Chapter 681 557: Don't Let Me Be Wronged Again (The Grand Finale)

Pei Yuhang leaned down and gently kissed Lin Qianyan on the forehead.

...

...

「Night.」

The white snow of the Cold Palace Sword Mansion gleamed silver under the moonlight, like a layer of fine, crystalline sand.

Pei Yuhang stood alone on a balcony, his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed up at the starry sky.

After a long while, he suddenly spoke, his voice low and gentle, as if he were afraid of disturbing the silence.

"Liyuan, you've gotten thinner. You must have suffered a great deal over the years. I'm sorry..."

After Pei Yuhang spoke, a moment of silence hung on the balcony before the sound of extremely light footsteps came from behind him, like snowflakes landing on ice.

A figure in white slowly emerged from the shadows behind a pillar. Her bare, jade-white feet padded across the cold ground, yet remained unstained by even a speck of dust.

Ye Liyuan stopped a few paces behind him. In the moonlight, her cold, clear face seemed all the more translucent, as if carved from winter jade.

"You knew I was coming?"

Her voice was crisp and cold, carrying a barely perceptible tension.

Pei Yuhang slowly turned, and his gentle gaze immediately enveloped her.

"I sensed your presence during the day. Besides, we're Dao Companions—our hearts are connected. I only just returned to the Dao Sect these past few days, so I had a feeling you'd come see me."

"So you were waiting here for me on purpose?"

Pei Yuhang nodded.

"You knew I was watching. Was kissing Lin Qianyan also intentional?"

Pei Yuhang nodded... then hurriedly shook his head.

"No, no... That was... subconscious... Er, not subconscious, either. In any case, it wasn't on purpose..."

Pei Yuhang explained in a fluster, like a child caught doing something wrong.

Ye Liyuan watched him quietly, this husband she had not seen for sixty years.

He was just as handsome, gentle, and kind as she remembered... while she, on the other hand, had changed so, so much.

The change left a bitter taste in her throat, and her heart felt as if it were being repeatedly pierced by fine needles.

'If only I could have sunk into the Abyssal Sea Palace with him back then. If only Pei Yuhang hadn't so decisively pushed me away, I wouldn't have had to endure sixty years of bitter hardship, waiting alone night after night.'

Pei Yuhang sensed the shift in Ye Liyuan's mood. He was about to speak, but she cut him off.

"Why did you help the Yin Yang Sacred Land?"

"Why did you help Shang Miaoyan? She humiliated you so badly, and she despicably deceived me."

"Wouldn't it be better if she were dead? Why did you help her reconstruct her physical body?"

Pei Yuhang fell silent for a moment before saying softly, "Because... I've let it go."

"Shang Miaoyan has already paid me back for everything. I don't want to pursue it any longer."

"Heh..."

Ye Liyuan let out a low, derisive laugh.

"You may have forgiven her, Pei Yuhang, but I have not!"

WHOOSH—

The jet-black Linyuan Sword slid half an inch from its sheath, stirring the snow on the balcony into a wild flurry.

"I'm going to kill her."

"Ah Han, I can let bygones be bygones with the other women. They never harmed you, nor did they betray me so despicably.

"But not Shang Miaoyan. I will never forgive her. She was the beginning of our suffering... If she had never come to the Dao Sect, if only I had discovered that wretched rat sooner...

"We would still be that perfect, fated couple—devoted to each other, destined to grow old together."

With that, her figure blurred. She was about to ride her sword straight to the room where Little Shang Miaoyan was staying.

But a longsword, its blade glinting with a biting chill, suddenly appeared before her. It hummed without end, blocking her path.

Ye Liyuan stared at the Silent Sword. A flicker of disbelief flashed in her cold eyes before transforming into a towering inferno of rage.

"You would stop me?"

Her voice shot up, each word seeming to be forced through clenched teeth.

"For Shang Miaoyan, you would draw your blade against me? Pei Yuhang, what spell has she cast on you?!"

Faced with her scorching glare, Pei Yuhang lowered his gaze, his long lashes casting a shadow on his cheeks.

"She saved my life... At this point, it's hard to say who owes the other more.

"Besides, she's basically been reborn. She isn't the same Shang Miaoyan from the past. Liyuan, just... let her go."

"I won't!!"

Ye Liyuan shrieked. The Linyuan Sword in her hand sliced through the air, carrying sixty years of longing and anguish as she struck out at the man before her—her most beloved husband and her most hated betrayer.

In an instant, Sword Qi coiled and surged like a roaring Dragon. The entire pavilion, caught in the terrifying Sword Intent, collapsed with a deafening BOOM, dissolving into a sky full of splinters.

At the foot of the mountain below the Cold Palace Sword Mansion, Qing Yueqiu watched the Sword Qi that shot into the sky in the distance, stamping her foot in anxiety.

However, a delicate hand gently tugged her sleeve. Lin Qianyan's voice was soft as she said,

"Yueqiu, tonight belongs to Brother Pei and Sister Ye. We... shouldn't disturb them."

On another side, Lu Ruoxi also stopped Nangong Jin, who was about to step forward. Her voice was steady as she said,

"Junior Sister Nangong, going up there now will only make Junior Sister Ye angrier. We have to trust Junior Brother Pei. He's the only one who can calm Liyuan down now."

...

...

Wave after wave of Sword Qi crashed over the snowy mountain, churning the endless snowfall into a chaotic swirl.

"Pei Yuhang, why won't you fight back?!"

"Do you still think I'm that useless woman lying in bed, needing you to take care of her?! I'm far stronger than you now! Draw your sword and fight back!"

Ye Liyuan raged, but Pei Yuhang remained silent. He never met her blade with his own, merely struggling to parry her Sword Qi.

Even when she gave him openings, even as his white robes were slashed to ribbons and threads of blood began to seep through, he refused to strike back.

"Liyuan... This whole time, you haven't once called me Ah Han..."

"It's not that you can't forgive Shang Miaoyan... The one you truly can't forgive... is me, isn't it?"

Facing the Linyuan Sword thrusting toward him, Pei Yuhang actually lowered Silence, meeting her gaze with open acceptance.