Chapter 42

Liuyu thought, from now on, she truly couldn’t say that his mouth was the hardest part of him.

“Your hands are too small.”

Amidst the tender and deep kiss, his voice, tinged with dissatisfaction, mixed in.

In reality, Liuyu’s hands weren’t small at all. She could even grip Chaoyuan’s long knife with ease, using a sword technique that even the masters of the Lingyong Palace would praise.

If she couldn’t grip a sword properly, it wasn’t because her hands were small, but because the sword’s hilt was unusually designed.

…Moreover, such unconventional swords weren’t just one.

The girl in his arms had turned a delicate shade of pink from the heat, like a peony gently trembling in the misty steam.

She parted her lips slightly and said:

“Weren’t you going to stop me from moving? You liar.”

Mo Lin didn’t answer. He simply looked at the girl who was now lightly resting her head on his shoulder.

Lazy, beautiful, with the deep currents of the pool flowing in the distance—waves stirred by her movements. Mo Lin’s breath became ragged, as though his heart was tightly gripped by her, swelling with pleasure and pain.

It was a stark contrast to the indifference of their wedding night.

The unpleasant memories were now overshadowed.

He repeatedly traced her image, cherishing it, greedily imprinting her current expression in his eyes.

Liuyu didn’t get a response but could clearly hear his ragged breathing amidst the sound of the water rippling.

She had control over his emotions.

This realization rose from the depths of her heart, filling her mind and creating a subtle resonance between them at this moment.

“—So powerful.”

Liuyu heard his drowsy, deep voice by her ear.

“Even the leader of Lingyong learns this kind of thing so quickly?”

Liuyu bit her lip, trying to hold back, but couldn’t resist.

“Is it that you only talk at times like this?”

His moss-green eyes were misty, and the red tassel earrings shaped like mountain spirits brushed against his collarbone, making her feel a slight tickle.

“Otherwise, what do you want to hear? You want me to talk about the Jade-faced Spider and the Yashan Heavenly Gate, all that messy stuff?”

Hearing about the Yashan Heavenly Gate, Liuyu suddenly came to her senses.

She turned quickly and pushed him against the stone wall, facing him. Her expression became more serious.

“Let’s talk about that.”

It was at Yashan where the ancestor of the Xian family, Xian Li, led the immortal clans to seal the evil demons from beyond the heavens.

In her previous life, starting from the 270th year of the Zhaoye, traces of evil demons began to appear across the Divine Land, and it was later discovered that the Heavenly Gate’s seal had loosened, allowing the demons to return through the cracks. The immortal families had no choice but to set aside past grievances and work together to reinforce the seal once more.

That same year, the previous life’s Yinshan Ze and Nangong Jing died at Yashan.

The world believed that Yinshan deliberately brought the demons into the world to wipe out all the immortal families present in order to seize control of the Central Plains.

Fortunately, their disciple, Jiufang Zhanghua, upheld justice and prevented the Great Zhao’s lands from falling into the hands of traitors.

In her past life, Liuyu had once tried to uncover the truth about the weakening of the Heavenly Gate’s seal, wanting to clear the Yinshan family’s name in the eyes of the world.

Even though she had given up on that foolish idea of self-vindication, she still wanted to know the truth behind the Heavenly Gate’s seal at Yashan.

Mo Lin stared intently at her serious eyes.

His rough hand, which was holding her waist, gently stroked it as he asked:

“Are you really so interested in the Yashan Heavenly Gate’s seal?”

“The peace of the world is everyone’s responsibility,” Liuyu smiled slightly. “If the Heavenly Gate’s seal is weakening, its impact on the structure of the Divine Land is not trivial.”

While that made sense, Mo Lin could feel that Liuyu wasn’t telling him the whole truth.

Not just about this matter.

Her hatred toward the Great Zhao immortal families, her motivations for letting down her guard with the Nine Underworld demons—all seemed to lack a reasonable explanation.

She was hiding something deep inside and wouldn’t reveal it to anyone. The only trace he could find was the day Ah Jiang died and Chaoming was attacked by a horde of demons.

Whenever he looked into her soft, shimmering eyes, he couldn’t help but recall those nights when she lay in his arms, her tears soaking his clothes.

Mo Lin didn’t want to ask her too many questions.

He wanted her to be happy, to forget those heavy troubles.

