The Great Young Miss of the Ancient Clan, Have Some Ambition!

"..."

The atmosphere suddenly plunged to freezing point.

Cold sweat poured down Ling Ying's forehead, and no matter how he wiped it, he could not get it clean. "M-Miss, what this old servant meant was actually..."

"No need to explain."

Xun Er did not pursue it. The sorrow in her eyes only deepened, as though no one understood what she was thinking. "Sigh... I just don't want to disturb him and ruin his mood..."

Ruin his mood?

As if his mood could possibly be ruined! Ling Ying's face instantly darkened. "With Miss's heavenly beauty, who could see you and not have his heart shaken? If he doesn't know what's good for him, then—"

"Then what?"

Xun Er glanced over at him. "Find someone else? Tie him up and bring him over? Since when were my affairs yours to decide?"

"Uh..."

Thud—

Ling Ying revealed himself, pressed his forehead to the ground, and stopped moving.

What could he do, being saddled with a young miss like this? Forget turning her elbow outward—give it a few more years, and she might just stretch out her legs and run off after someone.

Master...

If this kept going, Miss was probably going to grow wings and fly away.

Bitterness filled Ling Ying's mouth. Between this father and daughter, not one of them was worry-free, not one of them was reliable. Saddled with this family, his life was basically scorched to the bottom of the pot.

One of them had sent him, a Dou Emperor, to watch over Miss, as if he really wasn't afraid there would be no time to call for help at a critical moment.

The other spent all day saying "Brother" this and "Brother" that. If the Ancient Clan fell into her hands, it would probably be sold off outright.

He just wondered how much he, this utterly loyal servant, could be traded for when the time came...

"Is this thing really suitable to give away?"

Xiao Yan tossed the porcelain bottle in his hand, the paste inside landing heavily with little thumps.

She was the great young miss of the Ancient Clan. She had whatever she wanted on ordinary days. What Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures had she not seen? How could she possibly take a fancy to something he had?

"Still, maybe she really is the only one who can use it."

Her meridians had been frail since childhood. In the future, it would probably take until she became a Dou Shi or Da Dou Shi before that deficiency could be made up for.

Though this ointment was only a mere Third Grade and could not compare to those miraculous pills and elixirs, its advantage lay in the fact that all its properties were focused on nurturing and protecting the meridians.

I hope she likes it. Xiao Yan sighed as he turned toward the courtyard gate. "Xun Er? Are you there?"

"Brother Xiao Yan?!"

Whoosh—

With a rush of wind, Xiao Yan had only just reached the entrance when he nearly collided head-on with someone. Taking a closer look, he realized it was Xun Er herself. "Sorry!... Eh? Xun Er, are you going out?"

"Ah? Uh... oh, yes, yes."

Xun Er was momentarily at a loss, so she simply hid her hands behind her back, but she still could not help shifting a little. "I was just about to go out..."

Is that so? Xiao Yan glanced at the steps. The place her voice had come from just now had not been at the courtyard gate. It seemed she was still quite busy. "If you're in a hurry, then I'll leave first?"

"No... that's not it!"

Xun Er waved her hands in a fluster.

Xiao Yan patted her head. "No, no, I'm not in a hurry! If you're really busy, I can wait here."

The test on Yao Lao's side had gone perfectly. He could take a temporary break for the next two days, so he had plenty of free time.

Cultivation, after all, required both tension and relaxation. That was the proper path.

"No, really, I'm not! I have nothing to do right now!"

Xun Er grew a little anxious and grabbed Xiao Yan's shoulders, shaking him back and forth.

"All right, all right... if you don't, then you don't! I got it." Xiao Yan was immediately startled, still not knowing which of his words he had said wrong.

Why did this girl suddenly become like this? Could there have been some news from home? Xiao Yan shook his head inwardly.

How did her personality become like this? She wasn't this reckless in the original work. "Here, I brought you a little gift."

Xiao Yan placed the porcelain bottle into Xun Er's hand. "When you're cultivating, just pick out a tiny bit and smear it on your skin. It's not anything good, so I hope you won't dislike it."

"Ah..."

Xun Er froze in place, dazedly taking the porcelain bottle and holding it in her hands. "For... for me? Thank you."

When was the last time I received a gift...

"Hey~ What's there to thank me for?"

Xiao Yan reached out and placed his hand on top of her head, gently rubbing it. Xun Er's hair was soft and fluffy, and the feel was absurdly good. No wonder the original work had people patting her head at every turn. "You're my little sister, aren't you? What's the big deal about giving you a gift?"

"..."

The emotion that had just welled up in Xun Er evaporated by half on the spot.

"We're siblings now...?" the girl said woodenly, every inch of her radiating unhappiness.

