Chapter 51

The constant sound of water grew softer after Liuyu spoke those words.

As expected.

What Dansui had told her was true.

— That day, I secretly followed you out. It was the first time I saw the Empress.

— I was afraid of being caught, so I quickly returned to the hunting grounds, but the Lord followed you for a long time, watching you for a long time.

Although Dansui spoke in great detail, Liuyu searched her mind but couldn’t find the complete memory.

“…She’s lying.”

After a moment of silence, the driftwood in the water began to churn, creating waves that seemed to cover up the momentary leakage of her emotions.

But Liuyu would never let go of an opportunity to pry open his mouth.

Her thin undergarment was completely soaked, clinging to her creamy skin, while the hem of her clothes floated like a fish’s tail, gently swaying in the water with her movements.

In the deep waters, the gentle waves slowly eased away his powerful offensive.

Her delicate fingers rested on his chest, sinking deeply into the taut muscles.

“But when she said that… I feel like I do have some kind of impression…”

Mo Lin slightly tilted his head, his throat bulging with emotion.

He didn’t know whether he wanted her to remember or not.

“Was it that demon ghost who bumped into me on the road that day?”

His emerald green eyes met her pure and curious gaze, and Mo Lin bent down, biting her lightly. His serpent-like teeth left a faint red mark on her pale skin that couldn’t even last long enough to be visible.

“Is this the impression you’re talking about?”

Liuyu admitted, “Fine, I was just saying anything, but I treat everyone equally. What you just said about the second young master of Chishui— I really don’t remember…”

He stared at the red mark, seeming to soften. He lightly kissed and licked it, unwilling to hurt her in the slightest.

“Because you’re always surrounded by so many people.”

The fluttering girl.

The charming young man.

Those people surrounded her, laughing and playing without a care in the world.

When she was aloof, they tried to make her happy, and when she smiled, more people raised the atmosphere, hoping to gain her attention.

The golden-dressed girl occasionally cast a glance at her surroundings, but most of the time, her eyes were on the sword’s edge, while the fleeting beauty of the world passed by her gaze and never entered her heart.

Before this arranged marriage—

She had never truly looked at him.

Liuyu remained determined, her wet fingers cupping his face.

“As long as you tell me carefully, I will remember.”

“What do you want me to say?”

His palm cradled her, his eyes indifferent, as if the whole world was now taken up by the girl in front of him.

“Do you want me to talk about how I was as low as mud? About how I struggled and climbed up, looking pathetic, or how I acted like a dog, only wanting to crawl towards you the moment I smelled your scent?”

“I can’t control my desire for you, but at least, you can’t take away this little dignity from me.”

“Liuyu… you can’t treat me like this.”

His thick eyelashes trembled, and the corners of his eyes flickered with a trace of crimson. Through those eyes, cold and moss-like, Liuyu seemed to see the great fire after death in her previous life.

The figure in the soaring ghostly flames was as ferocious as a wild beast, howling and mercilessly slaughtering.

Blood sprayed from his broken veins, and the blood tears that surged from his eyes floated in the twisted air, evaporating in an instant.

Many faces familiar to Liuyu swayed in the fire. Some fled in panic, while others tried to subdue this sudden mad monster.

The broken monster howled in the flames:

“Return her to me!”

“Return my wife to me!!”

Countless familiar faces turned into blurry shadows.

In that moment.

Liuyu only saw him.

Just him.

She was about to say something when suddenly, they both noticed footsteps approaching from outside.

And it was a practitioner from the Seventh Realm.

“Who is inside?”

A female servant outside the door replied:

“It’s Miss Lingzhao’s new recruit for today. Seems like they have some talent, so she’s bringing them back to cultivate, but they need to bathe and rest first.”

Yan Wushu suddenly remembered. He had handled some matters for Jiufang Shaogeng, so he hadn’t accompanied Zhongli Lingzhao around the estate during the day. When he arrived, he heard that Zhongli Lingzhao had picked out a young man from the estate to accompany her.

Now, in the Zhongli family, Miss Lingzhao had risen above many of her older sisters.

This young man was just a country bumpkin. For him to be chosen was like a carp leaping over the dragon gate.

What good luck.

Yan Wushu glanced at the door, his gaze suddenly sharpening.

It was too quiet.

If they were bathing and resting, why was there no sound of water at all?

