The sudden closeness brought a warm, radiating heat that enveloped Xie Jingci completely.
The fresh scent of the forest after rain seemed to have melted into her very blood, tingling at the tip of her heart, making it itch and burn. When she lifted her gaze, she could see Pei Du's face, impossibly close.
She dared not move, tense as never before.
Just as she had imagined, the young man's thin lips stopped a hair's breadth away from hers. His dark hair cascaded down, completely obscuring that tiny distance. From the side, the two of them truly looked as if they were kissing.
Even under the forced requirements of the illusion, Pei Du had not been presumptuous with her.
He was always restrained, locking all his emotions deep within his heart. More than satisfying a momentary selfish desire, he cared more about not making Xie Jingci feel awkward.
They were extremely close, nose to nose.
Pei Du deliberately held his breath. When Xie Jingci raised her eyes, she could see directly into his pitch-black pupils.
Compared to the worldly old-timers in the cultivation world who had lived for centuries, the young man's eyes were clean and clear, like a gentle, serene pool. Now, reflecting the faint moonlight, they trembled slightly the moment they met hers, his long lashes fluttering, a shimmering mist seeming to scatter within them.
Although this was an action led by Pei Du, he appeared just as nervous as Xie Jingci.
This posture was the most unnerving.
If their lips had met directly, piercing through that thin veil of pretense in an instant, laying all secret thoughts bare, it wouldn't be as tantalizingly ambiguous and unbearably tense as it was now.
Miss Xie's gaze was flustered. By the moonlight, Pei Du saw her face instantly flush red.
Red candles, festive windows, a beauty under the moon—after becoming engaged to Miss Xie, he had imagined this day countless times. Each time he thought of it, it felt like a dream, and he couldn't help but smile.
Yet when this day truly arrived, he had, driven by a moment of impulse and desire, acted against her will and done such a thing.
He must have given Miss Xie quite a fright.
The girl beneath him stared at him blankly. Though there was alarm in her gaze, she did not push him away with disgust as Pei Du had imagined she would.
Just because of this reaction, his tightly clenched heart suddenly felt a touch of sweetness.
She actually... hadn't refused.
Pei Du was vexed by his own presumption, yet willingly drowned in this closeness that was right before him.
Parched weeds that had gone too long without rain would instinctively yearn for even a few drops of water, let alone the feeling he had now, which was far more than just a few drops.
He told her via divine sense: "Miss Xie, I apologize for the offense."
Such a gentleman, yet his right hand moved gently, fighting the stiffness in his fingers, to stroke Xie Jingci's fair cheek.
Miss Xie's cheek was incredibly soft and burning hot. When his fingertips touched it, it felt like landing on soft water.
Pei Du was accustomed to wielding his sword to vanquish demons; no matter how solid the barrier, he could break it with a single strike. Yet, faced with this warmth and softness now, he was momentarily at a loss—unwilling to let go, yet not daring to exert any pressure, as if pressing down even slightly would cause it to shatter instantly.
He was truly a hypocrite, using the pretext of escaping the illusion to greedily seek warmth from her presence.
Miss Xie was unaware of his despicable thoughts, kept in the dark, not knowing that the person gazing into her eyes was a despicable liar.
Pei Du's heart felt both sweet and bitter, all sensations jumbled together, making the light in his eyes darken slightly.
"Miss Xie... please bear with it a little longer."
He comforted and coaxed with the utmost gentleness: "I know you dislike being touched. If you are angry, once we leave the illusion, you may punish—"
The telepathic message cut off abruptly.
His slender right hand froze in place, Pei Du's heart seeming to explode.
Xie Jingci was pinned beneath him on the bedding, her long hair splayed out in disarray. The red-tinted corner of her eye lifted slightly, like a soul-stealing enchantress under the moonlight.
Without saying much, while he was still speaking, she suddenly raised both hands and gently placed them on the back of his neck.
Her meticulously tended hands were so soft they seemed boneless, tenderly brushing over his skin. The ambiguous intimacy of their posture added an extra layer of lingering tenderness. The soundless glide of her hands made his spine stiffen, leaving him unable to move.
