A maid carrying a large copper kettle headed toward the back kitchen.
About the time it takes to burn one stick of incense?
Roughly.
Either way, half an hour later, the fragrance of tea drifted through the cross-ventilation and filled every corner of the Xia Prince Manor.
At first, no one took this tea gathering seriously.
It was just a packet of Western Desert tribute, a reward to the inner court, a performance of social niceties, a harmless bit of small talk.
No one imagined that the drug’s effects would later entangle everyone in the manor.
“Western Desert famous tea, truly deserving of its reputation.”
The servants exchanged polite pleasantries, and after the compliments, the crisp clink of porcelain cups rang out for a while.
And then?
Breathing became impossible to suppress…
In the back courtyard, an elderly maid threw down her broom, her vision turning a hazy pink.
The Zhen Bei Si guards were mid-drill at the training grounds.
The soldiers hadn’t even drawn their blades halfway before their knees went weak, and they started performing “The Conqueror Bids Farewell to His Concubine”… uh, you know what I mean.
Zhao Qi’s face was iron-gray as he forced himself to stand upright.
“There’s a drug in the tea!”
He strained every ounce of strength to grind out those words through clenched teeth.
But no one responded.
Because he himself was about to collapse, and his gaze soon drifted toward the big yellow dog in the courtyard…
In the eastern courtyard, Bai Yao locked her door without a moment’s hesitation.
She sat at the octagonal table, with those one hundred low-grade spirit crystals laid out before her.
The commotion outside grew increasingly absurd.
Cries of resistance, lewd laughter, the muffled sounds of tearing fabric… rising and falling one after another.
As the instigator of it all, Bai Yao didn’t even lift an eyelid.
That grand outdoor social gathering outside had nothing to do with her.
She picked up a spirit crystal, pressed it to her palm, circulated the Xuan Yu Sect’s basic breathing technique, and began drawing qi into her body, attempting to break through to the first layer of the Ten Qi Realm.
Eyes closed, her breathing gradually steadied.
She was utterly focused, completely屏蔽ing out the chaos of the outside world.
Even if the spiritual energy in these crystals was meager, as long as her mind was calm, her qi would flow smoothly.
Strand after strand of true qi finally coalesced from her dantian.
Of the one hundred spirit crystals, seventy-three were consumed before a faint “pop” sound echoed from her dantian.
Bai Yao opened her eyes, feeling a barely perceptible warmth at her fingertips.
“First layer of the Ten Qi Realm, achieved! Even if it’s just the lowest threshold, at least I now have the strength to protect myself.”
Feeling the cultivation power within her body, and looking at the seventy-three crystals that had completely turned to ash, Bai Yao felt a measure of relief settle in her heart.
Outside the window, the sky was turning pale, and rooster crowswere piercing through the manor’s chaos.
Time passed quickly.
The drug’s effects began to recede, leaving behind only a scene of utter devastation and a crowd of guards and servants collapsed like mud.
Bai Yao changed into a plain, clean cyan-colored crossed-collar dress, her hair pinned up with nothing but a wooden hairpin.
She unlocked the door, casually brewed a pot of tea with her own leaves, then sat leisurely in the armchair, making no move to go out.
Within half an hour, the steward came scrambling in, nearly tripping over himself.
His hair was disheveled, his collar was askew, and bloody scrapes from the brick floor marked his knees.
“Young mistress, last night… something terrible happened last night!”
He dropped to his knees with a thud.
“The tea from the back kitchen was poisoned. The entire household, the entire household has…”
“What happened to everyone?”
Bai Yao lifted her teacup, blowing at the floating leaves as if she couldn’t care less.
“They all… lost all decorum, made utter spectacles of themselves. The guards couldn’t even hold their blades, and Commander Zhao is still soaking in the cold-water pool in the back courtyard.”
The steward didn’t dare raise his head.
“Lost decorum… how absolutely dreadful.”
Bai Yao set down her teacup, her fingers tapping lightly on the table.
“The spring cries of this Xia Prince Manor—I heard them loud and clear last night myself. For a drug to have such potency, there’s only one thing in all of the Xuan Kingdom that fits: the Hehuan Sect’s He Huan San. Am I right?”
