Liao Tingyan lay on the bed gasping for breath, her eyes vacant. Her entire being felt unwell—the kind of unwell where you suspect your kidneys are failing. The concept of a broken rag doll didn’t exist; she felt like a puddle of mud that couldn’t be picked up, or a puddle of water, completely boneless and soft. If Sima Jiao hadn’t been there to stop her, she would have flowed right off the bed.

She didn’t know how long she had been in that trance. When she finally recovered, her first reaction was to cover Sima Jiao’s forehead with her hand.

Sima Jiao pulled her hand down. “What are you afraid of?”

What the hell am I afraid of? Liao Tingyan was still traumatized. She had just been through hell and back, back and forth—it was terrifying, unbearable. She was scared, so scared. The weak, pitiful, and helpless slacker tried to crawl away, only to be grabbed by the leg and dragged back by Sima Jiao.

Liao Tingyan flopped down before him. “Ancestor, please spare me.”

Sima Jiao laughed, like a young man playing a prank, his eyes and brows full of mischief. “No mercy,” he said.

Liao Tingyan couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking. If he was serious, his demeanor was too lazy, looking somewhat satisfied. If he was joking, he still leaned in toward her, frightening Liao Tingyan into shrinking her neck.

“Pat!”

A cool green leaf suddenly stuck to Sima Jiao’s forehead. This was a Qinggu Heaven specialty, a kind of spiritual medicine used to clear the mind and focus the spirit. Liao Tingyan, clever in her moment of panic, gave him a piece. Attached to the forehead, it could clear the mind, an attempt to calm him down, though it looked a bit like a yellow talisman on a zombie’s head.

Sima Jiao paused, and Liao Tingyan thought he had truly been subdued. Who knew that he would pinch that green leaf and, after a moment, collapse laughing on the bed? He wasn’t wearing clothes, lying on the messy bed with his hair disheveled—a very inappropriate scene, the kind that if photographed and posted online, the image would be taken down immediately.

“You don’t think it only works when applied to the forehead, do you, hmm?”

Liao Tingyan had another bad premonition.

Her bad premonition came true again.

She slumped beside Sima Jiao, gasping for breath, feeling a pair of arms embrace her in her dazed state. She instinctively embraced him back—grabbing onto driftwood while floating in the sea was an unconscious human reaction.

When the completely drained slacker regained her senses, her face was still wet with tears. She heard the chest embracing her continuously vibrating; Sima Jiao was laughing for some unknown reason. He looked down at her, the corners of his eyes somewhat red, his pitch-black long hair draped over his shoulders and falling onto her chest, like a water demon. With his ice-cold fingers, he wiped the corner of her eye and said, “You cried so loudly.”

You big jerk, you also laughed so loudly.

Liao Tingyan’s mental state collapsed. She even thought it might be better if Sima Jiao simply engaged in physical intercourse with her instead. That way, she might at least be able to rest in between, or at least rest mentally. Damn it, spiritual intercourse left no room for thought or rest; it was just endless.

She gave up on herself, pretending to be dead, lying there with an attitude of “come and fry this corpse if you want.”

Sima Jiao poked the hollow under her collarbone: “Hmm… do you think this will stop me from taking action?”

Liao Tingyan’s head began to throb from these words. To avoid dying in bed, she suddenly curled up into a ball, exceptionally agile, wriggling out from under Sima Jiao, rolling off the bed, and quickly escaping through the door.

Inside the room, Sima Jiao collapsed on the bed, his laughter so loud it could be heard outside.

Liao Tingyan, with her hair in disarray, turned and gave the house the middle finger.

After Sima Jiao woke up, Liao Tingyan noticed that this realm of pale landscape colors and perpetual daylight was beginning to fade.

“Should we leave?” Liao Tingyan asked, sitting three meters away from Sima Jiao.

Sima Jiao, now dressed, glanced thoughtfully out the window. “This place will disappear in half a day.”

Liao Tingyan was considering where they should go next when she heard Sima Jiao say, “Let’s go.”

