Seventy-Four Frames

Leaving the Abyss was easier than Qiao Ranran had imagined, too. Perhaps Pei Ling had spent so long there that it had become his own backyard. Whenever he casually told her which things in the Abyss were worth seeing, as though counting his family treasures, her feelings turned into a tangle of conflicting tastes.

There was little else she could do. At times like those, she would cup his face and kiss him with a smile, only for Pei Ling to take over and leave her thoroughly flustered.

Qiao Ranran: "..." I brought this on myself! He doesn't deserve my sympathy!

But she knew a sincere relationship took two people to nurture. Pei Ling had already come so far toward her; she refused to be coy and pretend she did not like him too. She liked him. It was embarrassing to admit, but she loved being with him and feeling the awkward tenderness of his care.

The timing was wrong, but Pei Ling knew the Abyss well enough to quickly find a weak point connecting it to the Human Realm. Those cultivators of the Righteous Path had probably never imagined that a mere Nine Nether Severing Formation could open a gate to the Abyss. Otherwise, before uncovering the Pei Family's secret, they would not have let Pei Ling die so easily. By a twist of fate, his fall into the Abyss had instead made him what he was. So what if he had become a demon? It was no great disaster.

If the passage could be opened from the Human Realm, it could naturally be opened from the Abyss as well. Who knew whether those cultivators of the Righteous Path would quake at the knees if they heard that secret? The Demon Realm had been quiet for years, while the