The steward shuddered violently, burying his head even lower.
“Then let me ask you—who sent that tea?”
Bai Yao’s tapping suddenly stopped, landing precisely on the beat of the steward’s racing heart.
“It was… it was a congratulatory gift sent by Saintess Liu of the Hehuan Sect…”
“Oh… so it was sent by Saintess Liu.”
Bai Yao nodded with satisfaction, a sly smile spreading across her face.
“Excellent, excellent. Witnesses and evidence, all in place. Steward Xiao, you’d better remember exactly what you just said.”
Hearing this, Steward Xiao realized full well that this little devil had just become the young mistress of the Xia Prince Manor and was already gearing up to make trouble like a madwoman.
He was so terrified he could only stammer his assent, utterly unwilling to cross this young mistress who supposedly had ties to a cultivation sect.
The moment he finished speaking, hurried footsteps sounded from beyond the courtyard gate.
Young Prince Xiao Yi had arrived.
He wore a dark-colored training suit, his eyes shot through with blood-red veins—clearly he’d ridden back from the military camp through the night.
“Bai Yao…”
Xiao Yi’s voice was pitched low, barely containing his barely-suppressed fury.
“Look what you’ve done!”
Bai Yao raised her eyes, calmly meeting the gaze of this man who was her husband in name.
“Young Prince jests. The tea was sent by Saintess Liu, the maids who opened and brewed it are from the manor, and the people who drank it are also from the manor. What does any of that have to do with me, the wife locked away in the eastern courtyard?”
Bai Yao shrugged indifferently.
“Don’t give me your clever excuses!”
Xiao Yi stepped forward, slamming his palm onto the table and rattling the teacups.
“The whole household is talking about how you slipped He Huan San into the tea, deliberately ruining the Xia Prince Manor’s reputation. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Ruining the reputation?”
Bai Yao let out a soft laugh, rising slowly from the armchair.
Her bearing was nothing like that of a mere fourteen-year-old girl.
“That Western Desert tribute tea was completely sealed—everyone could see that. If you want to frame and slander me, the Xuan Yu Sect has its own immortal arts to reveal the truth. Besides, since I married into the Xia Prince Manor from the Xuan Yu Sect, I’ve never had contact with any outsiders. Where would I even get He Huan San? If you want to keep making a scene, never mind Grandfather breaking your legs to protect the manor’s reputation—the Hehuan Sect is considered a reputable sect these days. If you ruin the reputation they’ve painstakingly built, do you think you’ll ever see your Miss Liu again?”
Xiao Yi’s pupils contracted sharply.
Every word from Bai Yao pierced into his mind like an ice pick.
“I have nothing to do with that woman!”
He ground out through clenched teeth.
“Bai Yao! Are you trying to drag a cultivation sect’s fire onto the Xia Prince Manor?”
Bai Yao leaned forward slightly, meeting his eyes directly.
“Young Prince, a seductress from the Hehuan Sect slips He Huan San to mortals, wreaking havoc on an ordinary princely manor. What you two do in private, I couldn’t care less. After all, in this world, they mock those who keep their chastity as fools and hail the wanton as immortals. But this matter—you should weigh it carefully yourself.”
Xiao Yi’s face flushed a deep, livid red.
A choking fury lodged in his throat, suffocating him, yet he had no way to vent it.
“Bai Yao! I told you I have no relationship with that witch! Say one more word and I’ll punish you on the spot!”
Bai Yao smiled, not even a lash of her eyelashes trembling.
She’d already figured it out—this Young Prince Xiao Yi was nothing but a spineless pushover.
“Punish me on the spot”?
Just hot air from a hot head.
However, just as Bai Yao thought Xiao Yi wouldn’t dare do anything to her, she didn’t anticipate that this seemingly soft-boned Young Prince would suddenly grab her and fling her onto the bed.
Steward Xiao, kneeling on the ground, saw this and fled the room in fright, shutting the door behind him.
“What are you doing!”
Bai Yao, who had been feeling rather pleased with herself, panicked. She hadn’t expected “punish on the spot” to mean this!
Xiao Yi pressed down on this wife he hated with a gnashing fury, his breathing heavy as he stared at Bai Yao.
