The sky was clear outside.
The slightly cold wind carried the fragrance of osmanthus and orchids from the Commander's Mansion garden, blowing in his face, a bit cool and a bit refreshing, and also caused the messy silver hair to flutter slowly.
Gurgle gurgle~
Ye Anping sat in a wheelchair, slowly pushed by Feng Yu Die along the stone path in the garden. Looking at the ornamental spiritual flowers unique to the Northern Region on both sides of the path, he felt a lot more relaxed.
He glanced back and saw Feng Yu Die looking around with a dazed expression, her eyes full of curiosity, and seeming tempted to pick some.
When she noticed Ye Anping looking back at her, she was slightly startled. Squinting, she smiled at him. "Eh? What is it?"
Ye Anping's mouth opened slightly. When he turned around and saw Feng Yu Die, he actually had the word "girl" in his mind for the first time, and his mood was quite complicated.
Quiet as a virgin but moving like a fool...
However, there was a strange sense of peace of mind; at least Feng Yu Die wouldn't want to pounce on him like his sister and the others.
"Nothing."
"Hmm?"
Feng Yu Die blinked in confusion but said nothing.
They paced among the flowers, and after turning a corner, they came to a six-sided pavilion for flower sighting and sat down on both sides of the stone table inside.
Ye Anping hadn't eaten for eight days, so he quietly ate the roasted chicken Feng Yu Die had brought him. Feng Yu Die sat opposite him, supported her cheeks, squinted her eyes, and smiled at him. She crossed her ankles and swung her legs slowly, looking very happy.
Ye Anping felt his scalp tingle from being stared at. In the end, he couldn't bear it and said, "If you want to eat, take it. Why are you staring at me?"
"It's okay, it's okay. This roasted chicken is especially for you. I have eaten earlier."
When someone is giving free lunch, they might be hiding evil intentions...
"So, what do you want?"
"Ah... Hehe."
Feng Yu Die touched the back of her head and giggled. Then, as if she were a concubine flirting, she winked at Ye Anping. "Master Ye, then... can you let Sister Pei give me a kiss?"
Ye Anping's face darkened. "No."
"Then... you kiss Sister Pei, and I kiss you?"
"?"
Seeing Ye Anping staring blankly, Feng Yu Die slightly shrunk her neck and tried again. "How about I kiss you, and then you kiss Sister Pei?"
Ye Anping's mouth hung open. He hesitated for a long time, then simply sighed and asked with a frown. "You listened to Yunluo's lesson yesterday, but you still think about my sister?"
"Young Master Ye, you have known me for several years. You have always seen my devotion to Sister Pei! I am very, very sincere."
Feng Yu Die eagerly stared at Ye Anping, with her golden eyes full of sincerity.
Her look made Ye Anping feel as if he had become the monk Fahai who prevented Xu Xian and Bai Niangzi** from flying together in Feng Yu Die's eyes, and he felt mixed emotions.
But Pei Lianxue was his cultivation partner!
Ye Anping rolled his eyes at Feng Yu Die, then took out a stone tablet from his storage bag and simply changed the topic.
"This is a part of the Black Moon Routine fragment obtained from that demonic cultivator's storage bag back in Wuxi Town. Practice it well."
"Oh... and what about Sister Pei?"
Ye Anping played dumb and tilted his head. "What about her?"
"..."
Feng Yu Die puffed out her cheeks and plopped down on the stone table, grumbling. "Roasted chicken Ye! Humph~ I won't bring you roasted chicken next time, you can just starve!"
Ignoring her, Ye Anping picked up his chopsticks and went back to quietly eat the roasted chicken. He didn't speak, and neither did Feng Yu Die.
The two of them sat quietly in the pavilion, accompanied by the fragrance of the flowers in the garden, enjoying the warm sun in the Northern Region at noon.
The sound of the wind mixed with the sound of chirping birds. Feng Yu Die looked at Ye Anping who was eating the roasted chicken silently. After a while, she started to doze. Her eyelids drooped, and she fell asleep on the stone table.
A light breeze blew past her ears, fluttering wisps of silver hair and letting them fall on her lips. She brushed them away with her fingers in a daze.
Watching her, Ye Anping's heart gradually calmed down. This girl was quite cute when she was quiet.
Unconsciously, he took out a slightly thicker fur cloak from his storage bag and spread it with his spiritual power, covering Feng Yu Die's back.
Feeling the cloak on her back, Feng Yu Die smiled and shrank in it, causing Ye Anping to also smile slightly.
However, in the next moment...
Ye Anping seemed to suddenly realize something. The slightly raised corners of his mouth gradually turned into a straight line, and the smile in his eyes disappeared.
This Heavenly Dao bullshit!!!
A wave of fear rose in his heart. He had been affected by the Heavenly Dao without even noticing just now, so much so that he almost didn't react.
Swish...
At this moment, light footsteps came from behind.
Ye Anping came back to his senses as he turned to look and saw an unfamiliar woman coming from the end of the road.
