After Breaking Off the Engagement, I Started Pursuing My Master - Chapter 245

Chapter 245: Perhaps

Luo Yueguan, in her purple dress, was now sitting on the bed, earnestly refining the Cold Soul Snow Spirit. Inside Ziyun City, there were five Mahayana period elders in purple robes, and no internal fighting of any kind was allowed. Refining here was the safest choice.

Meanwhile, Jiang Huai sat at the table, earnestly reading the sword manual Xu Qing had given him.

The sword techniques recorded in the manual were indeed excellent, only slightly inferior to Chu Xianning’s Silver Radiance. Jiang Huai read with great attention, trying out the exquisite techniques from the manual with the extremely faint spiritual energy in his body, rehearsing the essence of the entire manual in his mind. Gradually, he seemed to see a hazy sword shadow appearing before him, that blurry figure wielding a sword, slashing through heaven and earth.

An hour passed.

Jiang Huai opened his eyes and first looked at Luo Yueguan by the bed. She was still refining the Cold Soul Snow Spirit, but her expression was calm, indicating that the refinement was going smoothly. Jiang Huai felt relieved and then picked up a pen and paper, flipping through the sword manual. He wrote down suggestions for improving the techniques on each page of the manual, patiently annotating many details.

It wasn’t a huge project, and after less than half an hour, Jiang Huai had finished everything. He stretched and turned to look at Luo Yueguan, only to realize she had already finished refining and was now leaning against the bed, her eyes unwaveringly fixed on him.

“Hm? When did you finish refining?”

“A stick of incense ago,” Luo Yueguan replied softly, then asked him, “What are you writing?”

“Xu Qing wanted to consult me about sword techniques. I asked her for the manual to give some suggestions for improvement.” Jiang Huai closed the manual and placed it on the table. Luo Yueguan’s lips pouted, “You clearly said you weren’t very interested in her.”

“Because it’s just a trivial matter for me.”

“For you, it’s trivial, but for her, it may not be. Maybe your small gesture will make a young girl fall in love, devoted to you, while you remain completely indifferent, just coldly watching her throw herself into the flame.”

“You mean I’m doing the same to you?” Jiang Huai didn’t directly refute Luo Yueguan but instead asked her back. He always felt there was another meaning in her words.

And the result was Luo Yueguan’s eyes becoming even more grievous.

“Is your kindness to me also just a trivial matter?”

“Until now, it seems I haven’t really given much, have I? Just keeping you company, chatting, playing games, making bets.” Jiang Huai felt there was some truth to his words.

In reality, what he had done for Luo Yueguan was merely trivial: curing her poison, helping her open the Heavenly Evolution Divine Meridians, keeping her company and making her happy, or even buying her the Cold Soul Snow Spirit this time, none of it required much effort from him.

So, does that prove he doesn’t like Luo Yueguan that much? No, it’s not that. Or does it prove he never liked Luo Yueguan at all?

“Will you keep treating me this way?”

“Who knows? These things are unpredictable. Maybe one day I’ll get tired, bored, or find it pointless. Nobody can say for sure what the future holds, so it’s meaningless to always worry about what will happen later.”

“But I want you to kiss me now.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Using your words just now, kissing me now is something that happens in the moment, and there’s no need to worry about what will happen in the future. We can even pretend nothing happened. After this kiss, we continue as if it didn’t happen, and that way we can kiss many times.”

“Isn’t that deceiving oneself?”

“It’s not self-deception, it’s deceiving others. You can’t deceive yourself.”

Jiang Huai suddenly felt that Luo Yueguan’s words were becoming more and more like the ramblings of a madman. But he seemed to have fallen into this strange loop, joining Luo Yueguan in speaking aimless and completely discordant words. He began to worry that if he stayed with Luo Yueguan too long, would he become a madman like her?

“Why are you so unwilling to admit that you love me?”

“I can’t even explain it myself, so why admit it?”

“If you can’t explain it, then it’s love.”

“It’s not.”

“It is. As long as you refuse to admit you don’t love me, then it’s love. Otherwise, why would you be kind to me?”

“What kind of logic is that? Being kind means I must love you?”

“Yes.”

“Then there must have been countless people who wanted to be kind to you because you’re beautiful, right? They must love you too. Their kindness to you and mine, aren’t they the same? Then why do you reject their love but want mine?”

“It’s different. I want yours.”

“What’s different?”

“Because you don’t love me, that’s different. You don’t want all of me, you’re just kind to me, so I love you.”

“What if I say, I’m kind to you because I love you?”

“I win. You admit you love me.”

Jiang Huai felt like banging his head against a wall.

“I don’t love you.”

“You love me,” Luo Yueguan stubbornly replied.

“I don’t.”

“You do.”

“Not…”

Seeing Luo Yueguan’s eyes beginning to redden, Jiang Huai couldn’t continue what he wanted to say. Sometimes he himself was almost unable to tell why he was drawn to Luo Yueguan. Was it out of pity? Or was it a greedy desire for her beautiful body?

