In the realm of lovesickness and death, "You...remember, don't lie to me..."
Yan Huanyue stepped into the black mist before her, followed by Lin Xiaofeng and Lu Shenchu.
Yu Zhao remained unconscious on the spot, with Wei Qingpei taking care of him, while Tan Guiyi stood there in a daze.
As soon as Yan Huanyue and the other two stepped into the black mist, they returned to the same courtyard.
The banquet in the courtyard is still there, but the servants who used to pour tea and wine are gone.
The three split up and searched each room, but they couldn't find the human skin.
However, Yan Huanyue found a fresh corpse in a basement, dressed in a wedding gown but with its skin peeled off.
The corpse was placed on a brand-new red lacquered table, beneath which was a small offering table with many offerings and a piece of five-colored pure glass floating with faint five-colored light.
As agreed, Yan Huanyue burned a talisman to summon Lin Xiaofeng and Lu Shenchu.
She walked to the altar and looked at the piece of clear glass. She saw five colors changing and flowing randomly on it. As she looked at it, her eyes started to blur.
She had to close her eyes and rub them, a breeze blowing past her.
Why is there wind in the basement?
She clenched her right fist and stabbed mercilessly to the side, but then someone laughed and said, "Why aren't you going to deliver flowers to the young master? What are you doing playing around here?"
Yan Huanyue turned her head to look, and saw that the snow was falling heavily.
The person speaking to her was a young man dressed in plain clothes and wearing a cloak.
She herself was still wearing the same clothes.
However, for some reason, his spiritual power was suppressed again, and the sword in his hand turned into a plum blossom when pointing at someone else's sword.
Illusion...
She withdrew the flower branch and asked, "Where is the young master now?"
The man pointed to a tall building standing alone among pine and bamboo trees. "You went there every day, and the young master waited for you every day. How could you have forgotten now?"
Yan Huanyue said no more and walked into the woods with the flower branch in her hand.
The high-rise building was empty and eerily quiet.
Yan Huanyue held the flower branch, broke off the end into thorns, and walked up the high building, inspecting each floor.
When we reached the top floor, the copper bells on the eaves inexplicably rang softly in the vast, white wilderness.
The snow fell even heavier.
A window in one of the rooms was pushed open a crack from below, as if someone was afraid of the cold. From behind the brocade curtain, a fair and slender hand reached out.
Yan Huanyue placed the flower branch in that hand, keeping only the branch she had broken off.
The person inside the window said nothing, but simply put the flower back and closed the window.
Yan Huanyue was about to open the window when several men in plain clothes suddenly appeared in front of and behind her. One of them asked her, "Why aren't you going back to your residence? Why are you still lingering here?"
Yan Huanyue had no choice but to silently go downstairs, stand under the eaves, and look at the wind and snow in the courtyard, wondering how to break the deadlock in such a place.
The person sweeping snow in the courtyard looked at her and said, "Young lady, go back and rest. It's too cold."
Yan Huanyue said, "I just tripped and fell, and my leg hurts a bit. Could you take me home?"
The boy sweeping snow dropped his broom, ran to the eaves, helped her up, and took her back to her home.
Before leaving, he instructed, "If the snow is still so heavy tomorrow morning, don't go to deliver the flowers."
After he left, Yan Huanyue paced back and forth in the room, looking around.
The room was elegant, unlike what one would expect from a maid. She waited for a long time, but no one came to call her to do anything.
She hid a small knife in her sleeve and wandered around the room.
There was nothing else unusual about this place, except that it was unusually quiet and people were behaving strangely.
She always felt like there was a pair of eyes watching her, and she suspected it was someone from the high-rise building.
But whenever she went up to the top of the building, it was unusually quiet inside, and she couldn't find a single person.
Only when she was about to step into the highest window would a few people suddenly appear to remind her that it was time to go down.
This happened several times.
She challenged them repeatedly, but the men in plain clothes did not get angry. They simply reminded her again and again, as if it were a preordained task.
Therefore, the key to breaking the deadlock naturally lies with that young master.
She killed the previous young master who carried a wooden box made of human skin; it remains to be seen whether killing this one will be just as easy.
