“Yi Qianying, are you still denying your crimes?” Rong Tianhai shouted once more.

“I, I—” Yi Qianying was still hesitating when Rong Yueshan sidled up behind her and whispered gently, “You’d better admit your guilt while Senior Brother Guan’s death is still considered an accident.”

Yi Qianying’s heart thumped. Although she would be admitting to harming her peers, it was surely better than being blamed for Guan Tianyu’s murder and being the target for the second elder’s revenge.

“I, I confess!” Yi Qianying slowly fell to her knees in front of the crowd.

The first elder stood up from his seat. “In that case—”

“First Elder, I’ll take responsibility for this matter, given that I oversee the northern college. Please allow me to bring Yi Qianying to the hall of penitence to be punished,” the second elder interrupted as soon as the first elder began to speak.

“As for the murderer?”

“My poor grandson died to a beast horde! Since Yi Qianying was responsible for bringing the beasts over, she will naturally have to take responsibility,” the second elder explained.

“In that case, do you agree that Yun Ruoyan should be absolved from blame?”

“Naturally,” the second elder replied, as though he weren’t the one who had pronounced her guilty in the first place. “Now that everything’s settled, please allow me to leave.”

The second elder left the great hall with a large crowd of students from the northern college in tow, followed by the disgraced Yi Qianying.

The other elders and provosts all seemed somewhat confused. Some had noticed something amiss, but there was no reason for them to get involved in others’ affairs. After the second elder left, the remaining students and faculty of the academy slowly began to drift out of the great hall.

“Zhuo Yifeng, why are you running about even before you’re fully healed?” The sixth elder clicked his tongue as he approached Zhuo Yifeng.

Zhuo Yifeng was now truly one of the strongest students in the central college. After the expedition, he had become an eighth-rank blademaster, a rare feat even within Kongming Academy, but especially within the central college. Despite being new, he had already attained such a marvellous accomplishment!

“Quick, follow me to my residence. I’ll have to prepare a little something to help you recuperate.”

Zhuo Yifeng turned to look at Yun Ruoyan, who smiled at him. “I’m alright now, so you should return with the sixth elder. We’ll have another training session coming up, remember?”

After Zhuo Yifeng left, Li Mo, Yun Ruoyan, and the first elder headed to the northern tower together. Upon reaching the second floor of the tower, Yun Ruoyan asked Li Mo, “Why did we spare Yi Qianying this time? And how about Rong Tianhai, Pei Ziao, and Rong Yueshan? Surely they should have been implicated too?”

Although Yun Ruoyan had managed to vindicate herself, she regretted not being able to round up and trounce all her enemies from the northern college at once.

“What we can think of, so can the second elder. You know how much the second elder cares about his reputation, don’t you? He’ll certainly deal with Rong Yueshan’s group and Rong Tianhai even if we don’t say anything.”

“On the contrary, if we did try to accuse Rong Tianhai and all those students from the northern college in such a public venue, he would surely try to defend them, and it would have gone worse for us,” the first elder added.

Li Mo and the first elder exchanged a glance and smiled.

On the second elder’s orders, Yi Qianying was imprisoned within the hall of penitence. Rong Tianhai, Rong Yueshan, and Pei Ziao were each called in for questioning with the second elder. Right after they entered the second elder’s residence, the second elder turned around and slapped Rong Tianhai.

The strike had been infused with spiritual energy, and Rong Tianhai staggered and almost fell to the ground. Luckily, Pei Ziao had supported him from behind.

“All of you, kneel!” The second elder’s face had suddenly turned disconcertingly dark.

When Rong Tianhai recovered from the slap, he was the first to kneel. Mimicking him, Pei Ziao and Rong Yueshan also knelt down.

“What’s this about a spirit descendant?” Before Rong Tianhai could respond, the second elder warned, “You know my temper, so don’t try to trick me!”

“I wouldn’t dare, Master.” Rong Tianhai kowtowed deeply. Then, he described how he had taught Rong Yueshan’s group how to make use of Li Mo to obtain the wild vine spirit’s spirit descendant.

Rong Yueshan and Pei Ziao filled in the details of what had actually happened during the training expedition. “We gave the spirit descendant to Senior Brother Guan for safekeeping, and it was with him for the entire duration. We also don’t know how Yi Qianying managed to take it from him,” Rong Yueshan explained. “However, we’re quite confident that Senior Brother Guan’s death had something to do with Yi Qianying.”

The second elder snorted coldly. “Something to do with? She clearly killed my grandson in order to seize that treasure! All of you are implicated in my son’s death, and you’ll all receive punishment at the hall of penitence!”

The three of them lowered their heads, not speaking a word in retort.

“In that case, what will we do with Yi Qianying?” Rong Tianhai asked. “Should we just...”

Rong Tianhai made a slashing gesture against his throat.

“That would be far too painless for her,” the second elder gritted out. “Keep her in the worst cell you can find, and have her be severely punished by the students working in the hall of penitence—but make sure she doesn’t die. A year later, release her and throw her into an alternate dimension. I don’t want to see her again!”

Within a prison cell in the hall of penitence, Yi Qianying lay curled up in a corner of the cell, her large eyes staring expressionlessly at the ground. In her mind’s eye, she kept replaying the series of events that had left her in such dire straits. When she first saw the spirit descendant, her mind had suddenly filled with greed. She enacted her plan to kill Guan Tianyu, then incited an attack by a beast horde to hide the murder. Then, she manipulated Rong Yueshan to come up with the plan to blame it all on Yun Ruoyan.

