"Xiao Yan... he's already dead, isn't he?"
After a moment of silence, Xiao Yi Xian suddenly spoke to Hun Changqing.
Hun Changqing nodded. At this point, there was no longer any reason to hide it.
His answer did not surprise Xiao Yi Xian, so her emotions did not surge particularly violently. She merely asked another question.
"Was he still alive when I first arrived at the Netherworld Hall?"
"He was, and he really was in the Netherworld Hall at the time. I didn't lie to you about that."
Hun Changqing answered bluntly.
"Did I ever truly meet Xiao Yan? Or... was it you all along?"
Xiao Yi Xian voiced the question buried deepest in her heart.
Hun Changqing shook his head.
"I misjudged certain aspects of Xiao Yan's value back then, which led me to place him under such thorough control that I couldn't possibly let the two of you meet. That also forced me to step in personally. Otherwise, using Xiao Yan to lash you and your Woeful Poison Body to the Netherworld Hall's ship would have been well worth it."
"But there's no point thinking about that now. Besides, however fixated you were on Xiao Yan, his heart was set solely on his childhood sweetheart. Even if you had really met him, things between you wouldn't have gone so smoothly..."
Hun Changqing truly was not making this up. After he had restored Xiao Yan's sanity, the brat had gone on about Xun'er day in and day out, until Hun Changqing's ears had practically grown calluses.
As for Xiao Yi Xian, he had never heard Xiao Yan mention her even once. He had probably considered the events in the Magical Beast Mountain Range nothing more than a passing episode and never taken them to heart.
"So that's how it