Tianyan, who had been hovering in midair, finally touched down upon the floor like an immortal maiden descending into the mortal realm. She looked at the man wearing a shamelessly smug smile.
"Xu Yuan, you... are truly tiresome."
Hearing that familiar tone again, Xu Yuan could not help but chuckle. "Indeed tiresome, but human beings are by nature tiresome creatures."
Tianyan's bare feet rested on the cold wooden floor. Her face remained devoid of expression, but compared to her heartless indifference just moments ago, she now looked as cold as frost, her familiar gaze regarding him as though he were a piece of trash.
Xu Yuan exhaled a long breath of turbid air and murmured, "I never imagined that when we met again in private, it would be like this."
Tianyan let out a soft snort. "Enough nonsense. I have already done as you asked. Furthermore, back then my cultivation technique was not yet complete, which was why my feelings for you created a flaw. Do not dream of using past events now to stir memories and make my heart flutter."
"How heartless," Xu Yuan grumbled under his breath before asking with a smile, "But what if it does?"
"Every time we meet, the sheer thickness of your face redefines what I thought possible." The young woman's voice was laced with disgust. "If a perfected State of Godlessness were so easily broken, the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion would have ceased to exist long ago. Everything I am showing right now is nothing more than an act—an illusion."
With that, she glanced toward the direction in which Liu Wenzhou had just departed. "What did you say to him just now?"
Xu Yuan patted his lap and winked at her with a grin.
The meaning was obvious:
Sit down here.
Sit on my lap, and I'll tell you.
The slender, delicate corners of Tianyan's eyes twitched slightly. "Xu Changtian, do not push your luck!"
Xu Yuan shrugged. "Putting personal feelings aside, I seem to have no reason to tell you about my secret talk with the Sword Sect's Second Elder. If you want this intelligence, naturally you have to pay a price, don't you?"
"I am the Saintess of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion—"
"And you weren't back then? It's not like you haven't sat here before. What are you shy about?"
"..."
The glazed pendants on Tianyan's holy white gown reflected the smirk curling the corners of his lips.
Silence fell over the warm pavilion.
After staring at him for several breaths, she lightly shifted her lotus steps.
Seeing her movement, a flicker of hesitation appeared in Xu Yuan's eyes.
*Wait, girl, I was just teasing you—are you actually taking it seriously?*
Rustle...
The flickering candlelight merged their two shadows into one. Amidst the rustling of fabric, the young woman supported herself and slowly sat sideways in his lap.
With the soft, warm beauty once again in his arms, Xu Yuan caught the familiar scent of agarwood on her. He remembered Tianyan once saying that this was the distinctive fragrance from the monthly baths and incense-burning rites of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion's Saintess.
This memory left Xu Yuan momentarily dazed, and he subconsciously reached out, encircling the slender waist concealed beneath the Saintess's gown.
Yet in the very next instant, those golden pupils, cold as icicles, snapped him back to reality.
Tianyan's crisp voice carried a faint tremor: "Don't move. Speak, quickly."
The firmness of her hips pressed through the fabric of their clothes, quickening Xu Yuan's breath. Still, he kept his voice low: "He came to ask where my Prime Minister's Manor's hundred thousand elites in Hongnong went."
"Did you tell him?"
"No."
Caressing the delicate curve of her lower abdomen through the smooth silk of her gown, Xu Yuan slowly moved his hand upward, his voice soft. "He only came to find a way out for the Sword Sect. Unfortunately, he rejected my goodwill."
"Ngh..."
As though her skin were overly sensitive, a soft whimper escaped her lips. Then she jabbed her elbow forcefully backward, a muffled thud ringing out as a shockwave rippled outward.
"...I will say it once more: do not push your luck."
Her frigid voice sounded as though it were suppressing certain emotions.
Feeling the internal injury, Xu Yuan mentally praised, *As expected of a Transcendent Realm cultivator of the Heavenly Yan Art.* He then used his Life Dao Domain to mend and neutralize the damage, whispering beside her earlobe, "All right, I won't push my luck."
Tianyan's earlobes flushed crimson in an instant. Staring through the window at the curtain of rain outside, she continued to ask, "Then your Prime Minister's Manor's hundred thousand elites..."
"That's a bit much."
"You really won't tell me?"
"No, I mean the price wasn't enough."
"...Huh?"