"What else would we be?"

Xiao Yan was stunned.

If that was how she put it, then what had she been treating him as all these years? Even if her temperament was cool, it shouldn't have been this indifferent, right?

Though he did not want to admit it, his heart had truly taken a heavy blow...

Little did he know, someone else had been hit even harder than he had.

Siblings.

Siblings, siblings...

Xun Er stood there in a daze. Her mind seemed hollow, the word echoing again and again inside it, while her consciousness drifted farther and farther from reality like a raft pushing away from shore.

"Heh... hehehe..."

"Xun Er, Xun Er? Are you all right?" Seeing her laugh hoarsely with empty eyes, Xiao Yan felt a chill crawl up his spine.

"I'm fine."

Xun Er's voice was light and airy, without much strength.

So it had been her overthinking it all along...

"Good, as long as you're fine." Xiao Yan let out a huge sigh of relief. If anything really happened to the Ancient Clan's Miss, the entire Xiao clan might get plowed over a hundred times by miraculous soldiers descending from the heavens.

Seeing that Xun Er was still in a bad mood, Xiao Yan tentatively suggested, "Want to go stroll around the marketplace? I'll go with you."

※#＆%... I'll go with you.

Hm? Xun Er suddenly raised her head. Light abruptly returned to her unfocused eyes, and she cried out despite herself, "Wh-what?"

Faced with the girl who had suddenly come alive, Xiao Yan took half a step back. "Uh, I said, do you want to go to the marketplace—"

"Yes, yes, yes... Let's go right now!"

As if afraid that answering too slowly would cost her the chance, Xun Er grabbed Xiao Yan's arm. "Where are we going?"

The light in her eyes was almost frighteningly bright.

Ling Ying: ...Wonderful. Truly wonderful.

"Then let's go wander around the Xiao Clan Marketplace~ Hey, hey, hey, slow down!"

"Clang!"

The long sword swept across, and an almost solid sword shadow manifested, cleaving a deep trench into the bluestone.

Nalan Yanran withdrew her sword and stood quietly, slowly suppressing her surging Dou Qi.

"The Young Sect Master truly is remarkably gifted! Even without the aid of a Qi Gathering Powder, she was able to advance to Dou Zhe at such an age." The elders watching from the side praised her one after another.

"Hmph... Merely a contest of pride."

Elder Yun Leng gave a muffled snort, his displeasure visible to the naked eye. "What is there to praise about such a thing? If she had used a Qi Gathering Powder, she would have advanced a year ago. By now, who knows how many stars she would have risen!"

"Elder Yun Leng, those words are mistaken~ How abundant are our Misty Cloud Sect's resources? Stretch this bit of time out to five or ten years, and it will be evened out completely, no?"

"That's right, that's right! It's a good thing that the Young Sect Master has the will to challenge herself. For cultivators, lacking drive and only thinking of borrowing external help is hardly a good thing."

"Oh, you people—shortsighted, the lot of you!"

Elder Yun Leng flicked his sleeve and turned to leave, leaving the elders behind to murmur among themselves.

Who in this world would dislike their own cultivation progressing too quickly? For Nalan to act like this, she must have something hidden in her heart.

Explanation, round two. (Though this only proves my writing ability is terrible and that there was a problem with my expression, but there's nothing I can do about it...) In the original, Xiao Zhan raised Xun Er like a daughter, so earlier I wrote him directly making it clear that Xun Er was the "youngest child," the fourth child, and reminded Xiao Yan to take on the responsibility of an older brother and look after her properly.

In the original, the main thing was that Xiao Yan gradually became trash along the way and suffered blows from the entire clan, all of which Xun Er saw. Naturally, she would think of every possible way to encourage him directly. Whatever she thought in her heart, she said outright. Over time, whatever feelings she had would be spoken directly.

But here, Xiao Yan did not need any of that. Instead, he fed her strange and bizarre ideas every day and also took very good care of her. Compared with the original, her growth state would inevitably be livelier, more childish, and she would not have such a cool temperament.

Naturally, she also liked to keep things bottled up in a roundabout way more, unable to swallow her pride and lacking the courage to say things directly.

As a transmigrator, Xiao Yan knew that she had favorable feelings in the original, but he simply could not be sure where those favorable feelings came from. On top of that, nourishing the meridians did not involve feeling her bones either; he only held her wrist. The interactions between the two of them were completely different from the original.

So... he really did just treat her as a younger sister.

You say you like him? Then why don't you just say it?

In the original, she directly said things like "Brother Xiao Yan, believe in yourself," and so on; whatever there was to say, she said it, never hiding anything.

As a transmigrator, he would naturally compare people to their original personalities first. How would he know that the girl now had changed so much?