Chapter 480 460: Master, Can You Abandon That Woman and Let Me Be Your Only Yueqiu?

Pei Yuhang never expected Little Yueqiu to suddenly confess all this to him. A ringing filled his ears, and it felt as if the swirling snow had frozen in place.

He could see Little Yueqiu's lips moving, but it was as if he were separated from her by a thick wall of ice. Her voice grew muffled and distant, indistinct.

'No, it wasn't sudden.'

'It started when she became unwilling to practice her swordsmanship. She was already hinting at me, but I was too dense to realize it.'

'I'd ignored Little Yueqiu's wish... her desire not to be assimilated by the real Qing Yueqiu.'

At that moment, Pei Yuhang's brow furrowed tightly. He was at a complete loss. His lips moved, and he murmured:

"Yueqiu, that's not it... You *are* Qing Yueqiu. Even if you regain your memories, nothing will change. You'll still be my disciple. All the memories we've made here in this Sea of Consciousness won't disappear.

Why would you think that you'll disappear once Qing Yueqiu returns?"

Little Yueqiu shook her head violently and suddenly threw herself into his arms, the force of it making him stagger back a step.

Her slender arms wrapped around his waist, her fingers digging into his robes until her knuckles turned white. She clung to him like a newborn refusing to leave its mother, her every fiber radiating a desperate unwillingness to let go.

"Master, don't you understand yet?!"

She cried, and Pei Yuhang could feel her slender shoulders trembling violently as her silvery-white hair tangled against his chest.

"I... I'm a flower that was cut from its stem. I'm a new flower now, a whole new... Yueqiu. Making the real Qing Yueqiu return... is the same as erasing my independent existence."

Little Yueqiu's voice was muffled against his chest, thick and nasal from crying.

"But I can't bear to lose you... Master, please don't let her come back, okay?"

"From the fragments of that Qing Yueqiu's memory, I've seen so much... She wasn't the well-behaved, obedient disciple you thought. She was a bad girl.

Master, she did so many terrible things behind your back. That Qing Yueqiu... inside, she was twisted and repressed, festering with depravity and corruption. She was nowhere near as pure as she appeared before you..."

Little Yueqiu tilted her face up, offering an almost pleading smile, but the corners of her mouth turned down uncontrollably.

"I'm not like her. I'm... better. I can please you more, Master."

"Anything she could do, I can do. Anything she couldn't, I can do even better!"

Looking at Little Yueqiu trying so desperately to please him, Pei Yuhang suddenly found it hard to breathe.

His heart had never pounded in his chest like this—not when facing a siege of seven great masters, not when confronted by the bizarre Divine Abilities of an Ancient Cultivator, not even when he stood before the terrifyingly majestic corpse of an Ancient Dragon. But now, it was thumping non-stop. THUMP-THUMP.

A wave of dizziness washed over Pei Yuhang. He raised a hand and gently cupped Little Yueqiu's cheek, his thumb brushing away the tears from the corner of her eye. "Yueqiu, don't talk like that..." he murmured.

"You must have misunderstood... It's not as serious as you think. You're overthinking things."

Instead of being soothed, Little Yueqiu seemed to take his words as encouragement. She pressed her face deeper into his palm, nuzzling against it greedily.

Her breathing was shallow and uneven, her warm breath ghosting over the inside of his wrist with a faint tremor.

"Master..."

She whispered, her eyes shimmering with hope. "Please don't take that bad girl, Qing Yueqiu, back. Okay?

From now on, just let me... be your only Yueqiu."

She spoke the words so softly that the final syllable nearly vanished into the wind and snow, yet each one struck Pei Yuhang's heart like a sledgehammer.

...

...

「Imperial Capital, Gilded Dragon Hall.」

The Emperor of Zhao, who moments before had sat upon the Dragon Throne with immense dignity before his court, now quietly vacated his seat for a silver-haired woman in black robes.

The hem of Ji Shenyun's robes drifted as if in a phantom wind, like a river of stars flowing through the dead of night.

She leaned languidly against the Dragon Throne, her long fingers tapping a crisp rhythm on the gilded armrest. Her eyes, black as ink, were bottomless pits that seemed capable of devouring all light.

