Though she found Sima Jiao stealing a child’s toy quite roguish, Liao Tingyan still followed her curiosity and leaned in for a closer look.

After examining it briefly, Sima Jiao lost interest. Seeing the entire otter leaning forward to look, he casually ruffled her fur and handed her the object. Liao Tingyan held it with both paws to study it, discovering that this eye-like thing was a stone. As for why it emitted light, she wasn’t sure of the principle—fantasy worlds couldn’t be explained by science.

The strange creatures serving as street lamps opened their large mouths to eat small flying insects, making smacking sounds. Liao Tingyan wanted to go over and take a look, but Sima Jiao showed no interest. He surveyed the streets, searching for something unknown.

Liao Tingyan tugged at the long hair beside his cheek and pointed to the lamps by the roadside.

Sima Jiao: “What’s so interesting about those things?”

You just stole a child’s toy, why didn’t you say the same thing—what’s so interesting about a toy? After silently grumbling, Liao Tingyan flew over to look by herself. Just as she approached the lamp, she nearly got licked by a large tongue that extended from beneath it. The otter in mid-air made an emergency stop and flew backward to the ancestor’s shoulder.

That tongue had too much saliva. She didn’t want to look anymore.

After walking down a street, Liao Tingyan heard the ancestor click his tongue impatiently. Then her vision blurred as he jumped onto a nearby rooftop, and with another flash, arrived at the top of a tall building.

Liao Tingyan keenly noticed his gaze lingering on the brightest and noisiest area. After a few seconds, he flew toward the most bustling street. As they approached, Liao Tingyan’s expression grew increasingly peculiar.

That street had many flowers—not just blossoms, but flower girls. It was a flower street, a red-light district.

Did this ancestor fly all this way just for prostitutes??? Wasn’t he sexually indifferent and weak in kidney energy? Before, he remained unmoved by so many beautiful women presented to him. Could he have changed his mind now, wanting to try some wildflowers? What kind of elderly misstep scenario was this?

Sima Jiao turned his head and stared at Liao Tingyan for a long while, then darkened his face and said: “Say one more word and I’ll strangle you.”

Liao Tingyan: …What did I say? Did I make any sound just now?

“Ancestral Master, do you… have mind-reading abilities?” Liao Tingyan asked. Surely he hadn’t heard her thinking about his weak kidneys.

Sima Jiao: “No.”

He could only sense others’ true inner emotions.

Liao Tingyan: “I wasn’t speaking just now.”

Sima Jiao: “You were speaking in your mind, and quite loudly.”

Liao Tingyan began continuously cursing him in her mind.

Sima Jiao: “You’re cursing me.”

Liao Tingyan began continuously thinking about male idols she had liked.

Sima Jiao started pinching her tail.

Liao Tingyan immediately stopped her thoughts. Wait, was he not using mind-reading???

She pulled her tail back and randomly pointed somewhere: “Look, what’s that!”

Sima Jiao looked over, made an ambiguous sound, and flew in that direction. It was beneath a brightly lit pavilion where a group of young masters were having an extravagant party with wine and women, presenting an unseemly scene. The moment Liao Tingyan saw it, she instinctively raised her paws to cover her eyes but quickly lowered them again. What was there to fear? This wasn’t modern society with anti-pornography campaigns—these disharmonious things wouldn’t be censored with mosaic blurs. If she could see, she might as well look a bit longer and broaden her horizons.

Sima Jiao showed no intention of leaving either. He stood with his arms crossed, looking down at everything with cold disdain. “Do you see that person?”

Liao Tingyan looked in the direction he pointed and felt her eyes hurt. It was too eye-searing.

“I see, it’s a bit small,” she said.

Sima Jiao: “Who told you to look there?”

Liao Tingyan: Oh, then where should I look?

While they were speaking, the pampered young master Sima Jiao had pointed at was leaving, pulling up his pants. He had dark circles under his eyes, cloudy vision, and a pale, thin face—a different kind of paleness from Sima Jiao’s. Sima Jiao’s paleness gave people a chilly feeling, while this man’s whiteness felt greasy. As he turned around, Liao Tingyan saw what looked like a faint red mark on his back.

Ah, was that what she was supposed to see?

Sima Jiao followed him, watching as the young master staggered and laughed, flirting with the scantily clad ladies around him, eventually entering a changing room/toilet inside the building. In such a den of extravagance, even using the toilet meant beautiful women helping to remove one’s pants, and some even engaging in intercourse right there. Honestly, Liao Tingyan felt that even the most explicit adult films she had seen weren’t this explicit.

If she had encountered such a scene alone, she would certainly have felt embarrassed, but perched on Sima Jiao’s refrigerator-cold shoulder, she only felt his disgust and killing intent, which was frightening enough to prevent any other feelings from arising.

“Ohh…” The kidney-deficient young master let out a comfortable sigh, pulling the lady who was cleaning him, chuckling as he dragged her out. “You’re not bad. Come with me to the wine pool to continue playing.” The lady cast enchanting glances, pressing against him and twisting her body as they exchanged lewd words.

Sima Jiao stepped forward and kicked the pair forcefully, knocking these wild lovebirds to the ground. He didn’t hold back his strength, and both instantly fainted. Sima Jiao walked to the kidney-deficient man, grabbed his hair to pull him up, and used his foot to push aside the clothes on his back. Now Liao Tingyan saw the faint red mark on his shoulder blade, shaped like a flame.

Seeing the flame reminded her of that little flame, so this person probably had some connection with the ancestor.