“Actually, it’s nothing major. If he had the ability, he would have used it to threaten me long ago—do you really want to hear it?”

Liuyu nodded seriously.

“Whether big or small, I need to know.”

He looked at her for a moment, and a smile slowly appeared on the corner of his lips.

“Then do me a favor.”

Liuyu gave him an expression of mild speechlessness, but Mo Lin simply glanced back at something behind them.

“Just help me grab my clothes.”

So simple?

Liuyu skeptically gestured with her finger and used her qi to bring over the robe placed on the shore.

But Mo Lin didn’t take the robe. Instead, he grabbed a mustard seed bag placed on top of it.

His sharp fangs bit onto the string, and with a flick of his wrist, he pulled the string and took out a small box from inside.

Liuyu recognized it.

“… I’m talking seriously.”

Mo Lin caught her hand and made her take a pellet from the box. His eyelashes brushed against her slightly irritated expression, and he lightly ran his sharp teeth over her delicate fingers.

“This is also serious, a monthly thing.”

The veins in his arm bulged as he hooked his arm around her leg.

Slowly, without giving her a chance to resist.

Liuyu furrowed her brow in discomfort, but soon, his kiss softened the tension.

“After we attacked the Yuxian Platform today, I personally searched the Jade-faced Spider’s chamber. These abrasions on my body were caused by the defensive formations inside the chamber. Other than some gold and jade treasures, the place also had a communication formation that was set up to avoid the Nine Nether Sky Sound Cloud Sea.”

Liuyu raised her head, gazing at the starry sea atop Yushan, her breathing rapid and chaotic as her thoughts became muddled.

“The communication formation… it should have some records…”

“Exactly.”

He ground the words slowly, inching closer.

“But he was careful. Before setting off, he predicted there would be a one-way danger. So, the recent records in the formation were erased. Even if I have the ghost attendants try to repair it, all I could catch were a few fragments.”

The records mentioned the Cliff Mountain Sky Gate and the key.

“The key?”

“It’s not a literal key, just a term for something that could unlock the Sky Gate seal.”

The cleverness of the Sky Gate seal lay in the fact that it wasn’t invincible.

As long as there was pure demonic blood, the seal could be unlocked from this side of the world. Or if there was pure human blood, it could be unlocked from the side of the heavens.

No humans could exist on the heavenly side.

After the first year of the Zhaoye, the demonic forces from outside the heavens had been completely eradicated across the divine lands, and the remaining demons were all mixed with human blood, making it impossible to break the seal.

Apart from that, no brute force could break the seal, theoretically making it unshakable.

That’s why, in the previous life, the immortal families fabricated evidence to frame the Yinshan family, making the world believe they secretly raised demonic beasts from beyond the heavens to unlock the Sky Gate.

Even though they killed all members of the Yinshan family, they found no evidence of such demonic beasts being raised.

“The Jade-faced Spider must have realized that maintaining a terrifying balance between Da Chao and me wasn’t a long-term plan… So he tried to find another way to restrain Da Chao…”

Liuyu clung to his arm, her wet eyes like jade immersed in water.

She asked, “The key… did he find it?”

“If he had found it, he would have used it to extend his life before dying.”

Mo Lin suddenly exerted strength.

Like a boat floating on water being struck hard, Liuyu’s throat emitted a few broken syllables, echoing in the hot spring’s water.

The white mist and hot steam intertwined, which he swallowed into his lips and teeth.

Perhaps it was from soaking in the hot spring for too long, beads of sweat fell from Mo Lin’s chest and neck, landing on Liuyu’s collarbone, forming a small pool of water.

He couldn’t stay any longer.

Although at this moment, he wished he could just die here, he felt Liuyu probably didn’t want that.

Mo Lin lifted Liuyu and walked away from the edge of the pool.

He casually wrapped robes around both of them and headed for the secluded residence behind the bamboo forest.

Liuyu was still lost in thought, reflecting on his previous words.

Even if the Jade-faced Spider hadn’t found the key, knowing of its existence was already a clue.

His connections with the Jiufang and Zhongli families were so close.

Could he have learned of it from them?

Or perhaps, the Jade-faced Spider already knew there were forgotten demonic forces from beyond the heavens somewhere in the Divine Lands. This news eventually reached the immortal families, and after a hundred years, they found the key and framed the Yinshan family.

