"Saintess Xiyuan, do you have something you wish to speak with me about alone?"
Inside the pavilion, after Ling Yuxian and that maidservant had left, only Saintess Xiyuan and Gu Changge remained. White mist swirled, a faint fragrance filled the air. Gu Changge continued to quietly sip his tea, leisurely and content, appearing wholly detached from worldly affairs.
"Just now, Young Master Gu said you had seen me in a dream. I suddenly became curious—what kind of dream was it?"
As Saintess Xiyuan spoke, she walked to sit opposite Gu Changge, bringing with her a faint, elegant, and refined fragrance. She picked up the teacup, which was still somewhat warm, and seemed to want to sip, but then remembered she was wearing a veil, and suddenly chuckled. With a pair of slender, delicate hands as fair as peeled scallions, she reached behind her ears and gently removed the veil.
In that instant, a peerlessly beautiful face, like that of an immortal, was revealed. Her brows were like distant mountains, her face like a shooting star, her skin as gentle and exquisite as warm jade. Her cherry lips were red without the need for rouge, and her unadorned jade countenance was breathtakingly beautiful, untainted by any trace of worldly dust.
Saintess Xiyuan lifted the teacup and gently sipped, seemingly completely unconcerned about revealing her true face in front of Gu Changge.
Gu Changge looked at the beautiful face right before his eyes, his gaze carrying undisguised admiration.
"What kind of dream it was doesn't matter; what matters is that you, in person, are indeed more beautiful than in the dream." He chuckled, then averted his gaze.
"Is this Young Master Gu's compliment to me?"
Saintess Xiyuan also smiled, her bright eyes resting on Gu Changge's face. Her slender jade hand toyed with the teacup, giving off a somewhat playful and alluring air, a stark contrast to her otherworldly and transcendent demeanor in public. Her actions and expression at this moment were extremely bold, especially considering this was their first meeting. Even those familiar with Saintess Xiyuan would find it hard to believe that these actions and words were coming from her.
"The Xiyuan Sacred Hall possesses the Supreme Treasure of Civilization, the Mirror of Reincarnation, and as the current master of the Xiyuan Sacred Hall, it should be under your control. Since the Mirror of Reincarnation is called such, whether it is past lives or the future, none can escape its deduction and insight. It can probe the Nine Nether Heavenly Gates above and discern the Yellow Springs below; countless futures, billions of changes, can all be divined within the mirror."
"I am rather curious—what exactly did Saintess Xiyuan see in the Mirror of Reincarnation, to use such beauty to approach me upon our first meeting?"
As Gu Changge spoke, he put down the teacup and at the same time reached out directly, seizing Saintess Xiyuan's smooth, jade-like chin.
Saintess Xiyuan saw Gu Changge's hand reaching out and originally wanted to dodge, but discovered an invisible force spreading out. The space around her became as viscous as mud, unable to move at all, making it impossible to evade. She could only watch as that long, fair hand pinched her chin.
She felt a sting of pain. In all the long years of cultivation, this was the first time someone had pinched her chin, especially an unfamiliar man. Of course, Saintess Xiyuan was no ordinary person. Although Gu Changge had pinched her chin, her expression remained as usual, exceptionally calm and composed.
"What does Young Master Gu mean by this? Although this is our first meeting and there is a sense of familiarity, this kind of frivolous physical contact right away is hardly the conduct of a gentleman."
"I originally thought that wearing a veil and not showing my true face would be somewhat disrespectful, so I removed the veil."
Saintess Xiyuan spoke lightly, the smile from before fading away.
"I have never been a gentleman. Rather, from your words, it sounds like I was overthinking things?" Gu Changge chuckled and released her chin.
Saintess Xiyuan felt that her chin must have been pinched red, leaving fingerprints. In the futures simulated and deduced by the Mirror of Reincarnation, Gu Changge would kill her at the slightest disagreement. So she found it very normal that Gu Changge had suddenly resorted to physical action just now, and was not at all surprised. After all, this was in line with his character and behavior. Moreover, since he hadn't shown killing intent, that could already be considered Gu Changge being greatly merciful.
"Presumably, too many women admire Young Master Gu, so Young Master Gu would think so. Unfortunately, I have disappointed Young Master Gu."
Saintess Xiyuan took another sip of tea, then glanced coolly at Gu Changge, rubbed her chin which he had pinched red, and put the veil back on. Fortunately, she had been killed by Gu Changge dozens or hundreds of times in the futures simulated by the Mirror of Reincarnation, and she gradually figured out Gu Changge's habits and personality. One must not follow his meanings and thoughts, but act against them. If one blindly obeyed him, it would instead make him feel bored, and he would casually strike one down. All this was a strategy that Saintess Xiyuan had compiled with her life on the line.
"At this point, should I follow the script and say something like: 'You are indeed different from those gaudy, vulgar women outside'?"
