168: A Promise of Love: Li Hanyue's Emotional Choice and Taoist Companion

Blood Slaughter True Person fled in disarray, and the scarlet blood cloud that had enveloped Hanyue City vanished like it was wiped away by an invisible hand.

The sky once again regained the crystal-clear and crisp quality unique to the Northern Ice Plains.

The mountain of death that had weighed on the heads of all the Li Family Cultivators completely disappeared.

Silence.

After a brief silence, the entire Hanyue City erupted in a deafening cheer of relief.

"We won."

"We won."

"Senior Lin Fan is mighty!"

Countless members of the Li Family embraced each other, crying. They roared, they jumped, expressing their excitement and ecstasy in the most primal way.

They had never imagined that their Sect could force a genuine Soul Transformation Immortal Master to retreat.

Even less could they imagine that the one who created this miracle was merely a Cultivator in the Middle Stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

Gaze after gaze, filled with admiration, awe, and gratitude, converged like a tide upon the solitary figure in mid-air.

Lin Fan floated quietly, listening to the cheers below, but there was not much joy on his face.

His aura was slightly weak, a result of the Divine Soul energy consumption from multiple resurrections in a short period, but his eyes remained as clear as ever, even calmer than at any other time.

He looked in the direction where Blood Slaughter True Person had disappeared, his gaze profound.

Although this battle was won, it also exposed his greatest weakness at present.

The cooldown period for his "resurrection counterattack" was too long.

Once used, he would lose his strongest burst ability before the cooldown ended, becoming a passive sandbag for attrition.

If not for this Blood Slaughter True Person's unstable Heart-Nature and flawed Dao Heart, allowing him to be easily led into Lin Fan's rhythm, today's outcome might still be unknown.

It seemed that his strategy of "courting death" would need further refinement in the future.

It must be more precise, more efficient, squeezing the value of each death to its extreme.

Lin Fan silently calculated his future plans and motioned for the crowd to disperse.

The noisy cheers gradually subsided, and the Li Family members retreated respectfully, keeping their distance.

On the entire ruined city wall, only two people remained.

Lin Fan.

And Li Hanyue.

He felt a burning gaze that had never left him.

Lin Fan turned his head and met Li Hanyue's extremely complex eyes.

Those eyes, which had once been as clear and distant as ten-thousand-year Profound Ice, now seemed to contain the spring waters that had melted the entire ice plain, surging with waves.

Within them was undisguised admiration.

There was the lingering fear of surviving a catastrophe.

There was an indescribable heartache.

Finally, all emotions converged into an unusual, warm glow that Lin Fan had never seen in her eyes before, a warmth that almost seemed to melt him.

That light was firmly fixed on him.

It made Lin Fan's heart skip a beat for no reason.

The biting cold wind of the ice plain also seemed to soften considerably.

Li Hanyue quietly looked at Lin Fan, just looking.

On her beautiful face, like ice and jade, untouched by mortal dust, a rare trace of struggle and tenderness appeared.

In her mind, everything that had just happened replayed uncontrollably.

She recalled his back as he bravely faced the Soul Transformation Immortal Master for the Li Family.

She recalled the scenes of him being blasted into a blood mist each time, only to be reborn with a smile the next moment.

Each death.

Each Rebirth.

It was like a heavy hammer, striking fiercely upon the frozen lake of her heart, which had been sealed for many years.

It shattered the ice, agitated the heart-lake, stirring up unprecedented, surging ripples.

She knew he could have stayed out of it.

With his ability, the world was vast; where could he not go?

But he, for the Li Family, for her, resolutely chose to stay.

He chose to use his "life" to fight an enemy that was simply impossible to defeat.

An indescribable emotion quietly sprouted beneath the ice of her heart-lake, and at an uncontrollable speed, it grew wildly, melting all her coldness and pride.

She took a deep breath; the air, carrying the scent of ice and snow, filled her lungs, yet it could not calm her tumultuous emotions in the slightest.

Her tone carried a tremor she herself hadn't noticed, yet it also held an unprecedented firmness.

Her clear, cold eyes now gazed at Lin Fan with utmost seriousness.

"Lin Fan..."

Her voice was no longer as clear and cold as in the past; instead, it carried a slight hoarseness.

"What you have done for the Li Family, Hanyue cannot repay."

"In this life, in this world, I, Li Hanyue, am willing to serve by your side, never to betray."

After speaking.

To Lin Fan's astonished gaze, she actually took a step back, straightened her clothes, and slowly knelt on one knee before him.

That was the highest etiquette a Cultivator could perform.

The Rite of Following.

Once performed, it meant surrendering one's Dao path, one's life, and everything one possessed, without reservation, to the other party.

To live, for him.

To die, also for him.

Lin Fan's heart suddenly trembled, and that warm current instantly surged through his entire body.

He had not expected that this woman, who appeared as cold as ice, harbored such fervent and resolute emotions within.

He stepped forward, reached out to help Li Hanyue up, and held her cold, yet slightly trembling hand.

He could feel the undeniable sincerity and determination in her eyes.