"It's all to leave the illusion, I understand."
As she responded to him, her hands clumsily encircled Pei Du, she mumbled, "...And besides, like this... I don't really hate it either."
His tightly strung heart began to pound wildly. Pei Du stared in disbelief, stunned.
Miss Xie said... she didn't really hate this action.
His mind was in unprecedented chaos. His whole body turned into a motionless statue. He instinctively wanted to find a place with no one around, wrap himself into a ball, and roll around and jump.
Pei Du wanted to laugh. He pressed his lips together but couldn't hold back, a faint smile spilling from his eyes. Then he heard her say teasingly in a soft voice, "Pei Du, aren't you tired holding your breath like that? Are you really that nervous?"
He was already so tense he couldn't move. Having his thoughts exposed by Xie Jingci on the spot made the back of his ears burn hot again, and he sharply sucked in a breath of cold air.
Before long, their breaths were intertwined.
"Since we're already like this, why hasn't the illusion ended?"
Xie Jingci had only meant to tease him. She hadn't expected that when Pei Du's warm breath washed directly across her, it would make the atmosphere even more suggestive, causing her whole body to heat up.
She had lifted a rock only to drop it on her own foot and now felt constrained herself, desperately trying to change the subject: "Could it be we missed a step?"
Although they had faked the kiss, both the kiss and the embrace had been achieved. The things a couple could do were pretty much limited to those. Apart from that, the only thing left was—
Xie Jingci's mind buzzed.
...Surely not.
This place, above all, was supposed to be a proper immortal's secret mansion and hidden realm. If it forced men and women who came here to do things against their will, wouldn't Wandering Immortal Yunshui's reputation be utterly ruined?
Her words were straightforward. Even if Pei Du wasn't well-versed in matters between men and women, he could understand the same implication. The light in his eyes darkened abruptly, and he clenched the bedsheet in his hand. "Miss Xie, wait for me to guide sword energy into my body. Please remember to avoid it—I'll trouble you to care for me by the bedside for a few days. Thank you."
He hadn't even considered it further, directly choosing the initial, discarded "I'll hit myself" plan.
Seeing him about to get up, Xie Jingci quickly tightened her grip, grabbing his collar to force Pei Du back down. "No, no, no! Since that senior dedicated himself to studying 'love,' he definitely wouldn't be limited to—"
This sentence was left unfinished.
Pei Du was completely unprepared for her action and offered no resistance. His body went with the motion and fell onto her.
Their lips, already a hair's breadth apart, also drew close abruptly without warning.
He reacted quickly, intending to avoid it. His thin lips veered aside just in time. Although they didn't touch Xie Jingci's lips, they still grazed the corner of her mouth.
It felt as if an electric current spread wantonly from her lips, carrying immense force, rushing straight to her brain.
So when nervousness reaches its extreme, even one's heartbeat can stop.
This was the sun Pei Du had followed for far too long.
He—
"I'm sorry, Miss Xie, I—"
He scrambled to get up, his mind a complete blank. He hurriedly reached out to wipe the corner of her mouth he had touched. Words failed him at his lips; he didn't know how to continue.
He had heard others say that kissing was an act only those with feelings for each other would do.
In the realm of illusions, the greatest taboo is to mistake the act for reality. This gesture bordered on impropriety and was sure to earn her disgust. His thumb stroked over the corner of her lips again and again, as if trying to forcefully wipe away some defilement. Pei Du's heart turned cold, and in the silent night, his wrist was suddenly grasped.
He dared not move. A helpless laugh reached his ears.
Xie Jingci didn't use telepathy this time. Her clear, melodious voice was exceptionally pleasant to hear: "Why would my husband say such a thing?"
The heavy block of ice weighing on his heart shattered with a crash.
Pei Du stared blankly into her eyes.
Xie Jingci didn't deliberately avoid his gaze. Suppressing her pounding heart, she met his eyes.