The woman was dressed in a snow-white dragon robe and had a proud figure. Her hair was tied into a double dragon bun, and she even had an ostentatious spirit pearl hairpin inserted into it.
Two men with jade masks walked beside her, and both of them had a high cultivation level. Although Ye Anping did not use his spiritual sense to detect them, judging from their attitude, they were at least in the late stage of Foundation Building up to the early stage of Nascent Soul.
Who was this...
Ye Anping frowned slightly. He didn't remember these three people in the Commander's Mansion. He mentally revised the characters in the Northern Region in the game.
Suddenly, a figure in a golden dragon-and-phoenix robe appeared in his mind.
---The Cold Country Empress, Sun Juehu.
A trace of surprise flashed across Ye Anping's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.
Heavenly Wind City, an immortal city in the Northern Region, was actually pretty small. It was almost the same as a small town of ordinary people. The highest cultivation level in the city was Xu Mulan's, which was in the late Core Formation stage.
As an Empress, she had no reason to come here.
However, judging from her attire, she should be visiting incognito, and her cultivation level was probably hidden with some magic tool.
Sun Juehu, who turned the corner, saw Ye Anping in the pavilion at a glance, and she went from admiring the flowers to admiring Ye Anping.
"Oh? What a handsome young man..."
Ye Anping pursed his lips slightly and saluted while sitting in his wheelchair. "Greetings, Senior. Please forgive me for not being able to stand and greet you properly."
"No problem..."
Sun Juehu led the two guards to the pavilion and asked them to guard outside. She walked into the pavilion alone, then looked at Feng Yu Die lying on the stone table. A trace of surprise flashed in her eyes.
" Oh? This girl's silver hair... is it dyed... or natural?"
"Dyed. Silver hair looks good."
"It's a pity... But it's dyed quite naturally, even the eyelashes are dyed. What's your name, young master?"
Ye Anping didn't expect Sun Juehu to suddenly come here, but no matter what, he couldn't let her notice that he was very close to Si Xuanji...
"Yun family, first name Xiaoliu, Liang Xiaoliu."
"Yun family? The man is so handsome, but the name is so coarse..." Sun Juehu sat down without being invited and looked at Ye Anping's wheelchair. "Are you a disciple of the Moon Shadow Sword Sect of the Southern Region?"
"Yes."
"I heard that your Patriarch and several young masters were in wheelchairs a while ago. What's going on? Has the Moon Shadow Sword Sect started practicing wheelchair cultivation?"
"Hehe... Senior, you are joking."
"But if you are a disciple of the Yun family, why don't you have blonde hair?"
"The bloodline is remote, but I inherited Patriarch Yun's handsomeness."
Sun Juehu was amused. She sized up Ye Anping's face and said, "It's rare to see someone who says he's handsome... But he's really handsome..."
Then, she narrowed her eyes as her sight fell on Ye Anping's storage bag. Without beating around the bush, she said directly, "Could you show me your storage bag?"
Ye Anping's heart sank. He knew that the reason why Sun Juehu came to talk to him, besides his handsomeness, was probably because she sensed something in his storage bag.
For example, Si Xuanji's bell...
He couldn't let Sun Juehu know that he was close to Si Xuanji; otherwise, something bad would happen.
"...Please allow me to decline."
"Oh? Is there something others can't see?"
Sure enough, she noticed something, but fortunately, he was prepared and wrapped Si Xuanji's bell in a dozen layers in the storage bag.
If Sun Juehu didn't use her spiritual sense to probe carefully, she could only sense something vaguely.
She was visiting incognito, so she would not reveal her identity, nor would she use her spiritual sense to explore carefully. He could be considered to have passed the test because of a fluke.
Ye Anping was silent for a while, then sighed. "Senior, your cultivation level is really high. I think you must have noticed the strange thing in my storage bag."
Sun Juehu smiled. "Hehe...I'm just curious. What kind of thing can an early-stage Core Formation cultivator have in his storage bag that has such spiritual energy? Don't worry, I just want to take a look to satisfy my curiosity."
Ye Anping nodded with a smile and cupped his hands. Then, he raised his sword finger, and the Snow Jade Spirit Sword flew out of his storage bag.
In a flash, cold air spread inside the pavilion, and Feng Yu Die, who was lying soundly asleep on the table, also felt the cold and shrunk her body even more.
When the two people outside the pavilion saw this, they widened their eyes and stepped forward, but Sun Juehu raised his hand to stop them.
"Oh? This spiritual sword is..."
"I happened to find it somewhere in the Sword Sect. Seeing that the sword was made of black ice, I thought it should come from the Northern Region, so I came here to look for clues about this sword. Unexpectedly, I met a large number of demonic cultivators, so I was stuck in the Heavenly Wind City..."
Sun Juehu was slightly shocked. She asked, "Mr. Yun, do you know the origin of this sword?"
"I don't know. Please enlighten me, Senior."
Sun Juehu was silent for a moment, then smiled: "Hehe... I don't know either, but this sword should have been made by a famous craftsman in the Northern Region. Judging from the blade, it must be at least ten thousand years old..."
