Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 388 375: Trial of Heart Tribulation (9): This World and Xiaoxuan... Are All Fake

"Pei Yuhang."

"What is it?"

"You're hurting me..."

Fan Xuan bit her lip, her eyelashes trembling as a thin layer of mist welled up in her eyes.

Pei Yuhang looked down, only then realizing with a start where his hand had subconsciously gone.

'What a sin, what a sin,' he thought. 'How could a pure Sword Immortal like me be turned into this by a bad woman!'

Pei Yuhang quickly let go, and Fan Xuan, her face crimson, squirmed out of his embrace.

She straightened her wrinkled lapels and suddenly looked up to glare at him. Her gaze was a mix of flirtatious anger and indignation, the corners of her eyes still holding a bashful flush, like a dew-kissed peach blossom on a branch in March.

"If the Holy Daughter finds out you've been treating her personal maid like this, she'll definitely have your head!"

"And what about you?"

"I... I'm the victim. It's not like I'm intentionally doing something with you to betray the Holy Daughter.

So Her Highness will surely understand my situation!"

Fan Xuan said with a coquettish huff.

"..."

The Transmission Token at his waist suddenly vibrated, shattering the delicate atmosphere between them.

Fan Xuan's body stiffened. She looked up at Pei Yuhang, the smile in her eyes instantly fading.

"You have to go be with the Holy Daughter again, don't you."

Pei Yuhang fell silent for a moment before nodding lightly. "Mhm."

Fan Xuan turned her face away, forcing a smile as she pushed him with feigned casualness.

"Then you should hurry up and go. Don't be late and make Her Highness suspicious."

Pei Yuhang didn't move. Instead, he reached out and grabbed her wrist, his gaze burning as he stared at her. His tone was more serious than ever before.

"Okay. Xiaoxuan, you be careful too. If Shang Miaoyan shows any signs of moving against you, tell me ahead of time. I'll protect you."

"Who needs your protection!"

Fan Xuan's heart skipped a beat, her cheeks burning. She shoved him more forcefully, but her pushes lacked strength, feeling more like a flirtatious protest.

"Go, go! Stop being an eyesore here!"

"Alright, I'm leaving then."

Pei Yuhang turned and left with a helpless sigh.

Only after his figure had completely vanished from sight did Fan Xuan slowly release her tightly bitten lower lip, her fingertips gently caressing her own burning cheeks.

—A mix of disappointment and inexplicable excitement.

It was like tasting forbidden fruit. Her heart pounded, and a secret thrill spread through her chest.

'What's wrong with me? Why does it feel so much like... I'm having an affair with the Holy Daughter's man?'

She covered her face in frustration, the tips of her ears so red they looked ready to bleed.

'It's all Pei Yuhang's fault! He must be the one who's been corrupted!'

...

Pei Yuhang and Fan Xuan's brief teacher-student relationship had ended, but the distance between them had, contrary to expectation, grown even more intimate.

They would meet whenever Shang Miaoyan was in seclusion, without any contact born of desire. They simply enjoyed their quiet time together.

Pei Yuhang himself couldn't tell if the comfort he and Fan Xuan now found in each other stemmed from his guilt and affection for her from a past life, or from the loneliness of being in a Demon Cave like the Yin Yang Sacred Land.

Or perhaps, he was simply drawn to the kind-hearted girl.

With this new bond in his heart, Pei Yuhang even began to wonder if he should take Fan Xuan with him when he left this Demon Cave.

Unlike her sister Fan Ya, who had been thoroughly conditioned, Fan Xuan still retained her pure and noble spirit.

She shouldn't be left in the Yin Yang Sacred Land to be assimilated by its corrupting environment.

Pei Yuhang began to ponder how he might get Fan Xuan away from this place.

...

On another day, Fan Xuan returned to her residence after a secret meeting with Pei Yuhang.

"Xiaoxuan, are you very happy right now?"

Fan Ya, who was watering flowers in the courtyard, suddenly spoke.

"Ah... Sister, how did you know?"

Fan Xuan was stunned for a moment, then her small hands nervously clutched the hem of her skirt.

Fan Ya fiddled with the flowers in front of her and said softly, "Your smile is written all over your face. How could I not see it?"

"It's not just today, Xiaoxuan. You've been very happy for the past month."

"Have I? You're so observant, Sister. I didn't even notice...

It's probably because I'm serving the Holy Daughter. It's been my dream since I was little to serve the Saintess, so now that I get to be in the Saintess Hall every day, I'm naturally happy."

Fan Xuan wiped her sweaty palms on the hem of her skirt and said with a beaming smile.

SNIP—

Several flourishing flowers were snipped off by Fan Ya's scissors.

"A flower can have stems and green leaves, and smaller flowers can grow from those stems.

But the green leaves must not obscure the main flower's vibrant red, and the smaller flowers on the stems cannot grow too well, or they will steal the main flower's nutrients.

In the end, you can only cut them all off."

Fan Ya muttered to herself, and the expression on Fan Xuan's face gradually froze.

"Xiaoxuan, you're going to get yourself killed."

Fan Ya turned to look at Fan Xuan and said softly.

"Sister, you know everything..."

Fan Xuan's face was a little pale, but she didn't seem surprised.

Her sister had always been smarter than her since they were children, and she was the person who cared about her most in the world. She couldn't hide any of her secrets from her sister.

Fan Xuan had long anticipated this day.

But even so, she was still like a moth drawn to a flame, constantly flinging herself at the fire that was Pei Yuhang.

Because he was too warm, too dazzling.

Enough to make Fan Xuan forget about life and death.

"I haven't told the Holy Daughter yet."

