thrilling

How similar.

His current state.

Was so similar to hers back then.

Chang Wan pursed her lips, not knowing why, but she suddenly felt touched.

Her parents had passed away due to an accident, separating them forever.

She instantly transformed from a high-and-mighty little princess to an abandoned pawn, wandering about outside. She had cried countless times behind the high walls of the orphanage, but no one could comfort her.

Every night in her dreams, just like him, she was fragile, like glass about to shatter.

She longed for someone to take her in, longed to be loved, but could only grow up through disappointment after disappointment.

That’s why she liked Chu Changqing in the novel.

He needed no one and could still conquer the entire world.

In the book, he lived the life she desired.

Even though her neck ached faintly, when Chang Wan looked at him again, he didn’t seem as detestable.

The youth’s body was ice-cold, without a trace of warmth. She held him and whispered softly,

“Don’t be afraid.”

Her voice unconsciously softened, as if comforting him, or perhaps, through him, comforting the lonely and helpless self from a long, long time ago.

“In the future… you won’t be alone.”

As if truly comforted, the young man’s body slowly relaxed. The chaotic true essence inside him was smoothed out by Chang Wan, and his painful expression gradually calmed down. However, his hand still gripped hers, tightly, firmly.

It took Chang Wan some effort to make him let go.

After withdrawing her true essence and helping him secure the last bandage, Chang Wan finally let out a slow breath, then gave a self-deprecating smile.

“I must be foolish.”

She looked at Chu Changqing, her expression becoming complex. Finally, she let go of her thoughts and turned towards the small desk with the jade slip.

She sat down, her fingers lingering on the emerald-blue jade slip for a long time, her heart churning, unable to settle down for a long while.

That night.

Qi Bing quietly watched the stars in the inky black sky, his pair of dark pupils utterly still.

Behind him, the hunched figure of Elder Xia spoke with a cold and resentful voice, “That Chang Wan is definitely harboring the little demon. Sect Leader, do not let affection blind your eyes and turn you into a blind man!”

Qi Bing gazed at the stars and let out a light sigh.

“Elder Xia… look at these stars.”

Elder Xia looked up upon hearing this.

“It seems no matter how hard you try, you can never hold them in your hand,” Qi Bing’s gaze drifted into the distance, “The more unattainable they are, the more you covet them.”

“The more you long for what you cannot obtain, the more tormenting it becomes.”

He slowly extended his hand, as if he could grasp the myriad starlight.

However, what he held in his hand was always empty.

“But she will always have a day when she falls,” Qi Bing revealed a faint smile at the corner of his lips, “I can wait for that day.”

A nightmare.

The same nightmare again.

The man beside him said coldly, “If you don’t make a move, I will throw her into the Myriad Insect Pit.”

The Myriad Insect Pit—ten thousand venomous creatures, devouring flesh and bone. Anyone who entered, whether mortal or cultivator, had only one path: to have no remains left.

Even with his special bloodline, he had experienced torment worse than death.

The man said cruelly, “You just crawled out of there; I suppose I don’t need to say more—”

In that cold, demonic voice, he slowly picked up the knife.

On the hard wooden pillar, the little girl’s face was blurred, bound tightly.

As he had done countless times before, he would thrust this knife into the child’s heart.

This was a nightmare, and also a curse.

It played repeatedly in his dreams, reminding him, cursing him—that he could never possess warmth and emotion in this lifetime.

He was a butcher, an executioner; he was colder than the snakes and insects in that pit. He was precisely that kind of person.

He would always be alone.

That child suddenly smiled at him.

A thin little dimple appeared beside her cheek, and her eyes were as gentle as sunlight. Despite being bound to the pillar, covered in blood from countless thorns piercing her, she struggled to comfort him.

In his usual dreams, he couldn’t hear her words.

But this time—

“Brother… don’t cry.”

This time, he heard her.

Her voice was milky and sweet, like a piece of milk candy he picked up in the extreme cold when he was young.

“…In the future, you won’t be alone.”

This soft utterance was like a thunderclap exploding, lightning piercing through the clouds, or perhaps a green sprout breaking through a stone. The butcher knife in his hand shattered into fragments in his daze! All the nightmares became fragile glass, and sunlight seemed to spill before his eyes, like salvation.

