Yun Ruoyan fell asleep in Li Mo’s embrace. Her face was relaxed, her face as smooth and white as a lotus, her lips slightly swollen but smiling. Li Mo kissed her forehead, slowly drew his arm out from underneath her neck, and left the bed. He put on his robes and walked outside the room.

Raising his hands, he summoned spiritual energy into his fingers. One hand turned a fiery red; the other was covered with frost.

“I’ve finally broken through!” Li Mo clenched his fists tightly. He had finally advanced to the realm of a sword saint! His spiritual energy could directly manifest in elemental form, and his attacks were easily twice as strong as before.

Yun Ruoyan’s unique constitution as a human furnace had truly been beneficial to him, more so than any spiritual herb or treasure.

“Xun Mo.” Suddenly, Qiuqiu’s voice rang out in his head.

Li Mo retracted his hands and went back inside the room. He looked at Yun Ruoyan’s sleeping form and noticed her silver bracelet glowing faintly.

“Qiuqiu, it looks like you’re recovering quite well,” Li Mo replied with mental energy. In the past, if he wanted to talk with Qiuqiu, he would have to initiate the conversation and supply enough energy to break the bracelet’s barrier. However, this time, Qiuqiu was able to talk with him without needing his help.

“The amaranthine sun that my mistress obtained has helped me tremendously,” Qiuqiu replied. “Now that she’s an eighth-rank blademaster, I have far more freedom than I did before. Once she becomes a sword saint, I’ll likely be able to break out of this barrier and recover my true body.”

“Based on her talent in cultivation and my help, she’ll be able to do so within the decade,” Li Mo promised. “You don’t have to be anxious, Qiuqiu.”

“That isn’t the reason I initiated this conversation. Li Mo, while I was cultivating, I suddenly felt a huge surge in my mistress’ spiritual energy. Although it didn’t seem harmful to her, it felt very strange. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

Qiuqiu had ascertained that Li Mo was the cause of the perturbation, but he didn’t know how he had caused it.

Now that Li Mo had no need to hide matters from Yun Ruoyan further, it would be a good opportunity to tell her about her secret. Actually, he had intended on telling her about it tonight before they were to consummate their marriage, but because Yun Ruoyan had accidentally drunk the aphrodisiac-laced wine, Li Mo didn’t have a chance to do so.

“Qiuqiu, I can tell you what’s going on, but don’t tell your mistress just yet. I want her to hear about it from me,” Li Mo answered.

Qiuqiu agreed, and Li Mo then described Yun Ruoyan’s unique constitution as a human furnace.

“So that’s the case…” Qiuqiu murmured. “I know what you’re worried about. Although your motives were initially impure, your feelings toward my mistress now are genuine, and I believe she can sense it too. Given her personality, however, you’d better clarify things to her sooner rather than later.”

Li Mo nodded, deciding he would do so before they entered the alternate dimension. He wanted to tell her about the matter the next morning, but was interrupted by a message from the first elder.

The message spoke of an unexpected matter, one that excited even Li Mo. He quickly told Yun Ruoyan about the affair, which she had heard mentioned before by some of the older students. It was about the beastmaster institution’s instructors and students, long thought to have vanished in an alternate dimension.

Three years ago, Kongming Academy consisted of five colleges and four specialized institutions, not the three that there currently were. The elders of Kongming Academy had discovered a new realm filled with magical beasts through the all-seeing mirror, a treasure trove to members of the beastmaster institution.

As such, the provost of the beastmaster institution sought approval from the elders to enter the dimension with his fellow instructors and students. After they entered, however, something unexpected happened—the connection between the realm and the all-seeing mirror vanished, and the expedition members were thought lost in the vast expanse of spacetime.

The first elder’s message revealed that that dimension had appeared once more. Kongming Academy was readying an expedition into that dimension, and he wrote to ask if Li Mo had any interest in participating.

“That provost from the beastmaster institute was on good terms with me,” Li Mo explained. “My master and I never gave up on searching for that realm. Now that we’ve finally found it again, I have to enter it.”

“I’ll go with you,” Yun Ruoyan replied without any hesitation. She had been very curious when she had first learned about the affair, and she was excited to have an opportunity to poke around the unusual realm for herself.

