To Eliminate the Inner Demon

Ye Xuan sat motionless on the ground for a full hour.

At last, he staggered to his feet and made his way toward the secluded residence where Lu Yanchen was staying.

He was determined to see whether that man was really dying!

But when he arrived at the residence and pushed open the half-closed gate, the scene before him struck him like a bolt from the blue, sending him plunging into an abyss.

The courtyard was festooned with lanterns and decorations, overflowing with joy.

Qing Xuanyin sat before a jade table, personally playing an exquisite, priceless zither. Its melody was graceful and tender.

Lu Yanchen held a cup of wine, his face glowing as he gazed at Qing Xuanyin, his eyes filled with tenderness too deep to conceal.

“Xuanyin, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I truly wouldn’t know how to get through a birthday without your sister. This toast is to you.” Lu Yanchen’s voice was as gentle as flowing water.

Qing Xuanyin stopped playing. Her eyes held boundless tolerance and warmth. “Yanchen, as long as you’re happy. From now on, I’ll celebrate your birthday with you every year.”

He had been faking his illness! He had deceived her!

And she had actually abandoned her fiancé’s birthday to celebrate this liar’s birthday with him! On top of that, she was smiling so happily!

“Lu Yanchen! You despicable bastard!”

At that moment, Ye Xuan’s reason snapped completely.

With a desperate roar like that of a wounded beast, his eyes bloodshot, he charged into the courtyard and swung a fist at Lu Yanchen’s face.

“Ah!”

Lu Yanchen cried out in alarm. He did not even try to resist.

Before Ye Xuan’s fist came within half a foot of him, Lu Yanchen went flying backward with absurd exaggeration.

With a thunderous crash, he smashed into the jade table beside him. Shards of jade sliced across his palms and cheeks, and blood began flowing instantly. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his chest in agony as violent coughs wracked his body.

“Yanchen!”

Qing Xuanyin let out a sharp cry. Without even glancing at Ye Xuan, she rushed to Lu Yanchen’s side, hurriedly helping him up while frantically channeling spiritual energy into his body.

When she saw the blood on Lu Yanchen’s face, Qing Xuanyin abruptly turned around.

An unprecedented, tangible hatred erupted from her eyes!

Slap!

The crisp, resounding sound of the blow exploded through the night.

Qing Xuanyin had shown no mercy. The terrifying power of a Tribulation Transcendence expert struck Ye Xuan across the face.

Ye Xuan flew backward like a kite with its string cut and slammed heavily into the courtyard wall, spraying a large mouthful of blood. Half his face swelled and twisted instantly. His eardrums buzzed, and darkness swam before his eyes.

“Ye Xuan! Have you lost your mind?”

Qing Xuanyin pointed at Ye Xuan, who lay in a pool of blood. Her entire body trembled, and her voice was filled with fury and disgust.

“Not only are you narrow-minded, you even dared to attack someone! Were you trying to kill him?”

Blood blurred Ye Xuan’s eyes as he lay on the ground.

Looking at the lofty Qing Xuanyin, he let out a tragic laugh. He laughed while vomiting mouthful after mouthful of blood.

“I never touched him… He fell on his own… Xuanyin, why won’t you believe me…”

“Cough, cough, cough…”

At that moment, Lu Yanchen, lying in Qing Xuanyin’s arms, weakly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

He raised a trembling hand and gently tugged at Qing Xuanyin’s sleeve. His eyes reddened as he spoke with great weakness and magnanimity.

“Xuanyin… don’t blame Brother Ye. It’s my fault… I shouldn’t have asked you to celebrate my birthday with me at a time like this and upset Brother Ye…”

“He didn’t do it on purpose. Cough, cough… Please, don’t hurt the relationship between the two of you because of me…”

Lu Yanchen’s calculated, self-effacing performance instantly drove Qing Xuanyin’s guilt and anger toward Ye Xuan to their absolute peak.

“Listen to yourself!”

Qing Xuanyin pointed at Ye Xuan and roared furiously, “You should really learn from Yanchen! He’s seriously injured, yet he’s still making excuses for you!”

