Late at night, the moonlight poured like water through the window lattice, casting a clear glow.
On the bed, Jiang Huai and Zhu Siyao lay side by side, separated by an invisible boundary that both understood well.
This was the boundary set by Zhu Siyao—neither of them was allowed to cross it.
“Did she really not do anything to you?”
“I’ve seen a lot of explicit statues along the way.” In the silence, Zhu Siyao turned to look at Jiang Huai, who had his eyes closed, resting.
After the chaos in the Secret Realm and the ordeal of today, both of them, still at Foundation Establishment cultivation, wore traces of fatigue across their brows.
Jiang Huai did not lift his eyelids; he simply shook his head slightly and said softly, “No, she didn’t do anything improper to me.”
“This world is strange. Tomorrow, I’ll try to see if I can get out.”
Zhu Siyao fell silent for a moment, then suddenly took out a smooth, jade-like stone from her bosom.
With a slight movement of her fingers, she infused it with Lingli, and a somewhat ethereal but strikingly similar silhouette of herself appeared, repeatedly speaking certain words.
‘Don’t stay in the Blazing Sect… Let him take you to the Nine Heavens Palace.’
‘Listen to your father…’
Zhu Siyao stared at the face so much like her own, then shut off the jade stone and touched the collar around her neck.
Though it looked strange, it was something given to her by her mother.
“Did you really… do that with my mother?” Zhu Siyao tilted her head and asked Jiang Huai.
Jiang Huai was half asleep, half awake, and drowsily nodded.
“Yeah, that.”
Zhu Siyao’s expression instantly shifted in a subtle way, her mind uncontrollably picturing her usually stern and cold yet voluptuous mother pinning this man beneath her.
Long hair scattered wildly, waves of power surging—what kind of expression would Mother have had then? Surely not as cold as usual, right?
She shook her head sharply, trying to dispel these absurd thoughts, but couldn’t help asking further, “Do you know why my mother is so powerful even without Yin Yuan?”
“Do you know who my father is? Why did my mother reject him?”
Zhu Siyao felt she did have a biological father, but her mother had rejected him.
Naturally, Jiang Huai knew the truth behind Zhu Rongxin giving birth to Zhu Siyao. He turned over and muttered,
“You don’t have a father. You never had one.”
At these words, Zhu Siyao glared fiercely, and without hesitation, raised her bare foot and kicked Jiang Huai solidly in the side of his buttocks, muttering under her breath,
“What nonsense are you talking? Don’t say that about my father!”
“How do I not have a father? How did I come to be then?! Stop making things up!”
Jiang Huai, stung by the kick, was instantly fully awake, clutching the sore spot and annoyed:
“Wasn’t it agreed we wouldn’t cross boundaries? Why are you the first to start kicking?”
Zhu Siyao replied with righteous indignation, “You’re the one who insulted me first!”
Jiang Huai was about to argue but then realized this was his own woman and held back, taking a breath.
“I’m going to sleep. You should sleep too.”
Zhu Rongxin had previously instructed him to take good care of Zhu Siyao, so he wouldn’t make a fuss.
Moreover, she bore a face strikingly similar to Zhu Rongxin’s.
Seeing Jiang Huai’s displeased face but choosing to endure, Zhu Siyao quietly withdrew her foot, paused, softened her tone, and tentatively asked, “Are you angry?”
Jiang Huai did not answer, only giving her his back.
Zhu Siyao stopped pressing the matter, turning around and facing the wall, her voice low,
“I’ve already been with my mother, so I won’t entangle with that Sect Master anymore.”
The next morning, faint light filtered through the window lattice.
Jiang Huai woke in a haze, feeling half his body heavy, as if wrapped tightly by something warm.
He drowsily opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Zhu Siyao, who had long since crossed the boundary she had set for herself.
Her loose white night robe was slightly open at the collar, revealing a stretch of smooth, fair shoulder, delicate and dazzling.
A long leg shamelessly crossed over, pressing against his waist—a domineering sleeping posture.
What caught Jiang Huai’s gaze most sharply was the vibrant Spirit Sword Pattern glowing on the tender inner side near her thigh joint.
“Really, you’re just like your mother,” Jiang Huai said, turning his head to look at Zhu Siyao’s peaceful sleeping face.
Her profile, so much like Zhu Rongxin’s, and this unguarded, even slightly overbearing sleeping posture were exactly the same as her mother’s.
Zhu Siyao mumbled faintly in her sleep, tossing over halfway but still unwilling to loosen her hold.
Jiang Huai could only carefully and slowly free himself from her grasp.
After getting up to wash and dress, he decided to immediately seek out Tang Zhaoxue.
However, he did not see Tang Zhaoxue herself.
Instead, a cold-faced female chief disciple with cultivation roughly in the mid Golden Core Stage received him.
The young woman seemed already instructed and asked no questions, merely handing him an icy Profound Iron Token engraved with a complex Instruction Insignia.
“The Master commands that with this token, you may pass freely within the Sect’s Mountain Foot Market and affiliated cities, but you must not go beyond those areas.” The female disciple spoke formally and turned away without another word.
Jiang Huai clenched the token, his heart filled with doubt, but being able to leave was still good.
Returning to the courtyard, he found Zhu Siyao already awake, dressed in red armor bearing a style extremely similar to her mother’s, her hair tied high, radiating both vigor and brightness.
She crossed her arms and eyed the doorway critically, “Where did you go so early in the morning?”
Watching over her mother’s man was her responsibility.
Jiang Huai revealed the token and said succinctly, “Got a token of passage, going to check out the city.”
Zhu Siyao’s eyes lit up, immediately dropping her previous interrogation, eagerly saying, “I’m coming too!”
Both with their own thoughts, they passed out of the Sect smoothly with the token.
Unnoticed by them, two gray figures silently emerged from the shadows behind and quietly followed.
Far away, Tang Zhaoxue watched them and murmured,
“Let’s see what you’re trying to do.”
“Is there really a Great Ascension in this world?”
“If there really is…”
If there truly was, maybe the situation of this world could change a lot, and she could relax a little more.
The city streets bustled, filled with people everywhere, but almost all were women.
Some selling goods at stalls, others hurrying along, or chatting and laughing—men were rarely seen.
Occasionally, a man appeared, but mostly with bowed heads, veiled faces, walking hurriedly with a woman by his side, looking timid and restrained.
Jiang Huai, a striking man with an unusual aura, immediately drew countless gazes—curious, scrutinizing, even scornful and disapproving.
Zhu Siyao felt these looks too, a playful expression crossing her face.
A strange and absurd thought took root in her mind.
What if he were like the men of this world? If there was no going back, then Jiang Huai…
She glanced at Jiang Huai’s profile. If there was no going back, should she take good care of him for her mother?
She certainly couldn’t let Jiang Huai fall into another woman’s arms. That wouldn’t do.
Should she marry him on behalf of her mother? That seemed wrong, awkward even.
Thinking this through, she pulled out a mask from her Storage Bag and handed it to Jiang Huai.
“Put this on quickly! Do you want to be stared at like a monkey?”
Jiang Huai took the mask and wore it, hiding his face.
Zhu Siyao looked him over approvingly, then was distracted by the colorful street food stalls nearby.
She tugged him toward a candy stand, “Look! What kind of candy is that? It looks so strange!”
But as they got closer and saw the shapes of the candies, Jiang Huai’s scalp tingled, and he tensed completely.
Zhu Siyao hurriedly pulled Jiang Huai away, her cheeks flushed red.
That’s enough. How could even the candies be shaped like Jade Clams? This world really has no bottom line.