation he had experienced in the dream.
Finally, as if they had just been pulled from the water, the dream came to an end. Chen Muyao opened his eyes first, his usual lazy and unrestrained demeanor gone. The young man took several deep breaths, not daring to recall anything from the dream.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then remembered that the person in front of him was also a victim, so he closed his mouth and chose to remain silent.
Zhou Yulin slowly woke up from her dream a quarter of an hour later. She didn't know what had happened in the dream, but she had never felt so comfortable all over. Turning her head, she immediately saw Chen Muyao calmly drinking tea by the wooden chair.
Where am I?
"In the underworld."
She had that infuriating look on her face again, but Zhou Yulin, who was in a good mood, was too lazy to argue with her. "That's great. It would be my honor to die in the same year and month as the famous Young Master Mu Yao." The implication was that what was the use of being strong? He would still die if he was destined to.
Are you feeling unwell?
"I'm fine, no need for you to worry."
Chen Muyao sneered, thinking he must be crazy to save this person. Spending too much time with Zhou Yulin made him realize he'd be the one annoyed enough to need to see a doctor.
"How did you and I end up together? What about Gu Ling and Jiang Zanghua? And you didn't do anything to me, did you?" Facing Zhou Yulin's suspicious gaze, the boy, who had been sulking, slightly curled his lips and changed the subject. "What, do you think I went to such lengths and schemes just to be in the same room with you?" He emphasized the words "went to such lengths and schemes" in particular. His leisurely gaze swept over Zhou Yulin, and his sarcasm was self-evident. He then calmly took a sip of tea.
Zhou Yulin stepped onto the stool next to Chen Muyao, trapping him in her own little world, and asked in a low voice, "Where did they go?"
"have no idea."
The answer Zhou Yulin gave was three words with distinct intonation.
She wasn't surprised. She looked around the room, found a burning incense burner in the corner, and quickly grabbed the teapot on the table, pouring the incense into the burner without any regard for Chen Muyao, who was leisurely sipping her tea. After extinguishing the incense, she opened the burner, frowned at the remaining incense, and thought, "Spring Breeze Powder?"
With the silver needles and the spring breeze, Zhou Yulin finally remembered—wasn't this the first dual cultivation scene in the original novel? So, the room they were in right now was probably the one where they couldn't leave without dual cultivation.
Zhou Yulin turned to look at Chen Muyao, who seemed completely unaffected, with a shocked expression: "Didn't you notice there was something wrong with this incense burner?"
The other party's answer was not important. She naturally did not believe that her mortal enemy could not even recognize the Spring Breeze Powder. To her surprise, this person was not as confused and delirious as described in the original work. Based on his eloquence in the argument with her just now, Zhou Yulin felt that this person was perfectly clear-headed.
"Strange." Zhou Yulin was also puzzled because it was different from what was written in the original novel. But the most important thing right now was to get out of the room, so she walked to the door, only to be bounced back. Looking at the purple array floating on the door, Zhou Yulin belatedly realized why this was the room where one could not leave without dual cultivation.
Legend has it that hundreds of years ago, a woman fell in love with a sword cultivator who practiced the ruthless path. The sword cultivator's heart was firm and he was unmoved by the woman. So the woman planted a love worm in his body. Unexpectedly, the sword cultivator preferred to suffer the torment of the worm every day rather than bow down and beg for the woman's favor.
One day, a woman offended the sect leader of the Hehuan Sect and was imprisoned in a dungeon. Upon hearing the news, the sword cultivator shouldered his sword and went alone to rescue her. As a result, the two were imprisoned in a secret chamber of the Hehuan Sect and were imprisoned for three days and three nights before being released. The sword cultivator broke through the Path of Ruthlessness, and only on their wedding day did he learn that his wife was the young sect leader of the Hehuan Sect.
The array formation in the secret chamber of the Hehuan Sect was passed down and is now in its current form.
Those who enter the formation must merge their souls to break it, regardless of gender.
"We're doomed, Chen Muyao. We're going to be trapped in this room for the rest of our lives."
Chen Muyao's magic was superb, so he naturally saw the Hehuan Formation on the door. However, he calmly offered a solution: "The formation can be broken by merging our souls."
To put it bluntly, Zhou Yulin already knows that.
"Does it have to be a lose-lose situation?" Hearing Zhou Yulin's sorrowful tone, Chen Muyao put down his teacup and said slowly, "Then what does Miss Zhou want? She's going to leave the gate, she's going to enter the secret realm, she's going to run away if problems arise, and she's not willing to suffer losses. Where in the world is there such a good thing?"
"Then there's no need to suffer such a great loss." Zhou Yulin wished her senior brother were here instead of this hateful, annoying guy. If her senior brother were here, he would surely come up with a solution that no one else could think of, instead of the two of them staring at each other like this.
After a long silence, Zhou Yulin almost blurted out, "Do you know the Unfallen Jade?" Hearing Chen Muyao's question, she almost blurted out, "Of course, right, this sword is no longer hers."
The Jade That Never Falls was a birthday gift that Master gave to Zhou Yulin when she was ten years old.
This sword held extraordinary significance for her.
Back then, before Bu Zhuiyu had developed any spiritual consciousness, she was on the brink of death on Yinshan Mountain. It was Bu Zhuiyu who accompanied her through that ordeal. It was Bu Zhuiyu who helped her rise from obscurity to fame, fighting her way up to the second-place position on the Qingyun Ranking.