Or perhaps, he's just a decoy, and something else might be behind him.
But that's not important right now; what's important is that she gets into that room first.
For several days in a row, Yan Huanyue would go up to deliver a flower.
Whenever she wanted to stay a little longer, someone would come and remind her.
She tried to fight back, but her spiritual power was suppressed, and she was no match for these people.
She climbed onto the roof, intending to break through it to get inside, but those people would suddenly appear on the roof to remind her to come downstairs.
She waited until spring, and apart from delivering flowers every morning, no one asked her to do anything else.
It's too peaceful, like being in prison.
She broke off a jasmine branch with green leaves and white flowers, walked across a vast wilderness from which she could not go any further, returned to the foot of the tall building, and walked step by step to the top floor.
The light and shadow of the carved window frame flowed across her snow-white hand as she handed the jasmine flower inside.
The person inside the window gently picked up the flower branch between her fingers, preparing to take it inside.
Yan Huanyue asked, "Young Master, you look at me every day. What is it that you want to see?"
The hand holding the flower branch paused for a moment.
In that instant, Yan Huanyue noticed something different from before, and she grabbed his hand.
Sure enough, as long as he didn't withdraw his hand, the men in plain clothes wouldn't appear.
Seeing that no one was around, Yan Huanyue simply raised her hand and pushed the window open. When she saw who was inside, her eyebrows twitched.
At the table filled with books, Pei Xuanzhi looked up at her with a detached expression, and a familiar, cool fragrance drifted towards her.
Yan Huanyue leaped into the room from the window.
The person inside remained kneeling by the table, picking up scissors and pruning the flower branches.
Vases were placed throughout the room, filled with the flowers she had once sent.
Yan Huanyue snatched the scissors from his hand, grabbed his collar, pushed him onto the brocade cushion on the ground, raised the scissors to his eyes, and asked with lowered eyes, "What are you?"
The person on the ground watched her silently, clutching the jasmine branch in their hand tightly, without saying a word.
He neither resisted nor denounced; killing him seemed like a simple matter...
But when faced with Pei Xuanzhi's face, Yan Huanyue still hesitated.
The illusion was so realistic that even his subtle expressions and the cool fragrance emanating from his body were depicted.
"If you break free from the illusion, I will not harm you."
The person on the ground blinked their clear eyes, their long eyelashes brushing against the sharp tip of the scissors.
He said softly, "Only death can solve this."
Yan Huanyue grabbed his neck, feeling the pulse throbbing in his neck. She was momentarily confused and softly called out, "Xuanzhi?"
The young man in white turned his head to look at the jasmine branch. "I have no name. The crabapple blossoms outside the eaves are in bloom. Could you please pick a branch for me tomorrow?"
Yan Huanyue gently covered his eyes and said softly, "Okay, what else do you want? I'll give you anything."
The scissors were pressed against his heart, but he didn't struggle for a moment.
Suddenly, he grabbed her wrists holding the scissors with both hands, plunged them into his own heart, and slowly said, "You... remember, don't lie to me..."
Everything before her eyes suddenly vanished, a cool breeze swirled around her for a moment, and then disappeared completely.
She removed her hand from her eyes, and a faint light still floated on the five-colored crystal glass.
The illusion was truly bizarre, yet Yan Huanyue felt inexplicably uneasy.
Even though it was all fake, she still wanted to see Pei Xuanzhi to confirm that he was safe and sound.
Lin Xiaofeng was the first to run into the basement.
Lu Shenchu arrived shortly after and, upon seeing the corpse on the large red-lacquered table, exclaimed in surprise, "My goodness, what kind of method is this?"
He was about to step forward when he said that.
Yan Huanyue blocked her way and said, "This Pure Glass can weave an illusion, let's destroy it first."
Lin Xiaofeng shot an arrow, and the Pure Glass suddenly exploded, revealing a complete skull inside.
She laughed and said, "Oh? The Realm of Longing for Life and Death. Fortunately, fellow Daoist, your obsession is not too deep, otherwise you would have already helped it weave an illusion and become addicted to it, feeding all your lifespan to this skeleton."
Yan Huanyue asked, "What do you mean?"
