What should you do if someone collapses in the middle of an icy, snowbound wilderness?
Carry them somewhere sheltered from the wind and snow? Don’t be ridiculous.
Obviously, you dig a hole right where they are.
Lou Yue wielded the hoe formed from the Yanxiang Fang with her spiritual power. After a few swings, she had hollowed out the snow beneath Xiao Rangchen, then stripped off his tattered outer robe and laid his spear across the opening.
It let in air while blocking the wind and snow. All things considered, she had put it to good use.
Only after finishing did she look down at the man lying there.
Well, he was unconscious anyway. He wouldn’t know what she did to him.
She reached out and undid the ties of his robe, lifting his undergarment.
There were three slashes across his chest, but they were nothing serious. The real problem was the puncture wound in his abdomen. The wound looked small on the outside, yet the sword qi within had torn through his internal organs.
She wasn’t Liufeng Xin. She couldn’t heal him. All she could do was suppress the damage the sword qi was doing to his organs as much as possible.
She applied high-grade spirit medicine to stop the bleeding from his various wounds, then sat cross-legged beside him. Her right hand hovered over the sword wound in his abdomen as she poured spiritual power into it.
After some time, she grew bored. Supporting her chin with one hand, she continued channeling spiritual power into the wound while letting her gaze drift over his abdominal muscles.
One, two, three, four… eight.
Tsk. He really did have a full eight-pack.
The muscles were tightly arranged, each one clearly defined. Every ridge looked firm and powerful, exuding an inexplicable air of abstinence.
The longer she looked, the more her fingers itched.
She lifted her eyes and glanced at the still-unconscious man.
She was his lifesaver. Surely it wasn’t too much to touch his abs once.
In both of her lifetimes, this was the first time she had seen abdominal muscles with such clean, distinct lines in real life. If she didn’t test the texture, she would be letting down her own eyes.
Lou Yue reached out with her left hand and first poked one of the muscle ridges with her index finger.
Quite solid.
The others were no less impressive.
In the end, she simply spread her hand and pressed her palm against them. The corners of her eyes immediately lifted.
Oh? Not bad.
Her fingertips slowly traced upward and downward, then downward and upward again, outlining every contour inch by inch.
It wasn’t until a warm hand suddenly closed around her left hand that she seemed to wake up.
The man looked down at her, his voice low and hoarse. “I didn’t want to interrupt your enjoyment, but I couldn’t hold back any longer.”
He pushed himself up slightly with his left hand and shifted backward until he was leaning against the wall. Throughout the entire movement, his right hand never loosened its hold on hers.
Lou Yue was pulled off balance as well. Her left hand, which had merely been brushing against him, landed firmly on his abs.
She looked down at her hand, then raised her eyes to him and said righteously, “If you couldn’t hold back, why are you still holding on to me?”
Xiao Rangchen gazed into her bright eyes and slowly curved his lips into a faint smile.
What the hell was he smiling at?
She tugged at her hand, but he only tightened his grip.
“You asked me before whether I liked you more as a man or as a woman.” His eyes were deep as he locked them on hers without blinking. “I didn’t answer right away because I hadn’t expected you to ask me that.”
“To me, you’re simply you. You look beautiful as a woman too, but what matters most is that you like yourself.”
“There’s something I’ve thought through these past few days.”
His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed. “I’m not attracted to men. I just happen to love someone who is a man.”
Lou Yue inhaled, then instinctively ground her back teeth together.
Had he simply gotten the wrong idea from the beginning, or was he naturally this slow? Could he really build a harem like this someday?
Xiao Rangchen failed to notice anything amiss. His voice remained slow and earnest.
“You said I wasn’t as devoted as I thought I was, but I’ve only ever loved you.”
He raised his hand and pressed the hand she was still using to channel spiritual power against his heart.
Lou Yue could clearly feel his heartbeat, one thud after another against her palm.
“There has never been anyone else here.”
“You don’t have to believe me.” His tone was almost stubborn. “I can say it again and again until you do.”
Xiao Rangchen covered the back of her hand with his palm, his voice clear and resolute.
“Lou Yue, I like you.”
“I liked you in the past, I like you now, and in the future, I’ll only like you more.”
His heart was beating abnormally fast, and hers began to lose its rhythm along with it.
“What if I never come to like you?” she asked.
Xiao Rangchen’s lips curved upward, a glimmer seemingly shining in his eyes. “Then I’ll just have to cling to you forever.”
“…That isn’t what you said before.” Earlier, he had clearly said he only wanted her to look back at him once in a while.
Xiao Rangchen fell silent for a moment. His voice dropped low, and he spoke very slowly.
“Perhaps… I realized that you’re even more important to me than I thought.”
Important enough that when he had fought Cangya Xun to the death, his mind had been filled with only one thought: whether she had gotten far enough away.
Lou Yue’s fingers curled slightly. Half her body was braced against him, and beneath his heated, focused gaze, she had nowhere to hide.
Xiao Rangchen’s eyes moved slowly across Lou Yue’s face, which was even more vivid and captivating now than when she was in male form.
From her sharply defined brows to those amber, peach-blossom eyes; past the tiny mole at the inner corner of her eyelid; over the tip of her pert nose; and finally, settling on her full, rosy lips.
At such close range, neither of them could hide where the other was looking.
Especially with his heart beating faster and faster. She would have had to be blind not to notice.
“Don’t!” Lou Yue gritted out fiercely.
As for what exactly she was forbidding, they both knew perfectly well.
Xiao Rangchen looked at her tense, raised brows, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
“All right.” His voice was low and magnetic.
Lou Yue yanked her hand back and sat upright.
For a fleeting moment just now, it had felt as if a soft brush had swept over her heart, leaving behind a faint, ticklish itch.
