After Pei Zichen completely gave over his primordial yang, his entire body collapsed on top of her. Jiang Zhaoxue was somewhat dazed. She hadn’t expected that even at such a critical juncture, Pei Zichen would still firmly remember the principle between dao companions on their first time.

Primordial yang was a great tonic, occurring only once in a lifetime.

It was she who had been somewhat unsteady.

Her heart raced wildly. She feigned composure, remaining silent.

Pei Zichen just leaned against her. After a long while, seeing he still had no intention of withdrawing, she patted his shoulder and said softly: “If you’re done, rest.”

Pei Zichen remained silently still, only quietly holding her. After a long while, he spoke gently: “Female Lord.”

“Mm?”

“Listen,” his old habits resurfaced. Jiang Zhaoxue’s heart instantly tightened. She heard him say meaningfully, “The sound of ocean waves.”

All night, urgent rain accompanied by wind. Jiang Zhaoxue listened to tides rising and falling.

By the time dawn broke, Jiang Zhaoxue was awakened by the morning sunlight. She groggily opened her eyes. Just as she moved, she felt herself entangled by something.

Images from last night surged like a tide. Jiang Zhaoxue’s entire body instantly froze. She clearly sensed the weighted arm draped across her body, felt the muscles pressed tightly against her back. Her breathing caught instantly, her mind completely blank.

This wasn’t an illusion realm.

This wasn’t a dream.

This wasn’t a thousand years ago where no one knew.

This was the True Immortal Realm’s actual present. She and the child she had watched grow since he was ten, Shen Yuqing’s direct disciple, were tangled in the same bed.

Saving someone.

Jiang Zhaoxue closed her eyes, comforting herself—she was saving someone.

Saving one life was better than building a seven-story pagoda. She had sacrificed the small self to achieve great righteousness.

But thinking of Pei Zichen looking up and saying “But if you do this with this disciple, do you know what I want?”, thinking of Pei Zichen’s repeated “Yaoyao” and “I love you,” Jiang Zhaoxue felt her face burning.

She couldn’t stay in this bed another moment. She only wanted to flee quickly, the farther the better.

She carefully first extracted her legs from where his entangled hers, then pushed away the hand pressed on her body. Extending one leg down from the bed, like a loach she slipped out from under the covers, quickly grabbed her clothes, and scrambled out on hands and knees.

She dressed herself while sending Jiang Zhaoyue a message that she had returned, then jogged to the study.

A’Nan was released from her consciousness sea. The moment it jumped onto her shoulder, it saw her grab a nearby brush and couldn’t help feeling curious: “What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving Pei Zichen a letter.”

Jiang Zhaoxue wrote as she spoke: “He and I aren’t suitable to meet right now. We both need to calm down.”

“Ah,” A’Nan looked and immediately understood, nodding. “Got it. You slept together.”

As Jiang Zhaoxue was writing the three characters for “Pei Zichen,” her brush dragged. Ink immediately flooded through the paper. Jiang Zhaoxue closed her eyes to compose herself, straightened up to sit in the chair, crumpled the ruined paper and tossed it away, saying somewhat impatiently: “He was severely injured. Only I had a solution. I did it to save him.”

With that, she began carefully writing: “Zichen: Greetings upon reading this. Last night’s matter was truly an urgent rescue, an expedient measure. Your spiritual power ran rampant, your meridians were in peril. As I am your elder, I have a responsibility to care for you…”

“Then you cared for him into bed?” A’Nan looked at what she was writing and blurted out. Jiang Zhaoxue’s brush tip dragged. The second paper was flooded again.

This excuse had been used too many times. Using it again now was inappropriate.

Jiang Zhaoxue took a deep breath, grabbed the paper, crumpled it into a ball, and smashed it down.

This action gave her some comfort. She pulled over a third sheet of paper, spread it with a paperweight, and began thinking of a third reason: “I need to think this through more carefully.”

She pondered and continued writing:

“Zichen: Greetings upon reading this. Last night’s matter was truly an urgent choice. Today upon waking from the dream, after deep thought and careful consideration, I felt it improper. You and I have a great age difference, our statuses are separated. You also cultivate Jiuyou techniques, making it difficult to remain long in the True Immortal Realm. In the future, to seek the great Dao, you must travel far to Jiuyou, while I will remain long in Penglai…”

“Yo,” A’Nan craned its head to look at her nonsense, tilting its head in amazement. “Not bad. One romance and you’re already thinking about married life.”

