So There Really Was a Holy Maiden Sect

Standing by the window and looking outside, Xue Mu wore a rather peculiar expression.

How should he put it? These "assassins" looked so stupid... One woman and three men circled the Bamboo Pavilion, occasionally walking in zigzags. At first, he'd thought they were using some special footwork, but soon he saw two of the men bump into each other, clutch their heads, and collapse to the ground.

Every now and then, one of them would bizarrely swing his sword at thin air, only to slash a companion right in the backside...

Meng Lan, however, seemed used to this. She explained, "This is the Hazy Moon Formation set up by Martial Aunt Yin Ye. Resources in the Capital City are scarce, so she could only set up this kind of illusion formation, which isn't very powerful. As for what they're actually seeing in the illusion... well..."

Xue Mu was very curious. "What are they seeing?"

"I can only guess..." Meng Lan said cautiously. "Given Martial Aunt's tastes, they're probably seeing a little girl eating candied hawthorn on a stick to their left, and another little girl munching on a steamed bun to their right... So, as you can see, Young Master, they're all striking at a very low angle."

Xue Mu's mouth twitched. He felt Meng Lan's analysis was probably right on the mark.

With a loud "thump," the female assassin ran headfirst into a pillar and passed out.

Xue Mu was both exasperated and amused. With skills like these, they still called themselves assassins? Did they really think the Star Moon Sect had no one in it?

There was no point in watching them embarrass themselves any longer. Xue Mu turned and headed back inside. "Meng Lan, you understand formations, right? Go knock them all out and bring them up. I want to question them."

Before Meng Lan could move, Xue Qingqiu drifted over.

Though she knew the formation wasn't powerful enough, it was more useful for trapping intruders and sounding the alarm. In fact, Xue Qingqiu had arrived the moment anyone entered the formation. Seeing that it was just a bunch of weaklings, she hadn't shown herself, instead watching the fun from a bamboo branch. Now that Xue Mu wanted to question them, she came down to see what he planned to do.

Xue Mu rolled his eyes and said irritably, "Come on, dear sister. I want to have some fun with a female prisoner. Do you have to watch?"

Xue Qingqiu's face remained expressionless. With a casual beckoning gesture, she drew the female assassin toward them and tossed her in front of Xue Mu. "Go ahead and have your fun. I'll protect you from the side, so no one sucks you dry."

Xue Mu broke into a cold sweat. "She looks like she's from the Righteous Path, not the Joyous Union Sect. She won't suck me dry, will she?"

"The Righteous Path?" Xue Qingqiu sneered. "The women of the Seven Profound Valley are all fairy maidens and holy maidens, pure and unsullied. You've taken a fancy to her, have you?"

"Huh?" That jealousy seemed unwarranted... Xue Mu took a careful look at the unconscious female assassin on the ground. Sure enough, she was the kind of beauty who could take your breath away. Even with her eyes closed in a faint, you could still make out her noble, icy beauty. He couldn't help thinking that there really were holy maiden sects in this world... If the Joyous Union Sect was a rival in the Demon Sect, and the two sides couldn't stand each other, did that make the Seven Profound Valley the sect both the Star Moon Sect and the Joyous Union Sect hated most?

So you lot got to be noble and aloof, while we were fairies and demon heads? Bah!

The Cihang Jingzhai and the Yin Kui Sect? Even if that wasn't exactly the idea, it wasn't far off... No wonder Xue Qingqiu was acting like someone had stepped on her tail. She hadn't acted this way toward a swordswoman like Mu Jianli.

A flurry of thoughts passed through Xue Mu's mind. Of course, he knew how to answer. "I already told you, I like wicked women."

Xue Qingqiu gave a cold snort and said nothing more. She leaned against the doorway and watched coldly as Xue Mu carried the female assassin inside.

Chen Yao felt incredibly unlucky. She had clearly gathered all the information: that demon, Xue Mu, was just an ordinary man with no cultivation whatsoever. He only knew a strange kind of poison, so he shouldn't be difficult to deal with. And since Xue Mu was the Star Moon Sect's only man, the Bamboo Pavilion where he lived stood some distance from the Star Moon Sect women. She'd thought it was a good opportunity, so she'd persuaded a few admirers to come with her and capture him for merit, rather than let Mu Jianli steal the limelight.

