Time flies like a shuttle. In the blink of an eye, two full years have passed since the turmoil of the four great clans besieging the Wild Wasteland.
For the Loose Cultivator Alliance, these two years have been a period of rapid expansion.
For Lou Yue, these two years have been a forced shift from carefree, unbridled days to a life of nonstop busyness.
Her dear old dad Lou Chengfeng, claiming that he was growing old and wanted to enjoy a peaceful, easy retirement, dumped all his work back onto her hands.
Lou Yue followed the rules and went through the motions for two whole years, and lately she has been feeling more and more that life is dull and devoid of passion.
So when news reached her that a descendant suspected to be of the ancient Thunder Dream Beast, with a cultivation base at the late stage of Divine Transformation Realm, had appeared in the Chaotic Abyss Sea, she immediately set off for the Chaotic Abyss Sea in high spirits.
For a Divine Ascension Realm cultivator, a round trip to the Chaotic Abyss Sea only takes half a day. She captured the Thunder Dream Beast and returned just in time for Xiao Rangchen to finish his lecture for the day.
The Thunder Dream Beast turned out to be more troublesome than expected. Its attacks were a weakened version of the Black Gold Thunder that targeted the sea of consciousness. No wonder no one in the Alliance could do anything about it. Even Lou Yue was struck more than a dozen times, but in the end she still captured the beast and brought it back to the ruins, where it became a new presence for the Alliance's cultivators to train against.
That night, after sneaking a taste of that "passion" herself, Lou Yue generously let Xiao Rangchen experience a taste of "passion" too.
The next afternoon, warm sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the entire room with a clear, bright glow. Lou Yue's long eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a man's cold, firm jawline, with a prominent, sharp Adam's apple and crisp lines that clearly exuded an aggressive edge.
Lou Yue froze for a moment.
She subconsciously glanced down at herself. A loose peacock-blue bellyband hung around her neck, her outer robe was draped casually over her shoulders with all its sashes untied, and her neck and collarbone were covered densely with deep and shallow ambiguous red marks.
The man beneath her also had his robes half undone. Through the thin layer of fabric, Lou Yue could clearly feel his tight, smooth muscle lines.
Lou Yue abruptly scrambled up off him.
The man's thick, long black lashes lifted, and his deep dark eyes held a cold, sharp edge the moment he first woke. But the second his gaze fell on her, that sharpness instantly melted away, turning into a pool of shattered, glimmering starlight.
"Awake?"
His voice was low and hoarse, wrapped in the lazy magnetism of someone just woken from sleep. His tone was familiar, with a faint, almost imperceptible hint of indulgence at the end.
Lou Yue stared at his striking white hair and his stern, handsome face, and for once, she was caught in a daze.
The man slowly sat up, and his well-defined hand reached out, as if to touch her cheek.
Lou Yue tensed up all over, immediately shifting further back on the bed, wariness rising in her eyes. "Who are you?"
Xiao Rangchen's hand froze mid-air.
Lou Yue hopped right off the end of the bed, putting distance between them.
Xiao Rangchen got out of bed after her, his eyebrows furrowing. "What's wrong with you?"
When she saw him moving closer, Lou Yue raised her voice. "Don't come any closer!"
Xiao Rangchen's footsteps came to an abrupt halt where he stood, the dark depths of his eyes churning.
Lou Yue quickly tied the sashes of her robe tight, and when she looked up, her eyes accidentally swept over his bare chest and well-defined abs, their lines sharp and rugged, brimming with a clear sense of power.
The tips of her ears burned hot. She looked away and bit out sharply, "Put your clothes on properly!"
Taking that chance, she quickly turned around to survey the furnishings of the room.
The decor was antique, yet there was something about it that did not quite align with core socialist values. For example, on the table by the window stood a transparent glass cabinet half as tall as a person, filled with blooming flowers.
Dozens of kinds of brightly colored flowers and plants that should never grow together hung suspended, with glistening dewdrops that looked like they had just fallen, refracting tiny flecks of golden light under the sunlight, with little specks of starlight shifting and floating.
