Now that the agreement was established, Hei decided to ask some further questions.

“So, tell me more about this fiancé of yours.”

“What exactly do you want to know?”

“What’s his background?”

“He seems to be from the Zhu Clan. It is a powerful and well-known clan with a good reputation.”

“How powerful?”

“No weaker than the Radiant Jade Sect. I’ve heard that they have a minute realm cultivator.”

Hearing these words, Hei entered thought. If this clan had a minute realm cultivator, then it was very possible for them to have been involved in the disappearances.

Hei couldn’t care less that the clan was well-known and reputable. It was very easy for those who appeared to be upstanding to have a hand in the underworld.

This was enough information about the fiancé, next Hei wanted to know about the situation itself.

“So, if we recall the events of a few days ago, it would lead one to believe that you have an… interesting perspective.”

Jingfei blushed, she looked to the ground.

She tried to explain herself.

“That was a special case!”

Hei raised a brow. It didn’t seem to be a special case at the time. One would assume she would have reacted like that on any normal day.

“I’m just wondering how you could have a marriage when you have those kinds of reactions. Shouldn’t you be strongly opposed to this?”

What Hei found even more strange was that the sect would allow this marriage to proceed, when it was clear that they were teaching the disciples things that didn’t go well with marriage at all.

Jingfei seemed to be confused by Hei’s question. She raised a brow as she responded.

“Why would I be opposed?”

“Because… He’s a man.”

“What exactly do you think this is? Do you think we're afraid of all men or something?”

“That is what one would assume, isn’t it?”

Jingfei shook her head.

“Wouldn’t that be irrational? We are taught the dangers of men, but we still know that there are good men out there. It’s just that most of them aren’t good.”

Hearing this, Hei was left speechless. Truthfully speaking, that wasn’t necessarily incorrect. But it depended on how one defined 'good'.

Jingfei continued.

“It’s just like those men who died to protect their families back then. We all know that for family, men can be good, which is why we are not afraid of marriage. But unfortunately, most men are not family, which makes them dangerous.”

Hei had a response for this.

“But even for family, there can still be dangers. Even your own husband could do something terrible to you.”

“Of course, we also know that. But there’s only so much suspicion you can have before it starts consuming you. In order to maintain a healthy mind, one has to accept certain possibilities.”

Again, Hei was without words.

It was true. At any time, something bad could happen to someone. But to constantly think of such things would be a great hindrance in everyday life.

It seemed he had been too judgemental in his thoughts of what the sect was teaching the disciples. But he would be able to determine the truth for himself after listening to the teachings.

Jingfei continued.

“It essentially boils down to whether or not we want to have children. Those of us who don’t, never need to interact with men at all, but most of us do. Which means we’ll have to get married. Conveniently, the sect evaluates all prospective husbands.”

Hei was curious.

“Oh? How effective has the evaluation been?”

Jingfei smiled.

“There has never been a complaint thus far. The sect is very good at what they do.”

Hei added on.

“Or they weren’t able to come back to tell you.”

“Hmm. That is also a possibility. But most of those who get married, remain in the sect. As for those who leave, we don’t really know.”

These words caused Hei to think some more.

“So, you’re telling me that the sect teaches you to fear all men except those chosen by the sect. Is that correct?”

“If you want to simplify it.”

“Hmm.”

This sounded odd to Hei, but there wasn’t enough evidence to tie it to anything else.

“So, when is this marriage supposed to take place?”

“At the end of the year.”

“Oh? So we have some time to work with.”

The end of the year wasn’t coming for quite a while. It was plenty of time for Hei to make some arrangements.

“The rescue of your mother is going to take a while. I’ll handle that and the rest. However, we are going to need to make you stronger.”

“Why do I need to get stronger? Will you be needing me to fight?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. But I don’t really want to have a weak maid, so…”

Originally, Hei had wanted to have Jingfei handle her own problems, but this was much more than he thought it was going to be.

Even her gaining strength was optional, but it would be useful in the future.

“…”

Jingfei stared at Hei with a blank expression. She had assumed he would be wanting her to improve her strength so they could go and rescue her mother together. But that seemed to not be the case.

“Are you sure you won’t be needing me to…”

Jingfei’s sentence trailed off when she saw Hei waving his hand. It seemed her participation was completely unnecessary. Which felt quite strange.

“So, I don’t have to do anything?”

Hei smiled.

“No, just let your Young Master Hei handle it.”

Hei got up and both the table and chair disappeared. He then gestured Jingfei to follow behind him as he went back to his room.

He wanted to see what’s his sisters had done with it while he and Jingfei were gone.

When they got there, Hei could already see that something was wrong.

But it was only Hei.

Jingfei had sparkly eyes as she witnessed the scene in front of her.

Hei stepped past his door into his room, and what he saw left him speechless.

“What… What have you done to my room?”

Hei was almost in tears as he said this.

His hand-scraped hardwood floors were nowhere to be found, instead, there was a fluffy pink carpet.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the blanket he had handstitched from countless threads was now replaced by an army of stuffed animals stitched together.

