Chapter 726: Our Hearts Are Finally Connected

But now, it was used on a wooden bracelet so ordinary it couldn’t be more so. It truly seemed like a reckless waste.

“This wooden bracelet was a gift from a little boy on my sixth birthday.”

Tushan Jing Ci’s voice once again spread slowly through the temple.

“Back then, he was just a handyman who didn’t even earn a few silver taels a month.”

“He used all the money he had saved up to buy a piece of high-quality Dragon Nan Wood, then hand-polished and carved it into this bracelet for me.”

“And today…” Tushan Jing Ci paused, her voice growing colder. “I shall give it to Young Master Xiao.”

Finally, a servant named Tushan Doudou came forward.

Everyone knew this must be the final congratulatory gift Tushan Jing Ci would present.

Tushan Jing Ci personally took the wooden tray and held it in her hands, a faint smile gracing her lips. “This final gift… will you open it yourself, Young Master Xiao?”

Gazing at the wooden tray covered with a red cloth, Xiao Mo took a step and slowly walked forward.

Gui Junmeng’s small hand, hidden beneath her red sleeve, gently tugged on Xiao Mo’s own. The tips of her fair fingers had turned slightly pale, her expression filled with worry.

Xiao Mo gently patted the back of her hand, signaling for her not to worry, then continued forward.

Xiao Mo arrived before Tushan Jing Ci, reached out, and personally lifted the red cloth.

Beneath the red cloth was just an unremarkable piece of wood, looking no different from any ordinary lumber!

“Xiao Mo… get back!”

The moment Tushan Xinhua saw that piece of wood, her expression changed drastically, and she shouted.

However, it was already too late.

The piece of wood suddenly generated a massive suction force, as if it would devour everything around it.

In the blink of an eye, both Xiao Mo and Tushan Jing Ci vanished from within the temple.

Only the piece of wood remained, floating silently in mid-air, emitting a faint, ghostly glow.

“Xiao Mo…”

Gui Junmeng’s heart tightened, and she rushed toward the piece of wood.

But an invisible barrier had formed around the wood, blocking her completely and preventing her from getting any closer.

“Jun Meng, stand back.”

Gui Ning’s voice came from the direction of the high seat.

“You can’t open it. That wood is one of the three great treasures of Tushan, called the ‘Boundary Wood.’ It was forged over countless years from the most essential parts of the Jianmu and the Moon God Tree, supplemented with all sorts of Heavenly and Earthly Treasures from around the world.”

“It contains a small world that can be changed at will. With your current Realm, you are not strong enough to affect it in the slightest.”

He slowly rose to his feet, brushed his sleeves, and walked to the floating piece of wood. “Let me give it a try.”

Gui Ning took a deep breath, placed his palm on the Boundary Wood, and a torrent of immense Spiritual Power surged into it.

The next moment, however, his hand slowly fell to his side, his expression complicated.

Daoist Yun Xi and Tushan Xinhua exchanged a look and also stepped forward one after the other.

But after a moment, they too had furrowed brows. They both retracted their hands in unison, their lips pressed into thin lines.

“Mother, is there no way…?” Gui Junmeng’s voice trembled slightly. This was the first time she had ever been so anxious and afraid.

“That child, Jing Ci… she has already refined the Boundary Wood. Not only that, she has altered its properties.”

Tushan Xinhua slowly turned her head, glanced at her daughter, and gently shook her head, her voice filled with helplessness.

“If we try to force it open, the Boundary Wood will self-destruct. And Xiao Mo and Jing Ci, trapped inside… will be annihilated along with it.”

As she finished speaking, Tushan Xinhua raised her head. She gazed at the silently floating Boundary Wood with a complex expression, clutching her sleeve tightly. ‘Silly child, don’t do anything foolish…’

…

After a moment of blurred vision, Xiao Mo’s consciousness gradually cleared.

When he saw the scene before him, he couldn’t help but frown.

He was no longer in the Seeking Immortal Temple, but in the backyard of the original Tushan Mansion.

