No, it wasn't that Yuan Shu had become more beautiful.
It was that the resentment, cursing, and anger had vanished from her brows and eyes.
She became calm and relaxed, her facial features softening, releasing their original charm!
She was already extremely beautiful to begin with!
Coupled with her innate nobility and elegance in her every movement, she was like a completely different person!
Yun Sheng's heart pounded wildly. Instinctively, he wanted to lower his head and avoid her gaze.
But just as he moved, someone pinched his jaw first.
Cool fingertips gently rubbed the skin of his jaw. With a slight exertion of force, Yuan Shu slowly lifted Yun Sheng's face.
"I told you to look at me. Am I some kind of terrifying monster? Why are you so afraid of me?"
She curled her lips into a light, enchanting smile.
Yun Sheng was dazed for a moment.
But when he reacted, he shook his head vigorously.
"No, I... I'm not."
Seeing his nervous expression, Yuan Shu smiled softly and released his chin.
"You know about me being locked up at the Repentance Cliff, right?"
Yun Sheng kept his head down, not daring to speak.
Yuan Shu continued, "I admit that I've done many things to hurt you in the past."
"However, it is also partly thanks to me that you were able to enter Qingyun Peak. You must admit this as well."
"I am now giving you two choices."
"One, here is a bottle of Marrow Cleansing Pills, two bottles of Spiritual Origin Pills, a tube of scar-removal ointment, and a thousand mid-grade spirit stones. Consider this compensation for the injuries you've suffered during your time at Qingyun Peak."
"Take these three things and leave Qingyun Peak tomorrow. You and I will have nothing to do with each other anymore."
"Two, stay. You will not get any of these pills or spirit stones, and you will have to continue suffering my torment."
As Yuan Shu spoke, she waved her hand and swept the pills and spirit stones from the table into Yun Sheng's arms.
"Take these things and leave. Think it over carefully. Go."
Holding the bottles of pills and a bag full of mid-grade spirit stones, Yun Sheng was shocked beyond measure.
For a moment, he wondered if he was dreaming.
When had Yuan Shu ever been so generous?
How could she give him pills, spirit stones, and even allow him to leave Qingyun Peak?
But the pills and spirit stones in his hands were real!
They were really given by Yuan Shu!
"Get out!"
Seeing Yun Sheng still kneeling foolishly with the items in his grasp, Yuan Shu frowned, her tone growing heavy.
She didn't want to waste her cultivation time right now. Squeezing out this much time to deal with him was already giving him enough face.
Seeing Yuan Shu's cold expression, Yun Sheng finally realized that she wasn't joking.
Everything she just said was true!
"Yes."
Yun Sheng replied, hurriedly got up, and walked quickly out the door.
He didn't forget to turn around and close the door for Yuan Shu.
The moonlight was hazy, and a faint, chilly breeze blew by.
Standing in the courtyard, Yun Sheng shivered and couldn't help but rub his arms.
He had heard Yuan Shu's words clearly.
Either leave Qingyun Peak with the items, or stay with nothing and continue to endure her torment.
Should he leave?
Yun Sheng pursed his lips, thinking of the beatings and humiliation he had suffered.
He clenched his fists and pulled the bag of spirit stones closer. But just as he was about to head down the mountain, he stopped.
He was a mortal with a four-element spirit root, and his aptitude was poor. Truth be told, he wasn't much different from an ordinary person with a five-element spirit root.
If he left Qingyun Peak, his path to immortality would be completely severed!
He would never again be able to watch the disciples of Qingyun Peak cultivate, nor learn the knowledge he had never heard of before alongside them!
Over the past six months, Yuan Shu had beaten and scolded him constantly, degrading him to the bone.
Even though he knew he was like a pile of mud that she despised, he still hadn't left Qingyun Peak.
It wasn't that he couldn't leave, but... he didn't want to!
Was there really no way for someone with a four-element spirit root to cultivate?
Could someone with a four-element spirit root really not enter a sect?
He didn't want to continue living like a pile of mud. He also wanted to have a brilliant life like those favored children of heaven!
And Yuan Shu was his only chance!
Among the sect's miscellaneous disciples, his strength was the weakest. He couldn't even enter the outer sect, let alone the five great peaks that housed inner disciples.
The day Yuan Shu chose him, he felt incredibly fortunate that he at least had a presentable face.
Carrying his dream of cultivation, he had resolutely followed her to Qingyun Peak.
Even when she later tortured and despised him in every possible way, he never thought of leaving.
Leaving Qingyun Peak would mean waiting for a life just like the other miscellaneous disciples, living an ordinary, muddled life forever.
Would he be resigned to such a life?
His burning heart slowly calmed down as he thought deeply.
Yuan Shu seemingly gave him a chance to leave, but it was just an excuse to abandon him.
She apparently didn't want him anymore.
His hand resting on the edge of the stone table slowly clenched. His body trembled slightly as he cursed himself for being so useless.
He had clearly been at Qingyun Peak for two years, yet his strength was still stuck at the early Qi Condensation stage?
Why hadn't he made the slightest bit of progress?
...
The early morning sun shone through the window. Yuan Shu, who had cultivated all night, stretched her body and slowly got out of bed.
Creak. She pushed the door open.
A thin figure with a lowered head appeared in her line of sight.
The warm red morning sun fell upon him, coating him in a golden halo.
Yuan Shu narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze falling on Yun Sheng at the bottom of the steps.
"You haven't left yet?"
She thought that when she woke up this morning, she wouldn't see this person anymore.
After all, a thousand mid-grade spirit stones were equal to an ordinary family's lifetime income.
Even if Yun Sheng took these spirit stones down the mountain, he could live a good life.
But looking at it now, this man didn't seem as simple as he appeared on the surface.
"Miss Yuan, I want to stay."
Yun Sheng pursed his lips, kept his head down, and slowly pushed the spirit stones and pills forward.
"I don't want these pills and spirit stones. I am willing to stay at Qingyun Peak and continue serving you, Miss."
Yuan Shu raised her eyebrows in surprise and slowly walked down the steps, one by one.
Her feet, wearing only thin embroidered shoes, revealed pale insteps. With just one glance, Yun Sheng remembered how her bare feet looked last night.
His eyes trembled, and he lowered his head.
"Look up at me," Yuan Shu said slowly.
Because of cultivating a Joyous Union secret art, even an ordinary statement carried an enchanting charm that was hard to ignore.
Yun Sheng's Adam's apple bobbed. Not daring to disobey, he slowly raised his eyes to look at her.
The lighting had been dim last night, and Yuan Shu had only thought he was handsome.
Today, under the bright sunlight, looking closely at him, she felt that calling him handsome was too conservative.
Despite his thin frame, his face was like a white peony growing in the wilderness, exquisitely beautiful.
Not only were his features perfectly shaped and his skin delicate and pale, but he also had a pair of pale pink, cherry-colored pupils.
That pink reached deep into his eyes, like a drowning vortex. Just one glance made it impossible to forget!
Yuan Shu was a sucker for good looks. In her two lifetimes, she had never seen cherry-pink pupils before.
She crouched down, leaned close to him, and looked carefully at those eyes.