“If you can’t think of a suitable rejection reason, just stop talking!”

Jiang Zhaoxue was irritated by A’Nan’s comments. Frowning tightly, she thrust the brush before it, dissatisfied: “All sarcasm. If you’re so capable, you write!”

“Why would I write such a thing?” A’Nan looked at her strangely. “I’m not a bird who slept with someone and won’t take responsibility. If you don’t like him, let him die. If you can’t bear to let him die,” A’Nan raised one bird wing pointing at Jiang Zhaoxue, declaring with certainty, “he’s in your heart.”

These words shocked Jiang Zhaoxue into stillness. Then she reacted immediately: “Nonsense! I’ve raised this child for so long. He concerns my future. How could I not care about him?”

“Stop calling him a child.” A’Nan glanced at her. “He hasn’t been a child for how long now? You can claim the illusion realm was a dream, but last night surely can’t be something a child did, right?”

Jiang Zhaoxue was momentarily stunned, not knowing how to respond.

Pei Zichen was someone she had taught personally. Four years as husband and wife in the illusion realm. When he came to reality, though initially somewhat unfamiliar, he quickly aligned with those memories.

When she fled just now, she had seen clearly—Pei Zichen’s shoulders and neck were covered in scratches and kiss marks. Last night’s events couldn’t be called his one-sided wishful thinking.

“What exactly are you afraid of?”

A’Nan hopped over from afar, looking up at Jiang Zhaoxue sitting in the chair, tilting its head: “This isn’t like your nature at all. I remember before, you quite liked that senior. That senior was your type. Now Pei Zichen is also that type. Even if you haven’t reached the point of pledging life and death, you must be at least somewhat moved, right?”

“Being moved still means taking the Tianji Lingyu.”

Jiang Zhaoxue raised her eyes to look at A’Nan. A’Nan blinked, as if only now remembering this matter. It heard Jiang Zhaoxue say seriously: “I’ve done so much. There’s no reason to fail at the final hurdle for a bit of emotion. But since I haven’t let go of my intention to harm him, if I accept his feelings, won’t he be in even more pain later?”

“Isn’t he in pain now?”

A’Nan couldn’t understand.

Jiang Zhaoxue lowered her eyes: “At least it’s not the person who said they loved him wanting to harm him.”

“You’ve told plenty of lies already.” A’Nan reminded.

“Now I don’t want to lie anymore.”

With these words, one person and one bird fell silent.

After a moment, Jiang Zhaoxue’s voice transmission jade token suddenly lit up. Jiang Zhaoxue quickly grabbed it and heard Jiang Zhaoyue’s ice-cold voice inside: “You’re back?”

“Are you alive?”

“If you’re alive, come immediately to Cangming Sea.”

“If you can’t come, I’ll immediately come find you and bring your ashes back to Penglai.”

Four consecutive sentences without pause.

Hearing this, Jiang Zhaoxue’s heart immediately relaxed. A sense of great righteousness—”If the evil demons aren’t destroyed, how can we call this home”—instantly arose. She said seriously: “I need to go to Cangming Sea to find my brother.”

“Oh.” A’Nan nodded in understanding. “Found an excuse.”

“What excuse?”

Jiang Zhaoxue glared at A’Nan and quickly wrote a letter: “Penglai has matters requiring attention. I’m leaving first. Rest well and recover. Wait for my return.”

With that, Jiang Zhaoxue happily delivered the letter to the bedroom. Taking advantage of Pei Zichen still sleeping soundly, she set down a large protective formation array around him, then rode the immortal crane and quickly left.

As she departed the sea area on the crane, A’Nan was still somewhat worried: “Are we really okay just leaving Pei Zichen like this? He’s sleeping so deeply at this hour. Is his body alright?”

“No problem,” Jiang Zhaoxue understood his physical condition better than anyone. She explained: “He told me last night that he’d sleep deeply today while repairing his body. He said if I had matters to attend to, to wake him and we’d leave together.”

