Qing Qiu's king response was a firm negative. That one word was like a hammer blow on Yan Hui's heart.
"Not even..." Yan Hui found it difficult to speak. "One sliver of chance?"
The king paused before speaking: "You saw Qing Guang's strength back in Central Plains. How does the Nine-headed Snake Demon compare?"
Yan Hui shook her head as her heart sank down to the bottom. She knew clearly that there was no comparing the snake demon with Qing Guang.
Even without looking back, Qing Qiu's king sensed Yan Hui's disappointment: "Exactly so."
Yan Hui remained silent and didn't say anymore. Actually before she arrived, she already had a feeling she would get that kind of answer. However, people always have a fantasy. She also wanted to fulfill Tian Yao's wish to never again mess with the neidan in her heart.
"Tian Yao is a Millennium Dragon Demon. Even though he has accumulated a lot of wisdom and researched a lot about magic, he doesn't have the magic accumulated throughout a millennium. He can't take a single blow from Qing Guang." The king continued. "Melding with another demon's neidan is a painful process with little gain. If he wasn't so set on not taking back his neidan, I wouldn't have suggested that alternative. Tian Yao and Qing Guang's wuxing are naturally opposed against one another. If there was no Tian Yao in this world, then there would be no one else who can stop Qing Guang's plot. If Tian Yao dies in the battle against Qing Guang, the neidan in your heart can't be protected anymore. If Qing Guang takes the neidan and cultivates to the 12th level, I fear...there will be no place for demon clans in this world."
The king's words weren't rushed. The meaning they conveyed pressed down on Yan Hui's mind.
"I understand," said Yan Hui. She understood his meaning.
Don't wait for Tian Yao to try every method except for the one taking back the neidan. He wouldn't give up, or perhaps it could be said they wouldn't give up. They could only walk to the end of the path with no other road to try.
Between Yan Hui and Tian Yao, inevitably one of them would make a decision. As for who would have that right, Qing Qiu's king left it up to Yan Hui to think about that.
Yan Hui didn't give a reply at that moment. She just bowed her head towards the king: "I'm leaving for the night."
"Mm," the king nodded in response. He wasn't in a rush for Yan Hui to return the neidan this very night.
Yan Hui headed towards her room after leaving the palace. Even though she was far from the cold springs, she could still occasionally see a blaze of fire and hear a dragon's deep, repressed hiss.
Tian Yao was in a lot of pain...
That Nine-headed Snake's Neidan wasn't at all a beneficial method.
Yan Hui clenched her fist and jaw. She reached her room in silence.
The next day, the sun rose in the sky as usual. The weather is unchanged by a mere mortal's problem. Yan Hui sat by her bed and blankly stared up at the sky for a long time. She felt like a trapped animal, unable to escape its cage and surrounded by difficulty.
She liked Tian Yao. She liked him so much that she wanted to spend every day of the rest of her life by his side. She liked him to the point that she would feel happy and fortunate to just hold his hand and wander around regardless if they had a home or not.
She hoped she could always be by his side, see the rise and fall of every future day with her eyes, and listen to the changing days with her ears.
Tian Yao was too alone. She was the same.
They are people who were once abandoned by the world, but then they met each other. However they were in a "You die, I live" relationship.
Yan Hui quietly sat with eyes downcast for awhile. The next time she raised her eyes, she unexpectedly saw Tian Yao standing outside her window. His complexion was a bit wan, and there were purple shadows under his eyes. It looked like he suffered a lot last night.
Tian Yao was also a little surprised when their four eyes met. He immediately dipped his head and turned to return to his room.
"Tian Yao." Yan Hui hurriedly called after him. He looked back. She beckoned him over and then picked up 'Demon Bestowal' from her bedside. "Come explain this to me. I don't understand this part."
Tian Yao entered Yan Hui's room just like that.
The two strange horns on his head were still there. Yan Hui still thoroughly felt them upon seeing the horns. Tian Yao no longer cared where Yan Hui's hand were on his body because no longer where they touched, happiness would spread from his heart into his body.
It was like being placated.
"Which part?" Tian Yao held 'Demon Bestowal'. His voice was still a bit hoarse.
Yan Hui glanced at the book and then looked back at Tian Yao: "How strange. The moment you entered, I understood all of it."
Tian Yao wasn't mad after finding out he had been played with. He just slightly smiled and looked at Yan Hui with unruffled calm: "You're not focusing on cultivating? Slacking off?"
That's right. She was goofing off and taking the time to steal a few more peeks off him.
"Who said I'm slacking off!" said Yan Hui. "Yesterday, I heard some people say there's a method of cultivation that lets you cultivate very fast. It'll be good for the both of us. You want to hear it?"
Tian Yao watched her with a faint smile: "What is it?"
Yan Hui leaned in close to Tian Yao's ear: "Harmonized Pair Cultivation."[1] She smiled, revealing a tooth. "Sir Tian Yao, would you like to try with me?"
The formerly calm Tian Yao's ears immediately turned red. He turned his head away and lightly coughed. It seemed like one cough wasn't enough as he coughed yet again. Then he immediately stood up like Yan Hui's bed was burning his butt.
