When Li Mo heard Yun Ruoyan’s words, he acquiesced. “Then I’ll wait for you to grow up, my dear little consort.”

Yun Ruoyan was quite awake after Li Mo’s… ministrations. She immediately broke out of his grasp and sat back upright as she sucked in lungfuls of air.

“Why?” she suddenly asked.

“Hm?” Li Mo propped his head up with an arm. “Why what?”

“Why me? As the Slaughtering King, there are surely tens of thousands of women clamoring to be your consort.” Yun Ruoyan pointed out with a frown. 

And regardless of Li Mo’s true identity, he was a god of slaughter who could make the entire Chenyuan continent tremble. Even his looks were beyond compare. Yun Ruoyan thought back to that peerless silvery-haired man she had seen. Actually, she was very curious about his real identity, but she didn’t dare ask.

If he wanted to remain as Li Mo, then she would leave him be.

“I don’t understand myself. You’re so ugly and of such lowly status, so why would I be interested in you?” Li Mo met Yun Ruoyan’s questioning gaze and smirked. “Perhaps, just as you claim, I’m crazy.”

Yun Ruoyan really did think Li Mo crazy to be able to profess his attraction to such a revolting face. However, he didn’t truly appear to be smitten with her, so Yun Ruoyan rejected this hypothesis. It was more likely that Li Mo had nothing better to do, and was just using her as a source of entertainment.

That being said, when she was abducted, Li Mo had chased after her at the expense of worsening his own injuries and even revealing a hint of his true identity.

Li Mo had helped her out countless times, and Yun Ruoyan wasn’t a fool. His actions were more than mere boredom, and she could even feel a tenuous affection from him.

Regardless, if her previous life’s bitter experiences had taught her one thing, it was that there was a vanishingly small probability that someone would treat her well for no reason. Li Mo had to have some other motive for doing so, but what could it be?

Her beauty? She was beautiful, but he wouldn’t know that.

Her status? She was the sole wife-born daughter of the Yun family, but Li Mo’s status was far superior to hers.

In that case, what could be the reason?! She couldn’t do anything about the fact that Li Mo was unwilling to reveal his intentions.

“Look!” Li Mo sat upright as he stared to the front.

Yun Ruoyan turned her head to see the morning sun peeping out from the horizon. The dimness of dawn gave way to light, covering everything it touched in a sheen of red—the clouds, the mountains, and even the birds flying high up in the skies.

It felt as if the earth and heavens had awakened at that very moment. Yun Ruoyan couldn’t help standing up and moving to the railing to have a closer look at her surroundings.

Kongming Academy, with rows upon rows of buildings, was picturesque in its disorder. The buildings were made of a material unknown to her, glowing brightly where the rays of the morning sun were incident.

Yun Ruoyan looked far into the distance to see vast mountains snaking their way north until they vanished into the horizon.

“The Kongming Mountains are spectacular!” Yun Ruoyan exclaimed.

“That’s not the Kongming mountain range anymore, but rather the Yueli mountain range.”

“The Yueli mountain range? Home of the beastkin?” While she was still in the Yun family academy, her instructor had once spoken of the geography of the Chenyuan continent. However, that had been so long ago that she couldn’t remember everything clearly.

“The Kongming mountain range spans east and west, encroaching on the territory of the Li kingdom to the west, and that of the Chen kingdom to the east. A valley apart from the Kongming Mountain is the Yueli mountain range, spanning north and south and covering more than half the Chenyuan continent.”

Li Mo pointed at a spot in the distance. “The kingdom of the beastkin was once situated in a hidden, secluded part of the Yueli Mountain.” He stilled for a moment, and his gaze turned introspective.

Yun Ruoyan could feel the change in his emotions, but she didn’t comment on it.

Before the sun fully emerged from the horizon, Li Mo brought Yun Ruoyan away from the Kongming Summit.

“Where are we headed now?” Yun Ruoyan shouted at Li Mo against the wind.

Li Mo clutched Yun Ruoyan’s waist with one hand and steered with the other. “Where would you like to go, Yan’er?”

Yun Ruoyan was just about to ask to see the sea—the sea demons and merfolk of the Chen kingdom!—and the desert, filled with oases and mirages of fragments of distant worlds, or even the Yueli Mountain, to explore the remnants of the beastkin kingdom.

But then she snapped her mouth shut.

The night had passed in far too dreamlike a fashion, so much so that Yun Ruoyan felt disconnected from reality. She patted her head and reminded herself that she had to rush back to the Yun family. Her father might not have noticed that she hadn’t returned all night, but her older brother would probably be sick with worry.