Tianyan's eyelids lifted slightly, and she looked at the man with an utterly bizarre expression. "...Have you gone mad?"
Xu Yuan tightened his hold around the girl's waist, smiling as he said, "I told you, honey traps and the like work best on me."
"What do you want?"
"To push my luck."
"...Do it, then."
"..."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan did not rush into anything. Instead, realizing something was off, he reached up, pinched her cheek, and forced her face around so she had to look him in the eyes.
"Tianyan, are you fucking playing me?"
Tianyan's face was flushed jade-red, yet her tone held a chill. "What... playing you?"
"You can release the State of Godlessness on your own, can't you?"
"..."
Tianyan blinked. For a moment, her golden pupils seemed to flow like a river of stars, but then that starry river was swiftly swallowed by darkness. The flush on her cheeks faded, her body ceased to tremble, and her gaze turned as indifferent as a black hole. Tilting her head, she asked in a flat voice, "Isn't this what you asked for, Xu Changtian?"
"..." Xu Yuan was speechless.
Tianyan still leaned against his chest, petite and nestling close like a little bird, yet colder than ice.
"For a Transcendent cultivator, controlling one's own body should hardly be difficult. Blushing, an accelerated heartbeat, even the subconscious physiological responses during intimacy—I merely reproduced the identical reactions based on the self in my memories. I assumed you would not misunderstand."
Xu Yuan subconsciously averted his gaze.
Yet Tianyan continued to gaze at him, her golden eyes radiant as before.
"Do you still wish to continue?"
"No need."
"Why?"
Tianyan's gaze remained locked on the familiar side profile of his face. Her divine tone was devoid of any personal affection. "You could actually continue. Just as you said earlier, we have done many things together, and none of what we are doing now amounts to anything. In fact, if you are willing to pay an adequate price, it is entirely acceptable for me to let you ruin my body once more—or even for an entire night. After all, we have already done these things within the illusory realm, and the Heavenly Yan Art does not require me to remain a virgin forever—"
"I changed my mind, all right?" Xu Yuan cut her off. "I have no interest in puppets."
"..."
Upon hearing those words, the qi dynamic around Tianyan surged for an instant. She slowly floated away from Xu Yuan, coming to rest suspended in the empty air half a zhang away. Looking down at the silent, head-bowed man, she murmured, "Male pride? In the illusory realm, you always seemed to care greatly about how I felt during intimacy. If it is because of that, there is truly no need. My feelings for you still reside within this body; the sensation like an electric shock when you caress me does indeed still exist. It is merely that the State of Godlessness strips away those useless emotions. And that part I can act out based on my memories, so for you, there should be no difference at all."
"Fuck... can you just get to the point already?" Xu Yuan's composure finally cracked.
"..."
Tianyan fell silent for a moment. With a wave of her delicate hand, she smoothed out her disheveled Saintess robe and sat down across from Xu Yuan.
"Since your mind is set, our previous transaction is void. And considering your current emotional agitation, Xu Changtian, I shall cut straight to the point."
Xu Yuan took a deep breath. "Right. Speak."
Tianyan stated flatly, "Tianye wants to kill Wen Xinyun."
"What did you say?"
Tianyan's words instantly dragged Xu Yuan out of his turbulent emotions. His gaze sharpened with scrutiny, but unfortunately Tianyan's face betrayed nothing. After a moment of contemplation, he said in a low voice, "Your reason."
Tianyan showed no surprise, her voice like ice: "There are certain things I cannot explain to you in too much detail, but Wen Xinyun and our Overseeing Heaven Pavilion do not walk the same path."
That explanation clearly failed to convince Xu Yuan. He shook his head. "Is it not possible that right now, you two are allies, while we are enemies?"
"I have told you before: the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion's objective has never been to rule the realm, but to protect the human race."
Xu Yuan stroked his chin and murmured, "So you have now determined that Wen Xinyun is the Great Calamity?"
Tianyan stared at Xu Yuan and shook her head. "No. You are."
The corner of Xu Yuan's eye twitched. "Then why the fuck are you seeking my cooperation to kill her?"
Tianyan once again refuted his claim: "No. The person Tianye wishes to cooperate with is your father."
Xu Yuan took a deep breath and rubbed his brow, looking at the young woman before him. "Sometimes I truly cannot comprehend the thought process of your Overseeing Heaven Pavilion. But if that is the case, once this trip concludes, I will report it to my father."
