Chapter 11

Xie Wenyin walked to the table and picked up that exquisite medicine bottle, holding it in her palm.

Through the gaps around the stopper, a faint, bitter scent drifted out.

Xie Wenyin leaned closer to smell it, and unexpectedly caught a trace of a clear, chilly aura familiar to her—one that belonged to only a single person.

Her intuition told her that Feng Ning had come to her room.

Unconsciously, Xie Wenyin rubbed the body of the bottle with her fingertips, her eyes curving into crescent moons.

But when she thought of what had happened yesterday, she heaved a heavy sigh again.

Her heart was a mess.

The sky darkened. Even though the wound on her calf was still aching faintly, Xie Wenyin did not plan to rest.

She walked out of her room and looked toward the full moon hanging in the sky—it was the fifteenth again.

She still remembered the scene from last time, when she and Feng Ning had admired the moon together on the summit of Yuechu Peak. It felt as if it had happened only yesterday.

Xie Wenyin sighed once more.

She had not been like this before. When had she started liking sighing so much?

Facing the bright moonlight, Xie Wenyin dragged her injured leg and climbed to the summit of Yuechu Peak again.

She was so tired that sweat covered her forehead. She felt that she really did love torturing herself for no reason, but after tormenting herself like this, her heart actually felt much more at ease.

Her face was softened by the moonlight, and her tied-up long hair was outlined in silver-white.

A young woman beneath the moon, her worries frosted over, leaning alone against the western wall, wishing to tell the secrets in her heart to the night wind.

Xie Wenyin suddenly wanted to make a wish to the moon.

She clasped her hands together and silently prayed in her heart:

Please let Senior Sister believe me. Let her favorability suddenly surge and scare me!

[…Host, your wish is truly plain and simple.]

Hearing the system say this, Xie Wenyin also felt that her heart was not sincere enough. So she made the wish again.

“I hope Senior Sister will be safe, happy, and at peace. May she never be hurt, never fall sick, and never be lonely. read the original at bailiantales.com Of course, I also hope Senior Sister can like me a little more. Favorability, up, up!”

[System notification: Senior Sister’s favorability +10. Current favorability: -190.]

Eh?? Could it be that the Moon Goddess had really shown her power?

Xie Wenyin stood in surprise and delight. The moment she turned her head, she saw a figure appear beneath the old locust tree.

The woman leaned against the locust tree as if she were boneless, her eyes narrowed. In that hazy instant, they seemed to overlap with the long, slender eyes of a spirit fox. Her amber pupils glowed faintly, reflecting only Xie Wenyin.

One of Feng Ning’s hands hung lazily at her side, while the other lifted and pointed at the stunned Xie Wenyin.

“So late at night. What are you howling about?”

Xie Wenyin felt that Senior Sister’s voice was truly pleasant to hear, like a clear spring running through a mountain stream.

She laughed awkwardly. “Hehe, I was singing.”

Feng Ning gave a rare scoff. “You should spare the spirit birds of my Yuechu Peak.”

Xie Wenyin felt that Senior Sister’s laugh was even more pleasant to hear.

She did not know why Senior Sister had also come here in the middle of the night. Xie Wenyin stood to [unauthorized copy]the side, not daring to ask, afraid Senior Sister would find her noisy.

Staying obediently silent was the best strategy.

But she also really wanted to ask whether that bottle of spiritual medicine had been given by Senior Sister.

Xie Wenyin stood there, wanting to step forward one moment and retreating the next, conflictedly picking at her fingers.

All these small movements were taken in by Feng Ning.

Feng Ning slowly walked toward her. Then she directly passed Xie Wenyin and sat down at the stone table nearby, conjuring a pot of green plum wine and drinking on her own.

…Senior Sister really isn’t paying attention to me! She isn’t even asking whether I have something to say!

Xie Wenyin lowered her head and wailed at Feng Ning, “Senior Sister, you have no heart. How could you just start drinking by yourself…”

You’re not even showing me a little concern.

