Chapter 641 537: "Shang Miaoyan, Why Won't You Give Up on Me?

"That just made me more defiant. I had to prove to you that your so-called persistence was nothing in the face of my charm.

I wanted to seduce you, to bully you, until I was the only one in your eyes, just to prove that I was the most exceptional woman."

Shang Miaoyan chuckled softly, the corners of her eyes turning a faint red. With a hint of self-mockery, she asked, "Very childish, isn't it?"

She looked up at the faint glow of the Luminous Pearl above. A relieved smile touched her lips, but her eyes held a trace of imperceptible loneliness.

"From the day I was born, the Sect Leader and everyone around me told me that I was the one who would lead the Yin Yang Sacred Land to glory.

Everyone praised me, revered me, feared me... No one taught me how to love someone, and no one taught me how to be loved.

Xiaohan, I don't ask for your forgiveness for all the wicked things I did to you, but I won't give up on pursuing you... Only, I won't resort to those wicked ways again."

"I'm going to learn how to truly love you."

The light of the Luminous Pearl shone on Shang Miaoyan's profile, outlining her delicate features and illuminating the fleeting vulnerability in her eyes.

Pei Yuhang's gaze froze, as if he hadn't expected this to be her answer.

He pressed his lips together and said softly, "Then do as you please. In any case, I will not accept your love... In my eyes, you have always been a wicked woman who does whatever she wants and treats human life as worthless."

Shang Miaoyan's eyes flickered, and she suddenly grabbed Pei Yuhang's wrist.

"If I told you that I was the one who helped you escape the Yin Yang Sacred Land back then, would you be willing to give me another chance?"

Pei Yuhang's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

He was silent for a moment before finally pulling his hand back. "Your words are no proof... Besides, I find it hard to trust you."

Shang Miaoyan's hand froze in mid-air, then slowly fell to her side.

She watched Pei Yuhang's retreating back as he turned to leave. A bitter smile touched her lips, her long lashes hiding the gloom in her eyes.

'So that's how it is... Forget it. I'll just consider this my punishment.'

A silence fell between them, and they stopped speaking.

They walked one after the other down the deep, dark corridor, their footsteps exceptionally clear in the silence.

Shang Miaoyan stared at the back in front of her, which always maintained a three-step distance, and subconsciously tightened her grip on the corner of her robes.

She didn't speak again until her eyes fell on a dark shadow up ahead. When she did, her voice was grave.

"Xiaohan, we're back where we started."

Pei Yuhang followed her gaze.

The slit-throat corpse on the ground made his pupils shrink abruptly—it was the very same body they had found before setting out.

"Something's not right."

Pei Yuhang said in a low voice, his long fingers subconsciously resting on the hilt of his Silent Sword.

"I'm sure we were walking in a straight line, with no detours."

Shang Miaoyan pursed her red lips. "Xiaohan, are you saying there's an array here, something like a ghost wall?"

Pei Yuhang didn't answer immediately.

He pondered for a moment, then suddenly raised his hand. A cluster of crimson flame leaped from his fingertip.

The flame twisted and transformed in mid-air, finally taking the shape of a lifelike Fire Sparrow that seemed ready to take flight from his palm.

"I'll probe ahead, you probe behind. We'll know soon enough if it's an array."

Shang Miaoyan nodded. Her red lips parted slightly, and she exhaled a puff of purple, fragrant air.

The fragrant wisp swirled and condensed in her palm, gradually forming a translucent, crystalline purple butterfly, its wings glittering with flecks of Spiritual Light.

In an instant, the Fire Sparrow flapped its wings and shot forward while the purple butterfly fluttered backward, the two trails of Spiritual Light tracing brilliant arcs through the dark corridor.

The two held their breath, their gazes fixed intently in their respective directions.

Shang Miaoyan's fingertips dug unconsciously into her palm, and even her breathing became extremely shallow.

A moment later—

Her pupils contracted sharply.

A crimson Fire Sparrow was flapping its wings, flying slowly toward her out of the darkness behind.

"Did you find anything?"

Pei Yuhang turned his head and saw the Fire Sparrow he had released.

The pattern of a Honglian flickered in Shang Miaoyan's pupils as she nodded gently.

"I saw it. It was fast, but I still caught a momentary change in the space ahead.

It was as if... the stretch of corridor with the Fire Sparrow in it suddenly shifted to be behind us."

Upon hearing this, Pei Yuhang instantly had an idea, but before he could voice a solution, he heard Shang Miaoyan cry out in alarm from behind him:

"Wait—someone destroyed the purple butterfly I released!"

