Proof

“Humph, hehe, hahaha...” Intermittent chuckles chimed like a gurgling spring. Tianye raised a hand to press her brow, the mockery in her laughter self-evident. Standing atop the misty forest, Xu Yuan heard the laughter below and sighed softly to himself. Clearly, Tianye did not believe it. Yet that was only natural. Even if he were in her shoes, he would not have believed such a thing either. If the first place he had transmigrated to had been this illusory world, and someone suddenly came running over to tell him this place was fictional and that he had already been dead for twenty thousand years, even if Xu Yuan did not beat the person to a pulp, he would have treated them as an idiot. *Is the brain-in-a-vat theory that popular around here?* “Phew... That excuse of yours is even less believable than my claim just now about traveling through spacetime.” Below, Tianye seemed to have laughed her fill. Her laughter stopped, and she let out a long breath. Through the gaps between her slender fingers, those azure-gold eyes—where divinity and seductive charm coexisted—took on a tinge of impatience: “For the sake of the Heaven-Deducing Art you displayed just now, I can give you one final chance.” With that, she crossed her arms over her chest and casually pointed off to one side with an index finger, her tone pregnant with meaning: “Remember, this is your last chance. A Holy Venerable is waiting for my signal at any moment.” Tianyan let out a soft, long sigh. Just as she was about to speak again, she promptly closed her mouth, looked up at the man in midair supporting Xia Qing's slender waist, and commanded coldly: “Xu Yuan, come down and explain this to her.” “......” Xu Yuan was taken aback, then rolled his eyes. *Fine, when it comes to smooth-talking, it always falls on me. Though this dead tsundere's attitude is just as terrible as ever.* Bringing Xia Qing along, Xu Yuan slowly descended from the sky, quickly formulating a mental draft. This matter was of grave significance. If someone of Tianye's status could help them in the future, their subsequent escape might become a hundred times easier. Therefore, if they could win her goodwill now, they had best do everything to secure it. A few breaths passed during the descent, during which Xu Yuan quickly summarized in his mind the known facts and useful intelligence. Then, he suddenly felt an urge to curse. Over the past seven years, even though the relationship between him and Tianyan was basically just one thin layer of paper away from being punctured, when it came to internal information about the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, this washboard had still guarded against him like a thief. How was he supposed to negotiate with Tianye like this? At the very least, she should have let him know the prerequisites for becoming a Tianyan in the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion! Complaining internally was one thing, but with things having reached this point, he could only bite the bullet and go through with it. *Cough.* With a light cough, he gently set Xia Qing down amidst the blasted ruins. Xu Yuan lifted his gaze, his clear eyes meeting Tianye's sightline. Immediately, his gaze slid uncontrollably down by a foot. *Whoa...* *She grew up into someone this well-endowed?* “......” A brief silence fell. Tianyan and Tianye almost simultaneously noticed the shift in Xu Yuan's gaze. Tianyan frowned deeply, her eyes somewhat unfriendly. In Tianye's seductive golden eyes, however, a flash of unexpected panic surfaced. Her hands instantly crossed in front of her chest to conceal the exposed fair skin, and a Shu brocade fur robe wrapped around her. Ignoring the washboard's displeasure, Xu Yuan kept his eyes fixed on Tianye. While Tianye was indeed gorgeous, what caught his attention even more was her shy reaction. In this era of sects ruling the world, dynasties had not yet risen, and the Confucianism of later generations designed for imperial unification naturally had not yet been preached to the world or taken root in people's hearts. Without the moral constraints of orthodox propriety, cultivators possessing extraordinary abilities might not engage in uninhibited debauchery, but by and large, they would not suppress their desires either. However, this varied from person to person. Having stayed in this illusory realm for seven years, Xu Yuan had seen conservative, chaste maidens from refined households, as well as proud daughters of heaven who indulged in nightly revelry. Some acted like pristine, cold immortals unstained by mortal dust by day, yet at the slightest flirtation, they would make their move immediately; come nightfall, they would visit, lingering in his room in flimsy, cooling robes and refusing to leave. It had been so easy to get that Xu Yuan once felt it was so surreal he thought he was about to get caught in a honey trap and ran right away. Only later during his travels did he learn that among the handsome and brilliant talents of this era, having a brief fleeting romance during joint travels was never considered depravity or wantonness, but rather a romantic tale of gallant flair. Powerful men taking concubines and bed-slaves, and powerful women keeping male consorts were basically matters laid out in the open. Because of that, Xu Yuan had assumed Tianye was a similar kind of enchantress. After all, from their initial meeting until just now, she had carried a frivolous and seductive demeanor, yet unexpectedly, she was actually still a novice. Xu Yuan rubbed his chin, then gave a light tsk. *Damn it.* *In this life, he didn't really have the right to judge others.