Pei Du was skilled at concealing his emotions, maintaining a gentle and quiet demeanor most of the time.
She rarely saw him so unguarded, his eyes filled entirely with helplessness and panic. Perhaps even he hadn't noticed the faint red tingeing the corners of his eyes and his eyelids.
He was afraid.
Afraid... of being disliked by her.
For the first time, she realized with absolute clarity that perhaps Pei Du didn't just "like her a little bit."
Even Xie Jingci herself hadn't expected that the moment her lips were touched, she felt no aversion at all. Catching an unintended glimpse of the red in the depths of his eyes, her heart even ached with a pang of tenderness. She had the impulse to cradle his head and properly align their lips for that kiss.
...She was truly going mad.
This thought was quickly suppressed.
She couldn't figure out her own feelings for Pei Du. Perhaps it was sympathy, perhaps a sense of kinship, or perhaps just a momentary fancy, moved by his affection.
Before she could give a clear answer, she couldn't take advantage of this fondness to act recklessly and commit transgressions.
If she were to truly kiss him, giving him an untimely, illusory hope, and then after the secret realm ended, she found she hadn't developed the desire to spend the rest of her life with Pei Du...
To crush that hope so brutally would undoubtedly be cruel torture for him.
Pei Du liked her.
Xie Jingci thought, she must not trample on these feelings and make him suffer.
Once this secret realm adventure concluded, she would definitely reach a resolution and give Pei Du an answer. As for before that, she would follow her heart and be good to him, but absolutely without crossing the line.
The slender fingers wrapped around his wrist silently loosened their grip.
Xie Jingci sent a telepathic message: "It was my oversight, not your fault. Don't dwell on it."
Pei Du was still looking at her, dazed.
"This illusion places great importance on 'emotion.' To see through it likely won't be the work of a moment. It might be better to wait patiently for a while and follow its intended course."
Xie Jingci always approached things seriously. Before coming to the Guiyuan Immortal Manor, she had specifically reviewed all the recorded illusions left by predecessors.
The "Emotion Realm" she and Pei Du found themselves in was naturally among them.
The Emotion Realm was a place used to test true feelings. Those transported into it were often lovers, relatives, or companions. Depending on their relationship, the scenarios within the illusion varied greatly.
Some were fortunate, inadvertently revealing genuine emotion, detected by the illusion, and sent out directly. Others were less lucky, lingering there for a long time, subjected to a host of bewildering plots, suffering torment both physical and mental.
— Wandering Immortal Yunshui had a perverse temperament and particularly enjoyed toying with people's hearts. Within his illusions, incidents of brothers turning against each other and dao companions harming one another were commonplace, a testament to his utterly wicked sense of humor.
She could only hope she and Pei Du wouldn't encounter such wretched affairs.
Breaking the illusion absolutely could not be rushed. Keeping her expression unchanged, Xie Jingci continued her telepathic message to him: "Tonight... shall we treat each other with the etiquette of husband and wife?"
Pei Du felt as if he were dreaming.
Everything in the illusion was going so smoothly it felt unreal. Miss Xie slowly removed her wedding robes, dressed in a single layer of undergarments, and was now lying beside him.
Her black hair cascaded, intertwining with his.
He didn't know what posture to adopt, or where to direct his gaze. Tentatively, he called out: "Miss Xie."
Xie Jingci responded lazily: "Hmm?"
Pei Du paused for a long moment, his throat moving slightly: "Could I... hold you?"
Perhaps feeling his request was presumptuous, he turned to face her and added as if in explanation: "I've heard that most married couples sleep in each other's arms. To deceive the illusion, perhaps this would be faster."
Before he could make a move, the young woman beside him chuckled softly and snuggled directly into his embrace.
If Miss Xie listened carefully, she would surely hear his suddenly racing heartbeat.
"Oh, right."
Nervousness made her tone a bit stiffer than usual, yet it carried a hint of laughter: "What did you call me earlier, husband?"
Pei Du was quiet for a good while.
