What Yue Liangze saw now was what Ling Luo saw.

At the end of their lives, they witnessed the Four Directional Forbidden Beasts and the black flames covering the mountain.

So Wusheng had indeed been unsheathed before.

When Ling Luo awoke, she frowned, momentarily confused.

She was no longer in front of the Zhao family’s door but in a small room. The room was somewhat dim, with only a corner of the curtain lifted, and a figure standing there blocked even more light from entering.

Ling Luo blinked and looked at the person by the window. She had just returned from the memory dream of the Suffering Flower when she saw him.

With his back to her standing by the window, Yue Liangze looked very much like when he stood before Mount Tianzhao—his posture upright, carrying a sense of vigilance and protection.

Ling Luo observed his profile.

He was the kind of person with clean features, yet also extraordinarily handsome, especially those eyes—black pupils, calm and cool. Even when not looking at you or speaking, his quiet presence was hard to ignore, yet without seeming aloof.

Ling Luo had once called Yue Liangze a beauty.

Not just his appearance, but also his bearing and temperament.

Outside the window, the sky seemed near dusk. The orange-golden light that sneaked past the man carried a decaying scent, giving her a sense of tragic beauty as if reaching the end.

Reaching the end.

Ling Luo blinked softly and reached to touch her heart. There was still blood on her clothes, but the wound was almost healed, with only a slight pain.

Starting over again—the Heavenly Dao didn’t kill her but saved her instead. How could such a good thing happen?

It must have ulterior motives.

What did it matter showing her Yue Liangze’s memories? Did it want to persuade her to turn back?

Impossible.

Ling Luo said softly, “Why are you here?”

Yue Liangze turned around, his brow slightly furrowing when his eyes met Ling Luo’s gaze. He let go of the curtain and walked toward the bed, asking, “How are your injuries?”

Ling Luo blinked without answering, and asked again, “Why am I here?”

Yue Liangze explained quietly, “I followed the killing aura to Shunyi Town. The ghost town had no ghosts but had regained its former prosperity. While patrolling, I encountered Qin Yuan bringing you, injured, to find an apothecary.”

Qin Yuan.

He must know her too.

Yue Liangze said, “You looked severely injured at the time.”

“I didn’t die,” Ling Luo pressed her lips together, somewhat annoyed at her carelessness for being wounded.

“You seem fine now,” Yue Liangze glanced at her wound. “I went to the Zhao family place Qin Yuan mentioned but didn’t see any sword light when I entered. There was no one inside.”

Of course, you couldn’t see the sword light; that sword intent only slays demons.

Ling Luo thought privately, then asked, “Where’s Qin Yuan?”

“Guarding the Zhao house with Mu Xujing,” Yue Liangze added, “This is a room in the medicine shop.”

Ling Luo was a bit surprised: “Mu Xujing is here too?”

Yue Liangze said, “He came with me.”

Ling Luo smiled mockingly, “You look after him everywhere.”

Yue Liangze didn’t take offense but asked, “Can you get up?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to,” Ling Luo clutched the blanket and asked, “Did Qin Yuan say anything when she left?”

Yue Liangze thought for a moment, then answered, “She asked me to take good care of you.”

Ling Luo tilted her head and looked him up and down for a while. “She told you to, and you just obeyed?”

Yue Liangze remained good-natured: “You did need to be taken care of at the time.”

“Give me your hand,” Ling Luo said.

Yue Liangze looked at her, and though he didn’t know why, he extended his hand to her.

Ling Luo grasped his hand, which was somewhat cool. She sat up, and when Yue Liangze lowered his gaze to look at her, she pulled him down onto the bed with her.

Yue Liangze had no defenses against her. As he fell, his other hand supported her shoulder to prevent her from bumping her wound.

He was only somewhat puzzled.

His bright black eyes quietly reflected her face.

The woman’s long hair fell beside his shoulder, a strand lightly brushing across his cheek, cool to the touch.

Ling Luo placed her palm over his heart, feeling the heart beating beneath his clothes. The person before her could speak, could blink, could catch her from falling.

