Chapter 519 479: Ye Liyuan: Nangong Jin, Give Me Back My Dao Companion

'If only I'd also reached the Void Refining realm. If only I could have protected Ah Han!'

Nangong Jin quietly gazed at the anxious, sweating Ye Liyuan, her eyes so profound they seemed to pierce the soul.

She tilted her head slightly, a lock of black hair falling over her shoulder, setting off her snow-white skin. A deep confusion suddenly appeared on her composed, beautiful face.

"You're very different... from the Ye Liyuan in my memory."

"Too impetuous, and too naive... It's hard to imagine. After you deceived me and made me lose everything that year, I never thought a person as cunning and calculating as you would turn out like this."

Nangong Jin let out a faint sigh, which made Ye Liyuan, who felt she was being looked down upon, blush furiously.

Her chest heaved as she snapped,

"What do you mean by that?! Are you saying I'm an idiot now?!"

...

...

Because of the Barrier set up by Nangong Jin, Pei Yuhang didn't notice that his Dao Companion, whose Transmission Token he had just hung up on, was currently in a fierce battle with Nangong Jin.

After many years, Pei Yuhang once again set foot on Guanxian Island, the place where he had always cultivated since first entering the Dao Sect.

The lake wind brushed past, carrying a familiar scent. He closed his eyes slightly and took a deep breath, a trace of reminiscence in his eyes.

He didn't linger on his feelings for long before reaching out to knock on the gate of the Daoist temple before him.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—

"Junior Sister, I'm here."

A moment later, the gate opened.

A young woman in a black dress holding a broom opened the door and appeared before Pei Yuhang, startling him slightly.

"Ji Xichan?"

"What are you doing here?"

Ji Xichan pursed her lips, her fingers unconsciously tightening around the broom. She said softly,

"Master told me to follow Elder Nangong and cultivate for a while."

In reality, Chen Tiansheng had told Ji Xichan to do her best to become Nangong Jin's disciple.

Unfortunately, while Nangong Jin had agreed to let Ji Xichan cultivate with her, she hadn't agreed to be her master.

Perhaps driven by her strong pride, Ji Xichan didn't want to be looked down upon by Pei Yuhang, so she could only secretly alter her words.

She claimed that Chen Tiansheng had only told her to cultivate with Nangong Jin for a while, making no mention of her failure to become her disciple.

"Mhm, that's right."

Ji Xichan gave a light cough, the tips of her ears turning slightly red, betraying her inner embarrassment.

"I see. In that case, you should study hard under Junior Sister Nangong. She's been out adventuring for many years and knows more than just the Dao Sect's Magic. You'll definitely benefit greatly."

Pei Yuhang didn't think much of it and naturally believed Ji Xichan's words, which made the young woman sigh in relief.

She put down the broom she was using to sweep the courtyard and led Pei Yuhang toward the reception hall.

"Where did Junior Sister Nangong go?"

Pei Yuhang couldn't sense Nangong Jin's aura in the Daoist temple, so he asked Ji Xichan beside him. She shook her head and said softly,

"Pei Sword Immortal, your timing is quite unfortunate. Elder Nangong left just before you arrived, saying she had some trivial matters to attend to."

"Attend to trivial matters..."

Pei Yuhang murmured to himself and said no more. The atmosphere between them fell silent.

Along the way, Ji Xichan kept stealing glances at the White-clothed Sword Immortal beside her.

Although she knew it was unlikely, she still hoped Pei Yuhang would ask about how she was doing.

Unfortunately, even as they entered the house, Pei Yuhang still showed no reaction.

Ji Xichan shot Pei Yuhang a resentful glance, her pink lips pouting slightly. Seeing he still had no reaction, she turned her head away in a huff and stared blankly at the falling leaves outside the window.

'I should have known. He doesn't care about me at all.'

A sour feeling welled up in Ji Xichan's chest, and her eyes burned uncontrollably.

'Who can I blame but myself for using such despicable means back then?'

'Thinking back now on the ways I forced Pei Yuhang's hand, I find them utterly disgusting.'

'Heh...'

'No wonder Pei Sword Immortal still won't forgive me, even after we've been apart for so long.'

"Ji Xichan..."

"What is it?"

Ji Xichan replied in a muffled voice. 'He's probably just going to ask about Elder Nangong's whereabouts again,' she thought. 'He doesn't care about me, so why should I give him a serious answer?'

"After all this time, do you still like me?"

"Like... Who—who likes you?! Pei Sword Immortal, since when did you become so narcissistic!"

Pei Yuhang's words struck Ji Xichan's heart like a clap of thunder, leaving her frozen on the spot, unable to process them at first as she responded instinctively.

