Chapter 257: Deception

Crack!

"..."

"..."

A crisp sound rang out from the palm, causing the atmosphere in the room to turn bizarre for a moment.

Ren Yidao looked at his own hand, then his gaze slowly shifted to meet Jing Yueqin, who was pursing her lips and looking away.

Jing Yueqin's lips moved, and she silently turned her head to look to the side.

"... It broke, didn't it."

"Cough, yeah, it seems it did break."

"But..."

Looking at the two slender, jade-like hands tightly gripping his own, Ren Yidao spoke in bewilderment:

"Why is it my bones that broke!"

Under those two seemingly powerless palms, the hand Ren Yidao had used to hold the Jade Slip was already twisted into a shocking shape.

It was fractured.

"You have quite a strong grip."

Feeling the soft, squishy sensation in her palms, Jing Yueqin gave a shy, embarrassed smile.

"Hehe~"

Ren Yidao remained expressionless; he formed his other hand into a blade and chopped fiercely at the top of Jing Yueqin's head.

Slap!

"Hey! 'Hehe' your head!"

"Let go of me right now!"

Pulling back the hand that Jing Yueqin had broken in her panic, and feeling the stinging pain of his fractured metacarpals, Ren Yidao's face twitched involuntarily.

Hiss—

This level of pain was nothing to him; he could still endure it.

But the pain in his heart, as if scratched by a cat, was beyond imagination.

"Tell me, is there a possibility... that when I said I'd rather you hate me, I didn't mean for you to actually lay a heavy hand on me?"

That was just a figure of speech.

That damn thing was just a way to emphasize the tone!

After being messed with like this, the atmosphere Ren Yidao had painstakingly built up was completely ruined.

Seeing the veins bulging on Ren Yidao's forehead, Jing Yueqin sheepishly scratched her head.

"Oh my, I didn't do it on purpose!"

Jing Yueqin could swear to Heaven that, unlike when she pretended it was an accident before, this time she really didn't do it on purpose.

Having been excited after hearing the news about her master, Jing Yueqin had completely forgotten to control her strength in her urgency.

She had grabbed Ren Yidao's palm, just about to speak to stop him, and then she had just applied a little force.

Crack!

Recalling the sensation in her palms, Jing Yueqin peeked at Ren Yidao's expression with a guilty conscience and muttered:

"Cough cough, you can't blame this all on me! If you hadn't scared me, I wouldn't have been so careless..."

Fine!

You're still being stubborn, aren't you!

Ren Yidao slanted a glance at her, grabbed the Jade Slip with his other hand, and then, without any wind-up, applied force directly.

Crack!

This time, the Jade Slip shattered directly into dust.

"Ah! Ah... you!"

Jing Yueqin wanted to stop him, but this time she was too late and could only watch helplessly as the Jade Slip representing hope shattered.

Too busy to even be angry, Jing Yueqin snatched up the fragments of the Jade Slip, wanting to salvage some scattered fragments of information before they disappeared completely.

Although destroying the Jade Slip would wipe out all the data within, if one were fast enough, it was still possible to save a few words or phrases.

Ren Yidao did not stop her; he simply set his left hand back into place while leisurely watching Jing Yueqin close her eyes and frown, attempting to view the contents of the Jade Slip.

A moment later, Jing Yueqin opened her eyes, but her tightly locked brows did not relax.

"Why is there nothing?"

No matter which fragment it was, there was no information remaining inside; it was completely empty, looking exactly like...

A brand-new Jade Slip?

Jing Yueqin:???

"You lied to me?"

Ren Yidao, having finished treating himself, curled the corner of his mouth, revealing a smug smile of a conspiracy successfully executed.

"No, how can you call that lying? It's just that all is fair in war."

Before Jing Yueqin's emotions could shift, she saw Ren Yidao gracefully take out another identical Jade Slip from his robes.

"Who told you that Jade Slip was real? This one is!"

"Got tricked, didn't you? This is the suppression of intelligence... hmm?"

Whoosh—

Ren Yidao:?

Even with Ren Yidao's eyesight, he only saw a blurry afterimage flash before his eyes, and by the time he regained his focus, the Jade Slip in his hand had already fallen into the hands of Peak Master Jing.

"Hey! How can you still resort to open robbery?"

"Hmph hmph!"

Catching him off guard to snatch the real Jade Slip, Jing Yueqin looked at her exasperated Junior Brother with triumph, humming through her nose like a petty person who had gotten their way.

