Volume Three: Unfettered by Convention Chapter Eighty-Nine

The girl withdrew the arm that had been around the female disciple. Through the drifting gray smoke, the youth’s figure could be seen only faintly and intermittently. Yet the moment the haze dispersed, he abruptly sank to his knees. Jing Li’s heart jolted, and she cried out without thinking, “Huaigui!”

She ran toward him, only to see that the young man’s garments of white and jade, once so spotless, were now stained with blood. His sleeve had been torn to tatters, and blood continued to pour from the ruined flesh beneath, dyeing his arm red.

His usually fair face was also smeared with blood, with a little mud besides.

At that moment, all his strength seemed to come from the sword in his hand. Without its support, a light breeze might have toppled him.

Geng Yuan could scarcely believe his ears. He had actually heard Jing Li’s voice. A bitter smile rose in his heart; perhaps he was dying, and this was only an auditory hallucination at the end.

When he woke again, he heard only the crackling of burning branches and the low voices of two people speaking nearby. His vision was blurred, and he even felt dazed, as though he had returned to the past—when the girl had brought him back from the snow, and the moment he opened his eyes he could see her tending the fire and saying to him, “You’re awake.”

But all of it was only a dream.

“You’re awake.”

The youth started, his gaze freezing in place. Surprise and disbelief filled his eyes. Slowly he lifted his head, and his eyes reddened little by little.

The girl was still bright and radiant, overlapping with the memory before him.

His nose stung, and ignoring his injuries, he rose at once and pulled the girl into his arms.

Tears spilled out at once.

“You’re back. It’s really you. You really came back.”

That force, carrying stubbornness, and the hoarse, trembling voice carried a trace of reluctance, with the rest filled to the brim with longing.

Jing Li gasped at the strength of the youth and the broad, warm chest against her.

Only a few months apart, and this boy had already grown... so fast.

He held her for a long while, showing no sign of loosening his grip. On the contrary, he held tighter and tighter.

She could bear it no longer and patted him on the back. “...You... let go of me first... I can’t breathe...”

Only then did Geng Yuan slowly release her. Still as if half in a dream, he stared at his own hands in a daze before lifting his reddened eyes to meet Jing Li’s. In the firelight, faint starlight flickered in the youth’s dark pupils. In those beautiful eyes, so exquisite they could overthrow the world, she saw herself.

Geng Yuan looked at Jing Li like that for a long while, as though entranced. A female disciple nearby soon grew somewhat displeased.

“Huaigui? How long are you going to stare at her?”

Geng Yuan ignored her. Jing Li, however, felt a little awkward. She was currently using a disguise pearl, so in that woman’s eyes she was utterly unremarkable, but why did she seem so different in the boy’s eyes? Perhaps the disguise pearl’s power had worn off.

Jing Li touched the youth’s hand, signaling him not to keep looking at her like that, but the boy seemed utterly spellbound.

She smiled helplessly. “He’s only just woken up. Maybe he still hasn’t fully recovered.”

The female disciple clearly did not believe it.

“Huaigui!”

At that call, Geng Yuan finally looked away. His expression was cold, and the handsome features on his face had become only stern and forbidding.

He had a way of keeping everyone at arm’s length.

Did he change his expression that quickly?

“What is it?”

The female disciple was visibly intimidated by Geng Yuan’s abrupt shift in demeanor, and her expression no longer carried the certainty it had before. “You... are you feeling better?”

“I’m fine.”

Geng Yuan answered without hesitation.

Only then did Jing Li notice that the female disciple’s clothes were different from Geng Yuan’s. Facing the youth’s handsome face, the girl said shyly, “Thank you, for today.”

Geng Yuan did not answer her. Instead, he kept his gaze on the girl beside him. But the girl was looking around with curious, lively eyes, her expression carrying a touch of innocent charm, and the youth let out a soft laugh.

When the female disciple heard it, her fair little face flushed so red it seemed it could drip blood.

She thought the youth was smiling at her. In truth, it was not so.

Jing Li saw his smile and felt puzzled. Before she could say anything, the female disciple spoke first: “I’m willing.”

“...”

“??????”

Jing Li was startled by the female disciple’s sudden words, and the string of question marks made her feel a bit embarrassed. Perhaps she should not be here.

She said, “You two talk first. I’ll go look around.”

Before Geng Yuan could reach for Jing Li’s hand, she had already hurried off.

He watched her figure, unable to settle his worries. The terrain here was extremely complex; one careless step could easily lead to getting lost, and on top of that there were the underhanded tricks of those people from the Mountain of Blazing Glory. Jing Li could not act alone.

