Chapter 220: What Matters Most
When Chen Yin returned to his room, it was late.
He opened the door to find the room dark and silent, the shape of a sleeping figure visible beneath the blankets.
…She’s been asleep for two days. He sighed.
He didn’t wake her but quietly made some tea and browsed the System Shop for ingredients for dinner.
Hearing him moving around, Qingying slowly opened her eyes and sat up groggily.
“Mmm…” A soft, sleepy moan escaped her lips.
“How… how long have I been asleep?”
“Two days and two nights,” Chen Yin said without looking up from the ingredients he was sorting. “Any longer, and we’ll have to bury you.”
“I-I was just tired.”
Qingying pouted, annoyed by his teasing. “Can’t you say something nice after I just woke up?”
“Did you sleep well, Sister Qingying? What do you want to eat? I’ll make it for you.”
Qingying shivered at his saccharine tone and quickly shook her head.
“N-no, thank you.”
“Really?”
“Real—”
Her stomach rumbled loudly, finishing her sentence for her.
Qingying groaned and patted her stomach.
Chen Yin stopped teasing her. “You haven’t eaten in two days. What do you want?”
Qingying thought for a moment. “Your specialty. Your best dish.”
Chen Yin made her fish-flavored eggplant and a pot of mung bean soup.
He arranged the food on a plate, the savory sauce glistening on the eggplant, its aroma making Qingying’s mouth water.
As she reached for her chopsticks, Chen Yin gently slapped her hand.
“Soup first,” he said, frowning slightly. “You need something light after sleeping for two days.”
Qingying rubbed her hand and obediently took a sip of the soup.
It was sweet and refreshing, perfect for a parched throat.
Chen Yin watched her eat quietly.
“Is it over?” she asked after a while.
“It’s over. Shen Li is gone.”
Chen Yin said seriously, “Master took care of the one who hurt you. Consider your revenge fulfilled.”
Qingying nodded silently, her head lowered.
“We’re leaving in two days?”
Chen Yin looked at her curiously. “Why? Are you unhappy?”
“N-no…”
She averted her gaze.
Chen Yin couldn’t help but ask, “Are you worried I won’t have time for you when we get back?”
“N-nonsense! Of course not!”
Qingying’s face flushed crimson. “I’d be thrilled if you spent all your time with other women and left me alone!”
“Really?”
“Really.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Chen Yin didn’t say anything, just ruffled her hair playfully.
“Eat. We have a busy night ahead of us.”
“What?” Qingying’s face fell, her eyes watery. “But I just woke up! I’m still tired…”
“Don’t worry,” Chen Yin’s expression was unreadable, “you don’t have to move.”
Qingying: “?”
The next morning, Chen Yin went to Nan Xiaoxiang’s room.
She was already waiting for him, dressed in her pristine white robes.
“Now will you tell me where we’re going?”
Nan Xiaoxiang just lowered her eyes slightly. “Just follow me.”
They left the Wu Xuan Cave and headed south, deeper into the Ten Thousand Mountains.
They walked for a long time, until Nan Xiaoxiang’s breath grew ragged, and her face paled with exhaustion.
“How much further?” Chen Yin asked.
“Not much…”
Nan Xiaoxiang glanced at the sky worriedly. If they continued like this, they wouldn’t reach their destination before nightfall.
She turned to him and said softly, “Could you… carry me? I’ll guide you.”
Chen Yin didn’t hesitate and lifted her into his arms, his spiritual energy propelling them forward.
Nan Xiaoxiang didn’t resist, just leaned against him, her body relaxed.
“You should have been this gentle when you kidnapped me the first time.”
Chen Yin remembered carrying her over his shoulder.
“Well… I didn’t want to be presumptuous.”
“And now you’re not?” Nan Xiaoxiang looked at him, her eyes twinkling.
Chen Yin chuckled awkwardly. “It’s just… more efficient this way.”
