Xiao Han~

Snow swirled through the air as a small, frail figure was gradually buried beneath the drifts, kneeling silently outside the door, trembling all over.

Inside, Yu Zhiwen had buried her head beneath the blankets. Her petite body trembled faintly, and soft sobs could barely be heard.

Creak~

Two servants following a richly dressed noblewoman carried in a figure covered head to toe in snow and tossed him inside.

"The Third Princess certainly has refined tastes. Bringing home some beggar from outside to serve as a maid would have been one thing, but he's even a mute..."

Consort Liu's gaze was impatient. She had already lost interest in teasing these two little wretches.

"Enough. Since the Third Princess's birth mother passed away long ago, I shall plead with His Majesty to send the Third Princess to the Cold Palace. Wouldn't that buy us some peace and quiet?"

Yu Zhiwen looked at the figure on the verge of passing out, her eyes reddening as she glared fiercely at the arrogant, sneering noblewoman before her.

After the group had left, she scrambled over and helped the boy up. With the hands she had warmed beneath the blankets, she pressed tightly against his chest and kept breathing warm air onto his face.

"Si... Sister..."

Feeling the damp warmth on his face, the boy barely managed to open his eyes and look toward the blurry figure before him.

"Si... Sister... I didn't open my mouth today. They didn't discover me..."

Yu Zhiwen's eyes stung as her pale little hands clenched the other pair of hands, red from the cold.

Yu Zhiwen realized that those hands were much smaller than hers.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Sister insisted on going out to play today and made you suffer..."

The girl's voice was hoarse, and by the end, nothing remained but sobs as several tears slipped from her eyes.

The boy slowly wiped away the tears on Yu Zhiwen's cheeks with his frostbitten hands, forcing out a smile.

"Sister, you'll cry your face all blotchy. It won't look pretty..."

Yu Zhiwen said nothing more. She held tightly to the little beggar she had picked up.

"Little brother, you're mine. If you leave Sister too, Sister will have nothing left..."

"Just wait a little longer. Once Sister comes of age, we'll leave the palace and become carefree princesses..."

"Sister."

"Mm?"

"Sister, I want a name too. I heard them say that once you have your own name, you're no longer a servant..."

"I don't want to be Sister's servant, and I don't want to be Sister's maid either."

"I've always wanted to stay by Sister's side!"

Yu Zhiwen quietly looked at the boy in her arms, smiling as she gazed into those pure black eyes. The boy pressed his lips tightly together, seeming a little nervous...

Then Yu Zhiwen knew that this was the most beautiful thing she had encountered in this heartless imperial palace.

"Little brother suffered in the snow for Sister today, so your name shall be Yu Han."

"Sister will call you Xiao Han."

Yu Zhiwen blinked, looking expectantly at Xiao Han in her arms. Raising a hand, she kneaded his soft little cheeks.

"Xiao Han, do you like this name?"

Xiao Han felt as though his cheeks were balls of dough, casually squeezed and kneaded by his sister's warm hands.

Yu Zhiwen loved playing with Xiao Han's tender little cheeks like this, only gradually stopping after Xiao Han pleaded again and again, "I like it, Little Brother is called Xiao Han. Sister, stop squishing me~"

"Xiao Han, you're so fun."

"As long as Sister is happy~"

"Xiao Han..."

A tear unconsciously slid from the corner of Yu Zhiwen's eye. The Qingyou Dao Sect's Saintess, cold and aloof on the outside, had dreamed a dream.

Those beautiful memories seemed like yesterday, yet the person she longed for day and night was already gone. Only the tear at the corner of her eye proved that he had existed...

Only after a long daze did Yu Zhiwen come back to herself. Her slender, pale fingers wiped away the clear tear from the corner of her eye. Her violet starry eyes flickered as she began divining the whereabouts of her little brother...

"Xiao Han, why haven't you come to find Sister after all these years?"

"Then Sister will come find you..."

"You promised you wouldn't abandon Sister... Xiao Han, you're so naughty..."

One day later

Xuanyuan Sword Sect

Shiyuan Sword Manor

Pei Yuhan stared at the storage ring in his hand, his expression grave...

His master had given him this storage ring when he reached Foundation Establishment. Pei Yuhan had worn it ever since and treasured it dearly.

Only when he went out to carry out particularly perilous missions would Pei Yuhan remove his storage ring and keep it safe, terrified that it might be damaged...

Pei Yuhan still remembered that, back when he had yet to form his Gray Core, Shiyuan Sword Manor's spiritual vein had constantly been coveted by other factions.

He had once been sent by a sect steward on an exceptionally dangerous mission. His foundation had been damaged, yet he could not afford those sacred healing medicines. In the end, the injury had harmed his very foundation.

Yet even then, he had never considered selling his storage ring, even when there was nothing inside it...

Now, Martial Uncle Rao had returned from his travels, and he had also borrowed a great many spirit stones. His junior sister was about to undergo Core Formation as well.

By all rights, he had not failed his master's instructions. He had protected Shiyuan Sword Manor.

The storage ring his master had given him was no longer as empty as it had been during Shiyuan Sword Manor's most difficult days.

But his master still had not returned...

Rebellious disciple! The master in your memories was one who treated you well, which was why your master treated you well.

But did the real Jiang Shiyuan truly care about you? If she truly cared only about you, why had she vanished without a trace for thirty years?

You did not even know whether she was dead or alive, yet like a fool, you kept feeding spirit stones into the Mystic Mirror...

Had she ever given you a response?

Pei Yuhan's expression was conflicted. Dressed in a spotless white Daoist robe, white as snow, he had regained the aloof bearing of an exiled immortal. He stood before the gates of Shiyuan Sword Manor, waiting for the delegation he was to receive to summon him.

A little Foundation Establishment Realm Daoist flew over. Seeing that the person he was meant to escort was Pei Yuhan, famously uninterested in women within the sect, his expression turned slightly strange.

"True Person Pei, Elder Xu said that you may proceed to Front Peak to receive the delegation..."

The sun had just risen, the night had only just faded, and vast crimson clouds still stretched along the horizon.

Pei Yuhan looked back at Shiyuan Sword Manor behind him. It was no different from what it had been thirty years ago, yet there would forever be one person missing.

Pei Yuhan looked toward the three cave residences. His junior sister probably had not woken yet. After what had happened the day before yesterday, Pei Yuhan had noticed that his junior sister had been avoiding him...

In the end, he had failed to hold the line and had become the filthiest person in the eyes of both his master and junior sister...

But at the thought that the sect master was willing to offer Five Elements Earth as a reward, Pei Yuhan had already resigned himself to it.

Let it count as compensation for Qingqing's past thirty years...

Master, do not blame Yuhan...

Pei Yuhan no longer looked at the shelter behind him. Resolutely, he mounted his sword and flew toward Front Peak.

Above the clouds, a red lotus slowly drifted down from an enormous spirit vessel toward the ground.

The lotus spanned roughly a hundred meters. Within its red glow stood several male cultivators with fierce, baleful faces, along with several female cultivators of bewitching figures.

The seductive allure in every gesture of those female cultivators was wholly undisguised. Their faces brimmed with coquettish charm as they tempted some of the upright sword cultivators sent by Xuanyuan Sword Sect to receive them...

"I heard that today, the sword immortal from Xuanyuan Sword Sect who is famously uninterested in women will personally come to welcome us."

"Sisters, he is merely a Gray Core cultivator. It is only because this sword sect has too many hypocrites."

"If he were in our sect, would he not have long since been carried off by us sisters? How could there be any talk of being uninterested in women~"

Damn it, I forgot to set the timer again. Sorry, sorry~