Chapter 309: Dream and Reality, Qin Lingyu’s Internal Struggle

Translator: Minotauruz

Ye Xiuwen had taken Chen Feiyu’s words with a pinch of salt.

“Qin Shanshan” is little martial sister? How is this possible? Didn’t “Qin Shanshan” previously say that she had lived for over three hundred years? Furthermore, if Miss Tong is none other than little martial sister, then where does her mysterious mastery and way with formation arrays and talismans come from? After all, both disciplines of talismans and formation arrays aren’t things that can be mastered over a single decade. At the very least, it’s not possible to attain “Qin Shanshan’s” level of proficiency within such a short span of time.

Yet all of these questions in his heart were completely washed away in that single moment that he saw Jun Xiaomo. That figure dressed in striking red that was standing in the encirclement right now was undoubtedly and unmistakably his little martial sister.

Unfortunately, the moment that Ye Xiuwen recognized Jun Xiaomo’s figure was also the moment that he noticed that Jun Xiaomo was barely hanging on by the skin of her teeth.

Thus, Ye Xiuwen increased the output of his Windwalk ability to the limits and arrived by Jun Xiaomo’s side in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, he managed to catch her before she fell to the ground and parry one of Qin Lingyu’s oncoming attacks.

Qin Lingyu was only at the Golden Core stage of cultivation, while Ye Xiuwen had already attained the advanced-tier Nascent Soul stage of cultivation. Their abilities were separated by an entire qualitative level.

Just like that, Ye Xiuwen had arrived in the nick of time, parrying a fatal blow, and he was now staring coldly at everyone around while supporting Jun Xiaomo in his arms. As he looked at “Jun Ziwen”, Qin Lingyu felt a mix of emotions washing through his heart.

This man, Jun Ziwen, had never appeared a single time within his dreams. In fact, the only person able to win Jun Xiaomo’s heart from the start to the end of the entire series of dreams had been him, and him alone. But now, it was apparent that Jun Ziwen possessed an unusual relationship with Jun Xiaomo. After all, it was evident that Jun Xiaomo had become thoroughly relaxed as soon as Jun Ziwen made his appearance. She had rested her entire being on Jun Ziwen’s body, burying herself in his bosom, and nobody could see the expression on her face right now.

As he observed coldly how Jun Xiaomo appeared to be so reliant on Jun Ziwen, Qin Lingyu felt a sudden wave of displeasure wash through his heart.

Back when Qin Lingyu just awakened from his dreams, he couldn’t help but ask himself whether he had truly never developed an affection for Jun Xiaomo in his dreams? At that time, his answer was most certainly in the negative.

Even though Jun Xiaomo was a demonic cultivator, her unconstrained lifestyle and her cold, demonic disposition laced every single move she made with mesmerizing flair. Who could possibly not find themselves moved and grow fond of such a person?

Truth be told, back when Jun Xiaomo was fervently under persecution, several persecutors had in fact secretly fallen for her. Unfortunately, with their reputation as members of upstanding and righteous Sects, none of them would ever consider confessing to such a Lady Demoness whose life everyone was after.

After all, getting together with a Lady Demoness was tantamount to committing himself to a lifetime of being persecuted by association as well – who would possibly be so infatuated as to agree to something like this? If not for the fact that Qin Lingyu had used the pretext of lulling Jun Xiaomo into a sense of security to lure her into a fatal trap at that time, he would almost certainly have been labeled as a co-conspirator and suffered the exact same fate as her.

In his dreams, Qin Lingyu had found himself time and again completely mesmerized by Jun Xiaomo, and he had struggled hard to fight against the urge, reminding and cautioning himself not to fall any deeper into the mires of love because nothing good would come out of it for his personal growth. He was not prepared to be treated as vermin and persecuted wherever he went.

After all, Qin Lingyu was fated to become the next Sect Leader of the Dawn Sect, so how could he let the blemish that Jun Xiaomo was tarnish his reputation and smear his existence?

Most importantly, Yu Wanrou had been by his side all that time. He was not a saint, and he had never thought to keep himself pure and completely faithful to Yu Wanrou. However, Yu Wanrou had threatened to deny him rights to her backroom if he truly fell in love with Jun Xiaomo.

Yu Wanrou possessed a unique, powerful dual-cultivation technique, and practicing this dual-cultivation technique, would allow his cultivation to soar. However, the catch was that this was only possible if performed with someone possessing the Fox Clan’s bloodline. From what he knew, Yu Wanrou was the only one who possessed such a bloodline.

Qin Lingyu couldn’t help but be even more moved by the prospects of accelerated cultivation speeds under the effects of this dual-cultivation technique. Thus, even though Yu Wanrou had openly allowed several men access into her backroom, each of them had consciously decided to turn a blind eye to this fact in favor of their own personal cultivation abilities. This was what kept a delicate balance between the one matriarch that Yu Wanrou was, as well as the harem of men beneath her skirt.

