Sima Jiao crafted a new defensive treasure for Liao Tingyan, still using a ying-luo necklace as the base—an even more beautiful ying-luo necklace from Shi Yuxiang’s treasure vault. This time, he incorporated the Thunder Stone heart into it, making it impervious even to lightning strikes.

In Sima Jiao’s own words: “If you encounter a cultivator like Shi Qianlü and can’t escape, just lie down and let them attack. Even with all their strength, it would take half a day to break through the defense.”

Liao Tingyan believed this point. After all, this protective gear took Sima Jiao a full half-month to make, with several intermittent modifications. Something that could make him spend so much time must certainly be formidable.

After hearing his words, Liao Tingyan weighed the ying-luo necklace in her hand and asked: “And after the defense is broken?”

Sima Jiao snorted. Liao Tingyan saw his chin lift slightly as he rested his not-yet-fully-healed fingers beneath it, saying: “By then, I would have arrived, and you can continue lying there.”

The “towering” ancestor stood at about 188 centimeters tall. The rest of his towering presence came from his confident aura.

However, he certainly had the capital for such confidence. His comprehension ability was ridiculously high, and his strength was supernaturally powerful. Cizang Dao Jun, unique in heaven and earth, was undoubtedly the number one figure.

With the Sima clan reduced to just him, even while confined in the Three Saints Mountain, he had kept all the great masters on high alert. After coming out, he had turned the massive Gengchen Immortal Mansion upside down and still escaped unscathed. He could leave the righteous leader Master Shi Qianlü at a loss and could even tear apart heavenly thunder with his bare hands.

But how could such a formidable man occasionally behave so childishly?

He had waited until she was asleep at night and erased the faces of her animated figurines, drawing strangely horrifying faces instead, and had the audacity to say: “Don’t they look more natural and beautiful this way?”

Pah! Waking up in the middle of the night to see three disfigured animated figurines standing by the bed—in an instant, her slice-of-life had turned into a horror movie!

Liao Tingyan questioned his aesthetic sense for a moment, but then thought that since he had chosen her, his aesthetics must be fine—he was just mischievous.

“Here, these are for you to play with. Draw them however you want, but don’t ruin my Little One, Little Two, and Little Three.” Liao Tingyan gave him a dozen blank wooden figurines. She had carved many of these wooden pieces when she had nothing else to do.

Sima Jiao didn’t even look at the wooden pieces, only pointing out: “What you call Little Three was animated by me.”

Liao Tingyan: “…Let’s not discuss the Little Three issue. Too much discussion leads to arguments.”

Sima Jiao: “What do you mean?”

He added: “Would you argue with me?”

Liao Tingyan: “Why wouldn’t I argue with you?” Couples inevitably argue. They hadn’t argued yet simply because no occasion had arisen.

Sima Jiao: “Then argue with me now, let me see.” His expression and actions were just like when he was curious about her cursing and asked her to curse for him to see.

Liao Tingyan: “…I can’t find the right atmosphere now. Let’s talk about it next time.”

She had spoken casually, not expecting this “next time” would come so soon.

During this period, they were staying in Shi Yuxiang’s Flower Wind City. The city had many of Shi Yuxiang’s small-time lovers, who would come every few days to offer themselves. Shi Yuxiang would seek pleasure with these people, leading a very chaotic private life—everyone was just playing around.

One of her secret lovers was a young master from the Mu family’s outer court, also known for his romantic exploits. Every time he passed through Flower Wind City, he would come to spend a few days with Shi Yuxiang. This time he had also come. As it happened, Liao Tingyan was taking a nap in Shi Yuxiang’s flower garden that day. When she woke up, she found a strange man sitting beside her, intimately touching her face, leaning in, and saying something vulgar.

“I heard you haven’t been with anyone lately. What’s wrong? Can’t those people satisfy your lustful body anymore?” His tone was familiar and smug as he tried to fondle her chest.

Liao Tingyan shouted an expletive and kicked him flying before fully waking up. Usually, Sima Jiao was by her side, and others wouldn’t approach without permission, so she had no defenses up. How could she have known that this man, whenever he came, never needed to be announced by the guards because he and Shi Yuxiang were having an affair? He had a wife at home from a similar background who was quite fierce.