Fan Ya saw through her sister's heart and directly addressed her worry.

The color returned slightly to Fan Xuan's face.

"Thank you, Sister..."

"Because there's no need. Pei Yuhang will soon be separated from you—forever."

"I don't want to lose my own sister over a dead man."

Fan Xuan's pupils contracted. She strode forward quickly, blocking the flowerbed.

"Sister, what do you mean? Pei Yuhang, he—"

"Quiet."

Fan Ya looked at Fan Xuan with a calm gaze. The authority her older sister had long held over her gradually calmed Fan Xuan's ragged breathing, and her raised arm fell limply to her side.

Seeing her sister calm down, Fan Ya finally spoke softly.

"I told you before to study more, but you always said it was useless. It's because you don't know anything that you're so foolish now..."

"Every Saintess in the history of the Yin Yang Sacred Land, after breaking through to a new realm, executes her first Cauldron Slave. It's just like a female praying mantis eating the male.

Pei Yuhang is just a stepping stone for the Holy Daughter's trial of the heart."

"Xiaoxuan, why did you have to fall in love with a stepping stone?"

Fan Ya's beautiful eyes, looking at Fan Xuan, were filled with disappointment. It seemed she hoped her warning would persuade her sister to turn back from the brink.

But Fan Xuan just stood there, stunned like a statue, all the light in her beautiful eyes frozen.

'Pei Yuhang... will be killed by the Holy Daughter, to prove her Dao Heart.'

'How is that possible? I've never seen the Holy Daughter like someone so much, even if her way of liking him is unacceptable—a suffocating sense of control.'

'But would a Holy Daughter like that really kill Pei Yuhang?'

'No, I can't take that risk.'

...

...

After delivering his "public grain" to Shang Miaoyan, Pei Yuhang went to bathe, his expression unchanged, to wash off the foreign scent.

Watching Pei Yuhang's back, Shang Miaoyan suddenly called out, "Xiaohan, I've been going into seclusion more and more frequently lately. Have any shameless female cultivators taken advantage of my absence to try and seduce you?"

"You're overthinking it."

Pei Yuhang walked behind the screen to the bathtub, his expression still impassive.

A glint flashed in Shang Miaoyan's beautiful eyes as she murmured, "True. After all, the quality and quantity of the 'grain' you've been delivering isn't much different from before."

"Besides, aren't I the most beautiful and outstanding woman in the entire Sect? After seeing a phoenix with your own eyes, how could you possibly be interested in those sparrows and wild pheasants?"

The overconfident Shang Miaoyan giggled foolishly, then stepped onto the floor with a bare foot, its sole a cherry red, and walked toward the screen with a seductive, cat-like gait.

"Xiaohan, I'll wash with you."

"After this bath, I'm going into seclusion for half a month straight. I hope you don't get lonely."

"Don't worry, I won't miss you."

"Hehe, such a tsundere, saying the opposite of what you mean."

"..."

After leaving Shang Miaoyan, Pei Yuhang walked slowly toward his own residence.

He impassively sensed the auras around him.

Only when he confirmed that the faint sense of being watched had completely disappeared did he slightly unclench his fist. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed down a heavy breath.

He passed through a moon gate, and a deep, secluded path through a bamboo forest suddenly opened up before him.

The night wind rustled through the bamboo leaves, casting mottled, swaying shadows on the ground.

Just then, a slender figure slowly emerged from the depths of the bamboo shadows.

"Xiaoxuan?" Pei Yuhang's pupils shrank slightly, and his steps faltered unconsciously.

Under the moonlight, Fan Xuan's face was as pale as paper, her lips drained of color.

She was panting, her chest heaving violently. She had clearly run all the way here. Fine beads of sweat trickled down her smooth forehead, dampening a few stray strands of hair at her temples.

"Pei Yuhang..."

She hurried forward, her cold fingers gripping his sleeve tightly. Her voice was so quiet it was nearly drowned out by the rustling of the bamboo leaves.

"Let me help you escape! Leave this place! Leave the Yin Yang Sacred Land, leave the Holy Daughter!"

Her words were like a dull knife stabbing viciously into Pei Yuhang's heart.

His breath caught. The scene from his past life appeared hazily before his eyes—the same quiet bamboo forest, the girl with reddened eyes, trembling as she spoke the very same words to him.

Pei Yuhang took a deep breath and, in a reverse grip, took hold of the girl's wrist.

"No. This time, we'll go together."

"I won't leave you here alone again."

Fan Xuan was taken aback, seemingly not expecting Pei Yuhang to accept her crazy proposal so quickly.

"You were already planning to leave?"

"No."

Pei Yuhang shook his head gently, then spoke seriously, "I never planned on staying here in the first place."

HUMMM—

The sound of the wind seemed to freeze for an instant.

The entire world flickered for a moment.

Even the bright white moonlight seemed to become somewhat unreal.

But it was only for an instant.

However, this time it was enough for Pei Yuhang to clearly perceive it.

'What's going on?'

'Could it be... that this isn't the real world? Am I in a large-scale Illusion Technique?'

Pei Yuhang was experienced. Two consecutive anomalies were enough for him to understand something.

Feeling the cool evening breeze and stroking the black hair of the girl before him, a trace of shock... and sorrow... appeared in his eyes.

'So... Fan Xuan is dead after all.'

'The person in front of me is just a fake.'

"What's wrong? Pei Yuhang, why are you crying?"

Fan Xuan looked up, reaching out with a pained expression to wipe away the teardrops at the corners of his eyes.

But as Pei Yuhang felt Fan Xuan's distinct body heat, he only felt a greater sorrow.

'Why... why are you a fake...'