In other words, they had always despised Yu Wanrou’s unfaithfulness to them. However, they were willing to be used by Yu Wanrou and be part of her harem for the sake of their own cultivation.

For the sake of the dual-cultivation technique, he could not bring himself to be wholeheartedly committed to Jun Xiaomo. At best, they would merely be married in name as he carried out his clandestine, ulterior motives in secrecy.

Later, Jun Xiaomo fell prey to Qin Shanshan’s ploys and bore a child. When Qin Lingyu knew about this in his dreams, he was completely incensed, and he even nearly killed his own sister for what she had done.

How can Jun Xiaomo bear a child?! How can she bear someone else’s child?!

In his fury, Qin Lingyu had completely overlooked the fact that he was largely to blame for Jun Xiaomo’s predicament to begin with. After all, when Jun Xiaomo had mistaken another man for him, he had still been tussling and tangling in Yu Wanrou’s bed in completely ecstasy.

From thereon, whenever Jun Xiaomo looked blissfully in Qin Lingyu’s eyes, telling him about how she planned to bring up the child and groom and nurture the child, his heart would always wrench viciously in pain.

That was not his child to begin with! The fact that his wife was bearing someone else’s child was a complete disgrace to him!

Thus, when Yu Wanrou suggested to murder the child in Jun Xiaomo’s womb and deal a grievous injury to Jun Xiaomo at the same time, Qin Lingyu agreed without a single moment of hesitation. Quite apart from the fact that he had no means of rejecting Yu Wanrou’s request if he wished to retain his access to her backroom, he was already incensed by the fact that the child in Jun Xiaomo’s womb was not his to begin with!

The child’s existence was undoubtedly a constant reminder that his wife-in-name, Jun Xiaomo, had made him a cuckold and turned him into a massive laughingstock.

Much later on, when he visited the dark and dank dungeon where Jun Xiaomo was being held, and he saw how she was shrunken into a corner like a discarded, crumpled piece of rag, his remorse and lingering affection for Jun Xiaomo was completely extinguished just like that.

The person he was fond of was the dignified, imposing Jun Xiaomo, not the one in the dungeon covered in bloodstains and so dispirited that she could hardly even hold a candle to a mere mortal.

Then, Yu Wanrou also proposed their marriage at approximately the same time, and he immediately agreed. He knew that Yu Wanrou had done it on purpose, but what did he have to lose? He had always been on the same boat as Yu Wanrou, and their lives were completely inextricable from the other.

On their wedding day, a bright red bolt of light flashed out of the blue, and Qin Lingyu perished. Qin Lingyu was immediately jolted awake from his dreams there and then.

When he first woke up, he was almost unable to distinguish reality from dream. After all, his long, protracted series of dreams had taken place over ten full years, each of which seemed to be of more clarity and depth than the other. At some point, it even began to feel as though this was something had had truly happened in the past.

Yet, after Qin Lingyu once again adjusted his spirits and collected his thoughts, he realized that this series of dreams had ended there and then, and he no longer fell back into the same dream again.

Thus, he began to think that he would finally forget about the dreams he had been having over time. After all, it was rumoured that Jun Xiaomo had already perished, and he was no longer having the series of dreams. Yet, as though a never-ending nightmare that continued to plague him, Jun Xiaomo suddenly reappeared before his very eyes out of the blue, and she even looked exactly the same as the Jun Xiaomo in his dreams.

What can this possibly mean? Could the dreams be real? Is this something that’s going to happen in future? Ripples of undulating emotions began to surface on Qin Lingyu heart.

Naturally, these ripples were merely small undulations, and they could hardly be compared to the massive tidal wave of emotions in his heart when he first learnt that Qin Shanshan had perished completely.

If Qin Shanshan’s dead, doesn’t this mean that my Arcane Realm key is gone forever?!

Qin Lingyu peered into his Interspatial Ring and retrieved Qin Shanshan’s Origin Locket. In the end, all he could retrieve was what remained of an Origin Locket that had been completely shattered.

It was over. Everything that he had worked for had been completely ruined by Jun Xiaomo!

Thus, when he launched that vicious strike against Jun Xiaomo, his only thoughts were to kill Jun Xiaomo and wipe her off the surface of the world!

But now, when he saw Jun Xiaomo leaning against Jun Ziwen’s bosom with such reliance, his rationality returned to him once again.

Right now, he could no longer make out the exact emotions roiling in his heart – he knew that indignation and anger was definitely there, but what else was there?

He was not prepared to admit that there was even some measure of jealousy and heartache right now.

