"Then let's go." Pei Ye rose with his sword. "I was thinking, the Yi Family couldn't possibly come all this way into the Secret Realm and then have to trek over mountains and rivers to get home."
Li Piaoqing tilted her head up, apparently imagining the scene. Something made the corners of her mouth curve. "...That actually sounds rather fun."
"There's nothing fun about walking mountain trails for that long." The boy who had grown up in the mountains laughed with a sigh. "You city girls just like the novelty. A day or two is fine, but when you walk day after day and still can't get out, with nothing but trees and rocks every day, all dark, and you can't even see the sky clearly when you look up-it's enough to stifle you senseless."
"I grew up in the mountains too!"
Black Chi returned to cat form and settled back on Pei Ye's shoulder, and the two headed back the way they had come.
In truth, a shadow still hung over both their hearts.
Pei Ye had told the girl he had found a solution, but that was only because he had seen Little Sword restraining the Edict Diagram. What that thing actually was, whether it still existed, and where it might be-he knew none of it. Under the Immortal Lord's direct, pressing gaze, the Edict Diagram sought every crack in his Mindscape, stabbing in like sharp needles, seeping through like venom; the Heart Poison the girl had just ignited still drifted about as well, its pitch-black shadow weighing upon her soul.
Pei Ye simply felt no urgency to tell the girl and make her worry. As for her, sitting beside the fire just now, with the boy she loved beside her holding her hand the whole time, had