Yue Chen rarely looked interested, but now she did. She pressed, "What's it like having a younger brother?"
"Honestly, it's probably not much different from what you see with Yue Xing," Xuan Ye replied thoughtfully. "They're both important family members. Taking care of him makes me happy, too."
Yue Chen nodded, a tender smile appearing on her face as she looked down at the younger sister sleeping in her arms.
"Yue Xing can be quite mischievous sometimes, and she loves making trouble for me. She used to get me punished by Lady Yueye all the time."
She chattered on about Yue Xing's antics, but the smile never left her lips.
"But with her around, I don't feel lonely."
After she finished speaking, Yue Chen fell silent for a moment before asking softly, "Young Master Xuan Ye's younger brother is probably like that, too, right?"
"No."
Xuan Ye smiled and shook his head.
"My younger brother is very well-behaved. He's never gotten me punished by Mother. No matter what I do, he always gives me the best response."
As his words fell,
the smile on Yue Chen's face slowly faded.
An inexplicable emotion welled up inside her.
"I lost."
I lost.
All along, she had been confident that, as Her Highness the Princess's maid, she was excellent in every respect.
But this time, in the area she cared about most—family—and especially when it came to younger sisters, she felt she had utterly lost to the "younger brother" Xuan Ye had mentioned, whom she had never even met.
But...
Surely this couldn't be Yue Xing's fault!
Could it be... that I wasn't a good enough older sister?
What should I do?
Should I ask Young Master Xuan Ye how he handled it?
No!
Wouldn't that mean admitting I wasn't satisfied with Yue Xing?
How could I think that!
Conflict clouded Yue Chen's gentle features.
Soon, they reached Xuan Ye's quarters.
The two stopped outside the tent.
Xuan Ye was still a little surprised by Yue Chen's sudden silence, and was trying to think of something to say to break the awkwardness.
But Yue Chen suddenly looked up at him and made a quiet suggestion.
"Next time, could we talk about how to take care of younger brothers and sisters?"
Xuan Ye smiled and agreed.
Back in his own tent,
though tonight's training plan had fallen through completely, Xuan Ye was in a good mood.
He lay on the bed with his eyes closed, seemingly ready to drift off to sleep.
But as he smiled, his eyes suddenly flew open.
He wasn't sleepy at all.
He reached beneath the covers and gripped the long sword named Revenge.
The feel of its hilt instantly calmed his tangled thoughts.
Truthfully, he had felt genuinely happy just now.
Watching the stars with Yue Xing, and talking with Yue Chen about taking care of Long Haochen.
Those moments of warmth had been real.
But for some reason, a violent impulse surged up from the deepest part of his heart without warning.
He wanted to sneak out.
He wanted to find the Demon Race Squads that had infiltrated the area near the Moon Demon Race Territory as quickly as possible.
Then he would... kill them all.
Every last one.
The urge was so strong that his fingers tightened around the hilt, their knuckles turning white.
But he knew those scouts had probably gone far away by now.
In the end, he forced the urge back down.
The tent was pitch-black.
The lights outside gradually went out, too.
Only Xuan Ye's eyes remained open in the dark, shining with startling brightness.
Killing intent spilled from him.
Time flew by. Before he knew it, nearly two more months had passed.
Inside the tent,
Xuan Ye gasped for breath. The aftershocks of the Spiritual Power surging through him had yet to subside, and he leaned against the wall, utterly exhausted.
The moment he looked up,
a peerlessly beautiful face appeared right in front of him without warning.
Yueye had arrived.
Her flawless features framed a pair of amethyst eyes filled with tenderness and concern for Xuan Ye.
Before he could react, Yueye stepped forward and gathered him into her soft, warm embrace.
A gentle Moonlight Power shimmered in her palm as she slowly pressed it against Xuan Ye's back. A stream of pure Spiritual Power flowed into his body, helping him regulate the energy that had grown somewhat disordered during his recent training.
Dark Inner Spiritual Power already existed within Xuan Ye. Not only did he not resist this power of the same origin, he accepted it smoothly and guided it through his body.
Yueye's movements were exceptionally careful and gentle, as if she were touching the most fragile treasure in the world.
Leaning against her, Xuan Ye felt the warm energy flow through his limbs and body.
During this time, Yueye had been somewhat clingy and acted a little strangely, but she had taken meticulous care of him.
Yue Xing would pull him into stargazing all night, chattering away about ancient legends.
Yue Chen would discuss how to care for younger siblings with him, and they always had a pleasant conversation.
The Twin Sisters had grown increasingly close and attached to him.
Everything seemed so wonderful.
The killing intent in Xuan Ye's eyes had long since vanished, leaving only clarity.
But just then,
Yueye's voice sounded in his ear, her tone shifting to carry a hint of chill.
"You've been sneaking out this whole time, haven't you?"
Xuan Ye's heart gave a jolt.
Yueye's question shattered the tender illusion inside the tent.
Xuan Ye's heart clenched.
Over these two months, his strength had changed dramatically.
His total Inner Spiritual Power had drawn infinitely close to the fifth-rank threshold: 1,944 points!
And the innate Dark Inner Spiritual Power within him had steadily risen to sixty-three points, thanks to the rewards from one Divine Choice after another. Revenge's evolution progress had reached 37%.
After all, choices appeared less frequently within the Moon Demon Race Territory.
He had indeed been sneaking out all this time.
Yueye, Yue Chen, and Yue Xing's watchful eyes were like three checkpoints.
Fortunately, whenever the system presented a choice, it told Xuan Ye whether he had to evade Yueye's search to kill demons or slip away from the Twin Sisters.
If Yueye was standing guard herself, he knew he had no chance of sneaking out, so he obediently stayed in the tent to train.
But if Yue Xing was on watch, her thoughts were simple. Xuan Ye could easily talk his way past her with an excuse about stargazing or getting some fresh air.
Yue Chen was the hardest to deal with. She was meticulous, and ordinary excuses wouldn't sway her.
But Xuan Ye had a way around her, too.
Even if it made him a little embarrassed, all he had to do was act like a younger brother coaxing his older sister, and Yue Chen would soften instantly. In the end, she would still let him go, reminding him only to come back early.
The reason the killing intent in his eyes had vanished was simple.
The demons the system had marked as killable had already been wiped out by him.
"I already told you not to go out!"
Yueye's voice rose abruptly, all warmth gone, replaced by trembling agitation.
"I told you to stay here and grow stronger at your own pace. Why won't you listen to me? Why would you do this?"
Before she had even finished speaking, both her hands clamped around Xuan Ye's arms.
Her grip was so powerful it nearly crushed his bones, and pain shot through him at once.
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