"Lou Yue."
The man's low voice suddenly rang right next to her ear, almost pressed against her auricle.
Lou Yue jumped in fright, and as she dodged, her back hit the table with a dull thud.
The next second, a tight wrap around her waist pulled her into someone's embrace. A clear, crisp scent washed over her. Before she could take a closer whiff, Lou Yue subtly pushed him away.
"What hotel is this?" She stepped to the side, once again putting distance between them. "Why am I here? Who on earth are you?"
Xiao Rangchen did not answer her questions. He just stared at her with a heavy expression.
Lou Yue thought for a moment, her face taking on a cool, detached look. "We're all adults here. Last night was just an accidental one-night stand. You should understand that."
Xiao Rangchen looked at the cold, unfamiliar arrogance in her eyes, and his lips parted slowly. "You... don't remember who I am."
"Have we met before?" Lou Yue sized him up suspiciously. "I don't have any impression of you."
Xiao Rangchen's fingers curled around her wrist, and he channeled his spiritual power into her body to examine it carefully. Her spiritual power flowed steadily, her soul was unharmed, and there was no trace of abnormality from any spell erosion.
Lou Yue was still reeling from the shock of him appearing right in front of her out of nowhere, when she saw him take out a light butterfly inlaid with blue glazed glass from nowhere.
His hand was still clamped around her wrist, and his gaze on her was so sharp it seemed like he wanted to cut her open and examine every inch of her.
"What did Lou Yue do yesterday, and who did she meet?"
A respectful voice came from inside the light butterfly, laced with a hint of hesitation. "The Alliance Master went to the Chaotic Abyss Sea alone yesterday to capture a Thunder Dream Beast. As for who she might have run into on the way, there is no way to find out..."
"Where is the Thunder Dream Beast now?"
The voice replied with a location.
The light butterfly was put away. Xiao Rangchen's jaw was tight, and he did his best to make his voice sound not overly cold. "Lou Yue, come with me to a place first. All your confusion will be cleared up then."
Ordinarily, Lou Yue would never have agreed. The Lou family was one of the top leading wealthy clans, and countless people had approached the Lou family’s eldest daughter over the years under all kinds of pretexts for all kinds of purposes.
But for some reason, she was inexplicably certain that this man in front of her would never hurt her.
Maybe it was because his eyebrows were furrowed sharply, his whole body was tensed up, he was clearly displeased but still softening his tone, and the hand holding her wrist was only tight enough to keep her from breaking free, never once hurting her.
Half an hour later, Lou Yue more or less figured out the situation she was in.
She had traveled to an unfamiliar cultivation world. Yesterday, when she went to capture that Thunder Dream Beast, she was struck by its memory-disrupting lightning. She had already lost part of her memory before, and now with her memories interfered with again, she had ended up forgetting everything she had experienced since coming to this world.
Recovery depended entirely on the individual. She might remember everything in three days, or she might never remember for the rest of her life.
After the Thunder Dream Beast conveyed this message, it was sent flying with a bang by a single kick from that man named Xiao Rangchen.
Seeing him walking over towards her, Lou Yue instinctively took a step back.
Seeing her retreat, the sullen aura around Xiao Rangchen was so thick it was almost tangible. He stood rooted to the spot, his knuckles clenched tight, and his voice came out deep and hoarse, full of certainty.
"Lou Yue, I will make you remember me."
Lou Yue raised an eyebrow, her tone carrying a casual, provocative edge. "What if I never remember?"
Xiao Rangchen fell silent for a moment, then lifted his gaze to look at her. His pitch-black eyes were filled with a hint of obsession. "Then I will make you fall in love with me all over again."
Lou Yue looked at his overly stern face, thought about his decisive, ruthless moves just now, crossed her arms over her chest, and let out a scoff.
"I don't go for your type. I like gentle, refined, and cultivated men, and you are clearly the exact opposite."
The air around them seemed to freeze in an instant, and even the wind stopped blowing.
