After bidding farewell to Mu Qingge, Ye Qingyi prepared to head back to the Ye family estate.
But then Ye Chu’s voice sounded in her mind.
“Someone is following you, and their killing intent is strong.”
“Huh?”
Ye Qingyi’s body trembled slightly.
“You said someone is following me?”
“From the moment you stepped out of the Ye estate.”
Ye Chu’s tone was calm.
Ye Qingyi’s heart tightened, but she didn’t turn around to look.
“Then why didn’t you say so earlier? What should I do now? Run home faster?”
“Since they’re so enthusiastic, let’s play along.”
Ye Chu laughed.
“Head out of the city.”
“Out of the city?!”
Ye Qingyi halted in her steps.
“Isn’t that playing right into their hands?”
“That’s exactly the point.”
Ye Chu’s voice was full of devilish temptation.
“Think about it—in the city, they’re wary of the Ye family and won’t dare to act. Once you’re outside the city, they’ll show themselves. If you want to know who’s behind this, this is the fastest way.”
“This is called ‘luring the snake out of its hole’!”
Ye Qingyi gritted her teeth.
“What if the snake I lure out is a giant African python? Is my little Qi Refining third-layer body enough for it to swallow?”
“Wouldn’t I be like a meat bun thrown at a dog—gone forever?”
“Don’t you still have me? Trust Brother Chu, and you’ll achieve the Great Dao!”
Ye Chu’s tone was extremely confident.
Ye Qingyi could even picture Ye Chu with his hands on his hips, looking smug and mighty.
Ye Qingyi took a deep breath.
She decided to trust Ye Chu.
Besides, there were some things she wanted to figure out.
One cannot catch tiger cubs without entering the tiger’s den.
She turned and walked toward the city gate.
After leaving the city gate, she walked along the main road for about an hour, then turned into a path leading into the woods.
As she went deeper, the surroundings gradually became quiet.
Only the rustling of wind through the treetops and the crunch of leaves underfoot could be heard.
“It’s about time.”
Ye Chu said.
“Stop here.”
Ye Qingyi stopped, turned around, and said to the empty woods in a feigned manner, “You’ve been following for so long. Aren’t you tired? Come out.”
The woods were silent for a moment.
Then, a tall figure emerged from behind a tree.
A green robe with a jade belt, handsome features—it was Zhao Yuan.
Ye Qingyi’s pupils contracted slightly.
“Zhao Yuan? It’s you?”
A gentle smile hung on Zhao Yuan’s lips, but there was no warmth in his eyes at all.
“Sister Qingyi, you’re quite perceptive. I thought I’d have to follow a bit longer.”
“What are you following me for?”
Ye Qingyi’s palms were slightly sweating.
She had thought of many people, but never Zhao Yuan.
“What for?”
Zhao Yuan tilted his head, his smile unchanged.
“Sister Qingyi rejected my marriage proposal. I wanted to talk to you. Is there a problem?”
“If you wanted to talk to me, you could have come to the Ye estate to find me, or asked me out. Why follow me?”
Ye Qingyi’s tone was bitter.
“Zhao Yuan, I’ve always trusted you. Can you give me a reasonable explanation?”
Zhao Yuan’s smile froze for a moment, then returned to its gentle demeanor.
“Sister Qingyi misunderstands. I was just worried about your safety… After all, Sister Qingyi is only at the Qi Refining third layer, yet you abruptly walked into an empty forest outside the city…”
“Worried about my safety?”
Ye Qingyi interrupted him.
“Zhao Yuan, even now you still want to lie to me?”
In the past, she had been reluctant to think too much out of consideration for her friendship with Zhao Yuan.
But after the Zhao family came to propose marriage last time, her father’s and the Grand Elder’s reactions, plus Ye Chu’s hints, and now Zhao Yuan’s malicious stalking today…
It was hard for her not to suspect something.
Zhao Yuan was silent for a moment.
Finally, the smile on his face faded bit by bit.
He didn’t want to pretend anymore.
He was coming clean.
“What do I want?”
His voice turned low.
“I want you, Ye Qingyi. From the time you were ten years old and saved me from others, I have wanted you.”
“But from the moment you knocked me down on the arena when you were fifteen, I understood—you don’t love me. If things continued like this, I could never have you!”
“How dazzling you were back then—a genius girl at the Qi Refining tenth layer, the number one among the younger generation of Qingyun City. Everyone looked up to you. I did too.”
He took a step forward.
Ye Qingyi took a step back.
“But now you’re crippled.”
Zhao Yuan’s voice carried a twisted delight.
“Qi Refining third layer—you can’t even cast a decent spell. Guess why I’m still willing to marry you?”
“Of course, it’s because I truly love you. I don’t care about your cultivation level or talent.”
“As long as you’re willing to be with me, that’s enough for me!”
Ye Chu laughed.
His voice sounded in Ye Qingyi’s mind.
“Still a crazy yandere, huh. Such love. Yuan Fang, what do you think?”
Ye Qingyi was speechless.
“At a time like this, you’re still making lame jokes! Besides, you already figured out that Zhao Yuan was the one who poisoned me, didn’t you? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Ye Chu shrugged.
“How long have I known you, and how long have you known Zhao Yuan? If I said it, would you have believed me? And even if I told you earlier, you had no evidence. What could you do?”
