If I stay in the Hehuan Sect, I'll live off the pampered daughters of the Heavenly Pride Sect.

The secret room returned to silence.

Yu Jianhuan sat on the ground, leaning against the pool wall.

She wore the newly changed robes of the Yunlan Sect.

Her long, rose-purple hair was still dripping wet and clung to her collarbone.

She turned her head and glanced at the pool.

The golden-white light of the spirit pool still diffused softly, and the surface of the water was like a piece of melted warm jade.

"Junior brother."

Yu Jianhuan's voice returned to its usual coquettish tone, with words that concealed a knife.

"I've finished my soak with Junior Sister Su."

"Isn't it your turn?"

Mo Chengyue was sitting cross-legged against the corner of the wall.

With her hands behind her head, her eyes were slightly closed beneath the mask.

He didn't move.

"If you don't soak in the water soon, it won't be my problem if the water gets cold."

"The pool water won't get cold."

A muffled voice came from behind Mo Chengyue's mask.

"This is an ancient spirit pool, with its own constant temperature function."

"So what are you waiting for?"

Mo Chengyue opened his eyes.

He glanced at Yu Jianhuan.

She glanced again at Su Qingying, who was standing three steps away, her fingers still unconsciously tugging at her sleeve.

Both of them put on the robes he had taken out of his storage bag.

The standard robes of the Yunlan Sect's female cultivators are white with silver patterns, and the cut is quite appropriate.

However, when worn by Yu Jianhuan, it always gives off a subtle feeling of "wearing a school uniform in a nightclub style".

On Su Qingying, it looked like a piece of white jade wrapped in a thin veil, cool and radiant.

Mo Chengyue sighed behind the mask.

"You two turn your backs."

Yu Jianhuan narrowed her phoenix eyes.

"Turn your back?"

"I want to soak in the pool."

Mo Chengyue said it was only natural.

"You guys are done soaking, it's my turn."

"so?"

"So turn your back."

A dangerous smile crept across Yu Jianhuan's lips.

"Junior Brother Mo."

"Um."

"When we were on the back mountain of a certain peak in the sect—"

"stop."

"That time in your room when we were on our sect's giant flying ship—"

"Stop."

"And there's you and me on this cliff edge of this ruin—"

"Yu Jianhuan".

Mo Chengyue raised his voice by half an octave.

"Could you please stop with this kind of...memoir-style attack in front of my Senior Sister Su?"

Su Qingying's face darkened.

Yu Jianhuan glanced at her with satisfaction.

She turned back to Mo Chengyue and gave him a kind and innocent smile.

"What I mean is, it's not like we haven't seen it before."

She emphasized the words "seen".

"What's there to hide?"

Mo Chengyue remained silent for two breaths.

"This is called propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame."

"You, a disciple of the Hehuan Sect, are talking to me about propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame?"

"..."

Mo Chengyue found himself completely outmaneuvered on this topic.

He changed his strategy.

"Senior Sister Su is still here."

Su Qingying's body stiffened slightly.

Yu Jianhuan turned her head and scanned Su Qingying up and down with her phoenix eyes.

"Junior Sister Su."

Her tone suddenly became exceptionally warm.

"Do you want to not watch it either?"

"I won't watch it."

Su Qingying's voice was so cold it could freeze the pool water.

"That's fine then."

Yu Jianhuan turned back and Chong Mochengyue spread his hands.

"She doesn't look."

He paused for a moment.

Her phoenix eyes curved into crescent moons.

I think so.

Mo Chengyue: "..."

"You..."

His voice came from behind the mask.

With a weariness that comes from being utterly defeated.

"Can we please stop making these kinds of inappropriate programs for children?"

Yu Jianhuan leaned against the pool wall and tilted her head.

"What we've done before was far worse than this."

Why didn't you say it wasn't suitable for children back then?

Mo Chengyue's lips twitched behind his mask.

He decided to stop arguing with Yu Jianhuan about this issue.

Trying to reason with a femme fatale is inherently unreasonable.

Mo Chengyue stood up.

He didn't look at the two people again.

He placed his fingers on the collar and first untied the sash of his outer robe.

The Yunlan Sect's men's robes slipped off their shoulders and piled up at their feet.

