A Farmer's Journey To Immortality - Chapter 562: Bidding Farewell to Nuya

Chapter 562: Bidding Farewell to Nuya

The atmosphere inside the gazebo grew heavier after Nuya’s words.

Aksai sat still, his hand frozen halfway to his wine glass. His mind was blank for a moment, unable to process what he had just heard. When her words finally sank in, his chest tightened as if something inside him had cracked.

He looked at Nuya, disbelief and a faint trace of hurt in his eyes. “You said… you won’t be coming back to the Dadangar Subcontinent?” His voice came out low, uncertain. “What do you mean by that?”

Nuya didn’t respond right away. She only looked down, her fingers lightly brushing the edge of the table. The silence stretched, and Aksai’s expression slowly hardened. He let out a faint chuckle—one that carried no amusement, only quiet anger.

“So that’s how it is,” he said, his tone laced with forced calm. “Do you think this place is a backwater town now that you’ve found yourself a good backer in your father?”

Nuya lifted her gaze to him, and for a brief second, her eyes flashed with something between sadness and pain. Then she smiled—softly, but bitterly.

She knew that Aksai didn’t mean those words. He was just trying to express his anger in a different way. Still, she wanted to clarify.

“A good backer?” she repeated, her voice steady but faintly trembling. “My father might be a Core Formation Lord here. He might be the Frostbound Lord in the Dadangar Subcontinent but in the Shinayin Empire, he’s basically a nobody. His cultivation doesn’t mean much there.”

She stopped for a moment, her eyes drifting toward the glowing horizon. “But… the family he comes from is another story.” Her words trailed off. She shook her head as if dismissing a thought she didn’t want to continue.

“Anyway,” she said after a pause, “it’s not what you think, Aksai. I’m not leaving because I look down on this place or on you. It’s because… if I come back to the Dadangar Subcontinent after reaching the Shinayin Empire with my current identity, I’ll bring trouble to you—and to everyone here. So it’s better that I stay away.”

Her voice was calm, but it carried a quiet finality that made Aksai’s chest ache.

She rose from her chair, the faint rustle of her dress blending with the soft chirping of spirit crickets outside. Standing near the edge of the gazebo, Nuya looked out at the sea of golden clouds that spread across the sky. The last rays of the sun reflected in her frost-blue eyes, making them shine faintly.

Aksai didn’t say anything for a long time. He could tell from her tone that she had already made up her mind. She wasn’t leaving because she wanted to—she was leaving because she had to.

Sometimes one was helpless even if he could do many things to prevent something from happening. He understood that feeling all too well.

After a few quiet moments, Aksai stood up too. He walked to her side and looked at the horizon, his expression calm but unreadable. The air between them was filled with unspoken words.

Finally, he broke the silence. “You… you…” he began, then stopped, his throat tightening. He took a breath and tried again. “You… you know that I like you, right?”

Nuya turned her head slightly, her eyes widening a little as she realized Aksay was trying to confess in haste.

Aksai’s lips curved into a faint, uncertain smile. “Actually… more than like,” he said, his voice soft but sincere. “I wanted to ask you to marr—”

Before he could finish, Nuya spoke, her voice trembling slightly. “I… I know.”

Aksai stopped, his eyes meeting hers. She took a deep breath, her shoulders tense.

“I know, Aksai. I cherish our friendship and you would be a great Dao partner. But I…” she hesitated, her frost-blue eyes turning moist as she continued, “I wish I could say I feel the same way right now. But I can’t. Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t want to complicate your life by being with me.”

She took another step closer, her voice low and heavy. “So please… don’t say anything more. Don’t make it harder for me to leave this place than it already is.”

Her gaze held his for a long moment, her eyes glistening under the fading light.

Aksai’s chest tightened again, and for a moment, he didn’t trust himself to speak. Then he sighed and looked away, clenching his fists lightly at his sides. A sad smile crept onto his lips, thin but genuine.

“Well,” he said quietly, forcing out a small chuckle, “I guess that counts as my first genuine rejection… even before I could actually propose properly.”

Nuya blinked, startled by the calmness in his tone.