Yan Hui looked at his face and cried out: "Ah, the two weird horns on your head turned pink!"
Tian Yao became more shy at those words. He turned his head and wanted to leave even more. Yan Hui promptly grabbed his sleeve, and Tian Yao almost dragged her onto the floor. Yan Hui bumped into something and cried out in pain. Tian Yao immediately went to support her.
His eyes swept over Yan Hui, but before he could open his mouth, Yan Hui burst out in laughter. She hadn't laughed so brightly in such a long time. She laughed so hard that her stomach hurt and stayed doubled over for a long time.
Tian Yao chided her: "You're so happy at causing pain. You did xian cultivation for so many years, yet you never cultivated your temper. You love to tease people."
Yan Hui wiped away the tears from laughter: "You actually believed your weird little horns turned pink ahahaha....." Tian Yao was helpless. Yan Hui grabbed his arm and waited until her laughter died before looking up at Tian Yao. "Or.....did you really believe that I wanted to do Harmonized Paired Cultivation with you?"
Yan Hui looked up at Tian Yao with shining eyes. The curve of her lower jaw was sleek and smoothly flowed down the curve of her neck and to her heaving chest.
Tian Yao remembered back to when they were at Tong Luo Mountain in the village. He was taking a bath in the courtyard when Yan Hui pushed open the window and saw his bare body. At that time, he had no thoughts towards Yan Hui. He also just saw his body as merely a mortal's body that he was inhabiting. However, Yan Hui actually had a nosebleed at that time.
Tian Yao also remembered that the blood dripped down onto her chest and not straight onto the ground.
She was a girl with that kind of heaving chest...
Thus, Tian Yao silently started to avert his eyes. However before he could look away, Yan Hui slapped both of her hands on either side of his cheeks, so he couldn't look away. She forced him to look right at her and slowly said every word: "Tian Yao, do you want to do Harmonized Pair Cultivation with me?"
Tian Yao just felt like his heart was beating faster than ever before. Not just his ears, even his neck was turning red now. If someone at this moment said the two strange horns on his head were red, he would believe it without a shred of doubt!
Thinking about it, he wanted to have her! Completely, thoroughly wanted her!
But in this kind of time in this kind of climate, Tian Yao had to force down the agitation in his heart. He closed his eyes and then opened then again. They were much clearer than earlier. "Yan Hui...."
But Tian Yao never thought that Yan Hui would be so daring. Not only did she not listen, she stared straight at him and interjected: "Think about it." Then she wrapped her arms around his neck, stood up, and kissed him right on his lips.
His lips and tongue were burning hot, and Yan Hui's were the same.
Yan Hui hugged him tight until their breathing become unstable. Only then did she let go of him.
There was no more impudent action. After the kiss, their lips separated, and Yan Hui continued to silently hug Tian Yao's neck. Teasing was teasing, playing was playing. Yan Hui still knew what actions were appropriate or not. Yan Hui was clear about the current political atmosphere.....
Tian Yao discovered there was something strange about Yan Hui. He frowned and asked: "What is it?"
Yan Hui rubbed her head against his neck. She smiled: "Nothing. I just thought we were being too innocent. I want to touch you more, more and deeper." Saying that, Yan Hui suddenly paused. "Speaking up, Tian Yao, you talked about your past a few times. I kind of want to see what you looked like before."
Before he met Su Ying, he didn't have to bear all the humiliation and hatred. What did he look like then? What did a free and easy Tian Yao look like? How majestic was he?
"Another day....."
"Tell me about it now."
Under her persistence, Tian Yao told Yan Hui to sit back down. Then he covered her eyes with his face: "Alright, I'll let you see for a little."
Thus under the influence to Tian Yao's magic, Yan Hui saw a scene of mountains and a river flowing through from a high-up perspective. It was a majestic and grand sight. She saw him roaming the world, saw him use the mountains as a bed to rest upon.
He was the most recent demon to obtain immortality. He could move up into the sky and down through the ground, limitless.
Tian Yao removed his hand from Yan Hui's eyes.
Yan Hui looked at the current Tian Yao and then reached up to squeeze his horns. This time she only smiled and said: "Go back and rest. Let's cultivate together in the afternoon. I'll train the Demon Bestowal way, and you meld with the snake's neidan."
Tian Yao couldn't question further as he saw Yan Hui's expression wasn't abnormal anymore. He merely nodded and agreed, "Ok."
Late that very night, Yan Hui again went to the palace back to the same spot as last night. She looked at the king's back and calmly said: "I want to return the neidan to Tian Yao. Please assist me with this."
Yan Hui knew how Tian Yao regarded her. She also knew how painful it felt to lose someone important.
But...
The heart had a thousand things to say, but sometimes in reality boiled down to one word, but...
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[1] Yan Hui leaned in close to Tian Yao's ear: "Harmonized Pair Cultivation."
Pretty sure this means "sensual" cultivation lololololol
Ooohhh some physical attraction~~
Also when Tian Yao covered Yan Hui's eyes with his hand, did anyone suddenly remember 10 Miles of Peach Blossoms when Ye Hua did the same to Su Su (mortal Bai Qian)?????? Had a mini panic moment