That night.
In the garden of the nameless immortal mountain, wine cups were clinked and laughter filled the air.
Two figures avoided the commotion and sat nestled together in the shade of a tree.
The moonlight, hazy and indistinct, was carefully filtered through the branches and leaves, like a thin layer of frost, staining the boy's trembling eyelashes and his sparkling eyes.
"What are you thinking about, junior sister?"
Chu Hongluan looked up at the starry sky, her gaze seemingly piercing through the darkness and looking towards an unknown distance.
“Where I used to live, you couldn’t always see the stars. There were so many tall buildings, some twenty or thirty stories high, cutting the sky into pieces. The streets and buildings were always lit up all night. The lights were dazzling, vying with the stars. If you were downstairs and looked up, you would feel like a drop in the ocean.”
Her voice was calm and serene as she recounted the past in a descriptive tone.
She talked about the orphanage where she used to live, about her years of working and studying, and about her short twenty years living alone in that world.
"Yuehua and I come from the same place. It's just that he arrived much earlier than me... Perhaps it's the arrogance unique to our generation. When we first arrived, we both boasted that we wanted to save the world. He was, and so was I."
"He failed, and I... gave up."
Chu Hongluan revealed the whole truth, including the book "I Am a Sword Immortal," her identity as Eri, and her initial motivation for appearing in his life.
To be honest, she was also nervous when she talked about these things.
Putting aside whether it would be considered nonsense, the impure motives at the time of their first meeting were enough to become the point of contention that caused their relationship to crumble.
Even someone as unconcerned with details as him... would probably mind.
"As my junior sister said, in this world, Mo Yu is the protagonist. And my existence is to: accompany Mo Yu in the beginning; hone Mo Yu in the middle; and bring Mo Yu to his full potential in the end."
Chu Hongluan couldn't discern the emotions in his words, and chose to remain silent as if giving up on herself.
After a moment, he chuckled again, "What is this...?"
Chu Hongluan's heart froze in mid-air.
"All along, I have been cautious and anxious, never daring to speculate on how special my junior sister's feelings for me really are."
"So... from the moment my junior sister chose to stand on my side, she was already burdened with the pressure of betraying the whole world?"
"My junior sister rewrote my life with her own hands, turning the tide time and time again. Thinking about it... I have failed to live up to her feelings for me."
Liu Jinghong expressed his gratitude, which made Chu Hongluan both amused and annoyed.
Is this your focus?
Liu Jinghong blinked innocently: "Isn't that right?"
He tilted his head and thought carefully for a moment, then reorganized his words: "In the past, I was always very grateful to God for sending my junior sister to my side. But now that I think about it, I should be grateful for my junior sister's feelings. After all, the power of life and death is in my junior sister's hands, and my junior sister... chose to love me."
"Shut up! That's incredibly cheesy!"
Chu Hongluan rolled her eyes and muttered something, but the smile in her eyes was so thick it seemed to freeze into water.
The banquet ended at midnight.
The mistress of the pavilion kept Liu Jinghong and Chu Hongluan behind, and her words were like a thunderclap from a clear sky.
"I've found information about Phoenix Blood."
!!
"In the wilderness."
Chu Hongluan's breath hitched, and she instinctively gripped Liu Jinghong's sleeve tightly.
Liu Jinghong's expression was complicated. He turned his large hand over and enveloped her hand, offering silent comfort.
Yunzhu hadn't expected the two to react this way.
"The Wilderness... What's wrong? Don't worry, although the journey to the Wilderness is long and fraught with danger, A-Luan's swordsmanship is strong, and Jinghong has the Qian hexagram with her. I think as long as you avoid the Ten Thousand Demon Cave, nothing else can threaten you."
The problem lies in the Ten Thousand Demon Cave.
In the original story, Liu Jinghong perished in the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons. Although the beginning and course of the story have undergone earth-shattering changes... can the ending really be altered so easily by her?
She lacked that confidence, and dared not be blindly confident.
Seeing that they remained silent for a long time, Yunzhu's feigned relaxed smile faded.
"Or... do you also know about that matter?"
?
Their hearts tightened simultaneously.
What's up?
"Alright, now that you all know, I can no longer hide it from you. Indeed, your father perished in the wilderness back then."
Liu Jinghong's pupils contracted sharply, and she spoke with great difficulty, "W-what do you mean? Didn't you say that Father is still in a coma?"
Yunzhu was taken aback, then smiled wryly: "So you guys didn't know all this, making me lose my composure."
But now that things have come to this point, there's no way to hide it anymore.
"Twenty years ago, he divined that something was about to happen in the wilderness, that a demon race might be born and bring disaster to the people. So he and I went to the wilderness together—" At this point, her expression was sorrowful, as if she could not bear to recall it any longer. She opened her mouth, but hesitated, and when she spoke again, she had already omitted too much.
"In short, he is long dead and gone, leaving nothing behind. His so-called coma was nothing but a lie I fabricated to comfort the world. I've been waiting for you to grow up, to become capable enough to stand on your own, to inherit the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, and to carry on your father's legacy..."
"No!" Liu Jinghong's eyes were red, as if they were about to bleed.
"He had the world in his heart, was righteous and awe-inspiring, sacrificed himself for the common people... but he failed you the only one! He made you preside over the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion for so many years, with wolves and tigers watching you and making your steps difficult! I cannot turn a blind eye to your hardships and suffering!"
"I do not wish to be the head of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, nor do I wish to follow in his footsteps. I do not wish to cause you to lose your loved ones again, nor do I wish to betray the one I love."
Chu Hongluan never expected to hear such a secret today, and she never expected that Liu Jinghong would say something so disrespectful to the Pavilion Master of Tianji Pavilion in front of the Pavilion Master's wife.
She even imagined that the mistress of the pavilion was about to slap him across the face and call him an unfilial son! Then she would point at her nose and call her a vixen, blaming her for bewitching her son!
After all, that's how it's written in novels.
But the Pavilion Master's wife simply embraced Liu Jinghong gently and said softly, "These past years have been tough for you too. Everyone says our Liu family is blessed by Heaven, but to me, it's clearly punishment. As the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, one must be ready to sacrifice for the people at any time, yet the position of Pavilion Master must be passed down through generations of my Liu family..."
"There's no such logic in this world. Even if it's about taking advantage of others, they can't just target us!"
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