Her words rang out firm and resolute, leaving no room for compromise.
The crowd fell silent, unconvinced in their hearts yet not daring to act rashly. They only looked to their own elders, hoping the elders would refute her.
Zhao Yange was stunned by Liu Qiao’e’s speech for a moment. Then, he suddenly came back to his senses and was the first to step forward. He nodded. “Yuqing has no objections.”
The Yuqing disciples also remained silent.
Song Miaoling furrowed her brows and hesitated for a long time before saying, “I have no objections either.”
Lai Yongle sighed and looked toward Di Chong. “What about Friend Di?”
Di Chong glanced at Liu Qiao’e, coldly suppressing his inner dissatisfaction. “What Old Mother says makes some sense. Since all the elders agree, how could Supreme Harmony Sect dare to object?”
Lai Yongle said, “In that case, Wandering Sword Pavilion has no objections either.”
The villagers of Ren Family Village had thought their end was near. They were supporting the elderly and leading the young, weeping in sorrow, only to witness a sudden turn of events. Everyone stood stunned in place, dazed and bewildered.
Liu Qiao’e knew her current decision was somewhat unreasonable, but so what? She had cultivated to the Seven Realms not to read others’ faces, but so that others would have to weigh her face carefully.
After the matter, the villagers were ordered to quickly repair the elevator platform, and several Immortal Alliance disciples were assigned to supervise and assist.
Zheng Shen had escaped death and volunteered himself. Three days later happened to be the day the Demonic Sect disciples came to take over.
“A few villagers are grateful for Old Mother’s great kindness and are willing to step forward. At that time, they will lead everyone down to the underground to meet those Demonic Sect disciples.”
Liu Qiao’e neither affirmed nor denied it.
Afterward, she vanished from sight. Mu Daoying searched for her in the room where he had stayed with her before leaving, but found no trace.
He asked the passing villagers along the way. They now regarded her with both awe and fear, answering everything they knew without reservation.
In the end, Mu Daoying spotted that small figure on a distant hillside.
Damask flowers blazed across the mountains and plains like fire. A tall flowering tree grew on the hillside, and Liu Qiao’e sat beneath it, her skirt spread out, dotted with fallen petals on her lapel.
Mu Daoying hesitated for a moment and did not step forward.
He recalled the speech he had just heard.
If it was shock—no, it went beyond that. He had already vaguely understood her tolerance toward mortals.
It simply moved him still.
The plan had already failed. He did not know if his shizun was still in the area or if he would show up. Mu Daoying did not resent heaven or blame others, nor dwell on it. At this point, he could only seek another way out.
But there was one important matter at hand right now.
He had to apologize to Liu Qiao’e.
He took a deep breath, dusted off his sleeves, composed his expression solemnly, and was about to approach.
An icy voice stopped his steps.
“Do not come over.”
Mu Daoying could not help but look toward the small figure under the tree. “Old Mother?”
“Do not come over.” She sat beneath the tree, her side profile faint yet stern, like the mountain.
A gentle breeze lifted her black hair and the hem of her white skirt.
“I know why you ran.”
Mu Daoying’s expression changed slightly. He noticed that Liu Qiao’e did not look at him.
She merely sat sideways, her profile facing the distant valley carpeted in flowers.
Her voice reached Mu Daoying’s ears, uncharacteristically cold, like an icy mountain spring—chilling and bitter, making his heart clench slightly and a faint bitterness spread on his tongue.
He had never heard or seen her so cold. An ominous premonition surged in his heart.
But he had done wrong, after all, and an apology could not be omitted.
Mu Daoying steadied his mind, still wanting to salvage the harm he had caused.
He said lowly, “Old Mother, I’m sorry…”
“Why are you apologizing?” Liu Qiao’e asked.
Mu Daoying: “I shouldn’t have deceived you.”
Liu Qiao’e: “Deceived me? What did you deceive me about?”
Mu Daoying fell silent, as if a burning coal was stuck in his throat. The words were on the tip of his tongue, yet he did not know where to begin.
Deceive her about what? Naturally, he should not have drugged her and stolen the antidote for One Line Pull.
But the deeper reason—Mu Daoying opened his mouth, but could not speak it.
He had a premonition that once he revealed his previous scheme, everything would be beyond saving.
His heart felt panicked and empty, like holding flowing water in his hands—he could not grasp it and could only watch it slip away eastward.
If it were anyone else, they might not think so much. So what if a relationship began with deception? Why bring trouble on oneself and add worries?
After all, he truly had developed feelings for her.
He truly admired her. That was beyond doubt.