Feng Ning raised the cup to her lips, and her lifted sleeve concealed the smile in her eyes.

[System notification: Senior Sister’s favorability +5.]

Xie Wenyin felt puzzled. Could it be that Senior Sister would increase favorability whenever [unauthorized copy]she saw her looking pitiful?

Senior Sister’s preferences were truly strange.

Seeing her at a loss, Feng Ning mercifully replied, “Mm. Then say it.”

Now you ask me? Seeing Feng Ning look utterly unconcerned, Xie Wenyin suddenly felt a little angry.

Xie Wenyin did not know where her courage came from. Her head heated, and she strode up to Feng Ning, snatched the wine cup from her hand, and made as if to drink.

Feng Ning watched her leisurely, a rare trace of warmth tinting her eyes.

“That day, this Venerable’s cup had been drugged by you, yet I was completely fine. You got drunk after drinking only one cup. Don’t force yourself.”

Xie Wenyin’s lips had already touched the rim of the cup. Hearing Feng Ning’s reminder, the hand holding the cup paused.

Wait. If Senior Sister said that… then she must have known that day that the cup had been drugged!

“Senior Sister… since you saw long ago that something had been mixed into the cup, why did you still drink it…” Xie Wenyin asked cautiously.

Originally, she thought Feng Ning would surely say that her strength was peerless, that this level of charm drug counted as nothing. In the end, the other woman merely said,

“I felt like it. What’s it to you?”

“Oh…”

Looking at Feng Ning’s proud, aloof manner, Xie Wenyin only felt that she was extremely captivating. She touched her somewhat hot cheeks and placed the wine cup back on the stone table.

Feng Ning glanced at the cup before her, then reached out and picked it up. Her lips touched the rim, where there seemed to still be the lingering warmth of another person.

Xie Wenyin watched Feng Ning drain the wine in one gulp.

Senior Sister… doesn’t dislike me. Xie Wenyin felt her whole body grow warm and toasty, even though she herself had not drunk any wine.

Feng Ning was fond of this mouthful of green plum wine, so she drank a little more.

If Xie Wenyin were not unused to the wine of the cultivation world, she definitely would have accompanied Feng Ning for a few cups. Drinking alone was inevitably a bit lonely.

She pursed her lips. “It would be nice if I could drink with you, Senior Sister.”

“Right now, you are keeping me company.”

The night wind wandered among the mountain rocks, dispersing much of the wine scent around Feng Ning. She slowly stood.

“Go back. The wind is strong at night.”

Xie Wenyin nodded and followed Feng Ning toward the edge of the cliff.

Just as Feng Ning was about to leave, Xie Wenyin suddenly called out to stop her.

“Senior Sister, are you… really planning to become Dao companions with Divine Lord Huaiyu? I think you should examine his character a little more…”

Feng Ning’s steps paused. Her beautiful eyes, which had originally been somewhat hazy, instantly cleared, and she looked at Xie Wenyin with confusion.

“When did this Venerable ever say I was going to marry anyone?”

Xie Wenyin immediately stopped her awkward, hesitant questioning and abruptly lifted her head.

“I heard many disciples in the outer sect say it. They said Senior Sister was going to become Dao companions with Divine Lord Huaiyu. The moment I heard it, I rushed to look for you! But I couldn’t find you…”

Before she finished speaking, Xie Wenyin suddenly realized that she had accidentally revealed how urgently she had gone looking for Senior Sister. Her cheeks heated, and she immediately tried to cover for herself.

“It… wasn’t that urgent.”

“In any case, I didn’t find you, but I saw Divine Lord Huaiyu’s figure, so I thought of following him to take a look, to see whether he was someone worthy of being entrusted with Senior Sister… I really wasn’t lying…”

Her voice grew softer and softer as she spoke.

Feng Ning remained silent for a long time, only gazing at Xie Wenyin as if she were dazed.

After a long while, she said softly, “I know.”

“Also, remember to apply the medicine.”

