567: Chapter 567 Familiar side hall, familiar bed, pleasure no longer passive

The night had deepened.

After the Disciples on the high slope behind the Hehuan Sect dispersed, Xu Ruyu walked alone toward Ningyin Hall.

Xiao Nianyin followed behind him; the moonlight stretched their shadows long, overlapping like two strokes of thick ink painted on the bluestone path.

Ningyin Hall was located on the east side of the Hehuan Sect Main Hall, a separate Side Hall that was small but exquisite.

The steps in front of the hall were covered in moss, and the lacquer on the door had mostly peeled away, revealing the greyish-white wood underneath.

Xu Ruyu stood before the door, not rushing to push it open, but simply gazing at it for a long time.

Then, he smiled.

"What are you smiling at?"

Xiao Nianyin stood behind him, her voice still carrying that indifferent tone, like a jar of old wine just taken out of an ice cellar—the seal not yet broken, but the cool, crisp scent already wafting out.

"I'm smiling at this place." Xu Ruyu pushed the door open and walked inside. "The first time I came here, my palms were sweating with nervousness. You surely didn't know that, right?"

Xiao Nianyin followed him in and naturally closed the door behind her with a backhand motion.

Her gaze swept across the interior of the hall; the Moonstone hadn't been placed yet, so it was pitch black.

She didn't respond, but judging by the slight narrowing of her eyes, she was also thinking about that time.

Of course she remembered.

Back then, she hadn't come here to flirt with him.

The Cultivation Technique she practiced was extremely rigid and Yang-aligned, causing an imbalance of Yin and Yang, and she was on the verge of Qi Deviation.

She had scoured ancient texts and finally found a method—summoning someone with a special fate from another world to use his Physique to neutralize her Yang Qi.

She tried it, and she succeeded.

She had dragged Xu Ruyu here from some unknown corner of some unknown world.

And then, her Cultivation was gone. Completely gone.

It wasn't just dropping a Realm, nor was it an injury; it was thoroughly, completely gone.

Her Dantian was empty, as if someone had meticulously wiped it clean with a rag, not even leaving a trace behind.

She had gone from a Saint Realm Sect Master capable of summoning wind and rain to a Mortal who couldn't even sense Spiritual Qi.

During those days, she felt like a joke.

A dignified Sect Master of Hehuan Sect, who had schemed her whole life, only to be drained dry by a Mortal she had summoned herself.

If that got out, the entire Cultivation World would laugh for three hundred years.

Xu Ruyu fished a Moonstone out of his storage ring and placed it on the table.

Soft light filled the room, illuminating the bed.

It was still the same bed, with a wooden frame carved with the unique Hehuan flower patterns of the Hehuan Sect. The lacquer on the bedposts had darkened, but the craftsmanship remained; the flowers, blooming one by one, entwined as if they were real.

The bedding had long been removed, leaving only the bare wooden boards.

"These boards are quite hard." He patted the bed and looked back at Xiao Nianyin. "Back then, you tossed and turned on this for over half a month; it's actually quite sturdy that it didn't collapse."

Xiao Nianyin walked to the bedside and also patted the boards.

"It was you who tossed and turned, not me."

"I tossed and turned? Every time, you were the one who came over voluntarily and started meditating without a word. I had no strength to struggle, held down there by you."

Xiao Nianyin frowned. Could Xu Ruyu be any more shameless in his use of the word "meditating"?

"You didn't even have True Qi back then. Did I need to use any force to hold you down?"

Xu Ruyu opened his mouth, realizing she had a point.

He truly didn't have any True Qi at that time.

When she dragged him from the other world, he was just an ordinary person, knowing nothing and capable of nothing.

Although her Cultivation was gone, her Physical Body still retained the foundation of the Saint Realm; holding him down was truly effortless.

"Fine, you're amazing." Xu Ruyu gave a thumbs up. "You're even more amazing now, in the True Immortal Realm, even more incredible. If you hold me down again in the future, I won't even be able to move."

Xiao Nianyin glanced at him.

"Why would I hold you down?"

"Who knows? What if you want to supplement something from me again?"

"What do you have on you now that I could supplement? I don't care for that bit of Saint Realm Cultivation you have."

"If you don't care for it, why do you follow me every day?"

"I'm just afraid that if you die, there will be no one to manage the Hehuan Sect."

Xu Ruyu laughed heartily.

"Xiao Nianyin, the way you act tough is actually quite cute."

Xiao Nianyin sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him expressionlessly.

There was no shyness or feigned anger in her gaze, only a coldness that said, "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll throw you out."

But she didn't throw him out; she just sat there, waiting for his next move.

Xu Ruyu sat down beside her.

The boards were indeed hard, hurting his rear end.

He turned his head to look at her; the light from the Moonstone shone from the side, softening her cold, aloof face.

Her brows and eyes were still cold, but there was a faint, almost imperceptible curve at the corner of her mouth, as if she were waiting for him to make a fool of himself.

"Xiao Nianyin."

"Hm."

"When you first came into my room, what were you thinking?"

Xiao Nianyin was silent for a moment.

"I wanted to take back my Cultivation."

"And then?"

"And then I took it back."

"You took it back, yet you still came every day?"

Xiao Nianyin turned her head to look at him.

The light from the Moonstone flickered in her eyes, like a star falling into an icy lake. "That was what you owed me. You drained my entire Cultivation; it was only natural for me to take it back."

Xu Ruyu counted on his fingers.

"You took back much more than you lost, didn't you? Back then, you came every day and stayed for half the night. Later, not only did your Cultivation recover, but it even increased by a significant amount. You do the math—who really owes whom?"

Xiao Nianyin didn't speak.

Of course she had calculated it.

Those nights, she would run to him under the banner of "Plucking and Supplementing," claiming she was taking back her own Cultivation, but in reality, what she gained from him each time was far more than what she had lost.

His Physique was too special—not Spiritual Qi, not spiritual energy, but a kind of more Advanced substance she had never seen before.

She had lived for hundreds of years and had never heard of anyone who, after being drained dry, not only suffered no ill effects but instead became stronger and stronger.

Xu Ruyu was an anomaly.

He was a walking Treasure Trove, but he didn't know it—or perhaps he did, but he didn't care.

"You want to settle accounts with me?" Xiao Nianyin's tone remained calm. "Then what about the first time you owe me? How do we calculate that?"

Xu Ruyu was stunned.

He hadn't expected her to bring this up voluntarily, and he certainly hadn't expected her to use that tone.

"You're bringing up old history."

"It's not bringing up old history; it's stating a fact."

Xiao Nianyin stood up, walked to the table, poured herself a cup of water, took a sip, and put it back down.

"You took advantage, and I'm taking it back. It's fair and reasonable."

"And did you take it back?"

Xiao Nianyin turned around, leaned against the edge of the table, crossed her arms, and looked at him.

"Guess."

Xu Ruyu looked at her like this—leaning against the table, arms crossed, chin slightly lifted, a faint curve at the corner of her mouth—and his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

This woman was as cold as an iceberg outside, and in front of those people from the Righteous Path Alliance, she was even more like a live volcano, killing Saint Realm Peak cultivators with a single palm without blinking.

But in front of him, she would say things that sounded serious but were actually just teasing him.

He liked this.

Xu Ruyu stood up from the bedside and walked over to her, close enough to see the curve of her eyelashes.

She didn't dodge or retreat; she only slightly lifted her chin and looked into his eyes.

"Xiao Nianyin, are you trying to seduce me?"