Du Yue nodded, using her spiritual sense to pull Du Yufeng out of the ground. As she saw his battered, crippled form, her smile only grew brighter.
'So… Husband took revenge for me, crippling both his cultivation and his body. Hehehe… my husband really is the cutest.'
Su Wen and Du Yufeng watched in stunned silence as she smiled like a maiden in love, effortlessly dragging him out of the earth. Neither of them knew what to say.
Du Yufeng even forgot to beg for forgiveness.
Finally, remembering the fate that awaited him, he shouted,
"You unfilial daughter! I am your father! Not only did you attack me, but you're colluding with an outsider to kill me! If you still have any shame, let me go…!
I will forget everything that's happened! I'll even clear your name personally!
That bastard Lu Tang forced me to give you the poison… I'm innocent!"
Before he could continue, Du Yue picked up the same stick Su Wen had used earlier and smacked it hard on his head. Then, with a subtle gesture, a white Snow intent shot from her fingers, completely sealing his mouth.
"What a noisy scum…" she muttered, clearly annoyed. "As long as my husband trusts me, I don't care about anything else."
Su Wen felt butterflies in his heart. Du Yufeng, on the other hand… felt the exact opposite.
With a thought, Su Wen teleported them to the secluded spot he had marked earlier.
Du Yue glared at Du Yufeng and, with pure disgust, tossed him onto the ground.
Su Wen stepped closer to her, his voice soft but firm.
"Let me do it, Wife. After all, you're my responsibility now. This is only the first one… I don't know how many more we'll have to face together in the future. If I can't do this now, it will only make things harder later."
A warmth spread through Du Yue at his words, yet she still wanted to stop him. But when she met his determined eyes, she couldn't bring herself to intervene.
Du Yufeng, resigned to his fate, looked at his daughter… the one he had abandoned… and at the mysterious, extraordinary man standing beside her.
A flicker of regret crossed his mind.
'Maybe… if I hadn't betrayed her back then… I could have…'
Puchhh!
Su Wen didn't waste a single second. He had endured enough for one day. Ignoring any further words and thoughts, he raised two fingers and pointed at Du Yufeng's forehead. His body trembled slightly, but his eyes were steady, unwavering.
With a flick, Sword Qi shot out like a streak of light, striking Du Yufeng's forehead. Blood spurted, and with one final, rasping gasp, the old man's life ended.
Silence fell. The old man was gone. The end.
Su Wen faltered slightly, but Du Yue, standing proudly beside him, reached out and held his trembling hand.
'You are the first… but you won't be the last. There will be many who want to harm my wife… and I'll send every one of them to hell to meet you…', Su Wen thought quietly.
He took out the corpse-disposing liquid and poured it over the old man's body. Within minutes, it dissolved completely, leaving nothing behind.
'This liquid sure is environmentally friendly', he noted inwardly.
With Du Yufeng's belongings already dealt with, Su Wen activated his Gate authority once more. In the blink of an eye, the two of them vanished from the secluded spot and reappeared atop the mountain peak.
At the same time, an old man with a long beard watched from afar and murmured to himself,
"Divine Temple… interesting. You made the right choice killing him yourself. You don't yet know what lies ahead."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Not only did you stop your wife from killing her own father… though he deserved it… you also showed your resolve to protect her."
The old man's gaze shifted to Du Yue, who was still holding Su Wen's trembling hand.
'This girl…' he thought.
'She's only one step away from Heart Refinement. Her spirit cultivation has an extremely solid foundation, all thanks to this boy.'
Then his brows slowly furrowed.
'But her soul cultivation… why is it still stuck at the Instinct Realm? It can't be that she isn't cultivating it.'
His eyes gleamed with interest.
'Something is blocking her breakthrough… and I can't see what it is. Interesting…'
Su Wen and Du Yue returned to the mountaintop. A trace of lingering conflict still weighed on Su Wen's heart, but the moment his gaze fell on the figure beside him, it faded away without a sound.
She casually wrapped an arm around his broad shoulders like an overprotective big sister and pulled him closer as they walked toward their house.
As his eyes landed on the familiar wooden home, Su Wen frowned slightly.
"Wife… it feels like something is missing from our house."
He paused, brows knitting.
"Even after my grandparents were gone, it never felt this empty. But now… it's like something truly important is missing."
Du Yue blinked, looking around innocently.
"Husband, I don't see anything missing."
Su Wen thought for a moment, then suddenly took out his black treasure brush embroidered with vermillion patterns. He walked toward the front wall beside the door.
"Wife, I'm going to do something," he said calmly. "While I'm busy, take that soul-nurturing pill… the dark-blue one. Try to break through to the Soul Awakening Realm."
Though confused and curious, Du Yue nodded obediently. She sat down cross-legged and swallowed the soul-nurturing pill.
A cold sensation immediately spread through her body. She guided the medicinal energy straight toward her consciousness. The pill refined from the Peak Grade 3 Spirit Moon Lotus was rich in Yin Qi, perfectly suited to her physique.
She activated her soul cultivation technique… the Silent Night-Soul Refinement Sutra.
In the next instant, her awareness sank into darkness. She seemed to be inside a massive cocoon, its surface riddled with enormous cracks, faint light seeping from the fractures, barely illuminating the suffocating darkness within.