Lin Xiaofeng said, "Thinking of love, thinking of power, thinking of wealth—naturally, the lifespan of these desires should be determined by how long one enjoys them. It's perfectly fair."
Yan Huanyue was somewhat taken aback. Although the illusion lasted only a blink of an eye, she had been trapped in it for nearly five months. Fortunately, she had never become addicted to it for even a moment.
Actually, the illusion didn't seem to tempt her much; she didn't have anything to be obsessed with.
Just then, the corpse on the offering table began to churn, and moments later, a human skin emerged from its mouth, shouting, "You bastards! It's just a spirit... How dare you destroy my offerings!"
Lu Shenchu tossed out a copper coin and laughed, "Shameless to this extent, swallowing your pride, you're quite an interesting person."
The human skin flapped incessantly in the air, and a fierce wind swept through the room.
"You ruined my wedding, made the guests go hungry, and then you peeked at my body, causing me to lose my chastity. How rude of you!"
Lu Shenchu hurriedly said, "The skin was indeed peeled clean, but don't talk nonsense about this kind of thing."
Lin Xiaofeng raised his hand and shot a few arrows through the human skin. She cursed fiercely, "You damned woman, you're jealous of me, so you want to ruin my skin!"
As soon as he finished speaking, black mist crawled in from all directions, trying to cover the place up. Lin Xiaofeng and Lu Shenchu jumped into the black mist above to catch the human skin that was trying to hide in the mist.
Yan Huanyue looked at the corpse on the offering table, pounced over, cut open the corpse with a knife, and dug out a small, white jade seal.
The billowing black mist grew thicker and thicker, and the freshly peeled corpses on the offering table withered and decayed rapidly, while the human skin in mid-air grew increasingly yellow and withered.
He said in despair, "Impossible...impossible..."
At that moment, the earth shook and the house trembled, and the three of them quickly ran out.
The mansion was instantly reduced to rubble, and countless demons emerged from the ground, fighting amongst themselves.
The chaotic demonic tide swept Tan Guiyi and Wei Qingpei into it, leaving them no choice but to fight the demons first.
However, these monsters were killing each other, not to hurt them. It was just that as the number of monsters increased, they were bound to be accidentally injured, so they had no choice but to fight them indiscriminately.
Holding the jade seal, Yan Huanyue moved freely through the demonic tide.
This jade seal is not the Azure Moon Cup that Tan Guiyi obtained in her previous life, but it is quite useful in this world.
She originally planned to cripple Yu Zhao completely when she left the secret realm, but she didn't expect the opportunity to come so quickly.
But we can't take this opportunity to kill him.
If anyone dies in the secret realm, the Mingde Sect will definitely conduct a thorough soul search on the companions, no matter what.
If the injury is severe, especially in full view of others, and the person is aware of the cause, then there is no need for a thorough soul search. After all, a soul search will damage the soul searcher's consciousness.
But it's hard to say whether the Yu family will request a soul search...
Taking advantage of the chaos, Yan Huanyue dragged Yu Zhao away, killed a demon, tore his back apart with the demon's bones, cut out his spiritual root, and threw it into the demon horde.
Then he ran to the place furthest away from Yu Zhao, ate a pill, and was struck by a demon, whose claws dug into his collarbone.
If she is also seriously injured, even if they search her soul, there is no reason to search her soul. She has to think more about this.
She suddenly coughed up blood and crushed the jade seal in her hand.
In an instant, the demons vanished, the world was cleansed, and a brightly lit crevice appeared in the distance.
"Senior Brother Yu! Senior Brother Yu..."
Yan Huanyue's face was streaked with blood and tears as she vomited blood and crawled toward Yu Zhao's blood-stained, broken body in the distance.
As he crawled, he suddenly stopped, his whole body convulsed, and he vomited blood. In a moment, he completely lost consciousness.
When she woke up, she was already in the Mingdezong guesthouse.
A small table sat beside the bed, lit with candles and incense, the wisps of smoke curling among the jasmine blossoms in a vase.
She could still faintly discern the lingering cold fragrance emanating from Pei Xuanzhi.
Inside the main hall, one could hear people talking in hushed tones.
