Chapter 32

Lou Yue pointed at the golden glow in the distance and said excitedly, "That's the spot!"

Xiao Rangchen did not respond.

Lou Yue turned back to look at him, only to see him lowering his eyes again, lost in thought. His dark ink-colored tight robe set off the icy, aloof aura around him, and even the thorn stud on his ear glinted with a cold, harsh light.

What a scheming Long Aotian, she thought to herself with a quiet snort. She turned her head back and squinted at the distance again. Judging from where they stood, it would take roughly over an hour to get there at full speed, and there was no guarantee they would not run into demon beasts along the way. They had to hurry.

"Let's go, quickly," she urged.

Xiao Rangchen walked slowly closer, leaning his body slightly as if he was about to carry her down. Lou Yue stopped him immediately, "I can do it myself."

Right after saying that, she had the Image Transformation Square turn into a rope, tied one end around her waist, and fastened the other end to the raised part of the skull. She gripped the middle of the rope and leaped down, her movements crisp and neat.

Xiao Rangchen watched the figure leaving with such ease, and the line of his lips gradually tightened.

Lou Yue landed and walked a few steps before noticing that he had not come down yet. After a quick thought, she decided not to bother with it.

She was the one slowing them down right now, and besides, after what had just happened, she felt it was better to keep a little distance between the two of them for the time being.

It was not long before Xiao Rangchen caught up, walking two or three meters behind her side, keeping a distance that was neither too close nor too far.

The whole way was silent, just like it was at the very beginning, yet something had clearly shifted. In the quiet air, there were faint, wispy, indescribable things that kept trying to creep out.

Before the atmosphere could turn even more awkward, Lou Yue picked a random topic to break the silence, "Have you always stayed in the Wilds and never left?"

She already knew the answer, but she could not think of any other topic right now.

Xiao Rangchen gave a low "mm" in response.

"Why? Isn't it boring?" If she had to stay in this lousy Wilds all day long with nothing but demon beasts for company, she would probably get sick from the boredom.

"I have something I must do," his voice was flat, with no detectable emotion.

Lou Yue thought to herself, Soon, very soon, you will get your revenge.

"What about you?" He cast his gaze far into the distance and asked.

"Me?" Lou Yue glanced at the hard lines of his side face out of the corner of her eye, "What about me?"

"Where have you been these... past few years?"

"All over the place." Lou Yue thought of the past two years of "running away together", being chased by the Liufeng clan, and all the absurd, funny experiences she had with Liufeng Xin, pretending to be husband and wife, sisters, even grandfather and granddaughter, and could not help but smile.

Xiao Rangchen took in that smile fully, his Adam's apple rolling slightly as he asked in a low voice, "With someone else?"

Lou Yue did not think much and casually hummed in agreement.

The wind around them seemed to still for a moment. After a long while, she heard his voice, so soft it was nearly scattered by the breeze, "Was it fun?"

"It was really interesting, such a special experience, something I never could have imagined before," she replied in a bright tone, speaking three sentences in a row.

Xiao Rangchen said no more, only walking silently by her side.

"What about you? Did you meet any special people in the Wilds?"

"What do you mean by special?"

Lou Yue thought for a moment, "Someone you can talk to easily, or someone who leaves a unique impression and feels different from everyone else."

"No."

Lou Yue paused in her steps, then continued walking forward, asking casually as if it was no big deal, "So the owner of that hairpin isn't someone you met in the Wilds?"

Xiao Rangchen lifted his eyes to look at her, his gaze resting on her smooth, yet unfamiliar side face for a brief moment before he said slowly, "... No."

It's not? Then did he meet her on the way to the Wilds? Or even before I transmigrated here? That hairpin was ornate yet simple in design, it did not look like something Xiao Aiai would own. Who on earth was it? Who was the person he cared about so deeply?

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a bad memory," he suddenly said in a faint, flat tone.

Lou Yue was so caught up in guessing who the owner of the hairpin was that she only caught the last word "bad", and asked in confusion, "What's bad?"

Xiao Rangchen pressed his lips together and shifted his eyes away, "Nothing."

Lou Yue brushed off that little interlude and kept probing, "Is the owner of that hairpin also the person you like?"

"Also?" Xiao Rangchen repeated the word.

Lou Yue nodded absently as she walked, "I can tell you care a lot about that hairpin, so its owner must mean so much to you."

