The stars were shining brightly, and several lanterns had been hung up in *Flowing Moon Inn*. There were some haystacks for feeding horses in the corner, and several horses were resting with their heads down in the stables.

The paper windows on the second floor revealed the shadows of two women playing backgammon, placing the pieces with a click on the board.

*Click!*

Five black pieces were connected in a line.

"Five black in a row! Yunluo, you lost again!"

"Ah... no, I didn't see it."

Xiao Yunluo nervously looked at Pei Lianxue sitting across from her. Seeing that Pei Lianxue was not sleepy at all, she held on for a while, then summoned up the courage to ask, "Lianxue, it's getting late. Aren't you going to rest?"

"Eh?" Pei Lianxue cleared the chessboard. "Yunluo, are you sleepy?"

"Ah... I'm fine, let's continue."

Xiao Yunluo pursed her lips as she twirled the chess pieces between her fingers before placing them in position on the chessboard, but her mind had already returned to last night.

Although she said to Ye Anping in the morning, *"I won't do it again,"* but...

If tonight was like last night, with Pei Lianxue asleep and Ye Anping having another problem with his yang energy, wouldn't she have a legitimate reason to help Ye Anping release his yang energy?

Last night she used her hands, this time she could use a different method...

After just a few more times, Ye Anping would definitely be fascinated by her skillful techniques.

Moreover!

Ye Anping was her study companion! She had to take care of him!

That's right!

She didn't covet Ye Anping's body.

She was just concerned about her companion!!

After finding a reason for herself, Xiao Yunluo took a deep breath, landed a piece, and mustered up the courage to ask again. "Lianxue..."

"Hmm?"

"Doesn't Ye Anping have a problem with excess yang energy? This is not a small problem. I'm a little worried that it could be fatal..."

After hearing this, Pei Lianxue's happy smile disappeared instantly, and she tilted her head, asking, "Worried?"

Seeing Pei Lianxue's expression change, Xiao Yunluo's heart raced, and she quickly reasoned. "Yes... yes, after all, he is my study companion, and he is your brother. If anything happens to him, you will definitely be very sad. Lianxue, you are the only friend who calls me 'Yunluo', and I don't want to see you sad..."

Pei Lianxue was silent for a while, her cheeks slightly flushed as she replied, "When there is something wrong with brother's yang energy, he and I... we solve it with dual cultivation. I have done it with Brother many times, and I am already familiar with it. Moreover, Mrs. Kong gave me a book to learn from."

"Then... what if one day you are not with Ye Anping and his yang energy suddenly goes wrong?"

Pei Lianxue didn't seem to have thought about this problem. She was stunned and shook her head slightly. "No way. Brother knows what to do and will definitely prepare in advance to take me with him."

"But just in case?" Xiao Yunluo continued. "I was just thinking, if that happens and you are not by his side and I happen to be, I could help him deal with his yang energy... what do you think?"

?

Pei Lianxue narrowed her eyes slightly, stared at Xiao Yunluo's nervous gaze, and said, "Yunluo..."

"Huh?"

"You treated my brother..."

An icy, sharp glint appeared in her amber eyes, like a cold blade unsheathed.

Seeing this, Xiao Yunluo trembled with fright and raised her hand. "No!! No... Lianxue, what are you thinking? I have no interest in him at all. I just don't want to see you sad, really..."

However, even she didn't believe herself, and her voice became smaller and smaller.

Pei Lianxue didn't understand, and she tilted her head. "See me sad?"

"Yes, yes... yes. In this situation, Ye Anping's life might be in danger, and if you are not around, then I can help him solve the problem. He is your brother and your husband... In this way, I can help you, not to mention he is also my study companion, so I have to take good care of him."

Pei Lianxue stared at Xiao Yunluo in silence for a while, and the expression on her face gradually relaxed. "Yunluo, you are thinking too much. Brother knows himself well. He should expect that the yang energy will surge these days, so he won't venture too far from me now and in the next days..."

"Eh? The yang energy will surge in the next few days?"

"Yeah, I have found a pattern. Every time my brother kills a demonic cultivator or solves some matter, his yang energy will act up, so at these times, he will not be too far away from me. Brother is planning everything in advance and should have a contingency plan."

"This... this..."

Xiao Yunluo gave a slight start; she actually learned something like this!

Pei Lianxue let out a sigh. "My brother is so flawless. I am quite helpless."