Tianyan's lovely eyes blinked calmly. She fell silent for a long while, seemingly weighing her words: "Xu Changtian, our Overseeing Heaven Pavilion is aware that you possess a means of transmitting messages outside from within the Sword Sect's mountain gate. Therefore, please transmit the message immediately after I depart tonight."
Xu Yuan's expression turned strange. "Why?"
Tianyan replied as though it were the most natural thing in the world: "Because you will die in our duel, and dead men cannot bring news back."
"..." Xu Yuan was speechless.
After a moment of silence, Xu Yuan finally laughed out of sheer exasperation. "How did I never realize before that you had a talent for telling jokes?"
Tianyan's small face was completely earnest. "This is not a joke. It is a fact."
"..." Xu Yuan.
He truly had never imagined that there would come a day when this little ice block could make him break down like this—and more than once, no less.
Was this the turning of fortunes, or the karmic cycle of the Heavenly Dao?
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale again. Exhale again.
Having steadied his emotions, Xu Yuan said to the girl across from him, "Fine. I will wait for you to come kill me. Is there anything else?"
"No."
With that, Tianyan rose to her feet without the slightest hesitation. Yet after pondering for a moment, she paused briefly to remind him: "By the way, you must remember to send the message."
"..." Xu Yuan.
At this moment, an impulse suddenly welled within him—an urge to pin this girl down on the bed beside them and give her a sound thrashing. Unfortunately, before this urge could fully manifest, Tianyan blinked away, vanishing from within the warm pavilion.
Alone once more in the quiet, empty room, an inexplicable feeling of hollow loneliness settled in his chest.
After a long silence, Xu Yuan sighed and muttered to himself, "...Count yourself lucky you ran fast this time."
That night, Xu Yuan did not go to sleep as he normally would. Instead, he sat alone before the desk. After all, tonight had been uncharacteristically eventful; now that the little ice block had come to see him, could the big ice block be far behind?
Yet unfortunately, even when dawn broke, Ran Qingmo never came to see him.
Due to the protection of the Formation Peak disciples at the foot of the mountain and the two resident Sword Master elders, Xu Yuan's life at this mountain gate was essentially one of semi-house arrest.
Xu Yuan had no objections to this. He had not come here to cause trouble in the first place, though staying cooped up in this hilltop pavilion every day was indeed stifling. Still, the Sword Sect occasionally arranged days for him to "get some fresh air."
Because of the Tianyuan Grand Tournament.
Since Tianyan wanted to kill him in this tournament to prove her feelings, Xu Yuan naturally jumped the queue and entered the final round-robin stage of the Tianyuan Grand Tournament.
No one objected; this was a privilege reserved for Transcendent Realm cultivators.
The morning after Tianyan came to see him, the frustrated Xu Yuan welcomed his first outing since arriving at the Sword Sect's mountain gate.
The rain had cleared, leaving behind blue skies, and the mountain forest was steeped in the fresh scent of moist earth.
Luo Wei, the Sword Master of Formation Peak, escorted him in person, flanked by two other Sword Masters—Liu Wenzhou and the Seventh Elder of the Sword Sect. The retinue escorting him to the tournament arena could only be described as lavish.
After all, the entire Sword Sect mountain gate had now entered a state of combat readiness, with personnel and supplies being mobilized with urgency. Were Xu Yuan to wander around at will, his spiritual vision could likely uncover vast swathes of strategic military sites that the Black Scale Guards had failed to detect over several decades.
Because he had always heard anecdotes about Xu Changge at the Tianyuan Grand Tournament, Xu Yuan had assumed the tournament arena would be a specially constructed platform resembling an enlarged stadium. Only upon arriving at the venue did he discover that it was actually an entire expanse of rolling mountains and forest.
Upon inquiring, he learned that this year's tournament was rather exceptional. In past iterations of the Tianyuan Grand Tournament, the Grandmaster Realm was usually the ceiling. In this tournament, however, even excluding him and Tianyan, there were four prodigies of the Origin Realm. The former arenas could not withstand such destruction, so they had simply moved the competition outdoors.
*They're all damn cheaters,* he marveled inwardly.
With that thought, Xu Yuan waited quietly in the mountain forest for his opponent of the day.
Unfortunately, before his opponent arrived, an enemy came first. The killing intent in his hitherto calm heart instantly boiled to its peak.
Wen Xinyun.
Chapter 768