"Senior Sister, what do you mean by this?"
The expression on Deep in Simplicity's face froze.
He looked at Yan Qingning, then back at the cabin, completely unable to understand what his Senior Sister was thinking.
Does she suspect I'm hiding a Demonic Path spy?
Or does she want to snatch my disciple?
Yan Qingning just stood there quietly, saying nothing, as if waiting for something.
"Senior Sister..." He opened his mouth, his voice tinged with anger, "What do you mean? Besides my newly recruited disciple, there's only a Mortal on my boat..."
Although Deep in Simplicity couldn't beat his Senior Sister, he should at least be given a reason!
He was an Elder, after all.
Was he not even allowed to bring two people?
Before he could finish, he paused.
Because Yan Qingning wasn't listening at all.
Her gaze remained fixed on the cabin, the shuang hua sword pointed diagonally at her side, her eyes like nails, firmly locked onto that hanging bamboo curtain.
The wind brushed past her sleeves, causing slight ripples; other than that, her whole being was as still as a jade carving.
She was waiting.
Inside the cabin, Jiang Wanxing gripped her brother's sleeve tightly.
The young girl's face was pale, her eyes filled with terror.
She didn't understand what was happening, but she could sense the nearly tangible pressure in the air, making it hard to breathe.
Jiang Xun raised his hand and rubbed her hair.
"Don't be afraid." His voice was very soft, almost like a mutter to himself.
"Wait for me here."
Then he stood up.
His mind locked onto Option Three.
There was no other way.
Although he had never coaxed a woman before, he could only give it a try now.
Having played so many romance games, now was the time to show the results.
The moment the bamboo curtain was lifted, the cloud-light poured in, making him squint.
He stepped out of the cabin and onto the deck of the black-awning boat.
He looked up at Yan Qingning, and when that figure entered his sight, his heart couldn't help but skip a beat.
A set of white clothes whiter than snow, black hair like a waterfall, and her sash fluttering in the wind.
Looking at her face again, countless words flashed through his mind.
In the end, only two words escaped his lips:
"So beautiful!"
Although his voice was very soft, it was still heard by Elder Deep in Simplicity and Yan Qingning.
[Ding! Task successful. Rewards have been distributed; you may check them at your leisure.]
Hmm? Jiang Xun was stunned.
The task is completed?
Deep in Simplicity's heart skipped a beat in shock.
What audacity!
Jiang Wanxing also came out and naturally heard those two words.
She hugged one of Jiang Xun's arms.
"Junior Martial Uncle, I don't know what Brother Xun did wrong to offend you."
"I am willing to take full responsibility."
She no longer called Jiang Xun 'brother', but 'Brother Xun'.
Deep in Simplicity turned his head sharply, first in a daze, then a sense of absurdity welled up:
"Senior Sister! Do you see? This is just a Mortal, with mediocre roots, even his Qi—"
He stopped.
Because Yan Qingning's expression had changed.
A very subtle change: her pupils contracted slightly, her breathing hitched for a moment, and her knuckles gripping the sword hilt turned pale.
She looked at the youth on the deck, from his hair to his eyes, from the line of his shoulders to his posture, inch by inch, as if she wanted to engrave this image into her eyes.
It had been a thousand years.
The person in her memory who would climb into her Immortal Cave in the middle of the night just to leave a jar of freshly brewed wine, the person who turned back before the Demon-Slaying Formation and said to her, "Senior Sister, wait for me to return"... was standing just thirty meters away.
Wearing coarse cloth clothes, with a thin figure and weak aura.
But those eyes, that silhouette, and that habit of shifting his center of gravity slightly back when standing still.
It was him.
"Dao Xun!"
Jiang Xun also looked at Yan Qingning.
Above the sea of clouds, white clothes like snow.
Cold and aloof, like an unsheathed sword; just standing there made everything around her lose its color.
Only, there were things in her eyes he couldn't understand—heavy, like a thousand years of accumulated frost.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.
But he saw Yan Qingning sweep her sleeve.
It wasn't an attack, just a simple movement; as her sleeve brushed across the Void Realm, a crack suddenly opened in the deck beneath Jiang Xun's feet.
It wasn't the wooden boards breaking; it was space itself being torn open, pitch-black and deep, with starlight swirling inside.
Before he could react, his whole body fell through.
The moment the feeling of weightlessness swept over him, he saw Yan Qingning lift the shuang hua sword and lightly slash at the Void Realm in front of her.
Space tore open again, and she stepped inside, her white-clad figure vanishing into the darkness.
The crack closed.
In the blink of an eye, Jiang Xun was gone from Jiang Wanxing's sight.
Above the sea of clouds, only the black-awning boat and the two stunned people on it remained.
Deep in Simplicity's mouth was wide open and didn't close for a long time.
"What is going on?" he murmured. "Senior Sister... she kidnapped a Mortal?"
Just because that Mortal praised her, saying she was beautiful.
And then she got angry?
Jiang Wanxing rushed to his side, her eyes red: "My brother! My brother, he..."
