Qin Yibu stepped forward and, without any explanation, pulled the still-heat-ridden Shen Mo into his arms.
The force was so great it nearly kneaded him into his body.
“Wait here.”
In Qin Shuying’s hand, the spiritual sword let out a sharp clang as it was fully drawn.
Spiritual light surged around her, and she truly seemed ready to disregard everything and strike here.
The sword’s light illuminated her face, brimming with killing intent.
She lifted her gaze toward the gate of the Moon Embrace Pavilion.
Candlelight flickered inside the gate.
Shen Mo lunged forward and grabbed her arm that held the sword.
He could feel the terrifying power within that arm, enough to split mountains and crack stones, but he couldn’t let go.
“Peak Master Qin! Don’t go! Listen to me! Nothing happened between me and her!”
He paused. “And… the person inside is Chu Yi!”
That name made Qin Shuying freeze abruptly.
She turned her head sharply, shock filling her eyes.
Chu Yi?
The rebellious yet beloved daughter of her master, whose strength and background were both unfathomable?
How did Shen Mo get involved with her?
“Go back. On the child talisman, write down everything that happened tonight without missing a word.”
With that, she walked toward the direction of the Heaven Sector, where the Jade Fragrance Garden’s lodging was.
The night was deep, but the clamor within the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion had not completely subsided.
From afar came the faint sounds of strings and laughter, making the Human Sector—a cluster of courtyards for ordinary guests, servants, or low-level cultivators—feel even more desolate.
Compared to the luxury of the Heaven Sector and the elegance of the Earth Sector, this was just a few rows of simple bamboo and wood cottages, sparsely furnished, with thin spiritual energy.
Shen Mo pushed open the wooden door of his assigned guest room. A faint musty smell mixed with the scent of cheap incense hit him.
Inside the room was only a bed, a table, a chair, and a wooden stand with a copper basin for washing. Nothing else.
The candle flame was the size of a bean, and the light was dim, casting his shadow long and thin.
He closed the door behind him, leaned against the wooden door panel, dropped all his defenses, and slumped to the ground.
The cold from the floor seeped through the Moonlit Gauze Skirt, but he didn’t notice.
He took out the child talisman and recounted the whole story from start to finish.
At the end, he added, “Peak Master Qin, Shen Mo knows he was wrong. He acted on his own and nearly caused trouble. I leave the punishment to you. But please believe me, I had no other intentions, nor did I break my promise to you. It was all for the Dragon Marrow Liquid. From now on, I will never act on my own again. I will follow all your instructions.”
After sending the message, he used up his last bit of strength and buried his head in his knees.
Meanwhile, in the Heaven Sector, within an independent courtyard with dense spiritual energy and elegant furnishings.
Qin Shuying sat cross-legged on the jade bed in the quiet room, her eyes slightly closed, her sword energy restrained, and was adjusting her breathing.
However, the slightly furrowed brow between her eyes showed that her mind was not at ease.
A faint spiritual light flickered at her fingertips, and she briefly replied on the mother talisman:
“I see. Stay put and don’t cause any more trouble.”
……
In the Human Sector, the simple guest room.
Shen Mo let out a long, trembling sigh.
After a night of terror, he finally dared to breathe a little.
He stood up, intending to go to the wooden stand to wash his face with cold water to clear his head.
But just as he turned and took a single step—
Creak…
A sound of a wooden window being pried came from behind him!
Shen Mo’s hair stood on end.
This guest room only had a high window facing the quiet alley behind. It hadn’t been fully latched for ventilation, but he had wedged it shut with a wooden peg before sleeping!
How could…
He turned in horror!
The wooden window had been silently pushed open a crack.
A figure in a night suit, lithe but with a dark aura, slipped in through the window like a ghost, landing softly without making a sound.
The newcomer seemed familiar with the room’s layout. Her gaze swept quickly through the darkness and precisely locked onto Shen Mo at the door.
Her face was covered with a black cloth, leaving only a pair of eyes that glowed in the dim candlelight, full of amusement.
Shen Mo recognized those eyes.
It was Pei Yu!
She had sneaked in in the dead of night?
Had she been following him all along?
Pei Yu pulled down her face mask, leaned against the doorframe, keeping one hand in a wall-banging pose, while the other casually toyed with a blue jade talisman.
“Sister Shen, a child talisman is meant to be hidden in the sleeve. Holding it out in the open—are you afraid I wouldn’t notice?”
Shen Mo didn’t even see how she moved.
A flash of crimson, and the child talisman he had been clutching in his palm was already in her hand.
Pei Yu weighed the jade talisman, examining it carefully under the dim candlelight.
“That woman Chu Yi really splurged, giving you even a personal item like this? Looks like she’s quite invested in you…” Her tone was gritted with jealousy and the shame of having her love interest snatched away.
Shen Mo staggered backward.
At least Chu Yi had a clear identity and predictable actions.
But Pei Yu—this unrestrained, unpredictable woman—sneaking into his room late at night, what did she want to do?
“Miss Pei, you’ve drunk too much. Go back and rest. Tomorrow—”
“I haven’t drunk too much.”
Pei Yu cut him off. “Shen-girl, I like you. I liked you from the first glance. Do you know that after you left, I kept thinking—thinking about your face, your eyes, the things you said. I thought for a long time, but I couldn’t figure out why you wouldn’t come with me.”
