Completion

The Sword of Destruction, which Ye Xuan had already gathered in his palm and was ready to shatter her skull with, stopped abruptly, jarringly, in mid-air.

The bitter expression on his face—a mixture of rage, betrayal, and despair—froze instantly, as if someone had hit the pause button.

Then, slowly, slowly... it twisted into a grotesque, baffled look of shock and stupor.

"...Huh?"

Ye Xuan let out a single, soulless syllable.

He blinked his bloodshot eyes in a daze, staring blankly at the woman clinging to his leg and sobbing without any dignity.

"You... what did you just say?"

Ying'er cautiously opened one eye, sniffled, and looked up at him. Her plain, clean face was full of grievance, and her voice was thick with a nasal tone:

"I... I meant that my body is perfectly healthy. I've never had any nasty diseases like syphilis or gonorrhea, and I've never slept with anyone..."

"Before I met you... I'd never even held a man's hand..."

Her voice grew softer as she spoke, until she was almost ashamed enough to bury her head in the floor tiles.

Ye Xuan's mouth twitched violently, then his entire face began to spasm.

What kind of deception was this?

In all his years, he had seen green tea bitches pretending to be pure maidens and hypocrites preaching morality. But in this world, there was actually someone who would willingly throw mud on herself, forcibly turning her own innocent self into a whore who had been passed around by thousands?

"You... are you sick in the head?"

Ye Xuan finally came back to his senses from the extreme shock and couldn't help blurting out a loud curse, completely losing his composure. He snatched his hand back from mid-air, ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation, then crouched down and stared at Ying'er with the astonished look of someone examining an endangered mutant beast.

"No, seriously, why would you lie about something like this?! What were you aiming for?"

Ying'er sniffled her red nose, her eyes turning shifty and evasive. She poked her two index fingers together pitifully and mumbled quietly:

"Because... I wanted to win your favor."

"Win my favor?"

Ye Xuan jabbed a finger at his own nose, his voice rising an octave, feeling as though his masculinity and taste as a man had suffered a devastating insult:

"Do you think I'm a pervert with some special mental disorder? You think I like women who... who are leftovers?"

"What kind of crappy logic is crammed into your brain?"

"Is it wrong for me to want a clean and pure Dao companion? Just because a few holy maidens and celestial fairies screwed me over in my past lives, does that mean I have to go dig through the trash to find a wife in this one—just to seem down-to-earth?"

Ye Xuan stomped around in place, roaring without any shred of dignity.

Ying'er shrank into a ball under his yelling, like a frightened little quail, and weakly tried to defend her own twisted logic:

"But... but that's how it's written in the mortal storybooks."

"Those books say, 'It's the scholars who are heartless, but the butchers who stand by you.' I figured the same should apply to women..."

She lifted her head and reasoned with a straight face: "Look at it this way. Those lofty holy maidens, celestial fairies, and female emperors—their hearts are trickier than a sieve. They'd stab you in the back in the blink of an eye if it meant living forever. They're evil!"

"But the downtrodden brothel girls, the poor widows who've been bullied—they know gratitude the most and are the most loyal. You were so deeply hurt by Xia Lengyue back then. If I'd pretended to be some proper young lady to get close to you, you'd have thought I was out to harm you and killed me with one sword stroke..."

"So... so I had to make up a story that made me sound more miserable, more lowly, more pitiful. That way... you'd find me harmless and take me in out of sympathy..."

"Pfft!"

Ye Xuan felt a surge of blood in his chest, his throat turning bitter, and he nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood right there.

He clutched his chest, staggered back two steps, and leaned against a collapsed pile of timber, staring at Ying'er with a look of utter defeat.

What kind of bizarre, hair-raising logic was this?

What kind of cosmic sucker could come up with such a twisted reasoning?

To prove she was loyal and wouldn't betray him, she first dragged her own reputation through the mud, stomping on it ten thousand times?

"Who in their right mind would like a woman covered in the dust of the brothels?"

Ye Xuan could no longer hold it together. He grabbed his own hair with both hands and roared at the rafters, his voice shaking the remaining half-beams and sending dust raining down:

"I've been hurt by love before! I've got psychological scars! But I'm not a damn pervert!"

"I like clean, beautiful, wholehearted good girls too, alright? I'm a normal man too!"

"And you—you actually played the role of a fallen flower for decades, just because of this ridiculous reason?"

Ye Xuan nearly laughed in exasperation.