He was a man who left when he said he would, and no one knew what he was thinking—not even Liao Tingyan, who had walked through his spiritual palace several times. She only knew that the ancestor seemed more affectionate toward her and liked to hold her more. This part she could understand—who wouldn’t want to hold a sweet, soft girl? As long as he didn’t engage in spiritual intercourse, he could hold her however he wanted.

Where they were going, Liao Tingyan didn’t ask. She felt she couldn’t change Sima Jiao’s destination, and all places were the same to her anyway.

Not surprisingly, he would return to Gengchen Immortal Manor. Sure enough, a day later, they arrived at Luohe Immortal Market.

This was not a city but a market town where ordinary people and cultivators lived together, at the very edge of Geng City Immortal Manor, and the first stop when entering Gengchen Immortal Manor’s territory. The Luo River was the boundary separating Gengchen Immortal Manor from the outside world.

Luohe Immortal Market was fortunate to have the word “immortal” in its name because of Gengchen Immortal Manor, but it was more like a mortal market town. Few cultivators lived there, and those who did were mostly small cultivators who had been marginalized or had low cultivation levels. These cultivators didn’t amount to much in the outer court of Geng City Immortal Manor, but in this small edge town, they were especially revered.

When Liao Tingyan and Sima Jiao were walking together in Luohe Immortal Market, they saw a team of fierce-looking guards clearing the road, forcing everyone to stand at the roadside. It was quite a spectacle.

Of course, they couldn’t be forced to the roadside because the boss Sima Jiao’s cultivation was supreme. Even though he was still recovering from serious injuries, he was more than capable of beating up a bunch of people. He and Liao Tingyan sat on the big snake, invisible to the people around them, who would unconsciously avoid them. Even those guards clearing the road unconsciously avoided them.

Liao Tingyan turned her head to see who was coming. Sima Jiao glanced at her, curled his fingers, and tapped the big black snake’s head. The big black snake slowed down, twisting at a turtle’s pace down the main street.

In the distance, more than a dozen people carried a small house-like sedan chair, followed by a long train of maids. At first, Liao Tingyan thought it was some powerful character, but then discovered that the middle-aged man sitting in the sedan was only a Foundation Building cultivator.

Having seen many big shots, she hadn’t expected that she could now be considered one—oh right, because of the dual cultivation, her cultivation had advanced again. She was now at the peak of the late stage of Golden Core Transformation, just short of reaching the Nascent Soul stage.

Although impressive, Liao Tingyan still felt useless upon careful consideration. On their side, the ancestor alone could take on a whole group, while she was just a negligible addition. Even if she could handle one opponent, it wouldn’t make a difference to Sima Jiao, so she could happily remain lazy.

Other cultivators often faced bottlenecks and had to break through major and minor thunder tribulations, but Liao Tingyan had none of that. Curious, she asked about it, and Sima Jiao snorted, though it wasn’t clear what he was mocking, saying: “Why else do you think everyone wants the Blood Flower of Fengshan Mountain?”

“I thought this flower wasn’t hard to grow,” Liao Tingyan recalled how he had simply plucked a flower and tossed it to her so generously. She truly couldn’t feel its preciousness like others did.

Sima Jiao glanced at her. “Growing one flower requires half of my blood. It can only grow during the new moon, and each time leaves me greatly weakened. If not picked, one flower can live for a thousand years.”

Even the Shi family clan, with all their accumulation over the years, would not have more than ten flower petals in their possession. In comparison, Liao Tingyan, who had obtained dozens of petals at once, was incredibly wealthy, though she had no awareness of it.

Losing half of one’s blood at once would kill a person. Liao Tingyan thought of modern medicine, then remembered how Sima Jiao’s wrecked body had quickly recovered and decided to bow to the fantasy world. Fine, you’re impressive, you have the final say.

The sedan made of gold, various gems, and precious wood passed by, with the big black snake following alongside. Taking advantage of their invisibility, Liao Tingyan used the wind to blow open the sedan curtain and curiously looked inside. The middle-aged male cultivator looked good, and the young man and woman sitting beside him looked even better.

Liao Tingyan looked a bit longer, and Sima Jiao slightly curled two fingers, prying loose a gemstone embedded on the outside of the sedan, and casually tossed it inside, hitting the young man and woman who were flattering the middle-aged man, making them cry out in pain.