After saying this, Jiang Zhaoxue seemed to realize what she had done.

A’Nan stood on Jiang Zhaoxue’s shoulder, turning to look at her. After thinking for a long while, it said softly: “Hope he won’t be too angry when he wakes up.”

Hearing this, Jiang Zhaoxue paused, then sneered: “He’s just a junior. What if he gets angry?”

A’Nan: “…”

“Anyway, when the time comes,” Jiang Zhaoxue looked at the dense dark shadows in Cangming Sea’s direction, affecting composure, “I’ll explain.”

A’Nan: “…”

It understood now. This was a woodpecker-tiger. No one’s beak was harder than hers.

As Jiang Zhaoxue flew urgently toward Cangming Sea, Pei Zichen completely digested the Zhanshen Sword’s power and the residual power from the space-time continuum. Feeling sunlight spill onto his face, he instinctively reached out to find someone, murmuring: “Yaoyao…”

The moment he spoke, Pei Zichen sensed something wrong. His divine consciousness instantly spread. He sat up urgently.

Almost instantaneously, he confirmed Jiang Zhaoxue wasn’t nearby. He vigilantly scanned the surroundings. His gaze fell on a white paper pressed with a paperweight not far away.

Pei Zichen stood up and walked before the white paper to see Jiang Zhaoxue’s handwriting telling him to wait for her.

Pei Zichen remained silently still. Yuan Luo said somewhat nervously: “Hey, look how considerate the mistress is of master, wanting to give master more rest and recovery time. She didn’t even disturb your sleep. Full of love!”

Lingxu tapped his fan without speaking, glanced around, and softly reminded: “Master, perhaps you should first wash up and dress.”

Pei Zichen said nothing. He looked at a drop of ink on the paper.

This ink stain was clearly pressed through from another sheet. Jiang Zhaoxue must have written more than one letter today.

Pei Zichen raised his hand. Robes flew into his grasp. As he dressed, he walked toward the study. By the time he reached the study, with a point of his hand, his hair was bound with a crown and his robes already completely worn.

Pei Zichen strode into the room to see the floor covered in paper balls. After a glance, he raised his hand in a sweep. All the paper balls unfolded and floated in mid-air.

Incomplete sentences fell into his eyes, particularly glaring.

“Expedient measure” “Responsibility to care” “Age difference” “Status separation”

“Jiuyou techniques make it difficult to remain long in the True Immortal Realm. In the future, to seek the great Dao, you must travel far to Jiuyou, while I will remain long in Penglai…”

Pei Zichen scanned word by word. With each word he read, his expression grew colder.

Yuan Luo and Lingxu clearly felt his atmosphere congeal. Yuan Luo tentatively said: “That… what’s written above is all very forced. Master, please don’t take it to heart.”

“I’m not taking it to heart.” Pei Zichen spoke hoarsely, raising his hand to collect the letters, saying quietly: “It’s she who hasn’t placed me in her heart.”

“That…”

“She doesn’t want me.”

Pei Zichen desperately restrained his emotions, calmly turning around. He felt each word fall on his heart like a needle: “She didn’t even care about safety or danger. She only wanted to abandon me.”

Neither Yuan Luo nor Lingxu dared respond to this. Pei Zichen pressed his lips together without speaking.

In his mind, over and over, was last night’s sound of Jiang Zhaoxue wrapped around his neck, softly weeping as she called his name. Desire and violent energy mixed together and rose. His expression was so calm no joy or anger could be seen. He only raised his hand to burn these letters and strode outside.

Reaching the door, Pei Zichen opened the great doors with both hands to see the entrance densely packed with people and demons at some unknown time.

These people were much more imposing than those of the True Immortal Realm, wearing clothing completely different from the True Immortal Realm. At the head was a woman in red robes. Her features were seventy to eighty percent similar to Mu Jinyue’s, but her makeup was extremely glamorous. She held a red umbrella trimmed with golden pearl tassels. At her feet prostrated a group of corpse insects three feet long.

Seeing Pei Zichen open the door, the woman immediately raised a smile. With a flourish of her wide sleeves, she led everyone to prostrate and kneel, calling out loudly: “We welcome our Master! Sun and moon share radiance!”