Goodbye, Female Bandit

The time was not long, only a brief ten minutes, but it surpassed a month's worth of ordinary effort.

On normal days, raising Spiritual Power was no easy feat—one could even say it was very difficult—but with the help of this Spiritual Diagram Record, it became much easier.

Long Jiuyyao felt no fatigue at this moment; in fact, he still craved more, wishing he could do it again.

But without the aid of that strange moonlight, it was just like usual, lacking that sensation. The peculiar moonlight that could resonate with the light of the Seven Original Sins only lasted ten minutes.

After those ten minutes passed, it was all the ordinary gray-white moonlight of everyday life, not that faint white moonlight.

Based on Long Jiuyue's speculation, the strange moonlight appeared during the Hour of the Rat, specifically the ten minutes from 11:55 PM to 12:05 AM. This peculiar moonlight lasted only those ten minutes, coinciding with the full moon reaching its highest point.

Long Jiuyyao stretched his limbs, swept a glance over the breathtaking scenery below the mountain peak, then transformed into a streak of shadow and sped away, vanishing from the spot.

Long Jiuyyao returned to his own courtyard, glanced at Yuan Xin, who was sound asleep on his bed, pinched her soft cheeks, then turned and walked toward the adjacent room.

"Click!"

The sound of the door closing woke the sleeping Yuan Xin. She muttered discontentedly, "Brother's really a coward!"

Then she rolled over and went back to sleep, as if no one had spoken.

Long Jiuyyao in the next room had no idea; he slept straight through until broad daylight.

"Bang bang bang!" A frantic knocking sounded at the door!

"Who is it! Don't you let people sleep? Get lost!" Long Jiuyyao said irritably, opening the door with his clothes in disarray and shouting.

The Blue Haired Girl outside the door felt she had been scolded for no reason and immediately took offense. She thought to herself that she had even set aside past grievances to come wake him up, only for him to be unhappy about it.

The Blue Haired Girl opened her mouth to speak, but Long Jiuyyao slammed the door shut, leaving her with a face full of door. Her anger flared even hotter.

"Bang bang bang!" The knocking grew several times louder. "You bastard, open the door!" the Blue Haired Girl shouted as she pounded on it.

Long Jiuyyao inside the room was completely baffled. When he opened the door, it turned out to be that Female Bandit from a year ago. Though a year had passed, her blue hair was unforgettable, and her face was even more beautiful than before.

Long Jiuyyao's heart screamed, It's over, it's over. The matter from a year ago was never resolved, and now he'd been cursed at for no reason. Who could take that lightly?

He could already imagine the fury on her face just by thinking about it.

"Whew, whew, whew!" Long Jiuyyao patted his chest to calm himself, changed into a pitch-black robe, and reopened the door.

"Ah!"

As he opened the door, Long Jiuyyao felt a very pleasant milky scent rush toward him.

"Thud!" The two fell to the ground together.

Lan Xinhuang hadn't expected this bastard to suddenly open the door. In the last moment, she couldn't steady herself and crashed directly into him.

Long Jiuyyao didn't realize what was happening at the moment; instead, he was still immersed in that milky fragrance, even greedily sniffing it.

This action of Long Jiuyyao's made Lan Xinhuang feel a ticklish sensation on her neck, as if a gentle breeze had brushed past it. Looking down at his infatuated face, her jade cheeks flushed like burning clouds, but mostly with anger.

"Brother! You two are..." Yuan Xin, walking over from not far outside the courtyard, covered her mouth in shock.

At this moment, the furious Lan Xinhuang jolted as if splashed with a basin of cold water. Her anger dissipated instantly, and even her raised fair arm froze in place.

"You pervert!" Lan Xinhuang cursed as she came to her senses slightly.

Her jade hand heavily thumped Long Jiuyyao's chest, then she got up, covered her face with her hand, and fled in a hurry.

"Sister Lan!" Yuan Xin called out.

The running Lan Xinhuang paused for a moment at the sound, but only for a moment.

Yuan Xin came to the door, crossed her arms, and laughed, "Brother, nice moves! You hooked Sister Lan so fast."

"But you can't do it right at the doorstep like that. What if someone sees? What a bad influence. Besides, you're not ready for that kind of thing yet, are you?"

It wasn't her fault for thinking that way—the two of them looked far too intimate in Yuan Xin's eyes.

Lan Xinhuang was straddling Long Jiuyyao's waist, Long Jiuyyao had his face buried in her neck, and even his hands were clinging to her waist.

No wonder she let her imagination run wild.

"What nonsense are you talking about! It's not what you think! You're young, but you sure know how to imagine things." Long Jiuyyao got up and knocked Yuan Xin on the forehead, annoyed.

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm! It's definitely not what I think!" Yuan Xin said that, but the expression on her face didn't match her words.

Seeing that she didn't believe him, Long Jiuyyao didn't bother explaining further and instead asked, "Why did that Female Bandit come?"

"Female Bandit? What Female Bandit?" Yuan Xin was confused.