Sima Jiao had just left for a moment, coincidentally giving him this opportunity.

“Ah… what are you doing!” The Young Master Mu’s cultivation level wasn’t as high as hers. Kicked painfully, he cried out and sat up angrily, cursing.

His luck was truly poor because, at that moment, Sima Jiao returned.

Thinking about what happened afterward made Liao Tingyan’s headache with nausea. Sima Jiao had laughed once, forcibly grasped her hand despite her refusal, and forced her to crush the man’s head.

The sensation of a human head bursting under her hand left a deep impression on Liao Tingyan.

She immediately vomited and retched for a long time.

Sima Jiao didn’t understand why her reaction was so strong. “It’s just killing a person.”

Liao Tingyan knew he didn’t understand.

They came from different worlds. Sima Jiao thought killing people was fine, just as she thought people shouldn’t be killed. Their concepts both came from the universal views of their respective worlds, probably mutually unacceptable.

She understood that Sima Jiao grew up in an environment where you would be killed if you didn’t kill others. So she didn’t judge his bloodthirstiness, only holding to her idea of not killing unless forced into a desperate situation.

This time, Sima Jiao wasn’t as angry as when he faced Yue Chuihui, so he hadn’t thought of torturing the man. It was more like seeing an annoying little bug and casually killing it—he acted so swiftly that Liao Tingyan didn’t have time to deflect before the man was dead.

Seeing Liao Tingyan’s reaction, Sima Jiao sat nearby with furrowed brows. “He offended you, so I wanted you to do it yourself. It’s just a small matter. I’ve never seen anyone react so strongly to killing.”

Although he knew Liao Tingyan didn’t like killing, he thought it was just a dislike—like how she didn’t enjoy a certain sticky caramel. If forced to eat it, she would just wrinkle her nose, drink some water, and curse him in her heart.

Born in a den of demons and monsters, how could he understand how difficult it was for a girl raised in peaceful times to accept killing someone? How could he understand that disliking killing was completely different from disliking certain foods for Liao Tingyan?

Liao Tingyan didn’t hear what he was saying. Her mind was still full of what had splattered onto her hands—brain matter. She instinctively felt extremely nauseated and washed her hands many times.

In her world, killers were few, and ordinary people had no connection to killing. Even in war, many soldiers develop psychological disorders from killing on the battlefield, unable to resolve their trauma. How could Liao Tingyan be unaffected?

She retched for a long time, wiped her mouth, then stood up and went straight into the room to lie down. Sima Jiao followed her into the room and saw her lying with her back to him—a posture rejecting his approach.

Liao Tingyan felt very unwell, physically uncomfortable, and angry inside, so she didn’t want to talk to anyone. If Sima Jiao were just that murderous Master Shi, she wouldn’t dare be angry with him over such matters. But he wasn’t just that anymore; she considered him the closest person in this world, so she couldn’t help being angry with him.

Sima Jiao tried to pull her arm, but Liao Tingyan slapped his hand away. Without turning her face, she said listlessly: “Don’t talk to me. I don’t want to speak with you right now.”

Sima Jiao hadn’t realized how serious the problem was. He stared at Liao Tingyan’s back, perplexed. “What’s wrong with you? Just because I made you do it?”

Liao Tingyan was silent for a moment, then sighed and said: “You can’t do this. I’ve never stopped or forced you to do anything, so you shouldn’t do this to me either.”

In all his life, no one had ever told Sima Jiao that he couldn’t… No, someone had said it before, but he never cared. For him, there was only what he wanted to do and what he didn’t want to do, never what he couldn’t do. In this world, there was nothing he couldn’t do.

If it weren’t for Liao Tingyan in front of him, Sima Jiao wouldn’t have bothered to say a word. But now he frowned for a moment and still said: “I know you don’t like killing. You can dislike it, but you don’t know how. You’ll have to kill eventually—what difference does sooner or later make?”

Liao Tingyan stared absently at the bird and flower patterns on the canopy. She actually knew and had thought that perhaps one day, she would kill for the person behind her, but not like this—so casual, as if it were child’s play.

She was just unhappy and temporarily didn’t want to talk to him.

