After Ling Yun stopped kissing her, Tian Qinglian stood frozen in place and stared at him. Her gaze remained the same as before, and her eyes still lacked their light.
Tian Qinglian still didnāt say anything and rubbed her lips, which were wet from Ling Yunās previous kiss. Deep in her heart, she knew that she was enjoying their kiss very much because it had been too long since she last kissed a man, and she could no longer even remember that kiss.
Ling Yun reached forward and rubbed her lips. "Qinglian, Iāve heard about your past from Yueling."
Tian Qinglian didnāt stop Ling Yun from rubbing her lips, but her dull eyes moved to the side and looked at Tian Yueling, who responded with a shrug.
"You donāt need to blame her, Qinglian." Ling Yun grabbed Tian Qinglianās face, turned her to face him, and rubbed her cheeks. "You already knew that I liked you from back in the Burial Realm, but I didnāt know your reasons for avoiding me back then. Iām not asking you to forget your ex-lover, but heās dead now. As for you, youāre still alive today, and you deserve another kind of happiness. If you donāt dare or canāt take revenge on your brother because of your parents, Iām willing to help you kill him as long as it allows you to move on from your past."
"My past grudges are my personal matters, and I will resolve them myself once I reach my brotherās level in the future, so you donāt need to interfere in my personal matters." Tian Qinglian pulled Ling Yunās hand down from her face, but he immediately grabbed her hand. "Please let go of my hand and leave this place, and I will continue my cultivation because I cannot waste time."
"I will not let go of your hand, or you will continue living like this." Ling Yun shook his head at her. "I have liked you for a long time, and I want you to be my wife. I know you canāt accept me now because of your past, but I will never give up on you, and I will wait until you are ready to be one."
"Youā"
The two women shook their heads after Ling Yun and Tian Qinglian disappeared from the scene, but Dongfang Jingjing immediately spoke to Tian Yueling. "You should go back to our husbandās room and wait for him there, so you guys can start your isolation after he comes back."
"Alright." Tian Yueling immediately left the place.
Dongfang Jingjing didnāt leave and looked into Tian Qinglianās room first. She smiled to herself, thinking of her best friend. "Hehe! Even though she still hasnāt accepted my husband, at least they kissed for a long time before. With my husbandās aggressive attitude, she will eventually fall for him, and she will enjoy her life when the time comes."
.
.
.
Ling Yun took Tian Qinglianās hand and took her for a walk in the western garden of Yunlong Zhuzhai, but she still didnāt say anything and kept her head lowered.
"Look at them, Qinglian." Tian Qinglian raised her head slightly and looked at Ling Yunās several wives and daughters, who were happily practicing a little further ahead. "You must have experienced happiness like them in the past, right?"
"Yes." Tian Qinglian answered quietly and nodded her head slightly.
Ling Yun turned to Tian Qinglian and hugged her waist. "Are you going to continue living gloomily like this for the rest of your life? Donāt you want to regain your happiness? Donāt you want to be happy again like in the past?"
Tian Qinglian didnāt answer Ling Yunās question, but she considered his words in her heart. She wanted to feel happy like his wives and children, but a heavy burden weighed on her heart, and she couldnāt move on from her past. She deeply loved her past lover and wanted to marry him when they were older, but her dreams were shattered after her brother killed her lover.
Tian Qinglian wanted to take revenge against her big brother for her loverās death, but she lacked the strength to do so, and she joined the Eternal Spring Sect to achieve her ambition. Unfortunately, she knew she would never be able to do so because their parents would never allow her to kill her own big brother, which left her feeling a dilemma.
"Iāve never been in your shoes before, but I understand your feelings and your desire for revenge for your loverās death." Tian Qinglian raised her eyebrows as she looked at Ling Yun. "In my eyes, both other people and family are the same, and I will treat them the same way. If they respect me, I will respect them back, and I will do anything to help them. If they choose to be my enemy, I will be their worst nightmare, and I will kill any of them."
"Are you really going to kill your family members?" Tian Qinglian finally asked.
"Yes." Ling Yun gave a firm nod. "Did you know that I hated my late father in the past? I didnāt kill him because he didnāt do anything excessive at that time, but I decided to enslave him because he tried to separate me from my mother. He had an affair with his assistant in the past, and she decided to divorce him after that. However, she didnāt know she was pregnant at the time, and she only found out after she moved to another city."
"Then?" Tian Qinglian had known Ling Yun since their time in the Eternal Spring Sect, and they had also spent months together in the Mysterious Tower in the past, but she never knew about his personal life.
Ling Yun recounted his past to Tian Qinglian, starting with his childhood, his life as an adult, his decision to become a male prostitute, his reunion with Ling Ling, and many other things. "After I reunited with my big sister, our late father found out about me and tried to separate me from my mother. At that time, I was still weak, but I had Ling Xi by my side, and she helped me do that to him. However, I didnāt expect that he was a subordinate of the heretics in our world, and they killed him after he failed to carry out the task they gave him."
"Then?"
"What do you think happened after that?" Tian Qinglian shook her head at Ling Yun. "I didnāt have any feelings for my late father, but his death was a huge blow to Lingāer and Xiya because they were raised by him. In the end, the other cultivators killed all the heretics in our world, and they didnāt spare a single one of them."
"I see."
Ling Yun spoke to her again. "The person I am now is different from the person I was then and I will never hesitate to kill anyone who chooses to be my enemy, be it other people or those who I consider family. I know you donāt have the heart to kill your big brother because of your parents, and you would never be able to do that even if you had already reached the peak of cultivation because your parents would stop you. Moreover, you couldnāt possibly kill them because you would never exist without them, which puts you in a dilemma for the rest of your life."
Tian Qinglian lowered her head again because Ling Yunās words were on target, and she didnāt have the heart to kill her big brother because of their parents. She hated him so much because he had killed her lover, and she wanted to kill him to take revenge on him, but her parents would stop her.
Ling Yun lifted Tian Qinglianās head. "As long as you canāt take revenge on your brother, you will never be able to move forward in your life, and you will continue to be stuck in your past. I donāt want you to experience something like that, so please allow me to avenge you so you can move forward in your life."
"No." Tian Qinglian shook her head firmly. "I have already told you that my revenge is my personal matter, and you donāt need to interfere in my personal matters. I may not have the heart to kill my own big brother now, but I will kill him in the future."
"Alright." Ling Yun didnāt want to force Tian Qinglian to accept his idea, but he directly touched her forehead, imparting the Yin-Yang Art into her mind. She was surprised by that, but he then gave her a storage ring. "There is a lot of my Yang Qi in this storage ring, and you can use it to increase your cultivation and physical strength. If your stock runs out, you can come to me again, and I will give you a new stock."
Tian Qinglian accepted the storage ring because she had used Ling Yunās Yang Qi to cultivate in the past, and she knew that it had excellent effects on both her cultivation and her body. However, she never used it again after they left the Mysterious Tower for some reason, and she decided to accept it because she felt that she would never be able to reach her big brotherās level if she cultivated manually.
Ling Yun smiled as Tian Qinglian did not refuse his gift. "From today onwards, you no longer need to return to the fortress, and you can cultivate peacefully within this residence."
- To Be Continued -