Now that Li Mo was a sword saint, he was confident that he would be able to protect Yun Ruoyan even within the alternate dimension, let alone this minor realm.

“But this realm won’t disappear again, will it?” Yun Ruoyan was still a little concerned about the realm’s anomalous behavior.

“They made too few preparations when braving the realm last time. This time, we’ll certainly make sure everything’s as expected before we depart.”

Because of the urgency of the matter, Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan returned to Kongming Academy on the second day of their marriage, before the Chinese New Year break even ended.

Before returning, however, Yun Ruoyan made sure to task Yun Moxiao with heading to the Farsighted King’s manor to help him get rid of the demons plaguing his city. Yun Ruoyan had promised Li Sheng to return in a month to help, but she wouldn’t be able to do so personally anymore.

“As long as you’ll fulfill my request,” Yun Moxiao replied.

This was a little surprising to Yun Ruoyan: her brother had never requested anything of her. She smiled and glanced at him. “What’s the matter, Brother?”

Yun Moxiao described how he had proposed to Li Luo in a drunken haze while leaving the Slaughtering King’s manor. Ever since then, Li Luo had avoided him, and Yun Moxiao’s request was for Li Luo to accompany him on this trip.

This wasn’t a hard request for Yun Ruoyan to fulfill; after all, Li Luo would carry out Li Mo’s orders without fail. However, when Li Mo instructed Li Luo to do so, she too made a request of her own: that Su Nan accompany them, or she would disobey. Without a choice, Yun Ruoyan could only agree to this additional condition, even as she worried about her brother’s prospects.

With everything settled, Yun Ruoyan finally left for Kongming Academy with Li Mo.

“Li Mo… Hey, hey! …Li Mo, slow down and wait for me!”

A red aura glowed at her feet as Yun Ruoyan flew on her Scarlet Eye. Although she had been practicing fervently with her sword, despite Yun Ruoyan’s prodigious talent for cultivation, she had a particularly lacking sense of balance.

Li Mo had promised that she would be able to soar on her sword within ten days, but even after a month, Yun Ruoyan could only hover on her sword while swaying from side to side. If Li Mo were beside her, the problem wasn’t too bad, but if Li Mo were to stray from her, then Yun Ruoyan became so nervous that she would tremble all over.

“You can’t move too slowly,” Li Mo called out, deliberately keeping some distance from her. “The slower you go, the harder it is to keep your balance! That’s why newbies are always told to soar quickly.”

“It’s not a matter of experience,” Yun Ruoyan shouted back, frustrated. “It’s that I have a fear of heights!”

Li Mo rubbed at his temples. How many times had he flown with Yun Ruoyan? Why had her acrophobia only made its existence known when she was alone?

“Fine—get on!” Li Mo, finally defeated by Yun Ruoyan’s relentless cries, extended a hand to her. Their speed of travel instantly increased by an order of magnitude, and they arrived at Kongming Academy before noon.

The two of them headed straight for the peak of the southern tower, where the first elder was waiting for them.

“Look.” Without much in the way of greeting, the first elder showed them the all-seeing mirror. Yun Ruoyan could see a picturesque scene: a startlingly blue sky adorned with white, fluffy clouds, as well as lush greenery peppered with birds and flowers.

“First Elder, is this that vanished realm?” Yun Ruoyan asked curiously.

“Yes, this is it,” he replied with certainty. Prodding at the mirror, he shifted the scene to a mountainous valley, one filled with all sorts of magical beasts. Yun Ruoyan could recognize quite a number, but there were even more that were unfamiliar to her, and in such numbers that she could only gape in amazement.

“Master, did you discover Master Qin’s whereabouts?” Li Mo asked.

The first elder shook his head. “No, but this realm is unusually big, and there are quite a number of locations that I haven’t investigated. Other areas seem to be shielded from scrying by magical barriers, and even the all-seeing mirror can’t show me anything. As a result, someone has to personally enter and investigate this realm.”

“First Elder, I’ll head there with Li Mo,” Yun Ruoyan announced. “When should we set off, and what preparations should we make in advance?”

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