Yu Yi raised her hand, and a beam of sword light slashed diagonally from her blade, splitting the sea's surface and striking directly toward Pei Jingchao's position.
The sword light carried a murderous aura; the air howled where it passed, with interweaving lightning forming a dense net, exploding into intense sparks. Within the sparks, one could faintly see the crimson crane sword spirit flapping its wings, pulverizing everything beneath its blade where its feathers swept past.
This was a killing move that left no room for retreat, blocking almost all of Pei Jingchao's escape routes. Without her needing to say more, it clearly demonstrated her choice.
Pei Jingchao watched helplessly as the crimson crane sword spirit lunged at him. Before it even reached him, the sword pressure first collided with his body. The moisture on his body rapidly evaporated, his skin burned red from the scorching sword wind, blistering from the heat.
Electric arcs jumped onto his body, sharp as knife edges, instantly cutting countless wounds across his form, blood spraying along the lightning.
Pei Jingchao had never seen such a fierce and cruel sword technique, no different from death by a thousand cuts. He howled in agony, crying out: "Why?! Look carefully - we are the destined pair! How can you do this to me for the sake of a demon?!"
Just before the crane's wings completely enveloped Pei Jingchao, a talisman light suddenly lit up at his chest, carrying his form away. The next moment, the sword light ground through, obliterating the blood-stained deck remnants beneath the crimson crane sword spirit.
Yu Yi frowned in surprise; she could sense that her sword strike hadn't hit anyone - had Pei Jingchao escaped? Under such circumstances, he actually still had the strength to flee.
She glared at Xue Chenjing through the splashing water and said, "Villains die because they talk too much, don't you know? If you want to kill him, just do it cleanly and decisively. Why waste words with him?"
"Yi'er." Xue Chenjing turned his gaze, his pitch-black pupils reflecting the splashing water, behind which was her dawn-red long dress, her jet-black hair floating in the air, without pins or ornaments, her face free of powder and rouge, yet possessing a soul-stirring beauty.
She had chosen him, willing to abandon her high position and fall with him into endless hell without any hesitation.
Xue Chenjing drew a sharp breath, and through his mist-covered vision, he watched as Yu Yi turned her gaze away, raising her eyes to look at the fate lines branching in mid-air, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.
His thundering heartbeat paused with her movement, following her line of sight upward, the arrow nocked to his finger raising instinctively, wanting to destroy the scenes in the air, not wanting her to see any of it.
Even though she already knew these plot points, he didn't want Yu Yi to see the scenes of her marrying Pei Jingchao. Those scenes of celebration and countless blessings.
However, before he could loose his arrow, the scenes in mid-air began to collapse one after another. The golden fate lines extending in the air started to retract, like rapidly withering branches, with the connected scenes along the branches reversing, as if time was flowing backward.
When the fate lines withered to a certain point, they suddenly stopped. Those fate lines emitted golden light, sprouting anew, extending in a different direction.
The scene shown at that frozen point was of demons breaking into Mount Li, attempting to steal the Sword-Sealing Stone, with Yu Yi taking advantage of the chaos to escape. Xue Chenjing lowered his arrow, his eyes showing confusion and surprise.
In the previous fate line's direction, Yu Yi had never left Mount Li. She had always stayed by Pei Jingchao's side, just as he had said, washing his clothes and cooking his meals, practicing swordplay and appreciating plum blossoms with him. She had been like any other virtuous woman in the world, always putting her loved one's interests first, even willing to harm herself, offering up her eyes and heart's blood for him.
But this time, the direction shown on the fate lines was completely different. Yu Yi was independent, autonomous, with her own choices and decisions, unbounded by anyone.
This was the appearance he was familiar with, her true self.
Not only did Xue Chenjing find it puzzling, even the system was somewhat confused. The fate lines they had seen earlier were from the plot of "Jingchao," so what was this new fate line direction about? When had this segment occurred?
The system hurriedly searched through its internal records and discovered that there was a gap in the task materials provided by the main system, and now, this gap was slowly being filled.
There was already one failed task record under this mission, assisted by system 037, which it looked down upon as only knowing how to fight and level up.
This current world was actually the second cycle of a restarted mission. It hadn't made a mistake in binding to the wrong person; from the very beginning, under the main control system's arrangement, it was supposed to bind to the villain.
No wonder the main system had dismissed its error report so casually! The system had always thought it had made a mistake in binding to the wrong person and had to bear the consequences of its error, diligently working to complete the mission.
But it turned out none of this was its fault! How infuriating! It was the protagonist's system! Why should it have to bind to the villain? Why did it have to suffer so much? Curse the main control system!
As the new direction of fate lines sprouted in mid-air, the memories of that lost lifetime began to resurface in Xue Chenjing's mind.