But Mu Daoying had always been somewhat stubborn. He could not pretend to be deaf and blind. He could not ignore the deception at the very start of this relationship. Feelings should be sincere and pure, like a stretch of white snow—once stained with ink, it felt wrong.
Mu Daoying felt a little sad in his heart. Not knowing where to start, he remained silent.
“You think an apology is enough?!” Liu Qiao’e finally stood up and turned her face.
The mountain flowers burned across her skirt hem like fire, twilight glow weaving into threads that embroidered large damask blooms on her dress.
Her black hair floated in the air, her whole person enveloped in a blaze of flame. She approached Mu Daoying step by step, shocking him with her brilliance. Overawed by her radiant presence, he retreated several steps.
“Wrong!” Liu Qiao’e said hatefully, her words sharp and severe!
“You think I’m one of those silly girls who gets dizzy from a few sweet words from her lover?!”
Mu Daoying slowly closed his eyes. He stood under the tree, his jade pendants hanging low, the gentleman upright and proper.
The disappointment in Liu Qiao’e’s heart nearly burned into a prairie wildfire.
He knew nothing at all!! He just stood there, soft and bright as water, elegant and pure. With damask burning like fire, his skirt hem was like the cold moon in water—untouched by the flames of love, merely floating as a reflected shadow on the clear surface.
He truly had no idea how much she liked him.
He had no idea how that slight gentleness he released made her tremble in fear and awe, heart pounding.
But what he had done was like slapping her across the face out of nowhere.
The dream had shattered. She was still that Liu Qiao’e, the frog lusting after the moon in the sky—ignorant of her place, shameless, and presumptuous.
She would rather have nothing from the start than have it play-acted and given to her, only to be taken away.
Mu Daoying did not understand why her reaction was so intense, the pain exploding from her bones and soul, as if traversing ages, shocking him to the core.
“Qiao’e…” Even if he did not fully understand, her all-encompassing love burned his skin painfully, bringing empathy through the ache.
“If I am sincere—” He turned his eyes away and said hoarsely.
“Come here.” Liu Qiao’e said abruptly.
She suddenly calmed down. He could not refuse her words and walked over.
Liu Qiao’e coldly traced his hair and brows with her gaze.
His eyelashes trembled, and he endured it silently. But the next second, Liu Qiao’e suddenly stood on tiptoe, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips to his.
Mu Daoying started in shock. “Qiao’e!”
He instinctively struggled, but soon softened under her kiss.
She was like a blaze of fire, and he was a pool of water.
At first, he held back reservedly, but in the end, he could not hold back. He could not help but embrace her waist in return and kiss her back.
He thought she would like it this way.
Perhaps men kissing the girls they liked was instinctive, without need for teaching. The surging desire made devouring his beloved a natural talent.
He kissed the corner of her lips lightly at first, patiently, bit by bit, to please her.
Once she relaxed, he slowly slipped his tongue in, like licking the sweetest frosting of the moment. Unwilling to swallow it all at once, he licked her meticulously, bit by bit, slowly sucking.
He was too afraid, lacking security. Amid the forceful entanglement of lips and tongues, faint wet sounds escaped.
This made the usually upright him slowly blush again, but the reassurance of their tangled lips and tongues fascinated him. He could not let go.
He melted her, turning her into a pool of water held in his palm.
She shuddered in horror. Mu Daoying thought she disliked it and hesitated amid their lingering lips and teeth, cautious. Liu Qiao’e’s tongue tip touched his, kissing him back.
He immediately perked up, as if greatly encouraged and inspired.
He strongly wanted to press close to her. He hugged her waist tight against himself, over and over, intensely wanting to press her into his body, to become an inseparable whole.
Liu Qiao’e felt that large hand with distinct joints, slender like plum bones. It stroked her waist repeatedly, unconsciously sliding up along her curves to her collar.
In matters of love, he was a green youth. With a little ploy, he became dazed. Under her deliberate indulgence—even enticement—Mu Daoying truly grew aroused from the kiss. His palm unconsciously kneaded her gently, soft as cotton, round as the moon, filling his hand.
The jade pendants at his waist jingled. Liu Qiao’e felt chilled to the bone from his touch. It was like he hid a ferocious beast—a round head with sharp horns poking at her leg. As she expected, it was terrifying.
She reached out and gently stroked it. His muscles tensed like a finely taut string. She plucked it twice casually, and he showed a helpless, vulnerable look. His throat rolled, eyes closing in difficulty.
As a clear, trembling sigh escaped his lips, she whispered something in his ear.
In an instant, it was as if a basin of ice water doused Mu Daoying. The unfamiliar, youthful surge within him rapidly receded. His face suddenly drained of all color, turning ashen as paper. He froze in place.
