Chapter 268 - 172: Just Like the Demoness

Chapter 268: Chapter 172: Just Like the Demoness

"Ask."

"Has Young Master Lu ever truly loved a woman?"

Lu Changyuan fell silent.

The Little Fairy seemed to have asked this question before, but Lu Changyuan hadn’t answered then, merely brushing it aside.

"Why ask such a question?"

Su Youwan said softly, "If not, then Youwan will have to try and be the first."

Lu Changyuan said, "I already have a wife."

"Two, actually. And including Youwan, that would make three, wouldn’t it? Perhaps there will be four, five, or six in the future?"

This conversation was going nowhere.

The Silver-haired Maiden seemed to possess a Power that could see through the Human Heart, and she also had a sharp intellect unlike that of either Qiu Yuehan or Xia Lianxue.

She asked.

"Then the first woman Young Master Lu loved—how long did you love her? And when did you stop loving her?"

She had rephrased the question, but the meaning behind it was entirely different.

Su Youwan stood on her tiptoes and breathed softly into Lu Changyuan’s ear. "Tell Youwan, won’t you?"

Lu Changyuan stopped walking and looked at Su Youwan. "Miss Su, you seem to have things you’re hiding from me as well. Your mastery of the Sixteen Bright Moon Flower Needles is quite impressive."

He had recognized Su Youwan’s Needle Technique earlier. It was a Dharma he also knew, but since he didn’t use needles, he almost never employed it.

At the time, the Silver-haired Maiden had said she found the technique as part of an inheritance in some ruins.

Although Lu Changyuan had his suspicions, he didn’t dwell on them.

Because he remembered the person who knew this Dharma was supposed to be dead. Luan Rumeng had personally told him that person had the look of death about them, and indeed, no news of them had been heard since.

Everyone who entered Starfall Valley that year was supposed to have died.

That person was naturally no exception. He wondered if they had left their inheritance behind before setting off, for Su Youwan to find.

As for that person...

Lu Changyuan’s thoughts about her were different from how he had thought of Xia Lianxue. If he had been able to find the Little Fairy back then, he would have definitely gone to meet her. But as for that other person, even if he had found her, he probably wouldn’t have seen her.

It would have been detrimental, not beneficial, to his Great Perfection of the Supreme Pure Spirit Forget Immortal Technique at the time.

"Young Master Lu?"

Lu Changyuan snapped back to reality, looking at Su Youwan’s face, as fair and delicate as white porcelain. "Later, when I achieved the Supreme, I stopped loving anyone."

"In the mortal world, they call that... a parting of ways."

"Not really. After all, our relationship was never made official."

A year ago, when Xia Lianxue had asked, Lu Changyuan had told her that he and that person had come close to becoming Dao partners, but it never came to be.

Never coming to be meant there was no official status.

The Little Fairy in a White Skirt was the one with official status, a wife joined by the three bows to heaven and earth.

Su Youwan was blindfolded, so Lu Changyuan couldn’t see the emotion in her eyes.

He only heard the young woman ask again, "Did Young Master Lu ever tell her that you loved her? If not, could you say it to Youwan?"

Lu Changyuan didn’t answer.

The young woman didn’t press him, as if all she really wanted was for Lu Changyuan to say he liked her.

They arrived at the Sword Testing Platform.

’Actually, I did say it,’ Lu Changyuan thought.

’Twice, in fact.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By now, pairs of combatants were already clashing on the Sword Testing Platform.

Just as the two of them arrived, Bai Lu lopped off the head of a wooden puppet with a single sword strike, then slapped eighteen Talismans onto it and detonated them all at once, setting off a thick cloud of smoke and dust.

Bai Lu of the Daoist Sect versus Wang Yi of the Lu Ban Palace.

There wasn’t much suspense in this match; Bai Lu was simply too strong.

That was the nature of the Magic Sword Dao.

Whether against a single opponent or a group, it always had a solution.

Wang Yi was out of options. His Realm was lower than Bai Lu’s to begin with, and now his Cultivation was sealed by Bai Lu’s Talisman Array. With his puppet destroyed, he could only give a wry smile. "I have learned my lesson. My skills were inferior."

Bai Lu nodded and sheathed his sword.

"You guys from the Daoist Sect are all monsters, as expected."

"It is only that our sect is closest to the Red Dust."

Wang Yi paused, then said, "Is that so? It seems I, too, must go and experience the Red Dust."

Without another word, Bai Lu returned to Nan Xun’s side.

On the platform, Li Dashu gave Lu Changyuan a subtle look. "Do all of you from the Daoist Sect talk with such flair?"

’Do we?’

Lu Changyuan stroked his chin, thinking it over. "I don’t think so. But he wasn’t wrong. One cannot attain the true Dao without experiencing the Red Dust."

Li Dashu mimicked Lu Changyuan, stroking his own chin, but all he found there was a full beard. "See? I told you so."

He came from a line of pig butchers, so he knew Bai Lu wasn’t wrong.

Experiencing more of the Red Dust was indeed beneficial for Cultivation.

Su Youwan said softly, "It’s about to start."

The other match was Li Qingcao versus Xue Nichang.

The Peak of the Fourth Realm versus the Fifth Realm.

Li Qingcao moved first. His sword was not yet drawn, but his sword momentum was already building.

From the cracks between the bricks underfoot, from beside the stone steps, and even from every wisp of damp soil at the edge of the Qingcao Sword Sect’s courtyard walls, countless verdant shadows of grass swayed into existence, instantly spreading into a surging, emerald tide.

It wasn’t real grass, but illusory images condensed from his Sword Intent. Each blade of grass carried a sharp Sword Qi, sweeping forward with his figure like a turquoise wave crashing toward Xue Nichang.

Xue Nichang stood motionless, the corner of her lips merely curling into a cold arc. Only when the wave of sword-grass was about to crash into her face did her wrist give a slight flick.

A dark red whip-shadow silently shot out, so fast it cracked the air. Wherever the whip passed, the air let out a sizzling, mournful cry as if it were being scorched.

The whip-shadow collided with the emerald tide.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a dense sound of tearing, like silk being ripped apart.

The majestic illusions of grass, upon touching the dark red whip-shadow, shattered into pieces like fragile Glazed.

The Sword Intent was obliterated, and the resulting backlash traveled along an invisible connection through the Void, slamming heavily into Li Qingcao’s chest.

Although Xue Nichang had been knocked off the stage by a single sword strike from Qiu Yuehan...