Yun Ruoyan’s breathing slowly evened out, and the hand that she’d looped around Li Mo’s waist gradually relaxed. Li Mo stopped his narration and looked down at Yun Ruoyan, curled up in his lap, her long black hair spreading out and tangling with his own silver strands.

Li Mo couldn’t help caressing Yun Ruoyan’s hair. In her dreams, Yun Ruoyan tossed around, before revealing her back to Li Mo. Li Mo leaned down and held her tightly, murmuring intimately, “Never abandon me.”

Back in the palace, a rather exquisite lantern powered by a pearl-of-night shone day and night on a deserted residence. Li Qianyuan, draped in red, was sitting languidly in one of the bedrooms, an eunuch kneeling in front of him.

“I don’t want to waste my breath, so just admit your crime,” Li Qianyuan said, critically inspecting his fingernails.

“Se—Second Prince, upon your request, I, I guard this residence nightly, and take regular care of the possessions located here.” The eunuch bowed down until his head touched the floor, his whole body shaking and his voice quavering.

“Open the cabinet and take out the sandalwood box inside,” Li Qianyuan commanded one of his other servants.

Li Qianyuan took the sandalwood box and lightly caressed the delicate engraving on the box. “This box used to contain one of my mother’s favorite dresses, but now it’s empty.” Li Qianyuan opened the box slowly to reveal nothing within. “You claim to have guarded this residence day and night, taking good care of her belongings… so where has this dress gone?”

“I… I don’t know, Your Highness!” The eunuch’s forehead dripped with sweat, which beaded and slowly fell to the ground. Despite the irritation, the eunuch didn’t dare raise his hand to wipe the sweat away.

“Do you servants think that I won’t care about what you’ve been doing just because I was sent to the Chen kingdom?”

Li Qianyuan closed the box once more, his slender, white fingers again caressing the box. “As my employees, not only have you neglected your duty, you even dared lie to me! Do you think I’m blind or deaf?!”

“I don’t dare, Your Highness!”

Li Qianyuan’s acerbic tone caused his other two servants to kneel as well.

“I don’t need servants who won’t do my bidding.” Li Qianyuan glanced coldly at the eunuch trembling by his feet. “Dig out his eyes and cut off his hands and tongue, then send him into exile.”

“Yes, Second Prince!” The eunuch had fainted as soon as he heard the proclamation, and the other two servants immediately got up and dragged him away.

The only person left in the residence was Li Qianyuan. He stood up from the bed and slotted the sandalwood box back into the cabinet.

“Mother, your dress somehow found its way to Miss Yun,” Li Qianyuan said slowly. “I met her once when I was little and you took me to the Yun family to play. She’s quite a different person now, but the dress doesn’t look ugly on her.”

Yun Ruoyan was woken up by Li Mo. By the time she opened her eyes, the sun was already up in the sky.

Li Mo had returned to his usual black-haired, black-robed appearance, and Yun Ruoyan was a little dazed by the transformation. Indeed, last night seemed almost like a dream.

“Well? Why are you in such a daze? Didn’t you have a good sleep last night?” Li Mo stood on his sword, smiling at the dazed Yun Ruoyan.

“I had a very good sleep.” Yun Ruoyan extended her hand; Li Mo grabbed it and pulled her onto the sword.

He left quietly after sending her back to the Yun manor, not disturbing anyone else.

After resting in her room for a little while longer, she heard Yun Moxiao’s voice coming from her yard. As she yawned and got dressed, she stepped outside and called out to Yun Moxiao, who was then speaking with Peony, “Brother, I’m back!”

“When did you return?” Yun Moxiao frowned.

“I… I came back quite a while ago,” Yun Ruoyan replied, clutching her head.

Yun Ruoyan knew what Yun Moxiao was worried about. Despite her young age, she was talented at cultivation. Yun Moxiao was worried that she would regret her youthful dalliance with Li Mo—or, even worse, get discarded by him.

While Yun Ruoyan was ugly and weak, Yun Moxiao had hoped for her to clinch a good marriage and to settle down. Ideally, her husband would be someone that he would be able to control, so if Yun Ruoyan were to be bullied, he could step up and defend her.

But now, the situation had changed completely. Not only had Yun Ruoyan become beautiful, she was so talented that her future would be limitless. Yun Moxiao didn’t want his sister to become mired in her feelings too early, causing her cultivation to slow down.

Furthermore, the other man was the Slaughtering King Li Mo, someone that Yun Moxiao had no chance of dealing with at the moment. When he thought about the fact that he was powerless to defend his sister against anything Li Mo might do, he almost felt as though he were suffocating.

“Ruoyan, you’re heading to the Kongming Academy in two days!”

“I know, Brother.” Both Li Mo and Yun Moxiao seemed to be far more concerned about it than she was, and their anxiety was rather contagious.

“I’m going to be cultivating in my room for the next two days, alright?” Yun Ruoyan hastily added when she saw that her brother seemed to be preparing himself for a tirade.

Yun Moxiao sighed. “I’ll be heading to court with Father, so I can’t watch over you before you leave. Two days later, I’ll send you to Kongming Academy.”

