Not long after, the servants that Madam An had dispatched finally found Pei Ziao. His gaze was fixed on Yun Ruoyan as he approached the pavilion.

She was sitting by her grandmother’s side, her rose-colored dress making her appear like a fairy, beautiful and elegant amidst the backdrop of the phoenix orchids. From the side, she was as radiant as an orchid’s petal, so pale and pink that it made one want to reach out and knead her skin.

Pei Ziao couldn’t help but rub his hands as he approached.

Yun Ruoyan and the Yun matriarch seemed to be laughing together about something, and they didn’t seem to notice his presence.

Pei Ziao was just about to ask where Yun Ruoyan had been when he suddenly saw a girl lying on the floor: it was Yi Qianying’s maid, He Xiang.

“Why’s your maid kneeling here?” He asked curiously, glancing toward Yi Qianying.

Her red, puffy eyes made it obvious that she had just been crying. She opened her mouth slightly and closed it firmly again, the appellation of “Brother Ziao” never leaving her lips.

“She’s made a grave mistake, and the old madam’s punishing her!” Madam An replied.

Because of his relationship with Yi Qianying, Pei Ziao was relatively familiar with He Xiang. She was pretty and obedient, and would always blush whenever he approached.

“What did she do?” Pei Ziao looked at He Xiang’s trembling back, his tone pitying.

“She…” Yun Ruoyu was about to speak when the Yun matriarch interrupted her with a cough. She turned around, but didn’t face Pei Ziao. Coolly, she informed him, “This is a matter for the Yun family, Young Master Pei.”

She used to like this handsome youth, but his current actions made him seem like a lecher of ill repute.

“I’m tired, so let’s return home,” the Yun matriarch pronounced, before extending a hand to Yun Ruoyan.

“Yes, Grandmother!” Yun Ruoyan took her hand and walked out of the pavilion with her.

As she passed by Pei Ziao’s side, he couldn’t help but ask, “Ruoyan, I was so worried that you’d accidentally ended up in the imperial hunting grounds! Where were you?”

Yun Ruoyan smiled at him coolly. “Thank you for your concern, Young Master Pei, but you’d better ask Yi Qianying about that.”

When they finally returned home after the day-long excursion, Xi Lan animatedly recounted to Peony what had happened during the day, starting from the fight for the second carriage at the beginning of the trip, all through the Yun matriarch’s kind words for Yun Ruoyan as they stepped through the door. “This was my first time seeing our mistress pouting!”

Xi Lan looked a little incredulous, then prideful. “As soon as our mistress began pouting, the old madam listened to her every word.”

“Xi Lan, that’s enough.” Yun Ruoyan couldn’t bear to hear her praise any longer. She lounged on a couch as she turned to look at Xi Lan seriously. “You can’t repeat these words outside of my rooms, do you understand?”

Peony patted Xi Lan’s forehead as she smiled. “The old madam might look old, and she doesn’t directly interfere much with the family’s affairs, but her heart’s just like a looking-glass. How could you say that she’s blindly listening to someone’s words? You’d better be more tactful, or you’ll cause a lot of trouble for all of us!”

Xi Lan stuck out her tongue before she began to smile once more. “I plucked so many phoenix orchids today! The stamens and pistils can be used to make snacks, and I’ll use the petals to make pillows, and…”

And then she rushed out of Yun Ruoyan’s rooms joyfully.

Peony poured Yun Ruoyan a hot cup of tea. “Miss, why did you spare Miss Yi today?”

The way Peony saw it, today had been a good chance to retaliate against Yi Qianying. Although Yun Ruoyan had indeed done so, she seemed to have been rather merciful, only getting rid of He Xiang.

“It’s not the right time yet!” Yun Ruoyan had a sip of tea.

Peony’s eyes lit up. If it wasn’t the right time, then did that mean there would be another opportunity in the future?

In the past, it had always been others scheming against her mistress. Only a few months prior, when Yi Qianying stole the old madam’s jade ornament, did her mistress finally begin to retaliate.

It was then that her mistress had suddenly seemed to become sharp-witted and eloquent, not only managing to clear her own name, but also to indict Yi Qianying as the true thief.

It was then that Peony had realized how completely, how drastically, her mistress had changed.

Madam An had also seemed to notice this change. In the past, she’d made Ling Lan report to her only once every two weeks or so, but now, she sought her out at least twice every week!

No longer would her mistress remain passive against these slights and schemes.

Seeing Peony’s shining eyes, Yun Ruoyan wanted to test her. “Peony, do you know when the right time would be?”

Peony frowned as she thought hard. Even if Madam An were to try to discipline her mistress, that didn’t mean she could retaliate against Yi Qianying, did it? And, according to Xi Lan, after Yi Qianying’s punishment today, she would likely refrain from trying anything new for a while.

After a pregnant pause, Peony eventually shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mistress, but I can’t think of when it would be.”

