Translator: Zenas Proofreader: Silavin [Why did Gu Changge not choose to dodge the attack? What is going on in his mind? What is that about him repaying her? Is he referring to him digging out Gu Xianer’s bone in the past?] Yue Mingkong’s mind was a mess. She did not know what to do at this moment. She was stupefied the instant she saw the sword cutting open Gu Changge’s body. She could not help but feel nervous in her heart as if she had been firmly grabbed by something. She definitely hated Gu Changge. She hated his cold attitude and indifference, his viciousness and mercilessness, but her heart could still not bear seeing him like this. An ordinary person would hardly be able to endure such pain, but Gu Changge had an extremely calm look. He had not even shown a frown on his face after being so severely injured. “Sigh…” Yue Mingkong’s mind was in a disorder at this moment. She let out a sigh as she turned her face away, unable to bear seeing Gu Changge in such a state. It was a matter related to the grievance between Gu Changge and Gu Xianer, so she did not have the qualification to butt in even if she wanted to. [Gu Changge, just what’re you thinking? In this life, I’m becoming more and more unable to understand you. Did you really have a change of heart and want to make up for your post mistakes, or are you still scheming something by allowing yourself to be injured…? Still, how could he have known that Gu Xianer would suddenly hold back at the last moment? If he had guessed wrongly, he would have died. Is he betting with his life? Or is it simply him repaying for what he did to Gu Xianer…?] Yue Mingkong grabbed the corner of her skirt with her soft and fair hands and there was a melancholic look on her picturesque and fairy-like face. The indifference and majesty she displayed normally had long disappeared without a trace. She felt the need to calm down and properly think about the recent events. “Damn!” “How fierce…” The elders that were watching the whole thing from the void could not help but raise their brows and sharply inhaled as they looked at Gu Changge with an expression of shock and disbelief. They knew that they could not be as fierce as Gu Changge, who did not dodge the attack in the slightest. Even taking on the full brunt of it. If Gu Xianer had not withdrawn a large amount of magic power at the last second, even the top of the Ultimate Peak would have been reduced to ruins from this attack! “Gu Changge, looks like this old man still underestimated you.” In the void, the Great Elder sighed after watching everything that happened. Although he did not have a good opinion and impression of Gu Changge, he still could not help but praise him. Considering the means he had shown, he was bound to become a prominent individual. No one could say how far he would be able to go. There was no one among the entire young generation that could be a match for him. Even someone like him could not see through Gu Changge! “Gu Changge, you…” In front of the palace, Gu Xianer was totally dumbfounded and her eyes were widened in disbelief. [You could have clearly dodge the attack as I had withdrawn a lot of magic power. Why didn’t you? Why did you not try to put up any resistance? Why did you say that you were repaying me? If I did not hold back just now, would you not have died? Just why? Why are you acting like this? What is your true goal?] Her mind had stopped working properly. Gu Xianer felt very anxious and could not calm herself down. As she looked at his calm, tranquil eyes, she knew he could loudly curse at her while glaring at her for being underhanded and shameless. After all, she had attacked him without warning just now. However, Gu Changge did not say nor do anything at all. It made Gu Xiuaner even more anxious as if she had done something wrong. [I-I… almost accidentally killed him?] Right now, her mind had gone blank as she stood dazed in the place. She did not even notice Gu Changge pulling out the sword from his body and leaving without making a sound. Gu Xianer looked as if she had suddenly lost her soul, and her cold-looking face was devoid of any emotions. Yue Mingkong let out a sigh looking at her condition and walked over to comfort her. But the thing that happened on this day had thrown her mind into disarray as well. It was something truly unexpected. Something she still could not figure out. Something she still questioned, ‘why?’ …… The calm expression on Gu Changge’s face disappears the moment he returned to his palace. The horrible pain made him frown a bit as various thoughts crossed his mind. Eventually, a strange smile appeared on his face. The reason he did all that was naturally to injure himself and gain the trust of the other party. After all, it was necessary for him to take that hit if he wanted Gu Xianer to completely believe him. Otherwise, with his means, he could very easily dodge that attack without even getting a scratch. No matter how great Gu Xianer’s talent and weapons were, she was still just a young cultivator at the Honoured Lord Realm. She was also soft hearted. She actually held back and withdrew the magic power of her attack even when she was facing her worst enemy. But it was something Gu Changge had expected, or he would not have allowed himself to get struck like that. Considering the situation, Gu Changge had also realized the reason behind Yue Mingkong’s search for Gu Xianer. Most likely, Gu Xianer had a very tragic end in the life she had lived previously. Even though she basically had the advantage of two protagonist templates, it was still not enough against him. She could not achieve anything great in her life with how kind she was. [What a foolish girl… How can you possibly escape my control like this?] Gu Changge shook his head as he looked over the wound on his body. Blood had already stopped gushing out of it. His constitution was exceptionally robust and a wound of this extent had already begun to close. That black broadsword had an abnormal aura as if it could destroy life force, but it was completely devoured by the black grand runes that appeared once Gu Changge used his taboo demonic art. This made it not leave any negative effect on him. He was capable of fully recovering from a wound of this extent rather quickly, but Gu Changge was in no hurry to do so. Buzz! He quietly used his magic power to reopen the wound that had begun to close. As a result, blood started to ooze out of it again, which made his wound seem even more horrendous. Gu Changge made it look as if a layer of strange energy was preventing his wound from recovering before he nodded in satisfaction at his work. Since he had planned to profit from deliberately getting injured, he was obviously going to make the most of it. He could not just waste the good opportunity that Gu Xianer had presented him with. He looked at the scary wound on his body that almost made his body split into two, with cracks appearing on many of his bones. Of course, the Daoist Bone was not so fragile to get damaged like this. Even if the black broadsword was quite odd, it could not show the great power it contained in Gu Xianer’s hand. So the only reason there were cracks on its surface was because of Gu Changge making it seem that way. Soon, a series of runes flashed on the Daoist Bone and the cracks on it immediately disappeared. It was the bone of the Great Dao after all… that he still wanted to keep for another purpose. He was waiting for Gu Xianer to extract it out of him with her own hands. He wanted to keep that possibility open in the future. The many mysteries and talent-based magic that were contained in the Daoist Bone had already engraved in his mind and had become a part of his Demonic Heart. So, it was the same for Gu Changge whether he had the bone or not. Thinking about all these things, Gu Changge felt that it was really worth him experiencing the great pain now. Fortunately, his will was strong, so he could maintain a calm and unshakeable attitude on the outside, without exposing a single flaw in his demeanor. Afterwards, he noticed the sound of footsteps coming from outside the palace and his expression changed a bit. It was Yue Mingkong, who had returned to his palace after seeing Gu Xianer off. “Are you alright?” Yue Mingkong asked with a complicated look. Her voice showed traces of concern, unlike how she usually sounded. Which was cold and indifferent. Her heart softened and the tone of her voice also became a lot gentler after seeing the scary wound on Gu Changge’s body. Although she had lived together with Gu Changge on the Ultimate Peak these past few days, the relationship between them had not become any better. Her attitude towards Gu Changge had remained bad and the two of them had already stopped acting cordially on the surface. There was no need to pretend to be polite between them. Gu Changge had a lot of matters to deal with, so he did not even bother to make contact with her. On the other hand, Yue Mingkong could not get used to Yan Ji’s appearance from time to time, even if she was his maid, follower, and the person in charge of taking care of his daily needs. It made her feel uncomfortable and she was dying to hack Yan Ji into two. But to her disappointment, Yan Ji was extremely powerful. Even if she looked very young, her cultivation was already at the Sacred Lord Realm. Yue Mingkong would be unable to do anything to her even if she wanted to, and her attitude towards Gu Changge became even worse. She knew that he had changed after her visit to the Gu Family, but him changing into someone that had begun to take interest in other women was something that she could never accept. If not for the fact that her cultivation had reached a decently high level and her experience from her previous life made her realize that as a woman, she did not need to feel distraught over such things, she would absolutely not be able to tolerate Yan Ji’s existence. But the way Gu Changge acted on this day made Yue Mingkong frustrated, confused and doubtful. She was at a loss on how she should interpret his