Sima Jiao pressed his hand against the unconscious young master’s head, closing his eyes as if checking something. After a while, he suddenly snorted coldly. Flames traveled from his hand and burned the young master’s hair, completely enveloping him. In three seconds, a person was reduced to ashes. Then with a wave of Sima Jiao’s sleeve, even the ashes were gone.

Liao Tingyan: “…” Clearly, he was very angry.

Sima Jiao transformed into the appearance of the kidney-deficient young master he had just killed.

Liao Tingyan: What is the ancestor doing? Impersonating someone to infiltrate the enemy?

She had thought he was the direct attack type, but unexpectedly he could also be indirect.

Sima Jiao stuffed Liao Tingyan inside his robe, where she pressed against his chest with only a thin inner garment between them. He strode outward, and along the way, the ladies sitting by the doors on brocade cushions drinking wine continued to greet him: “Young Master Yan~” Some tried to press against him and flirt, but all were swatted away by Sima Jiao’s sleeve, messing up their hairstyles and makeup. As Sima Jiao passed through this brocade-filled corridor, he caused a series of screams.

He ignored all this, moving past one laughter-filled room and courtyard after another, exiting this den of extravagance.

In the building ahead, servants saw him coming out and hurried to welcome him. “Young Master, why are you leaving so early today?”

Besides servants, there was also a Foundation Formation stage cultivator serving as a bodyguard. Here, such an arrangement already indicated a high status.

Using the kidney-deficient man’s face, Sima Jiao said: “Return home.”

The original Young Master Yan must have had a bad temper too. Seeing him like this, the servant was accustomed to it, shrinking his neck and not daring to say more. He ordered people to bring a carriage and helped Sima Jiao board it.

After sitting in the carriage, Sima Jiao found two beautiful young people—a boy and a girl—inside. They regularly served Young Master Yan and now approached him familiarly, only to be sharply dismissed by Sima Jiao.

“Get out.”

The two left, and Sima Jiao leaned back in the spacious carriage compartment, thinking of something unknown. In his jet-black eyes, faint red flames flickered. Liao Tingyan, nestled in his robes, wiggled her tail, poked her head out to glance at his inscrutable expression, then retreated.

She had a feeling the ancestor was planning something big.

Come to think of it, he had initially said that once he left Three Sacred Mountain, he would kill everyone. He hadn’t made any significant moves these days, and she had assumed he’d given up after discovering Gengchen Immortal Manor had developed too quickly with millions of people to kill. Now she felt he might have other plans.

Whatever his plans were, they had nothing to do with her. After all, she was now just an innocent otter.

Young Master Yan’s home was one of the largest residences in the city. Given his circumstances, someone in his family was probably a disciple in Gengchen Immortal Manor’s inner region, or had some other special status, to afford such favorable treatment.

Impersonating someone else’s identity, Sima Jiao was even more impressive than the original kidney-deficient young master. Entering the magnificent Yan Mansion, he encountered many people paying their respects along the way, but he didn’t even blink, completely ignoring them all.

Even upon seeing Young Master Yan’s father, he didn’t spare a glance.

“Stop right there!” The middle-aged man, angered by his attitude, puffed his mustache and glared. “What kind of behavior is this? Mingling in those places has affected your mind—you don’t even know how to pay respects when seeing your father!”

Sima Jiao stopped and glanced at him.

He was the kind of person who didn’t need to say anything to mock others; his gaze alone was enough to infuriate people. Lord Yan trembled with his mustache and said, “You’re becoming increasingly outrageous! You’re forbidden from going out again. With so many women at home that you’re not allowed to sleep with, you insist on going outside to sleep with women who can’t bear children. You stay at home—having more children is what’s important!”

Sima Jiao raised his chin at him: “Come with me.”

Lord Yan: “Unfilial son, is this how you speak to your father!”

Sima Jiao grew impatient and placed a hand on his shoulder. The previously angry Lord Yan froze and followed him stiffly into the inner chamber. Sima Jiao released him, sat in a chair, and beckoned to him.

Lord Yan’s face was filled with fear. “Who—who are you? You’re not my son!”

Sima Jiao laughed once. “I am your ancestor.”

Lord Yan showed an expression of being insulted.

Bystander Liao Tingyan: The ancestor might be telling the truth.

Without wasting words, Sima Jiao asked Lord Yan, “The baby girl was born three days ago—where will you send her?”

Lord Yan appeared unwilling to answer, but he couldn’t resist the ancestor’s truth buff. He rigidly uttered a few words: “Hundred Phoenix Mountain.”

Sima Jiao: “Where is Hundred Phoenix Mountain?”

Lord Yan: “I don’t know. Emissaries will come to guide us. We can’t approach it—we can only wait outside.”

Sima Jiao: “When will she be sent?”

Lord Yan: “In two days.”

Sima Jiao: “Very well, I will go with you then.”

He asked a few other questions. Liao Tingyan listened from the side, piecing together the fragmentary information along with her conjectures, and roughly understood what the ancestor was doing.

He was looking for people—not a specific person, but a certain type of person, like Young Master Yan.

The Yan family had lived here for over a thousand years, their wealth stemming from their bloodline. Every few generations, they occasionally produced someone with ancestral bloodline traits, specifically manifested as that flame mark on the back. Whenever such a child appeared, they would be sent to a certain place. If their bloodline power was slightly stronger, they would stay there, and the Yan family would receive many benefits. If their bloodline power was weak, they would return home like Young Master Yan.

Small families like the Yan clan, scattered throughout Gengchen Immortal Manor’s outer regions, were controlled by some mysterious force, completely unnoticed.