Educational Content, I Added Educational Content in There

Zhou Qiubai pushed open the courtyard gate. Shui Bing'er sat on the wooden steps beneath the eaves, dressed in a plain white gown, like an immortal descended to earth.

She sat there quietly. When she heard the gate open, her shoulders trembled slightly, but she did not turn around.

Zhou Qiubai leaned the White Clothes Sword against a porch pillar and slowly walked toward her. By the moonlight, he could see her face clearly.

"Why didn't you go inside?" he asked softly.

"Waiting for you," she replied quietly.

Though there were only two words, they carried far too much feeling.

Ever since she had escaped from Element City and crossed half the continent, she had often wondered whether she would make it in time to catch up to him.

When her family had imprisoned her in that attic, where even the windows had been nailed shut, she had had no way of knowing whether she would ever see him again.

Zhou Qiubai crouched down to meet her gaze. Their eyes met, and silent affection seemed to fill the air.

Looking at his face so close to hers, Shui Bing'er suddenly smiled.

There was not the slightest trace of shyness or reserve in that smile, only a deep certainty.

She liked him. That was enough.

She had long been ready.

As for betrothal contracts, matchmakers, and the rules her family treated as more precious than life itself, she had long stopped caring.

Those shackles had bound her all her life. Ever since the day she awakened her Ice Phoenix Martial Soul, her family had used every possible means to tell her what choices she ought to make.

Yet when she crawled out through that secret passage, when she set foot on the road to the East Sea, those rules had already