A short while later, after a noise at the main gate, someone came over and pushed open the small door to the inner room.
Yan Huanyue turned her head to look at the door. The young man was dressed in white, and the longevity lock pressed against the lapel reflected the dim candlelight.
He looked even paler, and his whole demeanor showed signs of exhaustion.
Seeing that she was awake, he turned around, closed the door, coughed a few times, and walked to the bedside to sit on the edge of the bed.
While fiddling with the medicine bottles on the bedside table, he said in a low voice, "Elder Feng came just now and said we can stay a while longer."
When Yan Huanyue spoke, her voice was extremely hoarse.
She asked softly, "How many days have I been asleep?"
"It's been three days."
Pei Xuanzhi put down the medicine he had prepared, turned around and lifted the brocade quilt covering her to loosen her clothes.
Yan Huanyue grasped his hand, her eyes full of confusion.
Pei Xuanzhi said calmly, "If you don't want me to apply the medicine for you, then remember to do it yourself."
After saying that, he withdrew his hand, covered her with the blanket, got up and poured a cup of hot water on the small table.
Yan Huanyue gently grasped his robe. "I forgot I was injured. Please help me."
Pei Xuanzhi did not refuse. He sat down on the edge of the bed again, lifted the brocade quilt, untied her sash, and half-removed the clothes from her left shoulder.
The white gauze covering the wound was removed, and the pain gradually returned.
Yan Huanyue frowned slightly in pain and asked softly, "Xuanzhi, how is Senior Brother Yu?"
The cool ointment was slowly and deliberately applied to the wound below the collarbone with a silver spoon.
Pei Xuanzhi looked at the three gruesome claw marks on her fair skin and said expressionlessly:
"Senior Brother Yu is still unconscious. However, I'll feel more at ease if Senior Sister goes to see him in person after she recovers."
Yan Huanyue coughed and said in a hoarse voice, "That's true."
Pei Xuanzhi put away the silver spoon, held the clean white gauze, and leaned over her, gently blowing on the ointment on her wounds.
It's both itchy and painful.
Yan Huanyue inhaled his cool fragrance, unconsciously clenching the bedding beneath her, forcibly suppressing her breathing, but her chest heaved even more uncontrollably.
Pei Xuanzhi looked at the butterflies fluttering on her bulging dress; he could make them dance with just a gentle breeze.
"Senior Sister Yan..." He couldn't help but gently blow a breath of cool air onto the butterfly, and it indeed trembled slightly.
His Adam's apple bobbed slightly as he breathed cool air onto her chest, saying in a clear, cold voice, "Senior Brother Yu is more seriously injured than you, so don't be too sad when you see him."
He straightened up and began to bandage her wound in a serious manner.
Ignoring the places he touched intentionally or unintentionally, Yan Huanyue shifted her attention and asked, "Has Emperor Mingde investigated Senior Brother Yu's matter?"
Pei Xuanzhi said casually, "Fellow Daoist Tan used Senior Brother Yu as a shield against demons, and the Mingde Sect searched her soul that very day. Her soul consciousness was released outwards, and everyone saw it. They also saw how heartbroken Senior Sister was when she hugged him..."
Yan Huanyue was overjoyed, and even the charred bones in her soul seemed to be crackling and grinning.
She sighed, "Alas, we are fellow disciples after all. Senior Brother Yu is truly a genius who is envied by heaven."
Pei Xuanzhi tied the white veil, bent down and half-lifted her up, took the warm water that had been sitting on the table for a long time, and brought the rim of the cup to her lips.
Yan Huanyue was already thirsty, so she took a sip from the rim of the cup and began to drink.
Pei Xuanzhi looked down at her and said in a low voice, "I will be going to the back mountain for a while tomorrow. I originally asked a female cultivator from the Mingde Sect to take care of you. Now that you are awake, what arrangements do you want to make?"
Yan Huanyue quenched her thirst and said, "It's fine as you say, but what are you going to do in the back mountain?"
Pei Xuanzhi gently squeezed her shoulder and said softly, "It's just seclusion."
After he left that night, Yan Huanyue never saw him again. However, for some reason, she felt a burning sensation in her chest, which she thought was due to her wound.