She gently stroked the sword with her right index finger, but just as her fingertips touched it, an icicle suddenly appeared on the blade and pressed against her fingertips, as if rejecting her.
Sun Juehu's eyes flashed with anger. Ye Anping was also "scared", and he quickly grabbed the hilt of his sword. He lowered his head, apologizing. "Sorry, Senior... This sword seems to have personality. I don't know why, but if anyone touches it except me, it will..."
Sun Juehu looked at Ye Anping and replied with a forced smile, "It's fine. All spiritual swords have a temper of their own, it's just a matter of level. I'm the one who overstepped my bounds, so don't take it to heart. However, it seems that this sword has quite a strong personality."
Ye Anping smiled back. "Ahaha..."
"Anyway, I am the personal maid of the Cold Country Empress, and my name is Sun. I came to Heavenly Wind City today because I heard that Commander Xu led the Snow Guards to kill a Nascent Soul demonic cultivator. Let me ask you, is this true?"
"It's true. I also participated in the fight that day. Commander Xu fought against a hundred of them by herself and led the Snow Guards of the Heavenly Wind City to exterminate a Nascent Soul and a hundred Foundation Building demonic cultivators."
"I see..."
Sun Juehu took one last look at Ye Anping, then stood up and nodded slightly. "I've disturbed you two from enjoying this rare sunny day in the Northern Region. I'll take my leave now."
Ye Anping returned the salute, cupping his hands. "Senior, take care."
Watching Sun Juehu and the two jade-masked guards heading deeper into the garden, Ye Anping breathed a sigh of relief and quickly put the Snow Jade Spirit Sword back into his storage bag.
He really didn't expect Sun Juehu to come, but it seemed that he had managed to conceal his identity.
Of course, it was easy to conceal it once, after all, they met for the first time.
However, if Sun Juehu came knocking on his door again tomorrow, he would most likely be exposed.
Moreover, Xu Mulan knew his identity and knew that Xiao Yunluo was his cultivation partner.
If Sun Juehu found out from her that he was the cultivation partner of the Young Lady of the Black Star Sect, she would definitely link him to Si Xuanji.
Sun Juehu tried to suppress Old Madam Si by all means. If she knew that he had a close relationship with her, she would definitely drag him to Cold Moon City and treat him well with good wine and good food...
In other words, he would be treated as a hostage and be her trump card.
Ye Anping reached out and pinched Feng Yu Die's face. "Get up!"
"Eh?"
Feng Yu Die sat up with dull eyes and saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth. When it was about to drip down on her arm, it was inhaled back into her mouth.
"Hiss-- Huh? What's wrong?"
"Take me to Commander Xu. After that, you go find Yunluo and the others and tell them to pack up. We return to the Western Region tonight."
"Ah? So urgent?"
"Yes, it's an emergency. If we don't leave now, we will not be able to leave later. I just managed to get by, but it won't be long before she reacts."
"Who will react?"
"The Empress of the Cold Country, Sun Juehu."
"Ah? Where?"
"..."
Ye Anping looked at her dazed expression and couldn't help but pinch her face again.
"Let's go now. Push me to look for Commander Xu first. I have some things to say to her and Xiyue. After that, you go look for Yunluo and Lianxue and tell them to pack up quickly, take Longling to the tea stall outside the Commander's Mansion, and wait for me."
"Oh..."
Feng Yu Die nodded blankly. She looked at the roasted chicken that Ye Anping had gnawed to the bones, hesitated for a while, then picked up a bone before putting it to her lips.
Chirp~~
"Hmm, it tastes right."
?
Ye Anping looked at her confused. "What are you doing?"
"Ah?... Nothing, nothing, let's go."
Feng Yu Die smiled coyly as she held the chicken bone in her mouth like a dog and got up, then pushed Ye Anping's wheelchair toward the garden's moon-shaped gate.
Ye Anping hurriedly stopped her. "Go through the back door. She went to the front..."
"Oh!"
Feng Yu Die quickly turned around and pushed Ye Anping toward the other end.
...
At this moment, Sun Juehu, who walked out of another moon-shaped door, frowned slightly, recalling Ye Anping's face.
"The Snow Jade Spirit Sword, which has not been seen for thousands of years, suddenly appeared in front of me today. Who is that kid..."
The two guards with jade masks stepped forward. "Your Majesty, do you want us to arrest that guy and bring him in for questioning?"
"What's the rush? Can a person in a wheelchair run away? I will talk to him tomorrow, and we will know his background in a few days."
"...Yes."
"Anyway..." Sun Juehu narrowed her eyes, suddenly asking, "Do you think that kid is handsome?"
The two guards cowered, afraid that they would lose their heads if they answered carelessly, so they dared not answer.
Sun Juehu shook her head and waved. "I think he's quite handsome. There's no handsome man like him in the harem."
"When I go back, I will tell the Selection Pavilion..."
Sun Juehu glanced at the man. "I meant that you should draw him."
"Ah... yes... I obey your command."