A Choice That Cannot Be Taken Back

The cold water poured over her head seemed to spill onto Qin Ximo as well.

No one knew how long the silence lasted before Qin Ximo finally asked, confused, “Why? Qingyun Sword Sect is a good place. There, at least your life will never be in danger, nor will you fear being taken away as a furnace.”

Yes, Qingyun Sword Sect was indeed such a place—one Cao Xueyan knew all too well.

She had lived there for ten years.

Cultivators were often indifferent in emotion, but fellow disciples still had ties.

Before meeting Xiao Menglan, although unnoticed and unremarkable, she lived peacefully.

The outer sect stipend was not enough for cultivation, but it was enough to eat.

Her small wooden hut halfway up the mountain was old, but not cold.

Compared to living beside Lu Qianyun, who might swallow her someday, Qingyun Sword Sect was practically a paradise.

But she could not return with Qin Ximo.

Once the simulation ended, the fate of this borrowed body was still an unknown.

Before she understood everything clearly, she absolutely could not return to the sect with Qin Ximo.

Cao Xueyan checked the simulator panel.

There were still 19 simulations left.

Meaning “Shen Yuemian” could only survive for at most 19 more days.

Plenty of time.

As long as Qin Ximo safely left this cave, the simulated future would shift.

At least—

the most fed jungler would stop wandering the map and finally come home to join the team.

“Fairy Qin, you are the Sect Master of Qingyun Sword Sect, a leader of the righteous path.

Should someone like you bring a demonic cultivator like me back?”

She had to redirect Qin Ximo’s thoughts.

But Qin Ximo instead became unusually emotional.

“Yue’er, is that what you believe? You may have practiced Hehuan Sect techniques, but I know you’ve never harmed a life.”

“You– how do you know I haven’t harmed anyone?”

Cao Xueyan insisted, “I practice demonic arts. How could I not have—”

“Don’t pretend.”

Qin Ximo saw through her immediately.

“That incident earlier—was it not your first time using demonic techniques?”

“I am a demonic cultivator! Demonic cultivators can skin people, drink blood from their wrists, or extract souls into artifacts—”

Her voice grew smaller and smaller.

Even those methods were ones she only heard from rumors.

The only demonic cultivator she had actually seen…

was Lu Qianyun toying with women.

Qin Ximo did not get angry.

With her temperament, she wouldn’t direct anger toward Cao Xueyan.

But Cao Xueyan’s reaction puzzled her—it didn’t feel like guilt, but like fear.

“You know I’m the head of Qingyun Sword Sect.

If I keep you by my side, no one would dare speak a word.

And as long as you don’t tell them, who would know you practiced demonic arts?”

“Please, big sister, with your identity—should you even be saying things like this?”

Sheltering a demonic cultivator was practically equal to practicing demonic arts in the eyes of the world.

Demonic cultivators kill.

Demonic arts defy heaven and harm lives.

“Some people should not be protected.

Some acts should not be done.

For being willing to save me from that demoness, I already owe you.

Giving you this body, I am willing.”

She lifted a hand and gently stroked Qin Ximo’s cheek, her expression soft.

“I never wanted anything from you.”

“But I want to form a Dao bond with you!”

Qin Ximo suddenly tightened her embrace around her.

Cao Xueyan struggled, but it was futile.

“You and I have known each other for barely a few days.

How can we form such a bond so casually?”

“I have already given my heart to you.

In this life, it will only ever be you.”

Qin Ximo raised her head sharply.

“And after the dual cultivation earlier, you obtained my… core energy.

Wherever I go, I will forever remember the person who shared that with me.”

Cao Xueyan almost choked.

“When did you become so unreasonable?”

The Qin Ximo in her memories was carefree, detached, above mortal desires.

Not someone who would be troubled by emotion.

She never expected her refusal would provoke such a reaction.

After some time, Qin Ximo spoke first.

“You truly don’t wish to return with me?”

Cao Xueyan lowered her head.

“Fairy Qin, once we leave, please just send me to any nearby market town.”

“You…”

Qin Ximo looked like she still wanted to speak, but forcibly swallowed her words.

She was a Golden Core cultivator.

Cao Xueyan was merely in the Qi-refining stage.

She could have knocked her unconscious, carried her home, hidden her inside the deserted Sword Peak—

—and no one would ever know.

But doing so would mean imprisoning this girl for life.

Wouldn’t that make her no different from Lu Qianyun?

Qin Ximo had to choose.

Softly, she said,

“I won’t force you.

Since you insist, once we leave, I will settle you in a market town under Qingyun Sword Sect.

Close enough… that I can still visit.”

Cao Xueyan knew this was already Qin Ximo’s greatest compromise.

Though it still fell short of her ideal outcome.

In her plan, “Shen Yuemian” should disappear from the cultivation world entirely after this.

Only that would prevent complications for her real-life cultivation.

After all, she activated true simulation only to prevent Qin Ximo’s future tragedy—

and that mission was more than halfway completed.

She, Shen Yuemian, should retire after her work was done.

Yet at no point in her plan…

did she ever intend to provoke Qin Ximo’s heart like this.

“As long as Fairy Qin does not mind my humble place, I will gladly welcome you.”

She forced a smile.

Hearing those words, Qin Ximo finally smiled again.

“Ever since becoming Sect Master, you are the first person to refuse me so boldly.

Tell me—how should I punish you?”

Cao Xueyan froze.

This tone… sounded familiar.

So the master and her junior sister used the same tricks?

She already knew what would happen next.

Instead of resisting, she simply braced herself for it.

Sure enough, Qin Ximo reached out to touch her.

But instead of the intimate gestures from earlier,

Qin Ximo’s touch was restrained, gentle—more like a cultivator examining a rare spiritual mutation than teasing a lover.

“Starting from the tail?”

Cao Xueyan tensed as Qin Ximo carefully held the base of her fox tail, testing its reactions.

Qin Ximo’s fingers were slender, refined from years of sword practice, yet without calluses.

Not like Xiao Menglan, whose elegant nails required spiritual energy to soften her touch.

Thinking of Xiao Menglan again made Cao Xueyan’s heart tighten with complicated emotions.

Qin Ximo’s technique was measured, rhythmic, as if stabilizing a fragile spiritual root.

Under her touch, sensations rose and fell—sometimes cloudlike, sometimes heavy as stone.

Soon, Cao Xueyan felt a strange tingling on her head, as though something was sprouting.

Qin Ximo gasped in delight.

“Oh? Ears.

You really are a little fox.”

Ears?

She had grown ears too?

She was now truly half-human, half-demon.

Could the ears and tail be retracted?

Cao Xueyan closed her eyes, tired.

Whatever Qin Ximo wanted to examine next, she would let her.

Qin Ximo seemed fascinated with the base of both ears and tail, her fingers tracing them gently—still overwhelming, but not inappropriate.

Though…

it did feel strangely comfortable.

Right—

the simulator had updated another mission.

She should check it.

【Mission 3: Dual cultivating with someone who possesses the Qingqiu Fox bloodline brings immense benefits.
It enhances talent, accelerates cultivation, and—most importantly—Heaven favors such auspicious beings.
After cultivating with you multiple times, Qin Ximo may even borrow fortune from you and successfully overcome her Nascent Soul tribulation.】

Huh?

She was supposed to help Qin Ximo break through Nascent Soul?

Using… her body?

Wait—

not both the ears and the tail at the same time!