Ming Yuemian wore a face full of “resentment that iron couldn’t turn into steel.”
The welcome banquet concluded quickly.
With everyone full and satisfied, it was naturally time to talk business. The King ushered everyone to another palace, planning to meticulously plot how to exorcise the nightmare inducing evil entity haunting Princess Fei Qiong.
Under the smooth social maneuvering of the “Innocent Princess” and the “Coquettish Taoist Nun,” Feng Cheng had drunk until his cheeks were flushed, his gaze was a bit blurry, and his footsteps were unsteady.
“Quick, support the Immortal Master,” the King commanded.
Several palace maids, beautiful as flowers and jade, stepped forward to surround Feng Cheng.
“No… there’s no need…” Feng Cheng repeatedly declined, looking a bit overwhelmed by the unexpected favor and struggling to manage the attention.
No need for what? I see your face is practically splitting from smiling so hard.
Behind him, Ming Yuemian silently rolled her eyes.
Looking at his current “bear like” state, what evil could he possibly exorcise? He probably couldn’t even hold his sword steady.
Ming Yuemian glanced at Fu shuang beside her. Seeing that Fu shuang remained indifferent even as a crowd of beauties swarmed Feng Cheng, Ming Yuemian had grown so helpless she no longer had the energy to be angry.
Before leaving, she didn’t forget to take that plate of Hibiscus Flower Cakes, tucking them safely into her storage pouch. Perhaps they would come in handy later?
For instance, using them to suck up to someone.
The group arrived at Princess Fei Qiong’s sleeping quarters.
Ming Yuemian hadn’t expected the King to lead them here to discuss business.
Inviting strangers into his daughter’s bedroom upon their first meeting, was this something a proper father would do? The look the King gave Feng Cheng was so thick with intent it could practically drip, anyone with eyes could see he wanted Feng Cheng as his royal son-in-law.
In a “Great Male Lead” novel, the protagonist truly found blooming peach blossoms wherever he went.
However, what Ming Yuemian didn’t expect was that the Princess herself wasn’t exactly a “proper” person either.
The moment they stepped into the bedchamber, they saw several white, jade-like figures waiting there. Before Ming Yuemian could get a clear look, they rushed forward like a gust of wind.
…What’s the meaning of this?
Ming Yuemian shuddered. Were these assassins? In broad daylight, inside the imperial palace, this was way too bold!
Being a mere bystander and quite cowardly, she quickly ducked behind Fu shuang to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
Then, she watched as those jade-like figures rushed to Princess Fei Qiong, grabbed her legs, and began to wail loudly.
Ming Yuemian: “?”
Focusing her gaze, she saw that these were several exceptionally handsome men. Right now, each was weeping like “pear blossoms in the rain,” looking pitiful and delicate, yet the scene was strangely hilarious.
As for the content of their crying… Ming Yuemian listened closely. It was mostly: “Princess, you haven’t visited us in so long,” “The deep palace is so lonely,” “Why haven’t you called for us to attend your bed lately?” “Have we fallen out of favor?” …and so on.
Feng Cheng: “…”
Fu shuang: “…”
Ming Yuemian: “???”
So, these handsome men were the male concubines kept by Princess Fei Qiong?
Holy cow. Ming Yuemian poked her head out from behind Fu shuang, her face radiating the joy of someone stumbling upon a massive piece of gossip.
Fu shuang had instinctively reached for her sword when they first rushed out, but now, her hand slowly relaxed, her expression somewhat dazed.
Isn’t this the shock of a pure, good girl encountering a wealthy ‘fishpond owner’?
Ming Yuemian thought to herself: Can’t you learn from her? Have a bigger vision! What does that scumbag Feng Cheng matter? There are plenty of men in this world!
Sensing Ming Yuemian’s gaze, Fu shuang turned her head.
Ming Yuemian wore a look of “resentment that iron couldn’t turn into steel.”
Fu shuang: “?”
