Chapter 58
Extra 5
Yan Yuhe

Jiang Ruoming set up a Yin Gathering Formation, trapping the souls of those she killed in place and refining them into yin energy to nourish her extremely yin body. Most of them didn’t realize they were dead, clinging to their obsessions and continuing their daily lives as if nothing had changed. In the ghost realm, there was no sunrise, so these ghosts could live freely, appearing normal on the surface.

However, Yan Yuhe, who frequently traversed between the realms of the living and the dead, could immediately tell that these people had been dead for a long time upon entering the village.

Usually, he would locate the Yin Gathering Formation and destroy it to release the trapped souls. But he suddenly noticed Xue Ming standing beside him, smiling and chatting with the elderly under the tree.

She had a gentle warmth that radiated from within, not because she was particularly quiet but because she always greeted the unknown with kindness and a smile. If someone returned her smile, she would be easily deceived.

Yan Yuhe looked at her smiling face and thought, “Luckily, I’m here to prevent her from being deceived again.”

Xue Ming seemed to like this place. Since entering the ghost realm, she had been in low spirits, possibly frightened by Jiang Ruoming and Hundred Crow or simply exhausted from the journey, speaking very little. Seeing the villagers, she regained some energy, and her complexion improved.

But it wasn’t enough. Yan Yuhe thought her ability to gather yang energy was too weak, causing her yang energy to deplete quickly. In a blink, her complexion would worsen, and she would sit quietly at the table, appearing idle but actually exhausted.

Given Xue Ming’s condition, Yan Yuhe couldn’t afford to be moderate in their intimate activities. Fortunately, he wasn’t weak or deficient, and his years of cultivation allowed him to continuously transfer yang energy to her, ensuring her vitality.

She was lucky to have met me, Yan Yuhe thought, though he didn’t say it out loud. Any other man would have been drained dry after a few transfers of yang energy, unable to stand, and would die faster than her.
Moreover, ordinary men’s yang energy was impure and affected by their physical state, sometimes thin and sometimes filthy. He was different; as a semi-immortal, his essence could be absorbed without the risk of pregnancy.

Only he could achieve this; no one else in the world could.

The benefits of such things were countless, and Yan Yuhe disdained to explain them all to Xue Ming. He was never one to express love verbally. Most of the time, he was taciturn, calming unstable emotions and resolving unclear confusion, which was a form of cultivation for him.

Moreover, love itself was an elusive thing. Some people professed love while secretly plotting harm. Like those who easily spoke of love, no matter how many vows and deep affections were exchanged, it all turned into nothingness when love faded. Many lovers who went through hardships to be together eventually turned into enemies, even killing each other.

He saw Xue Ming standing by the blazing fire, her face reflecting the brilliant light, her dark eyes flickering with the flames, intently watching him. She smiled, her features blurred by the glow yet extremely beautiful, and softly asked if he liked her.

Yan Yuhe looked at Xue Ming, feeling as if the scorching air was suddenly absorbed into his body, and his heart began to heat up.

He disdained the emotion called “liking,” believing that emotions in this world were fleeting while responsibility was enduring. Just as he had never been close to women, he now recognized Xue Ming as his wife and had long decided to spend his life with her, inseparable in life and death.
Compared to responsibility, love seemed not only cheap but also insignificant and unreliable.

Yan Yuhe thought this way, yet when Xue Ming looked at him, his heartbeat stopped momentarily. The sounds of the world disappeared, leaving only the echo of his heart pounding in his chest.

It was like the first time he met Xue Ming’s gaze, his heartbeat completely out of control. Yan Yuhe rarely felt flustered, but at that moment, he felt nervous, as if his thoughts had been exposed. To cover it up, he avoided the question and asked her what “liking” meant.

Yan Yuhe knew the answer to this question. Liking was just a fleeting emotion, impulsive, short-lived, easy to happen, and easy to discard, a cheap thing that could be thrown away at any time.

Yan Yuhe once believed he would never have such shallow emotions for anyone, thinking it was better to practice swordsmanship than to be entangled in worldly affairs.

Just like now, he could easily deny Xue Ming’s question, telling her he never had thoughts of love. But amidst all this disdain and denial, a desire emerged, recklessly crashing around in Yan Yuhe’s heart, making the complex desires he had for Xue Ming impossible to ignore.

Despite his disdain, Yan Yuhe couldn’t resist the feeling of “wanting.” When he spoke, it wasn’t to reject her but to reveal the fortune that Liu Mengyuan had once told him.

Yan Yuhe wasn’t one to speak sweet, romantic words. He told Xue Ming that he had once received a fortune about a destined marriage under the Red Luan star and that he believed in its accuracy, even though it came from his lazy and foolish junior brother.

Xue Ming took his hand, and the warmth of her soft palm spread through Yan Yuhe’s hand, as if it were merging into his bones and blood, continuously sending a sweet sensation to his heart. Every time Yan Yuhe looked at Xue Ming, he saw her smiling, seemingly in a good mood, which made him feel quite content.

The night breeze blew, carrying the dry and intense heat of summer. Once the matters in the ghost realm were resolved, he would take Xue Ming back to his sect to get married. With someone by his side in the long years to come, he wouldn’t feel lonely.

By the way, he really disliked that thousand-year-old ginseng spirit. Despite being older than his master, it still acted like a child, clinging to Xue Ming.

Being kind-hearted, Xue Ming would feel sorry for it whenever it cried, even though its own stupidity led it to get captured. What right did it have to cry?

Yan Yuhe didn’t think he was being harsh; he just thought the ginseng spirit was so foolish that it would eventually be caught and eaten. It would be safer to hide in the deep mountains.