Xiao Rangchen stopped in his tracks.

Lou Yue walked a few steps before realizing he had stopped. She turned back and their eyes met. His gaze was deep and bottomless, wrapped in unclear emotions, staring straight into her eyes.

Then she watched Xiao Rangchen look right at her, and speak slowly, every word clear and distinct.

"There is only one person I like."

"Her name is Lou Yue."

"She was my past, she is my present, and she will be my future."

Lou Yue kept a perfectly blank, unreadable face.

Xiao Rangchen's gaze swept over her face, which clearly spelled out "I don't believe a single word of this, this has nothing to do with me". His eyelashes drooped, hiding the dark, obscure glint in his eyes. When he lifted them again, his deep, heavy tone was gone, replaced by a plain, flat voice, "Anything else you want to ask?"

She shook her head.

Xiao Rangchen stared at her face for a long time before he looked away and started walking forward again.

Lou Yue glared at his back angrily, itching to grab the stick in her hand and jab at him hard.

He was definitely testing her just now!

If she had shown surprise, disbelief, or asked any questions in response, that would have been a roundabout admission that she was Lou Yue.

Luckily she kept her cool. After the last time he tricked her, she would not believe a single thing he said now.

"Not coming?" The man's voice came out of nowhere, and he turned around to face her.

Lou Yue immediately smoothed the angry look off her face and followed him with a perfectly casual, unconcerned expression.

Xiao Rangchen turned back around.

Just a second ago, he almost told her that he already knew she was Lou Yue, and that the hairpin was hers.

But even if he said it, she did not even believe that he said he liked her. If he told her the hairpin was hers, would she really take it to heart?

Even if she believed the hairpin belonged to her, if she did not want him to keep it, in the end, he would end up keeping neither the person nor the hairpin.

If that was the case, it was better not to say anything.

They did not speak for the rest of the journey. Lou Yue made up her mind not to start any unnecessary conversations to avoid being tested again. She just wanted to leave this place as soon as possible and put an end to this alone time with Xiao Rangchen.

They did not run into any powerful demon beasts like the eagle vulture on the way. They arrived at the hanging golden circle safely, with no unexpected dangers.

It was a gilded glowing ring, with a soft, warm luster that looked perfectly legitimate. But to be safe, she still picked up a stone and tossed it over. The stone vanished the moment it touched the center of the ring.

This must be the exit, no doubt.

Lou Yue was just about to use the power of the Image Transformation Square to leap into it when she suddenly stopped.

The opening of the ring was narrow, barely big enough for one person to pass through. If she jumped in, she would have to stick her butt out, and just thinking about how silly that would look was too much.

She immediately turned back, lifted her chin at Xiao Rangchen, and said, "You jump first."

But Xiao Rangchen did not move. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he scanned the surroundings, "It's too quiet."

Hearing him say that, Lou Yue also noticed that the silence was eerie. There was not even the sound of wind, only this golden ring glowing faintly, giving off an indescribable sense of uncanniness.

Lou Yue thought for a split second, and the Image Transformation Square in her hand turned into a long whip. With a whoosh, she coiled a pile of bones and tossed them into the golden ring.

When nothing happened, she threw four or five more bundles, and still there was not a single reaction.

She let out a snort of disdain, then whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, tossed over a dozen more bundles in a row. The whip moved so fast it left dark shadows in the air, as if she was determined to throw every last bone around them into the ring.

Xiao Rangchen: "..."

Finally, a sudden abnormality broke out.

The gilded glowing ring trembled violently all at once. The flowing light on its edge instantly stretched into a huge golden maw, with sharp, snow-white fangs coated in dark purple slime. As it shook, its full body slowly revealed itself. It turned out to be a color-shifting Chi serpent, a demon beast that was skilled at using camouflage.

The iridescent chi dragon spat out the bones Lou Yue had tossed into its mouth with a violent gag, let out an enraged shriek, and lashed its long tail straight toward the two of them.

Xiao Rangchen swept Lou Yue up and set her down a safe distance away, his voice low and steady. "I'll handle it."

He drew the spear from his grip, the sharp tip thrusting straight at the beast.

Lou Yue too gathered spiritual energy at her fingertips, sending several ice blades whistling through the air to stab at that overgrown, color-shifting lizard of a monster. But neither her ice blades nor Xiao Rangchen's spear could leave so much as a scratch on the iridescent chi dragon's thick, tough scales.

