Free Web NovelChapter 77: Chapter 65: What Is Love? A Willing Pledge of Life and Death
"My Human Puppets carried you all over the place, running up and down!"
Yang Qi gritted his teeth. "And now, you’re telling me you failed?"
"Fifty or sixty years!"
Miao Ying frowned as well. "All that time, and we’re just supposed to wait?"
Both of them had sacrificed a lot!
Although, in reality, it was only Miao Ying who had sacrificed her body.
Yang Qi had, at most, deployed his Human Puppets.
But he still had to endure watching his own woman, Miao Ying, with Xu Lei. The psychological torment was considerable!
And now? He was talking about fifty or sixty years from now!
While fifty or sixty years wasn’t an impossible length of time to wait for accomplished cultivators like them, it was still a long time!
And every extra year they had to wait for the legacy treasure, the lower their chances of successfully attaining the Dao became!
Faced with their displeasure, Xu Lei simply wore a helpless expression, as if to say, ’This is how it is. What are you going to do about it?’
He wasn’t even afraid of death, so what else was there for Xu Lei to fear? He wasn’t scared at all.
Yang Qi and Miao Ying looked at each other, their lips moving, but no sound came out.
Xu Lei knew they were using Magical Power to communicate telepathically.
’They’re probably discussing whether or not to execute me!’
Xu Lei looked guilty, but he was inwardly calm and fearless.
’In fact, at this moment, Xu Lei was even hoping the two of them would kill him.’
But, to Xu Lei’s surprise, despite their anger, they ultimately chose not to kill him just yet.
Instead, Miao Ying continued to use her honey trap on Xu Lei.
"Divine Monk, please, think it over again."
She gracefully approached, her delicate body sinking into a squat. Her jade-like hands cradled Xu Lei’s head, pulling it to her chest as she said softly, "Perhaps one day, it will suddenly come to you, and you’ll solve it.
A momentary failure is nothing.
You just need to rally and try again!
Besides, Yingying has never blamed you."
Xu Lei offered no resistance to Miao Ying’s actions.
Feeling the soft warmth of her embrace, Xu Lei naturally understood.
’They must think I still have some use to them!’
’That’s why they can’t bring themselves to just kill me.’
Keeping Xu Lei alive, after all, meant there was still a sliver of hope.
"Amitabha Buddha."
So Xu Lei put on a moved expression, tore off Miao Ying’s outer robe to reveal a fair, tender shoulder, and kissed it. He choked out, "Donor Yingying, you truly love this monk.
I have disappointed you, yet you are still like this!
I am ashamed!
But the love in my heart for you, Donor, is not one bit less than yours!
Allow this monk to express it with his body!"
Since they still wanted to play games,
Xu Lei would continue to enjoy Miao Ying!
’Waste not, want not!’
「Another month passed in the blink of an eye.」
Xu Lei pretended to continue deciphering, refusing to give up.
All the while, he continued to bestow his Charitable Giving upon Miao Ying.
But on this day, Xu Lei was truly on his last legs.
He wasn’t completely dead yet,
but he had grown even thinner.
And after one wild night,
he woke up the next day to find that he was no longer able.
He understood. The side effects had fully erupted.
At this point, after letting Xu Lei use her for free for another month with no results—he still couldn’t break a single Restriction—Miao Ying finally dropped the act.
Her face fell as she made it clear that if Xu Lei couldn’t break any more Restrictions,
he was not to touch her again!
Xu Lei wasn’t angry about this at all.
He even swore guiltily that if he failed to decipher any more Restrictions from now on, he would not touch a single hair on Miao Ying’s head.
Of course, his feelings for her were the same as before.
It didn’t matter whether they could be intimate or not.
Because he loved *her*, not just her body.
After saying this, Xu Lei went back to pretending to study the ancient texts and the Restrictions.
He put on the air of someone who wouldn’t rest until he succeeded.
Even when Miao Ying tried to show him affection again, he resolutely stuck to his previous vow.
Of course, at this point,
Xu Lei was hoping he would suddenly drop dead from a heart attack, a stroke, or just sheer exhaustion.
After all, he had already done everything he needed to do.
If he died now, it would be perfect.
But to commit suicide just because he couldn’t decipher the Restrictions? No, that wouldn’t work.
That might strike Yang Qi and Miao Ying as strange.
’A man as deeply in love with Miao Ying as I’m pretending to be should be trying with all his might, even if he’s failing.’
Therefore, Xu Lei felt it was more in his interest to maintain the image of ’a man driven mad by guilt, who obsessively tries to decipher the texts, only to fail and die from misery and exhaustion’.
That way, Yang Qi and Miao Ying would be more inclined to believe what he’d said before about fifty or sixty years.
「Ten more days passed in the blink of an eye.」
Xu Lei still wasn’t dead!
But Yang Qi had run out of patience.
He shook the Bell in his hand!
"RING-A-LING-LING!"
As the bell rang out,
a tall Human Puppet immediately charged over,
ready to attack Xu Lei.
Xu Lei feigned panic,
but inwardly, he was full of anticipation.
’I thought I was finally going to die.’
But to his surprise, Miao Ying rushed out to stop it.
Seeing this, Xu Lei looked moved on the surface, but he was disappointed inside.
Because this was clearly another act put on by Yang Qi and Miao Ying.
Sure enough, Yang Qi joined the drama. He directed two Human Puppets to rush over and seize Miao Ying.
Then, he revealed his ugly, true colors.
He said he had only been pretending to be loyal before.
In reality, he was only after the cave’s legacy.
He had originally planned to just watch from the sidelines.
But he never expected that the old Monk would still be unable to decipher anything after all this time!
So he was done pretending!
After his speech, he threatened Xu Lei with Miao Ying again.
In short, it was an act: the loyal servant’s betrayal!
They were using the woman this old Monk supposedly loved so deeply to spur him into working harder on the deciphering.
And Xu Lei didn’t hesitate to stab himself.
He also slit the skin on his neck.
Afterward, Yang Qi gave Xu Lei one more month.
「A few minutes later.」
Miao Ying was bandaging Xu Lei’s wounds.
"Divine Monk, how could you do this!"
Miao Ying’s beautiful eyes glistened. "To do this to yourself, for Yingying’s sake!
You were even trying to kill yourself!
It’s not worth it! Yingying isn’t worth you doing this!"
"Amitabha Buddha."
Xu Lei replied, "I once heard a line of poetry: ’I ask the world, what is love, that it compels one to promise life and death?’
At the time, I could not understand its deep meaning.
Not until I met you, Donor Yingying.
Only then did I understand.
So this is love!
For the one you love,
you would do anything!
Even death holds no fear!"
He just had to keep up the charade.
The more he made them believe he was truly in love with Miao Ying, the more they would believe his claim that ’the Restrictions will undo themselves in fifty to sixty years’!
"Divine Monk, Yingying is not worth it."
Large tears streamed uncontrollably from Miao Ying’s eyes. She choked out in a low voice, "No one has ever been willing to die for Yingying. You... you are the first!"
Of course, she had no idea what Xu Lei was actually thinking at that moment.
’Yang Qi gave me one month!’
’That should be enough time for me to die of old age!’
’To be honest, being old really sucks.’
’A beautiful woman is right in front of me, and I can’t do a thing!’
Xu Lei was more than ready for a do-over.
’But for now, this aged body can still be used to make those two trust my words more. I have to make use of it.’