The clues were still insufficient, so it could only be speculated, but it wasn’t certain.

While thinking, Liuyu suddenly moaned in Mo Lin’s arms.

She looked up in disbelief at his nearby chin.

“You… want to carry me in like this?”

“Mm.”

“Mm what?”

Liuyu lightly slapped him.

“Get out!”

For Mo Lin, the slap felt like an itch. His brow didn’t even twitch, and he lifted Liuyu up slightly, saying, “No, it’s too cold outside.”

“…”

Liuyu, who was hanging on his waist, was jostled, her mind going blank.

The secluded residence by the hot spring was hastily cleaned up. Under the moonlight, there were traces of things being ransacked.

But when they entered the inner room, Liuyu smelled the familiar scent of the Immortal Scent.

“I sent a team to the Extreme Night Palace to hurry and bring these. They’re all things you’re used to, not anything others have used.”

Thrown onto the soft bed, Liuyu only realized later.

This person had already planned everything.

Not only had he prepared the bed, but he had also brought the contraceptive pills.

Something was pressed against her back, and Liuyu furrowed her brow from the discomfort.

She seemed to have caught a glimpse of something reflecting the moonlight. She opened the gap in the quilt to take a closer look—

It was a bed full of white jade.

The translucent and delicate jade had a warm texture, and under the sparse moonlight, the uncarved jade emitted a faint, pure spiritual light. Just by touching it, one could sense the surging spiritual energy within.

Liuyu stared in amazement at the bed full of white jade, while Mo Lin was also watching her.

The creamy jade, paired with a beauty even more beautiful than jade itself, left him speechless. He couldn’t think of any flattering words and only felt that the scene before him was so breathtakingly beautiful that it made his heart race.

He wanted to see her wear the swordpins made from this divine jade.

He wanted her to use the weapons he personally offered her to slay those enemies who displeased her.

Pressing against her body, Mo Lin caught her fingertips, lowered his gaze, and kissed her.

“The divine jade captured by Yushan is all here. I’ve kept some royal jade and common jade, along with some agate and jadeite. If you feel it’s not enough, you can take more from me.”

Even though the Yinshan family was wealthy enough to rival a nation, Liuyu had rarely seen such a vast collection of divine jade.

Compared to these jades, the value of the agate and jadeite seemed almost negligible.

Mo Lin had expected that Liuyu would be somewhat pleased upon seeing these.

But instead, he saw a complex and hard-to-describe emotion flash across her face.

She raised her eyes and asked:

“Do you know how powerful a group of cultivators could become with this divine jade as their weapons?”

If, in her previous life, she had such a collection of divine jade as weapons, perhaps in the battle at Guanshan, her Qi Sea wouldn’t have been damaged, and those close to her, like Chaoyuan, Chaoming, and the many servants of the Yinshan family, wouldn’t have had to die.

She was the pillar of the Yinshan family, and everyone had placed their hopes on her.

She could have saved them.

Her long, slightly curly black hair fell across the bed. He propped himself up on his elbow, his gaze silent:

“I only know that the two of us joined forces to defeat the Yushan Demon who possessed so much divine jade. In the future, we will defeat even more and stronger enemies.”

No matter what she was guarding against, what she feared—

He would be by her side.

Liuyu’s expression froze for a moment.

Those complex and incomprehensible emotions melted away inch by inch.

“Yes, we joined forces and eliminated them.”

Liuyu pulled Mo Lin into the nightmare of her previous life.

The dreams were heavy, filled with bloody pain and helpless torment, dragging her down.

She wanted to grab hold of something.

In the damp kiss, she felt her body temperature gradually rising.

This time, she was no longer the soul that could only watch his heartbeat slow down, his warmth fading away.

Two long-absent people were close, intimately connected.

In the darkness, something slippery and soft began to spread. Mo Lin tried to cover Liuyu’s eyes, but she lifted her eyelashes, glistening with tears, and whispered:

“Let me watch.”

Mo Lin felt a pleasurable, almost unbearable tightness in his heart.

“I want to watch how they’re excited for me.”

The black-scaled limbs could sprout sharp bone spurs during combat, capable of splitting even stones.

But when she touched them, Mo Lin felt as though the part of him that belonged to him had lost all rational control—

The fingers that wrapped around her twisted into a small, ugly flower.