The sky was pitch-black; it was the middle of the night.

A little girl was sitting by the pond, holding a fishing rod, her small face etched with worry.

The little girl couldn’t see him. ‘This is just a projection of a memory…’

“Fishy, fishy, why won’t you take the bait?” the little girl muttered to herself, pouting at the calm surface of the water, her tone tinged with grievance.

And just then, a little boy walked out from around a corner of the courtyard.

Xiao Mo remembered.

This was the very night Jing Ci had been ambushed in that sudden assassination attempt.

Sure enough, the next moment, a dark figure leaped from the shadows, radiating killing intent as it lunged straight for the little girl.

The little boy, without a moment’s hesitation, threw himself at the girl, helping her dodge the deadly Flying Sword as they both tumbled into the cold pond water.

At that exact moment, everyone froze. The small world came to a standstill.

“Do you remember this night?”

Tushan Jing Ci’s cold, somewhat sorrowful voice slowly drifted into Xiao Mo’s ears.

She paused, as if talking to herself, yet also as if asking him.

“No… how could you possibly remember…”

Tushan Jing Ci walked toward Xiao Mo step by step, a faint smile on her face. But the smile looked so desolate, as if hiding an endless sorrow.

“But I remember…” Her voice trembled softly. “I will never be able to forget this night.”

She stopped, lifting her eyes to look at him, her gaze reflecting the image of the little boy lunging toward the little girl.

“Because it was you… who saved me…”

As her voice fell, slender red threads emerged silently from the deep darkness of the night, coiling around Xiao Mo’s hands and feet like spiritual snakes.

Xiao Mo tried to struggle and resist, but this small world completely suppressed his Realm. Not to mention, Tushan Jing Ci was already a full major Realm higher than him.

At this moment, Xiao Mo was like a marionette, completely at her mercy and unable to move.

Tushan Jing Ci slowly walked up to Xiao Mo, wrapped her arms around him, and pulled him into a tight embrace.

Her soft breasts pressed firmly against his body as she buried her head deep in his chest.

The woman seemed to wish she could meld her entire being into Xiao Mo’s, to become one with him, never to be separated again.

“Xiao Mo… I like you.”

Tushan Jing Ci’s voice was low, soft, and trembling, each word drifting into Xiao Mo’s ears.

“You’re the first person I’ve ever liked in my life, and you’ll be the last.”

She lifted her head slightly, her gaze hazy yet fixated, her tone so gentle it bordered on obsession. “No matter what you’ve done to me, I still like you. I’ll forgive you… But Xiao Mo, I can’t just stand by and watch you marry someone else.”

“You are mine!”

“You were before, you are now, and you will be in the future!”

Her fingers gently caressed Xiao Mo’s cheek, as if stroking a priceless treasure she feared would shatter if she let go.

“But Xiao Mo… how can I ever chain you to my side?”

“What must I do… to make you stay with me forever?”

A short sword, about a foot and a half long, slowly materialized in her palm.

The blade glinted with the cold, bright light of the moon.

Suddenly, she plunged the short sword viciously through Xiao Mo’s back, aiming for his heart.

The short sword, carrying the moonlight from that long-ago night, tore through his flesh, pierced his chest, and then penetrated her own.

Blood gushed out silently, dyeing their red robes an even deeper crimson, then dripped from the blade onto the ground.

The woman gave a faint smile. It was still so beautiful, so captivating, yet it seemed broken, carrying a heart-wrenching madness.

She slowly raised her head from Xiao Mo’s embrace, crimson blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. The color was as vivid as the wedding dress she wore—intense and glaring.

She reached out a small hand, gently stroking the blood that seeped from Xiao Mo’s chest.

Her beautiful, fox-like eyes were tinged with a faint darkness, filled with a thick mix of obsession and tenderness.

“Xiao Mo… look…”

She curved her lips into a smile, as pure as the little girl’s from all those years ago.

“Our hearts… are finally connected.”