On her way back, Liao Tingyan saw Sima Jiao. He stood amidst a patch of crimson flowers, his pitch-black silhouette resembling an evil ghost wandering in the deep night. Those flowers were of an unknown variety, with an extremely rich fragrance that felt suffocating after prolonged exposure, making it impossible to detect any other scent.

Liao Tingyan called out from a distance of seven meters: “Ancestral Master? You haven’t gone to sleep yet?” She found the atmosphere quite reminiscent of a ghost story and worried that when he turned around, he might have no face.

Sima Jiao turned, crushing a red flower in his hand, his face perfectly normal.

Liao Tingyan noticed he seemed to enjoy casually crushing things, like flowers, fruits, and… people’s heads.

“You’re already at the Nascent Soul stage, yet you still need sleep?” He walked over, stepping on those beautiful flowers without any regard.

Liao Tingyan earnestly told her boss: “Sleep isn’t necessary, but I want to sleep. Food isn’t necessary, but I want to eat.”

Sima Jiao: “You’re very strange.” He carelessly tossed the crushed flower at his feet.

Too kind, not as strange as you.

Liao Tingyan thought of the earlier encounter and tried asking: “Did the Ancestral Master hear everything just now? Then you also know my identity?”

Sima Jiao: “I’ve known for a long time. No one can hide anything from me.”

But I still don’t know myself. Liao Tingyan tried asking: “What is my identity, according to you?”

“You came to kill me.” Sima Jiao moved closer to her, his finger brushing across her lips. “Should I kill you or not?”

How was she supposed to answer that? If he killed her now, wouldn’t yesterday’s rescue have been in vain? Just thinking about it gave her a headache—what was all this about? And could he please remove his finger before speaking?

“What are you thinking?” Sima Jiao’s eyes had a hint of red.

Liao Tingyan: “Your hand touched the flower earlier without washing and now it’s on my lips.” Such a straightforward answer indicated she was under a truth-telling effect.

Sima Jiao turned off the truth-telling effect, not wanting to hear more such atmosphere-breaking honesty. He continued pressuring her like a true villain: “Should I kill you or not?”

Liao Tingyan took a breath: “I don’t think you should.”

Sima Jiao: “Oh, why not?”

Liao Tingyan: “I’ve already abandoned darkness for light, and now I’m on the Ancestral Master’s side.”

Sima Jiao’s attention caught on an odd point: “I am the light?”

Liao Tingyan immediately changed her words: “I’ve already abandoned light for darkness.”

Sima Jiao: “You change your tune quite quickly.” It was amusing—when comparing himself to the Demon Realm, who was light and who was darkness was truly hard to determine.

“Just now, you were utterly useless, unable to handle even a Yuan Ying cultivator,” Sima Jiao suddenly mentioned.

Liao Tingyan now understood who had sent that ‘ex-boyfriend’ flying.

“Yes, I thought so too.” She displayed a fake smile: “I’m certainly no match for the Ancestral Master’s power.” Bah! After being a Nascent Soul cultivator for just one day, nobody could immediately master all the skills for fighting!

Sima Jiao stared at her fake smile, then suddenly smiled himself, grabbing her hand and dragging her back the way they came. “Kill a few more people and you’ll get used to it.”

Liao Tingyan was frightened by him. “Where are we going?!”

“Of course, I’m taking you to kill people. I became this powerful by killing many people.” He said sinisterly.

Liao Tingyan immediately knelt, sitting on the ground. “I won’t go.”

Sima Jiao tugged at her hand like a mother dragging a stubborn child on the street. “Get up.”

Liao Tingyan: “No, I don’t want to kill people.”

Sima Jiao: “What if I insist you kill?”

Liao Tingyan lay down right there. “Then you might as well kill me.”

Sima Jiao’s expression darkened. “Do you truly think I won’t kill you?”

Honestly, Liao Tingyan felt he wouldn’t because she didn’t sense any danger. Anyway, she wouldn’t go kill people. This ancestor could do whatever he wanted—she couldn’t control him—but she was different. Things she didn’t want to do, she wouldn’t do even if it meant death.

