An exhausted shadow was attached next to He Cang.
He Cang was no longer moving, but the shadow was anxiously swaying about. Even now, the Dark Emperor was unwilling to believe that its master had already died.
This continued for an unknown amount of time before it finally lifted its completely wounded body, and drifted over to the young woman.
The young woman’s shadow was overlapping with Chu Mu’s shadow. The lonely Dark Emperor slowly submerged itself into their shadows and chose to enter eternal rest.
The sound of crying grew increasingly faint before Chu Mu looked down at Ning Maner.
Eventually, Ning Maner’s crying noises disappeared and her hands wrapped around Chu Mu. Her body no longer had any point of support.
She was so exhausted that she had fallen asleep.
This experience had been an enormous trauma on her heart. After everything ended, her heart ended up full of wounds. Nobody knew how deep of a scar it would leave.
Looking at her fall unconscious from exhaustion, Chu Mu felt extreme pity inside.
She had already become a beautiful woman, and she was no longer a small girl that always needed protection and could not suffer harm.
……
In the center area of Quiet Forest, Ye Wansheng, Prince Chao, Pang Yue, and Xiao Xiao were walking into the depths of Quiet Forest.
After passing through a dark patch of the forest, their path ahead was suddenly enveloped by a striking blood-red color. There was a pitch-black sky and earth covered in fresh blood!
The four of them were stunned, and didn’t dare keep moving forward for a long while.
Just then, a man carrying a dainty young woman in his embrace flew towards them.
“It’s Chu Mu!” Ye Wansheng immediately recognized Chu Mu.
“Who is the girl he’s carrying?” asked Xiao Xiao out of curiosity.
Chu Mu landed in front of the four of them. He glanced at them and asked: “Are you guys ok?”
“We spent a long time wandering between the outer and center areas of Quiet Forest. We weren’t able to find a path, but we finally found our way here… eh, it seems that everything has been resolved by you.” said Ye Wansheng.
Since Chu Mu had flown back with Ning Maner in his arms, this crisis had ended.
However, the four of them were curious as to how Chu Mu was able to take back Ning Maner with Kang Ruodong, Huo Lei, and Xu Kuan, three immortal rank experts, there. Did that Black Nightmare go berserk?
“Let’s go. We’ll return first to Quiet Forest Stronghold City.” said Chu Mu.
Ye Wansheng and Chao Lengchuan had known Chu Mu for a while, and they were able to see from his eyes that he wasn’t in a good mood. The two of them didn’t ask anything more, and they urged their soul pets to fly towards Quiet Forest Stronghold City.
There were perhaps a few more greedy people in Quiet Forest Stronghold City. But what did it matter? Having already killed seven of them, if there were still others seeking their own death, Chu Mu didn’t mind killing more!
After this fight, Quiet Forest would no longer be Quiet Forest again. There was no more Messiah Tree, and there was no more protectors. What this forest would become in the future, nobody could predict.
After returning to Quiet Forest Stronghold City, Chu Mu carried the exhausted and sleeping Ning Maner into a room.
Chu Mu softly placed her on the bed, but he discovered her small hand was tightly grabbing onto him. She was unwilling to let go.
She was like a small deer right now. Despite being asleep, she wanted to stay next to someone who made her feel warm and safe. She wanted to be next to him and smell his scent. This way, even in her dreams, she would know that someone was protecting her. There was no need to be afraid of monsters from her nightmares that were haunting her.
Chu Mu guided Ning Maner’s small hand into his palm. Then, he placed her back into the bed and covered her in a blanket.
Chu Mu attempted to make her hand let go, but immediately discovered that she would become jittery and restless, as if she was going to awaken.
Chu Mu sighed, and held onto her ice-cold and soft hands. He lay against the side of the bed and closed his eyes.
This fight had also made Chu Mu thoroughly exhausted. Not only had he used up all of his strength, but his heart now carried a few heavy things that were hard to let go of.
Once he closed his eyes, he fell asleep. This was one of the few times where he even let his guard down and fell into a deep sleep. Even when the room door was opened, he didn’t notice.
Outside the door, Pang Yue stood there, planning on healing Chu Mu. But she saw Chu Mu sitting against the side of the bed with his head down, fast asleep.
Oftentimes, Pang Yue would find Chu Mu sleeping in this position under a tree or on a tree branch. But he would always wake up if there was the slightest breeze.
Thus, this was the first time Pang Yue had seen him so tired, like a dispirited statue.
Next to him was the young woman from before who was fast asleep. She was quiet, beautiful, and seemed untainted by the vices of the world. She was so pure that she resembled an immortal who had accidentally entered the mortal world.
Pang Yue quietly closed the door. Although she didn’t know what happened in the depths of Quiet Forest, she could see that many things had happened in the fight that made them so exhausted.
