Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 213: Entrapment

“If you’re homosexuals, why frequent a brothel?!” the beauty cried out, instantly attracting a few curious glances.

Yun Ruoyan immediately pulled Li Mo out of the brothel, choking down her laughter.

As the night grew deeper and the crowds left Yuelu Villa in droves, Li Mo hid with Yun Ruoyan in a rather dilapidated location. As soon as the last guests left, Yuelu Villa became perfectly silent. They didn’t have to wait too long to see a carriage enter the villa.

Carriages were forbidden in Yuelu Villa, so the guests in this carriage must have been quite extraordinary. Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo followed the carriage into a secluded but exquisite courtyard, where the carriage stopped and two people walked out.

Under the moonlight, Yun Ruoyan could see that one of them was a white-haired elder, and the other was a youth. The elder was none other than the owner of the Yuelu Villa, Dong Tiehe, and the youth was his grandson and the fourth prince of the kingdom, Li Qianyue.

The two of them got off the carriage and into the mansion. Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo followed suit, climbing onto the rooftop silently. The Yuelu Villa had always been under the secret surveillance of the Slaughtering King’s manor’s guards, and Li Mo had received news that Dong Tiehe had been trying to figure out how to enter Kongming Academy.

Li Mo pried a glass pane up as the two of them descended into the mansion.

“I’ve planned it out with Rong Tianling. He’ll bring you up the Kongming Summit under the pretense of visiting his brother. At that point, sneak into the tall tower as one of his servants. The all-seeing mirror is on the roof of the tower. After you find it, follow my instructions to the letter.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

“Yue’er, this is a very important affair. Once you’ve achieved what I told you to, you’ll be able to establish relations with another realm. I’ve told you ever since you were little that the Chenyuan continent’s nothing compared to the higher realms, haven’t I? While I’m alive, I’d like to see you journey into these other worlds and emerge truly strong.” Dong Tiehe’s voice was passionate in the extreme.

“Yes, Grandfather. I’ll prepare for the journey now and leave tomorrow with Master Rong.”

Not long after Li Qianyue left, Dong Tiehe went to sleep, and Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan crept away.

“Li Mo, are there truly other dimensions beyond this one?”

“Of course. But this is a secret that only those from Kongming Academy can be aware of. Now that you’re officially a student of Kongming Academy, I can reveal it to you.”

From Li Mo, Yun Ruoyan found out that many other parallel dimensions and spaces existed in this universe, and the Chenyuan continent was one of the most mundane—indeed, it was only safe precisely because of how mundane it was.

Those cultivators who were strong enough to travel between dimensions would often wage bitter war in order to seize land and rare treasures from any dimension to which they had access. The Chenyuan continent was too weak to birth such potent treasures, but, conversely, those from the Chenyuan continent would have a chance to seize immense power given the opportunity to travel to other dimensions.

Every three years, the space between dimensions would weaken. In Kongming Academy, ninth-rank and above blademasters would be given the opportunity to traverse other dimensions in search of opportunities for growth and to obtain rare pills and treasures.

Sage-grade treasures were abundant in the universe, but required comparative strength to acquire. None of the students who had managed to survive the ordeal of parallel dimensions had ended up weak, but few were the ones who survived.

What shocked Yun Ruoyan was that her father Yun Lan had been one such student. The head of the Wang family, leader of the coalition of merchants that spanned the Chenyuan continent, was another such, as were the elders of Kongming Academy.

“Have you been to this space?”

Li Mo shook his head. “Master told me that a ninth-rank blademaster would be an ordinary existence without much of an advantage, so he had me wait until I became a sword saint, at which point it would be harder for me to die. However, without the assistance of sage-grade spiritual pills, it’s too hard to reach that realm. I’ve been stuck as a peak ninth-rank blademaster for three years now.”

He turned to Yun Ruoyan. “Yan’er, I promise I’ll help you become a ninth-rank blademaster as soon as possible. Once that happens, we’ll head to a parallel dimension together.”

“Alright!”

Now that they were waiting for Li Qianyue to head to Kongming Academy, they didn’t have to spend much time surveilling Dong Tiehe any longer. Except when she went to visit Lin Zainan and Zhuo Lin’er, Yun Ruoyan remained in the Slaughtering King’s manor to cultivate. In the end, she hadn’t managed to break through to eighth-rank, and remained a peak seventh-rank blademaster. However, her pillmaster cultivation grew by leaps and bounds under Li Mo’s tutelage, shocking Lin Zainan.

Li Mo found Yun Ruoyan’s bottleneck quite surprising: after all, as a human furnace, Yun Ruoyan shouldn’t have experienced anything of the sort. Likely, it was a remnant influence of the poison that had invaded her body from before her birth.

After three days, Yun Moxiao had Li Luo send Yun Ruoyan a message: Yun Ruoyao’s remains had finally been buried, and the Yun manor was temporarily at peace once more. The same day, the Lin siblings and Zhuo Yifeng finally arrived back in the capital.

Li Mo personally sent Yun Ruoyan to the Yun manor, where Yun Lan was shocked to discover that Yun Ruoyan had become Li Mo’s discipline. Luckily, Li Mo was known to be rather eccentric and to do as he pleased, and his supposed betrothal with Yun Ruoyan hadn’t been widely announced. After a momentary shock, Yun Lan became quite receptive to the idea.