The two of them had always been communicating on completely different wavelengths. No matter how much Fu shuang pondered, she would never guess that Ming Yuemian was thinking this.
Feeling it was inexplicable, she coldly looked away.
Ming Yuemian wasn’t disappointed. After all, since transmigrating into the book, this “unfortunate child” Fu shuang had given her too many reasons to be frustrated by her lack of ambition.
She had another thought: Looking at it this way, the shy act the Princess put on when she saw Feng Cheng might not have been entirely sincere.
She knew it! A dignified Princess blushing just by looking at Feng Cheng, that seemed far too inexperienced. Had she never seen a handsome man before?
As it turned out, it wasn’t that she had low standards, but rather that she was an “adult who wants it all.”
She probably just took a liking to Feng Cheng’s face. Most likely, she had grown bored of the old faces in her palace and found Feng Cheng to be a refreshing novelty.
Feng Cheng was full of surprise, surprised enough that his drunkenness evaporated. Meanwhile, the King’s face darkened, and he scolded unpleasantly, “What kind of behavior is this!”
Yet, the handsome men showed not a shred of fear. As the saying goes, “My master’s master is not my master.” They understood this clearly and continued to wail while clinging to Princess Fei Qiong.
King: “…”
The King turned to scold Princess Fei Qiong: “You can’t even handle the affairs of your own inner palace, and now you’re making a scene in front of the Immortal Master. How embarrassing! Have these ‘birds and flowers’ dismissed at once!”
Princess Fei Qiong snatched her skirt back from her concubines. The fabric was already wrinkled and crumpled, looking quite messy. She turned and ordered the servants: “My father and our guests have important business to discuss. Take them to the side hall and do not allow them in.”
She was perfectly serious, showing not a hint of shame.
Ming Yuemian: “…”
It seemed the King didn’t care at all that his daughter kept male concubines, his only grievance was the crying, making a scene, and letting guests witness such a mess.
The social customs of the Li Kingdom were truly… quite open and bold.
Once the domestic “housekeeping” was finished, everyone finally sat down in the hall.
“I apologize for the Immortal Master having to see that,” the King said awkwardly.
“No, it’s fine…” Feng Cheng replied politely.
The two exchanged pleasantries for a moment, glossing over the incident before getting to the main point.
“My daughter’s illness came on strangely, starting about several months ago. Initially, it was just anxiety and dreaming at night, along with a loss of appetite. I summoned the imperial physicians to treat her, thinking she would recover in no time, but instead, it has only grown more severe.”
The King looked at Princess Fei Qiong with eyes full of love and pity, letting out a heavy sigh.
“Not only does she sleepwalk at night, tossing and turning, but sometimes she isn’t even lucid during the day. Once, she actually climbed the city walls barefoot and was about to jump… It truly scared me out of my wits. But after she regained consciousness, she remembered nothing of what had just happened. Only then did we feel this wasn’t an ordinary ailment. Qiong’er must be haunted by some evil thing.”
Feng Cheng pondered. The symptoms described by the King did indeed sound like a haunting.
The Taoist Nun Zi Xuan added, “The King’s suspicion is not without merit.”
To understand more deeply, Feng Cheng asked, “Are there any other symptoms?”
The King shook his head and said, “I am busy with daily state affairs, many times when Qiong’er has an episode, I am not by her side.”
Feng Cheng then turned his gaze toward Princess Fei Qiong.
The Princess’s face flushed the moment her eyes met Feng Cheng’s. She lowered her head and whispered, “I don’t remember.”
It made sense, every time the affliction struck, she lost consciousness, so naturally, she knew nothing.
Feng Cheng made a mental note, preparing to question the palace maids and attendants later… and those male concubines seemed very much worth questioning as well.
The King asked anxiously, “In your expert opinion, Immortal Master, will this evil be easy to eliminate?”
