In the end, Qiu Ling realized that waiting wouldn’t accomplish anything. He sighed, and then picked up Jing Yi and carried him away from that place without a word of explanation. Anyway, if neither confessing nor apologizing nor repeating it helped, then that could only mean that this hadn’t been the last thing he had to overcome after all. No, there had to still be more ahead. He’d have to get through that and then they should be able to get out of his inner self.

It actually made sense: While he couldn’t consciously think of something else he deeply regretted or was at odds with, that didn’t mean that there was nothing. His subconsciousness was probably much better at keeping track of these things. He’d just see what else he happened upon and then —

Qiu Ling stopped in the air and furrowed his brows at the sight in front of them. Why was his inner self littered with the corpses of people he had killed? Didn’t anything else happen in his life? How could he show this kind of thing to his beloved?! His Jing He was such a frail beauty, he probably wouldn’t be able to stand the sight of this.

Qiu Ling stopped regardless. Anyway, there was nothing he could do: If he didn’t confront this one, then even if he continued, it would just reappear later on. And if he still refused to face it, then they just wouldn’t get out of his inner self.

Well, at least, this one here seemed less conspicuous than the one before so his beloved wouldn’t have to ask about something he couldn’t answer. That was better than nothing.

Jing Yi did indeed open his eyes again as soon as Qiu Ling landed on the ground. He glanced up at his face first as if to make sure that they had arrived wherever Qiu Ling wanted to go before taking a look around. He couldn’t say that he wasn’t surprised at what he saw. They were actually standing in front of a battlefield. He took in a sharp breath and silently grabbed Qiu Ling’s hand. This place … Just why was it here? He wanted to ask but didn’t quite know where to begin.

Qiu Ling lightly squeezed his hand and then tugged at it, making Jing Yi follow him further ahead. Even though this was already much better than the situation before with the nameless woman, he also didn’t know what to say or how to explain this. In fact, he hoped that Jing Yi wouldn’t ask. Then, he could just keep quiet as well. He was pretty sure that that wouldn’t happen though. This kind of place … it wasn’t something you just ignored, right?

Qiu Ling was at least half right. Jing Yi was curious about what the reason behind seeing this place in Qiu Ling’s inner self was. But he didn’t ask immediately. Instead, he tried to understand it on his own just like he had done before when he was still searching for Qiu Ling.

As for what he thought … Well, he could only surmise that Qiu Ling might have fought in a war before. After all, he was already an immortal. Who knew how long he had actually lived? He had thought that it was only a couple of years or maybe a few decades but it could also be that that was wrong and that Qiu Ling was a little older than that.

He didn’t mind. Instead, he wondered what else Qiu Ling had experienced over the years. As for the place they were currently passing … He did not mind that either. In fact, he felt that it was almost to be expected. After all, Qiu Ling was a good person. If he saw people in danger, he naturally would have lent his assistance. But he probably felt bad since so many people had still lost their lives here and that was why this place showed up in his inner self.

While he figured all this, he still couldn’t help but ask in the end. Anyway, he finally wasn’t alone here anymore. Why shouldn’t he ask? In a sense, this was also a good opportunity to get to know more about Qiu Ling, and maybe talking about it could also help to get out of here.

He pondered for a moment how to say it but in the end, he went for the broadest question possible to give Qiu Ling the opportunity to say whatever he felt like saying. "Qiu Ling … What is this place? What happened here?"

The battle that made me king. The thought immediately crossed Qiu Ling’s mind but, naturally, he couldn’t say this. If it had been Jing He himself, it wouldn’t have been a problem but with his beloved still on his trial, this couldn’t be said out loud. He couldn’t expose his identity as either a dragon or the king. He just couldn’t. Thus, he just sighed, making it seem as if this was a very grave memory from a long time ago that even thinking about would pain him.

Jing Yi felt like this sigh was a confirmation of his thoughts. He patted Qiu Ling’s back and gave him a smile when he looked down. "I’m here with you."

Qiu Ling nodded. "That’s right. You’re here with me." He hugged Jing Yi to his chest and smiled with satisfaction.

Honestly, too many bad things had happened in his life. Even he himself thought so. But if that wasn’t the case, then he never would have met Jing He. He never would have fallen in love this deeply and would have missed out on that feeling of happiness. In the end, all this crap had probably been worth it.