Before Xie Wenyin could reply, Feng Ning turned, and her figure disappeared without a trace.

“Senior Sister really comes and goes without a shadow…” Xie Wenyin looked around at the empty surroundings and shrugged helplessly.

[System notification: Senior Sister’s favorability +5. Current favorability: -180.]

Tonight had truly been a rich harvest. It had to be because her heart was sincere. The wish in her heart had actually come true. Xie Wenyin happily walked down the mountain. Perhaps the spiritual medicine Feng Ning had sent over was extremely effective, because the stinging pain at her wound had already lessened by more than half.

Xie Wenyin greedily thought that it would be great if Senior Sister could add this much favorability every day.

It was just that this inner demon really was hard to remove.

Thinking of this, Xie Wenyin called out the system. “System, Senior Sister’s inner demon value is so high. Just thinking about it worries me. Do you have any way to reduce it a little?”

[Host, don’t worry. Lord Moon Goddess’s inner demon value is still some distance from its peak. Once you enter the inner sect and your strength greatly increases, you’ll have a chance to enter secret realms and search for treasures. Perhaps there bailiantales.com will be some magic treasures you can use to lower Moon Goddess’s inner demon value.]

Originally, Xie Wenyin should have been very happy to hear this news. After all, as long as Feng Ning did not die, she would not die either. But she did not know when it had started—Xie Wenyin was no longer satisfied with only this.

She sincerely hoped Feng Ning could live her whole life safe, happy, and at peace, unhurt, untormented by inner demons, and not lonely.

Not wandering at the edge of her inner demon’s limit, suffering under its destruction.

Xie Wenyin let out a long breath and clenched her fists.

“Senior Sister, just wait. Your junior sister has plenty of strength and methods. I’ll definitely raise you to be healthy and well!”

[(Snickering) Host has such ambition. Keep it up!]

—

Feng Ning did not return to her sleeping hall. Instead, she left Yuechu Peak directly and headed in the opposite direction, toward Yinwu Residence—Huaiyu’s dwelling.

Feng Ning did not conceal her aura in the slightest, so the master of Yinwu Residence immediately sensed her.

Huaiyu pushed open the door and saw that the person standing before him was the very one he thought of day and night yet could not approach in the slightest. He hurriedly went forward to greet her.

“A… Feng Ning, you drank?”

His sleeve drifted forward in the wind, and the instant it touched Feng Ning’s cloak, she turned sideways and avoided it.

“…” Huaiyu’s raised hand stopped in midair.

Feng Ning’s voice was not heavy, but it carried endless authority.

“Huaiyu, you should be clear on what should be done and what should not be done. Some petty schemes should not be played.”

The other party silently withdrew his hand, his voice trembling. “I… did I do something wrong? Or did you hear something from someone, A Ning?”

Feng Ning’s calmness made him seem somewhat hysterical.

“Huaiyu, this Venerable has always regarded you as a younger brother. It is absolutely impossible for there to be any deeper relationship between us. Conduct yourself properly. Otherwise, do not blame me for showing no mercy.”

“But I don’t want to stay by your side only as a younger brother.”

“Then an ordinary fellow Daoist will do as well.”

Huaiyu stopped speaking. All color drained from his face. He was glad he was Peng Lin’s younger brother, and because of that, he had received special care from Feng Ning, his elder sister’s close friend.

But he was also disappointed that he was Peng Lin’s younger unauthorized copy brother, because this made it impossible for him and Feng Ning to ever take another step forward.

Feng Ning no longer wanted to see Huaiyu’s gloomy, bitter expression. She had said everything that needed to be said, so she did not remain in Yinwu Residence for even a moment longer.

A very strange thought appeared in her heart.

She actually wanted to tell Xie Wenyin about how she had warned Huaiyu.

If Xie Wenyin knew, would she smile…

Feng Ning suddenly felt that she must have drunk too much tonight to have such an absurd thought.

She was probably mad.

Forget it. After sleeping, her mind would be clear again.