After a long moment, Xiao Rangchen suppressed the surging emotions in his chest, took a deep breath, and said slowly, "If you didn't like me, would you have let me—"
"Stop!" Lou Yue quickly reached out to stop him from finishing his sentence. She cleared her throat, "At any rate, I have my doubts about our relationship. I can't just take your word for it."
Xiao Rangchen looked at her quietly, then brought Lou Yue to meet Lou Chengfeng. After he explained the situation, Lou Chengfeng put on a triumphant look and said to Lou Yue,
"Girl, your relationship with him is a long story. To put it simply, you really are together, you fell for his good looks, but you two haven't tied the knot, so..."
Lou Chengfeng deliberately trailed off, leaving plenty of room for imagination.
Lou Yue looked at the face that bore a seven or eight-point resemblance to her dear old dad, then glanced at Xiao Rangchen's face, far more handsome than any A-list celebrity, and felt that what he said was very credible.
She glanced at Xiao Rangchen, slightly surprised, and said, "Oh, I get it. A kept man."
Xiao Rangchen's face darkened on the spot.
Lou Yue did not go back to the ruins. She settled down in Lou Chengfeng's courtyard. She refused to return to the ruins with Xiao Rangchen, and stayed in Lou Chengfeng's courtyard instead. Xiao Rangchen offered to stay with her, but she turned him down flat.
In her eyes, since the two of them were just in an improper relationship built on nothing but good looks, this was the perfect chance to put an end to it for good.
Yet that very night, Lou Yue lay on the spacious, soft bed, tossing and turning like a pancake being flipped all night long.
Her memories told her she had always slept alone, and she had never been the type to get used to a new bed, but for some reason she felt completely ill at ease, and could not fall asleep no matter what. Lou Yue was more than a little frustrated.
Worse still, this went on for three nights in a row, with her lying wide awake until dawn.
Xiao Rangchen showed up at her door every single day. No matter when she opened it, be it the dead of night or the break of dawn, he would be leaning against the doorframe. She even started to suspect that he was standing guard outside her room the entire night.
Faced with his unyielding persistence, Lou Yue assumed he was just unwilling to let their unusual relationship end. She tried to reason with him gently, "You're a great catch. You should go find someone more suitable for you as soon as possible."
But he still went his own way. Lou Yue stopped paying him any mind, treating him as if he were thin air.
There were none of the modern entertainment pastimes in this cultivation world. The only thing that amused her was playing leaf cards with Liufeng Xin, Jiang Siyin and a few others.
What was more, whenever she did that, Xiao Rangchen would step back on his own, no longer sticking to her side every step of the way. Without his burning, oppressive gaze fixed on her, she felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders.
"Lately, people from the Alliance have been coming up to me nonstop, asking if you and Xiao Rangchen have fallen out," Liufeng Xin said, waggling her eyebrows playfully. "They say that in the past, no one dared come within ten feet of you two, and now no one even dares step within a hundred feet, frozen stiff by the cold aura rolling off him."
Jiang Siyin played the card in her hand, and smiled softly, adding, "Old Wei came to ask me too. He even asked me to quietly help you two out, so you don't end up suffering."
"They have no idea you lost your memory," Liufeng Xin continued. "They're all worried that the two mainstays of our Loose Cultivator Alliance are going to turn on each other out of a love-hate feud!"
Lou Yue yawned, tossed her terrible hand of cards down, and said listlessly, "I'm done playing. I've had nothing but garbage cards all day. I'm heading back to bed."
She hadn't slept properly for three days. If she wasn't more than an ordinary mortal, she probably would have kicked the bucket by now.
In the middle of the night, when Lou Yue had counted almost a hundred thousand sheep, someone knocked on her door.
Xiao Rangchen stood still outside the door, his whole body bathed in the cool, clear moonlight. His snow-white hair was tinged silver by the night, softening his usual sharp, stern edge, and lending him a warm, gentle glow unique to the dark hours.
