Xue family had been in business for generations, with a vast fortune that supported the livelihoods of thousands. Xue Xingzhi had only one son, Xue Mingyuan, and initially planned for him to inherit the family business. Therefore, from a young age, Xue Mingyuan's studies were much more rigorous.
As for Xue Chenjing, being twins, he naturally followed his brother and was never subjected to hardship.
The parents' intentions were clear to both Xue Chenjing and Xue Mingyuan. Their parents never hid their plans for their future from them.
Xue Chenjing was quite content with this arrangement. He detested the ledgers and abacus beads the most, so he was happy to let his brother handle those. What he loved was horse riding and archery, and going to the mountains to hunt wild game.
Xue Mingyuan was more than willing to indulge him. To give Xue Chenjing more time to practice his horsemanship and archery, Xue Mingyuan would finish his studies early every day.
To outsiders, who didn't know that there were two souls in one body, the Xue family's son was truly a well-rounded and handsome gentleman, both scholarly and skilled in martial arts.
If they hadn't regained their memories, if they hadn't had so many previous lives filled with bitter rivalries, perhaps this life could have been as their parents had hoped—peaceful and stable.
But there were no "if"s.
After Xue Chenjing left home, Xue Xingzhi and Madam Wei searched for him for a long time. Eventually, they accepted the possibility that they might never find him again. Xue Xingzhi adopted a child from a distant branch of the family and began to groom him to take over the family business.
The funeral for Xue Xingzhi and Madam Wei was handled by this adopted child, with Xue Chenjing and Xue Mingyuan only assisting.
Although their parents had passed away long ago, they still observed the human customs of holding a mourning period. In the human world, a soul is weak and disperses after death, with the soul fire falling into reincarnation.
Perhaps it was the deep attachment of the parents' lingering thoughts, but during the funeral, Madam Wei's scattered soul fragments returned slightly.
Yu Yi stood outside the mourning hall, her eyes wide as she watched the thin, smoke-like soul in the hall. At the same time, Xue Chenjing and Xue Mingyuan suddenly looked up.
When Xue Chenjing saw the fragment of his mother's soul, without hesitation, he shot out spiritual threads from his fingertips, forming a soul-gathering array around his mother.
But the death of a soul is the natural order of the universe. Despite his desperate efforts, Madam Wei's soul continued to fade. She had little awareness left, her hands helplessly reaching out, searching.
Xue Chenjing knew what she was searching for. He knelt forward, pressing his face into her fading palm and whispered, "Mother, I'm back."
Xue Mingyuan, always the one to give in, did not step forward to compete with his brother for this final moment of tenderness, leaving this precious time for his brother.
Wei Tinglan's delicate, translucent fingers slowly and carefully traced Xue Chenjing's features. Her anxious expression gradually eased, but soon, she seemed to recall something and grew anxious again.
Xue Chenjing turned his head and gruffly said to Xue Mingyuan, "Come here!"
Xue Mingyuan glanced at him, then stepped forward, bowed deeply, and called out, "Mother, Mingyuan is here too."
Wei Tinglan's soul trembled. With one hand on each of their faces, she carefully touched them. Having fulfilled her wish, her expression calmed, and with a smile, she closed her eyes as her soul dissipated.
The funeral for Xue Xingzhi and Madam Wei was grand. They were buried together in the Xue family cemetery, a truly picturesque and feng shui-blessed location.
With the funeral over, their ties to the mortal world were finally severed. Xue Mingyuan, as he had said, did not linger in the mortal realm, not even with a fragment of his spirit.
Before leaving, he specifically visited the largest pastry shop in the city, buying every type of ice milk cake. He sniffed each one, but could not find the sweet, creamy scent he had smelled that day.
Xue Mingyuan stood on a pavilion, looking down at the bustling street below. This main street was always busy, from the moment the city gates opened in the morning until they closed at night.
With the demons returning to the Demon Realm, the world was less polluted by turbid energy. The cultivators of the Immortal Sect faced trials of their Dao heart, with many falling to the heavenly thunder tribulation, resulting in heavy losses in the cultivation realm. Most Immortal sects chose to close their mountain gates, ordering their disciples to enter seclusion and reflect on their Dao heart.
Without the interference of immortals and demons, the mortal world was much more peaceful.
Among the bustling crowd, Xue Mingyuan immediately recognized the two figures walking away from the city. Yu Yi wore a plain white dress, her black hair styled in a simple bun adorned with a single vibrant peacock feather hairpin.
Xue Chenjing leaned casually towards her, gradually pushing her to the side of the road. Yu Yi paused, then moved to his right, but soon he leaned that way too.
When they were young, they had once raised a little puppy that behaved similarly, always following them around, even if it got stepped on and yelped in pain, it would still limp over, its whole world focused on its owner.
Xue Mingyuan could never be so purely devoted to loving someone. Therefore, they were destined to miss each other.
In the street, Yu Yi seemed to feel someone watching her. She turned around, searching, but only saw a faint figure dissipating on a pavilion.
Xue Chenjing followed her gaze and sensed Xue Mingyuan's spiritual energy for a moment. He casually looked away, saying, "Yu Yi, where do you want to go next? Let's take out your map and have a look."
"You've looked at it so many times," Yu Yi replied, turning her gaze back and taking out her map from her storage pouch. She was surprised to see many annotations and marks on it.
Xue Chenjing raised an eyebrow, pointing at the map. Golden light flickered, and the flat lines suddenly rose and fell, transforming into more detailed and three-dimensional scenes that floated above the paper.