Her unhappiness made Sima Jiao unhappy too. He had never been a good-tempered person, and his attitude toward Liao Tingyan was already showing more care and tolerance than he had ever shown in his life.

Sima Jiao turned and left.

Liao Tingyan didn’t go after him. She slept and had a nightmare. When she woke up, she didn’t even want to eat her usual two meals a day—she had completely lost her appetite. The animated figurine approached with its small wooden hammer, wanting to massage her back, but Liao Tingyan waved it away. The little black snake came to play with her, but she didn’t move.

Sima Jiao stayed outside for three days, dissipating most of his anger before returning. He didn’t want to lose his temper with Liao Tingyan, but even after venting, he still felt irritable, as if returning to his state before meeting her.

With a stern face, he walked along the long corridor of Shi Yuxiang’s flower garden, his robe and long sleeves moving with an aura of hostility. When he was about to reach the door, he paused, then still went in.

She wasn’t there. He quickly walked out and tried to sense her presence but couldn’t detect her aura anywhere nearby.

Had she left? Because of fear? Because of such a small matter, she left him?

Sima Jiao waved his sleeve, and an entire flower garden of splendid flowers collapsed. Without even looking, his lips tightly pressed together, his body emanating a cold aura, he searched in a particular direction. On that ying-luo necklace, there was a technique allowing him to track her.

He tracked her to the Cloud River bank, where he saw the familiar figure.

Liao Tingyan was sitting there with a fishing rod, fishing for flying rays. Flying rays were a kind of demonic beast in this Cloud River, ordinarily difficult to catch. Sima Jiao saw several flying rays in the large bucket placed beside her. The bait she used to fish for flying rays was the long worms caught earlier in Thunder Echoing Valley.

So that’s why she collected those worms then—to fish for flying rays. How did she know that the worms from Thunder Echoing Valley could catch flying rays?

Sima Jiao realized she wasn’t trying to run away, and some of his anger dissipated. He stood under a tree not far away, staring at Liao Tingyan’s back with no intention of approaching.

He still didn’t think he had done anything wrong, but he sensed that Liao Tingyan was very upset. Since knowing her, this was the first time he had felt such a heavy mood from her.

He just stood behind the tree, watching Liao Tingyan catch the difficult-to-catch flying rays, watching her depressed face as she dejectedly started a fire to grill the flying rays.

The aroma of grilling spread everywhere, but she didn’t eat, as if thinking of something made her nauseated again. She looked at her own hands and took out some water to drink.

Sima Jiao felt very irritable and peeled off a large piece of bark from the tree beside him.

Liao Tingyan: “I don’t want to eat.”

She seemed to be talking to herself. “Before, when you said we were going to Thunder Echoing Valley, I found a travel journal saying that the worms there could catch flying rays. Flying ray meat is delicious. I had wanted to try it with you.”

Sima Jiao: “…”

He walked over and sat across from Liao Tingyan, picked up a grilled flying ray, took a bite, and expressionlessly ate the whole thing.

Liao Tingyan was still listless, with a dejected face, as she handed him another. Sima Jiao didn’t want to take it, but seeing her expression, he reached out and accepted it.

Liao Tingyan: “You can’t do this anymore in the future.”

Sima Jiao threw down the flying ray. “Such a small matter, and you’re angry with me over this?”

Liao Tingyan wiped away a tear and sniffled.

Sima Jiao picked up the discarded flying ray. “…I understand.”

Sima Jiao: “I didn’t scold you or hit you, and I’ve agreed.”

Liao Tingyan’s tears fell. “I had nightmares.”

Sima Jiao couldn’t eat anymore. His entire body felt uncomfortable. He threw away the flying ray in his hand, hooked one hand around Liao Tingyan’s neck to pull her over, and forcefully wiped away her tears with his thumb. “Stop crying.”

Liao Tingyan looked at the scars on his fingers, blinked, and another tear fell into his palm. She leaned her face against Sima Jiao’s hand, looking at him. “If something happens in the future, when I say I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to do it. Don’t force me anymore.”

Sima Jiao looked at her, moved closer, and pressed his forehead against hers. “I understand.”

Saying this, his voice lowered a bit, sounding somewhat remorseful. “Don’t cry anymore.”

He pressed his lips against her eyes—an unskilled gesture of comfort.