But who could have guessed that this Bamboo Pavilion, which looked perfectly ordinary and showed no trace of a formation around it, would somehow lead to another world as soon as they entered? The pavilion was clearly right in front of them, yet no matter how far they walked, they couldn't reach it. If anything, it seemed to grow farther away. When she turned to look, her three flower-protecting companions had vanished without a trace. She realized she'd fallen into a terrifying formation.

Meng Lan had said the formation wasn't high-level, but that was only compared to the highest security standards Xue Qingqiu demanded. In reality, nothing created by Yin Ye was low-level. The Hazy Moon Formation was one of the finest illusion formations in the world. Even an elder from the Seven Profound Valley would have to expend considerable effort to break it, let alone a rising inner-disciple like her, who was still dreaming of becoming a direct disciple.

She regretted it. She was frightened. She wanted to shout for help, but found she couldn't make a sound. Suddenly, she turned and saw a little girl eating candied hawthorn on a stick, staring straight at her. The girl's eyes were as black as the dead of night. In her daze, the darkness seemed to spread until it swallowed every trace of white in the girl's eyes. It looked terribly uncanny, filling her with even greater fear.

At last, she couldn't take it anymore and slashed out with her sword. She saw a flash of blood on the blade, but the little girl had vanished. She had no idea what she'd hit.

Boundless darkness surged over her, like the spreading blackness in the little girl's eyes. Terrified, Chen Yao fled wildly without regard for direction, only to run headfirst into a pillar and pass out.

When she woke, the first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was a man seated at a table, explaining something to two women on either side of him.

"...Does that make sense?"

"You just look down on brothels..." The woman on the left snorted. "Do you think that's beneath you?"

The man replied helplessly, "What did you take today?"

"Hmph. I was the one who pushed for the brothel business in the first place. It took nearly eight years to get it running! Are you dismissing all eight years of my hard work and slapping me in the face?"

"Uh..." The man scratched his head. "No wonder they have so few tricks. I thought that after a thousand years of brothel tradition, they'd be better than Dongguan..."

Come to think of it, though Xue Qingqiu had been as prickly as if she'd taken the wrong medicine today, wasn't that also a sign that she was growing closer to him? In front of him, she no longer bothered to maintain the Sect Master's dignified bearing or put on the Demoness's bewitching act. She was becoming more genuine, more at ease.

That, too, was thanks to Xue Mu's own sincere feelings. After refusing Meng Lan's offer to share his bed, he hadn't gone to sleep or practiced cultivation. Nor had he turned his attention to the matter with the Six Fan Gates, which was clearly part of a scheme he himself had laid out. He'd continued to devote himself to the Star Moon Sect's development. For whose sake? Even if some of it was for himself, the main beneficiary was still Xue Qingqiu.

People weren't made of grass and trees. How could Xue Qingqiu not feel a softening in her heart at the sight of that?

"What's Dongguan?"

"Nothing..."

"Forget it. Your idea isn't without merit. In the long run, this line of work isn't a good path. I'm also afraid that if we keep this up, our sect will truly degenerate into something just like the Joyous Union Sect."

"Actually, didn't you copy the Joyous Union Sect to begin with...?"

"Bullshit! Would I need to copy anyone?"

"It's even more embarrassing if you came up with it yourself..."

"Xue Mu, are you trying to die?"

"I just want to feel like I'm dying of pleasure..."

Chen Yao felt contempt in her heart. They called themselves brother and sister, but the Demon Sect's deviants truly had no shame.

Xue Qingqiu snorted and continued, "You could have Meng Lan help you feel like you're dying of pleasure, but you put on this act of a gentleman! Tell me, are you building up Meng Lan's image as a zither-playing immortal just so it'll be more exciting when you have your fun? So you really do like those pretentious sluts from the Seven Profound Valley."

Meng Lan stood to one side, her face flushed as she lowered her head in silence.

Chen Yao's lips moved. She wanted to say something, but didn't dare. The moment she'd heard "I," she knew who was standing before her. She wouldn't dare talk back to Xue Qingqiu even if she had a thousand times the courage.

"Take the Seven Profound Valley, for example," Xue Mu said. "Why are they the Righteous Path, adored by everyone, while you're the Demon Sect, feared by all? Because people love the whole holy-maiden and fairy-maiden act. Even if they're wilder behind closed doors than the Joyous Union Sect, they're still the ones who made it big. Why not learn a thing or two from them? It's only for appearances. I'm not asking you to change the Star Moon Sect's way."

Xue Qingqiu was still pondering this when Chen Yao finally couldn't hold back. "You're the one who's wilder than the Joyous Union Sect!"