"Ten years after you left, I started to realize that I, along with many others in the sect, was gradually forgetting you existed... After that, I didn't seek help from the Sect Leader or the Sacred Land to find you.
Because I know them. If the Sect Leader and the Elders of the Sacred Land discovered that a Great Power was obscuring your fate, they would surely give up on bringing you back.
A Giant Sun Saint Body is priceless, but it's not worth antagonizing a Great Power of unknown depth for one.
So, from then on, I had to fight against that perception-altering Divine Ability all by myself, searching for you across the vast world."
"It was so, so hard. I had to constantly carve your name onto my own body just so I wouldn't forget you."
Shang Miaoyan spoke with labored breaths, her heart racing so fast that a crimson blush spread across her snow-white skin. She was immensely excited and proud, displaying the profound love she had harbored for Pei Yuhang for over a century.
Perhaps it was due to her overwhelming excitement, but Shang Miaoyan felt her head grow dizzy as if she were drunk. She brought her fingertips to her mouth and began to gnaw on them until crystalline saliva, mixed with beads of blood, dripped down the corner of her lips.
She was using the pain to suppress the torrential storm of emotions surging within her, trying her best to remain calm as she continued her story to Pei Yuhang.
"My Cultivation is only at the Early-stage Nascent Soul now. This is because I crippled my own Half-Step Divinity Transformation realm in the Yin Yang Dao and spent nearly a hundred years re-cultivating from scratch with the Jade Maiden Dao..."
"Your departure became a Heart Demon in my Dao Heart. For every day I didn't see you, my realm would drop. Not seeing you for ten years caused me to fall all the way from Half-Step Divinity Transformation to Early-stage Nascent Soul.
I knew that if things continued, I would die from the agony of longing. But I couldn't die. That's why I chose to shatter and reforge my Dao Foundation and cultivate as a Jade Maiden—all so I would have enough lifespan to meet you again."
Pei Yuhang was silent. Listening to her, he felt no sense of being touched by everything Shang Miaoyan had done for him. Instead, he was filled with terror.
He believed this was absolutely not love, but a horrifying madness and obsession. It was like a giant python covered in sharp thorns, coiling around him, crushing his bones and suffocating him while its thorns tore his flesh, draining him of his last drop of blood.
'This kind of madwoman... I just want to get away from her!'
His history with Shang Miaoyan was a twisted, ill-fated bond that had been forced upon him—an eternal scar for Pei Yuhang.
He had finally managed to move on and build a new life for himself.
He never expected this Witch to chase him down again!
Shang Miaoyan would destroy the happy life he had built for himself over the past hundred years of his reinvention! His Dao Companion, his two beloved disciples, the relationships he had fostered in the Xuanyuan Dao Sect—she would destroy it all!
"I'm sorry. Although your story is very moving, I don't know you. I'm not the Pei Yuhang you speak of. I was born and raised in the Xuanyuan Dao Sect. The only time I've ever left was to descend the mountain to slay demons and defend the righteous path.
There's no reason I would have ever met you."
Pei Yuhang said coldly, already beginning to channel energy into Silence, ready to subdue her at a moment's notice.
He could tell that Shang Miaoyan possessed countless powerful Magical Treasures, but her Dao Foundation was somewhat unstable. She probably couldn't even unleash thirty or forty percent of her treasures' power. As the most renowned Sword Cultivator of the younger generation, he definitely had the ability to fight above his realm.
'If we really fight, I have a seventy percent chance of taking her down!'
Outside the white gauze canopy, Shang Miaoyan felt her beloved's Sword Qi, yet not a trace of displeasure showed on her face. She chuckled softly.
"Xiaohan, your master's title is the Nameless Daoist. He's the most mysterious Elder in the Xuanyuan Dao Sect, having reached the pinnacle of both the Sword Dao and the Technique Dao, inspiring awe in all."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Sixty years ago, he entered the Endless Sea and vanished without a trace... It was then that the Divine Ability he used to obscure your fate began to weaken, allowing me to finally find you.
So stop being naughty and pretending you don't know me. Come back to my side. It's time for your little game of house in the Xuanyuan Dao Sect to end.
Even though you've been possessed by a woman named Ye Liyuan for decades and now reek of another woman... I won't hold it against you. I'll mark you with my ownership all over again!"
SWOOSH—!!
A longsword tore through the white gauze, stabbing straight at Shang Miaoyan. Its sharp edge cut through the air, leaving a thin, vacuum-like scar in its wake.
However, as Shang Miaoyan calmly extended her slender, jade-white fingertips, the terrifyingly powerful sword came to a dead stop in mid-air, unable to move an inch.
"You—"
Pei Yuhang's expression was grim. A sinister, crimson-purple lotus Rune spread across his forehead. It was this bizarre Rune that instantly wrested control of his body and placed it in Shang Miaoyan's hands.
"Xiaohan, I actually left more than one Demon-Planting Mark on you back then. To show all those Fox Spirits in the Sacred Land that I had already claimed you as mine, I probably left a few dozen on you in secret... hmm, or maybe it was over a hundred...
In any case, even though the Nameless Daoist removed the Demon-Planting Marks all over your body and sealed the ones he couldn't remove, he still didn't find this one, the most deeply hidden Demon Seal."
"After all, this Demon Seal only activates when I'm in front of you."
As she spoke, Shang Miaoyan walked over to Pei Yuhang on her bare, jade-white feet. She first pried the Thousand-Mile Transmission Talisman from his tight grip, then gently cupped his head and studied his face intently.
"You're much more mature than I remember. Xiaohan has grown even more charming over the past hundred years."
"Let me go!"
The rich, floral fragrance from Shang Miaoyan's body flooded Pei Yuhang's senses. The familiar scent seemed to transport him back to his past, decadent life in the Yin Yang Sacred Land.
"I can't let go. This time, I won't let you escape from me."
Shang Miaoyan took Pei Yuhang's hand. Her sultry, foxy eyes, so intense they seemed almost liquid, gazed at the scar on one of his fingers—a "ring" formed by a bite mark. A moist shimmer rippled in her eyes.
"You still have our Engagement Ring?"
'Engagement Ring?! Wasn't that from you biting me?!'
Just as Pei Yuhang was about to retort in anger, Shang Miaoyan suddenly pressed against him and pried his lips open.
He wanted to channel his Spiritual Qi to throw her off, but as the bewitching lotus Rune on his forehead bloomed, a wave of weakness washed over his body.
He was powerless to resist.
After a deep kiss that lasted nearly ten minutes, just as Pei Yuhang was about to suffocate, Shang Miaoyan finally pulled away in satisfaction, her own lips bitten and bleeding.
Pei Yuhang's gaze was dazed, as if he had just woken from a nightmare.
"Mmm, Xiaohan, you still kiss using the same techniques I taught you. That's wonderful. You can't forget the things I left you with..."
Shang Miaoyan's gaze drifted downward, and a triumphant smile appeared on her flushed face.
"Your Evil Yang Fire Qi is so vigorous... I heard that your current Dao Companion, Ye Liyuan, was gravely injured while Crossing the Tribulation and is now practically a cripple.
Since that's the case, then let Miaoyan take that useless woman's place~!"
Shang Miaoyan tilted up her long, slender, swan-like neck, her sultry, foxy eyes staring intently at Pei Yuhang as if she wanted to devour him alive.
Her eager posture suggested she was about to enforce her claim on the noble White-clothed Sword Immortal right then and there!