Liu Qiao’e seized the moment to shove him away and turned to leave without mercy.
And not long before, she had grabbed the jade gentleman pendant symbolizing his purity from his waist and struck his lower abdomen, maliciously grinding that large mass. While he was lost in passion, she pushed him away and said to him:
“What pretense of chastity before? Chanting the Serenity Scripture, reading sage books—what for?”
She sneered contemptuously.
“Truly cheap.”
–
Mu Daoying was the enemy come to collect her debt.
Though she had vented the malice in her heart fully, Liu Qiao’e felt no joy—well, perhaps a little.
She closed her eyes slightly and walked quickly, wind whistling past her ears.
That day, Luo Naji’s words oddly echoed in her ears.
She snapped her eyes open and shuddered all over.
A fire smoldered in her heart. Head down in a rush, she did not know when she had entered a chaotic grove of dead trees.
Crows cawed harshly, eerie winds gusting.
She seemed to see that person’s soft, dim smile, but as it laughed, it turned into a sinister interrogation.
Lady E, you promised me. Have you forgotten our vow?
Didn’t you say you loved me most?
No! She could not help shouting in her heart.
She was wrong.
She looked around in shock and suspicion, eyes darting, alert to every shadow. The swaying dead trees, the rustle of crow wings—all seemed like vengeance from the undead.
She even suspected that everything she experienced today was his revenge!
Perhaps she truly was wrong. She should not have—it was her being fickle. She had clearly promised him, yet upon seeing Mu Daoying, she lost her head again.
She should not love him. She should hate him deeply.
She was a woman who had fallen in love with two men at the same time.
Just as Chen Yuro had said that day.
“Your obsession with him is merely the three words ‘cannot obtain.’ People are always fixated on what they cannot have. Once obtained, it loses its novelty and appeal.”
She should hate him, but now she had entangled herself again!
She had been so thoroughly deceived by him. As if waking from a dream, she stopped and silently savored and chewed over the hatred of the past.
She would not fall into these matters of love again.
Liu Qiao’e returned to her lodgings.
Mu Daoying had originally stayed with her, but he did not return to the room that entire night.
Liu Qiao’e did not care about him, nor where he slept. Even if he slept in the wild, it had nothing to do with her.
In fact, Mu Daoying had nearly slept in the wild.
But in the end, he was spotted by Zhao Yange, who could not sleep at night. Zhao Yange took him back and gave him bedding to sleep on the floor.
Mu Daoying silently made the bed and folded the quilt. Zhao Yange knew his habits; this man was one of extraordinary willpower, a ruthless tough guy who barely slept more than a few days a year and made do with meditation instead.
He thought Mu Daoying would meditate too, but he did not. He straightened out the bedding, shrank his whole body inside, pulled the quilt up over his head, and curled into a ball.
Zhao Yange watched with doubts bubbling in his heart, but seeing his deathly pale face and utterly distraught expression, he did not dare disturb him.
Though the plan had failed, why did he look heartbroken as if from a breakup, in agony?
Having caused this situation, he felt some guilt in his heart.
He did not make a sound and hit the sack.
But in the middle of the night, Mu Daoying’s tossing and turning was too obvious. Zhao Yange endured it for a bit but finally could not hold back. “What’s wrong with you, exactly?”
He sat up and, in the dim moonlight, saw that large lump on the ground.
Mu Daoying still had himself completely covered by the quilt, and a clear youthful voice came muffled through it.
“No matter.”
“This clearly is a matter.” Zhao Yange rubbed his forehead.
“Did you quarrel with the Old Mother?”
“Qiao’e, she…” That large lump stiffened for a second, realized something was off, and decisively denied it. “No.”
“You even called her Qiao’e!” Zhao Yange was horrified.
“You didn’t actually fall for her, did you?”
The quilt lump fell silent.
Silence meant acquiescence.
Zhao Yange was horrified. “Really?”
The quilt lump said nothing.
Zhao Yange’s mind reeled as if struck by lightning.
After the thunder had passed for a while, he finally threw off the quilt, sat up, full of regret on his face. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have, I shouldn’t have told you to go coax her trust. Isn’t that like sending a lamb into a tiger’s mouth, or a chicken paying New Year’s respects to a weasel?!”
“What exactly is going on here?”
The quilt did not speak, only staying silent.
“We’ve known each other for so many years; is there anything we can’t talk about?!”
The quilt stayed silent for a good while before slowly speaking. “No matter, Shizun… I-I just don’t know what to do.”
When Ling Yuan was mentioned, Zhao Yange also fell silent.
One man, one quilt—they remained wordless in silence until dawn broke and the sky began to lighten in the east.