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

It was nearly four in the morning.

The air inside the tent was so cold it felt like it had been dug out of the ground.

Mo Chengyue maintained the tortoise-like breathing state of the "Yin Yang De He Jing" for a full two hours.

His breathing rate was reduced to less than three times per minute, and his heartbeat was as slow as a hibernating tortoise.

His mind remained clear throughout.

The temperature and weight on his left arm had long since made him numb from head to toe.

Yu Jianhuan had somehow ended up putting her entire right leg up on the ground.

Her knee was wedged right at his waist, and her ten nails, painted with henna, were gripping his cuffs tightly.

He would occasionally mumble incoherently in his sleep.

"Junior brother... don't run away..."

Mo Chengyue's lips twitched twice.

Su Qingying on the right, on the other hand, was behaving herself.

Her sleeping posture remained upright, her back straight, and her hands neatly folded in front of her abdomen.

But the body doesn't lie.

Temperatures dropped sharply overnight.

Her seemingly cold and hard body involuntarily leaned towards the heat source while she was fast asleep.

Her right shoulder had already crossed the Chu-Han border, a fist-width line she had drawn herself.

It barely touched the outside of Mo Chengyue's forearm.

Mo Chengyue exhaled a long breath of turbid air from the depths of his consciousness.

Judging that it was almost four in the morning, he finally began to act.

He first used his divine sense to confirm Jin Qiaoqiao's location and condition outside the tent.

He then very slowly pulled his left arm out of Yu Jianhuan's grasp.

As soon as two fingers of Yu Jianhuan's hand were pried open, the remaining three fingers immediately tightened with great force.

Mo Chengyue had no choice but to change his strategy.

He gently supported Yu Jianhuan's knees, which were resting on his waist, with his right hand.

Move an extremely fragile piece of porcelain, inch by inch, to the open space next to it.

Then came the arms.

He held her wrist joint.

The stress point of the latch was accurately located.

He pried open each of his five fingers one by one.

Yu Jianhuan grunted and frowned.

He rubbed his body against the direction where the heat source had disappeared.

Finally, she hugged the pile of clothes that she had kicked aside.

It fell back into a deep sleep.

Mo Chengyue sat up calmly and turned to look to his right.

Su Qingying's breathing was even and long, her eyebrows and eyes relaxed in the darkness.

It lacked the aloofness that kept people at arm's length during the day.

Her tilted body caused a faint bluish-white tinge to appear on her face, which was chilled by the night.

Mo Chengyue stared at that face for two breaths.

Without making a sound, he took out a neatly folded silk quilt from the bottom of the storage bag.

After shaking it out, I gently placed it on her body, the edge just covering her collarbone.

The silkworm silk warmed her skin, and Su Qingying's tense shoulders relaxed.

Her body finally stopped leaning towards him and lay down comfortably.

Mo Chengyue withdrew his hand, silently lifted the curtain, and stepped into the cold wind outside the tent.

A dim glow swirled around the outer edge of the formation, separating this depression from the darkness outside, creating two separate worlds.

He saw Jin Qiaoqiao at first glance.

Not far away, on a flat blue stone, Princess Peacock was sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed.

With hands forming a mudra and resting on the knees, the posture for practicing Qigong and regulating breathing is upright.

The ability of a great demon in the Transformation Stage to sense the energy of heaven and earth is far superior to that of a human.

She made the most of every moment of her night watch.

In the deepest darkness before dawn, on the side of Jin Qiaoqiao's slender neck and the skin behind her ears.

The seven-colored spiritual patterns belonging to the Peacock Royal Family were appearing and disappearing with the exhalation and inhalation of demonic power, emanating a strange and magnificent luster.

Mo Chengyue remained silent.

He walked straight to the dying campfire, sat down, and took out cinnabar and cut-up yellow talisman paper from his pocket.

Using the faint, dark red light from the embers of the charcoal fire, he nonchalantly picked up his brush and began to sketch the array patterns of the Concealing Breath Talisman.

The pen tip, dipped in cinnabar, dragged out fine lines on the paper, the rustling sound particularly clear in the silent wilderness.

The two remained silent.

One drew a talisman, the other adjusted his breathing; neither of them made the first move.

This silence lasted for about half an incense stick's time.

The seven-colored spiritual patterns flowing around Jin Qiaoqiao slowly disappeared beneath her skin, and she reached the end of her meditation.

Those eerie golden phoenix eyes slowly opened, and the vertical pupils deep within them contracted slightly in the darkness.

His gaze passed over the flickering embers and landed on Mo Chengyue's profile as he bent down to draw talismans.

There was a pause.

"It's not even past four in the morning yet, and you're already unable to stay awake and have come out?"

Jin Qiaoqiao spoke first, her voice carrying the condescending tone typical of a peacock princess.

"Why don't you stay in that gentle embrace a little longer and spend more time with your two jealous wives?"

As she spoke, she raised her chin slightly, her phoenix eyes half-closed, scrutinizing the rather unappealing Mo Chengyue.

Mo Chengyue's talisman brush did not stop.

The final vermilion array precisely finished at the edge of the yellow talisman paper, causing a slight tremor of spiritual energy.

A faint golden light appeared on the talisman's surface, then disappeared.

He set the drawn breathing talisman aside to dry, then looked up.

His gaze met Jin Qiaoqiao's phoenix eyes, which were trying to gain the upper hand.

"if you can."

His voice was very low, with a deliberately slowed-down, deep quality.

"Compared to the two people in the tent, I'd rather come out sooner and spend time with my beloved wife, Princess."

Jin Qiaoqiao's expression underwent a spectacular collapse in the firelight.

First, his pupils contracted sharply, and then the cold, arrogant smile on his lips shattered completely.

Instead, it was replaced by an unbelievable shock that caught everyone completely off guard.

She opened her mouth, but a single syllable escaped her throat before getting stuck.

Those phoenix eyes, which used to look down on everything with a cold eye, darted left and right twice.

She hurriedly moved away from Mo Chengyue's face and landed on the pile of emotionless charcoal ash next to her.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Her voice was half a tone higher than before, and the last syllable sounded weak.

Mo Chengyue withdrew his gaze, picked up another blank yellow talisman paper, and continued drawing.

The sinister smile at the corner of his mouth flashed briefly in the dim light of the embers.

Jin Qiaoqiao stared at the charcoal ash for a long time, the temperature at the base of her ears feeling strangely hot in the cold wind.

She took a deep breath and forced her expression back to indifference.

"Stop trying to play these sweet talk tricks; I've seen them all before."

She crossed her arms over her chest, deliberately steer the conversation in a different direction.

"But there is something serious: how do you plan to handle this after this ruin?"

Mo Chengyue paused slightly as he drew the talisman.

He glanced up at Jin Qiaoqiao and noticed that her gaze was no longer on him.

Instead, they gazed at the gray-white dome above the ruins, a dome that never lets in sunlight.

"Young Master Dapeng died at our hands; this cannot be kept secret."

Jin Qiaoqiao's voice gradually faded, and the arrogance of the Peacock Princess was replaced by something deeper at this moment.

"I can't go back."

Mo Chengyue put down the talisman brush and waited quietly for her to finish speaking.

"The Roc clan will go mad; they will use this as an excuse to launch a full-scale purge against the Peacock clan."

Jin Qiaoqiao unconsciously clenched the fabric on her knee with her right hand, her knuckles turning white from the force.