His voice, gentle as a spring breeze, sounded like a cautious probe, slightly husky: "...Wife."
It sounded very nice.
A tremor passed through Xie Jingci's heart, and she felt a wave of warmth spread across her back.
Pei Du held her gently. The faint rustling sound of fabric and bedding rubbing together was enough to make one blush.
This extreme tenderness felt like a cat's paw scratching at her heart, as if enveloped in warm water, the gentle ripples spreading out wave after wave.
Xie Jingci wanted to understand the origin of this tenderness.
As if moved by some unseen force, she suddenly spoke: "Pei Du, did we... meet when we were children?"
Pei Du visibly froze.
The question seemed to come out of nowhere. Xie Jingci had expected him to be evasive or directly deny it. Instead, she was caught off guard when Pei Du responded with a soft "Yes."
She abruptly looked up, meeting his gaze.
Ignoring her surprise, a faint, inexplicable smile surfaced in his eyes. When he spoke softly, it was as if recounting a trivial matter unrelated to himself: "I once met Miss Xie in passing. During the demonic uprising at Fumeng Mountain years ago, I was indebted to you for saving my life."
She didn't remember it at all. Pei Du knew this perfectly well.
For him, it was a cherished memory, something he yearned for and could not forget. But for Xie Jingci, the trip to Fumeng Mountain was just another routine mission to subdue demons and monsters.
Xie Jingci had crossed paths with so many people; he was merely one among them.
Moreover, he had been utterly insignificant and wretched back then, lying in a corner covered in blood. Even the occasional healing cultivator who came to treat him found him filthy and repulsive.
When Miss Xie first saw him, she didn't even frown.
She had seen too many people like him, so she merely shifted her gaze away without a change in expression. Even later, when she saved his life...
Even later, when she saved his life, her face smeared with blood, she had to endure the pain and give his head a hard knock, her eyes filled with anger: "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Idiot!"
He had never been very good at pleasing her.
Miss Xie left without saying goodbye. Pei Du only learned she had departed after waking from unconsciousness.
That day, he stood for a long time on the mountaintop where the cultivators had left. Only when he was about to descend did he discover something had been stuffed into the pocket of his sleeve.
A bottle of healing pills.
And a note with wildly scrawled handwriting: [The medicine is worth more than you. Take good care of it. Don't go looking for death again, fool.]
Everyone said the Daoist masters were people who came from the heavens.
Knowing nothing of the cultivation world, whenever he thought of Miss Xie, he would look up at the sky.
The unreachable sky.
She was high up in the heavens, while he was stuck in the mire and dust, where even touching the hem of her garment would only soil it. Even after being adopted by the Pei family, learning swordsmanship, and changing into new clothes, Pei Du instinctively didn't dare to get close.
Compared to her, he always seemed weak and powerless.
Fumeng Mountain.
Xie Jingci was stunned.
When she was young, she was proud and ambitious. Aside from practicing with her blade, she would follow her parents to exterminate demons, visiting dozens if not hundreds of places. As for Floating Meng Mountain, only a few extremely vague impressions remained.
As for whether she had ever met a child similar to Pei Du—
She couldn't remember at all.
Pei Du's voice was still very soft: "Why does Miss Xie ask about this?"
The form of address from his mouth had returned to "Miss Xie."
Xie Jingci was silent for a long time, thoughts swirling in her mind, ultimately only managing to say: "I'm sorry."
"What fault could Miss Xie possibly have."
Pei Du actually gave a faint smile, his tone consoling: "A cultivator saves countless people in their lifetime. To expect them to remember every single name and face clearly would be an impossible fantasy. Moreover—"
The hand resting on her back pressed slightly more firmly.
Pei Du gently rested his chin atop her head: "It's good enough that you remember me now."
The past cannot be chased after. From being destitute, helpless, and frail, to becoming an adopted son of the Pei family, to finally being able to fight side by side with her—he had climbed step by step precisely for the sake of "now."
He still had much time in the future to make Miss Xie remember him firmly.
Xie Jingci's heart ached with a dull pain.
