“Young Master,” the housekeeper replied, “that man was gravely injured during the fight, and he hasn’t yet awoken.”

“Oh? He’s not going to die, is he?” Pi Yang straightened up and glanced sharply at the housekeeper. He wanted to use Li Mo to lure Yun Ruoyan out. If Li Mo were to die, he would be useless! Furthermore, Pi Yang knew how strongly Yun Ruoyan felt about Li Mo. If he were to die, his relationship with her would forever be marred. 

This wasn’t an outcome that Pi Yang would be happy with.

“No, no, he isn’t dead! Don’t worry, Young Master, he won’t die so easily.”

Pi Yang went back to leaning against his seat. “If he still doesn’t wake up, send for a physician on his behalf. Make sure you save his life, if nothing else.”

“Yes, Young Master. May I begin?”

“Begin.”

The names and identities of each slave was recorded in a register, and each one was handed an identification token. “This token is of utmost importance,” the housekeeper emphasized. “This is a record of your identity as a slave of the Pi household.”

He spoke as though it were an honor.

Zhuo Yifeng’s hand clenched around a black wooden token, on which was engraved a groundhog with its four limbs crawling on the ground. On the Mingyuan continent, they were as weak and inept as groundhogs, and their tokens would forever remind them of their identity.

“Damn it, I—” The man with a bite mark still on his neck raised a hand, about to fling his identification token on the ground, when the fatty pulled him back. “Black, don’t be rash!”

“Listen to Fatty, Black,” Xue Ji added from the side.

Only then did the man called Black finally quash the rage simmering in his chest, barely restraining himself from tossing away his token. On the other hand, Zhuo Yifeng’s fist trembled with anger and rage. He squeezed the token so firmly that it looked as though he was trying to crush it with his bare hands.

Su Bei’s voice rang out in his mind, a memory of one of their last conversations before he left. 

While you’re weak, you have to learn restraint.

Zhuo Yifeng slowly unclenched his fist. “Restraint, restraint…”

Yun Ruoyan spent the next two days with the troupe of courtesans. Madam Hong and A Fei spent almost the entire day outside, and Xiao Qing explained to Yun Ruoyan that they were trying to get business.

“What business?” Although Yun Ruoyan knew about the existence of such troupes, she wasn’t sure exactly what they did. Xiao Qing grinned. The next day, she woke her up so early in the morning that the skies were still dark. Along with the other women, they all began practicing a certain talent: some played music, woodwind and string, others sang, and even more danced.

Xiao Qing was a dancer, so Yun Ruoyan naturally followed suit and learned to dance. Footwork had always been one of her strengths, and dancing came relatively easy to her. Xiao Qing marvelled at Yun Ruoyan’s talent, claiming that she would be able to perform on stage by their next show.

Today, after finishing her practice, she was returning to her rooms when she noticed a white glow shining from underneath A Fei’s room. She slowed down and walked over to the window, poking a hole through it and glancing in. 

A Fei was sitting cross-legged in bed and cultivating. Generally, cultivators tended to meditate in the morning, but A Fei’s meditation technique was something that Yun Ruoyan had never seen before. A white, glowing stone was flying around her body, slowly looping around her as it spun and rotated.

Yun Ruoyan could feel a large amount of spiritual energy emanate from the stone, which was immediately sucked into A Fei’s body. After being absorbed through her skin, it gathered near her spiritual vortex. 

Spirit crystal, this is a spirit crystal!

When she heard footsteps behind her, she immediately straightened up and walked away from A Fei’s rooms. 

“Little rabbit, what are you doing? It’s time for breakfast!” Xiao Qing appeared by the corner of the corridor, calling out to Yun Ruoyan.

“Ah, I’m coming!”

After breakfast, Yun Ruoyan began to cultivate. She had been working hard ever since recovering from her injury, but the effects were marginal at best. Despite having entered the Mingyuan continent, she remained a sixth-rank cultivator.

It’d likely be a lot faster if Li Mo were here to cultivate with me…

“Mistress, Mistress, there’s a reaction from Li Mo’s spiritual sword!” Qiuqiu’s voice chirped, almost as soon as she thought of Li Mo.

Yun Ruoyan immediately closed her eyes and entered her bracelet’s pocket dimension. Li Mo’s sword, which had been glowing faintly only a few days ago, now blinded with its radiance.

“Thank goodness Li Mo’s alright!” Yun Ruoyan exclaimed.

In the afternoon, A Fei came to talk to Yun Ruoyan, stating that a show had been arranged. As a result, she would need to buy a few ingredients and supplies, and wanted Yun Ruoyan to head out with her. 

