The change happened in an instant. A heavy purple hue suddenly appeared, startling the butterflies by the stream. The sound of bells rang incessantly in the air.
A pale hand suddenly gripped the girl’s wrist, leaving her no chance to escape. In truth, the butterflies had transformed into a person, scaring her so much that she froze in place.
The girl couldn’t react in time, but Ci Yuan looked up and immediately noticed the other person.
The black-clothed sword cultivator looked familiar, but at that moment, Ci Yuan’s expression turned ugly. He didn’t recognize the man’s background at all.
His expression was icy cold, filled with apparent anger. He moved his lips—
Shameless thing, daring to seduce someone else’s dao companion…
The curse hadn’t even left his mouth when his killing intent surged forth without restraint, directed straight at the black-clothed sword cultivator.
The newcomer was clearly hostile. Yun Jian only saw this man suddenly appear, grabbing the girl with one hand while striking at him with several streams of spiritual power with the other.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. Yun Jian was incredibly fast too. He instantly drew his sword, shattering those eerie streams of spiritual power.
The clash of spiritual energy was ear-piercing. With one sword, he didn’t know what he had sliced apart, but a sharp cry rang out, followed by fragments of insect corpses falling to the ground.
The air currents shook violently, exposing the vast gap in cultivation between the two: one at Mahayana Realm, the other at Tribulation Transcendence Realm.
It seemed the purple-robed man looked down on the Tribulation Transcendence youth. He tugged at the corner of his mouth. The black-clothed sword cultivator, whose cultivation was at a disadvantage, showed no fear and stared him down intently.
The two men clashed the moment they met, moving so fast that Li Yin’s Golden Core Realm eyesight couldn’t keep up. In her moment of stunned daze, she caught a glimpse behind the heavily purple figure—a rift tearing open in space.
She seemed to have seen this technique somewhere before. It vaguely resembled the void-shattering method used by the demonic cultivator during that assault.
As they exchanged blows, Ci Yuan had just opened the rift. Realizing he intended to flee, Yun Jian struck out with his sword again.
A mere Tribulation Transcendence cultivator…
“Overreaching,” the purple-robed man sneered silently, tugging at his mouth again.
“Let go!” the black-clothed sword cultivator roared in fury. His sword intent surged dramatically, slashing straight toward the man’s face.
In that sudden outburst, the sword intent was extraordinary. A golden rainbow shot into the clouds. Even the vast cultivation gap couldn’t stop its momentum. Layer after layer of the man’s protective spiritual spells were shattered by the sword intent, directly breaching a Mahayana cultivator’s body.
Blood splattered on the spot, but both men paused in shock.
Yun Jian was stunned to see that the man’s instinctive reaction wasn’t to block his attack. Instead, he reached out and pulled the girl behind him protectively.
Ci Yuan was also momentarily taken aback. It was nothing else—this damned sword cultivator, clearly a major realm below him, had actually broken through his protective spells with sword intent and injured his face!
The sword wound was deep enough to expose bone. The sword intent was devastating, sending blood flying and ruining half his appearance.
Before the girl in his arms could see, he quickly covered half his face, blocking the deep wound.
The blood was poisonous. The toxic blood instantly turned into mist. His purple eyes glared viciously at the black-clothed sword cultivator. Then, holding the girl in his arms, he plunged straight into the rift behind him.
It had all happened in less than a breath’s time. Li Yin finally reacted. Just before the spatial rift closed, she shouted toward the black-clothed Sword Venerable.
“Senior, save me—”
Echoing her voice was the little junior brother’s cry: “Senior Sister!”
Yun Jian swung two more swords in quick succession. One shattered the poison mist, and the other struck straight at the man. But it only hit the rift that had just closed. The man had already used the poison mist as cover to take his senior sister away.
Senior sister! Senior sister! Senior sister!
The youth’s breathing grew heavy. After repeatedly challenging a Mahayana cultivator beyond his level, his spiritual energy overloaded. Cracks spread inch by inch along his sword-holding arm, blood trickling down in streams.
His breathing grew heavier and heavier. It was no exaggeration to say his eyes were nearly splitting. On the verge of exploding, he forcibly suppressed it.
Yun Jian quickly calmed down. He raised his hand to his forehead, rapidly analyzing the situation.
Judging from the man’s instinctive action just now, he probably wouldn’t harm her. She might know him, or he might know her. His senior sister was temporarily safe. He still had a chance…
The man’s appearance and attire were extremely distinctive. He seemed to be… from Medical Poison Valley?