He broke free from the nightmare for the first time.

And the little girl’s voice slowly merged with the young woman’s voice.

A gentle and indescribable feeling enveloped him.

His startled, chaotic heart was slowly soothed by reality.

Chu Changqing didn’t open his eyes. He felt the Wind Spiritual Energy gently brush past his injured meridians. A pair of slightly warm hands were tidying his clothes for him. He heard her say self-deprecatingly, “I must be foolish too.”

Chang Wan.

That sentence just now was hers.

Feeling her footsteps move away, Chu Changqing slowly opened his eyes, staring at Chang Wan’s back.

The girl carried a quiet and peaceful aura, an aura that enveloped him, causing his restless emotions to dissipate without him realizing it.

—It was she who pulled him out of the nightmare.

She actually could do this; she walked into his dream.

He possessed the bloodline of an ancient divine beast. Once he suffered Qi deviation, it wasn’t easy to pacify. Every time, it was he who sent that poor little girl toward a dead end, strengthening his resolve through repeated pain to break free from that terrifying nightmare.

But this time, she only used one sentence to pull him back from the abyss to the mortal world.

—This had never happened before.

—Given what she had done to him, given his nature, he should have killed her.

Or, stripped off her skin to make the most beautiful puppet, plucked out her eyes to make a stunning specimen. Like the antiques he loved, eternally sealed in his heart with time and dust, forgotten as time passed.

But…

Some of her Wind Spiritual Energy still lingered within him, and his clothes had been changed to soft undergarments at some point.

It was her doing again.

That quiet, gentle aura slowly drifted away with her footsteps.

She had changed into a sky-blue dress. Under the candlelight, the hem of the young girl’s skirt bloomed like lotus petals swaying in the wind.

She did not possess overwhelming, world-toppling beauty.

But every movement.

Why was it so breathtakingly beautiful?

“…”

He let out a low laugh, his joy and anger indistinguishable, his meaning unclear.

Chang Wan turned around abruptly at the sound.

The young man was already dressed. In the dim yellow candlelight, he was staring at her, his pale complexion making his eyes appear overly dark.

He was awake?

Thinking about the words she had just spoken, which didn’t seem like much at the time, now that she thought it over, Chang Wan felt a bit awkward.

She assumed… he probably hadn’t heard them.

Chang Wan maintained her persona and stated coldly, “You just had a Qi deviation.”

Chu Changqing: “Mm, I know.”

Concerned about his injuries, the undergarment Chang Wan chose for him was quite loose, thus exposing his bandaged chest and collarbone.

The young man leaned against the wall, slowly tidying his slightly loosened clothes, and said slowly, “Thank you.”

He actually… said thank you?

Chang Wan was inwardly surprised, unaccustomed to it, “…It was nothing.”

Chang Wan secretly chastised herself. She had worked herself ragged for him, running errands. This “thank you” was entirely deserved, yet she was acting as if she’d received an unexpected favor. Really…

Chang Wan expected him to continue asking about her motives, but strangely, he said nothing this time. His deep, dark gaze settled on her, making her feel somewhat unable to cope.

“In any case, you will rest well here for the next few days.” She nervously fiddled with the jade slip in her hand, her voice steady and calm, “I won’t do anything else to you; you don’t need to overthink. As for other matters, you don’t need to concern yourself with them either.”

She silently added a clause in her mind: It’s best if you don’t cause me trouble.

The young girl turned for a backward glance, her beauty breathtakingly shocking.

Chu Changqing slightly closed his eyes.

Her voice, steady and calm, presented an image of reliability.

In that cold nightmare—it was this voice, and her presence.

That had brought him salvation.

The sinister, cold, even hateful appearance she previously exhibited seemed to have become a false silhouette, flickering vaguely and indistinctly.

Chu Changqing’s lips curved into a slight arc.

“Can.”

The young girl didn’t say anything more upon hearing this and turned back to her jade slip.

Chu Changqing watched her.

It was this very back view.

Slender, yet standing straight and firm.

Such a composed and reliable appearance.

Only then could those mortals who believed in her follow her like light follows a shadow, like a shadow follows a figure.

So, what did someone like her want to gain from him?