She recognized these two newcomers: Fu Lingchuan and his Princess Changle. With more and more people gathering, could Princess Hanyu’s identity still be kept secret? Mo Tizhun closed his eyes briefly, forcing down his frustration before saying flatly, “It’s nothing, just a small misunderstanding.”

Princess Changle had arrived from the forest path. She first noticed the maid, then saw Hanyu beside him and couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

How could these two women look identical?

Fu Lingchuan further questioned, “How did a maid from the Yu Kingdom diplomatic mission end up lying here?”

Yu Kingdom?

Mo Tizhun’s eye twitched as his gaze toward Yun Ya and his companion turned sharp.

He had heard by the fire earlier that these two were from the Lang Yu Kingdom! Hmph, so the one lying there wasn’t Chi Zhe’s maid?

“Who knows? Perhaps she just found the moonlight too beautiful and fell asleep here?” Yun Ya spoke nonsense, covering his mouth to yawn before saying to Fu Lingchuan, “The night grows deep and cold. I’m going back to rest. Please make yourselves comfortable.” He glanced at Princess Hanyu once more before turning to leave.

Feng Miaojun didn’t dare delay even a second and followed behind him, not looking back, leaving the four people at the scene staring at each other with strange expressions.

This mess had been left for the great State Preceptor Mo to clean up—let the capable handle more work.

After walking more than thirty paces, just as Feng Miaojun was about to speak, Yun Ya suddenly stopped: “You go back first.”

Where was he going? Before she could ask, Yun Ya had already turned around and swiftly retraced their steps.

Feng Miaojun: “…”

Was the elegant State Preceptor openly going to eavesdrop?

She shook her head and had no choice but to return to the Lang Yu Kingdom tent alone.

Tomorrow would be the fifteenth, and tonight the moon was eight-tenths full and bright. How could Feng Miaojun miss such a good opportunity? Upon returning to her tent, she regulated her breathing and entered meditation.

Faced with the relatively thin spiritual energy in the current world, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon had become a daily essential practice for cultivators.

Her breathing was prolonged, with each interval lasting more than ten breaths. With each inhalation, the moonlight would separate into a very faint white radiance that entered through her nose and mouth, transforming into pure spiritual energy, nourishing her internal elixir bit by bit.

Fortunately, ordinary people couldn’t see this.

Now, Feng Miaojun’s speed of absorbing spiritual energy from the outside world was incomparable to before. She had spent three years buried in the Smoke Sea Tower, sifting through hundreds of cultivation methods—famous and unknown, orthodox and unorthodox—and should have accumulated solid foundations. Unfortunately, without a master’s guidance, her path of cultivation had been stumbling and difficult.

Now, someone had finally extended a hand to help her on this path, and that person was Yun Ya.

Over these past few dozen days, she had asked thousands of strange questions, and thanks to Yun Ya’s vast knowledge, he could answer about sixty percent. Though mysterious in other aspects, he was quite reliable regarding the cultivation of arts. Even when her questions had no immediate answers, he would ponder for a few days and eventually provide reasoned analyses.

She often experienced moments of sudden enlightenment, as seemingly unrelated knowledge gradually integrated through drawing analogies, ultimately becoming useful to her. The cultivation progress she had made in these two months was equivalent to half a year’s effort before.

After completing tonight’s practice, she felt a swelling sensation in her dantian. It was the spiritual energy within her internal elixir reaching a state of “fullness about to overflow.” According to her calculations, it should have taken at least another year to achieve this feeling, yet unexpectedly, she had succeeded in just two months.

At this moment, she felt grateful to Yun Ya.

When water is full, it overflows, but what happens when spiritual energy is full? It certainly cannot overflow, unless it bursts the dantian. So according to the Nine Transformations Spirit Elixir method she practiced, the next stage of cultivation focused on compressing the expanding spiritual energy, gradually liquefying it to create more storage space for the internal elixir.

Yun Ya’s eye for selecting cultivation methods for her was interesting—he didn’t choose ready-made systems but selected what was currently optimal. This meant that the methods she practiced at each new stage were different, without a consistent thread running through them.

Yun Ya called it “selecting the best for practice,” claiming it was most efficient. But Feng Miaojun deeply suspected that he simply wanted to use her as a test subject to observe how different cultivation methods affected the flow of spiritual energy in her body.

Due to their shared spiritual energy, their bodies were largely connected. By monitoring her cultivation progress, Yun Ya could simulate how special techniques would operate in his meridians.

Fortunately, Feng Miaojun the little lab rat hadn’t experienced cultivation deviation so far—this demonstrated Yun Ya’s expertise.

Having achieved a milestone, Feng Miaojun happily concluded her practice. When she opened her eyes, she discovered Yun Ya sitting on the soft couch in front of her, drinking tea and reading a book.

“Master has returned.” She looked out to check the time and found the moon had already moved westward—it was nearly dawn.

“Your dantian is about to overflow,” Yun Ya had noticed her face glowing when he entered the tent and could assess her cultivation progress without even checking her pulse. “Starting tomorrow, you may drink half a coin’s worth of pollen wine diluted with water daily at the Chen hour.”

Her face lit up with joy: “Yes!” Needless to say, this was Yun Ya’s reward for passing yet another test.

How did she react and what judgments did she make when directly facing Mo Tizhun and especially Princess Hanyu? Yun Ya had wanted to know, and she had given answers that satisfied him.

And if those answers hadn’t satisfied him? Well, both of them knew what would have happened.

The Blood Tree pollen wine was now ready, with effects surpassing the powder honey paste by another level. Before, she had been like a little mouse stealing oil, secretly enjoying small benefits that couldn’t be mentioned openly—how could that compare to now, when she would openly receive them?

Yun Ya tossed another object that traced a parabola through the air.

Feng Miaojun caught and examined it—white as snow and ice-cold to the touch—it was unmistakably the Kui Dan that Mo Tizhun had given earlier!

“This is your reward,” he said casually. “The Kui Dan isn’t an Ao Pearl, but its extremely cold property can achieve twice the result with half the effort in cultivating yin spirit power.” Like him, Feng Miaojun’s spiritual energy manifested in two forms: yang soul with blazing heat and yin spirit with cold.

Feng Miaojun held the pearl with a delighted expression: “Such a treasure, aren’t you keeping it for yourself?”

“You need it more than I do,” he smiled slightly. “Just accept it.”

Only then did she happily take it. Yun Ya’s skill at coaxing women was a hundred times better than Mo Tizhun’s. She knew this pearl had little use for him anymore, but when Yun Ya presented it from a different angle, she still felt warm in her heart.

Of course, she didn’t miss the deeper meaning behind Yun Ya’s gesture: by specifically giving her something from Mo Tizhun, he was reminding her that despite recognizing Mo Tizhun as her master for three years, he had never given her any benefits—how could that compare to Yun Ya’s generosity?

This man would set up a test and deliver a heavy blow, but would always follow it with a piece of candy. And the candy was always very sweet—he was willing to invest substantially.

His skill at winning people over was truly admirable.