“Forget it, let’s not talk about it anymore. Think what you want,” Jiang Huai picked up the sword manual and stood up.

“I’m going to sleep.”

“You haven’t asked me yet how my cultivation is going.”

“So, how is your cultivation going?”

“I’ve reached Mahayana sixth level.”

Jiang Huai, devoid of spiritual energy, of course couldn’t discern Luo Yueguan’s cultivation level. However, upon hearing that she had reached Mahayana sixth level, he felt quite relieved. Luo Yueguan stretched out her hand, and in her palm, a cluster of ice crystals formed a small flower. Her eyes brimmed with joy akin to that of a little girl as she offered it to him, saying, “For you.”

Jiang Huai hesitated for a moment before walking over to her and taking the stem of the flower. It was purely a crystallization of ice, which he held tightly in his hand. After thinking it over, he quickly ate it before it could melt, crunching it loudly with his mouth.

“Can you sleep with me tonight?” Luo Yueguan looked up at him expectantly.

“No,” Jiang Huai refused, but not as decisively as before. He seemed to clearly feel a moment of hesitation, and although the answer was still a refusal, he became somewhat flustered.

“Okay.”

Luo Yueguan gently lowered her head, her long, thick eyelashes drooping slightly. Her acquiescence carried a hint of disappointment, yet she seemed so well-behaved, almost pitifully so.

Jiang Huai turned and walked away, counting his breaths with each step—one, two, three, four. He felt his breathing slow down slightly and a sense of guilt inexplicably surged from within. Guilty about what? For not fulfilling her expectations? But you never owed her anything, so why should you meet her expectations?

As he reached the door and opened it, Luo Yueguan suddenly said, “Jiang Huai.”

“Hmm?” Jiang Huai turned his head.

Luo Yueguan, cradling her face, looked at him and said, “Tonight, I will indulge in thoughts of your eyes until I faint.”

“You’re sick.”

That was Jiang Huai’s final assessment, but he ended up running out the door so fast he didn’t even close it properly, fleeing the room. Afterward, he seemed to hear Luo Yueguan’s arrogant laughter as she sealed the door with her spiritual energy.

Jiang Huai let out a long sigh.

…

Jiang Huai had a nightmare.

The content of the nightmare was particularly terrifying. He dreamt that he and Luo Yueguan returned to the Tianxuan Sect, where Luo Yueguan stayed temporarily. In the dead of night, she quietly entered his room, shed her gorgeous dress, and pinned him down, leaving him powerless to struggle. All he could do was watch Luo Yueguan’s flushed cheeks and hazy eyes. Just as he was about to completely succumb, the door suddenly flung open, and Chu Xianning stood in the moonlight outside, dressed in white like frost and snow, her expression cold and sculpted.

Then he woke up.

The horror of the dream wasn’t due to its realism, but because Jiang Huai had a terrifying premonition that, given Luo Yueguan’s manic personality, she might actually do such a thing, and that day would be his doom.

Jiang Huai sat up in bed, gasping for air, and it took him a long time to come to his senses. He got dressed, opened the window to see the dawn’s early light, and decided to go out for some fresh air. He planned to stroll around Ziyun City alone and, incidentally, hand over the sword manual to Xu Qing.

Then he would return to the Tianxuan Sect with Luo Yueguan. No, before that, he must do something, set some ground rules with Luo Yueguan, and make her promise not to act up in front of Chu Xianning. But what would that mean to Luo Yueguan? Would she feel wronged? What did everything that happened between you and Luo Yueguan during this time amount to?

The jumbled thoughts made Jiang Huai increasingly troubled. He walked downstairs to the inn, where the streets were still not fully lit and quite empty. However, as soon as he stepped outside, he saw Xu Qing in a white dress.

It was the height of summer.

Xu Qing wore a white sundress with thin straps, clearly a new style she had recently purchased from Ziyun Pavilion. The delicate straps revealed her smooth shoulders and a small section of her slender collarbone, exquisitely contoured. The dress was long enough to reach her ankles, but its body-hugging design left little to the imagination of her slender and proportionate figure.

Jiang Huai also noticed the jade-colored open-toed high heels she wore beneath her delicate ankles, with her cute toes painted in a lotus-pink nail polish, looking as tender and enticing as pearls. Her skin was so fair that it seemed to emit a white glow in the dim light, causing Jiang Huai to be momentarily stunned.

As she approached Jiang Huai, a fragrant breeze brushed his face, and he instinctively stepped back.

Great, Luo Yueguan has scared me into fearing women.

“What are you doing here?” Jiang Huai asked in a fluster.

“Yesterday, you said we’d meet here in the morning. I didn’t know when you’d come down, so I… came early to wait for you.”

Maybe this way… we could talk a bit more.