"All is fair in war~"

After she finished speaking, her expression turned somewhat sorrowful, and she said softly:

"Little Junior Brother, perhaps for you, Master is just a painting from when you were apprenticed, but to me... she is like my own mother."

"I'm sorry, I have to go."

"But I promise you, within ten years, I will definitely return."

Having said that, she rushed out of the room without looking back, leaving Ren Yidao alone, still holding his hand in the air.

Watching her figure quickly depart, Ren Yidao slowly lowered his right hand and sighed:

"Setting up a flag like that... sigh!"

"Too naive, child."

After fleeing from Ren Yidao, Jing Yueqin pursed her lips, her expression much more serious than before.

"......"

Regarding the request Ren Yidao had made, she naturally understood his intentions, but she could not agree to it.

He wanted to go with her, but she was unwilling to let him risk danger.

Although his strength seemed to have become much stronger than before, in her eyes, he was still that weak little white fox.

He couldn't even withstand a single grab from her in her haste; how strong could he be?

And if she agreed to wait until Ren Yidao's strength improved before setting off together, she didn't know how much longer that would take.

She could afford to wait, but could Master afford to wait?

She could not.

Every day since Master went missing, Jing Yueqin had been observing the state of her Soul Lamp.

And after such a long time of observation, she had discovered a detail.

Although Master's Soul Lamp had not extinguished all these years, it was not without change.

The soul fire had weakened...

The life force contained within the Soul Lamp was decreasing day by day.

This meant that Master must be encountering something.

Jing Yueqin did not know what Master had encountered, but she knew that Master could not wait much longer.

If calculated according to previous estimates, in less than ten years, the Soul Lamp would be completely extinguished.

By that time... everything would be too late.

"Ten years, I will only go for ten years."

"I'm sorry, regardless of whether I can find Master this time, I will definitely return."

Although she did not want to be separated from her Little Junior Brother for ten years, some things were more important than others.

After finally making up her mind, Jing Yueqin probed her divine sense into the Jade Slip.

Then, her expression changed abruptly, and she turned her head sharply to look behind her.

"Yo, you're back? Long time no see."

Watching Jing Yueqin, who had stormed back into the room in a rage, Ren Yidao calculated the time from her departure to her return and sighed:

"It's been about a quarter of an hour, right? That counts as within ten years."

"You!!!"

In the eyes of the returning Jing Yueqin, Ren Yidao, who had just been full of shock and anger, had now changed his face, calmly drinking hot tea.

He shook his head, blew on the steam, and with a look of heartache, sighed:

"Sure enough, I knew it would be this result."

This second Jade Slip was different from the first; it did contain data, but that data only held a short sentence.

【Little cub, you have disappointed me so much!】

Jing Yueqin:!!?

I was tricked again?

Ren Yidao admired the unacceptable expression on Senior Sister's face and said leisurely:

"This is called a cunning rabbit having three burrows; it was just a small trick to prevent you from resorting to open robbery right away."

Of course, a plan is a plan, and an accident is an accident.

Who knew Jing Yueqin would be even more ruthless, ignoring the rules and attacking the opponent's main body directly.

But the Demon is one foot tall, while Heaven is ten feet tall!

Her little tricks were still not enough to look at.

No longer taking out new Jade Slips, Ren Yidao spread his hands, indicating that he would not hand over anything else.

"Don't think about open robbery; I have already hidden the data, hidden it in my brain."

"Setting aside the previous interlude, let's have an honest talk."

Sensing Jing Yueqin's emotions were about to explode, Ren Yidao quit while he was ahead and immediately said:

"How about this, I will take a step back first."

"You mentioned ten years earlier; I don't know what that signifies, but I won't let you wait that long."

He held up a finger and said firmly:

"One year, I only need you to give me one year."

"After one year, regardless of whether I can keep up with your pace, I will tell you everything, and I will no longer stop you."

"However, during this year, you must be obedient and cannot leave on your own without authorization."

"Believe me, I will not lie to you."

Jing Yueqin looked at the earnest-looking Ren Yidao, lowered her head to look at the Jade Slip she had snatched in her hand, and then looked back at him.

Are you sure you have any credibility saying this?

Facing her questioning gaze, Ren Yidao remained unmoved and did not feel embarrassed in the slightest.

As long as I am not embarrassed, the person who is embarrassed will never be me.

Jing Yueqin watched Ren Yidao quietly, and after a long while, she asked in a calm tone that betrayed no emotion:

"The information... are you really not going to hand it over?"

"Not handing it over."

"What if I say this is an order from Senior Sister?"

"As your junior brother, I would express that I am very willing to help, but I still won't tell you a single detail."

