“I feel like you can somehow know what I’m thinking,” Liao Tingyan stared at Sima Jiao, her mood somewhat heavy.

They had returned to their room, and Liao Tingyan assumed the posture of someone ready for a heart-to-heart talk. She suspected Sima Jiao truly possessed mind-reading abilities but lacking evidence, she decided to find some proof.

Sima Jiao: “Yes, I can.” He shamelessly admitted it directly.

Expecting to need more effort to get an answer, Liao Tingyan froze her expression in distress: “Ancestor, you’re lying to me again! Didn’t you promise you couldn’t read minds?”

Seeing her like this, Sima Jiao laughed. He raised one foot onto a round stool nearby and leaned back. “I truly cannot read minds.” He had simply been sensitive to others’ true emotions since childhood, and there was the True Speech Oath.

“Recently, when you get emotional, I can occasionally hear what you’re thinking,” Sima Jiao said. “Only you.”

What kind of real-life tragedy was this? Only me? Liao Tingyan almost burst into tears. I’m just an ordinary slacker—what did I do to deserve this?

Then a flash of insight hit her as she guessed the inside story—this was very likely an aftereffect of her soul communion with the ancestor. It must be because of that intimate contact that the ancestor’s ability had mutated when it came to her!

Liao Tingyan: …I can’t breathe!

After all was said and done, this trouble stemmed from her being too young and not having studied properly. If she had attended school earlier in this fantasy world and taken a physiological health class, she wouldn’t have carelessly engaged in intimate relations with someone, resulting in such a headache-inducing historical problem.

Sleep sleep sleep! How could one casually sleep with a boss like that? There would be consequences!

Liao Tingyan felt as if she had accidentally created a life and was filled with bitterness, not knowing what to do. Meanwhile, the culprit who had caused her problems was chuckling there as if finding her flustered state particularly amusing.

Liao Tingyan: Why the hell am I not a magical girl warrior? If I were a magical girl warrior, would I be in this pathetic state?!

She couldn’t help imagining herself beating Sima Jiao to a pulp and cursing this old bastard for being so terrible.

Sima Jiao lifted his eyelids, that excessively young, fair face carrying a hint of warning: “I can hear you.”

Liao Tingyan began reciting the multiplication table in her mind, using mathematics to flush the bloody violence from her thoughts.

Sima Jiao drawled: “What are you afraid of? I won’t listen to what’s in your head for no reason. Besides, I’ve seen all kinds of filth and darkness. Apart from eating and sleeping, what could you possibly be thinking that you’re afraid I might know?”

Liao Tingyan felt the ancestor’s understanding of her wasn’t comprehensive enough. For instance, when he mentioned filth, her mind involuntarily recalled various adult videos she had watched in her previous life.

She had lived in an era of information explosion. Back in her younger days, before the internet-wide anti-pornography campaign, resources were everywhere. Out of curiosity, she had watched quite a few strange things. She had seen plenty of films starting with “a” and ending with “v,” or starting with “g” and ending with “v.”

The human mind works in such a way that the more you try not to think about something, the more you can’t help but think about it. And thoughts are truly difficult to control—they wander at the slightest inattention.

Sima Jiao watched as her expression grew increasingly strange. Finally, with an ambiguous smile, he pressed his temples. “I’ve truly never seen anything like this.”

Liao Tingyan quickly censored and trashed the contents of her mind, hearing Sima Jiao say: “No wonder you were educated in the Demon Realm. You’ve broadened my horizons. I’ve learned something new.”

Liao Tingyan: The Demon Realm’s reputation has been damaged. I’ve let the Demon Realm down.

She bristled for ten minutes, then deflated. Never mind, it wasn’t a big deal. As long as she maintained a calm mindset and didn’t get excited, this ancestor wouldn’t hear her calling him an idiot in her head. From today on, she would be a person of equanimity.

Speaking of which, she had called the ancestor an idiot in her mind quite a few times before. Could he have heard all of that?! Liao Tingyan couldn’t help but get excited again.

Sima Jiao: “I heard it.”

Liao Tingyan wailed miserably: “Please, ancestor, stop having remote conversations with my brain.”

