Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 409 395: Senior Sister's Unmentionable Secret

Inside the room, the scent of incense wafted gently, its hazy smoke from the censer drifting slowly through the sunlight.

Pei Xiaohan stood meekly before Lin Qianyan.

Her slender, pale fingers twisted the corner of her robes tightly. With her gaze lowered, she didn't dare look up. She felt an immense pressure from her normally gentle master, so much so that even breathing became difficult.

TAP, TAP—

Lin Qianyan tapped lightly on the table, and each crisp sound felt as if it were striking Pei Xiaohan's heart.

"Xiaopei, is this everything you have to confess?"

"I'm sorry, Master..."

Pei Xiaohan lowered her head, hastily admitting her fault.

"Why are you sorry now? When you were plotting to separate me from Brother Pei, how come it didn't occur to you to be sorry then?"

Lin Qianyan's cool words made Pei Xiaohan's breath catch. She looked up in a panic, her eyes red-rimmed and lips trembling, as if she wanted to defend herself—

But Lin Qianyan simply raised a hand, cutting off whatever she was about to say.

"Xiaopei, you're going to say that everything you did was for my own good, aren't you?"

"...Yes."

Pei Xiaohan's voice trembled, like a child afraid of being scolded and punished by a parent.

"Then what if I don't think everything you did was for my own good?"

"What if I think you were simply imposing your own selfish desires on me and Brother Pei, and that you separated us only to satisfy your own needs?"

Pei Xiaohan's face instantly turned deathly pale.

"Master, I... I wasn't thinking about all that."

"I just felt that if you continued this immoral relationship with Elder Pei, the Jade Pool Sacred Land and the Sect Leader would never allow it..."

"That is not for you to worry about."

Lin Qianyan's single sentence stuffed all of Pei Xiaohan's concerns right back down her throat.

"Besides, Xiaopei, you have your priorities backward. The entire reason I became the Jade Pool Saintess was to better search for Brother Pei.

If becoming the Jade Pool Saintess meant I had to give up Brother Pei, that would be putting the cart before the horse."

Lin Qianyan's words left Pei Xiaohan stunned.

It seemed she had never considered this possibility. Or perhaps, her master had said it before, but she had never taken it seriously.

After all, this was the position of Saintess of the Jade Pool Sacred Land.

A position at the very pinnacle of the Cultivation Realm.

'How could anyone possibly give up such a glorious position for so-called "love"?'

But now, Pei Xiaohan could only smile bitterly to herself. She knew she had misjudged her master, assuming she was more worldly than she was.

"I'm sorry, Master."

Pei Xiaohan murmured again, but this time it wasn't out of fear of punishment. It was a sincere, heartfelt apology for her own mistaken judgment.

The bond between Lin Qianyan and Pei Yuhang was deeper than she had imagined. Perhaps it had already transcended so-called love and the title of Dao Companion.

"Master, please punish me."

Faced with her disciple's request, Lin Qianyan nodded. "Alright. I'll punish you by having you copy the disciple's code of conduct one thousand times."

"Yes... huh?"

Pei Xiaohan, who had been bracing for a severe punishment, felt her almond eyes widen.

"Master, you're only... punishing me by making me copy texts?"

"What? Are you not satisfied with that?"

Lin Qianyan glanced at Pei Xiaohan, and the younger woman immediately raised her hands, waving them frantically.

"No, no..."

"Then hurry up and get to it!"

"Yes!"

Pei Xiaohan bowed hastily and walked out, suppressing a secret thrill of joy.

'For Master to give me such a light punishment... it must mean she's forgiven me, right?'

Watching her disciple scurry away, Lin Qianyan let out a soft sigh.

'That girl... I never thought she'd be so bold as to drag me to watch Brother Pei and Yueqiu...'

However, because of what happened, she had also overheard the demands Qing Yueqiu made of Pei Yuhang.

Lin Qianyan raised her fingertips to her brow and rubbed it, murmuring softly:

"That girl... her dependence on Brother Pei is even stronger than I thought."

'Compared to my thoughtless disciple, Pei Xiaohan, a personality like Qing Yueqiu's is a much bigger headache.'

The silver-haired girl seemed cool and detached, with no desire for material things, but in reality, her possessiveness and dependence on the person she most trusted and adored were stronger than anyone's.

'When Brother Pei was being pestered by Shang Miaoyan, Ji Xichan, and the others, she never reacted so strongly. But when it comes to me, she can't accept it...'

'Is it because Yueqiu thinks I will actually steal her master away?'

If one were to say that Shang Miaoyan and the others coveted Brother Pei with more carnal lust, then what Qing Yueqiu wanted was his undivided attention and affection.

That was the most difficult part of the problem.

'A person only has so much attention to give. When Brother Pei is with me, he's bound to neglect Yueqiu... *Sigh*. How am I supposed to get along with this girl in the future?'

...

...

Yu Xiaoyan circled the back of the mountain three times but couldn't find a single trace of her master or her senior sister.

Annoyed, she kicked a plum tree by the path. In that instant, the snow on its branches shook, its balance disturbed.

WHOOSH—

A heavy pile of white snow came tumbling down, blanketing Yu Xiaoyan.

"AHHHHH—"

The girl's upper body was soaked through with snow, making her even more furious.

"That damn sneaky cat! Where in the world did she drag Master off to?!"

Listening to Xiaoxiao's impotent rage, Yu Gu Nan remained silent within her Sea of Consciousness.

'The answer was obvious. If they weren't on the back mountain, then Master and Senior Sister could only be at the Cold Earth Spring.'

'The Cold Earth Spring...'

Yu Gu Nan's memories of that place were anything but pleasant.

'After all, last time, I could only stand resentfully outside the door, watching them inside—wait a minute.'

'Master and Senior Sister, they...'

Yu Gu Nan seemed to have realized something.

In an instant, countless fragments of memory pieced themselves together, forming a complete chain of thought.

It dawned on Yu Gu Nan.

'No wonder Senior Sister has been acting so strange since we got back from the Northern Desert.'

'It seems Xiaoxiao and I really missed out by not going.'

'And...'

'Thinking back on it, Senior Sister's strange behavior and the nourishing tonics she's been taking... it's very similar to preparing for a pregnancy...'

'No, that's... impossible, right?'

'His consorts, Shang Miaoyan and so many others, had tried for years without any success.'

'And Senior Sister succeeded in just two short months?'

A hundred thoughts raced through Yu Gu Nan's mind in the Sea of Consciousness, but ultimately, she chose to remain silent.

She didn't tell Xiaoxiao.

As the one who knew Yu Xiaoyan best, she was well aware of how reckless her seemingly clever and scheming younger sister could be.

Her relationship with Qing Yueqiu was already delicate. Ever since their master had taken her in and she'd first met her senior sister, they had been secretly competing for his favor.

However, anyone with eyes could see that Qing Yueqiu, despite always seeming to be on the losing end, actually shared a deeper bond with Pei Yuhang.

Yu Xiaoyan understood this too, which was why she treated her aloof senior sister so horribly.

It was jealousy.

It was only when Yu Xiaoyan received their master's favor, certain that her senior sister was out of the running, that her sense of superiority allowed her to ease up on her hostility toward Qing Yueqiu.

'If her already sensitive little sister's sense of superiority were thrown off balance now... she would probably cause a major incident.'