Yun Ruoyan took another sip of tea before lying down once more. “The right time will be when Grandmother finally gets tired of and begins to dislike this granddaughter of hers. At that point, even without any effort from me…”

Halfway through her thoughts, Yun Ruoyan shut her eyes.

“Miss, miss?” Peony waited for her mistress to finish her thoughts, but the rest of her words never came. She called out twice, softly, before leaving the rooms silently as soon as she confirmed that her mistress had fallen asleep.

Facing twenty guards within the imperial grounds had taken quite a toll on Yun Ruoyan. She wasn’t wounded, but it had drained her attention and stamina.

Furthermore, trying to sense the primal element of fire had been consuming a large amount of her mental capacity lately, so much so that sleep threatened to overtake her whenever she lay down to rest.

In addition, she was finally back in her own residence, and she could afford to be less alert regarding her surroundings.

The confluence of these three factors caused Yun Ruoyan to fall asleep mid-speech. She slept very well, not having even a single dream.

When Peony returned to her rooms to bring her dinner and saw her sleeping form, she covered her up with a thin blanket.

The skies turned dark as the sun set, and Yun Ruoyan’s cottage was silent.

Suddenly, there came a creak from the back window, and a shadow darker than night flitted through her rooms. An icy blue gaze swivelled around the room as Li Mo stood in front of the couch, looking at the sleeping girl on it.

Qiuqiu, cultivating in the bracelet’s pocket dimension, suddenly sensed the aura of a powerful beast approach. It was intimately familiar with this aura, that of the Slaughtering King that Yun Ruoyan had encountered during the day, and was just about to awaken Yun Ruoyan when a cool, clear voice rang in its mind.

“Qiuqiu, long time no see!”

Qiuqiu gasped—mental communication? Who else on this continent could communicate with it like this, transmitting their mental energy through the bracelet’s seal?

“Who are you?”

“You little thing… Have you lost your memories as well as your power?” That cool voice was cold, uninflected.

“You recognize me? Who are you?”

“Your master!” That voice finally seemed to get slightly angry.

“My master died tens of years ago! Who are you, and why are you trying to impersonate him?”

“A son bears his father’s debts, his burdens, and naturally, his possessions!”

Qiuqiu stood up unsteadily on its two feet. “Y-you’re the prince of beasts, Xun Mo?!”

“Ha. Recognition, at long last.”

“Xun Mo, how did you end up as royalty of the Li kingdom?”

Li Mo didn’t answer Qiuqiu’s questions, but instead asked it one of his own. “As for you, how did you end up here? I’d always thought that you’d perished with Father!”

Within the bracelet, Qiuqiu slowly sat up straight, its amber eyes turning ashen as it revealed a piece of history that had been lost to time.

“It was tens of years ago, when the Beast King and I were surrounded by those old cultivators. Someone had mounted a sneak attack against the Beast King, and he was so badly wounded that he wasn’t an opponent for them. I was mired in my own battle against the Taotie [1] and the Four Divine Beasts [2], so all I could do was watch on as he slowly succumbed to their attacks.”

Qiuqiu shut its eyes slowly. Even through the mental barrier, Li Mo could sense its grief.

“Despite all my effort, I was no match for the five beasts combined, and I expected to have perished with my master. For some reason, one of the cultivators who’d spearheaded the attack against the Beast King saw fit to seal me instead. When I awoke once again, I found myself trapped in this bracelet, large tears rending my primordial spirit, my spiritual vortex barely revolving, and it took me the larger part of ten long years to recover my body to this extent.”

Qiuqiu lowered its head as it looked at its round, chubby body before smiling bitterly.

“But in order to regain my true powers, I have to rely on a master. When the bracelet’s master unintentionally shed blood on the bracelet, I formed a blood pact with her. That’s why, Xun Mo, my current master is none other than Yun Ruoyan.”

Qiuqiu raised its round, fluffy head. “The Beast King was my previous master, but with his death came the end of our contract. I’m not a possession he left behind, and you have no right to be my master!”

“Oh? Is that so?” Li Mo’s clear, cool voice dragged out the question, sounding like a harsh winter wind.

In the dark of the night, his blue eyes landed on the sleeping form of Yun Ruoyan, slowly filling with bloodlust.

“Qiuqiu,” he murmured, his lips curling into a bloodcurdling grin, his tone so cold it seemed to freeze the world. “If I kill your new mistress, wouldn’t you be masterless once more?”

“Xun Mo, stop!” Qiuqiu could sense his bloodlust and immediately tried to stop him.

But Li Mo had already raised five long, slender fingers, forming the shape of a claw. Sharp fingernails slowly protruded from his fingernails and clawed at Yun Ruoyan’s heart!

1. Mystical beast from Chinese mythology. A glutton.

2. Four other mystical beasts that feature prominently in Asian mythology: the azure dragon, white tiger, black tortoise, and vermillion pheasant.