Although both Zi Xuan and Feng Cheng were present, the Myriad Sound Sect had arrived uninvited. The King was clearly just going through the motions with Zi Xuan, all his questions were directed at Feng Cheng.
Sure enough, Zi Xuan fell silent. She likely sensed the situation and chose not to speak up to avoid being a nuisance.
“Your Majesty need not worry,” Feng Cheng said with a smile. “I see the Princess has a healthy complexion. Even if an evil entity has entered her body, I suspect it is not an exceptionally formidable one.”
Having said that, he looked at Zi Xuan: “What does the Taoist Nun think?”
He was playing the diplomat, high in emotional intelligence, handing her a conversational thread to ensure she didn’t feel neglected.
Zi Xuan appreciated the gesture and smiled. “Young Master Feng is correct.”
The King felt slightly more at ease. “Then when can this evil be purged?”
Feng Cheng replied, “Though the Princess is haunted, her soul has not been entirely snatched away. Her mind is currently clear, which indicates the entity is not permanently parasitic. It only invades occasionally or lies dormant. To capture it, we must wait for its next manifestation to strike.”
Ming Yuemian sat nearby, chin in hand, listening with boredom.
Her finger traced mindless circles on the table, like a student daydreaming in class. She nudged closer to Fu shuang and whispered, “Sister, have you ever captured an evil spirit before?”
Fu shuang hadn’t intended to acknowledge her. However, the conversation on the other side was getting lively. Feng Cheng was looking after the Taoist Nun Zi Xuan, and their pleasant chatter was not a particularly pleasant sight to her.
Even knowing these interactions were mere social formalities to maintain the dignity between sects and even having been reborn once, knowing Feng Cheng possessed such a gentle and affectionate nature. Fu shuang still found the sight stinging to her eyes and heart.
When it came to exorcising evil, Fu shuang was far more experienced than that Taoist Nun Zi Xuan, yet no one handed her a thread or asked for her input.
She averted her gaze, and her eyes inevitably landed on the woman beside her, that vibrant red dress, bright as a flame, was simply too eye catching.
Fu shuang opened her thin lips and said, “I have.”
She was different from Feng Cheng, Ming Yuemian, and even Zi Xuan. She came from the “Jianghu” (the martial world), belonging to no sect. She had traveled the world since childhood. Compared to sect disciples like Feng Cheng who only descended the mountain after mastering their arts, she had grown up amidst monsters and ghosts in a dangerous world, fighting and clawing her way to survival.
Feng Cheng and Zi Xuan’s cultivation levels might be higher, but their combat experience was certainly not as rich as Fu shuang’s, nor had they captured as many entities.
Ming Yuemian’s interest was piqued, her eyes lighting up as she fired off questions like a Gatling gun: “How do you do it? Is it hard? Can I learn? Sister, can you teach me?”
Fu shuang was speechless, momentarily unsure how to respond. After a pause, she addressed the most baffling point first: “You don’t know how to exorcise spirits?”
The look Fu shuang gave her was like a modern intellectual looking at an illiterate person. Ming Yuemian bit the bullet and admitted, “…Um, I don’t.”
Fu shuang: “…”
She knew this girl was “unlearned and unskilled.” As the daughter of the Tianxuan Pavilion Master, she didn’t need to practice diligently, her status was naturally higher than many disciples, and she lacked for nothing.
But even for someone so lazy, shouldn’t she know something?
After all, theory and practice were two different things.
Actually, even in the cultivation world, disciples who truly excelled at exorcism were as rare as phoenix feathers. But basically every disciple knew the first and second steps of the process, wasn’t that just common sense?
Fu shuang thought to herself: Do the classes at Tianxuan Pavilion not teach this? Or can the Pavilion Master’s daughter skip all the mandatory courses?
Must be nice. Can you really be this reckless just because you were born well? How many ordinary disciples struggle for hundreds of years to reach her current cultivation level, while she achieves it effortlessly just because her father threw heavenly treasures and spirit elixirs at her?