behavior. Many things that she had experienced in her previous life had happened in this life as well, but things were different when it came to Gu Changge. [Does it not mean that Gu Changge is a variable now? Then, could I not prevent the future tragedies from happening by changing Gu Changge?] Yue Mingkong felt the need to give it a shot. She understood Gu Changge deeply, but never had a full understanding of him. Like what did he experience in his younger days? Even when he was experiencing such severe pain that could make an ordinary person pass out, how could he still remain so calm? So calm in fact that it made others nervous for him. Was there a hidden side of him that she did not know about? After all, even a hateful person would have a pitiful side to them, and perhaps Gu Changgen was the same? “It’s fine. Yue Mingkong your husband is feeling extremely flattered to see you be so concerned about him.” Gu Changge glanced at Yue Mingkong and replied casually with a smile. Then he pretended to be looking for a super-effective pill inside his storage ring in order to take care of his wound. He had an indifferent and composed look as he did so. One would not find anything odd with him if they could not see the wound on him. But it was a quite uncomfortable and ghastly sight to see him acting like this with his horrible wound that made the bones in his body visible from the outside. Yue Mingkong did not think that Gu Changge would still tease her at such a time and she could not help but fall silent. Then, she said indifferently, “Xianer’s sword contained the power of destruction, so ordinary healing pills will be useless.” The power of destruction could destroy another’s life force and prevent their wounds from being healed. So, even someone with a powerful constitution would be tormented by it. “Is that so? No wonder it was so difficult to heal it.” Gu Changge acted as if he finally had this realization upon hearing her words, but he still did not seem too concerned about it. Buzz! Divine light began to gush over his body. Hazy balls of light filled the air and interweaved with each other. His blood and vigor transformed into a terrifying true dragon and let out a booming roar. The terrifying blood and vigor were simply like an oast house standing tall between heaven and earth. Yue Mingkong could not help but acknowledge that Gu Changge was ridiculously strong. The power of his blood and vigor was immense as it was the combined product of his still hidden aces as well. However, a frown soon appeared on Gu Changge’s face. The wisps of the chain of divine light landed on the wound to heal it, but they were immediately split apart the moment they came into contact with it. “It’s certainly strange. It’ll be difficult to heal this injury in a short time.” Gu Changge let out a light sigh as he said helplessly. It was at this time that an elegant fragrance wafted past him. “Don’t waste your time and effort like this. You need to force out the power of destruction from your body first of all. Otherwise, your wound won’t heal even if you spend all the time in the world.” Yue Mingkong shook her head lightly as she walked over to him. There was indifference on her face but she was still feeling distressed in her heart. She took out a embroidered handkerchief and wiped off the blood around Gu Changge’s wound. “Mingkong, since when did you become so concerned for your husband?” Gu Changge could not help but say that with a smile, as if he was surprised to see Yue Mingkong do such a thing. Yue Mingkong still had a quite indifferent expression as she also replied in a casual and composed manner, “What do you mean by ‘since when’? You just never perceived my concern for you.” Gu Changge looked a bit taken aback at her words, before he let out a faint sigh and did not say anything else. Yue Mingkong immediately noticed the subtle change in his emotions and she asked with a frown, “Gu Changge, what are you sighing about?” “It’s nothing.” Gu Changge answered with a casual smile. “It’s normal for a heartless person like me to be unable to perceive such things.” While his words sounded really stupid, the thing he was referring to was definitely not a normal heart. Technically, what he was saying was not incorrect. He had intended to put all the blame on the Demonic Heart. That was how Gu Changge was going to fix things with Yue Mingkong. His Demonic Heart was his greatest secret besides his taboo demonic art, and it seemed that Yue Mingkong had also not found out about it in her previous life. So, he was creating an opportunity for her to ‘accidentally’ find out about his secret. Gu Changge’s expression remained unchanged as many thoughts crossed his mind. “Heartless… Indeed, your heart is made of iron and stone…” Her words sounded very normal but they were laced with her emotions that were difficult to put into words. She fell silent for a while, recalling a lot of things that happened in her previous life, and sighed faintly at her situation that did not allow her to speak of them.