Shen Mo’s throat tightened.
“Later, I figured it out. You didn’t come with me because you weren’t sure if I was serious. That’s fine. I can prove it to you.”
“F-Fellow Daoist Pei…” His voice trembled badly, and his hands instinctively shielded his chest. “Please, leave first… This is my room…”
Pei Yu was already standing right in front of him.
She leaned down, and her breath, hot and laced with alcohol, brushed against his face.
“I’m not leaving. Earlier, that ugly woman ruined my fun. I was really pissed off, but I kept thinking about you and couldn’t let you go…”
Her gaze roamed recklessly over Shen Mo’s panicked face, then fell on his open collar (somewhat loose from his earlier fall and struggle) and the slender, pale neck beneath. Her eyes darkened.
Shen Mo tried to avoid her touch, but she easily pressed his shoulder with her other hand, trapping him between the wall and herself.
“Don’t be scared,” Pei Yu’s voice grew softer, but carried an unyielding force. “Your big sister came tonight just to get to ‘know’ you properly, and also… to collect a little interest for being abandoned by me during the day.”
She slowly leaned in, her red lips almost touching Shen Mo’s bloodless lips, which were slightly parted in fear. Her eyes burned with a lustful determination.
The candle flame, shaken by the draft from Pei Yu’s entry, flickered violently, casting their overlapping shadows distortedly on the mottled wall, like clawing ghosts.
“F-Fellow Daoist Pei… This isn’t proper…”
“Proper?” Pei Yu chuckled softly. “In this Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion, I am the proper.”
Her fingertip traced the outline of Shen Mo’s brows and eyes, her gaze infatuated and focused.
“You little heartless one. Not only did you choose Chu Yi, but you also let her humiliate me like that… I’m going to have to settle that score with you properly.”
As she spoke, she raised her other hand to wrap around Shen Mo’s waist.
“Your big sister came to you on her own initiative. If you keep making excuses, don’t blame me for getting angry…”
She said this, then bent down, her red lips descending slowly with a scorching heat.
Her other hand also began to wander restlessly over his back.
Through the Moonlit Gauze Skirt, she felt the slender and flexible waistline beneath.
“Tonight, your big sister won’t let you off easily. I’ll make sure your eyes and heart only see me.”
Shen Mo pushed desperately against Pei Yu’s shoulders, making broken sobbing sounds from his throat. “No… don’t! Fellow Daoist Pei! Let go! Please!”
But his strength was like a mayfly trying to topple a tree before Pei Yu.
Instead, his struggling only excited her more.
The lust in her eyes grew thicker, and her movements became bolder, sliding swiftly down his waistline, aiming directly for…
“Mmph!”
Shen Mo’s whole body shook violently, as if doused with ice water!
Just as Pei Yu’s hand was about to touch the most secret and fatal part of his lower body, he unleashed an unprecedented strength, clamping his legs together and arching his body with all his might.
“Heh, still shy?” Pei Yu chuckled, thinking he was putting on the usual coy act of women, and her desire to conquer grew even stronger.
She increased the force in her hand, forcibly trying to push aside Shen Mo’s protective hands and continue her downward exploration.
He knew that once discovered, everything was over!
His nails dug into the flesh of Pei Yu’s arm.
Pei Yu frowned, a flicker of impatience in her eyes.
She channeled a bit of spiritual power, easily shaking off his futile defense, and with scorching heat, her hand shot down like lightning, plunging between… through the thin fabric of his undergarments, and grabbed—
Grabbed.
Grabbed that which should never appear on a peerless immortal maiden—a male, though not overly large, clearly discernible…
Bulge.
Time froze in that moment.
The air turned instantly dead silent.
Pei Yu’s expression stiffened.
Those eyes that always flowed with flirtatious laughter were now wide and round.
Pei Yu’s entire being felt like it had been struck by a thunderbolt. Her mind exploded with a boom.
She jerked her hand back as if she had grabbed the most terrifying, bizarre insect.
Her original intention had been to see the aloof beauty break and beg in her palm.
Little had she expected that it would be herself who broke…
Pei Yu staggered backward as if electrocuted.
“M-Male?!”
‘How is this possible?! This face! This figure! This temperament! This… this was clearly the peerless fellow immortal maiden I fell for at first sight, who made me itch with desire, for whom I risked sneaking in late at night to steal a kiss! How could it be… a man?!’
‘A wave of absurdity, the shame of being fooled, and a sense of world-shattering collapse washed over me. I feel like a complete fool!’
‘I, the renowned Pei Yu, a romantic figure in the area of Jade Fragrance Garden, who has seen countless beauties, have actually… been tricked by a man disguised as a woman?!’
‘And I fell for him at first sight?!’
‘And I even competed with Chu Yi for him?!’
She straightened up and sat on the edge of the bed.
Forlornly, she looked at her own hand.
That hand was still trembling. The thing she had touched just now still left an indescribable sensation on her fingertips.
She lifted her head and looked at Shen Mo.
It was a face that was panicked yet still stunningly beautiful.
Her eyes held tears, widened in fright, nose red—still a stunningly beautiful woman’s appearance, even with her heavy breath soft and delicate from the intense movement just now.
But…
Pei Yu’s gaze shifted downward.