Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 455 441: Secretly Welcoming Master Behind the Master's Wife's Back

「In the blink of an eye, several days had passed.」

Fan Xuan lay on Pei Yuhang's bed, feeling a little dejected.

No one else was in the room. If this were before, she might have snuggled into the bedding, filled with Pei Yuhang's pleasant scent, and given herself a little reward...

But now, after revealing her identity to Pei Yuhang, she had lost that happy, carefree state of mind.

She felt like she was now the bad woman who had deceived Pei Yuhang. To use him as a reward for herself again would be far too shameless and indecent.

'So stupid...'

'...If I had known, I wouldn't have confessed to him so quickly.'

Fan Xuan let out a soft sigh, feeling like she had truly lost her head for a moment.

Taking off the mask was less relaxing and carefree than wearing it.

'If that's the case, why was I so insistent on taking off my mask and revealing my true face?'

CLICK—

The door was gently pushed open.

Pei Yuhang walked in. Seeing Fan Xuan about to get up from his bed, he said softly, "Don't be so formal... just keep resting."

"Pei Yuhang, when will we arrive at the Dao Sect?"

Fan Xuan lay back down on the bed, murmuring as she inhaled the faint, elegant scent from Pei Yuhang's pillow.

"Tomorrow."

"That soon..."

There was a hint of reluctance in Fan Xuan's voice.

After all, on the ship, it was a world for just the two of them.

Once they returned to the Dao Sect, Ye Liyuan and Qing Yueqiu would be there to divide his care and tenderness for her.

And there was the Holy Daughter... If the Holy Daughter were around, she couldn't possibly—and wouldn't dare—disobey her.

A shadow crossed Fan Xuan's beautiful eyes. She felt she was only free on this small ship; once she set foot on land, she would be bound by her cage once more.

"We can't stay on the ship forever. We have to disembark eventually," Pei Yuhang said soothingly.

Fan Xuan nodded lightly.

Then, she said softly, "I don't want to sleep on the floor tonight. Let me sleep in the bed."

Seeing Pei Yuhang's brow furrow slightly, Fan Xuan pouted and said resentfully:

"What are you afraid of? Didn't you say I couldn't beat you, that I couldn't do anything to you even if I cultivated for another hundred years?"

Pei Yuhang felt he was being underestimated and immediately said, "Of course I don't think you can do anything to me..."

"Then it's happily decided~! I'm not sleeping on the floor tonight, I'm sleeping with you!"

A smile blossomed on Fan Xuan's face, as if the gloom of the past few days and the fear of disembarking had been swept away.

"I'll just hug you a little. I promise I won't do any rubbing..."

Pei Yuhang shot her a look. 'I'd be a fool to believe you,' he thought.

'Yueqiu said the same thing back then!'

...

...

"Master is coming back!"

In the Cold Palace Sword Mansion.

Yu Xiaoyan's hands trembled slightly as she held the Jade Scroll containing the Sect's daily news.

After she clearly read the news in the Jade Scroll—that the Spirit Wheel Pei Yuhang had boarded was about to return to the Sect—ripples of delighted surprise spread through her almond-shaped eyes.

'Hahaha~ Senior Sister and Mistress aren't as sharp as me. They definitely don't know Master is coming back yet!'

'I won't tell Senior Sister and Mistress. I'm going to greet Master all by myself!'

'When Master returns, all travel-worn, and sees that I'm the only one there to greet him, he'll surely understand that I'm the woman who cares for him most!'

Yu Xiaoyan's heart pounded with excitement.

'Just a mere Ye Liyuan. Your position as Mistress... I can take it for myself!'

However, just as she stepped out the door, she saw her senior sister, dressed in white and meticulously made up.

Qing Yueqiu's once-cold, stunning face had gained a few traces of charm and cuteness after she applied some light makeup.

Her graceful, well-developed figure with its beautiful curves could leave her "flat little" junior sister in the dust with a single twist of her hips.

'If I stand next to Senior Sister, unless a passerby has some... special preferences, nine times out of ten, their eyes will be drawn to her!'