"Don't worry, don't worry." Deep in Simplicity pressed down on the young girl's shoulders, though his own mind was a mess.
"Your brother might... might be with your Junior Martial Uncle..."
Deep in Simplicity really didn't know how to explain.
He had known his Senior Sister for so long, and this seemed to be the first time he had encountered such a situation.
Seeing Jiang Wanxing's fearful look, he comforted her:
"Maybe your Junior Martial Uncle felt your brother's Aptitude was extraordinary and wanted to take him as a disciple... haha!"
"..."
He spoke vaguely; he didn't even believe his own words.
It had been so many years.
Yan Qingning had only ever taken one disciple, and that was only because she owed a favor to the Senior Brother Sect Leader.
"Then we..." Jiang Wanxing's voice trembled.
"Back to the Sect first." Deep in Simplicity gritted his teeth. "After we return to the Sect, I'll help you look into it."
He spoke firmly, but he had no confidence at all.
Yan Qingning was at the Late Stage of Void Tempering.
Half a step to immortality.
If she wanted to hide someone, he wouldn't even have the right to look for them.
The flying boat restarted and slowly sailed toward the Sect.
Jiang Wanxing leaned over the stern, her eyes fixed on the sea of clouds where her brother had disappeared, her nails digging deep into her palms.
Jiang Xun's fall was very short.
Short enough only for him to count three heartbeats.
Then his feet hit solid ground, and he stood firm.
As the dizziness faded, he looked up and found himself standing in a room.
The room wasn't large, and the furnishings were simple.
A pearwood bed with plain gauze curtains, a desk with brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone, and a curio shelf with a few scattered jade items.
The window was half-open, and through it, several huge flying ships could be seen suspended in the air, their hulls engraved with the cloud-patterned emblem of the Xuanxiao Immortal Sect.
A very faint fragrance drifted in the air—not the scent of rouge, but something cold, like the scent of pine needles after snow.
This couldn't be Yan Qingning's... bedroom, could it?
These words popped into Jiang Xun's mind, and he immediately found it absurd.
He walked to the window and looked out.
The ships were lined up neatly, and in the distant clouds, the figures of Disciples undergoing trials could be faintly seen moving back and forth.
Just as he was wondering where this was, the air in front of him suddenly distorted.
A crack opened silently, and Yan Qingning stepped out from it.
Her white clothes were the same, and her hair was not messy, but there was no expression on her face.
She landed, turned, raised her hand, and the crack closed.
Only two people remained in the room.
It was so quiet that one could hear the sound of breathing.
Jiang Xun opened his mouth, wanting to say hello or something—like "long time no see" or "I hope you've been well."
But he couldn't say a single word.
Because Yan Qingning suddenly moved.
It wasn't an attack, nor a questioning.
She stepped forward and crashed into his arms.
Her arms wrapped around his waist, holding him extremely tightly—so tightly that he could feel her body trembling slightly.
Then he heard her voice.
Muffled against his chest, it carried a kind of nearly broken grievance he had never heard before:
"Why did you avoid me?"
Jiang Xun froze—because I was afraid!
The person in his arms was real.
The body temperature, the breath, the sensation of her hair brushing against his chin—all of it was alive and warm, overlapping with the Sword Cultivator girl from the game, yet entirely different.
She was no longer just rigid concept art and models.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and after a long while, he said hoarsely, "Am I not right here now?"
As the words left his mouth, even he felt they were hollow.
Yan Qingning didn't let go; instead, she held him even tighter, as if afraid he would disappear in the next second.
"If I hadn't come looking for you," her voice was even lower, trembling.
"Were you... planning to never appear for the rest of your life?"
Jiang Xun fell silent.
It really might have been the case.
He wanted to say he woke up as a Mortal, that his memories were fragmented, and that he knew he owed too much.
But in the end, he only sighed softly:
"I just felt that a person who has died shouldn't appear in this world again."
He paused and added:
"I am called Jiang Xun now."
"I don't care what you are called." Yan Qingning finally looked up.
Her eyes were slightly red, but there were no tears.
She just stared at him, her gaze so stubborn it seemed like she wanted to burn two holes in his face.
"I only know," she said word by word, "that you are here now. Truly, vividly, standing before me."
She let go of her hands.
She took half a step back, creating a little distance.
But her gaze remained locked on him, as if afraid he would vanish if she blinked.
Jiang Xun stood still and let her look.
The room fell silent again.
The wind from the window poured in, blowing the gauze curtains and scattering a few unpressed papers on the desk.
The pages flipped, making a soft rustling sound.
Yan Qingning looked at him for a long time.
Then she spoke, her voice very soft, yet like a blunt knife slowly cutting through the air:
"Do you think..."
"That by dying, everything can just come to an end?"
Jiang Xun didn't speak.
He looked at her, at this person who had waited for a thousand years, searched for a thousand years, and was now standing before him questioning him.
In her eyes, there was pain, anger, unwillingness, and those deeper things he couldn't understand.
Outside the window, the shadow of a ship slowly moved past, and the light in the room dimmed for a moment.
He remained silent.
Only his fingers, at his side, slowly, slowly clenched.