After all, in his dreams, Jun Xiaomo had given him her wholehearted affection, so why would reality be so different? Why did Jun Xiaomo have loving suitor after loving suitor? First, it was Ye Xiuwen, then it was Rong Ruihan, and now there’s even a Jun Ziwen...

That said, Qin Lingyu had never paused for a single moment to consider what right he had to think of Jun Xiaomo as his rightful possession to begin with.

At this time, Ye Xiuwen was coldly glaring at the members of the Dawn Sect who were surrounding Jun Xiaomo. His arms subconsciously tightened around Jun Xiaomo.

Almost. He had almost lost Jun Xiaomo again. If not for martial brother Chen’s reminder, the consequences would have been absolutely dire.

Now that Jun Ziwen had made his appearance once more, none of the members of the Dawn Sect dared to continue launching reckless attacks at Jun Xiaomo. This was because none of them had seen Jun Ziwen’s abilities, much less be able to even estimate the depths of his abilities.

“Jun Ziwen, do you know what the person in your bosom is? She’s a demonic cultivator! Do you really want to be implicated with such a person like her?!” The Fifth Elder bellowed as though with righteous indignation, making a feeble attempt to win Jun Ziwen to his camp.

However, Ye Xiuwen placidly retorted, “So what if she’s a demonic cultivator? I already knew since a long time ago that she was a demonic cultivator.”

“You!” The Fifth Elder cried out with anguish, “Aren’t you afraid of being persecuted by the entire spiritual cultivation world?!”

“Hah, persecution?” Ye Xiuwen chuckled lightly, “Aren’t you already persecuting the members of the Heavenly Peak to begin with? As a fellow member of the Heavenly Peak, I, Ye Xiuwen, am already part of your ambit of persecution, am I not?”

“You...you’re Ye Xiuwen?!” The Fifth Elder’s eyes widened with disbelief, “Impossible! Isn’t Ye Xiuwen’s face completely disfigured as a result of the incursion of demonic energy? That’s an incurable scar!”

“Your incapability of doing so doesn’t mean that everyone else in the world doesn’t have the ability to do so either. Truth be told, if not for my little martial sister here, I wouldn’t have had my eyes opened to the extent of incapability of the Dawn Sect’s Sect Elders. You can’t even cure a simple scar caused by the incursion of demonic energy.”

Perhaps it was due to their protracted interactions, but Ye Xiuwen seemed to have picked up a thing or two from Jun Xiaomo’s sharp tongue and her ability to provoke and incense people with just her words. At the very least, the Sect Elders and Peakmasters were already boiling from what Ye Xiuwen had just said.

“Hah! Since that’s the case, there’s nothing more for us to talk about. You martial siblings can leave your lives here today!”

As soon as the Fifth Elder finished speaking, he immediately launched an attack at Ye Xiuwen, and the other Sect Elders charged towards him at about the same time.

Ye Xiuwen was Jun Linxuan’s First-Seat Disciple, while Jun Xiaomo was Jun Linxuan’s daughter. If they could kill both of them today, it would undoubtedly deal a massive emotional trauma to Jun Linxuan. Thus, the Dawn Sect’s Sect Elders launched ferocious attacked with great vigor as they gazed upon their targets expectantly.

As Jun Xiaomo remained in Ye Xiuwen’s bosom, she felt both moved as well as anxious. After all, she did not want any harm to come to her martial brother Ye.

“Martial brother Ye.” Jun Xiaomo grabbed tightened her arm around Ye Xiuwen’s neck slightly and she struggled to lean closer to him as she whispered into his ears, “Lure them to the surrounding woods. I’ve got a way to deal with them.”

A swathe of anger immediately swelled up Ye Xiuwen’s chest and he muttered with some measure of indignation, “Nonsense! Are you going to tell me that your ‘way’ is to continue overdrawing the energy within your body?!”

Jun Xiaomo had not expected Ye Xiuwen to berate her like that, and her heart began to feel slightly aggrieved.

However, she simply shook her head slightly as she explained, “It’s not that. I’d done that previously so that I could draw their attention and buy you time to run away. This was why I didn’t lure them to the woods to begin with. But now that you’re here, the best way would naturally be to trap them within the Sect’s protective formation array.”

As he looked into Jun Xiaomo’s gleaming eyes, his heart softened – Ye Xiuwen couldn’t bring himself to continue berating her.

“You’re not allowed to push yourself.” Ye Xiuwen sincerely warned her. This was already the umpteenth time he was cautioning Jun Xiaomo this way.

Unfortunately, he knew that it was going to be incredibly difficult protecting Jun Xiaomo while fending off the relentless attacks from all of the Dawn Sect’s leaders with his present abilities. Thus, he knew that the only thing he could to was to trust Jun Xiaomo one more time and hope that she would not force the issue.

At least she was not dead. At least she was alive and well – this, to him, was enough.