Yan Wushu, naturally suspicious and cautious, couldn’t ignore the slightest anomaly. He had already placed his fingers on the door.

Splash—

The sounds of water, candlelight crackling, and breathing echoed through the door.

His fingers, about to push the door open, paused.

…Perhaps they were holding their breath underwater.

Everyone has some strange habits, and this was still within reason.

Yan Wushu thought for a moment. If even Zhongli Lingzhu was impressed by such talent, that person’s future might indeed be bright. There was no need to leave a bad impression if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

With this in mind, Yan Wushu turned and asked,
“How long has he been inside?”

The maid replied,
“Just… about half an hour. Miss Lingzhu just went to a banquet, so it seems she plans to meet him after the banquet ends.”

Half an hour, that’s quite a long time.

The maid glanced at the young man with a refined appearance and whispered,
“Miss Lingzhu seems a bit displeased with you helping the young master of the Jiufang family today. When you meet Miss Lingzhu later, it would be best to reassure her.”

Only then did Yan Wushu look at the maid properly.

The maids of the Zhongli family were all slaves and could not practice cultivation, and even though they spent every day with the nobility, they would forever remain slaves.

But there was one benefit: they were very well-informed.

So Yan Wushu cupped his hands and said,
“Thank you for the reminder, I will take note of it.”

Yan Wushu.

Wushu.

—Yan Wushu.

Inside the inner room, Mo Lin immediately remembered the name that both Yue Niang and Liuyu had mentioned.

The one who had severely injured Liuyu and secretly kept her portrait.

The footsteps faded.

The sound was once again tightly enclosed.

The calm water surface suddenly stirred with fierce waves, and Liuyu’s disordered breathing and heartbeats that seemed about to leap from her throat were swallowed by Mo Lin all at once.

Liuyu’s scalp tingled.

Just now, the person had been right outside, and yet he hadn’t stopped completely.

Now that the person had left, he was even more relentless.

“It will be soon,” he said in a deep voice, as though he had guessed what Liuyu was going to say, “You’re too nervous. I can’t help but speed things up.”

Having been interrupted like this, Liuyu forgot what she had originally wanted to say. Instead, she focused on him and said,
“I never thought there would come a day where you’d teach me to read.”

Mo Lin looked at the flushed cheeks on her face and asked softly,
“Read what?”

“The four characters ‘bold and audacious’.”

“…”

After changing the water, they both cleaned up quickly. Liuyu casually dried her hair and then snatched the clothes Mo Lin had dried for her, changing quickly. Afterward, she said to him,
“Since you’ve already suffered this injustice, why not also find out when they plan to leave? Once the time comes, I’ll definitely bring people to rescue you.”

Mo Lin crossed his arms and tilted his head to observe her.

She spoke as though it was a casual promise, like a scholar who after a night’s affair, casually promised to redeem the person later.

“Wait.”

Liuyu turned her head, and he grabbed her wrist, flipping her hand over to place something slightly warm in it.

It was a small cluster of ghostly flames.

“This is the Qing Huo Order. Any command from the Nine Netherworlds will only be valid if it bears my Qing Huo Order.”

He held her fingers, guiding the important flame into her meridians, leading her to swallow it into her energy sea.

“Miss Zhongli has eight-level experts around her. For safety’s sake, I will try not to use qi. Until your lady comes to rescue me, the soldiers and generals are in your hands.”

The light and intense Qing Huo flame danced in Liuyu’s palm, glowing like fireflies from a distance.

But this flame had the power to command an army of thousands.

Liuyu’s porcelain-like face was illuminated by the ghostly fire, and the firelight seemed to flicker in her apricot eyes.

She knew what the Qing Huo Order was.

In her past life, when she was gathering intelligence at the Lingtai, she had learned about it.

But she never imagined that one day, the demon lord who had once guarded the Nine Netherworld’s core authority so closely, would personally hand over the Qing Huo Order, which represented his power, to her.

If she had ill intentions, she could now turn back to the Nine Netherworlds and use the Qing Huo Order to overthrow his reign.

How daring of him.

How dare he hand such a thing to a person from Da Chao, a woman from an immortal family?

It was… ridiculously naive.

Liuyu tucked the Qing Huo Order away and, when her gaze met his, she suddenly rose on her toes and kissed his dry lips.

