S-sorry, I offended you, miss

"!!!"

Lou Yunxiao felt a rush of heat shoot straight to the crown of his head. He sprang up, but blinded as he was, he couldn't control his movements and slammed into the bed rail with a bang.

Ignoring the pain, Lou Yunxiao spread his burning hands open, too mortified even to flex his fingers. Half-kneeling on the bed, he stammered.

"S-sorry, I offended you, miss. I didn't mean to! P-please forgive me!"

To make the act convincing, Ning Ke had changed his voice to sound feminine as well, soft and gentle, yet cool and clear.

Seeing Lou Yunxiao like this, without a trace of the ruthlessness he'd shown in the dungeon back then, Ning Ke even found him rather cute.

And so, his annoyance at being awakened by the other man's hand grabbing his chest vanished completely. He shrugged and said with a laugh, "Why call me miss, you brat? I'm a few years older than you. Calling me big sister would be more fitting."

Xiao Yuan quipped in his mind: [Ha, host, Ning Ke is a ten-thousand-year-old fox spirit. What do you mean, a few years older? More like a few years raised to the nth power!]

A vein throbbed on Ning Ke's forehead. I'm in my twenties in real life, so I am only a few years older than him. Stop comparing me to the original owner!

Lou Yunxiao couldn't hear his conversation with the system. He only felt that the big sister before him had an exceedingly lovely voice and stood so close that he could almost catch the faint, cool fragrance coming from her.

Then he recalled the sensation beneath his fingers, and his face nearly burned hot enough to smoke. He stammered even harder. "Big sister, I'm sorry. I really... I didn't know..."

Ning Ke hadn't expected the brat to be this innocent.

Before Lou Yunxiao could say something outrageous about taking responsibility for him or pledging himself in marriage, Ning Ke hurried to change the subject.

"When I found you at the bottom of the Demon Abyss, you were badly injured." He asked a question he already knew the answer to. "May I ask what happened to you?"

Lou Yunxiao froze briefly. As the heat gradually faded from his face, he finally remembered to circulate his spiritual energy and check his condition.

He discovered that the injuries he'd believed could never heal had all been cured in such a short time.

Everything at the end of his dream had actually been real.

His ruined cultivation and shattered Golden Core had both been restored.

They were even better than before!

If the big sister before him had done all this, he could never repay her kindness, even with his entire life!

At that thought, he felt his way off the bed and dropped to his knees with a thud. Under Ning Ke's bewildered gaze, he planted his palms on the floor and bowed his head heavily.

"Big sister, I can never repay you for giving me a new life. Once I have avenged this blood feud, I swear to devote my life to you. I would brave fire and boiling water for you without hesitation!"

A man's knees were worth their weight in gold, and the same held true among cultivators.

The male lead had never knelt even before the Heavenly Dao, yet now he was kneeling before Ning Ke.

Ning Ke was so frightened that he immediately pricked up his ears, listening for any thunder outside that might strike him in the head.

After waiting a while without hearing any, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He cleared his throat and explained, "You don't need to think of me as some good person. I've simply grown used to being alone. After all this time, you're the only person who's fallen into the Demon Abyss. It wouldn't have felt right not to save you."

His younger sister had written such a miserable life for the male lead that helping him was only right.

Besides, he was doing this to complete his mission and return to his own world, so he didn't really want the male lead to revere him so much.

He helped Lou Yunxiao up and continued, "You seem like someone with quite a story. Fate brought us together, so tell me about that blood feud. I'll see if I can help."

Lou Yunxiao's sightless eyes remained open, vacant and dull. Immersed in darkness, he had become even more sensitive to physical contact.

Ning Ke's hair brushed the tip of his nose, its cool fragrance refreshing his senses. He lost focus for a moment, then quickly came back to himself, hurriedly putting some distance between them and standing straight off to one side.

He stood like a tall, straight pine, his tone carrying a rigidity and stubbornness ill-suited to his age.

"Big sister, please don't belittle yourself. You've helped me so much. In my heart, you're an exceptionally good person. From now on, whenever you wish, you can take my life."

Lou Yunxiao's earnest tone briefly stunned Ning Ke. Then he heard a notification from the system, Xiao Yuan.

[Ding! Congratulations, host. You have completed the mission: "Disguise yourself as a beautiful big sister and rescue Lou Yunxiao after the massacre of the Flowing Cloud Sect." All you need now is to obtain the mission item to end the time rewind and extend your lifespan by ten days.]

Ning Ke asked, What is the mission item? Are there any specific hints?

[Xiao Yuan doesn't know either. You'll have to figure it out yourself, host.]

After that interruption, Ning Ke no longer felt so rushed. He gave Lou Yunxiao a helpless look and answered gently, "All right, all right, I understand. I'll keep your words in mind."

Only then did Lou Yunxiao's solemn expression soften, and he began recounting what had happened to him.

At sunset, inside the wooden cottage, Ning Ke poured Lou Yunxiao a cup of tea, then poured one for himself. He took a sip and agreed.

"Mm, that Demon Venerable Ning Ke really is a piece of work. Even death by a thousand cuts would be too good for him..."

Now he knew what it felt like to curse himself.

Ning Ke wiped away a bitter tear in his heart and took another sip of tea. Looking up, he saw Lou Yunxiao tighten his grip on his cup, cracks spreading from beneath his fingers.

"I want revenge," he said hoarsely. "But I'm too weak. With these blind eyes, I don't know how to cultivate fast enough to reach a level where I can defeat him."

Ning Ke recalled that, in the original novel, Lou Yunxiao hadn't regained his sight until around the middle of the story, and those eyes had been given to him by his youngest junior brother before his death.

Only after that had Lou Yunxiao truly begun his rise.

In the early stages, Lou Yunxiao had been feeling his way through dual cultivation of Dao and demon. Only after fully integrating the two could all his accumulated efforts bear fruit.

There was no rushing it now.

Still, Ning Ke could use this time to give him some guidance.

He could help him take his first steps.

And so, he asked Lou Yunxiao, "Kid, would you consider dual cultivation of Dao and demon?"