“Since you’re my master now, you should conduct yourself with dignity!” Yun Ruoyan once again began to rebuff Li Mo’s advances.

But Li Mo was as stubborn as ever. Tightly embracing Yun Ruoyan, his mouth by her ear, he whispered, “Yan’er, you misunderstand me. My role is more mentor than master.” [1]

Li Mo explained further, “A master is both a mentor and a paternal figure, but a mentor is just responsible for teaching you skills. I’m a ninth-rank blademaster at the cusp of being a sword saint, a peak eighth-rank pillmaster, and both an eighth-rank forgemaster and beastmaster. In all of Kongming Academy and even the whole of the Chenyuan continent, Yan’er, I doubt you’ll be able to find a better mentor than I am.”

This was the first time Li Mo had ever revealed the extent of his knowledge to Yun Ruoyan. The whole world knew that the Slaughtering King Li Mo was a man of many talents who was blessed by the heavens, but even Yun Ruoyan hadn’t expected his talent to be so extreme.

Such a polymath was indeed the best mentor Yun Ruoyan could hope for!

“You’re really that strong?” Yun Ruoyan asked. “But you’re only in your twenties—how on earth did you manage it?!”

Cultivation was something that had to be accumulated over months and years, no matter how strong one’s innate talent. Yun Ruoyan felt that, even if Li Mo had begun cultivating when he was three, without eating or drinking or sleeping, he would still be unable to achieve what he claimed.

When Yun Ruoyan stopped struggling, Li Mo let go of her and spun her around to face him. “This is a secret of mine.”

Li Mo had his secrets, and Yun Ruoyan had hers. Yun Ruoyan didn’t intend on telling Li Mo her own secrets; similarly, she wouldn’t try to pry at Li Mo’s.

Yun Ruoyan thought that Li Mo wasn’t going to continue, but he did. “Yan’er, you must have guessed that my father isn’t the emperor of the Li kingdom. It was simply a false identity implanted by the previous emperor in order to hide my true identity.”

“In that case, your father must be… the legendary Beast King!” Yun Ruoyan revealed her most probable guess.

“That’s correct, and that’s the largest secret of my identity.” Li Mo caressed Yun Ruoyan’s cheek. “A large part of my cultivation was inherited from my father at his passing, then enhanced with my own talent and diligence.”

“Is that so!” Yun Ruoyan looked as though she were having a revelation.

“Yan’er, you must have suspected my identity for quite a while.” Li Mo looked at Yun Ruoyan, his ink-black eyes slowly turning a pale, icy blue. “Anyone who even suspected my identity has been killed, but you’re my only exception, Yan’er. I want to marry you, to make you mine—so you can’t ever betray me. Do you understand?”

Yun Ruoyan faced this mysterious man who was both her fiance and mentor. Li Mo could be gentle and passionate, enclosing her in his heated embrace, or wild and ferocious like a wolf, clawing someone apart with his bare hands.

He was a dangerous, intoxicating man.

“And if one day I do betray you, or if I want to leave you?” Yun Ruoyan asked. “Will you kill me?”

“Yes!” he replied immediately.

Yun Ruoyan nodded. “Remember your words. If one day you betray me, or if you want to leave me, I too shall kill you.”

“Yan’er—” Li Mo looked at Yun Ruoyan’s serious expression and couldn’t help chuckling. So what if he were her mentor? Even if he were her master, even if the world itself went against them, their love for each other would prevail. Furthermore, it wasn’t as if either of them were particularly interested in worldly reputation.

Perhaps the two of them would have preferred to wander the world together, but each had unfulfilled obligations of their own.

The two of them embraced each other in companionable silence until Li Mo spoke up. From start to finish, he described the truth behind his childhood and upbringing, how he had transformed from the Beast Prince to the Slaughtering King of the Li kingdom.

“After the first elder saved me, he entrusted me to the previous emperor of the Li kingdom, waiting for a suitable time to formally accept me as a disciple.”

“So the boy from that story really was you…” Yun Ruoyan sat in Li Mo’s lap, twirling his hair.

Li Mo reached out and rapped her on the head. “Ouch! Why’d you do that?”

“How upset I was that day—and instead of consoling me, you pretended to sleep!” Li Mo exclaimed in mock rage.

“I could hardly make wild guesses about your identity, Your Highness,” Yun Ruoyan retorted. “In that case, what are you up to now? What are the tasks you’re trying to accomplish?”

“To identify the culprits behind my father’s murder and to repay this blood debt.” Li Mo’s tone was calm and placid. “After badly hurting Father, they dragged my mother away by force. I believe she’s still alive, and I need to find her and reunite with her. Yan’er, I’m sure my mother will like you, and we’ll be able to live together—the three of us!—in peace…”

“Li Mo, I have a secret of my own,” Yun Ruoyan began.

“I know.” Li Mo mussed her hair. “Yan’er, I know all your secrets.”

“You do?!” Yun Ruoyan jumped out of Li Mo’s lap and looked at him in shock.

Her unusually strong reaction left Li Mo somewhat perturbed. Of course he’d fully investigate the woman of his eye, and Yun Ruoyan should have been quite aware of this.

“I had my men investigate you. Your mother’s death is truly quite unusual, and the poison in your body came from the Yue kingdom.”

Upon hearing Li Mo’s words, Yun Ruoyan took a deep breath. After all, how could Li Mo have known that she had rebirthed? How could he have known about her silver bracelet and about Qiuqiu?