“Send me back to the Yun family, please,” Yun Ruoyan replied unenthusiastically.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to buy some more poisonous ingredients?” Li Mo asked. “And you have money now, don’t you?”

If Li Mo hadn’t brought it up, Yun Ruoyan would almost have forgotten. She had auctioned off a superior low-grade darkened heavens pill for a thousand gold, and after paying the auction hall a 10%-commission, she still had nine hundred taels left.

Yun Ruoyan owed Li Mo a thousand gold, and what she had wouldn’t be enough to pay off the debt.

Surely Li Mo wasn’t in dire need of money, so Yun Ruoyan wasn’t too concerned about repaying the debt urgently. “I have to head home first to let my brother know I’m alright.”

Li Mo’s spirits dampened as soon as he was reminded of the scene of Yun Ruoyan clutching Yun Moxiao’s waist tightly as they flew into the skies. Even if he were her brother, how could his dear little consort act so familiarly with another man?

“Two years later, if I’m still infatuated with you, I’ll take you as my wife and consort,” Li Mo stated coolly.

“Hmm?” Yun Ruoyan turned to Li Mo before making a noncommittal sound. 

Who knows what’ll happen in the intervening two years?

She didn’t take his words to heart.

“In these two years, you have to stay away from other men,” Li Mo continued. “I won’t allow you to have a meal with another man alone, or to have any intimate encounters with them.

“Slaughtering King,” Yun Ruoyan asked, turning once more to face him. “In two years, will you recover from your temporary infatuation and not want to marry an ugly wench like me anymore?”

“We’ll see.”

Hearing this answer, Yun Ruoyan was at a loss for words. However, her heart lightened up: she would have felt far more uncomfortable if Li Mo had promised to marry her.

They flew all the way to the top of the Yun manor, where Yun Lan was meditating in his quarters. When he felt a strong aura appear above his head, he opened his eyes and looked up to see a green sword aura slowly descending to his daughter’s quarters, a smile on his face.

As Yun Ruoyan had predicted, Yun Moxiao was so anxious that he’d gone to her quarters at the crack of dawn to ask if Yun Ruoyan had yet returned. Peony and the other maids had waited for her the entire night, and when they saw Yun Moxiao’s anxious expression, they too became flustered.

Yun Moxiao heard Lin Qingchen say that Yun Ruoyan had been brought away by Pei Ziao. If she hadn’t returned, then she had to be at the Pei manor. Lin Qingchen added that Yun Ruoyan seemed to have a plan up her sleeve.

Yun Moxiao was worried that his sister had failed and had been taken captive in the Pei household. “No, we can’t just sit here and wait! I’m going to the Pei estate to ask for my sister back!”

“Wait, Young Master, the miss is back!” Xi Lan suddenly shouted from behind. At the same time, Yun Moxiao felt a strong aura quickly descending on his sister’s quarters. He raised his head to see two bodies standing atop a green sword aura: one was his sister, Yun Ruoyan, and the other was an unfamiliar man from whom power exuded.

They gave off an intimate expression.

Could he be the legendary Slaughtering King himself?! 

He didn’t know of any other man who would be so intimate with Yun Ruoyan and yet possess such incredible cultivation.

The two landed on the ground, and Yun Ruoyan walked toward Yun Moxiao. “Brother!”

Yun Moxiao’s gaze, however, was plastered on Li Mo; but Li Mo’s own gaze was tracking Yun Ruoyan’s back, and he ignored Yun Moxiao entirely.

“Brother, he’s the Slaughtering King,” Yun Ruoyan introduced, noticing how seriously her brother was staring at him.

Yun Ruoyan suddenly became a little anxious, more than she was when she’d introduced Li Mo to Yun Lan. Li Mo had also shifted his gaze from Yun Ruoyan’s back to Yun Moxiao’s body, and their two gazes met.

To Yun Moxiao, Li Mo’s eyes were like black holes, carrying a secretive and mysterious power the likes of which he’d never felt before. He wanted to break the gaze, but found himself powerless from doing so. His heart throbbed, and he couldn’t help taking a step back.

“Brother, are you alright?” Yun Ruoyan hurriedly stepped forward to support her brother.

Forcing himself to straighten his back, Yun Moxiao didn’t speak.

“Yan’er.” Li Mo’s gaze landed on Yun Ruoyan’s hands, which were clutching her brother’s arm. “Come over here,” he commanded.

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