Yun Ruoyan had been intending to get close to the Pi manor, and this would be a good chance to do so. The streets of the Pi city were as crowded as promised during the day. Crowds swarmed the market square, and Yun Ruoyan managed to ‘accidentally’ get shoved away from A Fei in the process. She squeezed through the crowd, asked for directions, and rushed toward the Pi manor.

It took her only half an hour to walk to the front of the manor. It was guarded by four impressively advanced cultivators, and she would have almost no shot at entering on her own. She walked along the outer wall of the manor as she nudged Qiuqiu to try to send Li Mo a mental transmission.

Qiuqiu managed to latch onto Li Mo’s signal relatively quickly, but because Yun Ruoyan’s sixth-rank cultivation restricted Qiuqiu’s abilities, it couldn’t communicate with Li Mo for very long. Li Mo only had time to send Qiuqiu one message before the signal cut off again.

“Well, Qiuqiu?” Yun Ruoyan asked anxiously.

“Mistress, I managed to speak with Li Mo, but the connection was cut off quickly. He told me he’d send Mo’er around and for us to wait patiently.”

After about fifteen minutes, Mo’er flew out of the Pi manor and landed on Yun Ruoyan’s shoulder. It opened his mouth, and a roll of parchment landed on Yun Ruoyan’s palm. She opened it to find familiar handwriting, finally easing a burden in her heart.

Li Mo wrote to Yun Ruoyan of his current situation in the Pi manor. He mentioned that the Lin sisters and Zhuo Yifeng were all with him and asked that Yun Ruoyan not worry and patiently wait for him to rescue them all. Once he managed to free Qin Feng and the others, he would meet up with her again.

He also instructed Yun Ruoyan to temporarily take care of Mo’er. After all, his opponents were at so advanced a level that Mo’er wouldn’t be able to accomplish much for him.

“Well, you can follow me,” Yun Ruoyan murmured. “I know exactly what to do with you.”

When Yun Ruoyan returned to the inn, Xiao Qing was anxiously calling out for people to search for her. The moment she saw Yun Ruoyan, she erupted in anger. “Where were you? Your only responsibility was to stay with A Fei!”

“I’m sorry, Sister Qing. There was such a large crowd that I was pushed away from Sister Fei in the commotion.” Yun Ruoyan lowered her head and wrung her hands, as though she were sincerely apologizing for the incident.

Xiao Qing’s anger quickly dissipated. “Are you hungry? How did you find your way back?”

“I asked bystanders for help,” Yun Ruoyan replied pitifully.

“Alright, we’ll leave it at that,” Madam Hong called out. She spoke to everyone from the second floor of the compound. “Two days from now, we’ll be performing at the Zhang manor, so plan everything out with each other!”

“Yes, Madam Hong,” the women chorused.

After lunch, Yun Ruoyan began choreographing a dance with Xiao Qing. They continued all through the afternoon and even during the evening, after taking a break for dinner. Only when they were both exhausted did they finally return to their quarters to rest.

Despite Yun Ruoyan’s weariness, she couldn’t sleep. She sat by her bed as she waited for Mo’er, who flew through a small crack she had left in the window mere moments later. In its beak was a small spirit crystal, glowing with energy.”

“Good job, Mo’er!” Yun Ruoyan praised.

Yun Ruoyan had tasked Mo’er with sneaking into A Fei’s rooms, knocking her unconscious with its caws, and then borrowing one of her spirit crystals—‘borrowing’ because she intended on returning it after she was done.

After checking that her door and window were tightly locked shut, and that there was no one around, she sat cross-legged in bed and began to cultivate. She had only managed to spy on A Fei for a moment, but wasn’t familiar with her meditation technique. As a result, she could only experiment.

Yun Ruoyan first placed the spirit crystal in front of her and tried to inject her own spiritual energy into it. However, that wasn’t at all effective. Next, she clasped the crystal between her palms and began circulating spiritual energy through both palms and also the crystal between them. Two revolutions later, Yun Ruoyan felt a pure wave of spiritual energy emanating from the crystal. When she released her hand,  that crystal began hovering and looping around her in the same manner as she had seen that morning.

As it did so, it began to give off spiritual energy. So pure was this energy that Yun Ruoyan could directly absorb it into her body with only minor refinement, filling and nourishing her spiritual vortex once more.

The small bottleneck that had plagued Yun Ruoyan for days quickly gave way. Four hours later, when Yun Ruoyan opened her eyes, her spiritual vortex had been filled to the brim. She extended her hand. 

Scarlet Eye, come! 

A scarlet radiance appeared in her hands.

“I’m finally an eighth-rank blademaster again!” Yun Ruoyan breathed out in relief. She could finally pull her own weight...

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