Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Without hesitation, Helian Jing half-supported and half-carried her, stepping on the twisted and deformed blue bricks as they walked deeper into the courtyard.

As soon as the formation sensed someone rapidly crossing the core area, it abruptly shrank its range. The whispers turned into shrill screams, and the mist changed from pale gray to dark purple, like countless transparent hands reaching out from the ground to grab their ankles.

Helian Jing suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He saw a person standing on the other side of the courtyard, wearing a black robe and covering his face, revealing only a pair of eyes. Those eyes were clear and bright like black jade in the dark purple mist, looking at him with focused and calm gaze.

He dragged the knife wound that ran across his chest and abdomen into the dilapidated temple, thinking he was going to die there. Then the temple door was pushed open, and the man came in, his face veiled in black robes. He bent down and began stitching up his wound, his fingers steady as if he were doing ordinary work.

Helian Jing's breath hitched, and cracks appeared in his perpetually aloof and languid eyes. His grip on the short blade loosened slightly for a moment.

"Helian Jing." Xi Yueli's voice came from his arms, light and urgent, with a wary look as she noticed his stiffness, "Don't look, it's fake."

As she spoke, she raised her hand, her icy fingers pressing against the side of his jaw, forcing him to look away from the illusion.

The moment her fingers touched his skin, he felt the pulling force surging from the depths of the formation, trying to trap him, being severed.

Helian Jing looked down at the upturned face in his arms.

Xi Yueli's eyes shone like two cold stars sunk to the bottom of a pool in the dark purple mist. Her fingers were still pressed against his chin, and the pulse beneath her fingertips was pounding rapidly and steadily.

"That's fake," she repeated.

Helian Jing's breathing calmed down. He raised his hand and covered the hand that was pressed against his chin, his palm against the back of her hand, holding her cold fingers in his palm for a moment before letting go.

His steps were three times more steady than before, and when the main hall door at the end of the courtyard was within reach, the formation activated for the last time.

The fog in the entire courtyard suddenly contracted into an extremely thin vortex, compressing all the fragments of illusion into a single focal point, and then exploded.

Xi Yueli's feet suddenly lost their footing, and the entire blue brick floor seemed to have been ripped away, causing her to plummet downwards.

The moment she fell, Helian Jing released her waist and instead gripped her wrist, while his other hand swung his blade into a crevice in the nearby rocks. The weight of both of them rested on the hilt of that short blade, suspended in mid-air.

Beneath my feet was a bottomless, dark pit, at the bottom of which a dark red light was slowly churning.

Helian Jing gripped her wrist tightly, his knuckles turning white, the force so great it almost crushed her wrist bones.

She hovered in mid-air, looking up at him. Moonlight streamed through the opening, falling on his brow bone and jawline, outlining his silhouette as a black and white figure.

"Don't let go," he said.

"I won't loosen my grip," she replied.

Helian Jing's short blade got stuck in the crevice of the rock, and the hilt made a slight creaking sound under the pressure. He looked down at her and then did something that even he himself did not expect.

He released his hand from the crevice in the rock, and his whole body fell down.

But as he fell, he changed direction, his arm slipping under her armpits and pulling her into his embrace, using his back to cushion her fall.

The two people didn't fall very far, about ten feet.

When Helian Jing landed, his back slammed heavily onto the soil at the bottom of the pit with a muffled thud, and his breath hitched.

But his arms were still tightly wrapped around her waist, pressing her head against his chest, letting her face bury itself in his shoulder to avoid the impact of landing.

Xi Yueli lay on top of him, her forehead pressed against his collarbone, feeling the tremendous impact on his chest, yet she herself was unharmed.

"...Your Highness." Her voice came out muffledly from his chest.

Helian Jing loosened his grip on her waist, and his hand naturally covered the back of her head, his palm resting on the top of her head, just like the day he held her on the ground in Jinxian Courtyard.

"I'm fine." His voice came from deep within his chest, resonating in her ears. "Just a minor injury."

Xi Yueli lifted her head from his chest. Faint light seeped from the cracks in the cave wall at the bottom of the dark pit, illuminating the small space between the two of them.

She looked down at him, who lay on his back on the ground. His silver hairpin had come loose when he fell, and his black hair was spread out behind him. His brow bone was still sharp and clean in the dim light, but the corners of his mouth were curved into a very shallow arc.

"If Your Highness falls and hurts yourself," she said, "I'll carry you out."

Helian Jing looked at her, his eyes shining like two obsidian stones after being quenched in the dim light. He raised his hand and brushed a stray strand of hair that had fallen across her forehead behind her ear. His fingertips brushed against her earlobe, and he could feel that it was faintly hot.

"Alright, I'll let you carry me, but get off me first." His voice carried a thin layer of amusement. "You're quite comfortable lying on top of me, aren't you?"

Xi Yueli then realized that she was still lying on top of him, her knees against his waist and her hands on his chest. She suddenly sat up, the heat from her ear tips spreading to her earlobes, and reached out to pull him up.

Helian Jing grabbed her hand and used it to help him stand up. After standing up straight, his back stiffened for a moment, but he quickly adjusted his posture, suppressing the pain in his eyes as he maintained his usual languid demeanor.

Xi Yueli didn't expose him. She simply walked naturally to his side and behind him, placed one hand on his lower back, and warmed the injured area with her palm through his clothes.

Helian Jing paused for a moment the instant her palm touched him, slowing his steps to match her stride, allowing her hand to remain in place.

The light at the bottom of the dark pit came from several rune stones embedded in the cave wall.

Xi Yueli reached out and touched one of the runes. The warm touch confirmed her direction. "The core of the formation is ahead. The runes are arranged facing east, and the foundation of the main hall is over there."

The two walked along the narrow passage at the bottom of the dark pit for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. At the end of the passage was an iron door, through which a sliver of warm yellow candlelight shone.

The moment Xi Yueli reached out to push the door open, that familiar tingling sensation surged up again. Her hand moved faster than her brain, and the door hinges had already turned half an inch by themselves before she could exert any force.

Inside the door was a small underground chamber. Two oil lamps were lit on the stone wall, their dim but steady flames illuminating the entire room clearly.

In the center of the room was a wooden couch, on which sat a person dressed in a black robe.

Fuyuan.

She was thinner than Xi Yueli had imagined. The large black robe draped over her body hung loosely, and her exposed wrists were so thin that the angles of her knuckles were visible.

Her face was clearly illuminated by the candlelight on both sides, revealing her pale and clear features, chapped lips, and slightly drooping eyelids, as if she were asleep or resting with her eyes closed. But she opened her eyes when she heard the door open.

The moment those eyes opened, Xi Yueli's breath stopped.

Clear and cool like black jade, calm and still like a deep current at the bottom of the river, like a pool of deep water soaked by moonlight.

"You've come," Fu Yuan said, his voice hoarse but steady.