At that moment, a faint, elegant fragrance of white orchids belonging to Bai Yao drifted into Xiao Yi’s nostrils, making his whole body jolt.
He merely held her gaze for a few breaths, then glanced at the spring scenery that was just beginning to bud…
His entire face suddenly turned as red as a ripe peach…
“Take care of yourself!”
His Adam’s apple bobbed several times before he managed to spit out that single sentence, then he stormed out the door.
“Wait… I…”
Bai Yao stood up with a lingering sense of fear, the outcome leaving her both amused and exasperated.
Clearly, she truly hadn’t expected this soft-boned Young Prince, who seemed to have an ambiguous relationship with Liu Linglin, to be unexpectedly, excessively innocent.
But then she looked at her own childish, immature petite figure and immediately felt that perhaps Xiao Yi needed to be sent for a shock treatment…
“Scared me half to death. Didn’t expect that soft-boned Young Prince to be at least at the sixth or seventh layer of the Ten Qi Realm. I may have ended up a woman in this life, but I still don’t want a man poking me—especially not some powder-foundation general lookalike…”
Bai Yao cursed inwardly while circulating her true qi to steady her mind, then slowly walked to the window.
She pushed open half of the carved wooden window.
Beyond the manor’s high walls, on the tall building across the street, a figure in crimson robes was leaning against the railing.
That person was none other than Liu Linglin!
She held no round fan, and her face bore none of that enchanting smile that had captivated all who saw her that day—only a cold, chilling expression.
Having reached the first layer of the Ten Qi Realm, Bai Yao’s eyesight was far better than an ordinary mortal’s.
Their gazes collided midair.
Even across the distance, she could clearly see every move of the distant figure.
Liu Linglin’s lips moved slightly.
Reading her lips, the words were: Just wait.
Bai Yao responded with an enigmatic half-smile, raised her hand, and shut the window.
She wasn’t surprised.
The Hehuan Sect’s Saintess relied on seduction and manipulation of hearts—especially in this era when even a Hehuan Sect enchantress could be treated like a princess.
Now that she’d underestimated Bai Yao, a mere fourteen-year-old girl, and her scheme to become Xiao Yi’s true wife had been thwarted, the Hehuan Sect was certainly not going to let this go.
“So the Violet Yang Grand Harmony Art and the Cangjie Grotto-Heaven harbor great secrets. Liu Linglin isn’t like me—a Saintess in name only. She’s the Hehuan Sect’s true Saintess…”
Bai Yao paced in circles, pondering her next move.
“What secret could be so urgent that she’d fight me tooth and nail for it? It seems tomorrow’s Zong Zheng Si ceremony is bound to stir up some kind of trouble…”
The Zong Zheng Si ceremony: the blood-lineage verification rite.
Only after completing this sacrificial ritual would Bai Yao be formally entered into the Xuan Kingdom’s royal genealogy, becoming the true principal wife of the Xia Prince Manor.
Only then would she truly be qualified to read and cultivate the Violet Yang Grand Harmony Art.
And this was the true purpose behind the sect sending her, a Saintess, to marry a mortal—to secure the Xuan Yu Sect’s entry into the Cangjie Grotto-Heaven.
The Xuan Kingdom’s royal family could further control the Xuan Kingdom’s cultivation world, and the sect could be rescued from the crisis of annexation.
However, if Liu Linglin were to pull some trick at the Zong Zheng Si ceremony and brand Bai Yao with a charge of moral failing, then before everyone’s eyes, this wife of Xiao Yi’s would very likely be stripped of her position on the spot.
And then, alone, weak in cultivation, and stripped of any value, Bai Yao would very likely die soon after.
“The blood comes from my own body, so the problem can’t be in the blood itself. Which means the tampering would most likely be in the blood-collecting instruments…”
Bai Yao sneered, pulling out a packet of silver needles she’d quietly taken from the manor’s stores, then slipped them one by one into the hidden pockets of her sleeves.
“Open schemes or hidden plots—come at me all you like. Liu Linglin, since you’re so desperate to cultivate the Violet Yang Grand Harmony Art, I’ll gladly accept what you bring.”
The morning’s commotion had settled, and the sound of drumbeats drifted through the window.
It was noon.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.