“Little Junior Sister’s storage space is already full,” Ning Shiyue spoke up first to explain.
She lived by the principle that it would be a sin to pass up a good deal, and she had nearly stripped that talisman shop bare.
Even now, Ning Shiyue still couldn’t figure out why that shop had been so accommodating to her every request.
“Full? Just how much stuff did you two buy?” Baili Wenyue asked, his eyes wide with shock.
“Hmph! Look at you, acting like you’ve never seen the world before. We didn’t actually buy that much—it’s just that this token’s storage space is too small,” Ning Shiyue said with a roll of her eyes.
Baili Wenyue looked thoroughly unconvinced. He knew Ning Shiyue well enough—whenever she went shopping, she had a habit of clearing out an entire place.
Feng Qingran glanced at the token’s color and noted they still had about an hour left. “Let’s go check out some other places.”
“Sure,” Baili Wenyue and Ning Shiyue said in unison.
Qin Hanyan gave a small nod beside them.
“There are still some matters I need to attend to. If your time runs out before you’re done browsing, don’t bother looking for me—just go ahead and leave first,” Tang Chonglou said, cupping his hands in a farewell salute. His retreating figure looked somewhat lonely.
Baili Wenyue was about to call out to stop Tang Chonglou, but Ning Shiyue held him back.
“He’s always strutting around like he’s better than everyone else. Why would you even bother with him?” Ning Shiyue voiced her displeasure.
Baili Wenyue spoke in a low voice, “Fifth Senior Sister, Brother Tang is actually very lonely. He really wants to fit in with us.”
Ning Shiyue retorted defiantly, “Every time we talk to him, he acts all aloof and ignores us. That’s not loneliness—that’s arrogance.”
“Fifth Senior Sister, people are different. You can’t always judge someone just by your personal preferences,” Baili Wenyue said with a hint of helplessness.
Fifth Senior Sister had always been very clear-cut in her likes and dislikes. If she didn’t like someone, she would never give them a pleasant look, and no amount of persuasion from anyone could change that.
“I only get to live one life, so why should I force myself to please others?” Ning Shiyue wasn’t deliberately targeting Tang Chonglou.
She just couldn’t stand his arrogant demeanor.
Baili Wenyue slapped his forehead. “Fifth Senior Sister, I’m not asking you to please him. I just wish you could be a little nicer to Brother Tang.”
Qin Hanyan’s icy-cold eyes flickered with a dim light as she said to Ning Shiyue, “Shiyue, where would you like to go next?”
Ning Shiyue pouted, feeling rather wronged, and stepped forward to hug Qin Hanyan.
Seeing Ning Shiyue like this, Baili Wenyue suddenly felt a twinge of guilt.
Fifth Senior Sister just didn’t like Tang Chonglou—she hadn’t done anything excessive. Why was he lecturing her?
Back when he was still in the Baili family, weren’t there people he despised too?
And what had he done about it back then?
He had used his beast-taming abilities to summon countless venomous insects, nearly biting that person to death…
Baili Wenyue wanted to step forward and apologize, but Ning Shiyue had already grabbed Qin Hanyan and walked ahead.
A trace of regret appeared between Baili Wenyue’s brows. “Little Junior Sister, it’s over—Fifth Senior Sister is really mad!”
“Sixth Senior Brother, you were indeed a bit out of line,” Feng Qingran said before catching up with Ning Shiyue and Qin Hanyan.
Perhaps because in her previous life, Baili Wenyue hadn’t died at the hands of the Demon Sovereign, she felt nothing special upon meeting Tang Chonglou again in this life.
But Third Senior Sister and Fifth Senior Sister were different. Their tragic fates were closely tied to the Demon Sovereign.
——–
Little did they know, however.
Inside a tall building in the distance, two people had been watching everything unfold.
“Yunhai, this isn’t like you. You were actually willing to spend so much just to make a girl happy?” Baili Yuanmo’s purple eyes gleamed with a seductive charm, and his voice carried a hint of amusement.
“Boss, trading all that stuff for ten Level Seven talismans was a great deal. If I show these talismans to those two old geezers, they’d be willing to sell everything they own to buy them,” Yunhai replied, evading the question.
“You still haven’t answered my question. Have you taken a liking to Ning Shiyue?” Baili Yuanmo clearly wasn’t about to let Yunhai off the hook.
Yunhai was a loyal servant of the Baili family, bound to serve them for life.
If he wanted to find someone to carry on his bloodline, they wouldn’t stop him. But Yunhai could not fall in love with anyone!
Yunhai’s cold eyes grew deep and unfathomable. “Boss, I was born a servant of the Baili family, and I’ll die one too. Rest assured, I would never betray the Baili family for anyone!”
“Yunhai, the human heart is the hardest thing to control—especially when it comes to love,” Baili Yuanmo’s voice now carried a warning.
For thousands of years, the Baili family had shaped the culture of cultivators across the Nine Provinces.
Nowadays, cultivators focused on strengthening their own abilities and had forgotten about matters of love and desire.
In the eyes of many cultivators, beauty bewitched the heart and was nothing but an obstacle to becoming stronger.
This indirectly allowed many beautiful female cultivators to cultivate in peace, free from harassment.
Of course, there were still plenty of traditional old-timers who remained enamored with beauty…
“Boss, I have a loyalty gu worm in my body. If I ever harbor any disloyalty toward the Baili family, I will surely die a horrible death. You need not worry,” Yunhai replied in a cold tone.
Yunhai recalled the scene at Xionghu Ridge, where Ning Shiyue had wielded her whip and fought against a Void God.
Dressed in a yellow gown, graceful and radiant, her face as beautiful as the morning sun—her lively spirit seemed to have stirred something in his heart.
“Yunhai, you should know that once you fall in love with someone, even I won’t be able to save you,” Baili Yuanmo said, his purple eyes captivating and all-seeing, as if they could pierce through everything.
“Yes, Boss,” Yunhai replied, pressing his thin lips together as the ache in his chest remained faint enough to ignore.
