We Are Getting Married

Xia Lengyue was completely stunned.

Her pupils dilated and her gaze lost focus, as if she had just heard an unbelievable, fantastical tale.

I do not hate you anymore.

These simple words were, to her, sweeter than the most beautiful celestial music in the world, bringing her more ecstasy than ascending to immortality.

Hundreds of years of obsession.

Two lifetimes of entanglement.

Countless days and nights of guilt and torment.

At this moment, all of it found salvation.

Is... is that really true?

Her voice trembled terribly. She carefully reached out, wanting to touch Ye Xuan's face, but stopped mid-air, terrified that this was a fragile illusion that would shatter at the slightest touch.

Husband... do you really... not hate me anymore?

You do not blame me for how I treated you in our past life?

Ye Xuan looked at her, his eyes as calm as still water.

He did not avoid her. Instead, he took the initiative to hold her hand and pressed it against his own cheek.

Death extinguishes all, like a blown-out lamp.

The debts of our past life, the blood you have shed over these years—you have paid back more than enough.

I, Ye Xuan, do not have a heart of stone.

Watching you narrowly escape death time and time again for my sake, watching you become like this for me...

Ye Xuan closed his eyes. A single tear slid down from the corner of his eye and fell onto the back of Xia Lengyue's hand:

If I still hated you, would I even be human?

This single tear completely shattered Xia Lengyue's last psychological defense.

She burst into tears.

She threw herself into Ye Xuan's arms, weeping bitterly.

She cried with a broken heart, her sorrow piercing to the very core.

It was as if she wanted to weep out all the grievances, fears, and guilt that she had suppressed in the depths of her heart for hundreds of years.

This is wonderful... sob... this is wonderful...

My husband has forgiven me... My husband has finally forgiven me...

Everything I did was worth it... Even if you asked me to die right now... I would be willing...

She held Ye Xuan in a death grip, her strength so great it felt as if she wanted to embed him into her very bones.

Her blood smeared all over Ye Xuan.

Her tears soaked Ye Xuan's chest.

At this moment, Xia Lengyue was no longer the murderous female demon, nor was she the lofty Eldest Senior Sister of the Qingyun Sect.

She was merely a pitiful woman who had struggled for far too long in the quagmire called love, and had finally grasped a life-saving straw.

Ye Xuan let her hold him.

He raised his hand and gently patted her trembling back, his movements tender and rhythmic.

Alright, stop crying.

If you keep crying, your wounds will tear open again.

Be good, let me heal your injuries.

His voice was so gentle it could melt into water.

However.

If Xia Lengyue could lift her head at this moment.

She would see that Ye Xuan's eyes, staring into the void, were filled with a chilling indifference.

Within them, there was not a single ripple of emotion.

Not a trace of love.

Even the sliver of pity from a moment ago had vanished without a trace.

In his heart, Ye Xuan silently completed his earlier sentence:

I do not hate you anymore.

Because hating someone also requires expending emotion.

And you are not worthy of it.

Why should I hate a tool that I am about to completely use up and then discard?

I do not hate you.

But I... have also never loved you.

Not even for a fraction, not even for a second.

Xia Lengyue, your deep affection is, in my eyes, nothing more than a farce of self-gratification.

Your sacrifices, in my eyes, are merely the returns on my early investments.

You think you have found salvation.

Little do you know, this is merely the final karmic tie I must sever in order to break through to the Golden Core realm and stabilize my Dao Heart.

Only by making you feel that you have succeeded will you completely lower your guard.

Only by making you feel that there is no longer any barrier between us can my cultivation realm truly reach perfection.

Ye Xuan's hand continued to gently stroke Xia Lengyue's beautiful hair.

But his heart was already as cold and hard as iron.

He was exploiting her love.

Exploiting her guilt.

Exploiting everything about her.

Was this cruel?

Ye Xuan looked at the woman crying like a child in his arms, a faint, almost imperceptible cold sneer curling the corners of his lips.

Compared to the boning knife plunged into his heart in their past life.

Compared to a century of humiliation and torture.

What did this little lie amount to?

This was simply returning the favor.

That night, Xia Lengyue slept incredibly peacefully.

It was the soundest sleep she had had since her rebirth.

She even smiled in her dreams, the corners of her mouth curving in happiness, her hand still tightly gripping the corner of Ye Xuan's clothes, as if she were holding onto the entire world.

Ye Xuan did not sleep.

He sat by the bed, watching the slumbering Xia Lengyue.