He thought back to all these years. Because he pitied her tragic, dark past, he had treated her like a fragile treasure—afraid she'd break if he held her too tight, afraid she'd shatter if he spoke too harshly. He wouldn't even hug her too tightly at night, worried it might trigger some trauma from being assaulted by thugs.

And now?

It turned out the girl wasn't just healthy and chaste—her mental fortitude was rock solid.

"No wonder..."

Ye Xuan suddenly seemed to understand something. He sharply sucked in a breath, pointed a trembling finger at Ying'er's nose, and said:

"No wonder, back then, when we first shared a bed at the Purple Tenuity Palace..."

"No wonder you were trembling the whole time, and kept crying out in pain!"

Ye Xuan gritted his teeth, stepped forward, and unceremoniously grabbed her soft cheeks with both hands, pulling them outward:

"I was full of guilt, thinking you had some trauma from past abuse!”

"But you were just an inexperienced virgin the whole time, weren't you?"

"You had zero actual experience, and you still had the nerve to blush and boast to me that night: 'I've rolled around in the pleasure quarters, I know all sorts of ways to please a man, Benefactor, you can do whatever you want'?"

Ying'er's cheeks were stretched by his hands, and her originally pale face flushed bright red in an instant.

She lowered her head, biting her lip hard, and murmured in a voice barely audible:

"I... I didn't have practice, but I had plenty of theoretical knowledge..."

"I just memorized the lines from the Spring Palace Secret Paintings and romantic stories... I had no other choice..."

She grew more and more aggrieved, tears welling up in her eyes: "Back then, it was just the two of us, alone in that room. If I hadn't made myself sound loose and easy, how could you ever have crossed your mental block to touch me? If you didn't touch me, what if you ever got tired of me and abandoned me?"

Ye Xuan let go of her cheeks, looked at the red marks his hands had left on her face, and let out a long, deep sigh.

He looked at the woman crying so pitifully, so foolishly endearing and adorable, and the last remnants of guilt and fury inside him caused by deception dissipated completely like morning dew under the rising sun.

Yes.

She had deceived him, woven an enormous lie.

But behind that lie, there was no conspiracy, no scheming, no plunder.

Only a clumsy yet utterly pure obsession—a desperate desire to stay by his side at all costs.

Though the method was laughably foolish, this heavy, sincere heart... made it impossible for him to harden his heart and blame her even half a word.

“What else is there?”

Ye Xuan’s emotions had fully calmed, and even the corners of his eyes carried a faint, barely noticeable smile.

He bent down, reached out with his strong hands, pulled Ying’er, who was kneeling on the ground, to her feet, and then gently and meticulously brushed the dust off her knees.

He met Ying’er’s eyes again, his gaze deep and serene, as if he could see through the river of time:

“Luoyun City was fake. That tragic background was fake. Those dark experiences were fake.”

“Since you never suffered those hardships, then who are you?”

“An ordinary mortal woman could never possess five-element mixed spiritual roots, nor could she have woven such flawless mundane lies under my watch and fooled me for decades.”

Ying’er stiffened slightly.

She lifted her head, staring blankly at Ye Xuan’s eyes.

This time, she didn’t lower her head again, nor did she fabricate any more lies.

But she pressed her lips tightly together, as if there was something difficult to reveal, and she didn’t fully confess the truth.

Instead, she took his large hand in return and pressed his palm tightly against her cheek. Those big, watery eyes reflected Ye Xuan’s figure, clear and resolute:

“Husband.”

“As for the rest... I really, really can’t tell you now. Divine secrets must not be revealed; some karma, once spoken, will bring great disaster.”

Having said that, she stood on tiptoe, her expression more solemn and earnest than ever before:

“But I can swear by the Great Dao.”

“No matter who I am, no matter where I come from, no matter what burdens I carry.”

“I, Ying’er, have always stood firmly by your side.”

“Even if one day all the heavens and earth, all the gods and buddhas, seek to kill you, I will never, ever betray you. I will die before you.”

Ye Xuan quietly watched her, his sharp eyes narrowing slightly, and his aura settled again, carrying the authority of one in a high position.

“I don’t believe in empty words and vows,” Ye Xuan said in a deep voice, raising three fingers. “I’ll ask you three final things. You only need to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ If you dare utter a single false word, our bond as husband and wife will end today.”

Ying’er met his gaze without flinching and nodded firmly: “Husband, ask away.”

