“So what?” Yun Qingxue asked him.
“So… this time, as soon as the master heard someone wanted to pick the fruit and become his disciple, he was overjoyed. He calculated the time of your arrival and happily waited for his new disciple to arrive. A few days ago, he even said that waiting a thousand years for this moment, after such a long silence, someone with the courage to pick the fruit and seek apprenticeship must be extraordinary—someone who would surely survive the journey to Luoyun Mountain.”
Yun Qingxue curled her lips. A thousand years? Was this some kind of *Legend of the White Snake* reenactment? And though the young man before her looked ethereal and refined, his nonsense was truly endless!
“Ah~” The young man sighed leisurely. “According to the master’s calculations, you should have arrived with the fruit long ago. But no matter how long we waited, you never showed up. So, the master observed the stars at night and finally discovered something.”
Here, the young man deliberately paused, his bright eyes fixed on Yun Qingxue as he blinked. “Little junior sister, guess what the master found?”
Yun Qingxue couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “How would I know?”
Why was this guy so full of pointless chatter?
“Haha,” the young man grinned, revealing his teeth. Though Yun Qingxue didn’t play along, he didn’t drag it out further.
“The master deduced that this time, the one seeking apprenticeship is a star of kingship—a leader of a clan. But alas, your strength is far too weak!”
“And then?” Yun Qingxue asked.
“And then,” the young man continued, “the master, who had struggled for a thousand years without a single disciple, decided to make an exception!!! He’d open a backdoor for the rare candidate who finally appeared. So, he sent me here to help you cheat.”
“How exactly are you going to cheat?” Yun Qingxue eyed the young man’s handsome face.
He grinned mysteriously. “Little junior sister, can’t you guess?”
Yun Qingxue decided to ignore such a foolish question. If she could guess, why would she bother asking?
More importantly, after everything she’d been through, even after the young man’s lengthy explanation, she still didn’t fully trust him.
“I don’t want to guess,” Yun Qingxue replied coolly, her voice tinged with frost.
The young man sensed the shift in her mood. His smile faded, replaced by faint tension. “Little junior sister, are you upset?”
Yun Qingxue looked up and flashed him a sudden, radiant smile—like spring blossoms in March.
The young man was momentarily stunned by her breathtaking beauty. But just as quickly, he abruptly released her and darted away like a ghostly shadow.
Without his support, Yun Qingxue couldn’t stay afloat. Her body plummeted rapidly toward the ground. The night wind billowed her skirt, making her look like a butterfly falling from the sky—graceful yet tragic.
*I can’t die like this!*
Yun Qingxue desperately gathered all the spiritual energy she had absorbed in recent days, trying to slow her descent. She couldn’t fly yet, but she could use the little magic she’d learned to avoid being smashed to pieces.
All these thoughts and actions happened in the blink of an eye.
Before she could even summon her energy, her slender waist was encircled again, and her body halted mid-air.
The young man’s handsome face was now inches away, smiling. One arm held her, while the other gripped A’dai’s seven-inch weak spot.
“Little junior sister, you’re quite mischievous,” he said playfully.
“Hiss—!” A’dai flicked its tongue in frustration. Its sneak attack had ended before it even began. This young man’s reflexes were terrifyingly fast.
Since the ambush had failed, Yun Qingxue saw no point in hiding her emotions. Her clear eyes fixed on the young man, cold and unreadable.
“Speak. What’s your real purpose in abducting me?”
The young man’s handsome brow furrowed. His star-like eyes gazed at her, filled with hurt. “How could you think that of me, junior sister?”
“Ha!” Yun Qingxue scoffed icily. “Cut the act. If you tell me your goal now, I might even consider cooperating. But if you’re planning to manipulate or harm me in secret, know this—I’d rather die than let you succeed!”
The young man stared at her. Deep within his bright eyes, something turbulent seemed to stir.
After a moment, he shed his playful demeanor and spoke with utmost seriousness. “I won’t harm you.”
Yun Qingxue’s eyes flickered briefly before she turned her face away.
Since crossing into this world, too many had tried to hurt or use her. She couldn’t easily trust a stranger’s words.
“Junior sister, my name is Mo Changxing,” the young man said softly.
Yun Qingxue instinctively looked back at him as he continued, “Mo as in ink, Chang as in song, Xing as in stars.”
She frowned slightly. The young man smiled faintly. “When you meet the master tomorrow, you’ll see that everything I’ve said is true. For now, I’ll take you somewhere to show you how I plan to help you cheat your way into apprenticeship!”
With that, black tendrils—thin as threads—emerged from Mo Changxing’s fingertips and swiftly slithered into A’dai’s tiny nostrils.
“What are you doing?!” Yun Qingxue barely had time to exclaim before the dark smoke vanished into A’dai’s body.
A’dai’s beady eyes slowly dulled. Yun Qingxue’s heart sank. In an instant, she lunged at Mo Changxing’s throat, driven by a single thought: *If he dares hurt A’dai, I’ll fight him to the death!*
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