The Pleasure Boat

"So, you came to rescue me?"

On the pleasure boat, Hanyu sat on the deck, soaked from head to toe, eyeing the three of them with a strange look.

Bai Junya's face flushed red. She seemed to have remembered the embarrassing scene from earlier. Her blush might have been nothing, but Hanyu's face reddened too.

They were blushing for different reasons. One was embarrassed by the talk of being rescued, since he'd finally managed to get out only to be beaten back in.

The other felt guilty after feasting his eyes. Honestly, whenever Hanyu remembered that scene, he couldn't help glancing over again, making Bai Junya's face turn even redder.

Ahem, ahem!

Bai Jingliang cleared his throat several times, drawing their attention back before he spoke. "I heard the Qin Family's been searching for you like mad. If you don't show up, I reckon their young cultivators won't dare leave home for quite a while."

It was true that a whole pack of high-level Qin Family cultivators had chased Hanyu all over the place that day, but they still hadn't managed to kill him.

Put yourself in his shoes: if he went after cultivators below the Peeping God Realm in the Qin Family, they wouldn't be able to resist either!

That was what gave the Qin Family's higher-ups their biggest headache. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to search along the river.

Although the cultivators of Tianning Prefecture hadn't been able to watch the spectacle on the Bailu River, they'd gotten their fill of it in the city. Every cultivator in town affiliated with the Qin Family had been forced to retreat, tails between their legs.

"Actually, some Aristocratic Clans have already been looking for you in private."

Bai Jingliang lowered his voice, leaving Hanyu surprised.

"To ask me for pills?"

Bai Jingliang shook his head and chuckled. "How could I go around telling people about your pills without your permission?"

Hanyu was baffled. If they weren't looking for him to ask for pills, what legitimate business could they have?

"They see how badly you and the Qin Family have fallen out, so naturally they want to watch you keep fighting each other to the death!"

There was no need to guess. Bai Jingliang could see it for himself. But the thought still made him sigh for no reason.

At least those few fallen clans still had some ambition and dared to make trouble. The whole Bai Family, on the other hand, had disappointed him terribly. There wasn't even anyone who'd so much as entertained the idea.

Hanyu paused, then scoffed. "So they just want to watch the show?"

Bai Jingliang might not have been well versed in other matters, but he'd been born into an Aristocratic Clan and had grown up steeped in their ways.

He shook his head, his expression serious. "Aristocratic Clans never do anything without a purpose. On the surface, they're watching the show. Behind the scenes, they may have set their sights on the Qin Family."

Then he joked, "Aristocratic Clans are always like this. All they see is profit. They're probably just watching for now. But if the Qin Family really takes a heavy blow, I wouldn't be surprised if those clans joined forces to attack and carve it up. After all, the number-one clan in Tianning is one juicy piece of meat. Who wouldn't want a bite?"

Hanyu listened, looking thoughtful.

"You're not really planning to fight them to the death, are you?"

Bai Jingliang saw the look on Hanyu's face and muttered, suddenly uneasy.

But Hanyu seemed lost in thought, as if his soul had wandered away. He hadn't heard a word.

"Hey, you really are thinking about it! You actually want to fight them to the death? Don't you have a human-skin mask? Put it on and leave Tianning Prefecture."

The Little Artifact Spirit was thoroughly displeased, nagging away without pause.

Hanyu ignored it and suddenly asked, "Can you and the bottle make poison pills?"

The Little Artifact Spirit reacted as if he'd touched a taboo and hurriedly refused. "Forget it. The bottle and I both have rules. It can produce pills, but their effects are random. I can control the pills myself, but the person taking them has to decide whether to use them."

Hanyu immediately lost heart and muttered, "You're only impressive when you're ruining me."

"Master Hanyu!"

Bai Junya suddenly walked over and called softly.

Hanyu came back to himself and turned around. At some point, Bai Junya had appeared beside him with a clean set of clothes in her hands.

