After Xi Lan began to talk, Peony couldn’t stop her no matter what she did. “My Bao’er and Xi Lan’s Qiao’er were snatched away by the third miss’s servants as soon as they were born, and we don’t even get to see them once a month. The third miss even said that, if we didn’t behave, we would never see our children again. When you showed up at the Yun manor yesterday, Miss, we were told to bring our children to visit you. The moment you left, they were snatched away. Miss, please save us!” Xi Lan sobbed. By her side, Peony stood with her head hung low, tears silently dripping down her face.

“Yun Ruoyu!” Yun Ruoyan turned and stared at her sister. “Where are their children? Bring them here now! I’m taking them away with me today!”

Yun Ruoyu had been momentarily stupefied by Yun Ruoyan’s indiscriminate slaughter, and she had just recovered from that shock. Straightening her back, she said, “Sister Ruoyan, this is the Yun manor. Xi Lan and Peony are servants of the Yun manor, and they have to follow my rules.”

“Rules?” Yun Ruoyan’s eyes turned cold. The Feilai Blade slowly revolved around her body as she exuded killing intent. “I’ve been in the otherworld for three years. There, the strong are those who make the rules, the laws; the weak obey them or die. Do you still want to discuss these rules with me?”

“Sister Ruoyan, I’m your sister! Do you intend to kill me?” Yun Ruoyu’s face was distorted from shock and anger, but she couldn’t let her servants see her humbled. “Ah!” Suddenly, she screamed, The Feilai Blade had suddenly sliced at her hair, then flew into the yard and provoked screams from all the gathered servants.

“Yun Ruoyu, I expected your mother’s death to have taught you a lesson. I hardly expect you to be a virtuous woman, but you’re just as bad as before! We’ve lived together for so many years, and you should know my temper. Don’t exhaust my patience!”

“I’m aware, of course.” As a servant helped her up, Yun Ruoyu instructed another servant to bring Xi Lan’s and Peony’s children to the room. “I intended on educating the children for them, but to think my good intentions would be misinterpreted in this manner…” She sighed wearily.

Not long afterwards, Bao’er and Qiao’er were brought into the room, and Xi Lan and Peony hurriedly clutched them with looks of delight on their faces.

“Xi Lan, Peony, let’s go!”

“I won’t send you out, Sister,” Yun Ruoyu called out from behind.

Yun Ruoyan stilled, then turned back. “I’m not done with you yet, Yun Ruoyu. Once Father comes out of his closed cultivation, you can be sure that I’ll be talking to him about this.”

Yun Ruoyu trembled with rage as she watched Yun Ruoyan and her servants leave, clutching her hands so tightly that she almost drew blood.

“Miss, now that the second miss is back, I’m afraid our lives will get harder from now on,” Yun Ruoyu’s maid murmured to her.

“Peh! She’s not from the Yun family at all—just a bastard child born to her mother and some ruffian!” Yun Ruoyu muttered acidly. “If not for the fact that she’s the consort of the Slaughtering King—come, let’s go to Father.”

Yun Lan was in closed cultivation in a secluded cottage in the Yun manor. The first time she had been to the cottage was almost three months ago, when Yun Lan himself had brought her here. She was shocked to discover a new part of the manor in which she had spent her entire life.

“The final stage of my cultivation technique requires that I be in closed cultivation for eighty-one days. I’ll leave the manor’s tasks and duties to you for the time being; don’t disturb me unless it’s something major,” he had told Yun Ruoyu.

Yun Ruoyan’s return… was probably big news.

Just as Yun Ruoyu approached the entrance to the cottage, she heard Yun Lan’s voice. “Yu’er, is something the matter?”

Yun Ruoyu stopped short. “Father, Sister Ruoyan’s back. She came to the Yun manor both today and yesterday. I was thoughtless when welcoming her back, and she forcibly sacked one of our servants. Today, she killed another two servants for no rhyme or reason. Father, do you want to meet with her? I’m afraid she’ll do something even more extreme tomorrow, and that I won’t be able to stop her…”

“I understand. Ignore her. I’ll talk to her once I’m done here, so if there’s nothing else, leave,” Yun Lan replied coldly.

“Yes, Father.” Yun Ruoyu glanced at the small cottage in front of her, but the windows and doors were tightly shut, and she couldn’t see within. “Father, are the Buddha and Bodhisattva statues of use to your cultivation?” Yun Ruoyu asked again.