“And what about you? All you ever do is get jealous and hurt people at the slightest provocation! Look at the hysterical, disgusting state you’re in right now. Are you even a man?”

“I must have been blind back then to think you were someone I could entrust my life to!”

Each of her words struck Ye Xuan like a rain of arrows, reducing the heart that had once burned with love for her to a riddled wreck.

He no longer tried to explain himself. He no longer argued back.

He simply lay there in silence on the cold stone floor, letting his blood spread across the ground.

He watched the woman he had once loved with his life carefully cradle another man in her arms, as though she were protecting a priceless treasure.

There was no sorrow greater than a heart that had died.

From that day onward, things only grew worse.

Lu Yanchen completely mastered the art of manipulating Qing Xuanyin. Every few days, he would suffer from “heart palpitations,” “collapse from illness,” or “cultivation deviation.”

The moment he sent her a message, no matter what Qing Xuanyin was doing, she would abandon Ye Xuan and hurry to his side.

Everyone in the Qing family saw through Lu Yanchen’s intentions. They also saw the enormous green hat perched on Ye Xuan’s head.

Countless jeers and scornful looks washed over Ye Xuan like a tide, drowning him beneath them.

Finally, after Lu Yanchen once again summoned Qing Xuanyin in the middle of the night with an utterly ridiculous excuse, Ye Xuan stopped her the following morning, just as she emerged from Lu Yanchen’s residence.

“We need to talk.” Ye Xuan’s voice was unusually calm—so calm that it held not the slightest ripple of emotion.

Qing Xuanyin frowned slightly. Her face was filled with exhaustion and impatience.

“What are you trying to stir up this time? Yanchen’s heart demon flared up last night. I stayed with him all night, and I’m exhausted.”

“His heart demon flared up? You stayed with him all night?”

A deeply sarcastic curve touched Ye Xuan’s lips. His gaze locked onto Qing Xuanyin’s cold, beautiful face.

“Xuanyin, tell me. Were you taking care of your brother-in-law, or your new lover?”

“How dare you!”

Qing Xuanyin’s expression darkened at once, and a flash of anger crossed her eyes.

“Ye Xuan, watch your mouth! I’m doing this only to repay a debt! Your sister died saving me. That is the heart demon I cannot overcome!”

“If I don’t take good care of Lu Yanchen, my Dao heart will become unstable, and my cultivation will cease to advance! Do you understand?”

“To repay a debt?”

Ye Xuan looked at her coldly. The last trace of warmth in his eyes went out completely.

He stepped forward, suppressing the fury that was about to erupt from his chest. His voice was low and hoarse.

“That’s not how you repay a debt! You have no sense of boundaries at all! You’re my fiancée, yet you spend every day in another man’s room!”

“The moment he calls, you come running. On his birthday, you play music for him and keep him company. On my birthday, you cast me aside like I’m nothing! Qing Xuanyin, can you put your hand over your heart and swear that what you feel for him is truly nothing more than gratitude?”

Faced with Ye Xuan’s blunt and cutting accusation, a trace of inexplicable panic flickered through Qing Xuanyin’s heart. But in the next instant, that panic transformed into overwhelming embarrassment and anger.

“Ye Xuan, I’m so disappointed in you!”

Qing Xuanyin took a deep breath and looked at Ye Xuan as though he were a stranger. Her voice was cold to the extreme.

“I originally thought that after all this time, you would reflect on your narrow-mindedness and understand my difficulties. But I was wrong. Not only is your cultivation pathetic, your character is utterly disgraceful as well!”

“You don’t have even the slightest bit of compassion. Instead, you use such filthy thoughts to speculate about me! You disgust me!”

“I disgust you?”

Ye Xuan flew into a complete rage!

His eyes were bloodshot, and like a mad wolf driven to the brink, he unleashed a heart-wrenching roar at the lofty Qing Xuanyin:

“Yes! I disgust you! But no matter how disgusting I am, I’m still not as shameless as you, Qing Xuanyin!”

“You keep saying that you’re repaying a debt of gratitude and eliminating your inner demon! Do you have to strip naked and repay that debt in Lu Yanchen’s bed before your damn inner demon can finally be eradicated? Before you’ll truly be satisfied?”