"Helpless? But... isn't this a good thing? Why are you helpless?"

Pei Lianxue propped up her cheeks and said bitterly, "It's because brother is too shrewd, and nothing eludes him, so I don't have any room to show off. I'd like him to rely on me more and let me spoil him. Since I was a child, I was the one protected by him. Now that I have grown up... hey -- let's not talk about this. Yunluo, it's your turn."

"Ah... um."

Xiao Yunluo pursed her lips and placed her piece.

*Click---*

...

Meanwhile, in the opposite room.

"Achoo--"

Ye Anping, standing in the corner of the room with his arms crossed while supervising Feng Yu Die's practice of the *Black Moon Routine*, suddenly felt his nose itch and sneezed.

Feng Yu Die, who was sitting cross-legged in a simple *Spirit Gathering Array*, immediately opened her eyes and asked, "Young Master Ye, are you cold? Why don't you go back to your room and rest?"

Ye Anping rolled his eyes at her, then shook the bamboo ruler in his hand, frowning. "If I'm cold, I'll put on more clothes. Anyway, you can't rest until you finish twenty-four rounds tonight."

Looking at the bamboo ruler in his hand, Feng Yu Die pouted and puffed her cheeks in complaint, but she didn't say anything. She just closed her eyes, continuing her practice.

Golden spiritual energy spread out from her Dantian, forming golden threads all over her body.

Looking at it, Ye Anping wiped his nose and sighed slightly.

The two people who were originally causing trouble, Gu Mingxin and the *Immortal Thief*, were both captured by him before they started making trouble.

In other words, in the ***Imperial*** Sect section of the game, the two of them disappeared before the main plot was released.

Although the reward was not important, it did save him a lot of trouble.

What he needed to do now was to supervise Feng Yu Die in her practice to the third level, and wait for the Demon King to come to the city, then the matter of the ***Imperial*** Sect would basically be over.

However, after supervising Feng Yu Die's cultivation for so many hours today, he somehow sensed something strange from her.

Feng Yu Die was a heavenly spiritual root, and she had the blood of the Holy Emperor. She could be said to be the elite of the heavenly spiritual roots, and her aptitude was unparalleled. What would take an ordinary person several months of energy condensing, she could achieve in just one day.

However, in these few hours of practice, there had been no progress at all.

It didn't make any sense.

Ye Anping also used his spiritual sense to probe a few times and determined that Feng Yu Die's cultivation speed was very slow.

Of course, this might also be caused by Feng Yu Die's absent-mindedness, but...

Xiao Tian saw Ye Anping suddenly frowning and thought that something was wrong, so she floated over. *"Anping, what's wrong?"*

"Xiao Tian, have you noticed that her energy condensation speed has slowed down?"

*"Um?"*

Xiao Tian turned her head and looked at Feng Yu Die who was meditating. If Ye Anping hadn't said that, she really wouldn't have felt anything, but now that he mentioned it...

*"The speed of absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is a bit slow? But... it's not noticeable. Is it caused by the *Black Moon Routine*? There is not much written about this technique in the *Heavenly Dao Scroll*."*

As Ye Anping listened, he kept feeling that something was wrong, but right now he couldn't find the cause, so he just replied, "Maybe..."

The room was very quiet, only the breeze blowing through the cracks of the doors and windows could be heard whistling.

Ye Anping lowered his eyes as he thought about the cause of the problem. However, the next moment, Feng Yu Die suddenly opened her eyes, seeming to feel something strange. "Young Master Ye! I feel something is wrong..."

Ye Anping raised his eyebrows slightly. "What's wrong..."

Halfway through his words, he suddenly felt his heart twitching, his mind buzzing with the heartbeat, and a wave of heat quickly spreading from his chest to his whole body.

Xiao Tian saw something wrong with Ye Anping's face, and she was instantly anxious. *"Ah? Anping, what's wrong with you?"*

Ye Anping understood that the settlement of defeating Gu Mingxin had come. He had not dared to leave the inn in the past few days because he was afraid of the sudden settlement and that he would not be able to find his sister in time.

But this time, the situation seemed to be worse than he imagined.

In just two breaths, he felt that his consciousness had become a little blurry. He leaned on the table and unconsciously knocked a teapot off.

"Young Master Ye? What's wrong with you..."

"Nothing, you continue..."

With that said, he immediately opened the door of Feng Yu Die's room and rushed toward the opposite room.