Ye Luqing was startled awake by a gust of wind.
It wasn’t the heavy, mountain-like pressure of the Profound Yellow Mountain-Suppressing Art, but a breeze carrying the crisp scent of grass and trees, gentle yet sharp.
This wind, carrying the thin morning mist of Heavenly Sword Peak, brushed past her ear, leaving only a faint, cool tickle.
She snapped her eyes open, but instead of her small courtyard, she found herself standing on a familiar sword practice field.
The bluestone slabs were damp with dew, reflecting the nascent glow of dawn on the horizon. In the center of the White Jade Platform not far away, Xiao Qingxuan stood with her back to her, practicing her sword.
The hem of her plain white robe was lifted by the sword aura, fluttering like a butterfly’s wings.
Xiao Qingxuan’s spirit sword shimmered with a pale purple light in the morning sun. Each swing scattered fine motes of light that landed on the back of Ye Luqing’s hand, carrying a barely perceptible warmth.
‘Am I… already in the dream?’
Ye Luqing regained her senses, immediately forming a judgment.
‘But… this is too real…’
She marveled inwardly, then secretly circulated her true qi, only to find her Dantian Qi Sea completely empty, with no trace of a Golden Core.
‘Foundation Establishment Peak Stage…’
This meant she was in the second year of her acquaintance with Xiao Qingxuan, or perhaps earlier.
According to the original story’s plot, Ye Luqing broke through to the Golden Core Stage at the end of her second year after joining the sect.
Based on this, she judged the current timeline to be around that period.
By this time, Ye Luqing’s relationship with Xiao Qingxuan had already improved. It was much better than the first year, but not yet as intimate as in the following three years.
Simply put, at this point in time, Xiao Qingxuan was already being subtly changed by Ye Luqing, drawn to her, but was still in a state of self-denial.
Choosing to start by reshaping the memories of this period showed that Xiao Qingxuan had indeed put thought into it.
There were no early wife-abusing incidents, and it was precisely when their relationship began to warm up.
“What are you spacing out for?”
Just as Ye Luqing was still pondering, an aloof voice sounded from behind her.
She turned her head instinctively, her gaze colliding with a pair of amethyst-like eyes.
Xiao Qingxuan had somehow ceased her sword practice. Her temple hair was slightly mussed by the morning wind, and in her hand was a food box.
This was a food box she had made herself from bamboo, its edges still bearing the splinters from her initial attempts at weaving.
“J-just woke up…” Ye Luqing answered instinctively.
She heard her own voice trembling, but not from fear.
This voice was soft and sweet, with a nasal huskiness from just waking up—completely different from the voice she had been deliberately putting on for the past few days.
Stranger still, her body acted before her mind, her hand lifting as if to touch Xiao Qingxuan’s wind-tousled hair.
However, just as her fingertips were about to brush Xiao Qingxuan’s locks, the scene flickered.
In an instant, the sword practice field vanished, replaced by a Scripture Pavilion.
Strange—in reality, Ye Luqing had never been here, but she was certain this was the largest pavilion on Scripture Peak.
She was dozing off, slumped over a low table, her cheek pressing down on an open sword art manual. A small smudge of ink had bloomed at the corner of her mouth.
Ye Luqing’s sword art attainments were utterly mediocre. She was the type that even an Outer Disciple of Heavenly Sword Peak could trample on.
Naturally, she couldn’t comprehend sword-related books; she only read them to understand Xiao Qingxuan better.
Xiao Qingxuan sat beside her, flipping through a book with focused attention. The sound of turning pages was as soft as a feather landing on the ground.
When Ye Luqing unconsciously slid off the low table in her sleep, a hand steadily caught the back of her neck.
“Watch your sleeping posture.”
Xiao Qingxuan’s voice remained as cold as ever, but her fingertips gently rubbed the back of Ye Luqing’s neck a couple of times, the touch soft and warm.
Ye Luqing’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. For a moment, she couldn’t tell what was real and what was an illusion.
She knew this was fake—a dream constructed by the Dream-Building Lotus.
But the touch on her neck was too real, the cold, elegant fragrance wafting from Xiao Qingxuan’s sleeve was too real, and she could even clearly feel the astringent taste of the ink at the corner of her own mouth.
The “let me go” that bubbled in her throat turned into a coquettish mumble as it reached her lips: “Sister, you’re turning the pages too loudly…”
The moment the words left her mouth, she saw Xiao Qingxuan’s page-turning motion pause, her ears secretly reddening.
In the next instant, the scene switched again.
It was a rainy night. They were executing a sect mission in a small town within the Heavenly Qin Empire and were trapped in a dilapidated temple to shelter from the rain.
Xiao Qingxuan had lit a fire, its flames casting flickering shadows on her profile.
Ye Luqing huddled in a corner, shivering, not from the cold, but because the scene she had witnessed during the day—a Demonic Beast charging into the village and slaughtering its inhabitants—was too horrific.
Suddenly, an outer robe, still carrying body heat, was draped over her. Xiao Qingxuan’s voice came through the sound of rain.
“…If you’re afraid, come closer.”
Ye Luqing instinctively moved over. The moment her shoulder touched the other’s arm, she smelled the rain-soaked scent of Xiao Qingxuan’s clothes, mixed with a faint trace of blood.
It was from a wound left by a Golden Core Stage Demonic Beast that day, while protecting her.
“Sister, does it hurt?”
She heard herself ask, her voice thick with a sob.
The demonic qi left by a Golden Core Great Demon couldn’t be healed by a mere Foundation Establishment Peak array cultivator.
Xiao Qingxuan didn’t answer, only leaned a bit more toward her, allowing Ye Luqing to feel the warmth of her body through their clothes more clearly.
The firewood crackled. Staring at the dancing flames, Ye Luqing suddenly felt a strong urge to look up and see Xiao Qingxuan’s expression.
The moment this thought arose, the firelight before her eyes violently wavered.
“Nngh…”
Ye Luqing groaned, a throbbing ache pulsing in her temples.
She reached out to grab something but only grasped empty air.
The dilapidated temple, the firelight, the warm outer robe—all vanished, leaving only an endless, pale void.
She knew this was a dream.
Yet, the blush behind Xiao Qingxuan’s ears from earlier was real, the touch on her neck was real, and even the musty smell of mold from the temple still lingered in her nostrils.
Clearly, she hadn’t experienced this in reality, but she could vividly recall that on that rainy night, she ultimately hadn’t dared to look up. She had just buried her face in Xiao Qingxuan’s robe and secretly inhaled a breath of her scent, tinged with blood.
“Sister, don’t go…”
She heard herself murmur unconsciously, her voice laced with an attachment even she found unfamiliar.
…………
Outside the Dream
A wisp of pale true qi condensed at Xiao Qingxuan’s fingertip as she slowly injected it into the Dream-Building Lotus.
The flower petals trembled slightly, and specks of purple light drifted into the Spirit Palace at Ye Luqing’s brow, reflecting in her eyes and casting a soft light.
As the provider of the dream material, she could also synchronously perceive everything happening within the dream.
Even events from years ago, as long as they were related to A-Qing, she could remember them with crystal clarity.
When Ye Luqing murmured “Sister, don’t go” in her dream, Xiao Qingxuan’s fingers holding the Dream-Building Lotus tightened almost imperceptibly. A faint sigh, quick as an illusion, escaped her throat.
“…Soon. It will be over soon.”
An hour later, she looked out the window. A streak of fish-belly white was already rising on the horizon.
With this, the memories of her second year with Ye Luqing were completely reshaped.