The bitter winter had arrived, and heavy snow sealed the mountains.

The years were beyond counting, and old friends were no longer as they once were.

Ten years.

To a mortal, ten years might mean half a lifetime of vicissitudes; to a cultivator, ten years was but a fleeting moment spent in a single closed-door meditation.

But these ten years had been agonizingly long for Ye Xuan.

The back mountain of the Qingyun Sect was covered in snow all year round.

Ye Xuan stood at the edge of the cliff, draped in a heavy white fox fur cloak.

It was made by Xia Lengyue, who had traveled to the Extreme North, slain a half-step Golden Core snow fox, and personally skinned and sewn it for him.

Snowflakes landed on his eyelashes and did not melt.

Because his heart was colder than the snow.

Ten years had passed.

Despite being piled with massive amounts of resources, and despite circulating the Five Elements Chaos Sutra day and night, he still had not formed his Golden Core.

He had not even reached the peak of Foundation Establishment.

He was stuck at the late Foundation Establishment stage, like a bottle filled with water that had been tightly sealed shut.

Yet, he had still made history.

He was the youngest, strongest, and wealthiest Foundation Establishment cultivator in the history of the Qingyun Sect.

Even the Golden Core elders of the sect had to politely address him as True Disciple Ye when they saw him.

For no other reason than the woman standing behind him.

Xia Lengyue.

Today, her cultivation base was unfathomably deep, and she was hailed as the number one person in the sect.

With the Sect Master in life-or-death seclusion, she was the de facto ruler of the Qingyun Sect, holding the power of life and death, reigning supreme.

Husband.

A fragrant breeze drifted over.

Without a sound of footsteps, Xia Lengyue appeared directly behind Ye Xuan.

She hugged him from behind, pressing her cheek against his cold back, her voice carrying a faintly perceptible tremble and a sense of eager anticipation.

The ten-year period has arrived.

These words were like a death warrant.

Ye Xuan watched the falling snowflakes before him, his gaze entirely devoid of emotion.

He slowly turned around and looked at this breathtakingly beautiful face that was so close at hand.

Time had left no mark on her face; instead, it had endowed her with a more mature, soul-stirring majesty.

But in front of Ye Xuan, she still tried hard to restrain the imposing aura that was strong enough to crush mountains.

Senior Sister.

Ye Xuan's voice was very light, very indifferent:

I have not yet formed my Golden Core.

This was his last excuse.

It was also the shield he had been using for the past few years.

However, this time, Xia Lengyue did not comfort him as she usually did, nor did she say to wait a little longer.

She shook her head, reached out, and gently stroked Ye Xuan's face. Her fingertips traced over his brow bone and the bridge of his nose, finally coming to rest on his slightly cool, thin lips.

Husband, let us not lie to ourselves anymore, alright?

She looked into Ye Xuan's eyes. Although her tone was gentle, it revealed an unquestionable resolve:

"The Golden Core realm isn't something you can reach just by piling up resources."

"Your cultivation base is already overflowing. What you lack is enlightenment, a flawless state of mind."

"And things between us are not yet complete."

She leaned closer to Ye Xuan, her gaze burning.

"As long as we marry, as long as we truly become one, your mental knot will untie, and forming your Golden Core will naturally follow."

"Besides..."

Xia Lengyue paused, a trace of mad obsession flashing through her eyes.

"I can't wait anymore."

"Ye Xuan, ten years... that is my limit."

"For the past ten years, I've watched over you, guarded you, refrained from touching you. I've endured it so bitterly."

"If you still refuse to marry me..."

"I will go mad."

She grabbed Ye Xuan's hand and placed it over her heart.

"Once the grand ceremony is over, I will accompany you down the mountain."

"To travel, to experience the mortal realm, to see the mountains and rivers. Wherever you want to go, I will go with you."

"Okay?"

This was already an ultimatum.

Ye Xuan looked at the bloodshot hue of impending madness in her eyes.

He knew that if he refused again, today would end in rivers of blood.

Bai Qiangu of the Limitless Demon Sect had recently tracked them to the vicinity of the Azure Cloud Sect. Xia Lengyue's sense of crisis had reached a breaking point.

She had to use a grand wedding to declare to the whole world that he was her private property.

Ye Xuan moved his lips.

After a long time.

He lowered his eyes, concealing the fleeting, abyss-like dead silence that flashed through them.

"Alright."

He said softly.

"We will... get married."