Nanli sensed her gaze and rolled her eyes. "I’m already married," she replied. After a pause, she added, "I think my husband looks better than your senior brother."
Xuan Yinyue let out a breath of relief but remained unconvinced. "In my heart, my senior brother is the best in the world."
Nanli was too lazy to argue with someone who had lost her way because of love. Instead, she asked, "Firewood Chopper, did you defect from your sect for Xuan Yinyue?"
Xuan Jingmo took responsibility. "I also have feelings; how could I blame my junior sister alone? It’s just that the rules of my sect are strict, and I cannot go against my master’s orders or form a partnership with my junior sister, which ultimately led to her heart demon."
Nanli thought for a moment. "Is your master stronger than you?"
"Are there other senior brothers stronger than you?"
Before Xuan Jingmo could answer, Xuan Yinyue spoke up, "Senior brother is the number one Talisman Cultivator in the Immortal World. In Limitless Palace, he stands unmatched! Master has long commanded that he will pass the position of palace master to him!"
Her tone was quite smug.
Nanli couldn’t help but laugh. "Cultivators really are one-track-minded. If I were your senior brother, I would just find my master, challenge him, and abolish the rule against marriage in Limitless Palace to bring you home as my bride, so you wouldn’t suffer so much in love, losing your heart and going astray."
Xuan Jingmo and Xuan Yinyue were both stunned.
"Indeed..." Xuan Jingmo laughed at the sky. "I’ve been bound by rules; no wonder my cultivation hasn’t progressed! Even after founding Xuanyue Temple, I still established the rule against marriage. I’ve truly been foolish to the extreme! Foolish to the extreme!"
"Senior brother, it’s not your fault," Xuan Yinyue comforted him.
But Xuan Jingmo seemed to be losing his mind.
Fortunately, his current spirit was incomplete, so he didn’t have much power left.
Zhi Mi drifted over to Nanli’s side and whispered, "Senior sister, it’s no wonder they make a pair; they’re both stubborn people."
Nanli nodded in agreement but sighed. "Though they’re stubborn, he’s still a devoted person. Do you see that well cover? I’m not quite sure what the array above is called, but it incorporates his spirit and is used to dispel demonic energy."
Since she arrived at Xuanyue Temple, she had known there was a Demon Cultivator at the bottom of that well. She initially thought the Ancestral Master was benevolent and kind-hearted, sealing away the Demon Cultivator to eliminate harm to the people. After going through all this, it turned out to be his beloved.
It made sense; if it weren’t for his beloved, how could he have scattered most of his cultivation into his spirit to set up this array?
Xuan Yinyue had sharp hearing and caught every word Nanli said.
Her clear and bright eyes quickly became misty, and soon, two lines of tears streamed down her cheeks.
The sorrow in her heart surged like a tidal wave.
"Senior brother, is what she said... true?" She looked both expectant and heartbroken.
Xuan Jingmo pressed his lips tightly together, unwilling to answer.
"Senior brother, is it true?!" she asked again, almost using all her strength.
Her voice echoed through the valley.
Her heart demon surged again, her pupils turning blood red.
Xuan Jingmo felt a twinge of fear.
Before he could speak, Nanli had already drawn a talisman and struck it onto Xuan Yinyue’s forehead.
She frowned. "No wonder your senior brother wanted to scatter your demonic energy; it turns out your cultivation path is so domineering that it easily leads to a loss of reason."
Xuan Yinyue felt her blood boiling and her vision going red. She felt an overwhelming urge to draw her sword and kill a few people to relieve her tension.
Once Nanli’s talisman entered her forehead, a wave of coolness exploded in her mind. She instantly regained her clarity, and at the same time, the cool sensation spread through her body, calming her heated blood.
Xuan Yinyue pushed herself up, breathing heavily.
She turned her head and gave Nanli a grateful glance. "Thank you."
"Wait..." Xuan Jingmo suddenly paused. "May I ask, Princess, if there’s a way to eliminate the demonic core within her?"
After all, his array had already failed.
Nanli didn’t catch the first part of his sentence and replied, "Her demonic path is fierce; I’m just a commoner who doesn’t even know how to control a sword. How could I eliminate her demonic core? Firewood Chopper, you’re overestimating me."
Xuan Jingmo stared at her in silence for a long while before suddenly exclaiming, "It’s all fate, all predestined, and it cannot be defied!"
At such a young age, he had become a master of talisman techniques, thanks to her guidance during his time of confusion. Later, when his junior sister became a Demon Cultivator, he couldn’t find her.
Now that he saw her again, she had become an ordinary person with no memories of her past life.
Thus, she could no longer help them, brother and sister.
It was indeed fate that was hard to defy...
Xuan Yinyue had also understood most of the previous events.
In short, it was that on the day of her marriage to Xuan Jingmo, he had knocked her unconscious and sealed her at the bottom of the well, scattering most of his cultivation and a few strands of spirit to set up the array to disperse her demonic energy, preventing her from becoming a ruthless Demon Cultivator.
Then, her senior brother, with his incomplete spirit, founded Xuanyue Temple, using the Dark Moon Sword and Heaven Star Brush she had given him as the temple’s inheriting treasures.
After his death, that strand of spirit resided within the golden body.
"Senior brother, you sacrificed yourself. Even if I can eliminate my demonic energy in the future, I don’t want to live on," Xuan Yinyue said. "What you did will only make me hate myself more!"
"It’s not so; it truly isn’t. If my array can succeed, I’ll only lose a lot of cultivation. Once your demonic energy is completely dispersed, my spirit can naturally separate and be reborn," Xuan Jingmo sighed again. "But right now... it’s simply impossible."
Xuan Yinyue’s body stiffened, her hands and feet cold.
"It’s me..." she mumbled. "It’s all me..."
Because of her awakening and the breaking free from the Five Elements array, she had shattered her senior brother’s spirit, leaving no chance for it to regroup and be reborn!
She was engulfed in despair, wanting to draw her sword to end her life.
Nanli rushed forward and stepped on her Dragon Spring Sword. "Don’t die yet; you promised me you’d help me steal the lotus seeds."
Xuan Yinyue closed her eyes in pain.
"And..." Nanli glanced at the shattered well cover. "I’ve seen that Five Elements array before; it’s incredibly solid. How could you have broken free with your cultivation diminished?"
Because of this, she had never cared about that dry well while at Xuanyue Temple.
"Yeah!" Xuan Jingmo suddenly flew over.
His spirit was too weak to lift any stones.
He hurriedly turned to Nanli for help, asking her to pick up the shattered well cover stones and piece them together for him to examine closely.
Nanli also wanted to find out who their true enemy was, so she quickly gathered all the big stones without needing Xuan Jingmo’s guidance and completed the assembly of the well cover.
After a glance, she raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Someone even made a gap; this is not simple."
Xuan Jingmo hurried over, his handsome face twisted with rage. "This is the array-breaking technique of those damned from Penglai Island! Those murderers!"