"As I got to know more people here and became more familiar with this era, I felt... as though I was already starting to fit in."
Li Mingyue shifted closer to him again, pressing almost her entire body against his.
Looking out over the river, she scooped up some fine sand and let it scatter from her hand. "Then suppose... your cultivation had already reached the Seven Extremes. Would you go back?"
Cui Jiuyang turned his head and met her eyes, clear as water.
Only after giving it serious thought did he slowly reply, "I probably wouldn't. Because... I still have a lot of unfinished business here."
"Like what?"
"Like... we still haven't cleared out Dafushan Mountain."
"Like, after clearing out Dafushan Mountain, we still have to investigate exactly what trouble Divine Path Heaven is trying to stir up, then stop it."
"Like, I still don't know what's happened to Great-Grandfather."
"Like..."
He had meant to say, "I still have to go to Jidu Shrine to save Ninth Lady," and "I still have to help Little White Snake restore her Divine Soul," but he swallowed the words before they left his mouth.
Somehow, saying these things in front of his senior sister felt rather inappropriate. Thinking of Ninth Lady and Little White Snake in particular left his heart even more unsettled.
So he hesitated, those two sentences stuck in his throat, and ultimately left them unsaid.
He looked at Li Mingyue's profile. Her features were soft and beautiful in the moonlight.
Yet for some reason, her lips were pressed tightly together, and her expression seemed rather solemn.
Li Mingyue had been gazing out over the river, quietly waiting for him to finish.
When he suddenly fell silent, she turned and met Cui Jiuyang's gaze, her eyes clear, and finished his