After leaving the pool, Sima Jiao returned to his residence at White Deer Cliff. He made no effort to dry himself, yet as he walked, the moisture naturally evaporated, as if some flame were burning within him.
His face was gloomy, his brows tightly knitted, and fine bloodshot lines appeared in his pitch-black eyes. White Deer Cliff, usually home to many spiritual beasts, now fell into dead silence. Any creature with spiritual awareness could sense a certain oppression and instinctively remained quiet. The white deer in the mountains lay trembling on the ground, while the white cranes that had been soaring at Cloud Peak descended into the pine forest, not daring to fly again, only gazing from afar at the palace at the center of White Deer Cliff.
Inside the hall, Sima Jiao placed one pale hand on the jade stone floor. Instantly, crimson flames surged from beneath his palm, spreading in all directions. Almost immediately, the solid jade began to melt like ice touching fire. In just moments, a sizable pool dissolved in the center of the jade floor. Standing at the edge of the pool, Sima Jiao stretched out his five fingers toward the window, making a grasping motion in the air. The white mist across White Deer Cliff began to surge and flow, pouring back into the empty pool. As the white mist gathered in the pool, it transformed into ice-cold water emanating chilling air.
Still wearing his clothes, Sima Jiao stepped into the frigid pool water and submerged himself beneath the surface.
In the outdoor flower pool, Liao Tingyan’s singing paused momentarily. She suddenly felt the surrounding temperature rising, and even the white mist that had been hovering over the water surface had diminished significantly. A stagnant silence hung in the air, and the spiritual flowers nearby swayed without wind, dropping many petals onto the water.
She scratched her face and continued bathing and singing. After her bath, she returned to her room to sleep. Truthfully, White Deer Cliff was much more comfortable than the Central Tower. The room’s furnishings were all beautiful, especially the bed, which was particularly comfortable. She just had a small issue with those rose-red bed curtains. Lying on the enormous, luxurious bed that felt like clouds, and then pulling down those exquisite rose-red curtains, she always felt like some garish tart.
Liao Tingyan figured that Big Black Brother had probably had enough to drink for the evening and wouldn’t come over for a midnight snack, so she closed all the doors and windows. Little did she know that in the middle of the night, she would be hazily awakened again—not by Big Black, but by the cold. It was as if someone had pointed an air conditioner vent at her head, literally waking her up with the chill.
It was raining outside. The windows were wide open, as was the door, and someone was lying beside her. Liao Tingyan nearly cried out, almost biting her tongue, because, from the feel of the hair beneath her hand, she realized it was her boss Sima Jiao, who held her life in his hands.
This ancestor had come over at some unknown time and was now lying on her bed as if it were perfectly natural. Though he hadn’t undressed, Liao Tingyan couldn’t help wondering if he had some intentions toward her. Heavens! Sneaking into her bed in the middle of the night—surely he couldn’t be thinking of sleeping with her! She held her breath as she looked at the person lying beside her in the darkness, feeling the cool air around him. He reminded her of frozen pork just taken from the refrigerator, and he seemed like a dead person, which made her feel rather creeped out.
After hesitating for a moment, she stealthily reached out and touched the ancestor’s hand. It was ice cold, and remarkably, he showed no reaction to her touch. She touched him again with still no response. Now Liao Tingyan’s scalp tingled with cold. She half sat up and carefully observed Sima Jiao beside her. His eyes were closed, his face showing a lifeless pallor even in the darkness, and she couldn’t hear any breathing.
Could he be… dead? Liao Tingyan startled at her thought, immediately dismissing it as impossible. Still uncertain, she placed her hand on his chest.
There was a heartbeat—very slow, but present. Thank goodness, he wasn’t dead. Liao Tingyan relaxed, lay back down, retrieved the blanket nearby, and covered herself properly, closing her eyes to resume sleeping.
As she was about to fall asleep, Sima Jiao, who had seemed like a corpse, suddenly spoke: “You’re just going to sleep like this?”
Liao Tingyan jerked awake, cleared her throat, and hesitantly responded, “Does Ancestral Master… want to be covered with the blanket too?”
Sima Jiao: “…”
He didn’t answer but felt the woman beside him pull the blanket over to cover him as well. She waited to see if he had any other reaction, and when she found he remained silent, she assumed everything was fine and prepared to go back to sleep.
Sima Jiao didn’t quite understand. In Gengchen Immortal Manor, everyone feared him—even the venerable Sect Master Shi Qianlü mostly felt uneasy and wary around him, along with a fear he wouldn’t admit to. Yet this person beside him, while seeming afraid of many things, had fears that remained superficial—like an ordinary person startled by a ghost, rather than a deep-seated fear of death.
Her claim to fear dead people wasn’t feigned, yet she could sleep so peacefully beside someone who killed on a whim. It was truly unfathomable. Sima Jiao knew that others found him inscrutable, and similarly, the person beside him seemed equally strange and inscrutable to him.
Tonight he again felt a splitting headache that made him irritable and murderous. With only the two of them on White Deer Cliff, he had come over. Yet standing by the bedside for a long while, watching her sleep obliviously, his boiling killing intent inexplicably dissipated somewhat. Still feeling the headache, he simply lay down beside her. He remembered how before, in the Central Tower, he had managed a rare good sleep lying beside this person.
He had imagined her reaction upon waking—perhaps shocked terror, trembling, unable to sleep again; or like those with ulterior motives in the past, sidling up to him to reveal their inner filthy desires. But he hadn’t expected that she would be startled momentarily, then continue sleeping as if nothing had happened, as if his midnight presence beside her were a perfectly normal occurrence.
