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The life that should have been hers had been stolen away, bit by bit, by Li Zi!

She should have been their junior sister!

She should have been the one to receive the Myriad Flower Divine Bone!

Ran Zirou pressed her lips together stubbornly. "Li Zi, you already drove me out of the Sect. Isn't that enough? Do you want to use this trick to drive me out again?"

She trembled with anger and gently caught the hem of Bao Yuanwu's robe.

"I never should have come to your Sect. I came here only to be framed by her again. I didn't touch her just now! Besides, her Cultivation is higher than mine. How could I possibly have knocked her over? She's pretending!"

With the woman he longed for clutching his robe and leaning on him so vulnerably, Bao Yuanwu's heart melted.

He couldn't help smiling as he drew her into his arms to comfort her.

Feeling her soft warmth against him, Bao Yuanwu flushed bright red.

How could a woman as steadfast and resilient as Rou'er lie?

There had to be some misunderstanding.

[Host, you should learn from her. She can lie through her teeth without even blinking. And you should use your own charm to win over your senior brothers.]

Li Zi rolled her eyes inwardly. [Why would I want to win them over? I don't make a habit of having people pour their Cultivation into me. I'd rather cultivate bit by bit on my own.]

The system flipped through the book again. [Oh, your Second Senior Brother specializes in Body Tempering and has an iron will, but the Dual Cultivation Method Ran Zirou learned is his weakness. In the original story, after he slept with her once, he became madly infatuated. He was also the first man to pour his Cultivation into her, giving her everything he had cultivated in his life.]

Bao Yuanwu stiffened.

He looked down at the woman in his arms, and suddenly his skin crawled all over.

Give Ran Zirou everything he had cultivated in his life?

That...

He thought of the days he had spent forging his muscles and bones, the many times he had escaped death beneath the claws of fierce beasts, and the training he had never abandoned through bitter cold or scorching heat.

After all that hardship, how could he give his Cultivation to someone else?

Li Zi was muttering to herself, but Ran Zirou's words made her eyes widen in shock.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Didn't you leave willingly with your mother? Everyone in the Sect knows that. What does it have to do with me? How did that turn into me driving you out?"

Ran Zirou pressed her lips tightly together, her flower-like face tense. She looked as though she had suffered some terrible wrong but was gritting her teeth and forcing herself to stay strong.

She played the part perfectly, instantly captivating both Bao Yuanwu and Yu Lin.

Bao Yuanwu threw Li Zi's inner voice to the back of his mind and held the beauty close, comforting her in a gentle voice.

A chill entered his gaze as he looked at Li Zi.

"Junior Sister, if there's nothing else, I'll take Rou'er away. Don't summon her here again."

Li Zi looked baffled. "When did I ever summon her?"

Bao Yuanwu's gaze faltered, but the woman in his arms timidly tugged at his sleeve.

That one tug pulled his reason away with it. Bao Yuanwu frowned and led Ran Zirou out with an arm around her.

Yu Lin, however, gave Li Zi a few puzzled looks.

Once the other two had gone, he hesitated before asking, "Junior Sister, who is Rou'er's mother?"

What he really wanted to ask was why Ran Zirou would ruin his Cultivation and give it to another man.

But he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Li Zi straightened her skirt and looked up at him. "Immortal Ziyang."

"Senior Brother, don't tell me Sister Ran never told you? Everyone in the Sect knows. Oh dear, I suppose you don't mean all that much to her after all."

Yu Lin's face darkened.

What a barbed tongue.

He preferred the junior sister from earlier, who had been so frail she could barely take care of herself.

Still...

Ran Zirou's mother was Immortal Ziyang?

Ran Zirou had clearly told him that her life had been miserable. After she was expelled from the Sect, even her mother disliked her and forbade her from cultivating.

But that was Immortal Ziyang!

Immortal Ziyang was renowned throughout the Cultivation World as a

formidable

woman. For the sake of Cultivation, she could spend decades alone in the Extreme Cold Region. She often urged her disciples to cultivate diligently and grow stronger. How could she treat her own daughter that way?

And why was this whole affair such a tangled mess?

Wasn't Immortal Ziyang the woman Second Martial Uncle loved? Since when did she have a daughter?

Everything he had heard today was too bizarre. Yu Lin stumbled away, needing somewhere to sort it all out.

Bao Yuanwu, meanwhile, had a beauty in his arms and no attention to spare for anything else.

He walked down the mountain with an arm around Ran Zirou, comforting her softly all the way. He was attentive indeed.

On the roof, the Fifth Elder, who had been watching in secret, looked grim.

He said gravely, "Yuanwu specializes in Body Tempering. Although his Cultivation has only just reached the Golden Core Stage, his body is already as tough as an Earth-Rank Spirit Beast's, hard and nearly indestructible. If she drains his yang to nourish her yin and damages his Primordial Yang, the loss will be devastating."

The Sect Master waved a hand. "Hurry and stop them. Don't let anything happen between them. I'll go find Yu Lin."

They split up.

Li Zi, meanwhile, learned from the system that Ran Zirou and Bao Yuanwu were already preparing to descend the mountain.

On the way down, Ran Zirou would make her move and drain Bao Yuanwu's Primordial Yang.

Li Zi perked up at once.

She had to go watch the spectacle.

As they passed the Sect's Main Peak, quite a few disciples came forward to greet them.

They recognized Ran Zirou at a glance.

One female disciple exclaimed in delight, "Junior Sister Ran, you're back? How are things at the Hehuan Sect? Your mother must have prepared plenty of Cultivation Resources for you."

Ran Zirou clearly felt Bao Yuanwu's hand tighten around her waist.

Afraid he would realize something was wrong, she laced her slender fingers through his and lowered her voice.

"I'll explain later."

Feeling the delicate touch of her hand against his palm, Bao Yuanwu broke out in a cold sweat across his forehead.

His throat bobbed, but it felt blocked, and he couldn't speak.