Feng Ran stayed unimpressed.

“Wulin, could you take Yingyue home? I need to speak with my husband.” Feng Wulin got up from his seat, throwing a smug look at Murong Zili.

“Yingyue, let’s go.” Placing a hand on Murong Yingyue’s shoulder, he teleported them away.

Standing in front of her own house, Yingyue glanced over her shoulder at her uncle. After debating it for a moment, she decided to be polite and invite him inside.

“Do you want to come in? It’s going to take a while before my mother is finished.”

“Yeah, thanks.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why am I getting kicked out of my own house? It’s almost not worth seeing your father get in trouble.” And that was why she didn’t really want to interact with him. She sighed as she opened the door, waving him in.

“Are you still not over my father’s personality? It’s been years already, and you still think that he’s not good for my mother?”

“Look at how he acts! He’s played the role of the fool for too long. Murong Zili needs to learn to treat my younger sister with respect!”

It was Yingyue’s turn to give him an unimpressed look. Unfortunately, it backfired on her when her uncle reached out a hand to pinch her cheek.

“You look so much like my sister when you do that. Keep doing that. Never, never, smile like that idiot father of yours, okay?”

“Are you telling me I can’t be happy and smile?” She narrowed her eyes at him. Feng Wulin only smirked at her and pinched her other cheek with his free hand.

“You look even more like Feng Ran like that.” He pulled at her cheeks, stretching them. Twisting her head away and rubbing at her face, she went into the kitchen to make tea and avoid him. Murong Yingyue wasn’t equipped for dealing with sis-cons like him.

Opening a cabinet full of chrysanthemum tea, she took out a huge mug the size of her head and filled about a quarter of it. Using her spiritual energy to fill it with water and heat it up, Yingyue waited for the tea to steep. When it was ready, she dumped half of the bag of salt on the counter into it, stirring it with her energy.

She went back into the living room, hefting the overly large cup. Wulin had gotten comfortable in a chair, reclining and reading a book. Dropping the mug on the side table, some tea sloshed out towards him. Of course, Murong Yingyue wished it was this easy to get revenge on her troublesome uncle. Feng Wulin had disappeared from his spot on the chair and reappeared behind her, a hand patting her shoulder as if to console her that her poorly thought out plan had failed. He was more than likely just laughing at her in his head.

It wasn’t teleportation, but it might as well have been. While her mother had the fastest attack speed in this universe, her uncle had the quickest movement speed. He could travel across a continent in a single, effortless stride when it would take others teleportation to reach where he was in the same amount of time.

Together, this brother-sister pair were the two fastest beings in all of the realms. They were even nicknamed the Lightning Cloud Strike. A cool, but unfortunately uninspired nickname due to their more well-known titles.

Who were they? Her mother was actually the Sovereign of Lightning, and her uncle the Sovereign of Wind. With such an unfair family, why would she need to become a main character? She had no drive or ambition simply because her family could take care of everything for her. Therefore, she was (theoretically) safe from becoming one.

The only reason she bothered becoming a disciple of Chu Cheng was because he was surprisingly astute when it came to identifying main character types and was well aware of them even before she told him about them. (That, and the fact she became bored with having nothing to do.)

Since she couldn’t harm her uncle, blackmail was the only weapon she had. Murong Yingyue watched as Feng Wulin sat back onto the chair, and lifted the stupidly large mug easily, taking a generous sip...

...and spitting it right out.

“Did you put salt in here?” Yingyue lifted her eyebrows. What do you think?

“Yingyue...can’t you torment someone else?”

“No. Also, you can’t toss that away. If you do, I’ll tell my mom that you wasted her tea.”

“Then what am I supposed to do with this?” She gave him a shit-eating grin.

“Drink it. All of it.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

Murong Yingyue broke the silence.

“...Well? I can practically see those ellipses floating above your head! Are you going to do it or not?”

“I’ll make a deal with you. I promise not to bother you for the next three months, and you don’t tell your mother anything.”

“Make an oath.” Feng Wulin looked at her, clearly suffering.

“Do we really have to?”

“Yes. I still remember last time, when you backed out.” He rolled his eyes.

“It was one time! Just once! Such a distrustful little girl. Why do you have no faith in your uncle? I’m more reliable than your father, doesn’t that count for anything?”

“You’re reliable? The same person who flaked out because they realized they had a spa session scheduled for the date they agreed to meet someone and didn’t bother telling the person they were going to meet about it until the day after?” Wulin coughed into his hand.

“Details, details. I’m still more reliable than Murong Zili, right?”

“...Sure.”

“Hey, what’s with the pause?” He complained.

“You’re better off not knowing if you want to hide in your delusions. Now, let’s get started on that oath.”

...

“Why are you people here?” A person covered in black robes stood before them, blocking their path out. His dead fish eyes, which were the only thing that could be seen with all the black cloth wrapped around his face, stared dispassionately at them.