Though they had just shared a passionate kiss, this kiss still left Mo Lin stunned for a moment, his heart pounding like a drum.

Liuyu jumped up to the beam, turned around, and smiled at him,
“Be careful, and if you’re bullied, I’ll back you up.”

In the blink of an eye, her figure disappeared into the bright moonlight.

Mo Lin stood by the window, faint veins showing under the pale skin on his hand. After lightly tapping his fingers twice, he lifted his other hand and gently touched the spot where she had kissed him.

He had once heard people say, “To die under the peony flower is to die a romantic death,” but he had never paid it any mind.

Today, experiencing it himself, he realized—

It was no joke.

—-

The evening darkened

The estate managers were busy preparing for a banquet to entertain the nobles, so the management was lax, and both demons and humans in the estate had gone to rest early.

Liuyu walked along the path, feeling many sympathetic gazes.

The demoness’s words confirmed Liuyu’s guess.

“…Even we heard that someone has attached themselves to Miss Zhongli and is about to rise in power. They say the first thing such a man does when he rises is to get a new wife.”

Under the cover of night, Yue Niang, who had sneaked in to deliver the Qi Ling Butterfly, immediately said,
“What rise in power? Those fools don’t know that getting attached to Miss Liuyu is the real rise to power!”

Although Nan Gongjing had always taught Liuyu not to listen to the gossip of her subordinates, and that harsh advice was usually true, Liuyu, even in her second life, still enjoyed hearing the gossip and disliked facing subtle criticisms.

“That’s right, here’s a gold ingot for you.”

Yue Niang blinked and reached out to take Liuyu’s “gold ingot”—which was actually a gold ingot made of dry straw, something Liuyu had learned to make yesterday.

“By the way, when I went to find Mo Lin earlier, I happened to discover that your brother, Yan Wushu, also followed Zhong Li Lingzhao here. Be careful when you go back today, don’t let him run into you.”

Currently, the entire estate is under Liuyu’s control.

However, according to the information from the mountain demon, aside from Zhong Li Lingzhao and Jiu Fang Shao Geng, there are three other eighth-level experts in the main residence—Xiang Li Shen is not particularly concerning, after all, he practices the farming way.

Because of this, even though Liu Yu has already deployed five hundred demons on the estate and weakened Xiang Li Clan’s manpower, she still does not plan to launch an attack unless absolutely necessary.

After all the trials in her previous life, even if Liu Yu is proud or impulsive, she should have learned her lesson.

Yue Niang looked surprised, then nodded rapidly after processing the information.

But why would her brother be with someone from the Zhong Li family?

Liu Yu didn’t explain but turned to the ghost girl.

“Tell me more about Xiang Li Hualian and her brother.”

The ghost girl then relayed the information she gathered from the mountain demon, which she had learned after sneaking into the main house.

It turns out that Xiang Li Hualian was from a distant branch of the Xiang Li Clan. Both her parents had passed away. Her older brother had some skills, but she was truly talented, a genius. Therefore, Xiang Li Shen brought her from the side branch and carefully trained her.

Last year, Xiang Li Hualian’s older brother suddenly passed away under mysterious circumstances.

However, according to gossip in the mansion, it was likely that Xiang Li Hualian used him as a test subject and caused his death through experimental poisoning.

Liuyu frowned upon hearing this: “They were full-blood siblings?”

The ghost girl nodded.

“Siblings would go that far?”

This was incomprehensible to Liuyu.

She was the only daughter of Nan Gong Jing and Yin Shan Ze. Her family was powerful, and even if there were conflicts among siblings, they were trivial matters that never escalated to the point of life-threatening violence.

But Yue Niang, hearing this, said:

“Why wouldn’t they? The imperial family fights for the throne, the villagers fight for land. For their own interests, people will even fight their family members to the death.”

When the little girl said this, her dark eyes were fixed on Liu Yu, like some small beast.

Liuyu suddenly smiled:

“So, would you do the same?”

Yue Niang stared steadily at Liu Yu, worried that Liu Yu might think her words childish, so she deliberately slowed her speech and spoke with firm conviction.

“I would.”

When their family tested her brother’s talents, they hired cultivators to come to their home. The cultivators said that with her brother’s talents, if he didn’t practice in Ling Yong, it would be a waste, so her father was ecstatic and used all the family’s wealth to plan a path for her brother’s studies.

