Lu Yanchen and Qing Xuanyin Are Going to Hold a Wedding

The dim, damp dungeon reeked of rot.

Ye Xuan was carelessly dumped onto a moss-covered stone slab.

His injuries were grievous beyond measure. A strike from a Tribulation Transcending stage evil cultivator, compounded by the fresh wound of having his kidney forcibly removed, had left his life's flame flickering like a candle in the wind.

Yet he did not care at all.

He lay there quietly, his hollow gaze fixed on the dungeon's pitch-black ceiling, his features numb.

He did not know how much time had passed before the heavy iron gate of the dungeon creaked open with a dull thud.

Qing Xuanyin, clad in a cyan robe, stepped into this filthy place.

She looked at Ye Xuan lying crumpled on the ground, a flicker of pity crossing her eyes.

In the end, she could not bear to watch him die. She squatted down, pressing her palm to Ye Xuan's chest, and channeled a steady stream of gentle wood-type spiritual energy into his body to stabilize his shattered heart meridians.

"Why are you saving me?"

Ye Xuan did not look at her, a mocking smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "After all, didn't all of this come about because I, this malicious, scheming person, brought it entirely on myself?"

Qing Xuanyin's hand paused slightly, a flash of disappointment in her eyes, but she still spoke with as much patience as she could muster. "Ye Xuan, are you still going to speak to me in this bitter, sarcastic tone even now?"

"I saved Yanchen only because I owed him a life debt. I was repaying a kindness! Why can't you ever understand that? Why must you always be so petty, using such extreme measures to force my hand?"

"Repaying a kindness? Petty?"

Ye Xuan laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke under the heavens.

He slowly turned his head, his once lifeless eyes now locked tightly on Qing Xuanyin.

"Qing Xuanyin, you say you are repaying a debt. Then let me ask you—what do you plan to do to repay the debt you owe me?"

Ye Xuan's voice was hoarse, yet it carried a piercing, soul-deep weight. "Have you forgotten that the Supreme Azure Celestial Physique you cultivate now can only reach full maturity when paired with the most powerful wood-type cultivation technique?"

"Have you forgotten who ventured alone into the death-trap of the Ten Thousand Poison Abyss to find that *Wanmu Qingdi Codex* for you?"

"I was gnawed at by ten thousand poisons for three full years! I shattered my own peerless innate Dao foundation with my own hands, leaving behind an incurable affliction that would forever bar me from advancing any further, just to hand that cultivation technique over to you!"

"Today, you stand as a lofty Tribulation Transcending great power, revered by all. And I? I've become a useless, laughing stock in the eyes of everyone around you!"

Ye Xuan coughed up blood as he laughed bitterly and tragically. "I gave you everything. I gave you my very life and my entire future."

"And what did I get in return? You dug out my kidney to save your precious good brother-in-law, stood by and watched me get beaten to a cripple, and then threw me into this lightless, dark dungeon!"

"All of this is nothing but proof that I, Ye Xuan, was blind to have given my whole heart to someone unworthy."

Qing Xuanyin was so shaken by these words that she staggered back two steps, her face draining of all color in an instant.

Those past events she had deliberately pushed aside, even taken for granted, struck her like a resounding, stinging slap across the face.

An uncontrollable surge of panic and guilt rose up from the depths of her heart.

But proud as she was, how could she ever admit her own cold cruelty and mistake?

"Ye Xuan, stop trying to use past events to morally blackmail me!" Qing Xuanyin raised her voice sharply, using anger to mask her unease. "I am grateful for what you did for me in the past, which is why I have always put up with your temper! But debts and grievances are separate matters. You cannot act however you want just because you helped me before, and try to kill the innocent Yanchen!"

"You are being completely unreasonable! You will stay here and reflect on your actions!"

Qing Xuanyin rose to her feet angrily, turning and hurrying out of the dungeon as if fleeing the scene. But before she left, she pulled several bottles of extremely precious healing pills from her storage ring and tossed them beside Ye Xuan, as if that small gesture could somehow ease the weight of her guilt.

The dungeon fell back into dead silence.

Not long after, the iron gate creaked open once more.