Silently bowing her head, Jing Yueqin's hair trembled slightly, showing signs that the color was about to change.

She said:

"What if I go find the person who provided you with the information and force them to tell me?"

But not at all intimidated by her appearance, Ren Yidao spoke easily:

"You can try, but you won't get anything, and I genuinely advise against doing so. To find Master, we need new friends, not more enemies."

The two of them went back and forth like this for a long time, and finally, Jing Yueqin sighed deeply.

When it came to the matter of saving Master, she was serious.

And Ren Yidao, he was equally serious.

Was she angry?

A little, but only a little.

Angry that not only was he not working hard to find Master, but he was also stopping her.

Yet, beyond the anger, there was more relief in her heart.

Little Junior Brother has truly grown up.

Perhaps the one who was unwilling to accept the truth had always been herself.

He had long been stronger than she had imagined.

Sitting powerlessly beside Ren Yidao, she leaned her head on his shoulder and said slowly:

"Fine, I promise you."

"I will wait for you for one year. During this time, I will stay obediently on Luoyue Peak."

She had waited for hundreds of years, could she not wait for this one year?

Since he had said so, then she would wait...

"And I have only one condition."

"Yidao, you must never lie to me."

Ren Yidao's expression froze, and he turned his head to look at her expression, but only saw the hair on the top of her head.

She said:

"So much time has already passed; no matter what the final result is, I can accept it."

Whether Luoyue Shangren was alive or dead, whether she had left intentionally or had left on purpose, she could accept it.

Hundreds of years of waiting and searching, returning empty-handed time and time again, were enough to wear down any emotion.

This long period of time was also enough for her to prepare herself psychologically to face any outcome.

No matter what that result might be...

Leaning on her junior brother's shoulder, she let her weary body and mind slowly sink into a dream.

She was too tired.

And after being forced to make a compromise, she felt that her entire body and mind were exhausted to the extreme.

"You... must never let yourself regret this."

Finally uttering these delirious words, Jing Yueqin collapsed into her junior brother's arms.

Gently lifting Senior Sister into his arms, Ren Yidao lovingly used his fingertips to smooth out the brows that remained tightly furrowed even in her sleep.

What Jing Yueqin did not know was that Ren Yidao actually knew more than she realized.

Whether it was the limit of what the Soul Lamp could sustain, or her own limit...

If she were found within ten years, that would be fine, a happy ending for all.

But what if she could not be found?

Or, if she were found, but they were one step too late.

What kind of scene would that be?

Jing Yueqin would definitely blame herself, definitely become depressed, and eventually head toward self-destruction.

She had such tendencies and a history of it.

Before, after searching for a hundred years with no results, she had already begun to lie on Luoyue Peak and give up on herself.

The current "sect loafer" on Luoyue Peak was merely a disguise of hers, using exaggerated words and actions to cover up her own uneasy heart.

Conveying a signal to the outside world:

"I am fine! I am very happy!"

Perhaps the vast majority of people would be deceived by her acting, but Ren Yidao, who had always stayed by her side, would not.

He had always been watching her, so he saw more than anyone else.

Although she appeared to be smiling.

That smile, however, was like a wail, a silent cry for help.

What was wrapped around her had long ceased to be a mission, but a twisted shackle that had bound her to that spot for hundreds of years.

No matter how Jing Yueqin persisted, in Ren Yidao's view, what she sought now was no longer the original answer.

Her obsession had become a Heart Demon, locking away her steps forward.

After exhausting all means, she huddled in Luoyue Peak, thinking to herself:

"Although there is no result, I once tried my best; is that not enough?"

As for why she had not completely collapsed, it was simply because the Soul Lamp had not been completely extinguished, and a sliver of fantasy still remained in her heart.

Perhaps Master would return on her own, and she only needed to wait obediently at Luoyue Peak.

But she also understood in her heart that such a probability was far too small, which was why she had always accepted disciples on behalf of her master, hoping to maintain the inheritance of Luoyue Peak.

"But Yueqin... dreams always come to an end."

No matter how real a dream may be, it is not reality.

Although avoidance is useful for a time, one must eventually face it.

False hope will also eventually have a day when it shatters.

And how to preserve her heart after everything collapses is what Ren Yidao has been thinking about all these years.

Fortunately, he had long prepared the final means.

Since she is entangled by obsession, then it would not hurt to entangle her with a few more.

However, before using the final means...

"Let me try a little harder first."

Looking at Senior Sister's sleeping face, he whispered in his heart:

"Rest assured, I will not regret it."

"And I will not let you regret it either."