Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

Summer passed into autumn, and a season slipped by.

The Splendorbloom Mountains were a maze of towering peaks and steep ridges, stretching on without end.

Aside from the Dome Palace on the main peak, the other peaks also had scattered man-made buildings here and there. Most of the people living in those places belonged to long-established sect clans.

The sect members here did not favor cave residences. Like aristocratic families in the outside world, they lived in courtyards and elegant pavilions instead.

Xu Yuan’s residence sat at the top of a mountain slope. It was not large, only about six hundred square meters of land. A flat lawn surrounded it, with a crooked peach tree planted nearby. The scenery was beautiful. From the bamboo building in the southwest corner of the courtyard, one could see a secluded pool far below in the mountain hollow.

The wind brushed across the grass with a gentle rustle.

Two figures descended from the sky and landed on the lawn before the door with a faint sound.

Xu Yuan, his face bruised and swollen, glanced back at the girl in pale red palace robes, who looked as if nothing at all had happened.

As though noticing his gaze, Tian Yan immediately asked with a touch of concern,

“Jing He, did I hit you too hard again?”

Xu Yuan gave a light snort and ignored her. He opened the restrictions around the residence and walked straight inside.

To improve the effect of their training, he had always insisted on not circulating his cultivation art whenever he sparred with Tian Yan. And without circulating his cultivation art, he could not beat her.

Still, having a top-tier expert like Tian Yan as a sparring partner had greatly improved Xu Yuan’s actual combat ability, even far more than training with the martial apprentices back in Stillwater had.

The only pity was that, compared with those muscle monsters, this woman Tian Yan clearly brought a bit of personal grudge into her attacks.

The courtyard was quiet. Aside from their footsteps, there was no other sound.

On both sides of the stone path grew blue fragrant grass and purple bauhinia flowers, all planted by Tian Yan in her free time.

Xu Yuan liked to read when he had nothing to do, while Tian Yan liked fussing over flowers and plants.

Over the course of the summer, their courtyard had become a sea of blue and purple, with waves of fragrance drifting through the air, wonderfully pleasant to the nose.

“I’m about to break through.” The girl’s voice was soft, and the words came very suddenly.

Hearing this, Xu Yuan instantly stopped and turned back to look at her.

The barefoot girl stood quietly beside him, her eyes lowered as she looked at the flowers and plants she had planted along the path, as if the words just now had not come from her at all.

After a long silence, Xu Yuan slowly spoke. “What did you say?”

Tian Yan slowly raised her eyes and met his gaze. “I said, I’m about to break through to third rank.”

“That fast?”

“I’m a second rank to begin with. Breaking through to third rank doesn’t require me to comprehend the Dao all over again. It’s just a matter of accumulating source qi,” she replied casually.

The cultivation she had inherited was already at the peak of fourth rank Body Integration, and since she herself was second rank, breaking through to third rank had no bottleneck for her whatsoever. It was as easy as drinking water.

Xu Yuan fell silent.

Tian Yan breaking through to third rank was both good news and bad news for him. Under their current circumstances, the stronger she became, the greater their odds of surviving in this illusion. But by the same logic, the stronger she became, the more his advantage over her in cultivation would gradually vanish.

Right now, when he circulated the Yang Restoration Art, and without using the newly developed trump cards, the result of a fight between him and Tian Yan was probably around seven to three in his favor.

If Tian Yan reached third rank, then it would be a mother beating her son.

After a quiet moment, Xu Yuan sighed and said in a low voice, “Then let me congratulate you in advance.”

Tian Yan stared at him, amusement flickering in her beautiful golden eyes. “You’re not afraid?”

“Of course I’m afraid.” Xu Yuan shrugged and continued walking forward. “But there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m just a fake third rank who hasn’t even comprehended the Dao yet. The stronger you are, the better our chances of survival.”

A third rank Grandmaster comprehended the Dao. A second rank Origin Awakener fused the Dao into their body and entered that realm. A first rank Transcendent shed the mortal self and released their Dao Field outward.

In reality, Xu Yuan was only a mere seventh rank. Something like the Dao was far too distant for him. It was basically asking a freshman who had just entered university to research nuclear fusion.

Right now, he had no idea how long they would have to stay in this illusion. Tian Yan’s strength was bound to keep growing, and he could not keep suppressing her forever.

Hearing this, Tian Yan seemed slightly surprised. She folded her arms across her chest, raised one slender jade finger, and lightly tapped her fragrant cheek.

“I thought once you knew, you’d pull some little trick on me.”

“Little trick?” Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

Tian Yan said as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “Detonate the restriction inside my body and make me sink so deep into the aphrodisiac poison that I can’t cultivate, things like that.”

“We’re allies right now.”

“Do you not know what kind of person you are?”

Xu Yuan smacked his lips, then raised his hand and patted Tian Yan on the shoulder.

Tian Yan did not dodge. After all this time, she had already grown used to that gesture from him. Just as she was thinking that, she suddenly sensed the restriction inside her body being gradually dissolved by Xu Yuan. Her gaze toward him turned strange.

For the sake of the future, the two of them had reached an agreement to remove the aphrodisiac poison from her body together, but the price was that she had to let him plant a restriction inside her.

Later, after the two of them discovered that the Beguiling Sakura Flower’s poison could not be fully removed, this bastard immediately switched to a different kind of restriction.

It was a restriction called the Passion Lure Curse. This sort of restriction was mostly used on dual-cultivation cauldrons. It was an evil secret art Xu Yuan had found on the fifth floor of the Deep Archive.

As a secret art from the fifth floor, the Passion Lure Curse had no particular advantages aside from being extremely difficult to break once planted. Even its passion-luring effect was very weak. A cultivator at the fifth rank Soul Condensation Realm could counteract the arousal simply by circulating their cultivation art.

But Tian Yan’s body still contained the Beguiling Sakura Flower’s poison and the Heavenly Desire soul bewitching poison, both of which could not be removed. The Passion Lure Curse was like a fuse. Once lit, it would make both poisons explode and spread through her body.

And now, he had dissolved it himself.

Tian Yan stared at Xu Yuan, her voice tinged with confusion. “What are you...”

Xu Yuan withdrew his hand. His voice was very soft. “If you trust someone, don’t doubt them. If you doubt them, don’t use them.”

Tian Yan said nothing. She only stared at him with an extremely distrustful look.

After several months of being practically inseparable, any trust between them had long since died. This man in front of her was absolutely not that kind. She suspected he was setting another trap for her.

Xu Yuan gave a slight sigh and said in a low voice, “We’ve lived together for almost three months now. Consider this a show of sincerity from me.”

“Sincerity?”

“You took the initiative to tell me about this. Naturally, I have to show something in return.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Xu Yuan looked at Tian Yan and spoke with great seriousness.

A faint breeze brushed through the girl’s smooth black hair.

Then, she suddenly smiled. “You’re afraid I’ll take revenge on you after I break through, aren’t you?”

Xu Yuan denied it without hesitation. “Why would I be afraid? You can’t kill me anyway.”

Beneath the brilliant sunlight, Tian Yan’s beautiful eyes curved into two bright crescent moons. “It’s true that I can’t kill you. But fortunately, you taught me something. Do you want to know what it is?”

Xu Yuan immediately tried to argue. “I wasn’t the one who taught you that. Ran Qingmo did.”

“But you were the one who taught me.”

Five days later, Tian Yan broke through to third rank.