For a long moment, she just looked at him. His expression was dark, his eyes filled with quiet worry. Then she sighed softly and gave him a small, almost teasing smile. "You're being dramatic again," she said gently. "It's all in the past. I'm fine now."
Shu Mingye didn't look away. His gaze stayed fixed on her, heavy with thoughts he couldn't say aloud. Dramatic or not, he couldn't get the image out of his mind—her body collapsing under lightning, her spirit flickering at the edge of breaking. She said it like it was nothing, but he knew better.
Linyue noticed the shadow in his eyes and reached out, brushing her fingers lightly against his robe as if to steady him. "Anyway," she said softly, trying to draw him back, "I don't remember much after that. I was barely conscious. I felt someone coming closer… and then everything just went dark."
Her voice grew distant. Her gaze wandered toward the window. "When I opened my eyes again," she said slowly, "everything around me was destroyed. The land, the ground… shattered like broken glass. No demons. No one. Just silence."
"I don't know if it was the lightning," she said, her voice soft. "Or something else. But I didn't see him again. I was alive. My body didn't even hurt as much as I thought it would. I didn't understand it." Her words dropped lower, barely above a whisper. "After I woke up that day, I left," she said. "I didn't wait for him. I didn't even look back. I just… walked away."
Her shoulders shifted slightly as if she remembered the weight of that choice. "I left the place where I had lived and trained for ten years. I wandered without a plan. And then I arrived at the outer wall of Luyan. That was when I met Master Tian Mo, he dragged me to Xuanyi Pavilion, and made me his disciple." She looked up at him again. "And that's how I ended up here. Sitting like this. Talking with you."
Shu Mingye simply nodded once and kept his arms wrapped tightly around her. He didn't want to risk her slipping away—not into memories, not into silence, not into anything that took her from this moment.
In his chest, her words settled deep. Now he understood. Why she had been afraid of that man. Why she had kept her distance at first. And most of all, why she still chose to trust him. But one question stayed in Shu Mingye's mind louder than the rest.
Why did that man do this to her?
His thoughts circled to the self-sealing array hidden in her body. Was it meant to protect her or to chain her down? If she had really absorbed that kind of lightning, her power must have grown to a terrifying level. But that array had kept it locked away, forced to condense deeper and deeper inside her. He remembered what she told him before. Her body turned cold three years ago. That had to be when it happened. When she absorbed that lightning. When the array sealed it all in. And if that array ever broke…
Shu Mingye's jaw tensed. He refused to let his mind finish that thought. Not the destruction. Not the pain. He lifted his hand and cupped her cheek. Her skin felt cold as always, but his palm stayed warm. He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. His eyes slid shut. His breath came slow and quiet.
"Pie," he whispered. "You can break me…" His other hand found hers and closed over it tightly. "…but you can't be broken. Do you understand?"
Linyue blinked, a small frown forming. She didn't understand. What couldn't be broken? Was he still talking about the lightning? Or something else?
But when she looked at him, his face so close, his eyes serious yet gentle, she didn't ask. She just nodded and said softly, "Alright."
Shu Mingye let out a quiet chuckle, the sound rumbling low in his chest. "That's a promise," he said.
Linyue gave a small smile in return. But then, a thought darted across her mind, sharp and insistent. She straightened up so suddenly that Shu Mingye blinked. "There's another thing," she said.
He raised an eyebrow, amused. "There's more?"
"Yes," she replied, her voice calm but thoughtful. "Actually, it's just a guess. It might sound strange. But it's something I started thinking about when I lived outside the wall."
He shifted slightly, his attention sharpening. "What is it?"
Linyue's gaze held his. "The tainted. That name was chosen for a reason. Don't you think it's odd? How the low-level demons look like mutated beasts, but the high-level ones… they look like people. Like twisted humans."
Shu Mingye's eyes narrowed a little. "I've never thought of that," he admitted.