His features were calm and collected, his dark eyes filled with nothing but the figure of the woman in front of him. His voice was soft and slow as he said, "Lou Yue, let me stay with you tonight, okay?"
Lou Yue had not expected him to knock in the middle of the night just to say that. She yawned, and lifted her hand to shut the door right in his face.
But before she could move, her wrist was caught in his cool, gentle grasp.
"It's been three days, Lou Yue. You should have gotten used to my presence by now."
The second Xiao Rangchen finished speaking, he stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the room. The moonlight was split in two by his figure, one half spilling outside the door, the other wrapping around the space inside.
Lou Yue's heart tightened. She instinctively tried to yank back and pull away, but her wrist was held steadily in his grip. His hold was light, but unshakable, and she could not put any distance between them.
He lifted his other hand, reaching for the corner of her eye, flushed from exhaustion.
Lou Yue darted her head to the side, dodging his hand.
Xiao Rangchen's hand froze in mid-air. His thin lips curved into a faint, soft line. His Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice dropped to a low, almost pleading husky murmur. "You haven't slept in three days. Let me stay with you tonight, won't you?"
Lou Yue had no idea how he had noticed that she had been lying awake night after night. But she was so agitated and worn out at the moment that she did not want to stand at the door bickering with him any longer. She gritted her teeth and forced two words out. "No."
"All I want to do is hold you."
"I said no!"
Moonlight seeped through the crack under the door, spreading a strip of pale, cold white light at their feet.
After a long while, when Lou Yue was so tired that she was half ready to punch the man who would not let go of her hand, he let out a soft sigh, and whispered, "Just once."
Xiao Rangchen looked at her tired, drooping eyes. "Just try it once, okay? If you still can't fall asleep tonight, I won't bother you for the time being."
To be honest, she was wavering. She was so desperate to get some sleep. Going to bed on time had been a routine she had stuck to for years. Now, even though she was so worn out, something still felt off, and her mind just would not fully relax.
Xiao Rangchen watched her eyelashes flutter in the moonlight, her fingers twisting restlessly, looking torn between two choices. He brushed his thumb lightly over the skin of her wrist, lowered his eyes, and said slowly, "Lou Yue, give me a chance..."
A moment later, Lou Yue stared at the extra person on her bed, still unable to figure out how she had been so bewitched as to agree just now. But it was obvious that kicking him out now would be too embarrassing, and make it look like she was too cowardly to share a bed with him.
He had taken off his outer robe, and was only wearing a dark inner tunic.
Lou Yue lay on the outer side of the bed, a full arm's length away from him. "We'll sleep like this for now."
He did not object. The lamp in the room flickered out silently.
Outside the window, the soft moonlight spilled over the edge of the bed, bathing the whole bed in a pale, milky glow.
The breathing of the person beside her was light and steady. The nerves Lou Yue had kept taut for days slowly began to unwind, little by little, in the quiet moonlight.
A heavier wave of drowsiness rolled over her. She closed her eyes, but her consciousness still hung on the edge, as if missing one last crucial step to drift off.
She flipped over onto her stomach, and when she found this familiar position, sleepiness washed over her again. But just as she was about to drift off, it slipped out of reach once more.
She flipped over in frustration, and suddenly, a strong arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her firmly into a broad, solid chest.
Lou Yue instinctively lifted her hands to push against his chest, trying to get away. But the moment she tensed her wrists to push, he moved her hands to rest at his waist.
Xiao Rangchen cradled the back of her head, gently pressing her face to his chest.
"Sleep."
The chest against her cheek rumbled with his voice. A crisp, clean scent of frosted snow wrapped around her.
It was unfamiliar, yet strangely familiar. The scent seeped into every inch of her limbs and bones with every breath she took, chasing away the restlessness and emptiness that had clung to her for days.
Her fingers, which had been clutching at the hem of his tunic, slowly loosened, until they lay soft and relaxed against his waist.
Her long, curled lashes fluttered gently, before her consciousness drifted away, sinking into a long, peaceful slumber.