He had reincarnated too many times, experienced too many cycles of life and death, to the point where missing the memories of one or two lifetimes wasn't a big deal - after all, none of his lifetimes had been particularly good, not worth remembering clearly.
But he hadn't expected that his missing memories would be about her. They had already experienced one lifetime together before.
Xue Chenjing watched the scenes in the air, remembering that lifetime when he and Xue Mingyuan had rarely reached an agreement, deciding to infiltrate Mount Li to retrieve the People's Flame. However, Mount Li's defenses against demons were extremely strict, so he had to give control of the body to Xue Mingyuan, only monitoring his every move, ready to take back control at any sign of trouble.
Fortunately, Xue Mingyuan also wanted to retrieve the People's Flame, so he obediently followed his instructions, searching for weaknesses in Mount Li's protective formation and understanding the defensive layout of the Sword-Sealing Stone, without making any unnecessary moves.
No, it couldn't be said he hadn't made any unnecessary moves - the only extra thing he had done was to help a female cultivator who was being bullied several times, thus becoming familiar with her, their relationship growing closer and closer.
That female cultivator was Yu Yi.
Xue Chenjing watched all this from within their shared consciousness, sensing Xue Mingyuan's budding feelings, and warned him: "You should know that you cannot control this body permanently, so it's best to put aside your little thoughts. Otherwise, I won't mind sending your little sweetheart to the afterlife."
Threatened by him, Xue Mingyuan began deliberately trying to avoid her.
However, Yu Yi had clearly already come to view him as a confidant, and in those clear eyes of hers, there were also slowly growing hints of affection.
Her gaze toward Xue Mingyuan always carried more tenderness than when she looked at others, showing signs of dependency, yearning for him to respond to her feelings.
Xue Mingyuan's painful expression as he struggled to suppress his feelings while not daring to respond was truly satisfying to watch.
Xue Chenjing observed coldly, as if watching an excellent drama, comparable to the folk tale of "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai," with him playing the role of the villainous "Ma Wencai" who tears apart the lovers.
This role actually suited him quite well.
Sometimes, he would become so engrossed in watching that he would involuntarily take control of the body, to touch her, to smell her, to satisfy his brother's inner desires.
Xue Mingyuan would never make such offensive gestures.
As a result, when he suddenly acted this way, Yu Yi would open her eyes wide in surprise, her long eyelashes trembling, casting confused glances his way, while her earlobes gradually turned red in the sunlight.
Xue Chenjing would then return control of the body, watching with amusement as Xue Mingyuan hastily searched for various excuses to explain his overly intimate behavior. As Yu Yi listened to his desperate attempts to distance himself, the blush on her face would gradually fade.
Her heart must have grown cold, for she stopped seeking them out afterward.
Until the eve of their planned action, when they had finally mastered knowledge of Mount Li's defensive weaknesses, Yu Yi suddenly came to find Xue Mingyuan, wanting him to leave with her.
Through Xue Mingyuan's eyes, Xue Chenjing gazed at the expectation on her face, those eyes filled with scattered starlight as she laid bare her sincere heart, saying she liked him and wanted to be with him, to leave this place together.
Xue Mingyuan was always so likable - why was he always the one people fell for?
For a moment, he desperately wanted to reclaim his body, reveal his sharp fangs and sinister side, to let her see with her own eyes that this body wasn't as beautiful as it seemed, and that it concealed a monster within. Then he would watch her scream and run away.
It wouldn't be the first time something like this had happened. Those women would easily fall for Xue Mingyuan, and just as easily be frightened away.
However, Xue Chenjing restrained himself. He had seen this scenario play out too many times, and he found it tedious. Besides, he knew how Xue Mingyuan would choose - he wouldn't dare to accept her or go with her. He knew the consequences of accepting her, and he dared not let her see the other monster dwelling within this body.
As he predicted, Xue Mingyuan refused her.
Yu Yi didn't persist. She simply smiled, said goodbye, and turned away cleanly, never looking back. But when she turned, Xue Chenjing clearly saw the glimmer of tears in the corner of her eye.
Xue Chenjing pressed his temple, remembering only this fragment, but try as he might, he couldn't recall what happened afterward. He looked up, desperately wanting to see the subsequent events in the fate lines displayed in mid-air.
However, the lines in the air only showed Pei Jingchao's fate. After Yu Yi left Mount Li, her figure disappeared from the scenes.
When she appeared again, she was being forced onto a sword platform, where someone was forcibly piercing her heart to draw blood for a sword. Xue Chenjing was both shocked and enraged. He immediately turned to Yu Yi, flashing in front of her, trying to block her view.
But Yu Yi merely glanced at the scene, showing no emotion in her eyes, and said, "Pei Jingchao isn't dead yet. We need to find him and kill him."
"Alright," he replied softly, his eyes red. If he had known this would happen, he would have rather let Xue Mingyuan leave with her. "Yu Yi, I'm sorry."
