Chapter 232 - Comfort

Xu Yuan looked up. Those clear eyes, deep and still as a secluded spring, were quietly watching him. He smiled at Ran Qingmo. “What brought you here?”

Ran Qingmo placed her ink-black sword on the table. She glanced toward the door, then honestly confessed, “Xinyao came to see me just now.”

Xu Yuan looked a little helpless. “Did she come to complain about me?”

Ran Qingmo shook her head. “She said you might be feeling upset, so she asked me to comfort you.”

Xu Yuan froze for a moment, then sighed inwardly. The girl was already miserable enough herself, yet she still had the heart to worry about someone else. What a foolish little sister.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he took Ran Qingmo by the hand and rose with a smile. “That’s right. I’m feeling awful. So how do you plan to comfort me?”

Ran Qingmo considered the question seriously. “Why are you feeling awful?”

Xu Yuan sighed. He saw no reason to hide it from her. “Because of an order I gave. Not counting the soldiers, a little over 2,000 people died.”

Ran Qingmo had never been good with words. All she could say was, “2,000 people... isn’t actually that many.”

During her travels, she had seen villages attacked by demonic beasts and mountain bandits raiding for grain. It was common for every last family in a village, dozens of households, to be slaughtered.

Xu Yuan’s voice remained remarkably light. “Mhm. From the perspective of the entire world, 2,000 people really isn’t much.”

He led Ran Qingmo over to a nearby couch and sat down beside her. “To be honest, I sometimes wish I could live like one of those wandering heroes. Whenever I saw something I didn’t like, I’d simply draw my blade and cut it down. Just like the things we ran into on the road before. See a monster, kill the monster. See a bandit, kill the bandit. Then give some money to the poor souls they hurt. I’d only have to deal with whatever injustice stood in front of me and ignore everything else. Roaming the martial world, settling grudges with a blade... Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

“Then why don’t you?” she asked softly, her hand tightening slightly around his.

Xu Yuan sighed. Through the open doorway, he gazed at the vast, spotless blue sky outside. His voice carried a trace of uncertainty. “I suppose it’s because of responsibility.”

Ran Qingmo did not understand.

Xu Yuan smiled helplessly, his expression complicated. “I can still remember everything I’ve seen as clearly as if it happened yesterday. And honestly, I truly admire what that old man of mine in the Imperial Capital is trying to accomplish.”

Then he turned to look at Ran Qingmo, his voice very soft. “When all of this is over, will you come with me to see the rest of the world?”

Ran Qingmo looked at him with complete seriousness and nodded firmly. “Mhm. I will.”

Xu Yuan smiled faintly and leaned close to her ear. “Relax.”

Ran Qingmo obediently lowered her guard.

The moment she did, Xu Yuan used the skill he had learned from the Sage’s remnant soul to link their souls. He transmitted his voice directly into her mind. “You’ll be returning to the Sword Sect soon. Make a trip to the Wuhua Mountains in Huai’an Province and wander around inside for a while. If you find a cave, go in and bring whatever is inside back to your master. Just tell him you stumbled across it by chance. It doesn’t matter if you can’t find it. Now that I’m taking charge, my father probably won’t be in such a hurry to destroy the Sword Sect. We can always search for it together after you return.”

Once he had finished explaining, Xu Yuan leaned back and looked at Ran Qingmo’s solemn expression. “So, how exactly are you planning to comfort me? Because I don’t feel particularly comforted yet.”

Ran Qingmo pursed her lips and thought for a moment. Then, as though she had suddenly remembered something, she rose to her feet.

Her abrupt movement startled Xu Yuan.

Without saying a word, Ran Qingmo pulled him up and led him toward one side of the room.

Xu Yuan was puzzled at first, but his eyes soon narrowed slightly.

That iceberg of a woman was heading toward the bed.

When they reached it, Ran Qingmo slipped off her cloth shoes and climbed onto the mattress.

Xu Yuan stared at her kneeling on the bed. Without hesitation, he circulated his cultivation art and shut the open door from across the room, then climbed onto the bed after her.

Amid the silence, Xu Yuan reached for Ran Qingmo’s slender shoulders, intending to help her out of her clothes.

SMACK! Before his hand could reach her, she caught it in midair.

Ran Qingmo’s gaze turned cold and wary. “Xu Yuan, I memorized a seduction skill while we were in the Splendorbloom Sect.”

Xu Yuan stared blankly at her. Before he could make sense of what she meant, the world suddenly spun around him. By the time he recovered, his head was already resting on the young woman’s lap as she knelt upon the bed. Their eyes met in the quiet room, and he found himself relaxing instead.

Of course, how could this iceberg of a woman possibly be that forward? While he was thinking, he saw Ran Qingmo slowly lower her head toward him.

The silence was perfect. Her dark hair fell across his face, tickling his skin.

If General Wang dared knock on the door right now, Xu Yuan suspected he might genuinely kill someone.

Fortunately, Xu Xinyao was clearly not that fast.

And so, Xu Yuan began wondering whether he ought to close his eyes. He could feel Ran Qingmo trembling. But in the end after that breathtakingly beautiful face drew close, nothing else happened.

Ran Qingmo merely hovered above him at point-blank range, staring at him expectantly. “Xu Yuan... do you feel better now?”

After a brief silence, Xu Yuan cautiously asked, “What exactly are you doing?”

“Master’s wife said this makes people feel better.”

“Huh?”

“Doesn’t it?” Ran Qingmo sounded disappointed as she murmured, “But when I was little, every time Master’s wife did this, Master’s mood would improve.”

“Are you sure you saw the whole thing? Or did you only ever catch the beginning before they threw you out?”

Ran Qingmo looked confused. “What didn’t I see?”

Looking at her earnest expression, Xu Yuan cleared his throat. “It doesn’t matter if you missed the rest. I can teach you.”

Ran Qingmo frowned. Her eyes instinctively flicked toward the ink-black sword on the table before she hesitantly asked, “How?”

Xu Yuan crooked a finger, motioning for her to come closer.

Ran Qingmo remained wary and did not move. She kept a distance of roughly eight inches between them and whispered, “What are you trying to do?”

Xu Yuan’s gaze was sincere, his voice solemn. “Relax. I wouldn’t lie to you. You definitely didn’t see the whole thing.”

Ran Qingmo lowered her head a little farther. Xu Yuan could already feel her warm, fragrant breath brushing against his face.

Their lips touched lightly.

BUZZ! The ink-black sword stabbed straight through the bed again.

Xu Yuan stared at the frost-wreathed sword, then at the iceberg of a woman holding it. The corners of his mouth began to twitch.

Wait a damn minute. Wasn’t that sword sitting on the table just now? Could the blasted thing teleport? Xu Yuan calmly scooted backward across the bed while his mind raced through possible countermeasures.

Ran Qingmo, however, made no further move. She merely wiped her red lips with the back of her hand, the ink-black sword clutched in her grasp, and stared darkly at him where he sat on the bed.

Several breaths later, she silently rose, put on her shoes, and walked out of the room with her sword. She seemed angry.

Xu Yuan instinctively wanted to catch her and coax her back, but in the end, he merely slapped himself across the face and collapsed onto the bed again.

With Ran Qingmo’s speed, avoiding him would have been effortless even at that distance. That meant she had allowed it.

Xu Yuan lay on the bed, staring up at the canopy, and sighed.