What had gone wrong? Yi Qianying knew that her plan was daring, but it should have worked. Up until last night, Yi Qianying had thought that she had pulled off her plan faultlessly. Not only did she manage to snatch the spirit descendant, she had even managed to pin the blame on Yun Ruoyan!

But in the span of a single day, her fortunes had reversed. The one who had been imprisoned wasn’t Yun Ruoyan, but her! She had truly made a mess of things.

Yi Qianying cradled her head with her arms and rocked back and forth against the cold, damp ground. Just as she was about to begin wallowing in her misery, the door to her cell opened. Yi Qianying raised her head to see two gray-robed disciples, one fat and one skinny.

“Senior Brothers, what are you here to do?” They were smiling in malicious glee, greatly discomfiting Yi Qianying.

“Oh, nothing. We just wanted to find you a better place to rest, Senior Sister. How could such a beautiful girl like you stand to remain in this dinky cell?” the skinny disciple joked, then smiled all the more brightly, sending shivers down her spine.

“No, no! There’s quite no need. I’m fine where I am, thank you.”

“Ha.” The fatty chortled. “You think you’re here as a guest? Get up!”

He roughly grabbed Yi Qianying’s arm and pulled her up, then dragged her outside.

“Where exactly are you taking me, Senior Brothers? Won’t you please tell me?” Yi Qianying handed a rather ornate bracelet on her wrist to the fat disciple, and a ring on her right hand to the skinny one.

“Senior Brothers, please, take this gift,” Yi Qianying begged piteously.

The two disciples palmed Yi Qianying’s jewelry and smiled, satisfied. “We’ve been tasked to send you deeper into the dungeons. Originally, we’d planned on torturing you after bringing you there, but since you’re so respectful of your elders, we’ll let you go this once.”

They brought Yi Qianying to a black, smelly, damp little chamber, out of which emanated the ghastly odor of rot and decay. Through the metal grille, Yi Qianying thought she could see a few red-eyed rats scurrying about.

“And here we are, your new residence! Get in!” The skinny disciple shoved Yi Qianying.

“No, no! I don’t want to go in, I won’t!” Yi Qianying held on to the metal bars on the outside of the cell, shaking in horror.

“And here I thought you would be more obedient… You’re asking for trouble, aren’t you? Don’t force me to attack you. All your spiritual energy has been sealed, and you’re nothing more than an ordinary human now,” the fatty reminded.

“Senior Brothers, please do me one last favor, please!” Yi Qianying held on to the metal bars in desperation. “I’m the concubine of the crown prince of the Li kingdom. Please let the crown prince know that I’ve been imprisoned here, as well as the northern college’s Pei Ziao. Please, I’ll reward you once I’m freed!”

In her cottage by the cliffside, Yun Ruoyan was taking a bath.

“Ahh…” Yun Ruoyan submerged her entire body within the bathtub. After almost two weeks in an alternate dimension, she was finally able to enjoy a hot water bath. Yun Ruoyan was so comfortable that she didn’t even want to poke her head out of the water.

Just then, a pair of hands deftly reached into the bathtub, grabbed her shoulders, and pulled her out.

“Argh!” Yun Ruoyan screamed, only to see that the person standing in front of the bathtub was none other than Li Mo. “What’re you doing?!”

She subconsciously crossed her arms over her chest.

“Do you know how long I’ve been sitting on the windowsill? You never came out of the water, and you didn’t respond to my calls, so I was worried that you had drowned.” Li Mo’s voice had turned a little husky once he noticed Yun Ruoyan’s nude body.

“Have you forgotten that I have this?” Yun Ruoyan pointed at the gleaming serpent-core necklace around her neck.

Under her necklace’s reflected light, Yun Ruoyan’s skin appeared as sparkling and translucent as the serpent’s beast core itself, so beautiful that she seemed like an otherworldly creature.

Her clean face was as smooth and unblemished as a freshly peeled egg, soft, tender, but firm to the touch. Her skin was like that of a freshly bloomed lotus flower, and the few drops of water still clinging to her skin only accentuated her beauty.

Li Mo couldn’t help reaching out to caress her face. “Tomorrow, I’ll be heading back to the capital to prepare for our wedding. As soon as you become of age in the coming spring, we’ll get married.” Li Mo’s ardent gaze roamed her body.

Yun Ruoyan nodded, a slight smile by her lips. “Whatever you wish, Your Highness.”

The moment she spoke, Li Mo stepped forward and pressed his lips to hers. Over the course of a deep, elongated kiss, Li Mo brought Yun Ruoyan out of her bathtub and into bed. Yun Ruoyan offered no resistance; she was as obedient as a gentle bunny under Li Mo’s ministrations.

After all, it wasn’t as if Yun Ruoyan was a virgin; after all this time, she had long since mentally prepared herself for being with Li Mo. However, just as both of them were deep in the throes of passion, Li Mo stopped himself forcefully. He buried his head by the crook of Yun Ruoyan’s neck, his voice low and hoarse.

“Yan’er, I promised not to do anything with you until you came of age. I keep my promises.”