By this time, everyone had heard about how Pei Ziao had murdered a number of people in the Yichun brothel in cold blood. However, what was most shocking was the fact that he had bought the virginity of an unimaginably ugly servant at that brothel, Huahua.

Many people could kill the guards who would choose to work at as disreputable a location as a brothel, but far fewer would dare to spend a night with so ugly a woman.

The Pei family hadn’t spent much effort to retrieve Pei Ziao from prison, but he had been forced to remain in his rooms for quite some time afterward. Even now, he felt as if every gaze directed at him seemed to mock him as a fool.

When Pei Yingxiong found that the tiger-canine arrows and two high-grade spiritual pills had gone missing, he investigated all the servants and found that the most likely culprit was none other than his own son, Pei Ziao.

Pei Ziao declared that he had been the one to take these items, but although he remembered doing so, he hadn’t done it out of his own volition. Just like in the Yichun brothel, it felt as though someone were instigating him to perform those actions, and he could only follow those orders like a mindless puppet.

But when Pei Yingxiong asked Pei Ziao what he’d done with those items and where he’d gone before heading to the Yichun brothel, Pei Ziao froze up, as if his mind had gone blank.

Pitying his son, Pei Yingxiong didn’t ask him any further questions. Instead, he sent out his men to investigate the truth behind the matter and identify the true culprit behind the underhanded scheme.

But Pei Ziao refused to back down, vowing that he would find the culprit himself. After Pei Yingxiong left, Pei Ziao tried to think back to when he had first lost his autonomy. From there, he would trace out all his actions from that terrible day.

He had first entered the Pei family vault, before leaving with three boxes. Instead of getting a carriage, he distinctly remembered that he had walked to his final destination, the Lin manor. It was then that his memories splintered. The next thing he knew, he was at the Yichun brothel.

So what exactly had he done between arriving at the Lin manor and going to the Yichun brothel? Even after a persistent attempt at recovering his lost memories, Pei Ziao’s search was fruitless.

He could trace his first loss of autonomy all the way back to the Shenxian restaurant at the Yuelu Villa. He had been treating Yun Ruoyan to dinner, but by the time he regained his memory, Yun Ruoyan had left him.

The Lin manor was also intimately connected to Yun Ruoyan, so she was naturally the main target of his suspicion. Except for Yun Ruoyan, he didn’t know of anyone else who would treat him in such a fashion. But why would Yun Ruoyan do so?

Ever since leaving the imperial territory, he had tried his hardest to mend his relationship with her! Even if Yun Ruoyan still didn’t like him very much, there was no reason for her to hurt him in such a vicious manner!

Lost in his thoughts, he had somehow retraced the steps from the Pei manor to the Lin manor. As he saw Yun Ruoyan walking out of the Lin manor, he rushed up to her, anxious to resolve the conundrums in his mind.

“Yun Ruoyan, you suddenly vanished that day I treated you to a meal at the Shenxian restaurant. From then on, my memories have been muddled, and I’ve done a series of ridiculous things. Except for you, I really can’t think of anyone else who would target me!”

Yun Ruoyan had naturally predicted that Pei Ziao would be suspicious of her after this entire affair. After discussing the matter with Qiuqiu, Qiuqiu had pointed out a third drawback to the soul-stealing pill: the victim would lose his agency but not his memories, and it would be very easy to expose herself as the culprit if she weren’t careful.

This time, Yun Ruoyan shouldn’t have had Pei Ziao send the items to the Lin manor. Instead, she should have chosen a hidden, secluded location. Unfortunately, while Yun Ruoyan had been commanding Pei Ziao, Qiuqiu was deep in cultivation, so Yun Ruoyan had made a beginner’s mistake and left herself with incriminating evidence.

What Yun Ruoyan had to do now was to destroy it.

“Young Master Pei, thank you for your reminder.” Yun Ruoyan looked impressively angry, without a hint of guilt. “What were you planning that day after you tricked me into drinking the shenxian liquor?”

Yun Ruoyan’s counter-question left Pei Ziao stumbling. Guiltily, he replied, “I… I wasn’t planning on doing anything.”

For his age, Pei Ziao was a relatively mature person and a better schemer than most. In front of Yun Ruoyan, however, he was nothing.

“Nothing, you say?” Yun Ruoyan repeated his words mockingly. “In that case, why didn’t you tell me about the potent aftereffects of shenxian, and why did you try so hard to get me to drink so much?!”

By this time, Yun Moxiao had also noticed something amiss, and he was bearing down on Pei Ziao with a tiger’s glint. Before Yun Ruoyan brought up this matter, Pei Ziao had actually forgotten that he was trying to get her drunk, spend a night with her, and then take her as his own possession.

Now that Yun Ruoyan had brought it up, Pei Ziao couldn’t help feeling more and more guilty. Because of his pallor and weariness, the guilt was evident on his face.

“But… but nothing came out of it!” he shouted.