The style looked quite similar to the clothes Bai Jingliang was wearing.

"These are Jingliang's clothes. You can't go back into the city for a while, so why don't you put them on first?"

Bai Junya's face was bright red. Hanyu really was in a sorry state; that would have been bad enough, but the fabric below his waist had been shredded into strips, and his upper thighs kept showing.

After hurriedly setting down the clothes, Bai Junya pulled Linglan back into the cabin. Hanyu started changing right there without a care in the world, startling Bai Jingliang.

"Couldn't you at least go inside to change?"

Hanyu glanced toward the cabin, looking troubled. "Wouldn't that be inappropriate? Your sister's in there, isn't she?"

"There's another room in there that's mine. Wait, you're not planning to change in front of her, are you?"

Bai Jingliang looked exasperated. Hanyu had already taken his clothes off, so he could only tell him to hurry up and finish changing.

He stripped off the tattered clothes and put on the dry ones. Hanyu moved around and felt much more comfortable. He glanced at the boat and suddenly found it familiar.

"Could this be the same boat I rode on last time?"

"That's right! Isn't it a wonderful twist of fate? Here we are, the four of us, on the same boat again."

Bai Jingliang reminisced about the past, deeply moved.

"It really is a strange coincidence. The place is different, but it's still the same people."

Hanyu nodded with a smile, but Bai Jingliang suddenly seemed to lose interest.

"Besides seeing if we could find you on the river today, my father deliberately sent us out on this boat."

He sighed, then continued.

"That rotten bunch are dead set on marrying my sister off. My father sent me and my sister away first. If we still can't change anything in the end, then my sister and I will simply sail away and never come back."

Hanyu fell silent. Another Aristocratic Clan tragedy. He couldn't think of how to comfort him, and besides, he didn't much like the idea of Bai Junya marrying off to someone like that.

He couldn't quite call it affection, but the thought of Bai Junya marrying a piece of trash like that still left him feeling uncomfortable.

"You've got the hots for her now. You're getting possessive, Hanyu. You've grown up."

Little Glazed spoke solemnly in his mind.

The Bai Family.

Bai Chong'an was in the council hall, posing as an ordinary member of the Bai Family. Beside him was his wife, with whom he'd weathered many years of life together.

Facing them was a group of clan elders, each wearing a grim expression. They spoke of righteousness at every turn and invoked the family with every other breath.

"Chong'an, what's done is done. The die has been cast. To go back on our word now would be to betray our principles. What would become of the Bai Family's reputation?"

"Exactly. The Qin Family is powerful, after all. If we're the ones who break our word, the Qin Family certainly won't let it go."

They said all sorts of things, but Bai Chong'an seemed not to hear them. He held his wife's hand and remained silent.

"Have you all finished?"

Bai Chong'an suddenly spoke, surveying the clan elders in the room. An indescribable look of desolation crossed his face.

"Heaven truly has been unjust to the Bai Family. If the Qin Family's halls were filled with people like you, give me five years and I'd take their place."

"My daughter was able to rise up and fight back. I, Bai Chong'an, refuse to keep my head down any longer. Whoever arranged the marriage can send his own daughter to marry into that family. From now on, none of you uncles need to concern yourselves with my daughter."

His words sent the entire council hall into an uproar. Bai Chong'an watched, his heart turning cold.

Could a family like this truly have a future?

Even Aristocratic Clans worse off than the Bai Family dared set their sights on the Qin Family, yet here...

Ptooey!

Hanyu had never thought that sound could be so wonderful. He'd waited all night for the bottle and hadn't slept a wink.

Now, when the bottle shook and spat out its contents, he shot upright from where he'd been lying on the deck, his eyes shining.

But the moment his gaze fell on the pill, his expression turned strange...

Brothers, our novel's made it into the first-round recommendation lineup on the 11th, so we'll have to get ready for another big update!