It was only after sitting up straight that she realized his abdominal wound had split open again at some point. Blood had pooled across the ground, and quite a lot of it had stained her left hand.
“…” She raised her hand to show him the blood on it. “Your wound opened up again. Didn’t you notice?”
Xiao Rangchen’s gaze lingered on her slender fingers, stained with his blood, before he slowly replied, “…I could bear it.”
Lou Yue: “…”
She reapplied the medicine and channeled some more spiritual power into him. At last, the wound gradually sealed.
When she looked up again, Xiao Rangchen had already fallen asleep.
His normally cold, keen features had completely relaxed. His long lashes rested against his cheeks, casting faint shadows beneath his eyes. His nose was straight, his lips quiet and gentle. With all his sharpness and wariness stripped away, he revealed a rare hint of docility.
She withdrew her gaze.
It was better that he was asleep. That saved her the trouble of knocking him out herself.
Lou Yue reached out and gently gathered his loosened clothes, then stood.
She set up a barrier to conceal their presence. After thinking for a moment, she added another defensive barrier. If an outsider disturbed it, at least it would give the person inside enough time to react.
Then she leaped out of the snow cave and scattered a thin layer of fresh snow over his outer robe. Once everything was done, she turned and left.
She had to seize the opportunity and pass through this third trial at once to obtain the inheritance fruit.
Five days later, after Lou Yue had slain swarms of snow leopards and broken through one hundred and eight bewildering formations, a golden staircase finally appeared before her. It spiraled upward, running straight into the depths of the clouds before vanishing into the daylight.
The corners of Lou Yue’s lips lifted.
Here it was—the final step.
She raised her foot and planted it firmly on the staircase.
Just as she had expected, an ancient, indifferent voice rang out from the void.
“Why do you cultivate?”
Lou Yue answered casually, “Because I wanted to, so I did.”
“Why did you want to?”
Lou Yue smiled. “Because I wanted to.”
“If you obtain the inheritance, what will you do with it?”
Lou Yue climbed the steps, answering languidly, “Beat a drowning dog while it’s down.”
“…You seek the inheritance solely for revenge?”
Lou Yue arched a brow. “If all this painstaking cultivation ultimately means I can’t even get justice against those who’ve bullied me, then what’s the point of cultivating?”
She added, “Perhaps there really are people who enjoy meditating and enduring the tedium of cultivation, but I’m not one of them. I want power for one reason only: so I can keep the right to choose firmly in my own hands.”
From the moment she stepped onto the stairs, she had to answer according to her true nature. There was no right or wrong in the answers themselves. What mattered was that her words matched her heart—that she could not deceive herself. Otherwise, the stairs would immediately collapse and choose someone else.
After a brief silence, the voice asked again, “How many people have you killed? And among them, was there anyone who should not have died?”
Lou Yue continued upward as she answered, “I’ve never killed anyone. But if someone crosses my bottom line, or if it’s necessary for self-defense, I will kill.”
“If the Heavenly Dao is unjust, will you follow Heaven or replace it?”
Lou Yue’s footsteps paused for the slightest moment before continuing upward. Her voice was clear and resolute. “Neither. I will only follow the choice my heart makes in that moment.”
“And if the choice in your heart leads you astray, will you still follow it?”
Lou Yue lifted her eyes toward the depths of the clouds, her tone frank and unguarded. “What is the wrong path, and what is the right one? They’re nothing more than concepts imposed by the world. I don’t care how others judge me. I simply don’t want to live with regrets.”
A long silence followed.
The staircase was still very long. Lou Yue remembered that the book had described more than twenty questions in succession.
Yet all of a sudden, the steps ahead began to vanish one by one, replaced by a straight golden road.
At the end of the road stood an ancient tree shimmering with light and overflowing with vitality. There was only a single fruit on its branches, golden and heavy.
What was this supposed to mean? They weren’t going to ask any more questions?
Lou Yue didn’t move. This didn’t match the plot. Could there be some hidden trial—perhaps testing whether she would rush over the moment she saw the inheritance fruit?
The voice did not speak again either.
After waiting for a long while, Lou Yue couldn’t hold back any longer. “How much longer are you going to test me? I think that fruit might not be able to wait.”
The ancient voice rang out. This time, it was less indifferent and carried a faint trace of sorrow. “Once, I was the light of the righteous path in the eyes of the world. I bore the hopes of all living beings and the expectations of my clan. Every step I took, every action I made, was bound by righteousness…”
After hearing only the first half, Lou Yue lifted her foot and hurried straight to the tree.
There was no need to wait any longer. She could pick it now. That long-winded lament was clearly proof that she had completed all the trials. In the book, the male protagonist had also gone to pick the fruit after hearing this passage.
The voice continued beside her ears, but Lou Yue paid it no attention. Excitement surged through her as she climbed the tree. The inheritance fruit’s spiritual power could not be harvested through the use of magic—it had to be picked by hand.
She plucked the golden fruit from the very top and swung herself onto a thick branch.
At last… it was hers…
The moment the inheritance fruit was picked, the clouds surrounding them dispersed, revealing another golden staircase winding upward.
Atop the stairs stood a familiar figure.
He, too, looked up.
The instant their eyes met, Lou Yue said nothing. She opened her mouth and bit off a large chunk of the fruit.
Vast, boundless spiritual power and the inheritance’s knowledge instantly surged through every inch of her body.
She stared fixedly at Xiao Rangchen, chewing rapidly as she stuffed bite after bite into her mouth, as if she wished she could swallow the entire fruit whole. She didn’t care in the slightest how puffed out her cheeks looked.
What if she didn’t eat it quickly enough and he came up to snatch it?
Hadn’t she seen that look in his eyes? It was practically predatory!
