Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 394 381: Trial of Heart Tribulation (End) — Fan Xuan: Pei Yuhang, We Will Meet Again...

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Look at this little face. So pitifully lovely. How did I never notice before what a seductive little vixen you are?"

Shang Miaoyan lifted Fan Xuan's face, which was smudged with dust and streaked with blood, and spoke in a tone dripping with sarcasm.

Faced with Shang Miaoyan's resentful whispers, Fan Xuan lowered her gaze and said nothing.

'My sister has been sent away, and Pei Yuhang has escaped safely.'

'I have no more regrets.'

'If Shang Miaoyan really wants to kill me, I won't have any complaints.'

'Who told me to be a thieving cat? Stealing from the master and being beaten to death for it…'

'It only seems natural.'

Seeing the resolve to die in Fan Xuan's eyes, Shang Miaoyan clenched her jaw, speaking through gritted teeth:

"Oh, Xiaoxuan~ You want to die?"

"No, I won't let you off that easily. I still need you as bait for Xiaohan. When Xiaohan returns, that's when I'll truly start torturing you.

Remember that day in the dungeons? When you were strung up, forced to watch me and Xiaohan together?

I'm going to return that feeling to you a thousand, ten thousand times over. I hope you don't break from all the fun~

This is the punishment you deserve, you thieving cat, for betraying me and using despicable means to steal what belongs to your master!"

In the face of Shang Miaoyan's threats, Fan Xuan just shook her head gently.

"Holy Daughter, Pei Yuhang won't be back. Just take all your anger out on me… as long as it makes you feel even a little better."

"What makes you so sure he won't be back?"

Shang Miaoyan's eyes narrowed, and her delicate hands, hidden in her sleeves, tightened into nervous fists.

'Fan Xuan's composure is beyond my expectations. Could it be that this little bitch really has some reason to be so certain that Pei Yuhang won't return?'

Fan Xuan lifted her head, gazed in the direction Pei Yuhang had fled, and let out a dazed laugh.

"He… has things he can't let go of. He has a reason he must leave the Yin Yang Sacred Land."

"I can feel it. Outside the Sect, there is something far more important to him than me, or even you, Holy Daughter.

Neither of us can make him stay."

'More important than me?!'

That single phrase struck a nerve. Shang Miaoyan instantly felt a blaze of jealousy shoot straight to her head.

"You—you're just a little Maid, what do you know?!"

"The status, the wealth, the chance at immortality that I can give him so easily—can you even imagine that? What in the world could be more important to Pei Yuhang than all of that!"

She suddenly seized Fan Xuan by the neck, lifting the frail girl off the ground.

A scoff escaped Fan Xuan's pale, thin lips, but she said nothing more.

'Let me just die like this.'

She thought to herself as an almost inaudible scoff, steeped in self-mockery and bitterness, escaped her throat.

'Dying at Shang Miaoyan's hands is a fitting end, I suppose. After all, I was the one who betrayed my master first.'

'But I don't regret it.'

'In the final days of my life, I met that boy who was like the sun. I felt passion, sorrow, and madness.'

'Those fiery kisses, the warmth of his embraces, the tender whispers filled with affection…'

'I… really don't have any regrets, do I?'

DRIP—

A single, clear tear traced a path down the girl's lovely face, lingered for a moment at her chin, and finally fell, unable to hold on any longer. It landed squarely on Shang Miaoyan's wrist, where veins bulged slightly.

The rims of her eyes gradually reddened like smeared rouge. Amidst the agony of suffocation, her tears finally burst forth, flowing freely down her cheeks.

"As if…"

Her lips moved with great difficulty, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz, yet every word was etched in anguish.

"How could I possibly have no regrets—"

Breathing became increasingly difficult, and her vision began to blacken, yet the image of the boy in her mind only grew clearer.

"We… were so close to being together!"

Her fingers convulsively gripped Shang Miaoyan's wrist. Though she couldn't pry it loose even with all her might, she stubbornly kept trying.

Tears blurred her vision but could not wash away the surging longing within them.

A whimper like that of a small animal escaped Fan Xuan's throat, her chest heaving violently. "I… I don't want to lose him.

I don't want to watch him leave me… be with another woman, get married, and have children—!!"

Tears mixed with the blood trickling from the corner of her lips, flowing slowly down. At the same moment, the ring of a sword echoed.

A severed lock of black hair drifted on the wind.

Shang Miaoyan pulled her hand back just in time. Watching the handsome, white-robed figure snatch the girl from her grasp, she felt no anger. Instead, an excited flush bloomed across her pretty face.

"Xiaohan, you're finally back!"

"Go!"

Pei Yuhang didn't look back or pay any mind to the madwoman. He held Fan Xuan and rose into the air with Sword Control, but was quickly blocked by countless disciples of the Yin Yang Sacred Land.

"Xiaohan, you can't escape. Just be a good boy and stay by my side!" Shang Miaoyan's red lips curved into a bewitching arc, her eyes gleaming with a pathological obsession.

"I gave you a choice, but you still insisted on coming back. This is your destiny~!"

Behind him, Shang Miaoyan burst out laughing. Pei Yuhang said nothing, merely tightened his grip on the weak girl in his arms with one hand and raised his longsword with the other.

"Pei Yuhang…" Fan Xuan called out weakly from his embrace. Her pale lips trembled, and her eyes brimmed with glistening tears.

"Why did you come back? You were so close to being free."

"Because you weren't with me, so I had to come back and get you."

Pei Yuhang smiled gently, then took a deep breath.

He stopped suppressing his body's potential. As the Yang Emperor Heart Scripture began to circulate, his Cultivation and aura skyrocketed.

Early-stage Foundation Establishment, Mid-stage Foundation Establishment, Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, Golden Core!!

"That's impossible!"

The lead female disciple's pupils contracted. Her face went deathly pale, and the hand gripping her sword couldn't stop trembling. "Breaking through a realm with every step… Wh-who in the world are you?!"