"Senior Sister Manman, about what happened before..."

Luo Qingyao looked at Fu Manman, wanting to apologize for her previous cold attitude.

Fu Manman shook her head with a smile, "It’s fine as long as you’re okay. I understand. That sword strike just now was impressive!"

Luo Qingyao gave a light "hm" in response, looking somewhat bashful.

Then she felt a scorching gaze and turned to look at Zhuge Hong, discovering that the unfamiliar girl was staring directly at her with eyes full of curiosity.

"Who is she?"

Before Fan Wubing could introduce, Zhuge Hong patted her chest,

"Let me introduce myself to my teacher’s wife! I’m Zhuge Hong, twenty years old, living in..."

Her household registry-style introduction left Luo Qingyao stunned, and it took her a while to react,

"Wait, what did you just call me?"

"Teacher’s wife!"

Luo Qingyao looked at Fan Wubing in astonishment, "Senior brother, have you started taking disciples already?"

Fan Wubing couldn’t help but look at Zhuge Hong, intending to say something to her, but she immediately turned her head, slightly furrowing her brows, with a pouting mouth, as if she was throwing a tantrum. He was a bit puzzled, wondering how he might have upset her.

"It’s like this..." Fu Manman briefly explained the situation.

"I see." Luo Qingyao, eager and excited, said, "Xiaohong, are you interested in practicing swordsmanship? I’m super strong now!"

Fan Wubing knocked on her head, "There you go, showing off again."

"Senior brother, don’t knock on a girl’s head! It’s very impolite!" Luo Qingyao clutched her head, pouting, "You even cut my hair before... so annoying. Hair is a girl’s life!"

Fan Wubing lightly pinched his fingers, and suddenly, a strand of long hair appeared, twined around his fingers, as he said,

"Last time when we parted in Taiping Continent, you cut your hair to sever intentions, erasing the memory of me from back then. You said you’d return it when we reunited. Let me reconnect it for you now."

He stood in front of Luo Qingyao and lightly pointed, connecting the strand of hair twined on his fingertip with the broken hair by Luo Qingyao’s ear.

Luo Qingyao was momentarily dazed as she regained the memories she had lost before.

After sensing it, she smiled slightly,

"So I was that brave before."

Fan Wubing chuckled.

Luo Qingyao felt that her affection for her senior brother was finally complete, feeling extremely joyful inside. She wrapped her arms around Fan Wubing’s neck, stood on tiptoes, and puckered her lips,

"Senior brother, kiss, kiss!"

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Fan Wubing turned away from her, "We’re not at home, and there are people watching!"

Luo Qingyao giggled.

Fu Manman watched them with a smile, but for some reason, she felt very upset inside, as though they were drifting further away from her.

Zhuge Hong, sensing something, glanced at Fu Manman. She, too, had a bad feeling but didn’t know how to express it.

Before coming to the Sun-shooting Pass, she already had this feeling. But judging by the current outcome, it’s good. So it could only mean the bad feeling originates from something else.

But what could it be?

"Why did senior brother want to duel with me?" Luo Qingyao asked seriously. As a swordsman, she was eager to know how her senior brother realized she was straying off path.

Fan Wubing recounted the events involving Li Yuan.

Luo Qingyao came to a sudden realization, "So... that elder was the Great Sword Immortal Li Yuan! I wondered why he had the manual for the Great Sun Soaring Sword."

Fu Manman asked in surprise, "You also have a senior Li Yuan by your side?"

"Also?"

Fu Manman quickly recounted the encounter she and Zhuge Hong had with Li Yuan.

Zhuge Hong exclaimed, "Is it an avatar?"

Fan Wubing looked towards the sword shadow hanging in the sky above Sun-shooting Pass, while rapidly calculating on his fingertips, and shortly after, realized,

"I see. The Li Yuan we encountered was not the real Li Yuan. The real him is not here, nor even in the Sword Continent."

"Then what’s going on? Also, didn’t we all go back fifteen thousand years?"

Fan Wubing shook his head,

"We entered the obsession of Senior Li Yuan."

"Obsession?"

Fan Wubing looked into the distance, "His obsession stems from the past when he killed celestials, taking away three parts of the World Sword Dao’s fate to forge the World Sword. However, when he opened the Heaven Opening Gate, the World Sword shattered, making it even harder for swordsmen to become Great Sword Immortals in the future. This obsession of his, forming a kind of domain within the Sword Qi-filled Sun-shooting Pass, confines him."

Having absorbed a vast amount of obsessions in the Fallen Immortal Land, he well understood this matter.

Fu Manman quickly understood, "No wonder he seemed to know us inside out."

Fan Wubing asked, "Did he say anything to you?"

Fu Manman was about to answer but then felt Zhuge Hong’s gaze. She glanced at Zhuge Hong, thought for a moment, and then shook her head,

"Nothing important."

"Alright."

Fan Wubing thought to himself, it seemed that it wasn’t him unknowingly offending Zhuge Hong, but rather something Li Yuan had told her.

Luo Qingyao said,

"So, the duel between senior brother and me broke the prison formed by Senior Li Yuan’s obsession."

"You should really thank Senior Li Yuan. Without his help, I wouldn’t have known what to do with you," Fan Wubing let out a sigh, "Watching you fall like that would’ve been unbearably painful."

"Sorry," Luo Qingyao said, swinging Fan Wubing’s hand back and forth, "There won’t be a next time."

Fan Wubing smiled, not saying much more.

Inside Sun-shooting Pass, the dust settled.

However, the joy of this reunion was quickly shattered.

In the distant sky, a battleship-like flying ship, entirely fiery red, slashed through the air with its flame-like tail, rapidly breaking through the void, and hovered above their heads.