"Your Majesty, the Empress."

The Emperor of Zhao bowed slightly, his brow deeply furrowed. A flicker of unease crossed his eyes.

"The ministers are growing restless... As for Prince Ning's daughter and the white-robed Swordsman with her, are we truly to let them be, living in that small town, and do nothing at all?"

Upon hearing this, Ji Shenyun slowly turned her head. Her hair cascaded down like a silver waterfall, catching the candlelight with a cold sheen. "Are you questioning me?"

Her voice was gentle, yet it carried an authority that dwarfed the Emperor's.

The Emperor of Zhao's face went white as a sheet, and fine beads of sweat broke out on his temples.

His knees gave way, and he fell to the ground with a THUD. Pressing his forehead to the cold floor, he stammered, "I would not dare..."

The hall plunged into a dead silence, broken only by the occasional soft crackle of a candle flame.

Ji Shenyun gazed down at him condescendingly, a hint of cruel amusement in her eyes.

After a long moment, she retracted her gaze and leaned back into the Dragon Throne, her posture as languid as a well-fed cat.

"Mortal Emperor."

Ji Shenyun idly picked at her nails, her tone softening slightly. "I have not forgotten our agreement. I will take you from this false world and allow you to rebuild your dynasty in the real one...

With my power, it would be a simple matter to create a physical body for you in the real world."

Upon hearing this, the tension finally drained from the Emperor of Zhao's shoulders.

He raised his head, the flames of hope rekindled in his eyes, and kowtowed deeply. "My deepest thanks for Your Majesty's immense grace."

Ji Shenyun gave a soft scoff, her gaze drifting toward the distant sky beyond the hall as her silver hair stirred in the faint breeze.

"As for the matter of Prince Ning's daughter, I have my own plans."

"Do you think that just because I haven't acted, I'm simply ignoring them? Heh. This is a gamble between myself and that little chit."

'And right now, it looks like my chances of winning are very high. After all, I spent so long inside that girl's body. How could I not know exactly what kind of person she is?'

...

...

The night in the small town was as thick as ink. A few wisps of cloud half-veiled the cold moon, casting dappled shadows across the flagstone streets.

Pei Yuhang gazed out the window at the silent, lightless town, his eyes downcast.

He turned away from the window and lay down on the wide bed, letting out a soft sigh.

There were two pillows on the bed, but the girl who usually slept beside him had moved to the room next door today.

Previously, Pei Yuhang had always slept in the same room as Little Yueqiu to ensure her safety.

But tonight, they were apart.

Because Pei Yuhang didn't know how to face the person Little Yueqiu had become.

It was the same for Little Yueqiu... During the day, when she had asked if she could be his only Yueqiu, he had refused.

After that, Little Yueqiu's pretty face had turned cold and resentful. She hadn't said a word to him all day... and so, that night, they slept apart for the first time.

'If a flower's stem is broken, even if it heals, is it no longer the original flower?'

Pei Yuhang mulled over the words Little Yueqiu had spoken to him earlier that day.

He felt she had backed herself into a corner, obsessing over something that wasn't nearly as extreme as she believed.

'Little Yueqiu is Qing Yueqiu, and Qing Yueqiu is Little Yueqiu. You're one and the same person, why can't you accept yourself?'

But he didn't know how to convince her, how to reassure her as she became "Qing Yueqiu" again.

Because if he tried to persuade her, Little Yueqiu would undoubtedly think he saw her as unimportant—that he only wanted his first disciple, "Qing Yueqiu," to return, and was just spouting empty platitudes... to deceive her.

At that point, Little Yueqiu might even grow to hate him. Hate him... for abandoning her.

Pei Yuhang was deeply worried that Little Yueqiu might run away in a fit of pique. That would play right into Ji Shenyun's hands. Without his protection, it would be no difficult task for Ji Shenyun to capture her.

"What on earth am I supposed to do now?"

Pei Yuhang sighed and covered his face with his hand, blocking the pale Moonlight that streamed through the window. He felt utterly exhausted.

'I thought the greatest challenge on this journey into the Sea of Consciousness would be fending off the masters Ji Shenyun sent to hunt us down.'

'I never expected...'

'The true ordeal... was this.'