“And the only reason that nothing came out of it was because the Slaughtering King appeared and dragged me off in time,” Yun Ruoyan hissed, looking disdainfully at him. “Otherwise, I really don’t want to think about what might have happened.”

When Yun Ruoyan brought up Li Mo, Pei Ziao couldn’t help rearing back in shock.

“The Slaughtering King… the Slaughtering King took you away himself?!”

In fury, Yun Moxiao walked up to Pei Ziao and grabbed him by his collar, barely refraining from lifting him off the ground entirely. He still remembered the morning after, when the Slaughtering King had sent Yun Ruoyan back to her cottage. At the time, he was very curious as to how Yun Ruoyan had ended up with the Slaughtering King despite having left with Pei Ziao, and now he knew.

“If not for the Slaughtering King’s timely arrival, were you about to take my sister’s virginity?!” Yun Moxiao threw Pei Ziao onto the ground and was about to stomp on him when his sister pulled him back.

“Brother, don’t hit him. It’ll sully your feet.”

Pei Ziao lay on the ground in a daze. Could it be the Slaughtering King who made me do all that as punishment? If the culprit really were the Slaughtering King, then there would be nothing he could do except gritting his teeth and bearing with the damage to his reputation.

“Young Master Pei.” Yun Ruoyan walked to Pei Ziao’s side and looked down at him. “I don’t know what happened to you, but I can tell you what happened that day. You suddenly arrived at the Lin manor and handed me the tiger-canine arrows and two high-grade spiritual pills before turning to leave, and your expression and mannerisms were both rather unnatural.”

After hearing those words, Pei Ziao was even more confident in his hypothesis that it was the Slaughtering King himself who had controlled him. After all, he too knew of the intimate relationship between him and Yun Ruoyan.

Initially, Pei Ziao had thought Yun Ruoyan a girl that he could freely seize, but now he was seriously regretting his actions. Some people jealously guarded their possessions, and anyone who dared brook that jealousy would be severely punished.

Based on Pei Ziao’s downcast expression, Yun Ruoyan was confident that he was following her train of thought.

“But since those three items were all ones that you had promised me, I won’t be returning them to you,” Yun Ruoyan continued. “I wish you well, Young Master Pei… Brother, let’s leave.”

Yun Ruoyan stepped into the carriage, Yun Moxiao following right behind. Before he entered, however, Yun Moxiao turned and pointed a finger at Pei Ziao. “My sister isn’t for the likes of you, understand?”

As the carriage whizzed by Pei Ziao’s side, he stared dumbly in the direction of the carriage until it vanished from sight, then pounded the ground harshly.

“If you ever see him again, stay away.” Yun Moxiao was infuriated by what could have happened if the Slaughtering King hadn’t been present. “You’ve become such an intelligent girl, so how could you fall into Pei Ziao’s trap like that?!”

Yun Ruoyan sighed, knowing that her brother’s exasperation was due to his concern for her. Her heart buzzed with warmth, tingling from an emotion that she had almost never felt in her past life.

“Without me around, you’d better not agree to any such invitations, you hear me?”

“Yes, dear brother.” Yun Ruoyan tugged at Yun Moxiao’s arm and pouted, “Brother, you really won’t leave me, will you?”

“No, I won’t.” Yun Moxiao patted Yun Ruoyan’s head. “Oh, you silly sister, I have to guard you until you’re married off, at least.”

Despite his outward facade, Yun Moxiao really was quite worried. His bald eagle had returned, but it hadn’t brought back a reply from General Huang. Despite the long wait, he hadn’t heard from the army at all. Was his master unwilling to accept his departure, or had he been delayed by something? Yun Moxiao didn’t know.

That night, Yun Moxiao wrote another letter to General Huang. When he whistled to and summoned his bald eagle, another snowy eagle accompanied it. That eagle belonged to his master, General Huang.

“Snowy, long time no see! Is my master doing alright?” Yun Moxiao called out excitedly to the snowy eagle, who cawed out and circled him thrice, signifying that everything was well.

Subsequently, it rushed down toward Yun Moxiao, who held out his vambrace for it to perch on.

From its claws, Yun Moxiao took out the letter that General Huang had written to him in response. While General Huang found his decision regretful, he had decided to acknowledge and respect Yun Moxiao’s decision.

After reading through the letter, Yun Moxiao felt as though a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He wrote him another letter, thanking his master for his understanding as well as promising to continue working on his cultivation so as not to disappoint him.

After doing so, Yun Moxiao lay in bed and thought about what he would say to his father. Even now, he could imagine how enraged Yun Lan would be as a result of his admission. What he hadn’t expected was for his father to receive a letter from General Huang at the same time he did.

In his study, Yun Lan took the letter from Housekeeper Wu’s hands.

“Master, this was sent directly from the northern barracks.”

Yun Lan nodded and opened the letter, his eyes widening as he read.

When he finished the letter, he slammed a fist down on his desk as he called out, “Summon Yun Moxiao to my study at once!”