Sima Jiao was an unreasonable person, an irritating perfectionist with many flaws. Lying there uncomfortably, he decided to wake Liao Tingyan beside him.
“Get up. No more sleeping.”
Liao Tingyan: …Ancestor, what are you doing? Sleep deprivation easily causes dark circles. Can’t you consider a beauty’s concern for preserving her looks?!
She reluctantly roused herself to deal with this suddenly crazed ancestor. Having mentally labeled him as a lunatic, Liao Tingyan readily accepted whatever he did. Now she sat up unsteadily, drawing a breath to ask this ancestor: “Ancestral Master, is there some problem?”
Sima Jiao: “How can you still sleep?”
Liao Tingyan: “Ah, why couldn’t I sleep?”
Sima Jiao: “I am here.”
Liao Tingyan: “Actually, it’s not that cold with the blanket.”
Looking at his expression, Liao Tingyan belatedly understood his meaning. He meant: “How can you sleep with a murderous maniac like me beside you?!” rather than “How can you sleep with a walking refrigerator like me beside you?”
But this wasn’t the first time. Last time he had used her like a pillow for a night’s sleep—had she said anything? She might have wanted to display some inner conflict, but was it her fault her sleep quality was so good?
In any case, Liao Tingyan couldn’t sleep at all that night. With cultivation so low it was practically nonexistent, unlike the great master Sima Jiao, she was desperately drowsy in the deep night, forced to prop her eyelids open as she sat on the bed staring at him. Big Black Snake Brother came by in the middle of the night for a midnight drink, but upon seeing the two of them—especially seeing Sima Jiao sitting on the bed—he was so frightened that he turned tail and fled, no longer daring to contemplate an extra midnight snack.
The next day, Sima Jiao again went to Lingyan Mountain Platform. This time, Liao Tingyan didn’t forget to bring cushions and an umbrella, but unfortunately, she didn’t need them. A special high platform had been built for the Ancestral Master, Sect Master, and others to observe the battles. It not only had soft couches for sitting and resting but also food. Liao Tingyan noticed something—the food included many of her favorites. Had her preferences been completely figured out after just two meals outside? She was only startled for a moment before honestly sitting down beside Sima Jiao, pretending she hadn’t noticed anything.
As for Sima Jiao, looking at today’s Lingyan Mountain Platform, he suddenly curled his lips in a smile. While in the past, only elite disciples gathered at Lingyan Mountain Platform, today there were many clueless ordinary disciples—sacrificial lambs prepared by various branch leaders for their juniors. What did it matter if a few people died, as long as they weren’t their precious disciples? Their power and authority meant that with just a word, there were plenty of people willing to sacrifice themselves.
Sect Master Shi Qianlü smiled and said to Sima Jiao: “Ancestral Master, will today be the same as yesterday?”
Sima Jiao: “No, today will be a hundred-person death battle.”
Shi Qianlü answered with a “Yes,” his gaze flitting almost imperceptibly over Liao Tingyan sitting beside Sima Jiao, then instructed: “Then let the disciples begin.”
Many of today’s disciples had come from minor branches. He had specifically arranged for numerous Clear Valley Heaven disciples to be among them, and this was a test. Regarding Sima Jiao’s tolerance for having a woman beside him, he harbored some doubts and conjectures. Today’s small test was for Sima Jiao, and also for that seemingly unremarkable junior disciple Liao Tingyan.
This woman could coldly observe others’ life and death situations while following the ruthless Sima Jiao, but he wondered whether she would try to stop Sima Jiao if it came to people she knew, and if she did intervene, how Sima Jiao would react.
While Shi Qianlü was concocting this drama in his mind, unfortunately, Liao Tingyan couldn’t see who was on the platform. She wasn’t the original Liao Tingyan and had only met her master True Immortal Dongyang a few times, let alone others. The closest she might have been to anyone was probably the small servants responsible for receiving guests and the minor stewards managing the warehouse and food at Clear Valley Heaven. Even the original Liao Tingyan, who had lived in seclusion after entering Clear Valley Heaven and rarely interacted with fellow disciples, probably wouldn’t recognize those Clear Valley Heaven disciples below.
As the fighting started below, Liao Tingyan, who hadn’t slept all night, found her eyelids growing increasingly heavy. Before she knew it, she had leaned back on the soft couch and fallen asleep.
Shi Qianlü, who occasionally paid attention to her, saw her gradually sliding down and falling asleep under everyone’s watchful eyes. Sima Jiao naturally attracted attention, and with her beside him, she couldn’t escape notice either. Seeing her slump down, truly asleep, everyone’s expressions became strange. Sima Jiao also stopped watching below and turned to look at her with furrowed brows. The couch they sat on wasn’t very large, and as Liao Tingyan lay there, she automatically found a comfortable sleeping position—with her head pillowed on Sima Jiao’s leg.
The assembled leaders, headed by the Sect Master: “!!!”
Pillowing her head on Daoist Lord Cizang, the great demon king’s leg to sleep—how daring! Truly, ignorance knows no fear. Shi Qianlü’s expression became subtle for a moment as he secretly observed Sima Jiao, waiting to see how he would react. Would he impatiently throw her down the steps, or directly snap her neck? Judging by his expression, impatience seemed more likely. Based on his understanding of Sima Jiao, he should kick her away.
Sima Jiao reached out his hand, pulled out the sleeve that Liao Tingyan was using as a pillow, and then ignored her, allowing her to rest her head on his thigh, neither getting angry nor going crazy. The high-level figures of Gengchen Immortal Manor watched clearly, their astonishment almost breaking through their dignified and refined facades.
It was confirmed—that difficult Ancestral Master, Daoist Lord Cizang, truly had become infatuated with a woman.