“Spirit beasts won’t disturb us here.”
“Or, if you’d prefer to have me right here, that’s also fine… except the mountain…”
As she spoke, Sakura Lian pressed herself against him, reaching out to help Yun Liu remove his divine robe.
“Stop!”
The hollow, beautiful girl seemed resigned to her fate, following orders without a will of her own. It was heartbreaking.
Yun Liu’s heart clenched as he gripped Sakura Lian’s hand tightly, looking into her eyes.
He understood instantly.
That “surprise” was the first blood of the Divine Servant Maiden—the most supreme Divine Path water in the world.
To completely secure the Heavenly Dao Alchemy Master, the old thief’s methods for winning people over were still as despicable as ever.
Nothing could better inspire a young man than having a Fortune Mother Vessel.
“Are you not here to grant me the favor of Lord Divine Dragon?”
“Of course not!”
Yun Liu hurriedly took off his divine robe and draped it over his junior sister.
This caused a glimmer of light to reappear in the girl’s eyes, as if she recalled some amusing memory.
Once, there was a boy who would help her put on clothes like this…
“I’m here to take you away. From now on, you never have to listen to Yu Shen Longyi again.”
Yun Liu spoke with conviction, cleared his throat, and returned to his original voice.
He figured A Lian would definitely recognize his voice. It would be too delightful.
“Not listen to Lord Longyi? How can that be? Lord Divine Dragon will be angry… Strange, that voice sounds so familiar… Who is it…”
Yu Shen Yinglian tilted her chin, rubbed her temples, and stared blankly at the sky in contemplation.
That stung.
The delicate girl spun around like a dancer, as if she had come alive.
Her fingers formed two little scissors like crab claws beside her ears, her face expressionless, but her emotions were far from calm.
“Just kidding, heh-heh. Big Senior Brother, how did you get here?”
“Not happy to see me? Then I’ll leave?”
“No, no. See how brightly I’m smiling.”
Sakura Lian then raised two thumbs and pressed them to the corners of her mouth, making a smiling expression.
Stiff and wooden, but very cute.
Y(^_^)Y
“Junior Sister, you’ve suffered these days.”
Yun Liu gently embraced Sakura Lian.
She shook her head, staring at her toes as she murmured softly:
“Not really. It’s all because A Lian was greedy. I disobeyed Lord Longyi’s orders and tried to sneak back to the Sea of Clouds, which is why Master got hurt. Is she dead yet?”
She wasn’t dead originally, but hearing this might just kill her.
When it came to the little scatterbrain of Celestial Phenomena Peak, Yan Bingling’s only strong point was the sword way.
Everything else was a blank slate.
Put her at the crossroads of Shenhua Pavilion, and she’d still get lost.
“Looks like she isn’t. What a pity. If that old lady had passed away, Big Senior Brother would become the Head Seat, and I’d be the Senior Sister.”
“Pfft!”
The junior sister said such treasonous words with a perfectly serious voice and expression.
Yun Liu could barely keep a straight face.
Seeing the light return to A Lian’s eyes, he felt relieved.
“I’m here to take you back to revitalize our master’s sect. Happy?”
“Absolutely!”
“Really? Did the old lady get married off, or was she expelled by the Sect Master?”
“About that… you’re now indeed the Senior Sister of Celestial Phenomena Peak. Master hasn’t gotten married yet, but it’s coming soon. The one expelled from the sect is someone else.”
Earth-shattering changes—better to explain on the way back.
On the journey back to Sakura Lake, the girl wrapped in the divine robe jumped into her senior brother’s arms, nuzzling affectionately against his chest, then touched his cheek.
Yun Liu rubbed his nose.
He’d been away from school for only a year, yet the sect had undergone earth-shattering changes.
“Weird feeling. Big Senior Brother, were you always like this? And you dyed your hair yellow. The academy doesn’t allow disciples to perm or be special.”
“It’s my disguise. I fooled Yu Shen Longyi completely. Impressive, right?”
“Really? But I don’t like yellow hair.”
Yun Liu said with a bit of exasperation:
“Deal with it. In front of others, you have to act like before, treating me with utmost respect.”
“Alright, A Lian will listen to Big Senior Brother, as long as you don’t abandon me and run away alone.”
“I won’t. Never.”
