Before the morning mist had fully dissipated, Chen Chuan had already left the house.
Not long after he departed, a young girl appeared outside the courtyard gate.
Ji Qingyu pushed open the gate with familiarity, her voice clear and crisp: "Sister, I’ve come to see you!"
Inside the courtyard, beneath an old tree, Ji Siyu stood quietly.
The morning light filtered through the branches and leaves, casting dappled shadows upon her dress.
Hearing the voice, she slowly turned around, a faint smile gracing her face.
After inviting her sister to sit, Ji Siyu happily shared a piece of news that stunned Ji Qingyu: "He has agreed to a divorce."
The smile on Ji Qingyu’s face froze, instantly replaced by immense shock.
She almost thought she had misheard.
Chen Chuan?
He... he’s willing to divorce?
How could that scumbag easily agree to divorce her sister?
Ji Qingyu simply could not believe it.
How could that shameless scumbag be willing to let go?
Ecstasy instantly surged into Ji Qingyu’s heart, and she grabbed her sister’s slightly cool hand:
"That’s wonderful! Sister, you can finally escape this sea of misery. I won’t have to worry about you day and night anymore."
She chattered away, discussing all sorts of plans for after the divorce, her eyes bright and lively as if the gloom had vanished and the future was a smooth path.
Ji Siyu just listened quietly, her lips occasionally curving into a very faint smile.
The two sisters talked like this until the sun had nearly reached its zenith without them noticing.
At noon, Ji Qingyu stood up to take her leave and left the small courtyard with light steps.
On her way home, Ji Qingyu was still immersed in the joy of her sister’s upcoming freedom, failing to notice the suspicious shadow behind her.
As she turned a corner, a handkerchief soaked in a strange, sweet fragrance was suddenly pressed against her mouth and nose from behind.
She only had time to let out a short cry of alarm before her consciousness rapidly blurred and her body slumped down.
Immediately after, she was scooped up by a masked man and quickly disappeared at the end of the deep alley.
Just then, Chen Chuan, having finished purchasing the herbs for refining the Green Spirit Pills, happened to turn out from another street and caught sight of this scene.
"That girl... Ji Qingyu?"
He frowned and followed after them.
Carrying the unconscious Ji Qingyu, the masked man moved swiftly, eventually ducking into a remote residence in the western district of Black Rock City.
The masked man placed Ji Qingyu on the bed inside the room and respectfully stepped aside.
A youth wearing a brocade robe stepped out from the shadows; it was none other than the Young Lord of Black Rock City’s Lin Family, Lin Hu.
He waved his hand to dismiss the masked man, a lewd and triumphant smile appearing on his face.
He had always pursued Ji Qingyu, but unfortunately, she had absolutely no interest in him.
Since the soft approach didn’t work, he would use force.
Lin Hu first carefully took out an egg-sized shadow recording stone that shimmered with a faint luster.
He placed it on a shelf facing the bed, adjusted the angle, and injected a sliver of spiritual power to activate it.
"Hehe, Ji Qingyu, you wench, let’s see how you escape my grasp this time."
Lin Hu rubbed his hands together and walked to the bedside. Looking at Ji Qingyu, who was still beautiful even in her unconscious state, the fire of lust blazed in his eyes.
He roughly tore open the clothing on Ji Qingyu’s shoulder, revealing a patch of snow-white skin.
Then he pulled out a pink Medicinal Pill, forced open Ji Qingyu’s mouth, and shoved it in, lifting her chin to help her swallow it.
Once the pill entered her stomach, the medicinal effects quickly took hold.
Ji Qingyu let out a weak, unconscious moan.
Her body began to twist restlessly.
Her exposed skin flushed with an abnormal crimson, her body temperature rose rapidly, and her breathing became hurried.
Seeing this, Lin Hu’s laughter grew louder as he reached out to pull at Ji Qingyu’s belt.
Right at that moment!
Boom!
With a loud bang, the door was violently kicked open from the outside, wood splinters flying everywhere.
Chen Chuan stood at the doorway expressionless, backlit, his figure tall and straight.