Self-aware as she was, Yu Xiaoyan was instantly on high alert.

'Damn it, we were both raised by the same Master. Why did you develop so much better than me?!'

Yu Xiaoyan suppressed the resentment in her heart, then walked over to Qing Yueqiu's side and asked nonchalantly, "Senior Sister, you're out so early. Where are you off to?"

Qing Yueqiu looked at her approaching junior sister with her crimson eyes, her thin lips parting slightly:

"And what, Junior Sister, are you out to do?"

The two sisters, senior and junior, exchanged a look, both understanding the other's intent.

"Ahem, Mistress recently finished absorbing the essence within the Bone Marrow Cleansing Spring and broke through to Nascent Soul.

She needs to rest and recuperate now, so we probably shouldn't disturb her."

Yu Xiaoyan said in a low voice.

Qing Yueqiu didn't say anything, but she didn't object either. She simply started walking a little faster, alongside Yu Xiaoyan.

...

Meanwhile, in a pavilion within the Cold Palace Sword Mansion, Ye Liyuan, who was knitting a scarf for her Dao Companion, looked up.

At this moment, Ye Liyuan exuded a tranquil aura. Her every move blended seamlessly with the falling snowflakes and swaying bamboo grove around her.

She was in a state of Unity of Heaven and Man with the nature surrounding her, having impressively reached the Nascent Soul realm.

Evidently, during the time Pei Yuhang was away, her time in the Bone Marrow Cleansing Spring had allowed her Cultivation to break through another bottleneck. She was now on the verge of returning to her former Divinity Transformation Cultivation.

But to her, this breakthrough in her Cultivation was merely a way to give Ah Han a pleasant surprise when he returned.

Ye Liyuan looked at the message on the Transmission Token in her hand, sent personally by Pei Yuhang. She subconsciously bit her cherry-red lips but couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from curling into a sweet arc, revealing two faint dimples on her cheeks.

"Ah Han is finally coming back."

'But Yueqiu and Xiaoxiao probably don't know yet, do they?'

'I should ask them to come greet Ah Han with me~. When welcoming Ah Han, the more the merrier. It'll be more lively that way.'

Ye Liyuan closed her eyes and spread out her Divine Sense.

Her long eyelashes trembled in the gentle breeze. A point of Spiritual Light flickered between her brows as her Divine Sense spread out like soft ripples on water, passing over the mountain gate, sweeping across the courtyards, and finally locking onto two familiar auras.

"Hm? Yueqiu and Xiaoxiao are together. Are they going somewhere to play?"

Thinking this, Ye Liyuan put away the scarf in her hands, took a single step, and in an instant, arrived at the main gate of the Cold Palace Sword Mansion.

Her figure was as silent as falling snow. Before the hem of her skirt had even settled, she was already standing at the mountain gate, right behind the two girls who were rushing to see their man.

"Yueqiu, Xiaoxiao, where are you two off to?"

Hearing Ye Liyuan's words, both Qing Yueqiu and Yu Xiaoyan instinctively snapped their legs together.

'It's over, we've been caught sneaking out!'

The two martial sisters shivered and silently exchanged a glance.

They knew that if their Mistress found out they had hidden this from her and were secretly going to see their Master—

—she would definitely become suspicious!

'Mistress is just naturally dense, not stupid!'

Qing Yueqiu's slender neck made a "GULP" sound as she swallowed hard. The subtle movement of her throat was exceptionally clear in the silence.

Beside her, Yu Xiaoyan was so nervous that her toes curled up, her tender red toes, wrapped in white silk socks, gripping the soles of her shoes tightly as if that could hide her guilty conscience.

Just as the two were pondering how to get past their Mistress's questioning,

"Ah Han is coming back. Do you want to go with your Mistress to welcome him?"

Ye Liyuan suddenly broke into a smile, her eyes curving into gentle crescents. Sunlight filtered through the trees, dappling her face and coating her in a soft radiance.

It actually made the two of them feel a sense of sacred motherhood.