In that instant, Pei Yuhang drew his Silent Sword. And in the darkness before him, two Cultivators, one old and one young, appeared out of thin air.

VMMM—!!

The Sword Qi from the Silent Sword instantly locked onto the pair. They hadn't expected to run into anyone and subconsciously reached for the Magical Treasures at their waists.

But Shang Miaoyan, behind Pei Yuhang, had already cast her Charm Technique, freezing them in place.

Feeling the Sword Qi of the Silent Sword pressed against his throat, the old man swallowed and said softly:

"Fellow Daoist... Fellow Daoist, don't be rash."

"My name is Golden Mirror Wanderer, and this here is my son. The two of us only came to the Abyssal Sea Palace to seek treasure. We mean no harm."

Shang Miaoyan had no patience for nonsense and asked directly, "How did you appear here? What method did you use?"

The Golden Mirror Wanderer was about to try and stall for time when the man next to him, bewitched by the Charm Technique, spoke with a dazed look in his eyes:

"In the Abyssal Sea Palace, someone left maps of the palace in various places.

My father and I were lucky enough to find one. From it, we learned that we haven't entered the inner Abyssal Sea Palace yet. We're just in the moving labyrinth of the outer layer.

This labyrinth is constantly shifting and will trap people in the same corridor. But after each shift, there's a five-second pause. If you time it right, you can gradually move deeper until you get out of the labyrinth."

After learning the way out, Shang Miaoyan smiled and raised an eyebrow at Pei Yuhang, as if to say, 'See? It was all thanks to me.'

Pei Yuhang rolled his eyes at her and asked the bewitched man:

"How long have you been in the Abyssal Sea Palace?"

"Two days..."

Hearing this, a worried look flashed in Pei Yuhang's eyes.

He and Shang Miaoyan had only just woken up a short while ago. He hadn't realized others were already days ahead of them.

'Then Yueqiu and Junior Sister Nangong...'

Pei Yuhang suppressed his unease and continued asking:

"What news have you heard in the Abyssal Sea Palace these past two days?"

"My junior brother found a Medicinal Garden Secret Realm deep within the labyrinth. It's said that someone found a Rebirth Lotus Root inside, which can reconstruct a physical body.

This has attracted many Cultivators whose physical bodies are near the end of their lifespan. My father and I were planning to follow my junior brother's information and go take a look."

The Rebirth Lotus Root!

Pei Yuhang's eyes lit up slightly.

Shang Miaoyan noticed the change in Pei Yuhang's expression and asked softly, "Xiaohan, you don't need that thing. Are you going to fight for it too?"

"I promised Chen Tiansheng I would help him reconstruct his physical body."

Hearing that Pei Yuhang was actually going to fight for a treasure for another man, Shang Miaoyan's expression darkened even more.

She pointed at the old and young man before them, her voice turning sharp and cold:

"You two, lead the way for us!"

"Don't worry, Xiaohan and I aren't Demon Cultivators. As long as you obediently lead us to the place, we won't harm you."

The Golden Mirror Wanderer looked at his son, who was completely under Shang Miaoyan's spell, and cursed inwardly, 'This Demoness... I'd have to be a fool to believe you!'

...

...

Led by the pair, Pei Yuhang and Shang Miaoyan successfully navigated through layers of the labyrinth. Along the way, they were ambushed by a few Cultivators, but within a few breaths, they all became spirits slain by the Silent Sword.

Although a Cultivator's Cultivation is suppressed to below the Golden Core realm inside the Abyssal Sea Palace, the fundamental power of a Mahayana Cultivator was still far beyond that of an ordinary Loose Cultivator.

"This Abyssal Sea Palace is really getting more and more dangerous."

Shang Miaoyan frowned slightly as she looked at the corpses that kept appearing along the path.

Due to the narrowness of the Abyssal Sea Palace's outer labyrinth and its randomly changing paths, many Cultivators would unexpectedly find themselves face-to-face in the tight corridors.

In this dark and gloomy environment, every Cultivator was extremely vigilant. Upon encountering a stranger, they would often instinctively attack, trying to gain the upper hand.

Looking at the number of bodies along the way, Shang Miaoyan made a quick estimate. She figured that of all the Cultivators swept into the Abyssal Sea Palace, at least a third of them had died in the labyrinth before even reaching the true palace.

The person who set up this labyrinth's Grand Array was truly sinister. They didn't need any traps or mechanisms; simply by exploiting the most basic suspicion between people, they could make the intruders kill each other.