Yun Liu swore to heaven.
Fortune could be forfeited, but the evil dragon must die.
He had arrived just in time.
The junior sister hadn’t yet been assimilated by the Divine Tree into a plant person; no branches or leaves had sprouted on her body.
Sakura Lian tugged tightly at Yun Liu’s collar, as if afraid that the young man before her would also be driven away by her future husband, just like her master.
She thought she was hallucinating.
She didn’t want to be Lord Divine Dragon’s wife.
She wanted to return to the Sea of Clouds, to be an immortal who could fly, to practice the sword way with her senior brother, to see the world outside the shrine—not just to drink a bowl of Eastern Pole porridge.
But if she didn’t comply, Lord Longyi said it would invite divine punishment, and her father would die.
Master and senior brother, and the fellow disciples of Divine Splendor Cloud Estate—everyone she cared about would die.
If she had to marry Big Senior Brother, and he was with her, then living in the shrine for a lifetime didn’t seem entirely unacceptable?
So troubling…
Big Senior Brother came to visit her.
That was wonderful!
With her single-track thinking, the girl couldn’t fully grasp the situation.
She only knew that if it were the Misty Sakura Priest, maybe she could leave this place and return home.
The shrine maidens watched as the Misty Sakura Priest carried the disheveled Divine Servant Maiden into the house and ordered no disturbances unless it was important.
They blushed furiously.
“As expected of Lord Shiyu. He tamed Miss Sakura Lian so quickly?”
“Who will be favored next…”
The young shrine maidens secretly hoped to receive the divine dragon’s favor, maybe even leave this place and return home.
Last night, Yun Liu had done plenty of homework and re-planned the escape route, avoiding the Heavenly Cherry Pavilion and the Root Mansion as much as possible.
Ge Lan and Yan Bingling each carried a Phoenix Feather.
They had agreed to meet on a desolate island, regardless of which direction they escaped from, and then take a flying boat to flee.
Dragon Qi permeated the outskirts of the Divine Tree of Yingzhou, and the Sakura Dragon’s pressure was omnipresent.
No one could enter or leave without Yu Shen Longyi’s permission, but the Nine Heavens Phoenix Spirit was unaffected, as had been confirmed a few days prior.
Soon, the Root Mansion would become a battlefield between the Lord of Tianxuan Star and Kaiyang Xing.
When two peak Hegemony Realm cultivators fought, even Yu Shen Longyi couldn’t stop them.
Then, with Madam Starshuo adding fuel to the fire, the Seven Stars of the High Heavens would inevitably fall into chaos.
No one would have the energy to focus on the shrine’s direction.
Because a forged secret letter had already been quietly tossed into the Crimson Sakura Courtyard.
The signature was from Xiao Mei of Luan Ying Hall, addressed to Kaiyang Xing.
She was the most favored concubine among the Lord of Tianxuan Star’s many Dao companions.
This person herself wasn’t important.
What mattered was that she had an old flame: Kaiyang Star Lord Qin Feng.
The two had been carrying on a secret affair for years, giving the Lord of Tianxuan Star a green hat for over a hundred years!
This incident was originally meant to be exposed in the Star Isle arc, stumbled upon by Ji Shiyu, who would cause trouble for fun, making it known to everyone.
The two would then tear off all pretense and fight each other to the skies over a woman, just in time for the Palace of the Heavenly Pivot Star to pick up the scraps.
[The cuckold has left town. I heard he’ll be gone for several days. Finally, I don’t have to see that little sausage. Hurry to our usual spot at Mist Void Mountain. Guess what I found today. That bellyband he gave me—don’t you love it when I wear that two-star ring and call you ‘baby’…]
The handwriting was scrawled and blurry.
Even with Yun’s exceptional divine sense, perfect reproduction of that quest item was impossible, so he embellished many details.
The letter was dropped in front of the room’s door while the Lord of Tianxuan Star was away.
Even if it was riddled with suspicions, given his personality, he absolutely couldn’t tolerate it.
Xiao Mei went to Mist Void Mountain for cultivation every year, and Kaiyang Xing would disappear at the same time.
Combined with marital secrets unknown to outsiders, the Lord of Tianxuan Star would definitely believe it!
This kind of thing—no man could endure it, no matter how high his cultivation.