"Then what if Big Brother had something to attend to and settled Xiao Yan in the Central Plains ahead of time? With his strength, traveling between the Northwest Continent and the Central Plains wouldn't take much time. No one said Xiao Yan had to travel with you. If that's all you have to go on, it proves nothing."
Xiao Yi Xian was shaken by those words, but she spoke without letting it show on her face.
Back then, her heart had been filled with Xiao Yan, and she had unconsciously overlooked many details of their time together. Now, after hearing Nalan Yanran's words and thinking back, she realized certain things had indeed been amiss. Yet she still clung to a thread of hope, unwilling to believe it.
Her time with "Xiao Yan" had been far too blissful and fulfilling. It had been the happiest period of her life, and her salvation after spending nearly half her life steeped in slaughter. Giving up such a life was simply too difficult.
But what Nalan Yanran said next struck her like a staff crashing down on her head, shattering every last shred of hope in her heart.
"Of course I have other evidence. When I first learned Xiao Yan was in the Netherworld Hall, I was shocked too. As it happened, the hall's defenses were thin at the time, and its strongest resident was you, a peak Half-Saint.
"So I conducted a thorough search for Xiao Yan. But even after searching the entire Netherworld Hall, I couldn't find a trace of his aura. At first, I thought he had gone out. Then I used soul techniques to control several of the hall's senior Dou Zun and questioned them. Their answers were rather unexpected..."
Nalan Yanran spoke with a smile on her lips.
"What