Fellow Daoist Li... I beg you...

Gu Yang slowly opened his eyes.

A streak of black-gold fire flashed deep within his pupils.

He raised his hand, having devoured two incomplete portions of the Nine Nethers Soul-Locking Flame, and looked at the small cluster of dancing flames at his fingertips. It looked much more restrained than before.

After dealing with the spoils of war, Gu Yang concealed his aura and was just about to turn and leave.

Suddenly, his footsteps halted.

On this dead, silent floating platform, there was still the sound of breathing.

Rapid, suppressed, and trembling.

Gu Yang frowned slightly, turned his head, and looked at a corner not far away.

There lay the Ugly Slave who had been casually swatted away by Lin Junchang.

She wasn't dead yet?

Gu Yang, holding the hem of his robe that was still dripping with blood, walked step by step toward that corner.

With every step he took, the rocks beneath his feet let out a teeth-grating cracking sound.

He walked up to the figure and looked down at her from above.

Wave after wave of spiritual energy impacts had actually washed away the thick layer of disguise on her face completely clean.

"Hmm?"

The sight before him caused even his rock-solid heart to slightly falter.

How was this some nauseating ugly monster?

Beneath that mottled, peeling disguise, a stunningly beautiful face that could pale the world was revealed.

Her skin was white as snow, and her eyebrows were like distant mountains painted with dark ink.

Even though blood trailed from the corner of her mouth and her hair clung messily to her cheeks, it could not conceal the coldness and nobility carved into her very bones.

Brows like distant mountains painted with ink, skin like the first snow of Kunlun.

Especially the ultimate, smooth line of her jawline and that slender, fragile neck, it seemed as if a gentle snap would produce the most beautiful shattering sound in the world.

That kind of beauty was not the superficial, fleshly temptation of the demonesses from the Joyous Sect, but a sword.

A newly unsheathed, chillingly bright, and untouchable immortal sword.

Gu Yang recognized this face.

The Saintess of the Supreme Sword Sect, the Ice Soul Sword Immortal — Ji Shuanghua.

Gu Yang's face darkened as he immediately recalled several pieces of intelligence regarding Ji Shuanghua.

So that was it.

So that was it.

No wonder she had been following him, no wonder she had done those strange things.

If it was her, then everything made sense.

That sword beauty in the Biluo Secret Realm whom he had thrown into a mud puddle like trash, who, instead of drawing her sword to kill him, had awakened some strange attribute...

"Ugh..."

Ji Shuanghua, who was on the ground, seemed to sense that oppressive gaze.

She struggled to prop up her upper body. Her previously unfocused pupils instantly focused the moment she saw Gu Yang's face clearly.

Even though the current Gu Yang still wore that unremarkable, scar-faced visage of Li Feiyu.

But in Ji Shuanghua's eyes, that face seemed to be glowing.

He recognized me.

He knows who I am, but he still looks at me with that gaze meant for trash.

"Ha... Daoist... Daoist Li..."

Ji Shuanghua's voice was hoarse and broken, carrying a hint of uncontrollable panting.

She tremblingly reached out her hand, her fingertips stained with mud, wanting to touch the vamp of Gu Yang's shoe, but stopped half an inch away, as if it were some sacred and inviolable totem.

"You also think I'm very cheap, don't you?"

She suddenly smiled.

Desolate, broken, yet carrying a bizarre sense of liberation.

"In the sect, they all call me the Ice Soul Fairy. Master said I was born a seed to cultivate the Supreme Dao of Forgetting Emotions. They placed me on a pedestal, not even daring to speak loudly to me."

Ji Shuanghua's body trembled violently, a sickly blush surfacing on her face, as if she were savoring some ultimate delicacy.

"But... it was all too fake."

"That cautious reverence, that hypocritical courtesy... it suffocated me!"

She suddenly shifted forward a few inches, her knees scraping bloody trails on the rough rock, yet she remained completely oblivious.

"Only you..."

She looked up at Gu Yang's cold scarred face, her eyes fanatical to the point of reverence.

"In the Biluo Secret Realm, you threw me into a mud pit like garbage."

"The way you looked at me had no desire, no fawning, only pure... disgust."

"Just now, you didn't hesitate at all, kicking me away."

"It hurts... it really hurts..."

Tears slipped from the corners of Ji Shuanghua's eyes, dropping into the dust, yet the corners of her mouth curled into a satisfied arc.

"But in that instant, I heard it! I heard that damned bottleneck inside me shatter!"

Ji Shuanghua fiercely tore open her already tattered collar, revealing a large expanse of snow-white but mud-stained skin, pointing at her heart:

"Here, it cleared."

"The so-called Supreme Dao of Forgetting Emotions is not about severing feelings and abandoning love at all!"

"It is about admitting to myself that only by being conquered by absolute power will my sword... sing!"

Clang — !

As if to verify her words.

Although the black iron heavy sword in her hand was shattered, a chilling sword intent to the extreme unexpectedly used her body as a sword embryo and soared into the sky!

In that sword intent, the former ethereal vastness was gone.

Replacing it was an obstinate, reckless madness.

"This is, this is the Dao I want to pursue!"

She suddenly prostrated herself, her forehead heavily knocking against the rock by Gu Yang's feet, letting out a muffled thump.

Blood flowed down her smooth forehead, past the high bridge of her nose, and dripped onto the tip of Gu Yang's shoe.

"Daoist Li... I beg you..."

"Take me away."

Ji Shuanghua's voice was humble to the dust, carrying a heart-palpitating tremble:

"I don't need a status, I don't need resources, I don't even need you to treat me as a human."

"As long as I can stay by your side and feel this 'reality' of being crushed by absolute power... even if I die, I will gladly endure it!"

Deathly silence.

On the Crimson Flame Floating Platform, there was only the bubbling sound of churning magma.

Gu Yang looked at this completely broken beauty of the Eastern Region at his feet.

If it were that hypocrite Ye Guhong, he would probably be wild with joy right now, helping her up while spouting morality and righteousness, all while calculating in his heart how to completely devour this top-tier cultivation cauldron.

But Gu Yang merely frowned.

I have an intelligence system and bear many great secrets.

Having a follower would only get in the way.

Besides, my strength is still weak right now; being clung to by this femme fatale would bring who knows how much trouble.

No.

Absolutely not.

I have to make her get lost.

"Are you done talking?"

Gu Yang spoke indifferently.

Ji Shuanghua raised her head, her eyes full of hope.

"You seem to have misunderstood one thing."

Gu Yang squatted down.

This movement made Ji Shuanghua tremble all over, thinking Gu Yang was going to accept her.

However.

Gu Yang merely extended a single finger, pressing it against her glabella with disgust, forcefully pushing away the face she was trying to lean in.