He was the one who had been mercilessly forgotten, the one who should have been sad, yet he was the one comforting her, telling her not to blame herself.
"It's getting late. Perhaps we should rest."
Her head was patted gently. Pei Du said to her: "Miss Xie, sweet dreams."
But how could she possibly sleep?
Xie Jingci's thoughts were in a tangled mess. Even with her eyes closed, her mind continued to churn.
Floating Meng Mountain.
Following the remnants of her memory, she vaguely recalled the calamity at Floating Meng Mountain back then—a great demon's emergence, the suffering of all living beings.
For a disaster of such severity, even if it was long ago, she should have retained some related memories. Yet when Xie Jingci tried hard to recall, she could only grasp a few wispy, smoke-like fragments.
She couldn't remember anything. Disasters that were older and more insignificant than that one, she could still recall their general outlines.
This hollow feeling reminded her of what Meng Xiaoting had said: that she had once been in danger in a secret realm and was saved by Pei Du. Yet when she tried to recall it, she found nothing.
Pei Du was also at Floating Meng Mountain.
Regarding that part of her divine consciousness that had been devoured... what exactly was hidden within it?
Xie Jingci turned it over and over in her mind but couldn't find a clue. She didn't know how much time had passed when, in the surrounding darkness, she suddenly heard Pei Du call out softly: "Miss Xie."
It sounded like a kind of probe.
Curious about his intention, Xie Jingci didn't respond.
Pei Du asked again: "Are you asleep?"
He was being so sneaky, like a thief with a guilty conscience.
Xie Jingci felt the arm around her back suddenly loosen as Pei Du shifted slightly away.
As if still uneasy, Pei Du actually added: "Miss Xie, we've left the illusion realm."
How despicable of him! He would stop at nothing, even lying! Even if they had truly left the illusion realm, she absolutely would not open her eyes at a time like this!
Miss Xie did not move.
Pei Du secretly breathed a sigh of relief, trying not to make a sound as he lowered his gaze to look at her.
He was sharing a bed with Miss Xie.
...Though they were sharing a bed with different dreams.
His heart was wrapped in a thick layer of sweet syrup. A scene that had only ever appeared in his dreams was now within reach.
He gazed intently at her, his eyes tracing from her brows and eyes down to the tip of her nose, her lips, and her neck, a pool of tenderness unconsciously melting in his gaze.
Back at the academy, he would always unconsciously look towards where Miss Xie was. Sometimes she would indifferently turn her head, and Pei Du would then glance aside, pretending to be lost in thought, like a guilty thief.
He had always stolen glances at her from the corner of his eye. Now that he could finally gaze at her without reservation, it actually felt somewhat unfamiliar.
He remained quiet for a long time, simply watching her silently.
This wordless gaze was utterly tormenting. Xie Jingci, now completely devoid of sleepiness from nervousness, was pulled back into an embrace without any warning.
Pei Du's movements were extremely gentle. Beside her was a current of warmth he had imparted. In the endless darkness, she heard a low voice tinged with laughter.
He spoke with the utmost care, like a child receiving the first candy of his life: "My wife."
Her heart trembled, aching for no clear reason.
All was quiet for a moment before Pei Du's voice sounded again.
This time, the laughter in his voice was even richer than the first, as if soaked in clear, sweet syrup, murmuring as he called her: "My wife."
Xie Jingci could barely suppress the sour ache rising in her chest. Unable to open her eyes, she could only feign drowsy sleep, shifting her body slightly and, going with the movement, wrapping her arms around his waist.
This was her clumsy attempt at comfort, hoping this gesture could make him feel less sorrowful.
Pei Du smiled soundlessly.
When he chuckled softly, his chest vibrated slightly.
On this wedding night, he could finally speak aloud the secret he had kept buried in his heart for many years.
Xie Jingci was held even tighter. A warm breath brushed past her ear, bringing a tingling, itchy numbness along with a clear, youthful voice.
Gentle as water, Pei Du said to her: "...I like you so much."
