Chapter 37

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Chapter 37: Song Praise

Changyi's clear and icy voice did not speak loudly, but it reached everyone's ears.

Princess Shunde's gaze finally moved away from Ji Yunhe and looked at the jiaoren inside the cell.

Ji Yunhe also heard Changyi. She kept her head low and did not turn around to look at him. She showed no weakness when receiving the lashes, but now her shoulders trembled uncontrollably.

Others did not see, but Lin Haoqing, who remained standing behind Ji Yunhe, saw it very clearly.

After all these years, only now did Lin Haoqing notice that Ji Yunhe's shoulders were actually very thin and no different from any other woman. Slender and delicate, like a pair of butterfly wings...

But this butterfly had always held her head up high to tell him how she wanted to fly over the world. So he saw her as a roc, and forgot that she, too, could be weak and helpless. (The roc is a mythological bird of prey originating from the Middle East. It is enormous in size and has been described as a mountain hovering in the air.)

And the vulnerabilities hidden by Ji Yunhe so deeply over the years surfaced now, because of the jiaoren.

Only out of pity for that demon's worthless dignity?

Thinking about her actions lately, Lin Haoqing turned his head and looked at Changyi.

She and this demon...

"Let her go. What do you wish to hear from me?" Changyi looked at Princess Shunde and spoke again. "I will say it."

"The voice is pleasing to the ear." Princess Shunde narrowed her eyes and looked at Changyi with content. "It is said that the jiaoren's singing is the best in the world, then sing a song for me."

Kneeling on the ground, Ji Yunhe tensed up.

Plaything.

Princess Shunde's attitude pretty much said it all.

Changyi was her plaything, while others were her slaves.

She could beat them, kill them, cut their tongue, or pluck out their eyes.

The mountains and rivers were hers, and the world was hers.

After a brief pause, Changyi's song filled the dungeon. It was melodic and intoxicating.

Ji Yunhe suspended her breath.

This song... she had heard it before.

Only once but it was impossible to forget. Such a song did not belong to the mortal world.

The tune pulled Ji Yunhe back in time and into the broken Ten Square Formation. She had pretended to be Ning Ruochu and gave closure to the demonic attachment abandoned by the jade phoenix. When the attachment danced toward the ninth heaven, Changyi sang this song to send her off.

After jumping into the sinking pool, she asked him what the song was about, and he told her it was praising freedom.

At that time, Ji Yunhe was optimistic and thought her freedom was close at hand, and she only felt joy.

But now, with the same tune echoing inside her ears, Ji Yunhe only felt sadness.

He had lost his tail and was back in prison, but he still praised freedom.

Princess Shunde asked him to sing for her, but Ji Yunhe knew he was not singing for the princess.

He was singing for Ji Yunhe.

She closed her eyes to the room full of animosity, ignored the despair and frustration she felt, and silently listened to his song.

When the song finished, the room became quiet and serene.

People's breathing disappeared, all signs of filth and violence were washed away, and time seemed to stand still.

Even Princess Shunde did not break the tranquility.

Until Changyi stepped forward and said, "Let her go."

Everyone woke up to the sound of his voice and simultaneously took in the breath that they had been holding. Princess Shunde's gaze behind her beautiful makeup fixated on Changyi, and her face was full of desire. "I never imprisoned her."

Princess Shunde gave a slight gesture. Eunuch Zhang immediately stepped forward and took back the scarlet whip from Lin Haoqing's hand.

"Your people have done very well in fulfilling my wishes. I am quite satisfied." Princess Shunde stood up, and the servants behind her immediately came back to life and waited on her. "But I also do not want to wait too long."

"I will give you ten more days for the third wish. Do not make me come here again to see him submissive."

Princess Shunde stepped away.

The huge crowd followed her out in a line. Lin Haoqing looked at Ji Yunhe, and then looked at the jiaoren. In the end, he said nothing and left.

Soon, Ji Yunhe and Changyi were left alone inside the dungeon. Just like before, yet the atmosphere was now completely different.

She was still kneeling on the ground.

Changyi called her name after a while, "Yunhe."

She did not turn around.

With her back against Changyi, she raised her hands and covered her face.

Her breathing was rapid as she desperately tried to suppress her anger, resentment and hatred for this world.

Changyi quietly watched her and waited. After a long time, Ji Yunhe finally put down her hands, stood up, wiped her face, and looked back at him.

Her eyes were slightly red, but her expression was completely under control.

She stepped forward and made no mention of what had just happened. "Changyi, even though you lost your tail, your demonic power did not disappear, right?"

Changyi did not respond.

"Ten days. I will bring you some medicine, try to recover your strength. This cell and these yellow talismans can't hold you."

"What do you want to do?" Changyi asked her.

"I want to let you go."

This cell, unlike the previous dungeon, was far less sturdy.

If Changyi had been able to shake up the previous dungeon while he was half dead, this one here should not stand a chance. Moreover, the Ten Square Formation that had suppressed all demonic power here in the valley and Lin Canglan were both gone, if Changyi wanted to go, nothing could stop him.

Or maybe, he could leave right now.

He just...

"What will happen to you if I leave?"

Changyi asked her, and his question confirmed what Ji Yunhe was just thinking.

He was only staying here because of her.

Maybe he could have left that day after they leaped out of the Ten Square Formation, but did not because he was "protecting her with his life".

When Lin Haoqing asked him to split open the tail, he agreed, because he was also "protecting her with his life".

And today, when Princess Shunde asked him to talk, he could have refused. But he put down his pride and did as she asked.

Because he was also "protecting her with his life".

The reason he was still here was not because he could not go, but because he also wanted to take her with him.

Ji Yunhe closed her eyes and held back her tears.

After suppressing her emotions, she stared firmly into Changyi's clear blue eyes.

"Changyi, I've been living this life for a long time, so I always look forward to something different. I resist, persist, and fight back, because I want to make myself worthy of every flower I've enjoyed and every bite of food I've tasted. I want to live, and I want to live happy and free! But if in the end I don't get what I want, then that's my life. Do you understand, Changyi? This is my life!"

She paused and said, "But it's not your life."

She was fortunate to have met Changyi, and to get to know one of the purest souls. She did not want to burden him or keep him trapped in the filth that was her world.

"You have to leave."

Facing this somewhat hysterical outburst from Ji Yunhe, Changyi's response remained very gentle but firm.

"I will not leave."

Just like his eyes at this moment, soft but stubborn.

Ji Yunhe's heart, which she had intentionally wrapped up under layers and layers of ice, trembled and melted again.

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