Liao Tingyan suddenly realized another issue. She had cursed Sima Jiao so much, yet he hadn’t reacted or become furious enough to kill her with a slap. Could this be true love?!

Sima Jiao didn’t react, as if he hadn’t heard.

Let’s pretend he didn’t hear.

Liao Tingyan poured herself a large cup of fragrant, sweet drink and downed it in one gulp to calm herself. At this moment, Sima Jiao seemed to suddenly remember something and tossed her an extremely thick dictionary.

Liao Tingyan: “What’s this?” She hugged the stone-like, thick, and heavy book.

Sima Jiao said casually: “I went to resolve a small matter, saw this book, and brought it back.”

The surface of the book was covered in unintelligible markings. When Liao Tingyan opened it, a beam of light from the book lightly touched her soul consciousness, and she immediately knew what this book was. It was a technique record, containing four levels of techniques—Heaven, Earth, Mystery, and Yellow—as well as Five Elements techniques and twelve additional variant spirit root special techniques, totaling 105,000 entries.

Almost all notable techniques in the entire cultivation world were recorded in it. Such a spiritual book was invaluable. Possessing one was enough to become the treasured foundation of a medium-sized sect. Even in a wealthy and prestigious place like the Gengchen Immortal Sect, it would be considered a precious treasure, a foundational item.

It would be stored in an important treasury, unseen by ordinary disciples in their lifetime. Even elders wouldn’t be able to possess it; they could only worship it where it was enshrined.

So… the ancestor had casually brought this back. What kind of thieving activities had he been engaged in?

“Won’t people be searching everywhere for the missing item tomorrow and trace it back to us?” Liao Tingyan hugged the book, neck stiff as she looked at Sima Jiao. “There will be martial law everywhere, with searches for the thief.”

Sima Jiao: “…Have I killed too few of their people? You weren’t afraid of that, but you’re afraid of taking a book?”

This… seemed quite reasonable. Liao Tingyan was convinced by him.

The difference between a spiritual book and an ordinary book was that it came with built-in teaching. By selecting a technique within the book using soul consciousness, one could immersively learn it. So this was an intelligent course learning library, though how much one could learn still depended on one’s comprehension.

Liao Tingyan: This heavy learning task burns my hands.

“I love learning. In the future, I’ll memorize fifty words every day… no, I mean I’ll learn fifteen techniques.” Liao Tingyan said in a flat voice.

Sima Jiao: “No, you don’t want to.” She was crying loudly in her mind about not wanting to study.

Liao Tingyan: “Since you know, why give me such a super-thick workbook!” Slam.

Sima Jiao’s head throbbed from her loud complaints. With a dark face, he said: “If you keep making noise, we’ll have soul communion.”

Liao Tingyan switched seamlessly between tough and soft, immediately slumping flat and chanting “Amitabha” while sticking a clear-minded spirit grass leaf to her forehead. Under immense pressure, she fell asleep on the spot in just three minutes. Sima Jiao even suspected the spirit grass on her forehead might have some sleep-inducing effect and peeled it off to look.

The grass had no sleep-inducing effect; what had it was Liao Tingyan herself. Her entire being emanated an air of “live fish worry, dead fish peace.” Sima Jiao was successfully hypnotized, burying his head against her neck and closing his eyes to rest.

Somehow, at some point, just being beside her naturally induced drowsiness and allowed for ordinary sleep, as if… he were just a normal person.

…

Liao Tingyan noticed something was wrong.

The classmates around her were looking at her with strange contempt, curiosity, and disdain. She glanced at her clothes but found nothing amiss. Judging by their expressions alone, one might think she had gone out wearing only pajama pants without a skirt.

At first, she thought she was being isolated for being too arrogant at the flower banquet. But a few days later, people from the Wood family came. The maternal grandfather of Yong Lingchun and Yong Shichu sent people to bring them back to the Wood family for punishment.

Liao Tingyan: What the hell?

The maternal grandfather berated them for bringing shame and ruining the reputation of the Wood clan. Liao Tingyan sat on a stool to the side, listening to Grandfather Wood yell at their illusions for half an hour before finally understanding the reason for this unwarranted disaster.