Its clinginess to Xue Ming was truly annoying. If it weren’t for the ginseng spirit being protected by the heavenly way and having excellent escape skills to protect Xue Ming, Yan Yuhe would have thrown it far away.

Yan Yuhe didn’t want to take Xue Ming into danger, but the ghost realm was unpredictable and full of monsters. He needed to keep her by his side to ensure her safety. Moreover, with the Ghost Gate opening on the fifteenth of July, Jiang Ruoming would try to seize Xue Ming’s body and activate the Hundred Ghosts Banner. Keeping Xue Ming close allowed Yan Yuhe to control the situation, waiting for her to raise the banner and summon lightning to end the ghost realm.

Despite all his calculations, he didn’t expect Xue Ming to return the banner to Jiang Ruoming, completely unaffected by its influence.

This showed that she had no ambition, her heart was pure and clean, and she had no desire for power, so she wouldn’t be controlled by greed.

Thunder roared, and the ground shook like thousands of horses galloped. After everything was destroyed, Xue Ming fainted from exhaustion, lying softly in his arms. Yan Yuhe wiped the dirt from her face and pushed aside her messy hair, revealing a serene face. Even in sleep, she wasn’t completely at ease, her brows slightly furrowed as if she were in fear.

Yan Yuhe smoothed her brow, occasionally adjusting her position in his arms to ensure she wouldn’t feel uncomfortable upon waking. Gradually, she became more stable, her expression returning to tranquility as she curled up and fell asleep in his embrace.

Yan Yuhe sat quietly, occasionally glancing down at her sleeping face, thinking about the dangers and life-threatening situations she had faced in the ghost realm, noticing she had become thinner.

Yan Yuhe couldn’t describe the feelings in his heart; he just held her tighter, vowing never to let her suffer such fear and hardship again.

Meanwhile, his sword began to vibrate, filled with aggression. Since he first met Xue Ming, the sword’s killing intent had been suppressed and had never shown hostility towards her. But now, for some reason, it started to hum and emit sword energy.

Yan Yuhe frowned, seeing Xue Ming seem to feel the sharp sword energy. She moved restlessly in his arms and burrowed her head into his chest as if uncomfortable.

Yan Yuhe tried to suppress the sword with his mind, but it was to no avail. The sword was damaged from the fierce battle with Hundred Crow, not only the blade but also its spirit, likely tainted by ghostly energy, causing it to become unresponsive to him.

In the following days, Yan Yuhe repeatedly tried to reconnect with the sword’s spirit, attempting to restore it to its former state, but each time, he failed, ultimately requiring him to forcibly suppress it with his spiritual power.

This sword needed to be repaired quickly, Yan Yuhe thought. If it couldn’t be fixed, it would have to be broken, or it would eventually harm his wife.

On the way back to the sect, Yan Yuhe took her to attend the wedding of the Earth God. This Earth God had been quite famous in the past and was an old friend of Qingchao and Yan Yuhe’s master. After being demoted to the mortal world, he had spent several lifetimes searching for his former lover. Sometimes, he succeeded, and other times, he could only watch as his lover spent her life with someone else.

Yan Yuhe had heard of this matter before. He did not comment on those infatuated, but he thought that instead of searching for a lifetime, why not find a way for his lover to cultivate as well? If she could achieve immortality, they could always be together. Since Xue Ming had a ghostly bloodline, Yan Yuhe had already planned for her to cultivate the ghost path. Even if she couldn’t become an immortal now, she could achieve a long life by reaching the Mahayana stage, and eventually, she would have the chance to become an immortal. In any case, he would fulfill his duty as a husband and always stay by Xue Ming’s side.

Despite this, Yan Yuhe had never shared these plans with anyone. He considered returning to the sect first to decline the rewards from the heavenly realm before discussing anything else. Lying on the bed with a slightly tipsy Xue Ming beside him, the dim light hiding the redness of his ears, Yan Yuhe said, “When we return to the sect, we will also have such a wedding banquet.”

However, what he received was not Xue Ming’s smiling response but a voice full of surprise, “Marriage? It’s too early. We haven’t known each other for long. Who gets married after just a few days of dating?”

Hearing this, Yan Yuhe was initially stunned, then quickly understood what Xue Ming meant. His expression changed instantly, and a hint of panic crept into his heart. He asked what dating was, having never heard of it before.

Xue Ming’s answer was a long one. Yan Yuhe listened but didn’t fully comprehend it. The only thing that stuck in his mind was, “Maybe I’ll like you a little more tomorrow, or maybe I won’t like you as much tomorrow…”

Only then did Yan Yuhe realize that he had overlooked something important. Marriage was just his own wishful thinking; Xue Ming had never considered it.

He had never felt this way before. It was as if his heart had been torn open, a dull pain slowly spreading like a boulder pressing on his chest, making it difficult to breathe. At the same time, Xue Ming’s voice became grating to him. Her drunken, raspy voice was slow, but her words were as sharp as knives, unexpectedly piercing the softest part of his heart.

In the past, he had walked between the realms of the living and the dead, mingling with countless demons and monsters, enduring myriad attacks. None had ever left him as defenseless and unprepared as he felt now.

Yan Yuhe suddenly felt a bit apprehensive, fearing that Xue Ming might say something else to disturb his emotions, causing the pain in his heart to become more pronounced, along with other chaotic feelings he couldn’t quite identify.

“Let’s go to sleep, don’t say anything more,” Yan Yuhe had to speak up to stop Xue Ming from continuing.

After he said this, the room indeed fell silent. Xue Ming quickly fell asleep, her steady and long breaths reaching his ears, while Yan Yuhe lay awake, his eyes filled with confusion, unable to sleep all night.