Chapter 457: Where you are, there my soul returns!

Upon waking, Li Qingluo felt much refreshed and clear-headed.

She circulated her still-shallow internal energy and discovered that yesterday's loss had quietly returned?

She unconsciously looked up at Duan Rongshi, who was propping his head on the low couch by the window, having apparently made do there all night, and her heart skipped a beat.

She then quietly got up, hugged the blanket, walked over, and just as she was about to cover him with it, the person before her had already awakened.

"Did you sleep well?"

He rubbed his temples and gave her a gentle smile.

Li Qingluo hesitated a moment and asked, "You… why didn't you go to bed to sleep? I mean, the bed is more comfortable…"

Although they have been married for a year, they have actually never shared a bed.

If this were to get out, probably nobody in the world would believe it.

Li Qingluo felt a little nervous.

She glanced aside, feeling somewhat embarrassed to meet Duan Rongshi's gaze.

Duan Rongshi smiled, threw off the blanket on himself, and gently pulled Li Qingluo.

She thus sat on his lap.

"Do you want me to keep you company while you sleep?"

Li Qingluo's face turned red in a flash.

"What are you talking about?"

"Although MiaoJiang isn't as cold as Jinling, it's still winter, and I'm just afraid you'll catch a chill… cough, if you insist on sleeping out here, who can stop you?"

She struggled to get up.

But Duan Rongshi tightly held her.

"Don't move."

"Lu'er, it's not the time yet. Don't rush."

"Moreover, the Witch Moon Sect has just had such a major incident; if we get too intimate, I fear you'll feel uneasy."

Li Qingluo:?

"Is sitting on my lap not intimate enough?"

"And what's not yet the time? Why is she in a hurry?"

Li Qingluo was about to argue with him when Que'er's voice came in: "Miss, it's the mao hour; you and Your Highness should get up? Those people down the mountain have been sneaking along the small path up to the cliff behind the mountain."

Li Qingluo hurriedly replied: "Coming right away."

As they left the room, Duan Rongshi had already put on a new mask for himself.

Dressed in black, with a black mask, he looked like a nightwalker, hiding his true self completely.

How could this still be the former Prince Su who never let a drop of blood or dust stain him?

Thinking that he was about to 'die,' Li Qingluo couldn't help but say, "I really don't know what scheme you're hatching."

"I'm afraid those people in Jinling are in for bad luck again."

Duan Rongshi lowered his head to look at her: "After we get through this, I'll tell you everything in detail."

"Remember, from now on, I and they are just like your guards."

Li Qingluo's eyes lit up: "Guards? You're serious? It's not like before in Jinling, where you just followed me for a day or two as a pretense."

Duan Rongshi took her hand and walked outward: "Of course."

Li Qingluo still didn't quite believe it: "You're not in a hurry to leave?"

Duan Rongshi stopped his steps: "Why would I leave? Lu'er, I came to find you."

"However, I might not be able to give you the grand wedding ceremony of a consort for the time being; would you be disappointed?"

As soon as Duan Rongshi's words fell, Li Qingluo eagerly threw her arms around him.

"That doesn't matter at all!"

"Ah Shi, are the other things you said really true?"

"I thought you were just coming to see me, then you'd turn around and go attend to your own big affairs."

"I thought you'd only stay a few days and then leave."

"You really came to find me for a reunion?"

She will inevitably be held up here in MiaoJiang for a short while and won't leave so quickly.

And he actually intends to stay with her all along; Li Qingluo is indeed overjoyed.

Seeing her so happy, Duan Rongshi felt a pang of sourness in his heart.

On their wedding night, he had no choice but to abandon her, saying he'd return soon, yet in the blink of an eye a year had passed.

She does not resent him as her husband; on the contrary, she planned to go to the frontier first to find him.

Had it not been for a fateful mis‑encounter, they wouldn't know how long they'd remain lost.

Duan Rongshi gently patted the person in his arms: "My wife hasn't returned home yet; where could I go?"

"Lu'er, wherever you are, that's where my soul will return."

"From now on, we will never be separated."

He lowered his head and, like a dragonfly touching water, lightly touched her crown.

The two exchanged a smile; after their reunion, at this moment their two hearts finally truly drew close.

Li Qingluo and Duan Rongshi were preparing to head to the rear mountain when, under a large banyan tree midway, they saw Jinning, who had already been waiting there.

It seems she woke up very early.

And she had been sitting under this tree for an unknown length of time.

This is where Li Qingluo discovered Dong Siyuan's corpse yesterday.

Now, there is an extra pile of stones under the banyan tree; Jinni…… did she bury him with her own hands?

Thinking of how these two had been entangled for half a lifetime, Dong Siyuan finally mustered the courage to stay and try to follow Jinni's footsteps again, but fate toyed with them, forever separating heaven and earth.

Li Qingluo could empathize.

Yet she knew Jinni's heart must hurt hundreds, even thousands of times more than her own!

The entire Witch Moon Sect is not just Dong Siyuan; there are also her hundreds of family members and followers……

Such pain and hatred are literally a death by a thousand cuts, harder to bear and collapse than losing one's own life.

"Jinni senior sister."

"Are you still alright?"

Li Qingluo quickly walked over and supported Jinni.

The rain that had fallen all day stopped quietly before dawn, but the bloody scent that filled the Witch Moon Sect's manor could not be washed away no matter what.

Jinni raised her head, looking at Li Qingluo with a desolate expression: "Little Luo, my Witch Moon Sect has become a graveyard."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to live either."

"Thank you…… if it weren't for you, yesterday I would certainly have been buried in that forbidden land, and I wouldn't have had the chance to see even a glance of the Witch Moon Sect that I buried with my own hands."

She gave a bitter smile, swaying as she leaned on Li Qingluo's hand to stand up.

"Jinni senior sister, let's not talk about such disheartening things."

"You will surely live well."

"Your natal gu hasn't been found; perhaps it hasn't died yet, right?"

If the natal gu dies, its master cannot live more than twelve shichen.

So, if Jinni's natal gu has died…… then the time she has left to live now is already short.

But what if that little golden snake hasn't died?

Within these twelve shichen, if that little golden snake can still crawl out from the pile of rubble in the forbidden land, Jinni will have no threat to her life.

But Jinni is now nothing more than a walking corpse; her heart died along with the destruction of the Witch Moon Sect.

"Whether I live or not is no longer important."

"Little Luo, let's hurry to the back mountain."

Li Qingluo led everyone to the pile of rubble at the back mountain.

She intended to use the pretext of Lingjun finding the treasure to send the greedy members of the other major sects all together to that Gu Mang.

Let them see what the Witch Moon Sect has been guarding for a hundred years!

And they, having united to slaughter the Witch Moon Sect, what exactly is the monster they wanted!

"Go!"

Li Qingluo and the others did not charge out directly, but instead went around to climb up the steeper cliff from the other side, then lay low behind the rocks.