“Li Mo, are you alright?” When she saw Li Mo spit out blood, even Yun Ruoyan couldn’t remain calm.

Li Mo weakly shook his head, then shut his eyes and fainted. Yun Ruoyan and the first elder carried him into the first elder’s meditation chamber, where the first elder gave Li Mo a spiritual pill, then placed his palms on his chest and infused spiritual energy into him to help him treat his wounds. After one whole day and night, the first elder finally stopped the treatment.

Yun Ruoyan checked on Li Mo, but his unhealthy pallor hadn’t yet lifted.

“First Elder, what’s wrong with Li Mo?” Yun Ruoyan asked the first elder, who had seemed to grow far older over the span of the day.

“I protected his heart with my spiritual energy, but his opponent’s technique is exceedingly strange. His spiritual energy is still running rampant within Li Mo’s body, and I can’t seem to restrict its flow.” The first elder frowned and glanced at Yun Ruoyan. “Protecting his heart is only a stopgap measure, and even I can’t guarantee what will happen in the future. Ruoyan, just what kind of opponent did you two meet?”

Yun Ruoyan forced herself to remain calm as she recounted her experience in the strange realm.

“Pi Batian—you actually encountered Pi Batian?!” The first elder seemed exceedingly shocked. Clearly, he was familiar with this Pi Batian.

“First Elder, can you tell me more about him?”

“I fought with him as well, and I barely escaped with my life!” Apparently, the first elder had encountered Pi Batian when he had gone into the otherworld, and he had suffered a significant defeat at his hands.

Yun Ruoyan couldn’t help inquiring about the incident further, and the first elder told her an account he had never revealed to anyone before. He had arrived in the alternate dimension on land owned by the Pi family. The outworlders had a very negative impression of these lowly groundhogs from lower realms, and the Pi household was one of the most outspoken against them.

No matter their cultivation nor their status on the Chenyuan continent, the cultivators from the Chenyuan continent were nothing more than slaves the moment they entered the Mingyuan continent. In their servitude, they had all done the most menial of tasks, and it was their pride that caused the first elder, Yun Lan, and the others who had gone to the Chenyuan continent to be so reluctant to reveal what awaited her there.

After all, they were all among the top cultivators on the Chenyuan continent, so how could they reveal that there was a time when they had essentially been enslaved? Killing them would be more preferable!

The first elder said that his first job was to tend for horses in the Pi family stables. One time, Pi Batian brought a young boy with him to the stables, seeking a horse to practice archery in the fields.

Right after the boy had gotten on a horse, it suddenly reared up and knocked him down. Despite being young, the boy was already a cultivator, so he wasn’t particularly injured. Since the child didn’t look to be hurt, the first elder wasn’t particularly concerned about his fall. He stepped forward and helped the child up.

What he wasn’t expecting was that, the moment he touched the child, a red whip flashed by his head. At the time, the first elder was a peak ninth-rank blademaster, just a small step from being a sword saint.

As a result, he was able to dodge the sudden blow. When Pi Batian noticed that he actually managed to dodge his attack, he was so interested that he jumped off his horse and began to fight the first elder in earnest.

As was to be expected, the first elder lost the battle. He was struck by Pi Batian’s whip countless times, but because Pi Batian didn’t have any killing intent, the first elder managed to survive his wounds.

“At the time, I was about the same age as Li Mo. A peak ninth-rank blademaster might have been at the apex of cultivators on the Chenyuan continent, but Pi Batian was both younger and more advanced in cultivation than I was,” the first elder sighed.

Yun Ruoyan frowned. “Elder, are you certain that Pi Batian was only a little younger than you were at the time?”

“Yes. What of it?”

“The Pi Batian that we saw didn’t look much older than Li Mo. He still looked like a young male in his twenties or thirties, but shouldn’t he be about my father’s age by now?”

“Ah.” The first elder took a seat and continued, “When you become a sword saint, your body’s natural aging process will be elongated, and ten years to a regular human might only be a year or two for you. Pi Batian became a sword saint earlier than I did, and it makes sense that he also looks much younger. His actual age is probably no different from your father’s.”