Yu Yi looked at the map, her gaze following Xue Chenjing's finger to a river.
Xue Chenjing said, "If you want to go to River City, we'll take the water route, drifting through the One-Line Canyon, and we'll be there in five days."
As he spoke, a small boat drifted down the river, passing through the narrow canyon between two mountains.
"If you want to go to Ling State, we'll take the land route, and we can detour to the Ten-Thousand-Foot Peak, where there's a Sword Wall. You've always wanted to leave a sword mark there, haven't you?"
The image of the Sword Wall appeared on the map, reflecting in Yu Yi's eyes. She glanced at Xue Chenjing. Over the past few days, he had said he couldn't sleep at night and had taken her collection of geographical records and miscellaneous notes. It turned out he had been working on this.
"What if I want to go to all of them?" she teased.
Xue Chenjing had obviously anticipated her question. His finger traced the map, drawing a third route and pointing to an unremarkable town along the way. "They say the apricot wine here is very good."
Yu Yi looked at the town marked with an apricot symbol on the map and nodded. "Alright, let's go try it."
They didn't summon the celestial crane or the Imperial House Carriage but chose the common mode of travel—a combination of water and land routes.
Xue Chenjing had already prepared the boat, not a luxurious merchant ship, but a new, spacious thatched-roof boat. The cabin was furnished with a low table and mats, with tea and snacks on the table.
Xue Chenjing had carved a spell on the boat, so it could move with the current without a boatman. The scenery along this waterway was beautiful, especially at night when a thin mist rose over the river, and the stars and moon faintly reflected in the water. The wide river was empty except for their small boat, slowly moving forward.
Crane Senior Brother had flown off to an unknown destination, and by midnight hadn't returned. Yu Yi didn't bother summoning him, just stuck a feather on the boat's roof so he could find his way back.
She also had to deal with the increasingly clingy Xue Chenjing.
Yu Yi's hairpin had loosened, and with the jolting motion, it was on the verge of falling. Finally, with one last jolt, it slipped from her hair and landed on the mat with a soft thud. Her coiled hair unraveled, black tresses cascading down to shield her smooth back.
"Yi, Yi, Yi..." Xue Chenjing leaned against the cabin, his head bowed over her, warm tears moistening her front.
Yu Yi let out a soft gasp, cupping his face and kissing the corner of his eye. Somehow, this action seemed to stir him further. Yu Yi felt the change within her and looked up in surprise.
She immediately tried to pull away, but the tentacles wrapped around her waist held her firmly in place.
Yu Yi heard the boat rocking, the splashing of waves, and her hurried breaths were drowned out by the water's sound. After a while, she softly chided, "Xue Chenjing, are you a monster?"
"Yes, I am a monster. Your monster, your master's monster," Xue Chenjing said, holding her tightly, not wanting to let her go for even a moment. He wished they could drift on this river forever, just this river, this boat, just the two of them, entangled until death. "What can I do? Master, I'm such a greedy monster."
Yu Yi blinked away the tears in her eyes, sensing his unusual mood. She forced herself to regain some clarity from the whirlpool of emotions Xue Chenjing had stirred within her and asked, "Aqiu, what's wrong?"
Xue Chenjing's movements paused, and he leaned in to kiss the corner of her lips. "Nothing's wrong, Yi. Do you like me? Even though I'm a monster, do you like me? Tell me you like me, please."
Yu Yi bit the tip of his tongue that had reached out, "Do you think I would allow you to act like this if I didn't like you?"
Xue Chenjing smiled contentedly, "I like you too, so much, so much."
He put his feelings into action, becoming even more passionate. By the time the boat drifted through the night, the morning light had pierced through the thin mist over the river, falling on Yu Yi's delicate eyelids.
Xue Chenjing raised his hand to shield her from the harsh light and whispered, "Yi, I want to accompany you, to visit all the places you've marked, one by one."
Yu Yi murmured half-asleep, "Mmm," already too drowsy to register what he had said. She was truly exhausted.
Xue Chenjing, when he said he wanted to accompany her on her travels, was very serious about planning and arranging their itinerary. He went through all the geographical records and miscellaneous notes on local customs and culture that Yu Yi had collected, meticulously marking them on a map.
They visited Wanren Peak, where Yu Yi meditated before the mountain wall engraved with countless sword marks left by swordsmen. While she communed with the lingering sword intent on the wall, Xue Chenjing sat under a distant tree, breaking twigs in his hand and staring at her without blinking.
"She's studying those sword intents so diligently, training so hard. She wants to stay here for a long time. She hasn't mentioned wanting to go back. Maybe she doesn't want to return anymore."
Xue Chenjing muttered to himself, trying to convince himself of this, yet he couldn't fully believe it. Torn between conflicting emotions, whether to let go or to hold on, both options felt like a hole being dug in his heart.
"Why do you follow me? You like Xue Mingyuan so much. When I separated from Xue Mingyuan, why didn't you go with him?" Xue Chenjing asked, his voice devoid of any anger.
The system, hearing him speak in such a lifeless tone, somehow wished he would rant and curse at it, threaten it, like he used to.
The system replied, "Because Yi chose you."
Xue Chenjing laughed softly, and even now, hearing this answer, he felt a flicker of joy.
"Yes, why did she choose me?"
How could she dare to choose him, knowing he was a selfish, despicable monster, yet she still chose him.
If she had chosen Xue Mingyuan, his brother, perhaps he would have already let her go home.