This time, the one who stepped in was Lu Yanchen, his face glowing with unbridled triumph.

He looked down at Ye Xuan, who lay on the ground like a lump of mud, and burst into unrepressed, wild laughter. "Hahaha! Brother Ye, are you getting used to staying in this dungeon?"

Lu Yanchen walked over to Ye Xuan's side, lowering his voice to speak with undisguised smugness. "I came here today to tell you some good news. Xuanyin and I are getting married next month."

"Impossible!" Ye Xuan's eyes flew wide open, a furious roar tearing from his throat. "She told me she would only ever marry me! I don't believe you!"

"You don't believe me?"

Lu Yanchen sneered, pulling a spirit-recording stone from his sleeve and channeling spiritual energy into it.

In mid-air, an image of Lu Yanchen and Qing Xuanyin talking in a study materialized.

In the image, Lu Yanchen held Qing Xuanyin's hand, speaking gently. "Xuanyin, when we hold our wedding, what if Ye Xuan finds out after he gets out and comes to cause a scene?"

In the recording, Qing Xuanyin's expression was ice-cold, her tone devoid of the slightest trace of warmth as she replied, "Don't worry. I will keep him locked in this dungeon the entire time. I will never let him out to ruin our wedding before everything is settled."

Lu Yanchen nodded in satisfaction, smiling. "That would be perfect, of course."

The image froze there.

Watching the scene in the spirit-recording stone, the fury on Ye Xuan's face suddenly faded away completely.

He did not weep, did not rage, even his breathing steadied. He looked at Lu Yanchen, his eyes glinting with a bone-deep coldness and the calm of someone who had seen through every last trick.

"So that's how it is..." Ye Xuan spoke softly, his voice carrying the detached calm of someone watching a trivial play unfold. "I see you've used some despicable trick to fool her, haven't you?"

Lu Yanchen was taken aback by Ye Xuan's sudden composure, but he quickly dropped all pretense and laughed arrogantly. "That's right, you guessed it! That silly woman is so wracked with guilt over her sister's death that she'll do anything I say!"

"I just put on a show of crying, telling her that the fact that I never got to hold a wedding ceremony with her sister is the biggest regret of my life."

"So to make it up to me, she actually decided to stand in for her sister and hold a wedding ceremony with me!"

Lu Yanchen paced back and forth, giddy with his own success. "But she kept emphasizing over and over that it's just a ceremonial formality, no dual-cultivation Dao partner ritual will ever take place. And to spare your feelings, she was only going to invite a handful of people from the Qing clan."

"But none of that matters!" A mad, lewd grin spread across Lu Yanchen's face. "On the day of the wedding, I will secretly leak the news and invite every prominent sect and influential clan in Central Province to the event!"

"I will blow the wedding up to a massive scale, and consummate our union in front of the entire cultivation world. That way, the Qing clan's prodigy, who cares so deeply about her reputation, will have no choice but to accept it and become my woman!"

Ye Xuan listened to every word quietly, nodding his head indifferently before delivering a calm, matter-of-fact remark. "You truly are despicable."

"Despicable? So what? The victor writes the rules!"

Lu Yanchen pressed right up to Ye Xuan, his eyes bloodshot as he shrieked madly, "She belongs to me! I will be her rightful, lawfully wedded husband! On our wedding night, I will pin her beneath me and ravage that untouchable goddess of yours without mercy!"

"Oh, that's right..."

Lu Yanchen suddenly thought of something, fixed his gaze on Ye Xuan, and his grin grew even lewder and more twisted. "You've been engaged to her for all these years, and that pristine, haughty woman never even let you lay a finger on her, did she? She's still a perfect, untouched maiden, isn't she? Hahaha!"

This was a kind of taunt and humiliation that would have driven any other man into a raging fury.

Yet Ye Xuan did not show the slightest flicker of emotion.

He looked at Lu Yanchen, who was carrying on like a raving clown right in front of him, and the false, arrogant, selfish face of Qing Xuanyin drifted across his mind.

He even thought that the two of them were perfectly matched, made for each other.

"That's right."

Ye Xuan leaned against the cold stone wall, looking at Lu Yanchen with a completely indifferent expression.

"She is indeed still an untouched maiden."