Yun Ruoyan had too many secrets, and such people were always quite easy to scare. But just as she was about to relax, Li Mo then pointed at Yun Ruoyan’s silver bracelet. “As for this bracelet, there’s a little creature hidden within—oh, no, an old creature!”

“What! You know about this bracelet too?” Yun Ruoyan stood still once more. Perversely, Li Mo was quite satisfied by her unsettled expression.

“Qiuqiu, are you going to pretend that you’re still asleep?” Li Mo glanced at Yun Ruoyan’s silver bracelet. “I’ll give you a chance to tell the truth to your mistress.”

“I’m sorry, Mistress.” Qiuqiu’s apologetic voice suddenly sounded in her mind. “I was a beast who had contracted with the Beast King. After he fought to the death, I was badly injured and sealed within this bracelet. Somehow, it ended up in your mother’s possession, and then in yours. In order to borrow your power to break this seal, I voluntarily entered a blood pact with you.”

“If you’re my contracted beast, why would you help Li Mo keep me in the dark?!” Yun Ruoyan was understandably upset: she had always treated Qiuqiu as her largest secret, valuing its presence even more than the fact that she had rebirthed. All this time, she’d thought her secret safe and sound, but she seemed to have been played for a fool.

“Yan’er, don’t blame Qiuqiu. I threatened to kill you if Qiuqiu divulged the secret,” Li Mo pacified her.

“When did you discover Qiuqiu?” Yun Ruoyan suppressed her anger and asked Li Mo.

“Back in the Minghuang Mountain. I grew up with Qiuqiu, and I’m very familiar with its aura. I once approached Qiuqiu and asked it to leave you, but it refused. At that time, however, I wasn’t close to you, so I was both curious and on guard about your identity. To prevent your suspicions, I threatened Qiuqiu so it wouldn’t reveal that I knew of your secret.”

“Mistress, you won’t blame me, will you?” Qiuqiu begged plaintively.

Yun Ruoyan sighed. How could she blame Qiuqiu? After all, Qiuqiu had saved her so many times when she had been in trouble, and it had taught her so much as well. When faced with danger, Qiuqiu was always there to provide support.

“No, Qiuqiu, I don’t blame you. However, you have to promise me never to lie to me again. You know how much I abhor being lied to.” Rather than respond mentally to Qiuqiu’s plea, Yun Ruoyan said this out loud.

Li Mo felt a little guilty when he heard this, but he had no plans of revealing that Yun Ruoyan was a human furnace. Based on Li Mo’s understanding of her, Yun Ruoyan would be willing to forgive Qiuqiu’s lies, but not the fact that he had initially helped and gotten close to her only because she was a human furnace.

In fact, Yun Ruoyan would likely suspect that the reason Li Mo was currently so close to her was still simply because of her unique constitution, that she was simply a useful tool to him. This wasn’t a risk that Li Mo was willing to take.

“Well, Xun Mo? I told you you’d end up liking my mistress!” Qiuqiu communicated with Li Mo mentally, its tone proud.

Li Mo smiled. Yun Ruoyan was truly an accidental fortune in his life.

“Rest well now. I still have something to discuss with the first elder, and I’ll come fetch you tomorrow morning.”

Because of the large number of deaths during this trial, Kongming Academy had to handle the proceedings for the students who had perished or become disabled as a result of the trial. After the induction ceremony, there would be two weeks’ leave for those students who had friends or family who had passed away to return home in mourning.

As Li Mo perched on the window, he turned back and smiled at Yun Ruoyan. “Yan’er, now that you’re no longer applying your fake birthmark when I visit, I finally don’t have to bear with your ugly face any longer!”

If Li Mo hadn’t brought it up, Yun Ruoyan would have forgotten about the matter, but once he did, she began to fume. She was just about to yell at him when he flew off on his sword, leaving nothing but a draught of cold air behind.

As she watched Li Mo’s silhouette become smaller and smaller, until he was no larger than a speck of dust, she found that her heart was far more relaxed than ever. Before tonight, their relationship was one filled with secrets, and even their intimacy seemed to take on an artificial sheen. Now that they’d revealed their secrets to each other, however, she felt as though she were connected to Li Mo even without any intimate gestures.

Li Mo, you’d better not lie to me, ever!

Back atop the tall tower, the first elder glanced up at the night sky. Li Mo stopped by his side, descending from his sword.

“Have you told her everything?”

“I’ve decided on her, so she’ll have to learn about me sooner or later,” Li Mo replied. “She doesn’t like being lied to.”

“You’re very similar to your father in this regard: cold and distant at first glance, but once his heart was set on someone, he would treat her sincerely at all costs.”

The first elder glanced into the distance, as though he were thinking back to a cherished memory. “I met your father in a slave camp. If not for his protection, I would long have died. He was a natural king in talent and personality, and his skills were sufficient to take over the entirety of the Chenyuan continent. After meeting your mother, however, he was content to curtail his ambitions and lay claim only to a small part of the land, all to live out his life with her in peace deep in the Yueli Mountain.”

The first elder’s voice suddenly filled with grief and indignation. “But even so, he was targeted! I arrived too late to save his life!”

“Master, this isn’t your fault.” Li Mo shook his head. “He bequeathed to me a third of his cultivation and had the palace maids bring me away. I’m sure that Father faced his attackers with the knowledge that he would die fighting.”

1. The two words are homophones in Chinese. ‘Master’ is the common title for both of these roles.