"I think…" Linyue hesitated, but she spoke anyway. "I think the low-level demons were once spirit beasts. From long ago. But the high-level ones… I believe they were human. Cultivators. People like us."
He stared at her, his expression unreadable.
"That's why they can use spiritual energy," she said softly. "That's why they're strong. And… familiar. That's why they're called the tainted. Something tainted them. Changed them. I don't know what it is yet, but I think it started a long time ago."
The wind outside brushed gently against the windows.
Shu Mingye stayed quiet for a long moment. His arms never left her, but his mind had gone elsewhere. Thoughts spun wildly, clashing and tangling in ways they never had before.
Demons… were people? He had always believed they were monsters. That they killed and destroyed, and so he killed them back without question. But now her calm voice and steady eyes cracked something open in him. It made sense. Too much sense.
Spirit beasts had disappeared around the same time demons appeared. People thought they had gone extinct or hidden themselves. But what if they hadn't? What if they had been turned? And the high-level demons… the ones with human-like shapes, human eyes, human energy—
What had caused it? What could twist humans into those things?
Still lost in thought, he turned his head to her. "Pie," he said quietly, his voice low, "where did you get this idea?"
Linyue looked up, her voice calm but firm. "I lived outside the wall. I watched them. The high-level ones, they have intelligence." She paused, then added softly, "I believe their level matches their cultivation level when they were still human."
Shu Mingye's jaw tightened. He didn't even notice it until his teeth began to ache.
"And no matter how many I defeated," Linyue said softly, "after every Weeping Moon, I would meet the same ones again. Over and over."
He turned his head slightly, eyes narrowing. "You mean…" He spoke like he wasn't sure he wanted the answer. "They come back… every Weeping Moon?"
She nodded once. "That's why their numbers never go down. They always return. Probably."
A quiet settled between them, heavy and strange.
Linyue stayed still in his arms, her face calm but her eyes carrying that sharp, clear honesty he wasn't used to seeing in people. He stared down at her. Not with fear. Not even with worry. He felt something closer to awe. She had seen parts of this world that he hadn't even dreamed of. And yet, she was sitting here, telling him. Trusting him with those pieces.
His thumb brushed lightly across her cheek. "Then we'll find out what did this," he said quietly. "Together."
She tilted her head back just enough to meet his gaze. She gave a small nod, her expression softening in a way that made his chest feel uncomfortably warm.
"Yeah, I never cared about it before," she admitted. Her voice carried something fragile underneath. "But now…" She paused, her lips pressing together for a moment. "Now I have people I love. People I want to protect. So I want to find out more. We can't fight them forever."
Her voice was soft, but it didn't waver. It carried a quiet strength that Shu Mingye admired more than he could ever put into words. He nodded slowly, still processing her answer. "Do you think… that masked man knows the truth?"
"Yes," Linyue answered right away. "He must. There has to be a reason he lived outside the wall, and why he kept everything to himself. I think he's been hiding something important."
"You're right," he murmured. He reached up and gently pressed his lips to her forehead. "Thank you for telling me, Pie."
Linyue closed her eyes at the light touch, her body easing against his. Neither of them spoke after that. The questions were finished, at least for now. There was only the quiet sound of their breathing and the steady rhythm of his heart beneath her ear. She felt lighter somehow. Like setting down a heavy pack she hadn't realized she was carrying. She had told him everything, and he hadn't flinched, hadn't pulled away. He took it better than she expected.
Her lips curved into a small smile as she shifted slightly, rubbing her cheek against his chest. Just a little. His warmth surrounded her, steady and reassuring. For the first time in years, she let herself relax completely. Warm, safe, and comfortable. She breathed in his familiar scent and let the silence settle around them.
But Shu Mingye, being Shu Mingye, he never stayed quiet for long.
"Pie," his voice dropped low, brushing against her ear. "Why do you keep provoking me? You know I don't have much patience."
His hand slid up her back in a slow, deliberate way.