All The Female Disciples Want To Kill Me

Chapter 413 - 254: Marry Me_3

"Su Bei, what do you think of me!?"

"Ah?" Su Bei was a bit dazed, his thoughts struggling to keep up. Wasn’t this progressing a bit too fast?

Ao Yue didn’t care about Su Bei’s bewildered expression. She played with the wine cup, larger than her hand, and said to herself, "Ah, what? Good is good, and not good is not good..."

Su Bei forced a smile, then looked her over carefully and said, "From a human’s perspective, er, Leader Ao seems quite perfect in every aspect."

"What do you mean from a human’s perspective? I am the noble princess of the Northern Sea Dragon Clan!"

"Well, from a dragon’s perspective... also quite perfect."

"Have you seen any other dragons besides me?"

Su Bei remained silent.

"Su Bei," Ao Yue continued, "you actually don’t need to be so cautious. I bear no ill will towards you... and you’ve even gained a significant advantage..." Ao Yue sighed, her voice growing smaller and smaller towards the end, almost a whisper, "I won’t even ask if you want to listen. A man should act like a man. According to Grandpa, every Master of the Qingping Sword has undoubtedly been a true man of indomitable spirit..."

Su Bei didn’t respond.

Ao Yue sat up straight. Perhaps it was because she had been drinking, or maybe her tolerance was just incredibly poor. A dragon tail gradually emerged from behind her, shimmering with a dusky yellow luster under the gradually dimming sky.

Finally, Ao Yue spoke softly, "Three hundred and seventy years ago, the banks broke for thousands of miles, and the Cang River flowed backward." She paused, took a deep breath, her eyes filled with complicated emotions. "It was orchestrated by my Dragon Clan..."

Su Bei was left speechless. As her words registered, he was instantly stunned, his eyes wide with shock. The Dragon Clan orchestrated the Cang River flowing backward? The river flooding and breaking its banks for thousands of miles? Setting aside how they managed to orchestrate it, didn’t the Dragon Clan understand cause and effect? How much negative karma and sin were tied to that flood? And how much faith did it destroy among mortals regarding the Dragon Clan? If entangled by such karma, they would surely face utter doom...

A lingering bitterness touched his lips. He knew now that, in his confusion, he had already boarded her metaphorical pirate ship.

Ao Yue paid no mind to Su Bei’s changing expressions, gazing at her wine cup, "You must be wondering why my Dragon Clan would do such a thing, right?" she said. "This could cost the Dragon Clan our legacy of ten thousand years... But... it was a last resort."

Su Bei said nothing.

The moon gradually climbed higher, serene, casting a frosty sheen over the catkins.

Ao Yue picked up her wine cup and took a big gulp, her dark golden pupils gazing at Su Bei, now tinged with red. Holding the wine cup, she spoke softly, "A thousand years ago, during the Cataclysm of Ten Thousand Clans, all of the Underworld united to fight against the Wilderness Cultivation."

"Not only the Twenty-One Provinces, but the Northern Sea also faced the chaos from the Wilderness Cultivation."

"During that Cataclysm, the Underworld Sword Sect mobilized eight hundred Sword Immortals. And the Great Sword Immortal of the Sword Sect at that time—was his name Shangguan Bie Li?"

"To stop the Wilderness Cultivation from crossing the Northern Sea and descending upon the Twenty-One Provinces again, he, along with an Immortal who had already achieved Ascension, drove a sword into the Dragon Pond—the junction of the Northern Sea and the Cang River!"

"This sword stabilized the Twenty-One Provinces, but it also severed our Dragon Clan’s bloodline power. Dragons depend on the Ancestral Dragon’s bloodline power to maintain their own bloodline concentration, and the Dragon Pond is essential for a dragon to shed its mortal form. To enter the Dragon Pond and receive the Ancestral Dragon’s bloodline power, one must be a member of our Dragon Clan."

"However, for a thousand years, that sword has never been pulled out. My Dragon Clan searched in vain for a thousand years, all to no avail."

"Later, the Turtle Prime Minister came up with a method..."

Ao Yue paused.

Hearing this, Su Bei’s breathing quickened, his eyes fixed intently on the dragon girl before him. Such a secret might be known by some, but it would surely never be made public.

Su Bei picked up his teacup, took a sip, lowered his eyes, and asked softly, "So the Dragon Clan wanted to use the full force of the Cang River to destroy that sword?"

"Then why didn’t they succeed?"

Ao Yue fell silent for a moment, then poured herself another cup of wine and gulped it down.

He knew that if they had succeeded, the young woman before him would have had no reason to tell him any of this. He even had a rough idea. Was she expecting him to draw the sword? To pull the sword out of the Dragon Pond? There was still a sword in Inverted Heaven he hadn’t drawn yet, and now there was another? And... how could she be so sure he could pull out that sword?

Pursing her lips, she lifted her eyes to look at Su Bei. Beneath her long eyelashes, her eyes were already brimming with red. Tear after tear turned into pearls as they dropped onto the tabletop.

DRIP. DROP—

Su Bei was taken aback, silently watching Ao Yue. He could sense that the woman before him wasn’t the type to habitually lie or scheme. Or perhaps, he simply trusted this race. Dragons. He always felt an inexplicable stirring in his heart for this race.

Ao Yue bit her lower lip. Whether from the alcohol or the depth of her emotions, her voice choked with sobs.

It began to rain.

Accompanying her tears, it drenched the small world around them. Dragons are of water; they influence heaven and earth.

Finally, Ao Yue spoke softly, "It was my father."

"He stopped everything."

"The Cang River flowing in reverse, wielding the force of all its waters—how could an ordinary person halt that?"

"Father couldn’t bear to watch the Cang River flood the world. With his dragon body, he blocked the river and redirected its tributaries. Ultimately, the Cang River, which should have been swollen with endless resentment, crashed down upon him alone."

"He blocked the waters of the Cang River, protecting the provinces along its banks, but in that collision, his dragon form dissipated, his spirit extinguished..."

Su Bei processed her words in silence. Truthfully, he didn’t know how to judge this matter. After all, the Dragon Clan had orchestrated the Cang River’s reversal from start to finish. Yet, it was undeniable that Ao Yue’s father was truly great.

"Su Bei," Ao Yue continued, "having said all this, I think you understand what I’m asking, what our Dragon Clan is asking..."

"Since you have received the recognition of the Qingping Sword, you naturally qualify to enter the Dragon Pond and withdraw that sword."

Su Bei didn’t reply immediately, his expression shifting as he leaned back in his chair, observing Ao Yue, whose eyes welled with unshed tears. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mingling with the rain, transforming into pearls as they hit the ground. She pressed her lips together, her expression earnest.

In the rain, her drenched hair outlined her gentle profile, and the gradually rising mist coated her with a silver-white halo. Ripples, light rain, a young girl with trails of tears—it was a melancholic scene, as if from an oil painting.

Su Bei let out a long sigh. I have this weakness, he thought. I yield to a soft approach, not a hard one.

He reached out, gently caressing Ao Yue’s cheek, wiping away a tear that hadn’t yet fallen, and said softly, "But doesn’t one have to be of the Dragon Clan to enter the Dragon Pond?"

"How am I supposed to help you...?"

Ao Yue paused.

Her pair of dragon horns shone with a flowing light in the rain.

Ao Yue gazed at the man before her, feeling his gentle touch. She vaguely saw her father’s figure in him. It was the same gentleness, the same intoxicating quality.

Then she shook her head gently, bit her lip, her dark golden pupils fixed on Su Bei as she said, "Marry me."

"..."