114: Chapter 114 Her cultivation has recovered, but she still lets Xu Ruyu continue.

The tide instantly drowned all her reason and reserve.

Xu Ruyu no longer hesitated, no longer wavered, as if pouring all his determination and courage into this moment.

In the darkness, Xiao Nianyin finally opened her eyes.

She couldn't clearly see Xu Ruyu's face, but she could feel his gaze fixed on her without blinking.

In that gaze, there was worry, concern, guilt, and a kind of… almost devout focus she had never seen in his eyes before.

He was looking at her.

Looking at this woman who had turned white-haired overnight and whose beauty had faded for him.

Looking at this Revered Master who was once high above, but now as fragile as glass.

Xiao Nianyin’s heart was fiercely struck by something.

She reached out, and for the first time, actively wrapped her arms around Xu Ruyu’s neck.

This action made Xu Ruyu tremble all over.

Xiao Nianyin closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink into this strange and surging tide.

So...

This was the “natural progression” that Madam Qingli spoke of?

So...

Letting go of pride and reserve wasn't as difficult as she imagined?

Just as Xiao Nianyin was almost completely lost—

“Revered Master...”

Xu Ruyu’s voice suddenly sounded in her ear, with suppressed gasps, yet exceptionally clear:

“Quickly... Cultivate.”

Xiao Nianyin was stunned.

Cultivate?

At a time like this?

Xu Ruyu sensed her hesitation, his movements didn't stop, but his voice became more urgent:

“Senior Qingli said... if the Disciple actively circulates the Cultivation Technique and guides the power within his body... to return it to you...”

“Now... is the best time...”

“Revered Master... quickly...”

Xiao Nianyin completely sobered up.

She looked at Xu Ruyu’s blurred face in the darkness, an indescribably complex emotion surging in her heart.

So...

He came tonight not for carnal pleasure, not for intimacy.

He truly... came to save her.

In this way.

In a way that might be equally difficult for him, and require immense courage.

Xiao Nianyin’s lips trembled slightly.

In the darkness, she spoke for the first time.

Her voice was very soft, very hoarse, with a hint of a choked sob that even she didn't notice:

“Ruyu...”

She called him by his given name.

Not “Xu Ruyu,” not “apprentice,” but “Ruyu.”

“I’ve become like this...”

She asked the question that had been weighing on her heart for a long time:

“Do you not despise me?”

Xu Ruyu lowered his head, trying hard to see her face in the darkness.

“In my heart...”

Xu Ruyu’s voice was deep and firm, each word striking her heart:

“Revered Master will always be the most beautiful.”

“Always was, always will be.”

At that moment, Xiao Nianyin felt her heart completely filled with something.

It was a strange, burning emotion she had never experienced in hundreds of years.

Sweetness.

Warmth.

Peace of mind.

So... this is what it felt like to be cherished, to be protected unconditionally.

Xiao Nianyin closed her eyes, two lines of clear tears silently streaming from the corners of her eyes, disappearing into her white hair at her temples.

She no longer hesitated, no longer wavered.

Then, she began to slowly circulate the Cultivation Technique according to the secret method of the Heavenly Charm Mysterious Maiden Heart Sutra.

This time, it was completely different from before.

Previously, she had tried to forcibly extract it, like scooping water from a deep pool with a leaky spoon, all in vain.

But this time—

The moment her Cultivation Technique began to circulate, she could clearly feel that the previously dormant fragments of her Saint Realm Power within Xu Ruyu’s body seemed to have been awakened, slowly beginning to flow.

No, she hadn't awakened them.

It was Xu Ruyu.

He was actively guiding, actively pushing, actively... returning it to her.

At first, it was just a thin stream, but soon, the stream gathered into a brook, the brook into a river, and the river into an ocean!

What shocked her even more was—

Her appearance was also changing.

In the darkness, she couldn't see, but she could feel it.

The fine wrinkles on her face were slowly smoothing out; her withered white hair, starting from the roots, was regaining its luster, its color changing from snowy white to silvery white, and then from silvery white to a faint moonlight white; her skin became firm and supple again, its elasticity and luster, lost for hundreds of years, were returning little by little.

And at the same time, a long-lost sacred aura, belonging to a Saint Realm powerhouse, also began to slowly emanate from her.

That aura was cold, pure, and inviolable, as if a Heavenly Mysterious Maiden had descended to the mortal world, carrying an innate aloofness and... aversion towards men.

Yes, aversion.

As her cultivation began to recover, and the Heavenly Charm Mysterious Maiden Heart Sutra once again operated at a profound level, that instinctive dislike and repulsion towards men, developed after cultivating this Cultivation Technique to its extreme, returned to Xiao Nianyin’s heart.

She could feel her emotions changing.

Her body was still enjoying the unprecedented pleasure and satisfaction brought by Xu Ruyu, but deep in her heart, a voice coldly said: Enough. Stop. Push him away. You shouldn't be so intimate with any man.

Two completely opposite emotions clashed fiercely within her heart.

Xiao Nianyin bit her lip hard, almost drawing blood.

She looked at the young man above her, moving vigorously, his sweat dripping onto her chest, seeing the undisguised concern and focus in his eyes, seeing his determination to risk everything to save her...

Finally, that cold trace of aversion in her heart was forcibly suppressed by her.

She closed her eyes, re-embraced Xu Ruyu tightly, and buried her face in the crook of his neck.

“Continue...”

She whispered, her voice carrying a barely perceptible tremor:

“Don’t stop...”

Let it be...

Her last repayment to him.

Let it be...

The final... indulgence before bidding farewell to this wrong, yet deeply unforgettable relationship.

Xiao Nianyin told herself this.

Then, she no longer resisted her body's instincts, no longer suppressed that strange sweetness in her heart, allowing herself to completely sink into this doomed, fruitless love.

In the darkness, two bodies intimately intertwined.

One giving, one receiving.

One saving, one being saved.

Outside the window, the bright moon set in the west, and in the eastern sky, a faint fish-belly white was already emerging.

The long night was about to pass.