He was alive.

“Yue Liangze,” she tapped his heart and said, “If you have to die, die by my hand. Why give those useless people the satisfaction?”

Yue Liangze was confused by her words.

He said, “I don’t intend to die.”

But Ling Luo grew angrier the more she heard. At that moment, she didn’t care that the person before her had no memory. She gripped his collar tightly with her five fingers: “I never told anyone about what happened in Nanjiang City. I never told anyone. How would people in the world know what you did? If they attack the mountain, let them attack. You could have just stood aside and watched. You’re still the righteous Immortal Lord of the cultivation world, the First Sword Saint. Why did you block them? I wasn’t afraid of them at all!”

Yue Liangze stared at her, noticing that without realizing it, the corners of her eyes had turned crimson. The breathtaking beauty made him afraid to disturb her.

“Who do they think they are!” Ling Luo raged. “I hadn’t even made a move, how dare they! The Four Directional Forbidden Beasts? I’ll go kill them now and see what other methods these useless people have!”

She couldn’t possibly turn back because of Yue Liangze’s death, but his death had stirred the deepest ferocity in her heart, making her eager to kill all those people and creatures.

She believed she had nothing left to lose in this world.

But killing Yue Liangze was unacceptable.

Unacceptable meant unacceptable.

Even though she had once dragged him down into the quagmire of desire, made him associate with demons, hurt him, and even trampled on him, she couldn’t tolerate others doing the same to him.

Ling Luo had countless opportunities to kill Yue Liangze, yet she never took that final step. Even when she came very close, she stopped.

She impulsively rose to find and kill the Four Directional Forbidden Beasts, but Yue Liangze pulled her back.

“Ling Luo,” he said, somewhat helplessly.

Ling Luo tried to shake off his hand but couldn’t break free. She looked back at Yue Liangze and glared: “Let go!”

“Ling Luo, are you mistaking me for someone else, or…” Yue Liangze gripped her wrist, his gaze steady as he looked at her, “Did you have a nightmare?”

Ling Luo bit her lip, becoming a bit calmer. “How do you know I had a nightmare? I didn’t have a dream!”

Yue Liangze paused, then said in a voice tinged with languidness: “You called my name earlier.”

Ling Luo: “…”

She widened her eyes: “Say that again?”

Yue Liangze repeated seriously: “You called my name while you were asleep.”

“Impossible!” Ling Luo, who had just calmed down, went wild again. “I didn’t! You’re lying!”

Yue Liangze seemed to laugh silently.

Footsteps came from outside the door. Ling Luo sent out a sword light with a flick of her finger and shouted angrily: “Don’t come in!”

So Mu Xujing, who had just reached the door, expressionlessly turned and walked away.

Qin Yuan was startled by this sword’s intent. Hearing Ling Luo’s voice, she could tell she was mostly recovered, so she followed Mu Xujing in bewilderment and retreated.

Ling Luo said to Yue Liangze: “I didn’t!”

Yue Liangze said softly: “It was just a dream. You don’t need to worry or be afraid.”

That wasn’t a dream.

It was you—Ling Luo’s rebuttal stopped at her lips. Looking at the face before her, she was so angry her teeth itched. Her hand that had been gripping his collar was now held by Yue Liangze, so she could only fiercely say: “Do you know what dream I had?”

Yue Liangze blinked, with an expression of willingness to hear the details: “What dream?”

Ling Luo: “I dreamed you recklessly challenged the Four Directional Forbidden Beasts. Even with Duanyi fully dispersed and Wusheng unsheathed, you couldn’t win and were burned alive.”

Wusheng heard this and was dissatisfied again: You’re disparaging the invincible me and my invincible scabbard in front of the master again! Master, don’t believe her sweet talk! Her brain is injured!

Duanyi: About the Four Directional Forbidden Beasts, with the master’s current strength, we can’t win.

Wusheng: What can’t the invincible me and the invincible you defeat? Master, don’t believe her at all. Let’s go cut those so-called Forbidden Beasts into pieces and make soup for this woman!