Ye Qingyi argued, “If you told me, I would definitely believe you! Even if I didn’t, I would seriously consider it. We’re the only ones from the same world!”
“If I knew, I would have been on guard against Zhao Yuan. At least I wouldn’t be as passive as today.”
Ye Chu couldn’t help but chuckle.
“See? The truth is right in front of you, and even now you’re not certain. If I had told you beforehand, the trust between us as fellow countrymen might be hanging by a thread.”
…
Even though she already had the answer in her heart, Ye Qingyi stubbornly asked Zhao Yuan, “So, it was you who poisoned me?”
She wanted a definite answer.
“Who else?”
Zhao Yuan spread his hands, a cruel smile on his face.
“Who did you think it was? Your useless father? Or that Grand Elder who only schemes behind the scenes? No, it was me. Three years ago, after you rejected my confession, I put the first dose of Qi Dissipating Powder in your tea.”
Ye Qingyi’s pupils shrank.
Love turning to hate?
What kind of clichéd melodrama was this?
Was it wrong to be beautiful and kind-hearted?
So this was the truth?
“After taking the Qi Dissipating Powder, the feeling of your spiritual energy constantly fading away—does it hurt?”
“I wanted to make you fall from the clouds, to make you know the price of rejecting me. When your cultivation was completely ruined and you had nowhere to turn, I would appear as a savior, gentle and caring, and marry you.”
Zhao Yuan tilted his head, savoring the expression on Ye Qingyi’s face.
“Originally, the plan went smoothly. Your cultivation plummeted all the way to the third layer of Qi Refining. Everyone looked down on you. Your father was frantic with worry. I just needed to wait a bit longer until you were completely desperate, then I could reel in the net.”
“But you just had to deviate from the script.”
Zhao Yuan’s face twisted.
“You rejected my marriage proposal, humiliating me in front of so many people. You made me, Zhao Yuan, a laughingstock in Qingyun City!”
“So?”
Ye Qingyi sighed.
“Now you want to kill me?”
“Kill you?” Zhao Yuan laughed.
“No, no, no. Why would I kill you? I’ll take you back, lock you in the Zhao family’s secret chamber, and make you my concubine. Once you’re pregnant with my child, where can you run? Would your father still dare to refuse this marriage?”
He clapped his hands, and eight more people emerged from the woods, surrounding Ye Qingyi.
“All are experts above the sixth layer of Qi Refining.”
Zhao Yuan said smugly.
“Sister Qingyi, you’re only at the third layer. It’s best to surrender quietly and avoid unnecessary pain.”
Ye Qingyi looked at the people closing in and curled her lips into a mocking smile.
“Zhao Yuan, you know what? I actually felt a bit of guilt toward you.”
“Guilt?”
Zhao Yuan raised an eyebrow.
“I thought you were genuinely good to me, and that rejecting you was my fault.”
Ye Qingyi slowly raised her fists.
“Now I know—you’ve been a disgusting piece of trash from the start.”
“Then I don’t have any psychological burden left.”
Zhao Yuan looked as if he had heard a very funny joke.
“You, at the third layer of Qi Refining, without even a weapon, want to fight me with just your fists?”
“Not only has your cultivation dropped, but your intelligence has also dropped?”
His gaze suddenly turned fierce.
He waved his hand and shouted, “Attack!”
As soon as he said that, the cultivators employed by the Zhao family simultaneously closed in from all sides.
Seeing this, Ye Qingyi quickly said to Ye Chu in her mind, “Brother, it’s time to make a move.”
“Use your puppet to teach these people a good lesson!”
“Huh?”
Ye Chu looked very surprised.
“You brought the puppet out? When did that happen… What do you mean by ‘make a move’? It’s you who needs to take them on yourself!”
Ye Qingyi gasped.
“Are you okay? There are nine people including Zhao Yuan, all above the sixth layer, and Zhao Yuan is at the ninth layer. I’m only at the third layer, and I’m a body cultivator. How can I possibly win?”
Ye Qingyi was furious.
‘Didn’t you say you’d protect me? In the end, you’re making me fight on my own! Can I beat them?! Look at what you’ve actually protected!’
Ye Chu sneered.
“What’s wrong with being a body cultivator! I’ll show you the power of body cultivation today!”
As he said this, he released his soul power’s suppression on Ye Qingyi.
In an instant, Ye Qingyi felt her body not only brimming with power but also become much lighter.
Ye Qingyi asked, “What’s going on? What did you do to me? I feel so much stronger—even stronger than when I was at the tenth layer of Qi Refining.”
‘What kind of god-like move is this?’
Ye Chu briefly explained, “From the very first training session, I’ve been using my soul power to temper this body of yours every single moment. And every time we sparred, I kept striking your meridians and acupoints to expand and refine them, making them wider.”
“It’s like I’ve been forging your body like a weapon every day. But to keep you from becoming arrogant, I sealed off your perception to a certain extent, so you wouldn’t notice the changes.”
This was Ye Chu’s unique body cultivation training method, and its effects were extremely powerful.
Although Ye Qingyi’s cultivation realm was only at the third layer of Qi Refining, in terms of base stats, she was already no weaker than a cultivator at the tenth layer.
‘This is the beauty of body cultivator stats! Fading strength? What a joke!’
But now Ye Chu didn’t have time to explain further.
He simply said, “Now, you’ve been buffed. The enemy is already attacking. Go!”
“Fight! Maiden!”