"Who is it?"
His pleasure suddenly interrupted, Lin Hu shuddered all over and spun around, both shocked and enraged.
When he saw that the newcomer didn’t seem to be the Ji Family expert he expected, but just a plain-looking young stranger, his courage bolstered, and he shouted harshly:
"Who do you think you are?"
"How dare you ruin this Young Lord’s fun? You must be blind! I am Lin Hu, the Young Lord of Black Rock City’s Lin Family!"
Chen Chuan’s eyes were icy, and he didn’t waste a single word.
His body blurred, and before Lin Hu could react, he raised his leg and delivered a vicious kick straight to his crotch.
"Aaaagh!"
A shrill, distorted howl of agony pierced the silence of the abandoned house.
Lin Hu’s eyes bulged, his entire face instantly turning the color of pig liver. He clutched his lower body tightly, curling up like a boiled shrimp.
Under the intense pain, he couldn’t even manage another groan before fainting directly and collapsing to the floor.
Chen Chuan didn’t even spare a glance at Lin Hu on the floor and walked straight to the bedside.
Ji Qingyu’s situation was even worse now; the medicine had fully taken effect, and her hands were unconsciously tearing at her already disheveled clothes.
"Yin-Yang Union Powder?"
Chen Chuan recognized this poisonous pill.
The nature of this medicine was extremely domineering.
If not neutralized through sexual union in time, or if the medicinal power wasn’t drained through special techniques, the victim would at best suffer damaged Meridians and a great loss of cultivation.
At worst, they would be consumed by lust, lose their sanity, or even explode and die.
Fortunately, he possessed the "Encyclopedia of All Things in the Heavens" and knew the method to neutralize it.
He didn’t delay any further, immediately propping Ji Qingyu up and sitting cross-legged behind her, pressing his hands against her back.
The spiritual power within his body began to circulate slowly, passing through his palms and into Ji Qingyu’s Meridians sliver by sliver, beginning to disperse the rampaging medicinal power.
His spiritual power carried a sense of coolness, carefully soothing the wild heat within Ji Qingyu’s body.
The process required extreme focus; there could be no mistakes.
Just as most of the medicinal power was cleared and the situation had eased slightly, Ji Qingyu dizzily opened her eyes a crack.
Her vision was blurred, but she could vaguely recognize the face close at hand.
It was Chen Chuan.
That scumbag she detested so deeply.
"You bastard!"
Extreme anger intertwined with the residual medicinal power gave Ji Qingyu the strength to spit out this curse.
Immediately after, her blood surged with rage, her vision went black, and she fainted once more.
Chen Chuan’s movements didn’t stop for a second as he continued to transmit spiritual power.
However, the medicinal effects hadn’t been entirely removed.
In her unconscious state, Ji Qingyu’s body instinctively sought out the source of coolness that could soothe her internal heat.
She writhed unconsciously, her slender hands fumbling behind her, actually groping around Chen Chuan’s arms and even trying to turn around to press against him.
Chen Chuan felt extremely uncomfortable.
His brow furrowed. Seeing Ji Qingyu’s actions becoming more and more out of line and interfering with his removal of the medicine, he no longer hesitated and delivered a direct hand-chop to knock her out.
Ji Qingyu’s body went limp, and she fell completely silent, entering a deep coma.
Chen Chuan breathed a sigh of relief.
Next, he focused intently, thoroughly neutralizing the last bit of stubborn medicinal power.
Once Ji Qingyu’s body temperature returned to normal and her pulse stabilized into a deep sleep, he finally withdrew his palms, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
Looking at his unconscious sister-in-law with her torn clothes, Chen Chuan pondered for a moment, took off his outer robe, wrapped Ji Qingyu up tightly, and picked her up.
His gaze swept over the still-glowing shadow recording stone; he reached out to take it and tucked it into his robe.
Then, carrying Ji Qingyu, he left the place silently.
When he returned to his manor, it was quiet.
Chen Chuan found that Ji Siyu’s door was slightly ajar and not locked.