Medical Poison Valley—a Mahayana cultivator with purple eyes…
No time to regulate his breathing. A streak of light shot into the sky from the ground, instantly heading toward Medical Poison Valley. Using Shrink Earth into Inch, he chased after them in an instant.
–
After being carried through the rift, Li Yin and the man landed on the ground together.
Surrounding them was thick mist. The plants on the ground and trees had strange colors, awakening the player’s memories from her past playthrough. This should be near Medical Poison Valley.
Medical Poison Valley was at the far east of the Dao Sect lands, in a remote location bordering the Demon Domain. With a Mahayana cultivator’s methods, he had brought her across half the continent in the blink of an eye.
As she reeled in successive shocks, the man still gripped her hand without letting go. Instead, he turned his face away, covering it while facing away from her.
He had a gu insect in his body. The Wandering Immortal Gu had crossed the distance here and was now using flesh gu to heal the sword wound.
The sword intent was fierce, threads of it drilling into his skin and flesh, trying to invade his meridians. The pain meant nothing to a Mahayana cultivator, but his brows furrowed tightly, his expression filled with unrelenting fury.
Being injured on the face was even more intolerable to him.
After a few breaths, once his appearance had fully restored, the man finally released his hand, revealing a face that was completely healed and flawless.
He turned his now perfect and beautiful face toward the girl he had brought back.
Li Yin struggled several times but couldn’t break free from his grasp. Instead, his grip tightened.
Compared to the hot-blooded sword cultivator, his fingers were slightly cool, cold like a snake’s.
Ci Yuan looked at her vigilant gaze and said gloomily, “Is that your new lover? Nothing special…”
He was about to mock her further when his fingertip suddenly rubbed against something. His brows furrowed abruptly.
Her bone age was off.
No matter what, her bone age didn’t match. The girl struggled again, her expression vigilant yet tinged with fear as she looked at him.
All his sudden actions had clearly frightened her.
If she truly was reincarnated, she probably didn’t remember past events. But everything he had just done was surely seen by her eyes.
“You’re… not right—” Ci Yuan’s fingers suddenly tightened. The girl immediately retreated half a step. A stab of pain hit his heart, and he promptly loosened his grip.
“You…” The man pursed his lips. “Do you still remember who I am?”
He even softened his tone.
Li Yin took in all these changes.
The player quickly judged the situation and chose to maintain her guarded stance. She even drew her sword, pointing it directly at him.
The girl feigned realization, bluffing, “How would I know who you are? Let go! Where is this place? What do you want?”
Facing a stranger with an unfriendly attitude, her reaction was… normal enough.
His purple eyes narrowed slightly, scanning her reactions one by one, lingering on her slightly trembling hand.
Was she truly forgetting, or pretending?
He wasn’t close with Pill Cauldron Sect’s Elder Fu, but they had some interactions. The elder was skilled in artifact forging—for instance, the bracelet on the girl’s wrist seemed to faintly bear his handiwork.
How could a Mahayana cultivator’s item be obtained so easily? The only bias Elder Fu had shown was that strand of demonic qi discovered in Pill Cauldron Sect.
A demonic cultivator, or something else?
Using a special gu, he could pierce some of the girl’s disguise but couldn’t read her thoughts.
Faced with her alert demeanor, he pointed at the tip of her sword with two fingers and flicked it away effortlessly. “You really remember nothing?”
His voice turned cold, his narrowed purple eyes conveying suspicion. But Li Yin clearly felt the grip on her wrist lighten considerably.
In the standoff, it was the man who lowered his head first. He pursed his lips several times before saying softly, “I… am your dao companion from your previous life.”
Li Yin found it hard to refute. She kept a vigilant expression on her face.
The man’s purple pupils stared at her intently, his expression unchanged as he continued, “Our relationship was great… We were very much in love.”
Li Yin: …What nonsense.
Doubt flickered across the girl’s face.
Then, the man grasped her hand, guiding her fingertip. He lowered his head, pressing his face into her palm. “You really liked this face of mine.”
Every feature of his face was exquisite. His skin was coldly pale like porcelain, perfectly complementing his intensely purple pupils. His features were ethereally beautiful, alluringly demonic yet immortal, unlike any mortal.
At this moment, he seemed to yield to her. The aggression in his brows and eyes vanished completely. He appeared docilely pressed against her palm, the silver earring by his cheek hidden in his ink-black hair, glinting faintly.
Faced with such a face and such a disarmed posture, Li Yin found it hard to retort further. Besides, what he said was true.
Li Yin: …That much is true.