He glanced at her again, his smile softening though his eyes still carried that faint ache. “I guess there’s a first for everything in life, right?” he said, trying to sound lighthearted.

For a brief second, Nuya almost smiled—but it faded as quickly as it came. She then pressed her lips together and tried to stop the tremble that threatened to show. She took a quiet breath, then forced herself to match Aksai’s smile. Her frost-blue eyes softened as she looked at him.

“You know,” she began, her voice calm but faintly quivering, “it might actually be a good thing for you that I’m leaving. You’d be able to carry out all your experiments without having to worry about me.”

Aksai had expressions that said he was wronged. He was about to say something in defiance but Nuya continued before he could register his complaints.

“And it’s not like I’m saying that it would be one-side. It might be better for me to leave the Subcontinent and go to the Shinayin Empire as well.”

Aksai blinked, caught off guard by her sudden shift in tone. Nuya smiled faintly and continued.

“After all, if I stayed here, I would only be left behind by you. Despite all my efforts and lucky encounters, I’m still stuck at the fourth stage of the Foundation Establishment realm. Whereas you…” she paused, shaking her head slowly, her eyes narrowing slightly as if trying to see through him. “Your cultivation base has gotten so profound and mysterious that I can’t even tell which realm you’re in anymore.”

Aksai chuckled quietly, scratching the back of his neck. Nuya smiled again, this time more genuinely. “I actually thought that I’d surprise you with my mid-stage Second Spirit realm power,” she said with a small laugh. “But who would have thought that you’d be the one surprising me instead?”

Her words carried no bitterness now—only warmth. The tension that had been weighing down the air seemed to ease slightly. Both of them had accepted what needed to be accepted. They were Spirit cultivators, after all. They both knew that emotions could only be reined in, never fully erased.

Aksai leaned back a little, his eyes glimmering under the dimming sunlight. “That may be the case,” he said, a playful tone returning to his voice, “but what makes you think that going to some unknown land will help you catch up to me? What if, when we meet again, I’m still ahead— even after you use every opportunity the Shinayin Empire can offer?”

Nuya looked at him with a raised brow, immediately catching the meaning behind his words. He was hoping they would meet again someday. She liked that thought—more than she was willing to admit aloud.

Her smile grew wider, her tone teasing but steady. “Well,” she said, “we’ll just have to see about that when the time comes. But let’s make it interesting.”

Aksai tilted his head, curious.

“Whoever is stronger the next time we meet,” Nuya said, her eyes glinting mischievously, “will get to make one request from the other—something that both of us consider reasonable. Agreed?”

Aksai grinned, nodding firmly. “It’s a deal.”

Before Nuya could react, Aksai stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. The Spirit farmer knew that it was his one and only chance for the foreseeable future. As such, he didn’t hesitate to temporarily breach the boundaries of the friendship zone and enter the slightly intimate zone.

For a moment, Nuya froze, her eyes widening in surprise. His warmth caught her off guard, and the sudden closeness made her heart skip a beat. She hesitated for a few seconds, her arms hovering uncertainly before she slowly wrapped them around him, returning the hug.

They stayed like that for a short while—long enough for both to feel the quiet comfort of the moment, but short enough to not let it linger into something painful.

When they finally pulled away, their smiles were calm, though there was a trace of something unspoken behind both their eyes.

“Well,” Aksai said softly, “I guess this is goodbye for now.”

Nuya nodded lightly, her expression gentle. “Goodbye, Aksai.”

She gave him one last look before turning around. With a wave of her hand, her flying sword appeared beside her, glowing faintly under the evening light. She stepped onto it gracefully, her robes fluttering with the rising wind.

The sword lifted slowly, then shot forward, gliding over the garden and toward the open horizon. The fading sun turned her figure into a silhouette of light and shadow.

Halfway through her flight, Nuya looked back. From far away, she could still see the small, distant figure of Aksai standing near the gazebo, watching her leave. Her lips trembled again, and she let out a soft breath.

“That…” she murmured to herself, “that was my first real hug.”

Her smile turned faint and wistful. “He was right,” she whispered, her voice barely audible against the wind. “There’s a first time for everything in life.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com