What of his barrier and extended floor? Again, nowhere to be found. Instead, there was now a wall, with several windows, and pink curtains to match the carpet.

Bai, Mei, Qiuyue, and Fang Ren all turned around to greet Hei and Jingfei who had returned.

They were still in their renovation work, but Bai and Mei came up to Hei with smiles on their faces.

“How do you like it, Brother?”

“Mm. Isn’t it much better than before?”

“This…”

Hei didn’t know what to say. He wondered where Bai and Mei even got this kind of sense of style from. He had never seen them interact with anything pink like this, or any stuffed animals for that matter.

Sure, Bai had a doll which Shao Chen had created for her, but that was only one. How had it become this?

After a moment of speechlessness, Hei was able to respond.

“What do you mean better? You changed the whole atmosphere! What happened to my hand-scraped hardwood floors? My barrier? The extended flooring? All of that took me a lot of effort to create. How could you do this?”

After giving them his heartfelt opinion, Hei noticed all of the young ladies looking at him with confused faces. It was as if he had said the most nonsensical thing in the world.

Jingfei spoke first.

“What are you talking about, Young Master Hei? From what I can see, the room is now three times better than it was before.”

Hei turned to Jingfei with a raised brow, but before he could say anything, Qiuyue added on.

“You see, Jingfei? This is why people say you have poor comprehension ability.”

Hei’s eyes sparkled as he turned to Qiuyue, but his expression quickly dimmed after hearing her following words.

“It is clearly 3.7 times better.”

Bai added on.

“Actually, Senior Sister Qiuyue, I found it to be 3.71 times better. I think you missed that particular section over there when you did your calculations.”

Bai pointed over to the place where the simple wooden table used to be. Now, there was a stylish glass table, occupied by three teddy bears.

It just so happened that one of them was white, one of them was white with red ears, and the other was brown.

After seeing this, Qiuyue realised her mistake.

“Ah, you’re right. I didn’t include the new table. It really is 3.71 times better.”

Hei was wondering what planet he had stumbled onto. Since when had style been something quantifiable? Especially since they completely changed the entire atmosphere.

Seeing the drastic changes and all the new additions to his room, Hei had a question.

“Where did you get all of this stuff?”

This was what he wanted to know. When they got here, they were empty-handed. Where had all these things appeared from?

In response to his question, Bai and Mei both tugged at strings around their necks, revealing the rings that were strung to them.

Hei was surprised to see this.

“Spatial rings?”

Bai and Mei both smiled and giggled.

“Where did you get them from?”

Bai answered.

“We used our winnings from the challenges to exchange for these spatial rings and a few of the things you see here.”

Hei again looked around the room. He was now seeing a tremendous waste of merit points.

“You spent merit points on these things? And instead of getting useful things, you filled your spatial rings with stuffed animals and various other ornaments?”

This seemed to be a gross misuse of spatial rings. He had never heard of anyone in any story, be that a boy or girl, using a spatial ring to carry around stuffed animals.

Bai raised a brow.

“Oh? What should we have gotten instead, Brother?”

It wasn’t just Bai, everyone looked at Hei waiting for his answer.

Hei felt that this was an extremely strange situation. Why did it seem like he was the only one who didn’t make sense in a world full of crazy people?

But after some thought, he really couldn’t come up with anything better to purchase. As envoys of the heavens, who were practising the Way of Essence, they had no need for cultivation resources or the like.

Which meant that they could do whatever they wanted with their wealth. Even if they flushed it down the toilet, they wouldn’t really lose anything.

Of course, they could give it to subordinates to strengthen them, but right now, the only subordinates were Liling and Jingfei. And they had already given Liling many resources.

Jingfei, of course, had her own merit points, with which she could buy her own resources.

So, there really wasn’t anything strange about his sisters squandering their merit points on frivolous things.

“I guess… You did well?”

That was all Hei could say.

But he did have one more question.

“Why aren’t you wearing your rings and instead, hanging them around your necks? Are they too big for your fingers?”

Hearing this, Bai looked to the floor and Mei fidgeted a little.

After a short moment, Mei responded.

“I refuse to wear a ring unless you place on my finger.”

“Wow…”

Hei rolled his eyes in response to Mei’s words. They were just too ridiculous.

But when he looked around the room, he noticed that Jingfei, Qiuyue and Fang Ren seemed to be caught up in some strange atmosphere.

Hei turned to Bai with a raised brow.

“And you? Is it the same thing?”

Bai didn’t say anything. She was still looking at the floor as she slightly nodded her head.

“…”

Hei had no idea what to do in this kind of situation.

He placed his hands on both of their heads and spoke with a smile.

“Then, I guess you’re just going to keep wearing your spatial rings around your necks from now on.”

Both Bai and Mei puffed their cheeks out as they looked at Hei.

They turned around and walked grumpily back to the others, where they continued their renovation work. Jingfei joined them.

Hei just watched with a blank expression as they turned his room unrecognisable.

‘It’s a good thing I created a model of it this time.’