Liao Tingyan withdrew the wind. She feared that if she continued looking, the ancestor would dismantle this wealthy sedan right on the street.

Although she stopped looking, Sima Jiao had the big black snake follow them, as if he had taken an interest in them.

Liao Tingyan: “…”

The middle-aged cultivator’s surname was Mu. Although his cultivation wasn’t very high, he was distantly related to the Mu clan in the inner court, which allowed him to be a small local snake in Luohe Immortal Market, enjoying such grandeur. This time, his grand display was to receive some people.

The Mu clan had a young lady who had married out to a young master of the Night Wandering Palace. She had given birth to two children, a boy and a girl. These two children were now sixteen years old and had been sent to their maternal family in Geng City Immortal Manor to study.

There were academies within Gengchen Immortal Manor, several at different levels both inside and outside. This pair of siblings didn’t have particularly high status. Although they could only study in the outer court, they were in the top academy there, which was already something to be proud of. So these siblings arrived like proud peacocks, holding their heads high.

Liao Tingyan and Sima Jiao followed the middle-aged cultivator and witnessed the entire process. The two high-status, privileged children showed no good attitude toward the middle-aged cultivator who came to receive them. Especially the young woman, who directly snorted and laughed, cursing: “Unbearably vulgar, what kind of creature is fit to receive us?”

The young man maintained a more proper appearance and offered a few words of admonishment, but the contempt in his eyes wasn’t concealed at all; anyone could see it. The middle-aged cultivator didn’t mind, nodding and bowing as he welcomed them in. These two young masters were extremely important figures to him, whom he needed to curry favor with. This reception task was something he had put in a lot of effort to secure.

The brother and sister brought a large group of servants and slaves. Having traveled a long way, they planned to rest in Luohe Immortal Market for a day.

Sima Jiao followed them to the middle-aged cultivator’s mansion. They swaggered in riding the black snake, then swaggered into the temporary residence of the siblings.

“Brother, this place is so shabby. Do we have to stay here for a day? I can’t stand it. I want to leave soon, or else find me a better place!” The young woman began to throw a tantrum as soon as she entered the room.

Liao Tingyan looked at the money-filled architecture and decorations, thinking that apart from being a bit dazzling, they had nothing to do with the word “shabby.” This young woman was pampered, and spoiled at that.

In the cultivation world, why were there so many spoiled second-generation children?

The young man took out a jade fan used for showing off, waved it, and had his attendants redecorate the room. They kept all their belongings in spatial pouches, looking as if they had brought an entire house with them. At this moment, all the servants were bustling about, and in no time, the room was completely redecorated.

“When away from home, conditions naturally cannot compare to those at home. You’ll just have to bear with it a little,” the young man said.

The young woman snorted, then smiled again. “Brother, what do you think the academies in Gengchen Immortal Manor are like? Are they better than the Chongjiu Academy we went to before?”

Young man: “How can Chongjiu Academy compare to the academies in Gengchen Immortal Manor? Even if it’s just an outer court academy, not just anyone can go there. Mother told us before we came to behave ourselves. If we can become disciples of Gengchen Immortal Manor, we’ll gain prestige when we go out in the future. Perhaps even the Night Wandering Palace will need our protection in the future.”

Young woman: “I know. I’ll be better than those other bastards. When the time comes, the Night Wandering Palace will be ours.”

While the siblings were envisioning their future, Sima Jiao had already taken Liao Tingyan around their courtyard and returned to stand in front of them. Pointing at the two, he said to Liao Tingyan: “How about using their identities?”

Liao Tingyan: “Hmm?”

Sima Jiao took her response as agreement.

Then, Liao Tingyan and Sima Jiao transformed into the appearances of the siblings, while the siblings… were turned into two small, grayish mountain chickens by Sima Jiao.

Sima Jiao, now looking like the brother, pushed the two terrified mountain chickens toward Liao Tingyan: “Sister, here, for you to play with.”

Liao Tingyan thought: Ancestor, what strange game are you playing…?