Chapter 117
There were smiling faces happily welcoming her, and there were also many fierce faces filled with hatred as if they couldn’t wait to come over and kill her.
The latter were the most numerous.
Those fierce faces appeared and disappeared in the mist, eerily unsettling.
They were all waiting for her to come over, but Yan Xiaoru stood on the riverbank, her expression calm, without a trace of panic.
She silently stood there, looking at the fierce figures on the opposite bank and the calling smiles, slowly shaking her head. “It’s not time yet…”
Behind Yan Xiaoru, the man’s calls grew clearer and clearer.
…Yan Xiaoru! Yan Xiaoru, wake up!
For the first time, that man called out her real name.Hearing this voice, Yan Xiaoru softly said, “I promised him, it’s not my time to die yet…”
Since she had promised, she would keep it.
In the bamboo forest, Yan Xiaoru’s eyes, which had been open but devoid of spirit, began to move, and then they regained their luster.
She saw the white snow falling from the night sky and the flames burning fiercely beside her.
And the man sitting next to her, rubbing her skin with his large hands.
Yan Xiaoru turned her head to look at Li Muyang. Li Muyang also looked at her.
Their gazes met, and the air seemed to freeze.
Yan Xiaoru lowered her head, looking at the man’s hands holding her right hand.
The warmth from his broad palm was transferring into her skin.
“…What are you doing?” Yan Xiaoru asked as she sat up with an expressionless face.
Li Muyang instinctively withdrew his hands.
“Uhh… you were so cold, I was helping you warm up,” Li Muyang said cautiously while carefully observing the woman in front of him.
He was afraid she would fly into a rage on the spot, accusing him of taking advantage of her while she was unconscious.
But Yan Xiaoru did not blame him. She just glanced at Li Muyang’s broad palm and then looked towards the burning fire.
“It’s time for dinner.”
The woman who had just returned from the brink of death spoke such a jarringly nonchalant sentence.
Even Li Muyang, who prided himself on his active mind, was stunned by her words.
“Ah? Oh… right, right, right, it’s time for dinner.”
Li Muyang immediately got up to prepare the bamboo shoots for tonight’s meal while sneaking a glance at Yan Xiaoru.
This woman… does she really lack emotion?
She nearly died, and upon waking up, she doesn’t care about life or death or that Li Muyang touched her, but instead cares about dinner?
Although he knew she was a foodie, this trait seemed excessively strong.
Li Muyang busied himself with preparing the roasted bamboo shoots, all the while observing the woman by the fire.
But the woman who had just skirted death now seemed to have no abnormalities.
She sat by the fire as usual, taking out a spiritual medicine from her Qiankun Ring and stuffing it into her mouth, frowning slightly as she swallowed the pill with a very pungent taste.
Then the purplish aura on her face dissipated a bit.
When Li Muyang sat back down by the fire to roast the bamboo shoots, the silent Yan Xiaoru took the initiative to speak.
She flipped her wrist lightly, and a pale blue porcelain bottle appeared in her palm.
“This is the Profound Poison Heartbreaking Pill. Take one each day, and it can forcibly extend your life. A body at the Divine Travel Realm can take up to twenty-seven pills in total.”
“After twenty-seven days, if we still haven’t left this secret realm, not even a god can save me and I will die instantly.”
Yan Xiaoru looked at Li Muyang with a calm expression and said, “There are only twenty-seven days left. If we can’t leave the secret realm by then, I hope you will keep your promise and bury me properly.”
“Uh…” Yan Xiaoru suddenly brought up such a heavy topic again, and Li Muyang was taken aback.
He furrowed his brows in thought for a moment: “Twenty-seven days, huh…”
It should be enough time.
“Alright! I promise that when the time comes, I will bury Elder Yan properly! I will not desecrate your corpse!”
Li Muyang earnestly assured.
Yan Xiaoru, however, frowned at him: “How do you plan to desecrate my corpse?”
“…I mean, I will definitely not desecrate it!”
What kind of thought process does this woman have?
Li Muyang felt completely numb.
Yan Xiaoru gave him a deep look and said, “Then, I’ll trouble you in twenty-seven days.”
With that, she closed her eyes.
The woman who had been chattering away with Li Muyang was now choosing silence.
The area around the fire became quiet for a moment, with only the sound of sparks popping and crackling.
For some reason, Li Muyang suddenly felt the atmosphere turn awkward.
His relationship with Yan Xiaoru seemed to have reverted to that initial lukewarm estrangement.
Even though they had been getting along quite well before…
Li Muyang hesitated for a moment, then decided to take the initiative to break the awkward silence between them.
After all, they still had to spend more than twenty days together, and it would be too uncomfortable to continue like this.
“…Um… Elder Yan, did you go outside just now to try and tame the immortal sword?”
Li Muyang was simply making conversation for the sake of it.
But the woman by the fire opened her eyes and looked at him.
“Just call me Yan Xiaoru.”
Her eyes were fixed on the fire, her thoughts unknown.
She spoke with a still cold tone: “There are no Demonic Sect elders here, nor any Demonic Sect disciples. I don’t want to die as a Demonic Sect elder.”
“Just call me by my name from now on.”
Yan Xiaoru still held no hope of leaving the secret realm.
Li Muyang was curious: “Elder Yan, uh…”
As soon as Li Muyang began to speak, he saw the woman by the fire looking at him coldly.
That cold stare seemed as if it could kill.
Li Muyang quickly corrected himself.
“…Yan Xiaoru, why don’t you want to die as a Demonic Sect elder? Do you have a grievance against the Demon Refining Sect?”
For a Demonic Sect elder, it should be an honor, right?
Yan Xiaoru looked at him indifferently and said, “Want to know why?”
Li Muyang obediently nodded: “Well, I am a bit curious…”
Hearing Li Muyang’s honest answer, the woman by the fire scoffed.
“If you want to know, marry me. Whoever marries me, I’ll tell him the reason.”
She seemed to be joking, but her gaze remained cold.
Li Muyang was choked by her words.
Yan Xiaoru dared to make this kind of joke, but he definitely didn’t dare to take it!
He vaguely sensed that as her death approached, this woman’s mentality seemed to be falling into some twisted, frenzied edge to the point where her words and actions were becoming unhinged.
It wasn’t surprising. After all, anyone in her situation, with death drawing closer day by day, would go mad.
Sometimes, the process of waiting for death is far more terrifying than death itself.
When faced with death, emotions and thoughts can change drastically.
After Yan Xiaoru’s untimely cold joke, the area around the fire once again fell into silence.
Li Muyang scratched his head and finally managed to awkwardly change the subject.
“…Speaking of which, when my sister came to the sect last time, she brought me some fruits from Baihe Ridge. They were yellow and orange, looked strange, but tasted quite good.”
Li Muyang brought up the topic of food, and the woman by the fire calmly nodded.
“The yellow potato fruit from Baihe Ridge, they do taste very good.”
“But the best batch is in Old Baihe’s garden, rarely seen by ordinary people…”
Yan Xiaoru indeed had an extensive knowledge of food, speaking of it as if she knew it like the back of her hand, true to the nature of a foodie.
Li Muyang saw that the topic had successfully shifted and the atmosphere had relaxed a lot, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
Now, he was sweating profusely, just hoping to leave the secret realm before Yan Xiaoru completely lost her mind.
If he were to witness this Demonic Sect elder’s frenzied breakdown, once he left the secret realm, Yan Xiaoru would probably silence him!
Fortunately, it was almost time. In less than twenty days, maybe even ten if he was quick.
In ten days, this Elder Yan probably wouldn’t do anything too extreme… right?
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