* Thinking of this, he immediately glanced back and glared at the thoroughly disgruntled washboard. The disgust in his gaze made Tianyan, who was already irritated, boil with even more fury. Retracting his gaze, Xu Yuan looked at Tianye again. Back to business. Tianye had a conservative temperament, yet had forgotten to conceal her exposed jade-like body... She was extremely tense right now because of Tianyan's words earlier—so tense that she had even forgotten to cover up her burst clothing. It seemed what she said and what she felt inside were not entirely aligned. As he pondered, Tianye's voice regained its teasing frivolity, carrying an amused smile: “Brother Jinghe... oh, no, Brother Xu Yuan, you really show no restraint toward little sister's body, do you? ~ I wonder though, Brother, what kind of explanation can you give me?” “A modest, quiet lady is a good mate for a gentleman.” Xu Yuan met her gaze frankly, a faint smile curling the corners of his thin lips. “There shouldn't be any man in this world who could look upon Tianye's beauty and treat it as nothing.” Her fair, lotus-root arms wrapped inside the Shu brocade fur robe, her jade legs half-exposed, Tianye glanced sideways at Tianyan: “Even in front of this Sister Tianyan?” Xu Yuan grinned and waved his hand: “Don't misunderstand. There is no relationship between her and me whatsoever. We are merely two wanderers sharing the same plight at the ends of the earth.” “......” Tianyan's fists clenched instantly, anger steadily spreading through her. But for the sake of the big picture, she merely stood there, her body trembling slightly as she glared coldly at his back. Tianye reached an uncovered arm out from the thick Shu brocade fur robe and tapped her fragrant cheek: “Is that so? But I heard that you and this sister have long since secretly pledged your lives to each other. Brother, is it really all right for you to speak like this?” *Sister wouldn't be angry, would she?* Xu Yuan silently added the line for her in his mind, his smile remaining unchanged as he gently shook his head: “That statement is both right and wrong.” Tianye narrowed her eyes slightly, her golden pupils seeming capable of piercing Xu Yuan's soul: “Oh? How so? Is it because of the difference between Jinghe and Xu Yuan?” “Little Sister Tianye is indeed clever.” Xu Yuan clapped his hands, a smile in his eyes. “The identities that Tianyan and I inherited are indeed Dao companions, but our true relationship is quite the opposite.” “......” A trace of contemplation appeared in Tianye's eyes, and then she giggled seductively, “Then what is your relationship?” Xu Yuan grinned, his smile bright as the morning sun: “I am the genesis of the ten-thousand-year Great Tribulation, the source of all that is invisible, the catastrophe of the world—” “The Pavilion Master can divine your fate.” “......” Xu Yuan paused. After a moment of silence, Xu Yuan cleared his throat and said in a low voice: “Ahem. What he can deduce is Jinghe, not me, Xu Yuan.” “What on earth are you trying to say?” “Tianyan is the person sent by the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion to place an anchor point on me. But because of my invisible future, she was outschemed by me and dragged into this space.” “......” Tianye took a deep breath, finding it somewhat laughable: “So, Brother Xu Yuan, you also want to say that the world I am in is merely an illusion of nothingness?” “Right, yet not right,” Xu Yuan said. Tianye's glamorous eyes narrowed into two glittering slits, her words coming slow and measured: “Brother Xu Yuan, if you keep talking like this, I'm afraid I'll lose my patience very quickly. The way you talk is just like that old geezer, the Pavilion Master—everything is ambiguous and full of mystery.” “Calm down, be patient.” As he spoke, Xu Yuan slowly took out the Charm God tree seed from his Sumeru ring and asked Tianye, “Do you recognize this?” “A Charm God tree seed.” Tianye glanced at it. “The Pavilion Master sent me here precisely for this item.” “Not just for this item, right?” “Also to capture you two alive. Oh, no—to capture this sister who calls herself Tianyan alive. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to escape for so long.” “Then do you know why he wants to capture her alive?” “For a Charm God tree seed to undergo a natural spiritual ascension requires hundreds or thousands of years. Thus, soul-refining methods must be used to infuse a spiritual essence spirit into it to accelerate the process.” “In other words, Tianyan's constitution is suitable for having her soul refined, right?” “...What are you trying to say?” “Tianye, whether Tianyan's constitution is suitable for having her soul refined or not, you should know very well.” “......” Silence. The answer was obvious: Tianyan's constitution was not suitable for being refined into a spiritual essence spirit. A flicker of vacillation stirred in her eyes, but Tianye soon said softly: “The Pavilion Master's order to capture you might be due to other information that I don't know about. After all, my current cultivation is still shallow, and I cannot divine heavenly secrets flawlessly.” “Heh heh...” Xu Yuan chuckled under his breath, then asked ambiguously: “Tianye, as someone who possesses the talent of a Tianyan, you should have an essential difference from the other contemporary Holy Sons, Saintesses, and even that Pavilion Master, right? “Mm... especially when it comes to dealing with certain illusory realms.” Tianye's fingertips gripped the fur robe until her knuckles whitened. Staring at the Charm God tree seed in his hand, her voice turned slightly sharp: “Xu Yuan, what on earth do you mean!” Xu Yuan spread his hands and chuckled, “My meaning is simple. Earlier, that Tianrui didn't notice in the slightest that Tianyan was one of your 'own people', nor did the Pavilion Master. Only you, Tianye, noticed this. So I was wondering: compared to other Holy Sons and Saintesses, does a 'Tianyan' possess some special resistance to illusory realms?” Tianye's gaze remained glued to the Charm God tree seed. Seeming to realize something, her breathing grew slightly hurried: “Utterly preposterous!” Xu Yuan sighed and said with a chuckle: “Since Little Sister Tianye insists, how about we make a bet and conduct a little experiment?” Tianye took a deep breath, trying to steady her breathing, her voice cold and clear: “What experiment?” Xu Yuan spread his hands, smacked the mature woman's waist beside him, and said with a low chuckle: “How about we ask Sister Xia Qing whether she understood what we were talking about just now?”