After Li Mo left, Yun Lan asked his daughter about what had happened to Yun Ruoyao during the trial, and she responded honestly. During the trial, she hadn’t interacted with her sister much, and her death had nothing to do with her. As a result, Yun Ruoyan’s conscience was at ease.

Nevertheless, Yun Ruoyao’s death had affected her father quite severely. His eyes were bloodshot, and he hadn’t seemed to get a good night’s rest recently.

Yun Lan stared broodingly at his daughter with bloodshot eyes for quite a while. Just as Yun Ruoyan thought he would say something, he asked for her to leave. Not long after she began walking back to her own cottage, she saw Yi Qianying walk over, supporting Madam An.

Yun Ruoyan intended to head down a side path to avoid a confrontation, but Yi Qianying piped up from behind, “Are you feeling guilty, Sister? After all, you’re walking away so quickly.”

Yun Ruoyan stopped moving and turned around to face the two women walking over. Madam An was withered and skeletal in her grief, but her eyes stared at Yun Ruoyan with untempered resentment. Beside her, Yi Qianying smiled coldly.

“What do you mean? Why should I be guilty?” Yun Ruoyan retorted.

“You killed Sister Ruoyao. Why else wouldn’t you be willing to face Mother?”

“Yi Qianying, you truly are getting more skilled at talking nonsense. Alright, I’ll give you a chance to explain how exactly I killed Yun Ruoyao.” Yun Ruoyan folded her arms across her chest.

“You lured me and Sister Ruoyao into a horde of beasts, and then watched from afar. Luckily, Young Master Pei arrived in time to save me, but Sister Ruoyao wasn’t so lucky! She was surrounded by beasts and died so miserably…”

Yi Qianying had always been good at making up stories, and her acting was certainly skillful enough to convince Madam An of her words. As she spoke, she glanced askance at Madam An, whose face was trembling with rage and indignation.

As long as someone was willing to believe her lies, they might as well be the truth!

“Mother, you have to avenge Sister Ruoyao!” Yi Qianying poured oil on fire.

“Yun Ruoyan, you killed my daughter! I’ll have you pay with your life!” Madam An finally exploded, pouncing on Yun Ruoyan with a shrill shriek.

Her cultivation was far too low to be a match for Yun Ruoyan, but Yun Ruoyan couldn’t use excessive force against her. She could only dodge and weave around her telegraphed attacks, but the crazed Madam An was so doggedly chasing her that she eventually managed to grab her shoulder and began clawing at her without any sense of propriety or decorum.

Yun Ruoyan grabbed Madam An by the hand and twisted it as Madam An shrieked.

“Help, help! The second miss is beating Madam An!” Yi Qianying’s maid suddenly began to cry out, causing such a large commotion that others came to investigate.

“Aren’t you going to report the incident to the master? Don’t just gawk!” Yi Qianying called out to the gathered servants, then began running at Yun Ruoyan.

“Yun Ruoyan, how dare you hurt Mother! Let her go immediately!” Yi Qianying’s hand clawed toward her. It looked as though she was just trying to pull her apart, but Yi Qianying’s palm was layered with a sheen of spiritual energy almost invisible to the naked eye. The palm that reached for her shoulder suddenly changed direction midway and headed toward her neck instead.

Yun Ruoyan reacted rapidly, condensing spiritual energy onto a point directly beyond her index finger, then used that finger to meet Yi Qianying’s incoming palm.

“Argh!” Yi Qianying felt as though lightning had struck her heart, the sensation so painful and shocking that she landed on the ground with a thud.

“Why did the second miss start fighting with Madam An and Miss Yi right after she returned?”

“I heard that the eldest miss’s death was caused by the second miss!”

The gathered servants murmured hushed whispers to each other as they watched on in surprise.

“Stop this foolishness!” Yun Lan’s voice came from afar.

The servants quickly made way for the master of the household.

“Master.” Madam An immediately loosened her grip on Yun Ruoyan’s hand when she saw Yun Lan approach, then tugged harshly. Yun Ruoyan let go in surprise, and Madam An slid onto the ground, hit her head against a rock, and began bleeding profusely.

“Aunt!” Yi Qianying screamed, rushing to help her up.

Madam An sobbed. “Master, you have to back me and Ruoyao up!”

“Uncle,” Yi Qianying added. “Yun Ruoyan behaved atrociously against Madam An as soon as she returned. Won’t you do something about the matter?”

Yun Lan glanced at Yi Qianying and replied coldly, “This is a matter for the Yun family. There’s no need for you to get involved, Concubine Yi. I’ll handle the matter personally.”

Yi Qianying immediately curbed her emotions as she continued, “I apologize for stepping overboard, Uncle, but please, I can’t see Madam An get maltreated like this!”

“Father,” Yun Ruoyan suddenly began. “Sister Ruoyao’s death had nothing to do with me, and Madam An fell of her own accord.” She looked toward her father as steadfastly as ever.

On the other hand, Madam An pounced at Yun Lan. “Master, she was clearly the one who killed Yao’er! Master, you have to support our dead daughter!”