He then told Yun Ruoyan that Pi Batian’s blow this time was certainly designed to kill. Hoping against hope, Yun Ruoyan asked the first elder if he knew of a potential remedy to Li Mo’s ails, but he shook his head. “I’ve tried my best. Li Mo’s been heavily injured in the past as well, but he’s always survived his injuries on his own. This time, he’ll have to count on himself as well.”

Because the first elder had expended so much spiritual energy to help Li Mo, he had to go into secluded cultivation, leaving Yun Ruoyan as the only one by Li Mo’s side.

Li Mo lay silently on the futon, his beautiful eyes closed. Except for the slow, steady rise and fall of his chest, he could have passed for a corpse.

Yun Ruoyan took Li Mo by the hand, only to find that it was colder than she could ever recall. Fear and despair warred in her heart, as though she were about to lose the most vital, important part of her life.

“Li Mo, you have to be alright! You can’t leave me alone, you can’t!” Yun Ruoyan clutched Li Mo’s face, stood up, then leaned down and kissed his lips. Just as her lips touched his, Yun Ruoyan suddenly thought that she felt him react.

“Li Mo, are you awake? Have you woken up? If you have, won’t you open your eyes and look at me?”

She gazed unblinkingly at Li Mo, certain that she had seen him open his eyes at least a little. Now, however, his eyes were tightly shut once more. Thinking that she had been seeing things, Yun Ruoyan couldn’t help but tear up. Her tears rolled down her face and impinged on Li Mo’s lips, and Yun Ruoyan leaned down to kiss him again.

This time, Yun Ruoyan clearly saw Li Mo opening his eyes for real—only a little, but she was certain that he had indeed reacted. When she kissed Li Mo, she could feel a slight suction from his lips: Li Mo was kissing her back!

Not daring to let go, Yun Ruoyan continued kissing him, and Li Mo’s eyes finally widened to their usual size. He slowly raised an arm and tightly hugged Yun Ruoyan’s small body, his icy hands skimming over her cheeks. They were initially quite cold, but slowly regained their usual temperature.

“Li Mo, you—” Yun Ruoyan was shocked and surprised that Li Mo had woken up, and it didn’t seem as though his body was greatly affected.

She was just about to inform the first elder of the good news when Li Mo caught her, keeping her body flush against his. “Yan’er, don’t go. I need you to help treat me.”

Yun Ruoyan glanced at Li Mo’s face. His cheeks were a healthy red, but it seemed as though they were being overtaken by white once more, and his body’s temperature was in sharp decline. “Li Mo, what do I have to do?”

Li Mo hugged Yun Ruoyan tightly, his voice weak. “I need to make love to you.”

Yun Ruoyan opened her eyes wide, incredulous. “You… How would that help?! Your current condition…”

“Yan’er, please believe me. It’ll help,” Li Mo replied weakly but surely. As their gazes met, she nodded at Li Mo. She would certainly ask him to explain himself in the future, but as long as she could save Li Mo… It didn’t seem like a big deal; after all, they were already husband and wife.

She drew the curtains around the bed, then slowly undressed herself, revealing her jade-white skin and supple, lithe body. With her deft hands, she removed Li Mo’s outer garments to expose his cold, firm chest. His damaged arm had been bandaged, and Yun Ruoyan was very careful to avoid it.

Just as she did so, Li Mo pulled her into an embrace with his unhurt arm. It was only then that she really believed his words: as they remained in each other’s grasp, coupling with each other, Yun Ruoyan could sense his vitality and energy slowly recovering.

She was rather confused and disconcerted by the fact. “Li Mo, what on earth—”

Li Mo interrupted her words with a kiss. “Yan’er, don’t ask me anything for the moment. I promise I’ll reveal everything to you, but not now.”

Yun Ruoyan gradually sank into a warm ocean’s embrace, the same feeling she had experienced during the night of her wedding with Li Mo. It was warm and comfortable, so comfortable that she found herself relaxing...