"Master, you and this corrupt official—uh... I mean, Lord Su—are..."
Seeing her master and Su Yuan getting along so harmoniously, Wei Youzhu was a little dumbfounded.
Ruan Pingcui glanced at her disciple. Though she didn't understand why she had appeared here, or why she was tied up so artistically, she still smiled and nodded.
"Little Friend Su is a trustworthy ally. Otherwise, I'd already be dead at Nan Cang's hands."
After clearing up her disciple's confusion, she turned her gaze back to Su Yuan.
Su Yuan asked without hesitation, "Senior Ruan, why did you and Kong Yue of the Ghost Shadow Sect try to assassinate Nan Cang? What irreconcilable grudge do you have against him?"
Ruan Pingcui let out a soft sigh and explained, "Kong Yue... is my Dao Companion."
Su Yuan: "..."
Seeing the odd look on Su Yuan's face, Ruan Pingcui explained, "Although I'm the sect master of the Joyful Union Sect, I'm not someone who throws herself around. I had another reason for taking Yan He away earlier. As for why I tried to assassinate Nan Cang, it's actually quite simple: Kong Yue and I had been driven into a corner with nowhere left to go."
Su Yuan: "Ahem, I definitely wasn't reading too much into it. Please, go on."
Ruan Pingcui continued, "You may not know this, but Nan Cang was responsible for more than half the credit for my reaching the Nascent Soul Realm."
"But I'm not grateful to him, because in his eyes, once I broke through, I had only one purpose—to serve as a cauldron for his cultivation."
"If that were all, it wouldn't be the end of the world. At worst, I'd fall from the Nascent Soul Realm back to the Golden Core Realm. It would be humiliating, but I could still