Sima Jiao quite wanted to slap her dead. In the past, if anyone dared speak to him this way, they would be dead the next second. Unlike her, who still had a fearless demeanor. He raised his hand, then lowered it, and finally picked up Liao Tingyan entirely.

“Let’s talk this through calmly, don’t be rash.” Liao Tingyan discovered the ancestor had carried her high into the air and began to panic, instinctively hugging his waist.

Sima Jiao ignored her, spotting a White Goose Flying Pavilion passing by in the distance, and reached out to grab it.

That White Goose Flying Pavilion belonged to Yuan Chuhui, the daughter of the Moon Palace Master. This heaven’s pride was a well-known little tyrant in Gengchen Immortal Manor, habitually arrogant and domineering. Her mother, the Moon Palace Master, indulged her every whim, which allowed this young woman to behave tyrannically throughout Gengchen Immortal Manor, with everyone catering to her.

When she wanted a pavilion that could fly through the sky, the Moon Palace Master ordered her disciples to search everywhere for top-grade refining materials, then commissioned the only Heavenly-level Artifact Refiner to create this treasure pavilion for her daughter—rich in spiritual energy with astonishing defensive capabilities.

Yuan Chuhui had always enjoyed staying in this flying pavilion, having people perform songs and dances for her, and often taking her female friends on joy rides. Recently, due to the matter of Daoist Lord Cizang’s emergence, the Moon Palace Master had repeatedly cautioned her daughter to avoid Daoist Lord Cizang at all costs.

But Yuan Chuhui was different from others. She felt that since Daoist Lord Cizang was of a high generation and cultivation, despite his notorious reputation, she greatly admired and looked up to him. Therefore, these past two days, she often had her flying pavilion linger near White Deer Cliff, hoping for a chance encounter with this mysterious ancestral master.

Today was no different. She sat by the window on the second floor of the flying pavilion, gazing at White Deer Cliff in the moonlight, her mind completely absent from the singing and dancing behind her. Beside her sat a junior sister disciple with whom she had a good relationship, often playing together.

At this moment, that junior sister was speaking to her about Daoist Lord Cizang: “I heard that day when Daoist Lord Cizang was watching the disciples duel at Cloud Rock Mountain Platform, that Liao Tingyan was even resting her head on his lap. Everyone saw it in public. Such lack of self-respect—she must be ignorant of proper conduct.”

Yuan Chuhui became impatient upon hearing Liao Tingyan’s name and threw her paper-thin precious jade cup outside in anger. “Enough, I don’t want to hear about her. How could someone like Daoist Lord Cizang take notice of such a minor disciple? It’s truly incomprehensible!”

Just as she spoke, she felt her White Goose Flying Pavilion suddenly flying toward White Deer Cliff.

“Senior Sister Yuan, please don’t be angry. Stop quickly—Master instructed us not to approach White Deer Cliff,” the junior sister also felt the pavilion getting closer and closer to White Deer Cliff, assuming it was Young Lady Yuan Chuhui’s temper acting up again, and immediately cautioned carefully.

Yuan Chuhui’s face paled. “It’s not me! I can’t control the pavilion anymore. What’s happening?!”

The junior sister let out a piercing scream: “Ah! Over there, that’s…!”

Sima Jiao had pulled the ostentatious pavilion into White Deer Cliff’s territory, then entered the pavilion carrying Liao Tingyan. The pavilion’s defensive capabilities seemed nonexistent to him, and Yuan Chuhui, who controlled this spiritual device, couldn’t struggle at all before losing control.

She and her junior sister, along with a roomful of serving slaves and entertainers—singing girls and musicians—were all startled by the sudden event, especially seeing Sima Jiao enter directly through the second-floor window with Liao Tingyan. Everyone stared at them blankly, unsure how to react.

“Daoist Lord… Cizang?!” Yuan Chuhui exclaimed excitedly.