“Indeed,” Yun Lan replied. “Once I reach the final stage of my cultivation technique, I’ll certainly reward you.”

The Buddha and Bodhisattva statues that Yun Ruoyu referred to were the demonic statues that Qin Jianmei had left behind. Yun Ruoyan had tossed them into the flames, but Yun Ruoyu, who was secretly observing the scene from the side of the teahouse, had rescued them. Initially, she had intended on using them for her own cultivation following what her mother had taught her, but Yun Lan found her first.

Even more surprisingly, Yun Lan asked Yun Ruoyu to hand over the two statues. She didn’t know how Yun Lan had learned of the two demonic statues that her mother had spent more than half her life deifying, but she didn’t dare refuse her own father.

Shortly afterwards, Yun Lan entered closed cultivation with the two statues, and she became the de facto head of the Yun household. Yun Ruoyu felt rather pleased with the situation—after all, she wasn’t a particularly gifted cultivator to begin with, and it was far more pleasurable to lord over a whole manor of servants than to cultivate in mind-numbing boredom.

If Yun Ruoyan hadn’t returned, her idyllic life would have continued for good, but now that Yun Ruoyan had returned, now that she was criticizing and rebuking her despite having married out of the Yun family…

Yun Lan was deeply engrossed in his own cultivation, so Yun Ruoyu could only rely on herself. Luckily, she had planned for this very encounter. “Yun Ruoyan, you’re the one asking to die. Don’t blame me.” She smiled eerily, then began walking away from the secluded cottage.

Within the cottage itself, amidst an icy-cold antechamber, the Buddha and Bodhisattva statues sat in front of Yun Lan. His face alternated between blue and red, a sign that his spiritual energy and blood were frothing.

After what seemed like long moments, he forced the redness from his face and to his fingertips, where he coagulated two beads of blood infused with his own spiritual energy. He touched one bead to each of the statues, which absorbed the beads instantly.

The statues’ eyes began glowing a deep red.

“Finally, I’ve revived them!” Despite the startling pallor of his face, Yun Lan was unbelievably agitated and happy. He stood up, carried the two statues in his arms, and walked inside the main chamber. The centerpiece of the chamber was a bed of frozen jade, which was sending freezing air throughout the room. On the bed laid a person. Her features were obscured by the cold mist surrounding the bed, but her red dress made it clear that she was a woman.

Yun Lan walked to the side of the frozen-jade bed and placed the statues on either side of the bed. “Yuemei, I can finally save you,” he murmured. “I’ve kept guard over you for all these years, and I’ve finally found a way to revive you!”

As he smiled, he dispelled the mists surrounding the woman. Yun Ruoyan would have been shocked by the sight in front of him: Lin Yuemei’s face was almost identical to her own, except for her lighter brows and sharper chin.

Everyone had thought Lin Yuemei dead until Lin Zainan discovered that Lin Yuemei’s tomb contained a skeleton that wasn’t hers. From then on, the Lin family had continued to search desperately for Lin Yuemei, hoping against hope that she was still alive. However, no one would have guessed that Yun Lan had ensconced her within her former residence in the Yun manor.

“Yuemei, you won’t blame me for having kept you on this frozen bed for so long, will you?” Yun Lan lightly caressed her face. “I didn’t have a choice. Only this frozen-jade bed made from the spiritual treasures from the tallest peaks of the Chenyuan continent could preserve your body for so long, giving me the opportunity to find a method to save you. These two statues have the power of revival, and I’ll be able to save you in another thirty-two days. After that, our family of three—you, me, and Xiao’er—will finally unite. And there’s Ruoyan too, she’s returned safely from the otherworld. As long as you wake up, you’ll be able to see her. She might not be my daughter, but if it makes you happy, I’ll treat her as though she were my own blood. I’ll do anything to see you awake again, Yuemei, Yuemei…”

The vicinity of the cottage was completely silent, and the doors and windows of the cottage were shut tight. The interior of the cottage was illuminated by pearls-of-night and filled with cold, cloying mist. On the roof of the cottage lay two black-clad men, one of whom motioned to the other to report back to Yun Ruoyan.

The other man nodded and was just about to leave when they heard a voice from within. “Who’s there?”

Yun Lan flew out of a window and began attacking the two stealthed men from mid-air.