……
After sleeping for an unknown amount of time, Ning Maner’s eyelashes began to gently quiver.
Afternoon sunlight poured in front of the cracks in the window. It was dazzling to the eye, and a ray of this bright and beautiful sunlight roused her from her sleep.
When she awakened, Ning Maner still felt the shadows still in her heart.
However, she thought of Chu Mu’s words, which had enlightened her quite a bit.
Hatred, sorrow, and anger shouldn’t belong to her. The Messiah Tree had used the last of its remnant soul to suppress one of her devil transformations. It had done so in order to tell her the same thing. Only, she wasn’t able to understand it.
Since she was only able to survive from the sacrifice of countless lives, she should treasure her life more and preserve her innate character.
After coming to this understanding, the sadness and sorrow in her heart were greatly lessened.
She furtively wiped the tears hanging from the corners of eyes after awakening. She then surveyed the place she was sleeping in.
This was a nice room. It was clean, tidy, and simple.
When she looked next to her, she found a man in a deep sleep with his head down as he rested against the side of the bed. One of his hands was gently holding onto her hand. She didn’t know how long he had been holding this position.
Ning Maner remembered when she followed Chu Mu back then, he would always sleep or silently cultivate like this under a tree. She would rest against him and hold onto one of his arms as she slept.
Each time she awoke, her body would be covered by a large piece of clothing.
If she woke up earlier or couldn’t fall asleep, she would pick out a piece of grass next to her and use the soft end to draw on this handsome and grim face. Indeed, it didn’t matter how mischievous she was, he wouldn’t wake up when silently cultivating.
After entering Wupan Imperial Palace, Ning Maner cherished such memories because she had been brought up by a godly tree. She had enjoyed resting against the tree and breathing in the smell of both fresh grass and leaves while enjoying the gentle wind blowing against her face…
Ning Maner blinked her eyes, and looked curiously at the sleeping Chu Mu.
Ning Maner didn’t know how long she had been separated from Chu Mu for. At least, she was no longer a young girl. However, her big brother devil didn’t seem to have changed from the past. He still had that cold handsomeness, aloofness, and that expression that would make girls go crazy, thinking he was cool.
If it was the past, when she saw his sleeping appearance, Ning Maner would go so far as to ransack the entire room in order to find a pen and dye it in some black ink to draw a clown-like smiling face on his face.
Just imagine, the perpetually cold-expression Chu Mu now with the smiling face of a clown. How funny would that be? It would be enough to make her laugh for a few days.
Ning Maner was indeed thinking about doing this, but it was just merely a thought. She was no longer a young girl that played pranks which made her seem immature.
Of course, Ning Maner had discovered something else while carefully examining him.
Chu Mu, while sleeping against the bed, had maintained a distance from her.
In other words, her small body had occupied the entire bed while Chu Mu was resting against the side. Besides one of his hands holding onto her hand, he was very gentlemanly-like keeping a distance from her.
Indeed, if Chu Mu had gotten under blankets and slept with her in the same bed, upon awakening, Ning Maner would feel rather embarrassed.
In the past, she had been young and had grown up in the closed environment of Quiet Forest. Thus, she didn’t understand these things. She would often run over to where Chu Mu and Ye Qingzi were sleeping together and cause trouble. But now, even if she was still naive, she would still be able to understand that there would be problems caused by a man and woman sleeping together.
Not long after Ning Maner awakened, Chu Mu was also awakened by the shining sunlight.
Chu Mu opened his eyes and slightly stretched his body as his bones let out a wave of cracks. This demonstrated how long and how deeply he had slept.
“Big brother.” Ning Maner was still unwilling to get up. Her small face was exposed outside the blanket, and she both somewhat shyly and happily called out to Chu Mu.
Chu Mu turned around and finally remembered that there was this young girl next to him.
However, when he saw Ning Maner’s absolutely beautiful face that couldn’t help but make others suck in a breath of air, Chu Mu realized again that the young girl that Third White had picked up was long gone. Now, even without any makeup, she was still unbelievably beautiful.
When he saw a slight smile on her face, he felt much more relaxed.
He was most afraid of this event leaving too heavy of a shadow in her heart, and that she would lose her smile from before.
Her smile was very infectious and was the best cure for the violence in a living creature’s heart. When he had transformed into a devil back then, if Ning Maner hadn’t been with him, even with the Monument Tears that had reconstructed his soul and memories, he probably wouldn’t have been able to remove the slaughter that had become second nature to him.
Seeing Ning Maner’s smile, the sliver of darkness and gloom in his heart also dissipated.
“You must be hungry. Let’s go and eat something,” said Chu Mu with warm eyes.
“Ok.” Ning Maner nodded her head.