By the time she came to her senses, her pretty face had turned scarlet at a visible rate. White steam even began to rise from the top of her head due to the chaos in her Spiritual Qi.

Although she denied it immediately, her burning hot cheeks had already betrayed her inner fluster.

Pei Yuhang looked at the Ji Xichan of today and smiled.

"You're much cuter now than you were before."

"It seems you've really changed after leaving me."

Ji Xichan stared at Pei Yuhang, who was giving her a gentle smile. She was stunned at first, then lowered her head and gave a humble, self-deprecating laugh.

"You... What do you mean by smiling at me... Are you trying to make a fool of me again?! Don't you hate me?"

"When you came back from the Northern Desert, didn't you say you despised a lowly woman like me the most?! Back then, when I stripped naked and offered myself to you in your bed, weren't you completely disgusted?"

Her voice suddenly dropped, thick with a nasal tone and despair.

"Didn't you always call me worthless?!"

"...So what do you mean by calling me cute now?!"

"Praising a woman you've already made clear you detest—what are you trying to do?!"

Ji Xichan gritted her teeth, venting the resentment that had been building up inside her for so long. Her quiet questioning turned into a final, hysterical roar.

She hastily wiped away her tears and stubbornly lifted her head to glare at Pei Yuhang, but the teardrops that continued to fall betrayed her pretense of strength.

At the same time, she was filled with regret.

'Screaming at Pei Yuhang like that... it felt like I was letting off steam, but I must be insane...'

'Didn't you want him to care about you?'

'So why did you have another episode the moment Pei Yuhang actually showed you some concern?!'

'Ji Xichan... you're really a hopeless case.'

Only at this moment did Ji Xichan deeply realize that she could never overcome her feeling of inferiority in front of Pei Yuhang.

The same feeling of inferiority from her childhood, when she knelt pleading in the snow outside the Cold Palace Sword Mansion, yet was never allowed to enter its gates.

She had never overcome it...

"I'm sorry."

A large, warm hand suddenly rested on the crown of Ji Xichan's head.

Ji Xichan froze for a second. She lifted her small face to see Pei Yuhang wiping it with a handkerchief.

"My words to you before were too harsh... Perhaps I've always overlooked your pride. Ji Xichan, I've truly made peace with you now... I hope you can move on as well."

Pei Yuhang spoke, paused for a moment, and continued, "Back then, when you were kneeling outside my mansion, begging to become my disciple, I was actually in seclusion. I had instructed Liyuan to tell you to go home...

But who would have thought you were so stubborn, kneeling outside my mansion for three days and three nights? Didn't you know I was in seclusion and had no idea you were kneeling out there?"

Pei Yuhang revealed a helpless yet amused smile as he wiped the tears and snot from Ji Xichan's face.

Ji Xichan's face flushed red. She snatched the handkerchief from his hand and said in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "Let me do it myself... It's too dirty."

After wiping the wet stains from her face, Ji Xichan looked up again, glancing carefully at Pei Yuhang.

"So you didn't refuse to take me as your disciple all that time because you disliked me?"

"At the time, I did feel that your innate talent didn't align with my Sword Dao, and that I shouldn't be the one to take you as a disciple. But if I had known you were so determined as to kneel outside my mansion for that long, how could I have possibly let you keep kneeling... My heart might have softened, and I might have actually accepted you."

"But it doesn't matter. Haven't you grown up well now? Missing out on that opportunity may have been a blessing in disguise."

Pei Yuhang said comfortingly with a smile.

"..."

Ji Xichan felt shy under his gaze. Once so headstrong and bold, she now shrank before Pei Yuhang like a timid quail.

However, while a warmth spread through her heart, she also felt a growing sense of doubt.

Ji Xichan knew that although she was stubborn, even prone to getting stuck on trivialities.

Otherwise, after Pei Yuhang explicitly rejected her, she wouldn't have Fallen into Demon, paid a huge price to use the Divination Divine Technique, and finally threatened Yu Gu Nan to take her place, thereby possessing Pei Sword Immortal and starting that tangled, ill-fated relationship.

But she was just stubborn, not stupid.

If she had really known back then that Pei Yuhang was in seclusion, why would she have knelt on those hard, stone slabs in the freezing snow like a complete moron?

She even ended up getting gravely ill, almost losing her life...

'Because back then, absolutely no one came to tell me that Pei Yuhang was in seclusion and had no idea I was kneeling there!'

'So, did Ye Liyuan know but not report it? Did she deliberately not tell me... But I've met her before. The Ye Liyuan I remember isn't that kind of hateful woman...'

Just as Ji Xichan was lost in her confusion.

"Junior Sister Nangong is here."