Within five days, she was able to get out of bed and move around, and the wound on her collarbone had scabbed over and healed.
On the tenth day, upon hearing that Yu Zhao had regained some consciousness and was able to respond to the outside world, she immediately went to visit him.
The members of the Yu family had already arrived, and each of them looked grim.
Wei Qingpei spoke to her in the manner of Madam Yu Zhao, constantly reminiscing about the events of that day, searching for shared memories, and incidentally bringing up Tan Guiyi in her conversation.
When Yan Huanyue arrived, she heard that her eldest sister, Wei Zhaopei, had already come and had a big fight with her, ordering her to go home immediately and not to stay here to look after Gu Yuzhao.
They even forcibly took her away once.
But Wei Qingpei is still here to this day.
Every day, Wei Zhaopei would come to Yu Zhao's room to drag Wei Qingpei back, regardless of how unpleasant it was to see her. It seemed that if Wei Qingpei didn't give up, she would completely sever all ties with the Yu family.
In front of the Yu family, Wei Qingpei wept with sorrow and said to Yan Huanyue:
“I’m sincere. No matter what Young Master Yu looks like, I’m willing to spend my whole life with him. But my eldest sister just doesn’t understand. She even complains that the Yu family kept me here…”
Yan Huanyue looked at her. Logically speaking, whether it's a sect or a noble family, there should always be ways to restrict people's movements.
However, Wei Zhaopei did not approve of Wei Qingpei's behavior, but she was also reluctant to actually punish her, so she could only force her to turn back under pressure.
Yan Huanyue had been living in the sect since childhood. Even though the discipline wasn't strict, she was still not as comfortable as others at home.
She didn't know how people with families got along with their relatives, nor did she understand why decisive people like Xue Yuannian and Wei Zhaopei could spoil their younger siblings so badly.
She looked at Yu Zhao, whose eyes were covered by a white veil, from the bedside. A pair of eyes, a spiritual root, half a life...
That's not enough.
She was quite interested to see how he would struggle in the world after he woke up.
She clearly didn't do anything on the surface. In fact, in the scene where Tan Guiyi was being searched, she was the one who rushed over to save Yu Zhao and cried her heart out.
But the members of the Yu family couldn't help but speculate that she was there to watch the spectacle.
Especially Yu Zhao's mother. Yan Huanyue had only been happily watching Yu Zhao by his bedside for a short while when Yu's mother coldly told her to leave.
Sigh...
Yan Huanyue forced herself to cry, "Although Senior Brother Yu is crippled, he won't die anytime soon, so please don't be too sad."
Yu's mother was so angry that she wanted to tear her face apart.
.
That night, she took a pleasant bath and meditated for a long time before lying down on the bed and drifting off to sleep.
Just as she lost consciousness, a sudden, intense burning sensation shot through her chest, jolting her awake. She clutched her clothes for a moment, then suddenly realized something.
She was not familiar with the terrain of Mingdezong, but she had Pei Xuanzhi's clothes.
She cast a tracking spell, swirling it around his clothes a few times.
Then they flew to the continuous mountains of Mingdezong, and followed the scent left on his clothes to search for him in the mountains below Xuantian.
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 23:47:47 on December 14, 2023 and 00:03:29 on December 17, 2023!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: ndWXY 1;
Thank you to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Seven Days Without Food 24 bottles; Did You Think Seriously Today? 20 bottles; Half Old 15 bottles; Sacrificial Wine 13 bottles; Peach Blossoms, Give a Place to Silly Silly, Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes, and Roaring Loves to Drink Water 10 bottles; Not Talented, H-Chou, and Witch Illusion i 6 bottles; Invincible Cute Mouse, Spring Breeze, Ruthless Drug Machine, Half City of Wind and Moon Xuan Yi, I'm Definitely Got Ashore, Big Brother, and Chu Chu 5 bottles; Little Panda Cat Head, kurosakiiji, A Batch of Cute, Balabala, Returning Crane, 42293163, Orange 彡, Zhou Man's Sword Bone, Author, Update Quickly!, Little Rabbit Slayer, White Teeth Laugh, and Pigsy 1 bottle;
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