Lu Yun looked mutely at Qing Yu. The little fox opened and closed her mouth, realizing that she’d been a bit too over the top. Meanwhile, Qing Yu looked at Lu Yun and the little fox with a hint of a smile.

……

“Someone’s backyard is on fire~” Wahuang whispered to her mother.

Huaxu almost burst out laughing, but remained staunchly out of the situation.

“Alright then, what’s this about a confession and taking responsibility?” Qing Yu shook her head gently, trying to clear it up.

She hadn’t had a moment to think properly since being whisked away from the fringes of the chaos. Without a moment to herself, she had yet to make sense of anything. How had she become a sacred princess, what was Lu Yun doing here, and why was he a sacred prince?

Qing Yu had endured numerous difficulties and dangers in the chaos to reach great emperor realm. Before she had a chance to share this joy with Lu Yun, in swooped the latest developments and spun her round and round. Now her beloved was here, but the little fox wanted him to confess something and then take responsibility for something. Qing Yu felt like her brain was about to explode.

“Take a breather.” Lu Yun pulled Qing Yu over and infused a pure chaos current into her, slowly calming her disorderly thoughts.

“Mmhmm.” She leaned against Lu Yun’s shoulder and focused on the pristine bundle of pure energy within her, stabilizing her new cultivation level.

“These ladies are Her Majesty Huaxu and Holy Emperor Wahuang,” Lu Yun introduced to his dao partner.

“Her Majesty Huaxu and Holy Emperor Wahuang of the great wilderness?!” Qing Yu’s eyes shot wide open. She knew of them as Lu Yun had told her everything about the great wilderness upon his return.

She greatly admired these legendary figures, and to think that they who should’ve died in the great wilderness would one day stand before her in the flesh!

“They also have another identity.” Lu Yun ran through an outline of everything in the chaos while Huaxu and Wahuang stood off to the side. He then fully detailed their current identities and his own status as of the moment.

The more she understood, the more Qing Yu relaxed. Finally, Lu Yun summarized how he’d broken through to dao immortal realm, his past and future selves. However, he didn’t say that the little fox had been so presumptuous as to send her soul force with Lu Yun’s past self. He only said that she’d sent a tendril of soul force to guide him how to refine the dao fruit.

Wahuang and Huaxu looked at each other.

“I see, no wonder you killed Luo Chen with one blow. Your past self was an enormous heavyweight in the mythological realm!” exclaimed Wahuang.

“Mmhmm.” Lu Yun nodded. “I was also very lucky. If I’d been a bit unluckier, the past self that contained all of the six greatest orders would’ve died in the past.”

Others had tried to refine past selves with this method before, but most failed. Their past selves vanished without a trace after dying in the past. Countless masters abounded since the dawn of time and there’d been too many life forms to even contemplate. Very few were those like Lu Yun who could successfully find their past selves and refine it into a dao fruit.

Qing Yu tightly grasped Lu Yun’s hand, having recovered her composure. Formula dao painted a clear picture of the situation at hand.

“It’s too risky to refine your past self as a dao fruit. If your past self dies, that also affects your present self,” said Huaxu off to the side. “A sovereign expert of the chaos once opened a spacetime passage and sent his past self through it. …he died abruptly not long thereafter.”

“Indeed,” Lu Yun agreed. “The past self is equivalent to an infant version of myself as it grows and develops. If it provokes a heaven defying master during this process, they can utilize karmic relationships to kill me in the present. All I can say is that I was rather lucky to not irritate an existence like that.”

“What about your future self?” Qing Yu asked. “If you’ve found your past self, what of your future self?”

“I don’t know,” Lu Yun chuckled ruefully. It was pure luck that they’d been able to find his past self. He didn’t dare hope for his future self. Hopefully, that version of himself was also a bit luckier and evaded pursuit when weak.

“Alright, back to the matter at hand.” Qing Yu cocked her head at Lu Yun. “Talk about what happened between you and the little fox.”

“I…” Lu Yun opened and closed his mouth. He really didn’t know how to explain this. Unbidden, he looked at Miao.

“I don’t know!” The little fox hurriedly shook her head. “I’m still a decent, unmarried fox! The one who had a child with you is a replica formed by my soul force, not me!”

Qing Yu glared ferociously at Lu Yun. “Child?!”

“I…” Lu Yun still didn’t know how to explain himself.

“Qing Han said he was under the influence of alcohol at the time,” grumbled the little fox.

“Qing Han?” Qing Yu blinked. “Isn’t that me?”

“Qing Han is a disciple of his past self and an orphan that he raised from a child.” The little fox seemed to recover her sensibility and addressed the issue properly. She took human form in front of Qing Yu, drawing a glance of appreciation from the girl. It’d been a while since she’d seen the little fox in her full, feminine beauty.

“His past self is the equivalent of a Lu Yun living in the past. He possessed all of Lu Yun’s memories, thoughts, and emotions. But since he lived in the past, he could never see you again,” the little fox explained slowly.

Qing Yu’s heart shook and she lowered her head.

“That Lu Yun could only vent his longing for you in other areas. Qing Han is the name he chose for his disciple.”

Qing Yu didn’t say a word. Instead, she quietly took Lu Yun’s hand and curled her hand tightly around his fingers.

“I actually guessed this would happen and sent your aura along with my soul force to him. My soul force contains your presence, so he viewed me as you.”

“I see.” Qing Yu nodded gently. “Thank you.”

“Eh?” The reaction surprised Miao.

“The past self is a Lu Yun that walked in a past world, but he didn’t belong there. Thus, he couldn’t form any relationships with anyone from that era. Only loneliness kept him company, and I once experienced the same kind of loneliness that would induce madness.”

Lu Yun’s past self was there only to become a dao fruit, so he couldn’t become too involved with his era. Once karma found its way to him, it would affect his present self. Therefore, the past Lu Yun couldn’t interact too much with people of that era.

He could have friends, but not true friends. He could have lovers, but never really love them. Qing Han was his disciple and a bit of good karma that Lu Yun had left in that era. It’d only come about because the little fox had insisted he take the girl in. While he’d raised her, it’d been the little fox that’d returned with her.

If it wasn’t for the little fox, the only person by his side would be loneliness.

Loneliness, the greatest poison of them all.