In fact, Jiang Zanghua did not know that spiritual consciousness could be eliminated. It was just that few swords could generate spiritual consciousness, and Xu Zuiyue was reluctant to part with it. Chen Muyao asked this question without his usual sarcastic tone, as if he was just asking out of genuine curiosity. Although he was very angry, Zhou Yulin still answered, "This sword used to belong to Fairy Lingyue."
"You seem to pay quite a bit of attention to her." His tone remained lukewarm and sarcastic, but Chen Muyao's next sentence surprised Zhou Yulin. "No wonder that sword and she seemed so distant." Chen Muyao's words were quite impolite. Seeing the girl staring blankly at him, he frowned, somewhat puzzled, his words still venomous, "Did you get sand in your eyes?"
"Don't you think that once a person dies, the sword no longer belongs to her?"
When a person dies, their thoughts dissipate, and beyond life and death, even the sword seems to become an external object.
Chen Muyao glanced at Zhou Yulin meaningfully and said slowly, "Many of the sword owners recorded on Xiaobie Mountain have passed away. Whether they were human or ghosts, the swords just cannot be taken with them, but they are not without consciousness."
Looking at the young man who answered the question, Zhou Yulin felt her prejudice against him melt away like a glacier. At least he wasn't so bad after all.
"Chen Muyao, let's make a bet."
The cold light from the glass window reflected on the woman's determined profile. The handsome young man leaned back on the wooden bench, gazing at her with a lingering look in his eyes. The candlelight went out, and the man, having heard something amusing, chuckled softly, a rare hint of tenderness in his usually venomous lips. "Alright."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the door was pushed open from the outside, and Gu Ling ran in excitedly, “Luckily I was smart enough to run away, we were almost ambushed.”
Jiang Zanghua, who came in later, twisted his wrist without saying much. Xu Zuiyue was the last to enter. Her gaze was fixed on Chen Muyao, and she asked with concern, "Is Young Master Chen alright?"
As if she hadn't seen Zhou Yulin at all, the ignored Zhou Yulin was completely oblivious to Xu Zuiyue's double standards, and just looked at Gu Ling in disbelief, "How did you get in?"
Gu Ling was puzzled, so he demonstrated it to Zhou Yulin on the spot, "I just pushed the door open and came in. There was a seal on the door, I just tore it off and came in."
This is really strange. Zhou Yulin finally felt relieved and turned to look at Jiang Zanghua, who looked preoccupied. "You don't look well. What's wrong?"
Jiang Zanghua: "The formation brought us here, there must be some clues here."
Gu Ling got really into it, raising an eyebrow, "Isn't there a ready-made clue we can ask about?"
The clue was Yu Tao'er, who had been captured.
"I just beat someone up, so it's not appropriate to go and ask now. Why don't you go, Sister Yulin?" Xu Zuiyue said apologetically as they approached the door.
So Zhou Yulin pushed open the door and stepped inside. Just as she was about to speak, she heard the other person preemptively say, "I can teach you the art of lovemaking!"
Zhou Yulin was stunned. Why would she want to learn this?
"When you're out in the world, it's always good to have more skills! I bet you don't know any, young lady." Seeing that the other party was a little hesitant, Yu Tao'er quickly pressed her advantage and persuaded her.
The young beauty in front of her looked like she came from a respectable family and certainly wouldn't know such low-class tricks. Although it wasn't good to corrupt respectable people, it was a matter of life and death, and Yu Tao'er didn't want to be sent to the dungeon.
But after a long time without hearing a reply from the other party, just as Yu Tao'er thought the talks were about to fall apart, she looked up and found that the other party was actually starting to think about whether or not to learn this skill.
"Is it difficult?" Upon hearing this question, Yu Tao'er was overjoyed, almost ready to pull Zhou Yulin into a sworn brotherhood. "Hey! It's very simple. Let me tell you, our sect is just missing people like you, who are practically chased after by the heavens to be fed!"
Yu Tao'er hurriedly rummaged in her pocket and finally pulled out a tattered book, handing it to Zhou Yulin. "I'll give this advanced secret technique of the Hehuan Sect to you, Miss. Well... I'll be leaving now?"
Just as he was about to slip out the door, a voice suddenly called out, "Wait!"
Yu Tao'er immediately turned around and said obsequiously, "Is there something you didn't understand, Miss?"
"This is a fragment of a scroll." Looking at the high-level secret technique that had fallen to the ground after being picked up, Yu Tao'er chuckled twice. "Well, since it's a high-level secret technique, it's naturally something that ordinary people can't understand."
"However, I see that the young lady has extraordinary talent; she must be the destined one for this book!"
Yu Tao'er's flattery came out one after another as if it were free.
"What kind of formation is this that has trapped us today?"
Yu Tao'er dodged the question and said, "Hmm? You mean this, Miss? Well, I just randomly picked it up from a book."
"A Hehuan Formation you just randomly learned?" The girl narrowed her eyes, clearly not believing it.
Yu Tao'er's palms were sweaty. She pinched her palms and chuckled dryly, "I just love reading. I look around here and there. Besides, didn't you break the formation, ladies?"
It seemed that the other party didn't know much about the Hehuan Formation either, so Zhou Yulin had no choice but to believe for the time being that the Hehuan Formation wasn't that difficult to solve.
After all, Chen Muyao would have a soul fusion with her?
This is absolutely the funniest joke in the world.
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