"Spirit City."
The words drifted out from deep within the Seclusion Chamber, unhurried.
Ye Lingling was still bent at the waist. At the words, her body paused.
Spirit City.
It was the Spirit Hall's lair, one of the most dangerous places on the entire continent.
More than twenty thousand Soul Masters were stationed there, a Titled Douluo stood guard, and the Pope, Bibi Dong, personally held power.
A month ago, she had been a Level 32 Soul Elder. Going to Spirit City would have been no different from walking to her death.
But things were different now.
Level 90. Titled Douluo.
That White Jade Pendant had turned her life upside down.
"Find a woman named Hu Liena."
Shen Yichen's voice came from inside the Stone Chamber, passing through the stone door, its Dao patterns already extinguished, and reaching Ye Lingling's ears.
"Tell her—"
Shen Yichen paused.
It was a very brief pause, lasting no more than half a breath.
But for some reason, Ye Lingling felt that in that half-breath, the unfathomable Celestial Master had weighed his words.
"These Eighteen Betrothal Gifts were gathered by heaven and earth in the first place. They are what she deserves."
Ye Lingling strained to listen, not daring to miss a single word.
"Even if she doesn't want to marry me in the future—"
Ye Lingling stopped breathing.
"I, Shen Yichen, will never take back even a single one of these betrothal gifts."
The mountain wind poured in through a crack in the Taoist temple's gate, stirring the wisps of hair on Ye Lingling's forehead.
She stood rooted to the spot.
He wouldn't take them back.
The Eighteen Betrothal Gifts—every single one was a supreme treasure worth making the entire continent fight tooth and nail over.
The Primordial Spirit Bead governed bloodlines, the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron governed fortune, and the Severing Thought Sword governed the Divine Soul—and there were fifteen more, each more terrifying than the last.
He was giving them all away.
Whether she married him or not, he wouldn't take them back.
Ye Lingling's mind went "buzz."
She had started guarding this mountain when she was thirteen.
For five years, she had wiped the Dao patterns, changed the spirit spring water, and cleaned the Stone Hall, day after day.
The Celestial Master had secluded himself for a hundred years. She had only glimpsed the faint ebb and flow of his Dao aura a handful of times.
In her heart, the Celestial Master belonged to the heavens.
He neither ate the food of mortals nor harbored worldly desires. His Dao aura was so pure it seemed to seep into his very bones.
Would a person like that really hand over eighteen peerless treasures for a woman, without asking for anything in return?
An indescribable feeling welled up in her throat.
It was sour, but not the sourness of feeling wronged.
It was the shock of suddenly realizing, So the Celestial Master is flesh and blood, too.
Ye Lingling bit her lower lip and hesitated for two breaths.
"Celestial Master..."
She kept her voice very low, so low it nearly caught in her throat.
"Is that Miss Hu Liena... your fiancée?"
The instant the question left her mouth, her face flamed red.
It was far too presumptuous.
What right did a maid like her have to pry into her master's private affairs?
But the words had already been spoken. She couldn't take them back.
The Stone Chamber fell silent for a breath.
Then—
A soft chuckle.
Faint and brief, carried on a breath of sound. But Ye Lingling heard it clearly.
There was a hint of... tenderness in that laugh.
Not tenderness toward her. It was a softness that seeped from his bones, involuntarily, when he mentioned that name.
"More or less."
Three words.
Casual and unhurried, in exactly the same tone he always used.
But Ye Lingling's ears were keen to the extreme—the last syllable of "more or less" had lingered just a little.
And in that little linger, there was far too much hidden.
Ye Lingling lowered her head.
Something in her chest tightened.
Not much, just a brief catch, like when food went down the wrong way.
But even she didn't understand what it meant. Was she happy for the Celestial Master? Or...
She cut off the thought.
She had no right to think about it.
How many years had the Celestial Master lived?
His experience, his vision, his cultivation—all were on a level she could never reach in her lifetime.
Whoever he had chosen, he surely had his reasons.
What was Ye Lingling, anyway?
Just a little maid who had spent five years wiping Dao patterns on a mountain.
She could stand here and speak with him today only because her great-grandmother had once incurred a debt of gratitude.
The Celestial Master had casually tossed her a jade pendant and sent her soaring to the level of a Titled Douluo.
He hadn't even left her the chance to repay his kindness. He had given her more than enough already.
What more could she want?
Ye Lingling swallowed that tiny trace of bitterness, swallowing every last bit.
"Lingling will remember."
She bent even lower.
"Rest assured, Celestial Master. Lingling will relay your words to Miss Hu Liena, word for word."
She paused.
She couldn't help herself.
"Celestial Master... that Miss Hu Liena, what is she... like?"
This time, no laughter came from the Stone Chamber.
Shen Yichen's answer came two breaths later.
"You'll find out when you get there."
Those few words firmly shut down the conversation.
But they weren't cold.
In those five words, Ye Lingling heard an unspoken meaning: the Celestial Master himself had never met her either.
Never met her?
He had sent out the Eighteen Betrothal Gifts, caused three celestial phenomena, and even chopped off the Clear Sky Douluo's arm... and the Celestial Master and Miss Hu Liena hadn't even met face-to-face?
Ye Lingling's thoughts went around in circles, only growing more tangled.
What kind of woman could make a man do all this for someone he had never met?
No—what kind of man could do all this for a woman he had never met?
The two questions turned over and over in her mind, churning into a muddle.
Forget it. She'd find out when she got there.
Ye Lingling straightened up.
She bowed deeply, lowering her forehead toward the Seclusion Chamber.
"Lingling will set off at once."
Shen Yichen said nothing more.
The Stone Chamber returned to its weighty silence, unchanged for a hundred years.
Ye Lingling left the Taoist temple.
Her feet touched the flagstone she had just struck with her forehead. Her knees still hurt a little.
When she looked down, one half of her skirt was wet, her soles were caked with gravel, and the red mark on her forehead stung.
Her whole appearance was a far cry from the words "Titled Douluo."
But she didn't care.
The gate of Taixu Temple stood behind her.
Ye Lingling looked back.
Three stone halls, a Bell Tower, and a flagstone path.
The hall walls were mottled, and the moss in the gaps between the tiles glistened with moisture from the morning mist.
It was a place guarded by three generations.
She would have to keep guarding it in the future.
But right now, she had something more important to do.
Ye Lingling turned around to face down the mountain.
The Cloud Sea churned across Tiandang Mountain. Looking down from the main peak, the thousand-zhang cliffs vanished into gray-white mist.
Below the mountain lay hundreds of miles of rolling hills and plains.
Spirit City was to the south.
Traveling overland from Tiandang Mountain to Spirit City would take at least half a month.
But she was a Level 90 Titled Douluo now. The spirit meridians of her Nine-Heart Begonia had surged countless times over under the impetus of her new Soul Ring, and the healing Soul Power coursing through her was more turbulent than she could have imagined.
Three days—four at most.
Ye Lingling stepped to the edge of the mountain rocks and drew in a deep breath of cold air scented with pine needles. Then she pushed off with her toes.
Her figure swept down the cliff.
The wind caught her clothes and flipped them upward, her skirt tracing an arc through the clouds and mist.
Against her chest, beneath her clothes, the warmth left behind by the shattered White Jade Pendant had yet to fade completely.
Ye Lingling skimmed over the canopy of a pine forest and sped south.
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