Recently, the incestuous relationship between the twins Yong Lingchun and Yong Shichu spread widely throughout Chenxue Academy, no longer a secret. Everyone knew about it privately. There were even rumors that on the night of the new student flower banquet, they had engaged in “that kind of thing” at the Brocade Painting Hall, oblivious to others around them.

What kind of thing was “that kind of thing”?

Liao Tingyan touched her forehead: My goodness, I almost forgot about this sibling setup.

Sima Jiao: “Hahahahaha.”

Liao Tingyan: “Ancestor! Your reaction in this situation shouldn’t be laughing, should it?”

But Sima Jiao couldn’t stop laughing. Even on the cloud carriage back to the academy, he was still laughing.

Liao Tingyan thought, is it that funny?

Sima Jiao’s hearty laughter turned into an eerie cold laugh as he resumed playing with his deadly lottery spheres. Shaking those small balls carelessly, he said: “I heard my parents were siblings. Back then, those people, to obtain the pure bloodline of the Sima clan, brainwashed them daily, urging them to produce a child… I thought these people didn’t care about such things. Today, it seems they do know shame and what can and cannot be done.”

“How satisfying it was to hear that old man scold them.” Sima Jiao directly took out a sphere with the character “Wood” written on it from the pile, setting his next target.

Liao Tingyan guessed he was targeting the main families in Gengchen Immortal Sect’s inner court, but she didn’t know exactly what he was doing, nor had she heard the news of any major chaos.

Sima Jiao crushed the “Wood” sphere, and specks of spiritual energy scattered inside the cloud carriage, sprinkling like gold dust onto Liao Tingyan’s light purple skirt hem.

Seeing him like this, Liao Tingyan knew he would go out tonight to continue causing trouble, meaning she could sleep alone again. It wasn’t that sleeping together was uncomfortable, but Sima Jiao liked to bury his head near her neck to sleep, his hair tickling her neck, which was itchy.

It was still more comfortable to sleep alone.

Sure enough, Sima Jiao said: “I’ll be leaving tonight.”

Liao Tingyan: “Oh, have a safe journey, and take care.”

After a while, Liao Tingyan felt like a wife reminding her husband to be careful when going out, and her scalp tingled at the thought.

Sima Jiao curved his lips, leaned forward, and stared into her eyes. “Is there anything you want?”

Liao Tingyan: “What do I want?” She didn’t quite understand what the ancestor was suddenly doing.

Sima Jiao: “When I go out, what would you like me to bring back for you?”

This was even more similar! What kind of husband-bringing-gifts-from-a-business-trip scenario was this? But you’re going out to commit arson and murder—why are you talking as if you’re on a business trip, even bringing gifts? Hello? Are you planning to bring back the heads of your enemies?

Liao Tingyan: “Ah, anything is fine. I’m not picky.”

“Then wait for me to return.” Sima Jiao stroked her face, unexpectedly showing a hint of tenderness never seen before. It scared Liao Tingyan so much that she almost died on the spot. Ancestor! What’s wrong with you, ancestor?

Liao Tingyan attended classes occasionally, flipped through the technique spirit book, learned some small skills, and lived her life in the isolation circle of her classmates. After learning small-scale illusory techniques, people with cultivation levels lower than hers couldn’t see her taking big naps in class. And once she learned various small techniques, she could experiment on those classmates who loved to gossip.

Unable to find the prankster, her classmates erupted in several small fights. Liao Tingyan expressed her approval: Well fought, let’s have another round!

Two days later, Sima Jiao indeed returned. He came back in the middle of the night, covered in moist night dew, sitting on the edge of the bed and shaking Liao Tingyan awake.

Liao Tingyan saw him through bleary eyes and mumbled, “You’re back.”

Seeing that she was preparing to continue sleeping, Sima Jiao pulled open her collar and stuffed something cold inside. Liao Tingyan shivered from the cold, clutched her collar, and pulled the object out.

“What is this?”

“In… hmm, I don’t remember which treasury I saw it.” Sima Jiao leaned against her pillow and said, “Thought it was nice, so I brought it back for you to play with.”