Sima Jiao kicked this enthusiastic fan out the window with one foot.

Yuan Chuhui: “Ahhh—”

Having kicked out the pavilion’s owner, he bundled up the rest and threw them out as well, beyond White Deer Cliff’s boundaries, then confined Liao Tingyan alone in the White Goose Flying Pavilion, telling her: “You stay here alone and reflect properly. You can come out when you’ve finished reflecting.”

The beautiful White Goose Flying Pavilion hovered above White Deer Cliff, with only Liao Tingyan left inside.

Liao Tingyan: “Eh?” Wasn’t this the flying pavilion carried by white geese she had seen before? She had been so envious and wanted to see it up close! Had her dream come true?

This White Goose Flying Pavilion was indeed worthy of the Moon Palace Master’s wholehearted creation for her beloved daughter—exquisite in every detail. Besides a small building, there was also a garden courtyard. When the flying pavilion floated in the air, it was close to the bright moon in the sky, as if one could touch it by stretching out a hand. Sitting by the second-floor window, one could overlook the flowing lights of Gengchen Immortal Manor below—truly the best place for night viewing.

She liked it here and wouldn’t mind living here forever. On the second floor, there was still plenty of food and wine prepared for Yuan Chuhui, which now benefited Liao Tingyan.

So, had that ancestor truly confined her here for reflection? Letting her enjoy the peaceful moonlight and good food alone, and have a beautiful sleep?

She really couldn’t understand his thought process.

She happily toured the small building up and down, discovered a hot spring, took a bath, changed into a dress, and ran to the terrace to lie down and appreciate the moon.

“Ah—the moonlight is so beautiful—”

It was more enjoyable to lie quietly by oneself like this.

The next day, the Patriarch of the Yuan family from the Yuan Mei lineage of the Four Seasons Palace arrived at White Deer Cliff carrying the corpse of his eighteenth son, Yuan Shang. He encountered the Moon Palace Master, who came with a cold face to demand justice for her daughter, and the Sect Leader Shi Qianlü, who brought along True Immortal Dong Yang of Clear Valley Heaven Cave to pay respects to the ancestral master.

“Sect Leader, my son died so inexplicably. I must demand an explanation from Daoist Lord Cizang!” The Yuan Patriarch said furiously.

“Sect Leader, yesterday my daughter suffered humiliation, and even the gift I gave her was taken away. I want to ask Daoist Lord Cizang if this is how an ancestral master should behave?” The Moon Palace Master said coldly.

Shi Qianlü remained poised: “Ah, then let’s go together to meet the Ancestral Master and hear what he has to say.”

What did Sima Jiao say?

He first glanced at the Yuan Patriarch: “So what if I killed your son? Don’t you have over twenty sons and hundreds of grandsons? Does this one matter? Do you truly think I don’t know why you’re here? If you displease me, I’ll kill any of your other sons I encounter.”

Then he looked at the Moon Palace Master: “Your daughter wants her possession back? Fine, if she dies, then it becomes ownerless property.”

Finally, he looked at Shi Qianlü: “My patience is thin today.”

Shi Qianlü responded: “Please calm your anger, Grand Uncle. Liao Tingyan, True Immortal Dong Yang’s disciple, has been by your side taking care of you. Today we specifically came to visit this disciple.”

Sima Jiao played with a green leaf stuck to his wrist: “She angered me.”

Shi Qianlü was startled—there was only one outcome for angering this demon: death. He silently thought it was a pity, yet also as expected. How could anyone possibly survive long around someone like Sima Jiao? “Then, Liao Tingyan’s remains?”

Sima Jiao: “There are no remains.”

Shi Qianlü understood—it seemed no corpse or bones remained.

As Sima Jiao spoke, he revealed an impatient expression, rubbing his temple and kicking a nearby jade pillar in half. “If there’s nothing else, get out of here!”

Shi Qianlü very good-naturedly took his leave, thinking secretly that Sima Jiao was becoming increasingly violent and bloodthirsty—the day he was waiting for must not be far off.