But the cultivators also told her father that his young daughter had talents equal to her brother’s, and if well-trained, they could both excel.

However, for ordinary families like theirs to enter the Immortal Path was costly. Supporting two people, while not entirely impossible, was still a huge burden.

Her brother persuaded their father, but Yue Niang, as he was leaving, clutched his clothes tightly, silently protesting.

When her brother turned back, he flicked her forehead with his finger and laughed:

“Bringing glory to the family, avenging our mother, that’s something your brother can do. You stay at home and wait for a good life.”

When Yue Niang grew older, she realized something.

Since her talent was superior to her brother’s, why couldn’t she be the one to bring glory to the family? Why couldn’t she be the one to avenge their mother?

From childhood, her brother had never given her a chance.

This time, she absolutely wouldn’t let him have it.

Liu Yu didn’t know these details, but seeing Yue Niang’s cold, iron-like gaze, she smiled and rubbed her head.

“Good girl.”

If Xiang Li Hualian was truly ruthless enough to sacrifice her own brother for power, Liu Yu would have even more ways to use her.

After the meeting, Liu Yu personally saw Yue Niang off from the estate.

It was a rare opportunity for the two to be alone. Besides praising Liuyu and spreading gossip, Yue Niang also tentatively asked about Liu Yu’s relationship with her brother.

After all, she had seen the portraits herself. Though Yue Niang was young, she understood a lot.

“I don’t know him. Who knows what’s wrong with your brother, he’s kind of disgusting.”

Liuyu’s attitude now was in stark contrast to her previous attitude toward Mo Lin.

When something like that happens between two people who love each other, it can be considered romantic, but when it happens with a stranger, it’s just horrifying.

Yue Niang, who was quick to read the room, immediately nodded.

“Mm, I agree! My brother is really disgusting! He doesn’t deserve it!”

Though she said this, Yue Niang couldn’t help but sigh in regret inside.

It turns out Liu Yu didn’t even know who her brother was. Her brother was useless. If her brother were the Demon Lord, wouldn’t that mean she’d rise to the top along with him…

While Yue Niang was lost in her thoughts, Liuyu suddenly lowered her voice.

“Keep walking, don’t look back. Your master is waiting for you in the woods a mile to the right.”

Upon hearing the serious tone, Yue Niang didn’t dare question it and immediately did as Liu Yu instructed.

But she couldn’t resist asking:

“What’s going on?”

“You still dare to ask?”

Liuyu ground her teeth and glanced back.

“Your disgusting brother must have recognized you by now.”

Fifty steps behind them.

Yan Wushu was silently following them through the night.

It wasn’t that he recognized Yue Niang, but he had just handed the portrait of her to a subordinate. This subordinate had some connections and, with enough money, it shouldn’t be a problem to track down the whereabouts of a child.

Who knew, within less than a stick of incense, the subordinate had said they’d seen a girl who resembled the one in the portrait at the estate.

Though Yan Wushu found it a bit coincidental, he thought for a moment. His sister was always quite crafty, and it wouldn’t be impossible for her to hide under the Xiang Li Clan, which had just taken Taiping City.

Taking advantage of the fact that Zhongli Lingzhao’s banquet hadn’t yet ended, he quickly followed after.

Sure enough, he saw the little girl the attendant had mentioned.

But before he could take a closer look, the figure turned a corner.

Yan Wushu was about to follow, but he noticed that the woman who had been walking with the little girl separated from her at the corner and was now heading back.

“Ah—”

Liuyu, who bumped into Yan Wushu, displayed just the right amount of surprise.

Since it was dark, along with her surprise, there was also a hint of wariness and caution on her face.

She inwardly cursed the man for being crazy and purposely standing here, waiting for her to bump into him, but on the surface, she still cautiously spoke, her voice soft.

“Sorry, it’s too dark, I really didn’t notice you… Are you alright?”

He was most likely standing here to ask about the little girl she had been with.

Liuyu waited for him to inquire about Yue Niang’s identity.

But unexpectedly, after waiting for a while, the man just stood there staring at her, silent as a mute.

Liuyu had a bad feeling about this.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way…”

The young man in dark clothes suddenly stretched out his hand, blocking Liuyu’s path.

Without warning, he suddenly stared at Liuyu’s ear and said:

“Your ear shape… It’s a bit like someone I know.”

“Yinshan Liuyu, is that you?”