“First,” Ye Xuan’s voice was cold and hard as iron, “Are you the reincarnation of some Dao partner I owed a karmic debt to in a past life, deliberately come to repay me?”

Ying’er’s gaze was frank, without hesitation: “No! I am me. I owe you nothing from a past life; I only covet you in this life.”

“Good. Second,” Ye Xuan leaned forward slightly, staring intently into her pupils, “In all these years, have you ever once passed on any information about me to the outside world, or secretly done anything to harm me?”

“No! Absolutely not!” Ying’er stomped her foot in anxiety, her eyes reddening again, “I wish I could lock you in a cellar and show you to no one. How could I betray you!”

“Very well. Third...”

Ye Xuan lowered his hand, his tone growing extremely dark and icy, “You should know well that my fate for traitors is to extract their souls and refine them, condemning them to endless torment. But considering your companionship and care for me over the years, if one day I discover you’ve lied to me today, I’ll give you a quick death when I kill you, and I won’t torture you.”

“Are you afraid?”

Ying’er looked at his cold, stern face and suddenly smiled.

Instead of backing away, she stepped forward and pressed her face against Ye Xuan’s chest: “I’m not afraid. Because Ying’er will never betray Husband, so Husband will never kill Ying’er. If I must die, I want to die in Husband’s embrace.”

Ye Xuan stared at her for a long time.

The pent-up frustration that had been building in his chest finally dissipated with a long sigh.

A smile of relief and indulgence tugged at the corners of his mouth. He reached out with his arm, pulled this little liar—full of absurd lies, with a quirky mind, yet desperately affectionate—into his arms, holding her tightly and fiercely.

“Actually, even without you telling me, I know some things.”

Ye Xuan pressed his chin against her hair, which carried the faint scent of soap, and whispered softly in her ear, his tone filled with the absolute confidence of someone who had seen through the vicissitudes of life:

“In all the heavens and earth, those who can shield themselves from divine providence and fool me are few and far between.”

“Who you are... I can faintly guess the gist. I just didn’t dare think in that direction before.”

Ying’er trembled slightly in his arms, like a guilty thief, and didn’t dare respond.

“Enough.”

Ye Xuan gently stroked her long, flowing hair with his broad hand, soothing her back:

“As you said, divine mysteries are unfathomable. Speaking of many things and attracting karma would not be beneficial.”

“As long as you are my Ying’er, as long as your heart holds only me, as long as your body and soul have always and completely belonged only to me, Ye Xuan... then your other identity and background mean nothing.”

When he said the last sentence, Ye Xuan’s tone couldn’t help but reveal a hint of extreme elation and possessive satisfaction that even he didn’t fully notice.

Ying’er obediently leaned against his broad, warm chest, listening to his steady, strong heartbeat, and the stone that had been hanging in her throat finally settled firmly back into place.

She wrapped her arms tightly around Ye Xuan’s sturdy waist, like a stray cat that had finally found its owner, burrying her face deep into his embrace, rubbing against it and pouting in a spoiled tone:

“Husband is so good.”

“Hmph, now you think I’m good?” Ye Xuan deliberately put on a stern face, snorted coldly, and pinched the back of her neck, “Just now in the library, weren’t you afraid I’d crush your skull with one slap, trembling in fear?”

“Not afraid now. Husband dotes on Ying’er the most; he wouldn’t bear to kill Ying’er.” Ying’er twisted in his arms, relying on the crisis being resolved to immediately revert to her spoiled and willful nature.

Ye Xuan shook his head helplessly, but the corners of his mouth kept rising uncontrollably.

This journey to seek out relatives, though it ended as an absurd and hilarious farce, had broken down the final invisible barrier between the two in that moment.

In truth, Ye Xuan had always had a deeply hidden thorn in his heart.

It was a discomfort over Ying’er’s tragic past. Though he had never mentioned it and had sincerely accepted this scarred mortal woman.

But as any normal man, who wouldn't want his woman to belong solely to him—from head to toe, completely and purely?

Now, the thorn that had been buried deep in his heart had not only been pulled out, but the hole it left had been filled as well.

"Let's go."

Ye Xuan let go of her hand and suddenly bent down, lifting the startled Ying'er into his arms.

"Ah! Where... where are we going?" Ying'er exclaimed, instinctively wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, her cheeks flushing slightly.

"Since this broken place has no Huang family mansion, since you no longer have a home,"

Ye Xuan looked down at her, his eyes sparkling with stars, his spirit soaring,

"From now on, we'll make the whole world our home."