He rose, ignoring the wounds on his body, about to chase after her. Who would have thought that the female disciple would seize his hand. Geng Yuan was startled, then quickly shook her off, looking at her in confusion and coldness.

“Senior Sister, please behave with restraint.”

The female disciple was stunned as well. Hadn’t this youth liked her? Hadn’t he even disregarded his own injuries to save her? Yet the coldness before her now had brutally shattered the girl’s dream.

“You... you don’t like me?”

Geng Yuan frowned and said in a low voice, “I already have someone I like, but it isn’t you, Senior Sister.”

“Then why did you save me even though you were injured?”

“Senior Sister is mistaken. I was not the one who saved you. My target was only that demonic beast.”

Suspicion filled the female disciple’s eyes. She could not believe it. “You’re lying.”

“The trial results are judged according to the number and rank of demonic beasts slain or subdued. That beast happened to be the strongest one in this Branch Wood Forest. So, Senior Sister, do you understand now?”

So it had all been her own wild imagination. It had all been her own wild imagination. She had mistaken the meaning entirely.

At once the female disciple was overcome with shame and fury, and she turned and ran.

Geng Yuan could not be bothered to deal with her and headed straight after Jing Li.

But before he had gone far, he heard the voice of Zhao Yaoyi ring out: “A useless thing that couldn’t do anything on ordinary days, and yet now you’ve managed such an achievement.”

In merely three months, he had already caught up to him, perhaps even on the verge of surpassing him. How could anyone not be jealous?

Tu Su Chun followed behind Zhao Yaoyi and the others, silently watching Geng Yuan.

The youth was covered in bloodstains, yet still did not wish to waste more time on these people. Just as he turned to leave, Zhao Yaoyi sneered again, “So the old man Qing Song taught you only this? You dare ignore your senior brother when you see him!”

The youth’s eyes darkened, and the gloomy look on his face was enough to chill the blood.

“Senior brother.”

He spoke coldly, about to leave. At that moment, one of the lackeys beside Zhao Yaoyi suddenly struck. Geng Yuan noticed it and dodged at once.

He was injured now, naturally no match for them, but it was obvious they meant to drive him out. All the people Zhao Yaoyi had brought joined in. Seeing Geng Yuan gradually fall behind, Tu Su Chun hurriedly grabbed Zhao Yaoyi’s hand. “Ayi, enough. That’s enough.”

Zhao Yaoyi glared viciously at Tu Su Chun in anger, then seized the back of her neck and whispered in her ear, “Look at this—the one you’ve wanted to marry with all your heart! Now that he has achieved fame and success, do you regret climbing into my bed back then? Do you regret being with me?”

“I... I didn’t...”

How could Zhao Yaoyi believe it? Whenever Huaigui was present, Tu Su Chun’s gaze never fell on him. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and killing intent began to surface in his eyes.

“Kill him!”

He had fallen from a cliff and still not died. Then this Branch Wood Forest would be his burial ground!

“Stop.”

Only after Jing Li came out did she see about five people attacking with ruthless moves, and Geng Yuan being driven back again and again by their bullying.

The blood on his body had increased once more.

Everyone was startled and turned to look at the figure emerging from the woods.

It was merely an extremely ordinary-looking woman, wearing clothing they had never seen before. She seemed to be a disciple from some obscure immortal mountain.

A greedy look appeared in Zhao Yaoyi’s eyes. “So it’s a little wench. Kill them all!”

Jing Li narrowed her eyes. As expected, the disguise pearl made her look different in other people’s eyes, but why was she completely different in the eyes of that youth? Her gaze settled on the injured young man.

“Let me make this clear first. I’ve already warned you.”

Zhao Yaoyi’s face was full of contempt. He looked down on the two people before him who did not know life from death. So long as he could get rid of Huaigui, that threat, he did not care whether anyone else lived or died.

Jing Li formed a seal with two fingers, and with only a simple spell, the people around them were all unable to move, as though time itself had stopped. She came to stand before the youth. When she formed the seal again, a divine mark appeared between her brows, and blue immortal light flowed like water into the youth’s forehead.

His originally pale face immediately regained some color, becoming healthy and flushed, and the wounds on his body gradually healed as well.

The youth knelt on one knee, put away his sword, and slowly lifted his eyelids. The moment he saw Jing Li, his heart instantly felt at peace. She cupped his face, and then the youth lowered his head little by little, resting his forehead lightly against the girl’s.

Jing Li was taken aback, then slowly opened her eyes.

The youth parted his thin lips, the corners of his mouth lifting in a faint smile. “You really came.”

How wonderful.