Bonus chapter for 50 Powerstones
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"Your Excellency… is this Saintess really that stupid?"
Even Bibi Dong couldn't keep listening.
That male lead's acting and behavior were so clumsy and fake. If that Saintess had even half a brain, there's no way she'd be so blindly devoted to him, right?
To her, this so-called Saintess wasn't even qualified to be called a naïve little girl fresh out of the sect…
"Uh… I wouldn't say she's stupid exactly…"
Aether carefully picked his words, doing his best to keep a straight face.
"Heh~ She's an unparalleled idiot!"
Bibi Dong snapped, her voice sharp with disdain.
"I wonder how that so-called holy land would react if they knew their precious Saintess was such a pathetic fool~"
In her mind, Bibi Dong had already imagined countless twists in the story. Then she realized her words might have been too extreme and quickly added:
"Your Excellency, please forgive me. I wasn't venting at you. It's just… for someone like that to be chosen as a Saintess, it really makes one question that holy land's judgment…"
"Ah~ no harm done, really."
Aether waved her off.
Oh Bibi Dong, do you even hear yourself right now?
You're throwing punches left and right, calling the Saintess blind and brainless. But once you learn the truth… tsk, I'm already embarrassed for you just thinking about it.
Aether cleared his throat and gently tried to guide the conversation:
"Maybe… in the Saintess's heart, the reason she gave herself so completely to the protagonist was because of love~"
"As the saying goes: 'What is love, that makes one pledge life and death?' Any seemingly irrational action or belief can always be justified in the name of love."
The moment Aether spoke, the room fell silent.
"Aaaahhh! I never imagined Your Excellency was this eloquent! You described love so poetically and profoundly!"
Shui Yue'er practically screamed in her mind. Looking at the young man sitting before her, her heart pounded like a thousand deer racing wild.
"To pledge life and death…"
Zhu Zhuqing softly echoed the phrase.
So in His Excellency's heart, love was something so sacred.
And most astonishing was how effortlessly he encapsulated love in a single sentence. The more she understood him, the more she wanted to dive even deeper into who he really was…
"It sounds kind of melancholy… but I think I want to experience that kind of love too. What should I do?"
Shui Bing'er was also lost in Aether's words, her wide, watery eyes staring into space. In her mind, she was already picturing herself and her beloved walking hand-in-hand through life and death.
"What is love, that makes one pledge life and death…"
Bibi Dong murmured the words under her breath, head lowered.
Unlike the inexperienced girls around her, she understood the depth of that sentence all too well.
Could it be that this young man—this " Excellency"—had also experienced something like that?
She looked up at Aether, her gaze filled with complex emotion.
Just what kind of remarkable woman must she have been to make this man utter such sorrowful yet resolute words?
Yes… love really can make people pledge life and death.
As Bibi Dong sighed inwardly, a figure long buried deep in her heart suddenly surfaced.
"Xiaogang… I thought what we had would be the same. So why did you… huh?"
Lost in Aether's story, Bibi Dong was just replaying her past like a slideshow when her body suddenly tensed. The queen-like brilliance in her eyes flickered with growing unease.
Why did this story sound… so familiar?
The more she listened, the more she felt herself inside it—
Something's wrong. Something's very wrong!
"Your Excellency, please… continue the story. May we hear the rest?"
Bibi Dong, now visibly unsettled, couldn't help but ask, her voice slightly urgent.
She needed to know what happened next.
"Alright. Then let me continue."
Aether had been watching her closely. He could tell Bibi Dong was starting to piece things together.
So he went on. The male lead continued to deceive the Saintess, accepting everything she gave him as if it were his due.
To him, the Saintess was nothing more than a resource to be exploited.
Forget love—he'd never had a single ounce of genuine feeling for her. Everything he did in the name of "love" was just a means to an end.
And then, there was his cousin. Aether brought up a crucial detail:
In their sect, direct blood relatives carried a unique identity token. After breaking things off with the Saintess, the male lead "happened" to encounter his cousin.
The moment he saw the jade pendant hanging at her waist, he knew exactly who she was.
But he didn't say a word. Instead, he carefully manipulated her, drawing her into a deeply ambiguous relationship.
Through this connection, he managed to extract important sect secrets from his cousin—secrets he then used to patch the holes in his so-called theories.
When she was no longer useful, he arranged for her to learn the truth of their blood relation, and put on a show of being devastated over their "forbidden love." That way, he could push her away again.
Afterward, he vanished into a remote, unknown part of the continent. Using what he had stolen from the two women, he combined it with his own crude ideas to create theories that—somehow—caught on.
Those theories eventually earned him recognition, and he began calling himself a "Grandmaster." He even gained a certain amount of fame.
"And… that's basically the story."
Aether drained his teacup.
He really didn't get how Paimon could be so enthusiastic about telling stories. Just this one tale had left his mouth dry.
"Unacceptable! That's not the ending I wanted—Traveler, tell it again!"
Paimon pouted angrily when Aether brought the story to a close.
That disgusting male lead never got punished? What an infuriating, unresolved ending!
"Big brother… what about the two sisters? What happened to them?"
Yu Keke asked with concern.
She didn't care what happened to the male lead—she just felt sorry for the two women he had hurt.
"Y-Your Excellency… there must be more, right?"
Zhu Zhuqing hesitated for a moment, then bravely stepped forward and refilled Aether's cup.
She had a strong feeling that this story wasn't over yet—not really.
"…"
Aether looked at the group: the indignant glares, the anxious questions, and Bibi Dong sitting silently, her expression pale and dazed.
He sighed and said:
"The ending may not be what you hoped for. The protagonist's disciple eventually became a god, and through that, he finally gained the empty fame he always sought."
"What the heck?! I hate that ending too!" Paimon shouted.
"Too bad~" Aether shot her a side glance, then gently patted Yu Keke's little ear.
"As for your question, Keke—yes, there is an answer."
Hearing that, Bibi Dong suddenly looked up. Her dazed expression and ghost-pale face betrayed the storm raging in her heart.
"The two big sisters you mentioned… one of them eventually succeeded in her path and was accepted by the protagonist. The other…"
He met Bibi Dong's eyes and spoke slowly:
"Everything she had planned fell apart. She was killed by the protagonist's disciple—along with her holy land, which was completely wiped from the continent."
"And the cruelest part was… even as she lay dying, she was still asking the protagonist:
'Did you ever love me?'"
_
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