He pushed the door open, gently placed the still-unconscious Ji Qingyu on Ji Siyu’s tidy bed, and covered her with a thin quilt.
Scanning the room’s furnishings, he walked to the dressing table, pulled open one of the drawers, and placed the shadow recording stone inside.
Having done all this, he withdrew from the room as silently as he had come, gently closing the door as if he had never returned.
He still had things to do—he needed to find Liu Qing to test the medicine and earn some gold tickets.
After all, purchasing the ingredients for the Green Spirit Pills had cost him quite a few gold tickets.
After an unknown amount of time, Ji Qingyu slowly woke up.
The moment her consciousness returned, her heart tightened, and she immediately looked down to check her body.
Beneath the outer robe, although her own clothes were torn and disheveled, her body felt no different.
Aside from some soreness at the back of her neck, she hadn’t been violated.
She let out a long sigh of relief, her heart finally settling.
Then, the image from her brief moment of clarity before fainting surfaced in her mind—it was Chen Chuan’s face.
"Scumbag, beast..."
Ji Qingyu bit her lower lip hard, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes—fear, but even more so, disdain.
She thought to herself, "That beast must have seen that the scheme was exposed and that I recognized him, so he didn’t dare to actually do anything."
She struggled to get up and took off the torn dress.
Then she found a plain-colored dress from her sister’s wardrobe to change into and barely managed to tidy her appearance.
Just as she finished, there was a sound from the courtyard gate.
Ji Qingyu walked out of the room just in time to see her sister, Ji Siyu, returning from outside.
Seeing her sister had returned and had changed her clothes, with her hair still a bit messy, a hint of doubt flickered in Ji Siyu’s cool eyes:
"Qingyu? Why are you back? What happened to your clothes?"
Her sharp gaze fell upon her sister’s slightly wrinkled collar and her partially visible collarbone.
Ji Qingyu’s heart skipped a beat, and she subconsciously pulled her collar tight, forcing a relaxed smile onto her face:
"It’s nothing, Sister. I was just in a hurry on my way back and accidentally tripped, tearing my clothes."
"I came back to find one of your dresses to change into."
She paused and added, "Oh, right, I think I left a hairpin here, so I came back to look for it."
Ji Siyu looked at her sister quietly.
Those eyes, clear as a cold pool, seemed capable of seeing through people’s hearts.
But in the end, she didn’t ask further, only giving a soft "Mhm."
Ji Qingyu felt a bit guilty under her sister’s gaze, fearing that staying any longer would reveal her secret, and even more afraid of running into that nauseating Chen Chuan.
She hurriedly said, "Sister, I just remembered there’s something at home, I have to go now."
Without waiting for Ji Siyu’s response, she lowered her head and almost fled from the small courtyard.
Actually, Ji Qingyu wanted to speak out about that beast Chen Chuan’s actions.
But at the thought of her sister finally escaping her misery, she worried that if she spoke, Chen Chuan would go back on his word, preventing her sister from leaving him.
So she chose to keep this matter buried in her heart for the time being.
Evening.
Chen Chuan returned from testing the pills.
He was in a good mood as he walked down the final quiet street back to his manor.
Suddenly, an incredibly vast pressure, like a mountain, descended without warning, instantly freezing the space for several feet around him.
Chen Chuan’s expression changed drastically.
He felt the air around him become as thick as glue, and his entire body felt as if it were being bound by invisible iron bands. He couldn’t move a single finger, let alone mobilize the spiritual power within him.
Even with all his strength, he could only manage to move his eyes with difficulty, trying to find the source of the pressure.
An old man wearing a faded grey robe, with hair and beard as white as snow, appeared like a ghost, silently three steps in front of Chen Chuan.
The old man’s sharp eyes were quietly scrutinizing Chen Chuan.
A storm surged in Chen Chuan’s heart.
Who was this old man?
His cultivation was terrifying.
He was certain he didn’t know this person at all.
The old man didn’t speak, but the binding force surged like a tide, pressing down until Chen Chuan could barely breathe, his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.
"Senior, there is no enmity between us, right?"
Chen Chuan said with a trembling voice.