With beauty right before her, it worked wonders. The girl’s guarded stance indeed relaxed a bit.
Before her, the beauty’s long lashes drooped, veiling his gaze. The deep purple of his eyes reflected her softening expression.
Just like before…
Lustful fool.
The beauty suddenly let out a cold snort, revealing a hint of mockery. “See? Even now, you still like this face of mine.”
His aggression returned. Li Yin didn’t succumb to the beauty. She flung his hand away and pointed her sword at that beautiful face again. “Appreciating beauty is human nature. Don’t think that looking good lets you talk nonsense.”
Ci Yuan’s sharp eyes spotted it at once. Her sword, and the sword tassel and knots hanging from the hilt—they seemed to match that damned sword cultivator’s pair.
His face turned cold. “This sword? Did that man from earlier give it to you?”
The girl hesitated before answering, “Yes.”
The beauty let out a cold laugh. “Do you know what those knots symbolize? Some wild man from who-knows-where, up to no good…” Throw this sword away.
Halfway through, seeing the disapproval in the girl’s eyes, Ci Yuan paused, swallowed his words, and changed tack with a cold voice. “Who knows if he’s tampered with this sword.”
With icy detachment, he pushed the sword tip aside. “Don’t point something you got from someone else at me.”
The girl retorted indignantly, “It’s a good sword, and that senior is a good person.”
“How do you know he’s a good person?” Valley Master Ci Yuan sneered coldly. “Just because he looks good?”
Li Yin choked, then quickly regained her rhythm. “That senior helped me all along the way out of kindness. Of course I know he’s a good person. As for you, you suddenly jumped out, scaring me half to death and attacking someone else without reason. And you expect me to believe your baseless words?”
Who knew the man would tug at his mouth. “I have proof. How could I not?”
With a mocking expression, something suddenly appeared in his hand. White paper with black ink, written words—not jade, just a sheet of paper. He held it before her eyes.
Looking at the beginning, Li Yin was stunned.
It was a marriage contract.
Was there a marriage contract back then? Did this save file have one too?
There seemed to be a hasty one, but she had vaguely skipped through the process, jumping over it. Why did the game designers add such detail…
No, no—why did he still have it? Based on what happened in the save file, shouldn’t it have been voided long ago? Torn up and thrown away at least.
The girl was shocked into silence. The man pointed at the two names on the contract. “This is you. This is me. I am your dao companion. What more do you have to say?”
The player nearly blurted out that it had been annulled long ago.
Li Yin swallowed the words in time. Saying it would expose her.
The so-called marriage contract was very light. One end drifted gently into her hand, the other still in the man’s. Each held one end, and golden light flickered between the lines.
Her aura matched exactly the one from her previous reincarnation.
“Cultivators’ marriage contracts are enchanted. If you claim I forged this paper, it lit up when it touched you, proving your aura is sealed inside. What more do you have to say?” Ci Yuan pressed, blocking her escape and leaving no room for excuses.
Li Yin was so startled that she let go.
The marriage contract fell. He caught it in time. Seeing her panicked and flustered state, Ci Yuan watched coldly and let out another cold snort.
But in the end, with the contract’s spell confirming it again, his attitude wasn’t so icy anymore.
He carefully stowed the item away and nodded slightly. “Come back with me.”
As his words fell, the surrounding poison mist parted, forming a path into the valley. The man turned and walked ahead, seemingly unconcerned whether she followed or not.
The girl stood in place, hesitating repeatedly, before hurrying after him. She seemed to believe his words and identity.
She was still clutching that sword that irritated him so much. The sword tassel swayed. Though it truly displeased him to no end, he said nothing more.
Halfway there, Ci Yuan suddenly broke the silence. “Take off the Disguise Treasure on you. What are you hiding your head but showing your tail for? Hiding from whom?”
If there was someone who would hide from him, it was either a demonic cultivator concealing their identity with disguise, or… his wife.
With the probe out, the girl seemed oblivious. “How did you see through my disguise?”
Ci Yuan lowered his gaze and stroked the ornament at his waist. The silver trinkets jingled softly. “I have the Cave Truth Gu.”
Li Yin touched her wrist, not wanting to take it off.
She still needed to find a way to slip away from him, but right now, she absolutely couldn’t make any extra movements. If she bolted, he would probably peg her as suspicious.
As she was thinking this, the poisonous beauty by her side suddenly changed the subject. “That bracelet… who gave it to you? Have you been to the Pill Cauldron Sect before?”
He turned his face toward her, his purple eyes staring intently at her as he waited for her answer.