Chapter 132

Chapter 132

At that moment, the man before me felt like a stranger.

He was the very image of an eminent monk deep in meditation, his entire bearing completely different from the Liu Junyan I knew.

My sudden appearance interrupted his cultivation.

When he turned to look at me, my first instinct was to hide.

I felt like I was truly losing my mind. What… what was happening to us?

I turned and ran.

I raced back to my room in one breath, locked the door behind me, and leaned against it, unable to calm my turbulent emotions for a long time.

It wasn’t until Li Qingying knocked on the door and called from outside, “Xiao Jiu, what happened? What’s been making that noise in your room all this time? Is something burning?” that I finally snapped out of it.

The hair dryer was still running.

It had been on for so long that it was beginning to give off a scorched smell.

I hurried over and switched it off, then opened the door to let Li Qingying in. After offering a few flimsy excuses and seeing her out, I climbed into bed, buried myself beneath the covers, and recited the Mind-Purifying Technique Yu Nian had taught me several times.

When I finally began to calm down, a thought suddenly struck me. Could this be the ill omen Yu Nian had seen in her divination?

She had said that the omen stemmed from our obsessions and karma. She had also said that I needed to use my tenderness to unravel the inner demons plaguing us both.

Of everything Yu Nian had told me, the most important point was that I had to steady my own heart first-to deliver myself before I could deliver anyone else.

Only through self-deliverance could one reach the other shore.

Just then, the bedroom door creaked softly open, and my entire body stiffened.

A moment later, the mattress dipped beside me. The familiar scent of agarwood, mingled with the faint fragrance of incense, enveloped me. Liu Junyan reached beneath the covers and gathered my entire body into his arms.

This was his favorite way to hold me, and it was my favorite too.

Curled against his chest like this, listening to the powerful beat of his heart, I always felt safe.

But today, that sense of security seemed to be mixed with something else.

“Xiao Jiu, don’t be afraid of me, all right?” Liu Junyan murmured softly in my ear. “I’m not a monster. I’m still the same person I was before.”

He held me so tightly.

I turned around to face him and sank into his embrace once more.

At that moment, I didn’t know what I should say or what I should ask.

Liu Junyan’s kisses fell upon me in an endless shower.

The curtains in the room were still drawn. Rain seemed to have begun falling outside, pattering against the window. It reminded me of the night we consummated our marriage, when it had also started raining afterward.

Liu Junyan’s passion swept over me, carrying the damp breath of the rain.

“Cold… Liu Junyan, it’s cold…”

I couldn’t say exactly what had changed, but something definitely had.

Even in bed, he seemed to have changed in certain ways.

“Don’t be afraid, Xiao Jiu. Get used to me.”

The rain fell harder and harder, drumming loudly against the window. The Prayer Beads around Liu Junyan’s wrist pressed against my right cheek, rubbing again and again over the ‘Slave’ mark that became especially vivid whenever my skin grew hot.

I closed my eyes and nestled my face into his palm. Casting aside every distracting thought, I gradually surrendered myself to the moment.

At last, the sudden downpour subsided.

Liu Junyan carried me into the shower, then brought me back to bed. I curled up in his arms, feeling even more energetic and refreshed than before.

That was the benefit of dual cultivation.

Even if, for now, I was still only a passive participant.

My fingers idly scratched at his broad chest. After mulling it over for a long time, I finally decided to ask him outright, “You… made a deal with the Copper-Coin Figure, didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t a transaction,” Liu Junyan said. “Strictly speaking, it was an Awakening.”

An Awakening?

What was that supposed to mean?

Even Liu Junyan seemed to have trouble explaining it. He merely repeated, “Xiao Jiu, I’m still the same person I was. Don’t be afraid of me, and please don’t push me away because of this. All right?”

“I won’t,” I promised. “Unless you give me reason to believe you aren’t yourself anymore, I’ll never be the one to push you away.”

Then I asked, “Now that you’ve undergone an Awakening, you can leave the Pawnshop freely without suffering Heavenly Retribution, right?”

Liu Junyan nodded. “Yes. Xiao Jiu, as of today, I’m free.”

That, at least, made me genuinely happy for him.

“But from now on, I’ll need to cultivate,” Liu Junyan said. “Some of the things I do may seem a little strange.”

I replied gently, “That’s all right. I’ll learn to adapt to your pace and catch up with you as quickly as I can.”

I trusted Yu Nian. I trusted the divination she had cast.

Gentleness had always been my ultimate weapon.

Liu Junyan kissed the top of my head, then caught the hand I had been roaming over his chest. His breathing was slightly uneven. “In the century since I entered the Wufu Town Pawnshop, there was one thing I could never figure out. This battle finally made everything clear to me.

“I’ve already had Lord Xiao spread the word. From today onward, the Wufu Town Pawnshop will open its doors wide to the Realms of Yin and Yang. Xiao Jiu, you’re going to be busy.”

I looked up at Liu Junyan in surprise. “What’s your goal?”

“Xiao Jiu, I want you to help me recover every Golden Scale that was lost back then,” Liu Junyan said. “Don’t worry about stirring up trouble. I’ll always have your back.”

I wasn’t afraid of stirring up trouble. I was simply worried about him for reasons I couldn’t quite explain. “So you want to recover every Golden Scale as soon as possible, return to the Sword Array in the Forbidden Zone of Linghai, and reclaim your Lifebound Artifact. Is that right?”

Liu Junyan looked pleased. “You understand me, Xiao Jiu.”

Lord Xiao had tried to persuade him before and had even struck Liu Junyan over it, yet Liu Junyan had still refused to take this risk.

Why had he suddenly changed his mind today?

Was it because of… the Copper-Coin Figure?

What exactly was that Copper-Coin Figure? Why did it have such a profound influence on Liu Junyan?

With that thought, I continued pressing for answers. “The wall-mounted shrine in the West Room once held dozens of entities of greater and lesser stature… immortals, I suppose. Don’t you find it strange that there were so many of them being worshiped?

“I even saw Bai Xian’er’s spirit tablet prominently displayed among them.”

“The few from the principal positions will all return,” Liu Junyan said with certainty. “As for the rest, I’ll remove them one by one. Bai Xian’er’s spirit tablet will soon disappear from the shrine’s altar niches.”

I fell silent for a moment. Countless questions filled my mind, yet somehow, it all seemed to make sense.

After a while, I asked tentatively, “Then… all the immortals enshrined there will need offerings from me in the future, right?”

I felt as though I had become a spirit medium, carrying the Four Beams and Eight Pillars on my back, with more incense to offer than I could ever burn.

Liu Junyan’s answer filled me with despair. “Yes.”

I wailed inwardly.

“But your offerings won’t go unrewarded,” Liu Junyan said. “Right now, the only one in the shrine’s altar niches whom you need to worship wholeheartedly is the one in the seat reserved for the Presiding Deity. No one knows when the others will return to their places one by one.

“Once they return and accept your offerings, they’ll do everything in their power to serve you. You can even think of them as your soldiers…”