"Never mind. What did she come for?" Long Jiuyyao said again.

"Don't you know? The once-every-five-years Mountain Survival has started. Sister Lan came to join us," Yuan Xin explained.

"What!" Long Jiuyyao shouted.

"Mountain Survival requires a team of three. Sister Lan happened to be coming, so we'll go together!" Yuan Xin laughed.

"It's not that she couldn't find anyone, no one wanted her, so she had to team up with us, right?" Long Jiuyyao muttered quietly.

With her temper, he really couldn't imagine what she'd be like teaming up with others.

"Crack, crack, crack!"

Behind an old tree not far away, hearing Long Jiuyyao's comment, a furious Lan Xinhuang snapped the branch in her hand, even breaking it into several pieces.

"Who?" Long Jiuyao turned around and spotted Lan Xinhuang beneath the ancient tree. He waved his hand awkwardly. "Hey! You're back."

"You bastard, I'm the one no one wants? This Miss could crook her finger and have a flood of people begging to team up with me." Lan Xinhuang roared in fury.

"No, no, no! I want you, I want you, alright?!" Long Jiuyao displayed his thick-skinned specialty to the fullest.

"From your tone, it sounds like you're the one being wronged." Lan Xinhuang's voice was cold, a smile playing on her lips.

"No, no! I'm not wronged—you're the one being wronged." Long Jiuyao stared at the crescent-moon-shaped Wind Blade in her hand, terrified that one wrong word would earn him a strike from it.

"Calm down, calm down. I'm more than grateful that Lady Lan would join our group! How could I ever despise you?" Long Jiuyao gently patted Lan Xinhuang's jade-like back, his hand rising and falling.

"Hmph!" Lan Xinhuang let out a proud, coquettish snort.

Long Jiuyao watched her haughty demeanor and murmured to himself, Just a child's temper. Surely I, a man who has lived two lives, can handle you.

Yuan Xin watched from beneath the ancient tree—Lan Xinhuang all pride, Long Jiuyao all fawning smiles—and felt a surge of admiration for her big brother. In just a few words, he'd tamed Sister Lan.

Lan Xinhuang glanced at Yuan Xin in the distance, then back at Long Jiuyao. The atmosphere felt strange to her, and she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

Lan Xinhuang shook off Long Jiuyao and walked straight toward Yuan Xin. In the end, Long Jiuyao became the odd one out. He couldn't wedge a word into the two girls' conversation and could only trail behind them slowly.

After making inquiries, Long Jiuyao learned that Mountain Survival would set out in three days. Thirty-three people would be split into eleven groups, carrying nothing with them as they survived for one month in the Rock Mist Mountain Range.

The elders had also released demonic beasts into the mountains. No one knew how many there were, or what cultivation level they were at.

Beyond the basic survival task, there was a side mission: whichever group hunted the most demonic beasts, and the strength of those beasts, would be tallied into the group's final real score.

Long Jiuyao didn't know what cultivation levels the other Competitors were at, but he was certain the lowest was the Lesser Origin Core Realm. As for the highest, he had no idea.

"I wonder what level that Female Bandit is at. She shouldn't be weaker than Xin'er, right?" Long Jiuyao sat in the Stone Pavilion, stroking his chin and muttering.

"Whew!" Long Jiuyao put his fingers to his lips and let out a sharp, clear whistle.

Two figures—one gold, one purple—came to Long Jiuyao's side. He happily stroked their backs. Unlike when he first met them, when neither would yield to the other, now they got along perfectly.

"Black Back!" A delighted voice rang out. The Blue Haired Girl came running, leaping onto Zi Lin's back in one bound.

"What the hell is 'Black Back'? This is Zi Lin." Long Jiuyao shook his head.

"Hmph, he used to be called Black Back, and you just stole him away!" Lan Xinhuang shot back.

Zi Lin hadn't forgotten the name Black Back, nor the girl who had once ridden him. He twisted his body happily.

Only Jin Ming shrank back quietly, terrified that if she spotted him, she'd turn him into a braised lion's head.

But of course, Lan Xinhuang didn't miss this. A sly grin spread across her face as she stared at the cowering Jin Ming.

Long Jiuyao noticed too. As Jin Ming's boss, he naturally stepped forward, reaching out his right hand to stroke Jin Ming's back, signaling that he had nothing to fear.

Jin Ming understood Long Jiuyao's intent. He puffed out his chest and met Lan Xinhuang's gaze head-on.

"Oh?" Lan Xinhuang saw that Jin Ming seemed emboldened by Long Jiuyao's backing. Her willow-shaped brows rose as she turned to look at Long Jiuyao.

Long Jiuyao saw her glaring at him fiercely and his heart tightened. The big hand resting on Jin Ming's back slowly, imperceptibly, slid away.

Feeling the touch vanish from his back, Jin Ming's heart went cold.

"Hahaha!" Yuan Xin, watching from a distance, let out a string of pleasant laughter.

From that moment on, she knew her big brother was destined to be henpecked.