Gu Changge looked with interest at the woman before him, who had suddenly become calm and composed, as if silently saying, 'Sir, please conduct yourself with dignity.' He didn't know where Saintess Xiyuan had learned this trick: first pretending to be coquettish and seductive, acting like she was using her beauty to serve others, and then sternly implying that he had been overthinking, that her original intention was not so. To this kind of routine, Gu Changge only wanted to sneer. Presumably, Saintess Xiyuan had used the Mirror of Reincarnation to deduce and see some future scenes, and then thought of using this method to try to get close to him?
Unfortunately, Gu Changge has never been one to suffer losses.
"What does Young Master Gu mean by this?"
Saintess Xiyuan was slightly alarmed. Seeing Gu Changge like this, she suddenly felt uneasy. It seemed that things were a little different from what she had expected?
"What I mean is, I am no gentleman to begin with, so Saintess Xiyuan should not try to constrain me with the so-called rules of a gentleman."
Gu Changge chuckled lightly, reached out, and with one move pulled off the veil that Saintess Xiyuan had just put back on. That flawless immortal countenance was revealed once more, now tinged with a strong look of disbelief.
"You—"
Saintess Xiyuan felt something was wrong and retreated, but Gu Changge followed like a shadow, closely pursuing. In an instant, the spacetime before them changed and twisted thousands of times. The auras here became blurred, and endless rules and orders played out within this small pavilion. The cosmos evolved, universes were born, and even time itself ebbed and flowed like waves.
Saintess Xiyuan was indeed worthy of being the current master of the Xiyuan Sacred Hall. Not only was she acclaimed as the foremost beauty of the Prime-Origin Civilization, her strength was also terrifyingly supreme. Ordinary Ancestral Dao Realm existences would absolutely not be her match. She had already passed the eighth Heavenly Decline Tribulation. Between her slender fingers, reincarnation, spacetime, yin and yang, day and night, and other terrifying grand rules transformed; world after world perished and was reborn in an instant, constantly clashing with Gu Changge's palm. If a single wisp of the golden ripples here were to escape, it would absolutely annihilate a great world into nothingness.
Such power was too terrifying; it was utterly unimaginable that it could be controlled by a human.
Before her, Gu Changge pursued her unhurriedly, one hand still behind his back, merely raising his palm as if to crush the entire ancient spacetime. The great Dao itself was splitting; no matter how many methods Saintess Xiyuan had, they all appeared utterly pale and powerless at this moment. Absolute power could suppress myriad Daos and laws.
Bang!
A massive palm, wreathed in intense golden light, directly traversed and slammed down through this spacetime; chaotic energy exploded, annihilating all tangible things. Saintess Xiyuan let out a muffled groan, and her slender, tall figure flew out like a broken sack. All the scenes before her eyes were disappearing and shattering; the spacetime from before collapsed, and the two of them were still within that small pavilion. If one ignored Saintess Xiyuan, who had fallen to the ground, her black hair disheveled and a faint trace of blood at the corner of her mouth, then all the previous exchanges seemed to have been mere illusions and phantoms.
"Just like that, I lost?" Her expression still held a trace of bewilderment and disbelief. From the start of the exchange to her defeat, it seemed to have happened in a single instant. Of course, although that exchange just now seemed only a moment, the two had actually clashed countless times within the boundless spacetime. But this still could not change the fact that she was far from being Gu Changge's match.
"Your strength is indeed not bad; you lasted longer than I expected."
Gu Changge walked over and scooped Saintess Xiyuan up horizontally. She came to her senses, her cold, star-like eyes widening, and she struggled desperately. The development of today's events had completely exceeded her expectations. She had let Gu Changge stay behind alone, not to be bullied by him like this.
"Let go of me." Saintess Xiyuan looked at Gu Changge coldly; in the depths of her heart, a terrifying aura of destruction surged, as if ready to perish together with Gu Changge at any moment.
"Do you think that's possible?" Gu Changge let out a dismissive chuckle.
As he chuckled, the terrifying aura that had surfaced between Saintess Xiyuan's brows seemed to be suppressed by unimaginable pressure, instantly vanishing. Saintess Xiyuan then found that her loose outer garment had suddenly slipped off, and she could not perish together with Gu Changge. She could no longer maintain her earlier cold demeanor and finally began to panic.
Even in the futures simulated and deduced by the Mirror of Reincarnation, nothing like today's unexpected events had ever happened. The futures in the Mirror of Reincarnation had always developed according to some law, progressing step by step. But when she truly encountered Gu Changge today, she suddenly realized that many things were completely different from what she had envisioned. The Mirror of Reincarnation could not be wrong, so it must be that her performance today was too excessive, leading to a backlash.
At this moment, Saintess Xiyuan's heart was filled with regret and panic. She originally did not know how to use her beauty to serve others; the initial coquettish act had been a sudden decision. It was Gu Changge's sudden appearance that disrupted her initial plan, and then things developed in a direction she did not wish to see.
"Since you can't truly use your beauty to serve others, then don't set your sights on me anymore. Otherwise, I won't let you off as easily as I did today."
Seeing the flustered expression on Saintess Xiyuan's face, Gu Changge chuckled again, reached out, and once more draped her fallen outer garment over her. Then he tossed her onto the bed behind and turned to leave directly.