No wonder no one in the cultivation world had successfully ascended to immortality in a thousand years. With this current atmosphere, everything was doomed sooner or later.
Fu shuang, worrying for the fate of the world, thought expressionlessly and said to Ming Yuemian: “I am not from your Tianxuan Pavilion. If you want to learn, go find your Senior Brother.”
Ming Yuemian: “…”
Rejected again.
Every time it was “no, no, no.” Why wasn’t this progress bar moving at all? It was zero progress. Ming Yuemian felt resentful, she was right before, she was getting so many “closed door” snubs from Fu shuang she was practically stuffed!
She stared at Fu shuang with a face full of melancholy, but Fu shuang remained cold as frost, acting as if she saw nothing.
On the other side, the King listened intently, nodding repeatedly.
“Since that is the case, please stay here… please stay in my daughter’s palace. If the evil entity appears, you can capture it on the spot.”
Feng Cheng nodded gracefully, then suddenly remembered something. “By the way, Your Majesty, I came here not only to exorcise the Princess’s affliction but for another matter: the Blue Snow Flowers. I believe my Master mentioned in his letter that my Junior Sister has suffered from a heart ailment since childhood and requires this flower for medicine. The previous supply has been exhausted, so I hope the King can grant us this favor.”
They had a long history of happy cooperation on this matter. The King agreed immediately, waving a hand to a servant: “Go fetch them quickly.”
He then smiled and said, “So this is the daughter of Pavilion Master Ming. Truly a peerless grace and world tilting beauty.”
The King had originally thought the two girls following Feng Cheng were just ordinary disciples. Now that Feng Cheng had pointed it out, he realized the one in red was Ming Ye’s daughter, and he couldn’t help but pour out a stream of “rainbow farts” (extravagant flattery).
Ming Yuemian: “…”
She knew she was a beauty, but this was a bit much.
She was still immersed in the frustration of being rejected by Fu shuang when she suddenly heard her name. She gave a sheepish smile.
“Thank you, Senior Brother. I didn’t expect you to still be thinking about my heart ailment…” Ming Yuemian muttered privately with an awkward laugh, “He has a bit of a conscience.”
Yes, a bit. But not much.
The conversation ended, and the King departed with peace of mind to attend to state affairs. The others remained in the Princess’s palace, following the King’s orders, to stay by her side at all times to prevent the evil entity from appearing.
Ming Yuemian: Great, we’ve all become bodyguards for the rich young lady.
The Princess was arranging their accommodations, giving Zi Xuan, Fu shuang, and Ming Yuemian their own rooms in the eastern side hall. She assigned everyone except Feng Cheng.
At that moment, a servant stepped forward and reminded her, “Princess, it is time for your nap. Do not overexert yourself.”
Ming Yuemian: “…”
Just assigning rooms to three or four people counts as overexertion? Huh?
She couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“It is indeed time to rest,” Princess Fei Qiong pivoted. “You three ladies have come a long way and must be tired. Please go and rest.”
Three ladies? Is this Princess blind? There’s a man right here!
Princess Fei Qiong looked up, her eyes shimmering as she gazed at Feng Cheng. “I do not know when that evil will appear, so I must trouble the Immortal Master to stay with me.”
Ming Yuemian: “?”
This hint… no, this explicit meaning. She wasn’t asking Feng Cheng to sleep with her, was she?
Since she didn’t know when the evil would appear, she would take a nap, and Feng Cheng couldn’t leave.
Feng Cheng clearly understood her meaning as well and was momentarily stunned.
Ming Yuemian glanced at Feng Cheng: The rich young lady has flipped your name tag. Please bathe, change, and wait to attend the royal bed.
Then she glanced at Fu shuang: Before, when Feng Cheng was talking to pretty girls and being solicitous, you weren’t angry. But now he’s going to sleep with a beautiful rich girl!
He’s going to SLEEP with her!
This, this, this… are you still not angry???