Duanyi: Shut up! Listen to me explain what the Four Directional Forbidden Beasts are!

Yue Liangze blocked out the sword spirits’ voices and just looked at Ling Luo, still with that serious expression.

He asked, “Why would I challenge the Four Directional Forbidden Beasts?”

Ling Luo answered without blinking: “Because you’re stupid!”

Yue Liangze: “So you dreamed I died?”

Ling Luo looked at him angrily: “Yes, you died! What are you smiling about? Who smiles when they hear they died!”

Yue Liangze couldn’t help it; the corners of his eyes and brows were tinged with hints of a smile.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s just a dream. If I died in the dream, so be it. But the fact that I was in your dream makes me… want to smile more than if I had died.”

It was a kind of joy difficult to express, an uncontrollable happiness.

But when Ling Luo heard the words “want to smile,” she felt he was dismissing it, treating it as an amusing anecdote.

This man had no idea how serious this matter was!

Ling Luo was so angry she wanted to bite him to death. Her body moved faster than her mind, taking action first.

She lowered her head and bit Yue Liangze, but what she bit was his slightly curved lips.

Yue Liangze, who had been obediently pinned to the bed by Ling Luo, was confused again. His body stiffened, not daring to move an inch. The sudden fragrant softness in his arms left him at a loss each time.

Yue Liangze was confident he could solve the world’s most difficult sword techniques and recite the most difficult curse techniques, but he had no solution for Ling Luo.

The two were between biting and kissing. Ling Luo only stopped when she tasted the hint of blood. Seeing his broken and bleeding lips, her fine eyebrows knitted slightly. The crimson at the corners of her eyes had faded, but her pupils were covered with a layer of mist.

Yue Liangze allowed her to do as she pleased, neither resisting nor rebuking.

Ling Luo straightened slightly to distance herself from him and accused: “In the dream, not only did you die, but you also stole a kiss from me. Now I’m kissing you back.”

Yue Liangze: “…”

His feelings were complicated.

He didn’t know whether to clarify that the person in the dream was like him but not him, or to say that her method of revenge was rather peculiar.

At any rate—

Yue Liangze said in a husky voice: “Don’t do this again in the future.”

What if the person who stole a kiss from you in the dream wasn’t me?

Ling Luo looked at his bloodied lips and snorted maliciously: “It’s not my concern if you’re hurt. The person who taught me to kiss didn’t teach me well.”

She let go of Yue Liangze and got up, not noticing how the man’s bright eyes darkened a few degrees.

The words “who taught you” reached his lips but weren’t spoken.

What position was he in to ask such a question?

Yet he felt inexplicably unwilling to let it go.

Yue Liangze’s brows furrowed slightly, his eyes tinged with gloom. When Ling Luo looked over, he turned his face away to avoid her gaze.

The man’s demeanor had changed.

Quietness mixed with a hint of coldness and melancholy.

Ling Luo could see he was unhappy, but she didn’t care. She only thought that Yue Liangze would die on Mount Tianzhao because of their involvement in Nanjiang City.

If Yue Liangze hadn’t touched her, he wouldn’t have been abandoned by the Holy Sword Sect, and the immortal sects would have had no reason to accuse and find fault with him.

Ling Luo pressed her lips together, her five fingers grasping the soft blanket, tightening and loosening repeatedly, also with some reluctance. Meanwhile, Yue Liangze rose gently, his long robe brushing past the corner of her eyes.

She followed this sweep of the long robe to look at Yue Liangze.

Yue Liangze had his back to her, his long black eyelashes trembling slightly, concealing the gloom deep in his eyes.

Seeing his back turned to her, Ling Luo finally compromised and said: “I won’t touch you again in the future.”

Nor will I practice the Beauty Point technique on you.

When you come to Nanjiang City, I’ll drive you away immediately, never keeping you.

I won’t let you stay at Mount Tianzhao either.

You just live well.

Hearing this, Yue Liangze frowned again. When he raised his eyes, there was a hint of cold amusement.

He was about to raise his hand to wipe away the blood on his lips but stopped and finally licked it away with his tongue.