Lu Fei shoved the girl they found behind her, taking her sword out. Yun Siye shifted subtly, putting himself next to his Third Junior Sister and in front of the girl. The other party’s gaze was drawn to the girl by their actions, and they seemed to light up.

“You.” He addressed the amnesiac girl. “Do you remember who you are?”

“She doesn’t have to answer you. What do you want?” Lu Fei spoke up for her, keeping her sword pointed towards him. He seemed to dismiss them, walking up to them and not faltering even as he grew closer and closer to the blade of her sword.

“Tell me. Who are you?” The cloaked man had put his face right in front of the girl’s and they were nearly nose to nose. Lu Fei and Yun Siye watched him warily. The stranger didn’t seem to want to harm her, and if they made a move, the girl could be taken hostage or killed in retaliation.

“I-I’m...” Her voice dropped in volume. “Not sure.” She finished weakly. The person’s eyes dimmed again. Turning away without another word, he walked away from the trio, who were perturbed by his sudden arrival and departure.

“Who are-mmph!” Yun Siye clamped a hand over her mouth, giving her a warning glance.

“Leave him be. We should be glad that we don’t have to fight him.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he threw another look at his Third Senior Sister.

“We still need to find the last part of the set. No more wasting time. And we’re not bringing this girl with us back home. You saw how it went with that Qing Zheng guy.”

“Then what will happen to her?” With a flick of his fingers, Siye set up a silencing formation around them.

“Lu Fei.” She stiffened at the use of her name. “I hadn’t noticed it before, but the meeting with that person cleared up my mind.” Checking that he had her full attention, he continued. “I felt a need to help that girl when we saw that man. Lu Fei, you have the clearest understanding of my personality. Do you think that I would move to protect someone I don’t know?”

“You weren’t just backing me up?” She asked, confused.

“I positioned myself next to you, not in front of you. It felt natural for my body to move in front of her, and I felt concerned for her safety even though neither of ours was guaranteed. If my assumptions are correct, this girl should be mind-attributed. Her focus shouldn’t be on reading minds like our First Senior Brother, but that doesn’t make her any less dangerous. In fact, I think her specialization could be potentially worse to face off against if we’re not prepared.”

“Stop talking so much and just tell me what it is!”

“Do you not understand? She can influence our emotions, or at least, out actions. Lu Fei, I know you think she’s attractive, but I doubt she’s the best you’ve ever seen. Why did you get so attached to her so quickly?”

“I...” Lu Fei looked at him, lost. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “You’re right. I didn’t think she was that good-looking, but I still ended up treating her like someone who was. It’s like... like...”

“You somehow put more value on her than what she actually had.” Yun Siye finished for her, nodding. “Do you see why we need to ditch her now? I don’t know her motives, but I believe it’s possible she truly lost her memories.”

“How are we supposed to just leave her, though? Just leave her without saying anything?”

“Don’t forget, we’ve done more shameless things before.”

“But she can remember us! What if she goes after us later?”

“Lu Fei, you need to clear your head! You’re still being influenced. We can hide behind Master, remember?”

“That’s right.” She replied absently. “But we should really help her.” He grabbed her shoulders violently, shaking her.

“Lu Fei! Focus. Focus. What will happen to us if First Senior Brother finds out we’ve gotten sidetracked and didn’t finish the task he forced- I mean gave us?” Like something had shocked her, Lu Fei straightened up, her eyes filled with clarity.

“Shit! We still need to hang up those balls. And the get last ring, too.” She glanced at her Second Senior Brother when he didn’t respond. He was deep in thought, his gold and silver eyes half-closed and his long, thick eyelashes shielding the rest of his eyes.

“Hey!” Bending over in front of his face, Lu Fei waved her hand at him. “Don’t get lost in thought now. We need to hurry up and finish up.” He directed his gaze back to her.

“I think it’s better if we finish up everything at once here. Third Junior Sister, you know that we’ll end up fighting the Purple Emperor anyways. You won’t be able to properly battle with him, so I can do that.”

“Where is this going? I thought we were going to just leave as soon as possible and wait things out!”

“First Senior Brother wants a show. He’ll make one of us fight the Purple Emperor no matter what, so it’s more efficient if I seek him out and challenge him to a fight. We’ve searched almost every place in the palace, and we still haven’t found the last ring. Chances are, the Purple Emperor has it in his possession. I’ll wager a bet with him for the last ring and fight him, while you can hang up the decorations. But I’ll need to direct him to somewhere away from this place...” He snapped his fingers as he made up his mind.

“I'm going to issue a formal match to him at the Astral Bridge Arena.” Yun Siye turned to Lu Fei. “Ditch this girl somewhere secluded, and put up the balls. I need to travel there right now.” Taking down the formation, he walked down the corridor, towards where they had just come from. Lu Fei stared blankly at his shrinking figure before it disappeared down a turn.

A soft tug on her sleeve made Lu Fei jerk back out of her confusion.

“Huh? Wait! You asshole!”