After Yun Moxiao left, Yun Ruyoan began to cultivate. She had to make sure that she had sufficient spiritual energy, as well as to transmute enough fire-attuned spiritual energy to deal with her upcoming trial.

Cultivation made time pass unusually quickly, and the sky had darkened in the blink of an eye.

At night, Li Qianhan dropped by to give Yun Ruoyan the storage ring that Li Mo had taken from her. He told her that Li Mo had an urgent matter to attend to, and wouldn’t be able to see her off in two days. Although Yun Ruoyan didn’t appear fazed by the news, she was inwardly a little dejected.

Li Qianhan removed the items from the storage ring one at a time, put them on her table, and then explained the use of each one. Most of them were kept in small containers or jars; Li Qianhan introduced quite a number of spiritual pills, as well as a set of antidotes. Although Li Mo didn’t know where exactly the trial would be held, he knew that the area would be filled with poisonous flora and fauna, so antidotes would definitely be necessary.

In addition to the spiritual pills and antidotes, there was even a gleaming gold dagger. Li Qianhan explained that, even though the dagger wasn’t a spiritual weapon, it had a particularly keen edge.

“And Uncle told me to hand this directly to you.” Li Qianhan retrieved a snowy-white pearl from his robes. It was mostly spherical, with a little protrusion that had been bored through and threaded with string, forming a pendant.

Yun Ruoyan felt a hint of dampness from the pearl.

“What’s this?”

“This is the inner core of a water serpent,” Li Qianhan explained. “Uncle made it overnight, and keeping it in your mouth will help you breathe underwater. You’ll be able to stay underwater for at least two hours with its help.”

Yun Ruoyan’s eyes brightened. 

What an amazing ability!

Last night, she was entirely focused on Li Mo’s face, so she hadn’t noticed when he extracted the beast core from the serpent. He had expended a great deal of effort trying to kill that serpent; now she knew that it wasn’t simply because she was hungry.

Having been granted all sorts of treasures, and with her peak seventh-rank cultivation, the anxiety that Li Mo and Yun Moxiao had transferred to her was quickly alleviated.

“Mistress,” Qiuqiu’s voice rang out from her mind.

“What’s the matter, Qiuqiu?”

“I think you’re too relaxed, Mistress. I’m worried you’ll underestimate your opponents.”

“No, I won’t. I’m simply confident enough that I have all the tools I need to deal with them, Qiuqiu—underestimating my opponents is a different thing entirely, and isn’t a mistake I would make,” Yun Ruoyan clarified.

Two days later, it was finally time to head to Kongming Academy. The school term officially began in five days, but the trip itself would take two or three days. 

Yun Moxiao was responsible for bringing the Yun siblings to Kongming Academy. Just as they were about to set off, however, something unexpected happened.

Yun Ruoyu had suddenly fallen deathly ill, subject both to bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. In a single night, she had gone as thin as a stick. If not for Madam Qin’s timely assistance, she might even have died.

Without any other choice, Yun Ruoyu had to give up on entering Kongming Academy this year, leaving Yun Ruoyao on her own. The latter girl was particularly frustrated: Yun Ruoyu had fallen sick at this particular moment, not any earlier or later, as if it were intentional.

As dawn broke, Yun Ruoyan and Yun Ruoyao said their farewells to Yun Lan and the Yun matriarch. Each saddled on a firesteed, they rode with Yun Moxiao all the way to the Kongming Mountains.

The Kongming Summit was deep in the Kongming mountain range. Even after arriving at its foot, they would have to gallop another whole day before reaching its summit, so the three siblings chose to proceed by horse rather than by carriage.

Right before leaving the capital, Yun Ruoyan met up with the Lin siblings and Zhuo Yifeng, all three of whom were also on firesteeds.

Firesteeds were very precious, and the Lin family only had two in its stables. Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue rode together on one, and Zhuo Yifeng on the other.

Yun Ruoyao was clearly the odd one out in this party, and she was well aware of her own unpopularity within the crowd. As a result, she tended to ride on her own, not really interacting with the others.

As they prepared to set off from the capital, Yi Qianying’s voice came from behind. “Sister Ruoyao, would you like to join us?”

Yun Ruoyan’s party turned around to see Yi Qianying riding up in front of a group of about a dozen people. The gathered group comprised a large number of noble scions from the capital. One such was Rong Yueshan, whom Yun Ruoyan had briefly met at the crown prince’s wedding, who maintained her arrogant visage even while riding on a horse. 

Behind Rong Yueshan were four or five warriors, likely warriors from the Rong family sent to escort her. Rong Tianling was the uncle of the crown prince, and Yi Qianying was the crown prince’s concubine. Yi Qianying was Rong Yueshan’s cousin-in-law, so it was only to be expected that they were headed to Kongming Academy together.

Most of the other scions were those that had close connections with the Rong family and the crown prince’s manor, and Yun Ruoyao joined their ranks without any hesitation.

Suddenly, Rong Yueshan trotted over, looking not at Yun Ruoyan but instead at Yun Moxiao.

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