As summer fades, the garden transforms into a tapestry of warm autumn hues. Lush green leaves blush crimson and gold, then drift lazily to the ground, carpeting the soil in brittle whispers. Late-blooming asters and chrysanthemums punctuate the fading flowerbeds.
A beauty rested in a white pavilion, her hands cupping her face, her elbows resting on the table, her long legs with delicate jade feet that had her toenails painted green swaying under the table.
I feel incredible!
Hua Qingyan had never felt so good.
Before, she felt incredibly clogged; her qi did not flow properly, causing her body all sorts of issues. If it were not for the great plumber Bai, who drained and cleaned Hua Qingyan's pipes, who knew what other problems would have happened?
Hua Qingyan smiled, her hair faintly moved with the fresh autumn breeze.
Hua Xiran rubbed her eyes, looking at her mother.
What the?! It's only been a day, and she looks younger, more beautiful!
Honestly, at this point, if Hua Qingyan and Hua Xiran stood side by side, they would look like sisters.
Hua Xiran took a seat across from Hua Qingyan, who was in her own world. Hua Xiran took out a crystal sphere and placed it onto the table. She rolled it back and forth, looking at her mother.
Ever since she became the Yin-Yang Sect master, Hua Xiran has always wanted to remove the Luxuria faction. Not because she cared about the faction dispute, but because she just found them incredibly annoying!
This group of sex fiends destroyed the sect's reputation. Now the Yin-Yang Sect could not do business, could not recruit good disciples, and is feared when they go out. How can a sect operate like this?!
Every time Hua Xiran thought of all the trouble she had to deal with, the veins on her forehead throbbed.
I'm a woman in my prime! Why do I have to deal with all this?!
Hua Xiran thought in anger.
Hua Xiran was envious of her mother; how she wished to just drink tea in leisure and tussle with Bai Shuying on a bed of flowers.
Hua Xiran sighed and calmed herself down.
Honestly, Hua Xiran has a plan in motion to get rid of them, but this plan would take time. Now, due to a certain fox spreading hormones in the form of a book, disciples are questioning the Luxuria faction's ideas and expressing interest in pursuing a path of love.
After all, birds get tired of constant flight and need a tree to perch on. The Yin-Yang Sect demonesses have all been emotionally exhausted. The majority of the disciples came from outside recruitment, unlike Hua Qingyan's generation, where most of whom were born in the sect.
This issue was bound to happen, look at all the Elders except the one last named Yuan, all single! They can barely keep their spouses, let alone have kids.
Now, when these female disciples go home, they can only be nagged by their Elders to settle down and get married, but they use pursuing the dao as an excuse to avoid their elders, but on the inside, they were envious of their female relatives who found good husbands and raised their little dumplings.
Some of them wanted to change their ways and find a good man, but what man dares to marry them? Aside from the constant threat of being drained, the woman's body count alone deters men. These women's only hope was to try to marry a fellow disciple of the sect, but that was a fierce competition; after all, the ratio of male to female disciples was one to ten.
You may wonder why not marry more than one? Simple, most men boast that they were stallions, but how many of them had the courage to die under a skirt? Very few!
Hua Xiran knew this was not a major issue yet, but it was something that needed to be solved very quickly. At this rate, that it was spiraling the Yin-Yang Sect may have to change its name to the Yin Sect since no Yang was available in the sect anymore.
If Hua Xiran knew a certain half-fox could produce Yang qi, she might have played with the idea of turning the Yin-Yang Sect into the Bai clan. If Bai Shuying knew this, she would have fled in horror.
Hua Xiran sighed again and looked at her mother, who had a goofy smile. She did not want to involve her mother. She felt guilty using her mother's past as a way to imprison Mo Xingyu, and that person she wanted to imprison was once her mother's friend.
Hua Xiran sighed again for the third time.
I wonder what is going on in that head of hers?
Hua Xiran thought.
If Hua Xiran knew what Hua Qingyan was thinking about, she might have lost it.
Hua Qingyan was imagining the next time she and Bai Shuying would spend time together. After all, they had made such rapid progress, Hua Qingyan felt they should slow down a little.
"Ehm!"
Hua Qingyan broke out of her imagination and turned her attention to Hua Xiran.
"Oh, Xiran, when did you arrive?"
Hua Qingyan said with a smile.
Hua Xiran looked at her mother dryly.
"I've just arrived."
"Oh, well, what is it you want to ask about?"
"Why do you assume I came to see you about something? Maybe I came just to see you?"
Hua Qingyan silently looked at her daughter, not believing her at all. Hua Xiran's lip twitched.
"Ehm, well, I did want to discuss something with you."
Seeing her being honest now, Hua Qingyan nodded her head in satisfaction.
I knew it!
Hua Qingyan thought.
"Well, I wanted to deal with Mo Xingyu."
Hua Qingyan paused for a moment.
"A-are you sure it's a good idea?"
Hua Xiran believed her mother still cared about their friendship, but Hua Xiran was just worried about her daughter; after all, Mo Xingyu was a faction leader, and the Luxuria faction still had a good amount of elders.
In the past, when Hua Qingyan killed her dao companion, she had a fire burning in her heart, she wanted nothing more than to slit the throat of the bitch that took her man, but over the years that fiercely burning fire grew smaller and smaller until it was extinguished leaving not even an ember behind.
If Hua Xiran had proposed this much earlier, Hua Qingyan would have agreed without hesitation. She did not know which one did the deed, but surely if she killed them all, she would get the culprit. The young Hua Qingyan was truly a vicious demoness.
Hua Xiran was going to do everything by herself; her mother was not up to the task, her foundation was fragile, and her strength declined, but now look at her, her foundation was as stable as Mount Tai!
"I think now is the perfect time."