With Chen Yin carrying her, their journey was much faster. Within fifteen minutes, they arrived at a small, deserted village.
The houses were empty and dilapidated, covered in dust and cobwebs. The few remaining wooden structures were barely standing, their interiors infested with insects.
Nan Xiaoxiang stood in the center of the village, gazing at the ruins, her eyes filled with a quiet sadness.
“I’m guessing,”
Chen Yin said softly, standing beside her, “this is your home?”
She didn’t answer, just lowered her eyes.
“Even if you expected this,”
“It must still be painful to see.”
Seeing her sadness, Chen Yin stood there silently, offering her a quiet comfort.
After a while, Nan Xiaoxiang began to speak:
“My parents died when I was very young. I don’t even remember them. I only heard from the village elders later that they were killed by poisonous insects while collecting herbs.”
“By the age of three, I was living off the charity of the villagers. The elders were kind to me, but the younger ones resented me.”
She paused, then added, “Perhaps it was because I was always dirty and skinny back then.”
Chen Yin looked at her.
Dressed in white, she looked like an ethereal being.
He couldn’t imagine her as a dirty and skinny child.
“When I was five, news of the Wu Xuan Cave’s Sacred Child trials reached the village.”
“No one expected me to be the only child who met the requirements.”
“Resources were scarce in the mountains, and the villagers were eager to get rid of me, another mouth to feed.”
“Only a few elders were sad to see me go. They gave me their blessings and some advice for the journey.”
Her eyes dimmed. “They must have known… that the Sacred Child trials were a death sentence. I was just another offering to the Yama’s Valley.”
“Looking back, I actually believed I was the village’s hope.”
She chuckled wryly.
She had been so desperate to survive,
To return home and see her village again.
“I don’t even know what I was hoping for.”
Chen Yin sat down beside her as she hugged her knees, gazing at the dilapidated well.
“If this place doesn’t hold any happy memories for you, why come back?”
“I don’t know.” Nan Xiaoxiang lowered her head. “But I felt like I had to.”
“Perhaps I just needed closure.”
Chen Yin nodded.
“Can I ask you a question, Young Master Chen?”
“What is it?”
“In the eyes of cultivators,” she asked, her head still lowered, “what are mortals like us?”
“Are we just ants, fragile and insignificant? Or something else?”
Chen Yin thought for a moment. “I liked what you said before.”
…Calling you immortals is just a courtesy. Don’t get ahead of yourselves.
“I think you’re right. Cultivators are also human. We have emotions and desires, just like mortals.”
Nan Xiaoxiang looked at him, surprised. “You remember that?”
“It left a strong impression.”
Chen Yin smiled. “You’re the only mortal I’ve met who dared to say that to a cultivator.”
Nan Xiaoxiang was silent for a moment, her gaze fixed on a bird flying overhead.
“But,”
“Cultivators live much longer than mortals.”
“In a few decades, when you look at me again, I’ll be old and withered.”
“Will you feel the same way we feel about this village now? Just a fleeting memory, nothing more?”
Chen Yin looked at her silently.
Her eyes were clear and bright, her gaze searching, as if she was waiting for his answer.
After a long silence, he finally spoke:
“I haven’t thought about it.”
“In my previous life, I didn’t have time to think about what would happen decades from now. There were too many things to do, too many people I cared about. If I missed even one moment, then a hundred years would be meaningless.”
“I don’t know what we’ll be like in a few decades, when we’re both old and gray.”
“But if you still want to come back here,”
“I’ll come with you.” He said seriously.
Nan Xiaoxiang looked into his eyes, then suddenly smiled.
“Then I thank you in advance, Young Master Chen.”
She stood up and took one last look at the village,
…as if saying goodbye to her past.
Then she turned to him with a faint smile.
“Let’s go back. It’ll be dark soon.”
Chen Yin glanced at her, and she nodded subtly, whispering in his ear,
“…It’ll be faster if you carry me.”
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