Far from retreating, Xiao Rangchen pressed forward, his spear strikes aimed dead at the dragon's vulnerable spots—its eyes, its skull—yet the iridescent chi dragon was thick-skinned and agile with its tail, and soon the two were locked in a fierce stalemate.

Unable to gain the upper hand over him, the iridescent chi dragon reared its head and roared, a crushing, oppressive aura sweeping over the area in an instant.

Lou Yue's heart sank.

This iridescent chi dragon's cultivation was barely a step away from the Nascent Soul stage. It was far more than the two of them could handle in their current state.

Her mind raced at top speed.

The iridescent chi dragon had disguised itself as a golden ring, no doubt using that trick to easily lure unsuspecting people right into its jaws.

But what had made it so certain that a golden ring would fool people into jumping right into its mouth in the first place? And why had it chosen this exact spot to lie in wait?

The fake golden ring it had made was so realistic, at a glance it really looked like a passageway. Except for contracted spirit beasts, demon beasts rarely had high intelligence. There was no way it could have mimicked that golden ring so perfectly unless it had seen the real thing before.

In a flash, she had a breakthrough. She called out loudly to Xiao Rangchen, "Look around its immediate area for another glowing ring just like the one we saw!"

Xiao Rangchen caught on immediately. As he fought and circled the beast, he scanned the surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. It didn't take him long to notice that no matter how the iridescent chi dragon attacked or defended itself, it never moved its right foot from the spot it was planted.

"Attack its right foot!" Lou Yue's voice rang out at that exact same moment.

At first, the iridescent chi dragon kept its right foot firmly rooted in place, letting spear tips and ice blades bounce off the scales there, but after the two of them launched a relentless, concentrated assault targeted solely at that spot, it finally screeched in pain and pulled its foot away.

Beneath it, exactly as they had guessed, was a gilded glowing ring identical in appearance to the fake one the dragon had disguised itself as.

Xiao Rangchen immediately sprinted back toward Lou Yue.

Lou Yue summoned her Elephant Summoning Compass and a flurry of ice blades right away, slamming them into the iridescent chi dragon charging after him to buy them time.

Xiao Rangchen grabbed her in his arms and dashed full speed toward the golden ring. But the iridescent chi dragon was astonishingly fast, and none of the attacks they threw at it did much to slow it down at all.

At this distance, with it closing in that quickly, there was no way for the two of them to jump into the golden ring one after another.

"You go first," Xiao Rangchen said sharply.

If she went in alone, there was every chance the second person wouldn't make it through before the dragon reached them.

Lou Yue gritted her teeth, twisted free from the crook of his arm, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her entire body tight against his. "We go together, hurry!"

Xiao Rangchen's gaze darkened, but he didn't hesitate any longer. One hand came up to cradle the back of her head, the other locked firmly around her back, and the very second the iridescent chi dragon's attack was about to land, he leaped straight into the golden ring.

The two of them slid down a narrow passageway, Xiao Rangchen positioning himself underneath so that Lou Yue was lying on top of him, taking care the entire time not to jostle her fractured knee.

They slid for what felt like ages, and there was still no sign of an end.

Lou Yue shifted uncomfortably, trying to lift herself up.

Xiao ​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌​‍Rangchen held her gently but firmly in place. "Don't move, you'll hit something."

His voice was low and rough, right next to her ear.

Lou Yue pressed her lips together and settled back down.

What kind of ridiculous passageway is this? It's endless! This is the cultivation world, shouldn't it be like a teleportation door, whoosh you go in, whoosh you pop right out the other side?

As if it had heard her complaining, the passageway suddenly flooded with blinding white light, and they reached the end.

Lou Yue instinctively closed her eyes. The arm around her back tightened, and Xiao Rangchen landed steadily on his feet, still holding her.

Lou Yue slowly opened her eyes once she adjusted to the light.

All around them, a dense, packed crowd of people stood in layers, every pair of eyes locked straight onto them.

Lou Weixiao, Cangya Xun, Big Brother Wei and his crew, the disciples from the four great clans, rogue cultivators from every sect... everyone who was supposed to be here, and everyone who wasn't, had all gathered in this exact spot.

Liufeng Xin was squeezed right at the front of the crowd, pressing a hand tight over her mouth, barely containing the excitement and thrill shining in her eyes.

The entire place was dead silent.