Yu Yi looked up in confusion at his words, not understanding what he was apologizing for. Xue Chenjing gently wiped the corner of her eye, then turned and flew towards the sea. He pulled out an arrow stained with Pei Jingchao's blood and drew a tracking formation on it with his fingers.
The formation merged with the bloodstain, and the arrow flew from his hand, following the direction of the sea mist's flow into a funnel-shaped vortex on the sea's surface. This vortex was originally meant to absorb the Earth Impurity mist, but instead gave him a chance to escape.
Xue Chenjing and Yu Yi moved simultaneously, pursuing towards that sea vortex.
At the bottom of the funnel, Shen Qingzhi was dragging Pei Jingchao, about to jump into the transmission array connected to the abyss, when suddenly there was a thunderous boom. A thick tentacle pierced through the vortex's water wall, stretching across the transmission array.
The tentacle was dark brown, with rough and tough skin covered in circles of huge blue rings. Just one tentacle was enough to block the entire transmission array.
The array immediately latched onto the tentacle, pulling it inward. Giant waves rose in the sea as a massive creature was dragged along with the waves, blocking every gap in the transmission array. Shen Qingzhi hurriedly retreated into the air.
Turning his head, he saw a long arrow whistling towards him. Shen Qingzhi threw out a talisman to knock down the arrow, but in the next instant, a figure flashed before him, fingers transformed into claws, slashing at his face.
The two were separated by this strike, and Pei Jingchao fell from Shen Qingzhi's grasp, landing on the octopus's enormous body, half-trapped in the transmission array.
Yu Yi pursued closely, swinging her sword at Pei Jingchao.
Pei Jingchao dodged pathetically with his severely injured body. He too had seen his changing fate lines in the air, realizing that was what had truly happened in his previous life.
He should have lived a life as heaven's favored son, but it could be easily changed by the choice of a woman who should have been merely his subordinate. It was so in the previous life, and it remained so in this new life.
This was simply absurd.
"This is all your fault! Why? If you had just stayed obediently by my side, we could have had everything - power, status, fame, and worship. The whole world could have been ours," Pei Jingchao couldn't understand. "Don't you want to ascend to godhood? Only by following me could you become a god."
Yu Yi replied coldly, "No, I don't. Being human is quite nice."
Pei Jingchao looked at her with contempt, "Women are so short-sighted."
Yu Yi swept her sword horizontally, knocking him to the ground, and sneered, "Too bad the heavenly way ultimately abandoned you, its chosen one, and chose me, this short-sighted woman instead."
Pei Jingchao spat out blood, no longer able to dodge. His face twisted, his remaining eye almost bulging out of its socket. Unable to move, he tried to wound her with words, "I don't regret cutting out your heart for blood at all."
In his previous life, he had truly loved her, and even in this new life, he would have fallen in love with her again. They should have had a beautiful life together, but she ruined everything.
Yu Yi walked up to him, raising her sword high as she looked down at him, and smiled, "As it happens, I've never regretted running you through with my sword either. So, we're even."
In the sky, the golden fate line extended forward, showing Yu Yi raising her sword to pierce his heart.
The scene matched the present moment exactly. As the brilliant sword light flashed across Pei Jingchao's eyes, his vision turned white. As the intense pain struck, he heard Yu Yi say softly, "In this life, you haven't yet cut out my heart for blood, but I'm going to kill you. So I suppose I owe you one."
Pei Jingchao remembered the previous life, when she ran him through with her sword, she said she wanted his luck and cultivation. Using the same tone he had once used with her, she said it was for the sake of all living beings, she had no choice.
In the previous life, when Pei Jingchao's cultivation was taken by her, his soul didn't immediately dissipate. So he watched as she took her sword and went to the demon palace, completing what he couldn't, driving the Primordial Sword into the Demon Lord's heart.
The white in Pei Jingchao's vision began to fade, and he vaguely saw an approaching figure. He suddenly smiled and used his last breath to shout, "Xue Chenjing, she'll kill you too! Everything she's done was to kill you!"
Having finished dealing with Shen Qingzhi, Xue Chenjing arrived just in time to see Yu Yi thrust her sword into Pei Jingchao's heart. He heard Pei Jingchao's final words and carelessly raised an eyebrow.
In the sky, the golden fate lines began to dim. Among those fading scenes, Xue Chenjing suddenly saw himself.
He was sitting high on the demon throne, resting his chin on his hand, watching someone approach him with a sword. Though many years had passed, he effortlessly remembered who she was. He looked at her with interest and maliciously asked, "It's you. Have you come here to be my sister-in-law?"
Yu Yi suddenly turned around and drew the Green Bamboo Sword.
The fate lines in the sky rapidly shrank, and the connected scenes accelerated their disappearance, but before they completely vanished, Yu Yi's clear and determined answer still rang out.
She said, "I've come to kill you."
