395: Chapter 395 Would Xiao Nianyin be grateful to Xu Ruyu for saving her? Xu Ruyu didn't believe it.

Inside Tingquan Residence.

Xu Ruyu carried Xiao Nianyin into the room and gently placed her on the bed.

Xiao Nianyin was still wrapped in his outer robe, curled up into a ball. Her face was as pale as paper, and her eyes were hollow, as if she hadn't yet recovered from the shock.

Xu Ruyu stood by the bed, looking down at her.

His gaze was cold, as cold as the water in a deep winter pool.

There was no pity, no tenderness, only the calmness of someone scrutinizing prey.

He was thinking about something.

Today's event, one could say it was neither big nor small.

Xiao Nianyin had almost been defiled, and it was he who saved her.

Logically speaking, this woman should be grateful and express her gratitude with tears.

But gratitude is just gratitude; it doesn't mean anything.

How long can gratitude last? Three days? Five days? Once today's fear passes, once those nightmarish memories slowly fade, Xiao Nianyin will still be Xiao Nianyin—that once high-and-mighty Saint Realm Sect Master, that woman he had used as a Bed-warming maid for over half a year.

He knew this type of person all too well.

In the world from his past life, how many people were grateful in times of crisis, swearing to repay the debt with their lives, only to forget the kindness and cast their oaths to the back of their minds once things calmed down?

Not to mention someone like Xiao Nianyin, who once stood at the pinnacle of power—the arrogance and self-esteem in her bones would not change completely because of one act of saving her life.

Those grievances, that sense of humiliation, that unwillingness to be ordered around by a "Qi Refinement Stage trash" for over half a year—they wouldn't just vanish because of today's event.

Xu Ruyu sneered in his heart.

He had waited for this day for a long time.

Not waiting for the chance to play the hero, but waiting for a moment—a moment to test her.

When he first planted the soul fixing bead in Xiao Nianyin, it was because he had to be cautious. A former Saint Realm Expert, even if her cultivation was sealed, could backlash at any moment.

He could not entrust his life to someone who had once wanted to kill him.

But the soul fixing bead, to put it bluntly, was a last resort.

It could control a person's life and death, but it couldn't control a person's heart.

A person harboring resentment, even when locked by the soul fixing bead, would sharpen their blade in the dark, waiting for a chance to backlash.

He needed to know whether Xiao Nianyin had truly changed.

Not the superficial obedience, but the change in her bones.

Today's event was an excellent opportunity for a test—when people have just survived a disaster, their emotions are the most unstable, and they are most likely to reveal their true inner selves.

So, on the way back from the cave, he had been observing her.

When she cried in his arms, the fear and despair were real. The way she tightly gripped his lapels, that reliance and trust, were also real.

But Xu Ruyu knew that this reliance and trust were stress responses.

Just like a drowning person grabbing a piece of driftwood; the gratitude in that moment is real, but once they reach the shore, who would be grateful to that piece of driftwood for a lifetime?

He needed a deeper test.

Xu Ruyu turned around, walked to the cabinet, took out a set of clean clothes, and placed them by the bed.

"Change into these," he said, his voice flat. There was no deliberate gentleness, nor deliberate coldness, just like ordering something completely ordinary. "Call me when you are done."

After speaking, he turned and walked out of the bedroom, gently closing the door.

He didn't say anything like "I'll wait for you outside," nor did he show any signs of pity.

He was her master, and she was his Bed-warming maid. This had been the positioning of their relationship for the past half year.

Saving her was the master's responsibility. But pity? Unnecessary.

Xiao Nianyin stared blankly at the door for a long time without moving.

She looked down at herself—her clothes torn, in a wretched state, stained with blood and dust.

Where the clothes were torn, large patches of snow-white skin were exposed, marked with scratches from thorns.

Looking like this, she was practically a beggar crawling out of a mud pit; where was there any trace of the former Saint Realm Sect Master's elegance?

She slowly sat up and picked up the clothes.

They were her clothes, retrieved by Xu Ruyu from her original residence. The fabric was soft and carried a faint, fresh fragrance—the scent she was accustomed to.

She began to change her clothes.

Her movements were slow and mechanical, as if she had lost her Soul.

Images flashed through her mind—Zhou Jingxing's grinning face, the sound of tearing fabric, those filthy words, that hand about to touch her skin... And, that slight muffled thud, that blood hole that suddenly appeared, that face that died with eyes wide open...

Her hands trembled slightly, and she couldn't tie her sash no matter how she tried.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing herself not to think about those things.

But those images were like brands, carved into her mind, impossible to shake off.

She recalled what those people had said— "You even sleep with your own disciple, what's there to pretend about?" "How does it feel to be pinned down by your own disciple?"

Those words were like knives, carving into her heart one by one.

She thought of the things she had done to Xu Ruyu—scheming against him, using him, almost getting him killed.

Back then, she was high and mighty, viewing him as an ant, using him only as a Cauldron that could be manipulated at will.

And now, it was he who saved her.

It was he who arrived at that critical moment, killed those beasts, and rescued her from that Hell-like cave.

It was he who draped his outer robe over her.

It was he who, for her sake, killed over a dozen people and offended the entire Taihu Clan.

Xiao Nianyin's tears fell silently.

But as the tears fell, another emotion churned in the depths of her heart.

It was the resentment accumulated over the past half year.

Being ordered around by a "trash" at the Qi Refinement Stage, being used as a Bed-warming maid—serving tea and pouring water, making the bed, and even washing his feet.

What was she? She was once a Saint Realm Sect Master!

The youngest Saint Realm Expert in the Hehuan Sect for thousands of years!

An existence looked up to by countless Cultivators!

And now, she was not even as good as an ordinary servant.

Servants at least had dignity, but she did not.

Every time she lowered her head to serve tea to Xu Ruyu, every time she knelt on the ground to wash his feet, every time he ordered her around as if it were a matter of course, there was a fire burning in her heart.