Lin Fan smiled.

He smiled, extended his other hand, and gently brushed away a strand of hair at her temple that had been disheveled by the cold wind.

"Silly girl."

His voice was very soft, yet it carried an undeniable tenderness.

"We are friends, partners, why such formality?"

Li Hanyue looked up, her eyes red-rimmed, gazing at him stubbornly, as if she would kneel there until the end of time if he did not agree.

Lin Fan looked at her like this, and the softness in his heart was completely touched.

He changed the subject, the smile on his lips growing wider.

"However..."

"If you truly have this intention, then it is not service."

"But rather..."

Lin Fan gazed into her eyes, enunciating each word.

"Dao Companionship, journeying together on the Immortal Path."

Service implies a distinction between superior and subordinate.

Dao Companionship means walking side by side.

Upon hearing this, Li Hanyue's delicate body trembled violently.

She looked up in disbelief, her clear, tear-filled eyes reflecting Lin Fan's face, which held a gentle smile.

A tremendous joy and emotion instantly broke through all her defenses.

On her clear, cold face, a breathtaking blush instantly appeared, like an ice lotus blooming fiercely atop a perilous peak.

She looked at Lin Fan, tears welling in her eyes but never falling.

She nodded heavily.

"Good..."

One word, yet it seemed to expend all the strength of her life.

"Dao Companionship."

Their hearts were connected, with no more barriers.

Under the complex gazes of countless Li Family members, Lin Fan took Li Hanyue's hand and walked into the ancient and solemn Li Family Ancestral Hall.

They stood side by side before the spirit tablets of their ancestors.

There were no elaborate ceremonies, nor any phenomena that startled heaven and earth.

The two simply exchanged a smile, simultaneously extended their fingers, and forced out a drop of crimson vital essence blood from their fingertips.

The two drops of essence blood met in the air, without repulsion; instead, they perfectly fused together, emitting a faint halo containing the aura of both their Divine Souls.

The halo split into two, entering their respective glabella.

"I, Lin Fan."

"I, Li Hanyue."

"Today, here, we establish our Dao Companion alliance."

"Heaven and Earth bear witness, we journey together on the Immortal Path, our hearts unwavering, never to abandon each other."

The oath fell.

Between the two, a strange, ineffable bond, stemming from the depths of their Divine Souls, seemed to form.

And in that instant.

In Lin Fan's Sea of Consciousness, the long-absent, joyful System notification sound boomed.

"Ding."

"Congratulations to the Host for forming a Dao Companion alliance with the female lead Li Hanyue, your Dao Heart is at Perfection, and your bond has deepened."

"Acquired additional reward: Shared Heart-Nature."

"Activated Dual Cultivation Technique: "Profound Ice Blazing Sun Art"."

"World Luck Point + 1000."

Lin Fan clearly felt that the connection between his Divine Soul and Li Hanyue's had become even closer; he could even vaguely sense her most direct emotional fluctuations.

It was an unprecedented sense of contentment and peace.

It brought a moment of tranquility to his heart, which had always been taut from constantly "courting death."

He knew that from now on, he would no longer be alone on his Immortal Path.

Looking at Li Hanyue beside him, her face flushed and her eyes filled with infinite tenderness, Lin Fan pondered for a moment and made a decision.

He chose to reveal a part of his secrets to her.

This was the greatest trust he could bestow upon the Dao Companion who had just made a covenant with him.

He simply revealed part of the truth about his "immortal body" and the "mission" concerning the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Zone and the immortal realm fragment.

Li Hanyue listened quietly.

On her face, emotions shifted from initial shock to sudden understanding, and finally to heartache.

But the one thing missing was doubt or wavering.

When Lin Fan finished speaking, she simply squeezed his hand tighter, her eyes incredibly firm.

"No matter how perilous the road ahead, whether it's a game of Heavenly Dao or a world crisis."

"Hanyue will stand by you."

After speaking, as if remembering something, she turned her hand and took out an ancient-looking ice-blue jade pendant, solemnly placing it in Lin Fan's hand.

"This is an ancestral item passed down through generations of my Li Family; no one knows its secret except the successive Family Heads."

"It contains an ancient map of the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Zone and some scattered records."

"Perhaps it will be useful to you."

Lin Fan took the jade pendant.

It felt warm and smooth in his hand, and an ancient, vicissitudes aura washed over him.

His Divine Thought penetrated it.

A vast and broken map instantly unfolded in his Sea of Consciousness.

His gaze was instantly drawn to the area in the center of the map, shrouded in endless mist and spatial crack, marked with the character " ban" (Forbidden).

There, it resonated faintly but clearly with the immortal realm fragment in his Sea of Consciousness.

Lin Fan knew it was time.

It was time to uncover the truth of the so-called "Heavenly Dao's Chess Game."

His destiny, and the destinies of Li Hanyue, and Zhao Linger and Su Meier, who were far away in the Qingyun Sect, would once again be closely intertwined because of this mysterious forbidden land.

A chess game transcending the mortal world, one that might even overturn the entire Cultivation World, was about to begin.