"B-but…"
"Mo Xingyu may plan to hurt Shuying."
"Okay, let's do it, the earlier the better."
Hua Xiran was stunned at the change in her mother, while Hua Qingyan's kind emerald eyes turned very cold.
That bitch wants to harm my Xiao Bai, she has another thing coming!
Hua Qingyan snorted in her thoughts.
Hua Xiran looked at her resolute mother and rolled the crystal sphere to her. Hua Qingyan curiously watched the sphere roll to her. She used her hands to grasp it and watched what was recorded inside.
Hua Qingyan calmly watched the scene.
"Xiran, why did you not warn me earlier?! This is disgusting!"
Hua Qingyan felt her eyes were violated and could not help but blame her daughter. Hua Xiran tilted her head in confusion.
"Mother, do you not care?"
"Care? Why would I? It's been so long, it does not matter if Mo Xingyu was the culprit or not; that man still willingly cheated. Back then, he said he was seduced. I never believed it."
Hua Qingyan calmly said while rubbing her eyes. Hua Xiran took out another crystal sphere and rolled it to her. Hua Qingyan catuously looked at it, then at her daughter. Hua Xiran smiled. Hua Qingyan sighed with relief that it was not something disgusting and watched the recording.
"O-oh, my."
Hua Qingyan held her cheek, her face flushed, and her eyes shone a green glow.
"Ehm, mother, you should wipe your nose."
Flustered, Hua Qingyan wiped her nose, but noticed that there was nothing; she realized her daughter was playing with her and looked at her with a pout.
Hua Xiran laughed out loud.
"Hmm, well, what is the plan?"
"Well, before that, return the crystal sphere?"
"Tsk."
Hua Qingyan changed the topic and attempted to take the crystal sphere, but Hua Xiran caught her with her sharp eyes. Hua Qingyan returned it, but puffed her cheeks in protest.
"I'll give you a copy later."
Hearing this, Hua Qingyan showed a beautiful smile.
"Well, the plan will begin during Shuying's match…"
Hua Xiran and Hua Qingyan discussed their plan to take down Mo Xingyu.
…
Su Meilin, with hazy eyes, straightened her back and raised her hands, stretching.
"Ummm, that was a good nap."
Su Meilin said with satisfaction, filled with energy as all her fatigue had disappeared. Su Meilin noticed that she was on her bed.
"Hmm, who moved me?"
Su Meilin wondered.
Her bare feet touched the wooden floor, she walked back to her work table, and sat on the cushion, but noticed a porcelain bowl covered with a porcelain plate with chopsticks resting on top.
Su Meilin held the chopsticks and removed the plate, uncovering what was in the bowl.
"Wow."
Su Meilin said with admiration.
"Definitely was not master, so it must be Shuying."
Su Meilin could say with absolute confidence that her master could not cook. Su Meilin started to eat the food Bai Shuying cooked for her, although it was cold, it still made her heart warm.
…
For the past few days, Ye Mingyue struggled; she could not find any clues about the author Xiao Bai.
She tried speaking to the disciples at the Task Hall, but was ignored. She even went as far as trying to bribe them, but even that yielded no results.
"Master has been getting more and more upset these days."
Ye Mingyue sighed.
She walked back to her master's residence. All the disciples avoided her as she walked past, but Ye Mingyue did not care since this was a common occurrence.
Elder Mo is very disliked in the Yin-Yang Sect; the female disciples are tired of her, while the male disciples just want a one-night stand. After all, her personality is shit, her face is average, but she has one dynamic body.
Even the inner elders who support her wanted to jump off this pirate ship a long time ago, but it has become very difficult. They weren't blind, the time when they could do what they wanted, drain who they wanted, and have fun as they pleased ended when Hua Xiran became the sect master.
They did not want to conflict with Hua Xiran; after all, she was a soul transformation realm cultivator, but they were forced to by that lunatic Mo.
Ye Mingyue walked to her master's room, and she heard the faint screams of a woman echo from a different room in the residence.
"Ahhhh, No!"
Ye Mingyue ignored them, but her steps became quicker. She never understood why her master allowed this beast to continue his weird hobbies. She was very displeased with her Junior brother Xiao and the master who showed a certain favoritism towards him.
Knock! Knock!
Ye Mingyue stood in front of Mo Xingyu's room, waiting for permission to enter.
"You can come in."
Ye Mingyue entered the room. Inside, Mo Xingyu wore a white bathrobe, steam radiated from her body, and a heavy scent of perfume permeated the room. Mo Xingyu sat at the edge of her bed. Her bathrobe was slightly loose, revealing the valley on her chest, and her legs were crossed, showing off her exposed thighs. She calmly dried her long hair with a towel and turned her gaze to Ye Mingyue.
"So, what is it?"
"I found the author Xiao Bai."
Ye Mingyue said while her palms started to sweat.
"Oh, who is it?"
Mo Xingyu looked at Ye Mingyue with expectation in her eyes. Ye Mingyue swallowed the saliva that accumulated in her mouth.
"Bai Shuying."
Ye Mingyue said.
Ye Mingyue did not know who Xiao Bai was, but could she not find a random person to be Xiao Bai? Ye Mingyue disliked the redhead, and she happened to have the last name Bai, so it was easier to connect the two. Ye Mingyue believed this was a long shot; she did not have any real proof of Bai Shuying being Xiao Bai. She could only brace herself for her master's punishment.
Mo Xingyu thought for a while.
Yes, how come I didn't see it earlier?! The recent book, the new disciple, and the last name Bai! She must be Xiao Bai!
"Good job, Mingyue."
Mo Xingyu said.
Ye Mingyue was stunned.
Bai Shuying would be aggrieved if she knew that her poorly hidden identity was not found due to her carelessness, but rather as a scapegoat.