Inside was a long-sleeved inner shirt.

He then untied his long gown.

Remove.

Fold it neatly.

Remove the mask from your face and place it on your clothes.

Place it by the pool.

The whole process was neither rushed nor slow, and the movements were crisp and efficient.

Office workers are changing into work clothes, right?

Skilled.

When the last coat landed.

Mo Chengyue was left wearing only a pair of close-fitting shorts.

Yu Jianhuan's phoenix eyes froze.

Su Qingying said "I won't look" and indeed turned her head away.

But her eyes—at an extremely subtle angle that only she knew—slanted.

Mo Chengyue's figure was completely exposed to the golden-white light mist of the spirit pool.

Broad shoulders, narrow waist, and smooth, powerful muscle lines.

It's not the kind of bloated, brute force buildup, but rather a perfect balance of the refined strength and explosive power unique to cultivators.

The muscles on his chest were clearly defined.

The faint lines of the abdomen extend all the way down to below the waistline.

The veins on his arms were slightly bulging, and his joints were clearly visible.

But these are not the most eye-catching aspects.

It's an injury.

A knife scar extending from his left shoulder to his chest had scabbed over with a dark red scab.

That was left behind when the Roc Clan ambushed the entrance to the ruins.

The bruise on his right rib had not yet faded, and the edges were tinged with the charred black color characteristic of spiritual energy burns.

He was injured in the aftershocks of the battle in the main hall of the core area.

Three parallel claw marks were on his back, torn from his shoulder blade all the way down to his waist.

That was a souvenir left behind by some blind monster.

There is a burn mark about the size of a fist below the collarbone, with irregular radiating edges.

The mark left by heavenly lightning during the tribulation.

Covered in scars.

New ones are stacked on top of old ones.

The old is layered on top of the old.

Like a resume written in blood and pain.

It records the life of a corporate slave in the early stages of the Golden Core realm.

Every step from the entrance of the ruins to the core area came at a cost.

Yu Jianhuan's gaze changed from playful to serious.

Then it changed from serious to something softer.

A thin layer of water welled up in her phoenix eyes.

It's not that I feel wronged.

It's not that I feel sorry for you.

It was a mixture of the two, plus a little bit of adoration that she herself was unwilling to admit.

Su Qingying's eyes were completely out of control.

She saw those wounds.

Every single one of them was shocking.

She recalled the image of him carrying two dying women, fighting his way from the entrance of the ruins to the core area.

She had never seen that road with her own eyes.

But she saw his face in the flashback.

She knew how long that road was.

How difficult it is.

Su Qingying turned her head away even further.

But her throat moved.

I swallowed a mouthful of astringent taste that I couldn't quite describe.

Mo Chengyue walked to the edge of the pool without caring at all.

A leap.

"thump."

Water splashed everywhere.

His entire body was enveloped in the golden-white waters of the spirit pool.

The warm touch seeped into every inch of my skin, as soft as if I were being held by an invisible hand.

"hiss--"

Mo Chengyue let out a sigh of extreme comfort.

He was half-floating on the water, his limbs outstretched, like a salted fish turned upside down.

Then he started paddling.

It wasn't some profound spiritual power manipulation or water control technique.

It's the most primitive, least technically demanding way for children to splash around in a swimming pool.

Arms slapping the water's surface.

Water splashes up and then falls back down.

He made two strokes, then changed direction.

Like a koi carp that has been released back into the wild.

The water in the spirit pool shimmered with a faint golden-white glow over his wound.

The new and old wounds began to heal at a visible speed.

The bruises are fading, the charred bits are peeling off, and the edges of the scars are slowly closing up.

The divine water seeps into the meridians, and the warm current flows through the meridians and the surface of the skin.

Like a pair of extremely gentle hands, it soothed every bit of the wear and tear accumulated in his body.

Mo Chengyue closed his eyes, his expression completely relaxed.

He reached out and scooped up a handful of water from the spirit pool.

I hesitated for a moment.

It was brought to my lips.

I took a sip.

Sweet.

Clear and crisp.

The moment it entered my throat, a cool, refreshing spiritual energy flowed down my esophagus and into my dantian.

It gently brushes across the surface of the golden pill, like a spring breeze sweeping across a lake.

"It tastes good."