Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
If all else failed, she could call the guards to kill her!
Feeling motivated, Meng Fuyao could not help but swing her fist aggressively in the air, and this caused the mist to flow. The scene before her darkened and brightened, and Zhan Beiye appeared.
Meng Fuyao ignored that sight and stood rooted to the ground. ‘That’s a fake.’
When Zhan Beiye saw her, his eyes shone, and he extended his hand to grab her.
Meng Fuyao continued to stand still. ‘That’s a fake.’
Shadow Blade, who was resting beside her, suddenly opened his eyes. He was about to stand up, but Zhan Beiye’s grip has already landed on her.
Meng Fuyao felt the weight of steel on her arm as his grip was as solid as a boulder, and he seemed unwilling to ever let go. That firm feeling was obviously not fake, but in her shock, she instinctively avoided it. The foggy scene in front of her changed, and she was brought over to Zhan Beiye’s side.
Beside her, thick plumes of fog continued to produce thundering noises, but she was obviously no longer in the same position. Looking displeased, Meng Fuyao stared at Zhan Beiye and asked, “How did you find me? Grab all of them over here.”
“Can’t,” was Zhan Beiye’s reply. He added, “I encountered Fog before, have you forgotten? Back then, in the depths of the forest in Wuji, I was trapped inside there because of her, and I nearly lost my life. This formation is probably the weirdest one out of all her formations, as it includes ‘Mirror Switching,’ one of Xuanyuan’s ancient tricks. Each element gives birth to another, and change is imminent. If they don’t move, I won’t be able to know their positions, and even if I do, I might catch a venomous snake instead.”
When Meng Fuyao heard this, she felt slightly guilty and hurriedly let down her sleeve. Zhan Beiye caught sight of that with his sharp eyesight, and he frowned. “You were bitten?” he asked as he bent down to check her injury.
But Meng Fuyao pushed him away quickly. “Nothing’s wrong,” she remarked. As she turned around, she saw her dagger, and it was still stuck on his shoulder.
“Erm,” Meng Fuyao said, and she continued to ask in a meek tone, “About that… my dagger… can you return it?” She felt guilty as she said that. The dagger was still stuck on Zhan Beiye’s body, and he hadn’t even asked for compensation fees.
Luckily, Zhan Beiye looked towards the dagger and plucked it out nonchalantly. As the blood splattered, he spoke. “Your dagger is magical and has an affinity with you. If I didn’t get slashed, I probably would not be able to find you.”
Disregarding the injury on his shoulder, and the surrounding dangers and thick fog, he looked at Meng Fuyao with an expression of delight. “At last I’m able to spend some alone time with you…”
Out of the blue, Meng Fuyao’s ears shot up and her eyes gleamed. “Who shouted?”
Suddenly, she shot to her feet and dashed forward.
“Zhu Zhu!”
That shout seemed to be just a meter away, as though Zhu Zhu was beside her and in danger. When Meng Fuyao heard this, she could not help but get on her feet and sprint.
However, she was suddenly being pulled back. Without looking back, Meng Fuyao swatted the hand away. “Release me!”
Zhan Beiye refused to let go. Extending his hand and channeling his energy, he pushed Meng Fuyao backward, causing her to slam against a stone wall. It was only then that she realized that they were near a cliff.
Placing his hands at her sides, he locked her into position. His firm chin was slightly above Meng Fuyao’s head, and as he towered above her, his eyes stared deeply into hers.
He said, “Fuyao, can you give me some time to properly speak to you alone?”
His voice was low, and his tone seemed even heavier than the micro-size dew in the foggy night. Taking in his determined but exhausted expression, Meng Fuyao felt softhearted. If it was any other day, she would have just listened to him. But she was immensely worried about Ya Lanzhu’s safety at the moment and absolutely had neither the mood nor the time to lend him an ear.
As she looked up, she replied softly, “There’s so much time. Why does it have to be now?”
“Since when have you ever generously given me your time?” Zhan Beiye suddenly cackled with laughter. “I just have to be slightly thoughtless, and you will run away at the speed of light. Looking for you is as though finding a needle in a haystack. After finding that needle painstakingly, it still pricks my hand-”
Meng Fuyao chuckled too. “If it pricks, why don’t you let go?”
“I won’t!” Zhan Beiye said in a resolute tone. “I won’t let go even if it is a knife, much less a needle. Since I am beside you, I should protect you, and hence, your life is not just yours but also mine.”
“I don’t need your protection.” Meng Fuyao raised her head, and her nose almost met his. With a fiery expression, she said, “My life has always belonged to me. My life, my opinions, and everything about me should only be mine.”
“I’m not going to argue with you over this.” Zhan Beiye took in a deep breath. He had already had enough of arguing with Meng Fuyao. When two hot-tempered people met, a raging inferno would blaze—not the romantic type, but a poisonous fire that would burn the skin and undermine the determination of others. Even if their friendship was strong, how many more times could their ties tolerate such burns?
He believed that Meng Fuyao would forever lend him a helping hand, just as how she would with other people; he also believed that she would be the one-of-a-kind and legendary woman on the Five Regions Continent who would support the rise of numerous Emperors, such as what she did to Zong Yue and him, and it would be a feat that would surpass all others of her kind before and since. However, he loathed how everything came with “just as.” Yes, it was the same, and everyone was treated the exact same way. She would treat everyone equally favorably and even risk her life to do so, but there would be no distinction at all.
The ties were strong, but there was no romantic feeling at all. He dug out his passionate heart for her, and she would receive it in smiles, and then leave it at one side.
He never accepted rejection in his whole life, and she was an exception. Time and time again, he would extend his hand and receive nothing but the cold moonlight.
“Fuyao…” The aggressive and hot-tempered Zhan Beiye finally learned how to sigh because of her. He leaned forward, and his fingers grabbed her shoulders, alternating between a light and heavy grip.
He had no idea what to do, but he wanted to be closer to her, and even closer…
But he heard her clearly say, “Do you want your jaw to be dislocated again?”
As Zhan Beiye stiffened, Meng Fuyao pushed him away without any hesitation and walked away in large strides. In a hurry, Zhan Beiye blocked her way. “Fuyao!”
Meng Fuyao stared back at him angrily. Zhan Beiye looked back at her and did not avoid her gaze. In a solemn tone, he said, “Fuyao, do not act on impulse.”
“Zhu Zhu’s in danger and you’re telling me not to go?” Meng Fuyao was enraged. “So I should do nothing and watch her fall down the cliff?”
“Zhu Zhu’s in danger? How did you know that?” Zhan Beiye seemed genuinely confused.
“Did you not hear her shout?” Meng Fuyao looked back at him suspiciously.
After he shook his head, Meng Fuyao locked her gaze with him, and she frowned. “Are you denying it on purpose so that I will not act impulsively?”
Zhan Beiye’s eyebrows knitted together, and his black eyes stared back at her in disbelief.
By then, Meng Fuyao seemed to confirm her suspicion. Folding her arms, she looked at Zhan Beiye icily. “I know that you don’t like Zhu Zhu, and I know that you always avoid and apologize to her. But can you, at the very least, somewhat care of her? Even towards a normal friend, you shouldn’t be so cold-hearted, right?”
As Zhan Beiye looked at her, his expression gradually darkened like dense ink spreading in all directions. The sky seemed to be filled with just his eyes, which resembled a black metal stone, sucking everything into the bottomless whirlpool, causing people to drown in the extremely high waves.
After staring at Meng Fuyao in that way for a few moments, the emotions quickly drained from his eyes. He turned around without speaking a word, and he took a step forward.
He walked into the thick fog, and there was a muffled sound. Then, there was a huge tremor with a loud bang!
Meng Fuyao’s heart skipped a beat. Quickly, she spun and dashed forward. “Zhan Beiye!”
Even after pouncing towards the origin of the sound, she did not find any signs of Zhan Beiye, and she could no longer distinguish where Zhu Zhu’s shout came from. The humid feeling which she felt earlier on, however, seemed to become more obvious.
She reached out her hand and groped around in the waterfall-like layers of fog, like how Zhan Beiye had done for her, and she did not care about the risk of getting bitten. Suddenly, she came into contact with a hand.
That hand was not small, and the bone structure seemed wide. Meng Fuyao felt a wave of joy. “Zhan Beiye, where in the world did you go…”
In an instant, she paused. Then, she heard a person beside her. “Why are you grabbing me?”
It was an unfamiliar voice, with an emotionless tone and a very special… pitch.
What was special was that she actually could not tell if the speaker was male or female.
She could not even distinguish if there was any sense of enmity.
If it was anyone else, their first reaction would be to release the grip. Unfortunately, Meng Fuyao’s guts were out of the world. From the position of that person, she could tell that he was the one who exchanged a move with Zhan Beiye. If so, there was no reason for her to release her grip. Instead of letting that person go, she pulled him towards her and smiled. “The fog is thick, and the sky is dark. It’s easier to be brave if there are more people.”
And that person really allowed her to pull him over. Nonchalantly, he said, “It’s burdensome when there are more people.”
“A burden to what?” asked Meng Fuyao curiously.
That person became quiet. He turned around and looked at her.
Once again, Meng Fuyao was stunned.
Was this person… a male or female?
With hair being tied up in a gender-neutral way, robes that had a sense of curves to it, and a slightly elongated face shape that both males and females could possess, the gender was hard to be distinguished. That person had moderately-wide shoulders and waist, a pair of lively and radiant eyes, a high nose bridge, thick eyebrows, and full lips – he would be too handsome as a male and too beautiful as a female.
To be straightforward, it was a type of gender-neutral beauty, and that aura was so plain that the gender could not be distinguished. That was in stark contrast to Moon Soul, whose gender was hard to tell as he was so extremely beautiful.
Fog?
The person who triggered the 38-year love marathon between Moon Soul and Cloud Soul, and who was the cause of the scandal amongst the top 10 wielders, was such a woman?
And Cloud Soul felt disheartened, and avoided Moon Soul for 38 years because such a woman was by his side?
Suddenly, Meng Fuyao felt like laughing. It was so ridiculous. This person’s aura did not seem to complement that of Moon Soul’s in any away.
However, she realized that she longer had the urge to. No, not that it wasn’t complimentary. Rather, they were the perfect match. If the two were to stand together, the effect would be strangely splendid. If their genders swapped, Fog as a handsome male and Moon Soul as a beautiful female would still make a perfect couple.
No wonder Moon Soul was so heartbroken that she went into hiding back then. These two were such a good “match” that no other couple could compare to.
Sensing her strange gaze, Fog looked at her sideways. Chuckling, she asked, “You haven’t died?”
“Even if you die, she won’t!” There was a sudden bark, and the black light seemed to rise from the ground. Like a whirlwind, Zhan Beiye spun over, and his clothes cut through the thick fog. With a strong force, he raised his golden pike from the ground!
