Meanwhile, at the Eastern Ya Cui Residence.
Jiang Peilan had Cui Zhaowei keep Cui Yuanxi company, arranged lodging for Cui Wenshan, then made her way to a secluded Quiet Courtyard with distinctive scenery to find Cui Qiezhe.
Cui Qiezhe was drinking tea in the courtyard, mentally reviewing the recent struggle for Mount Junya, his gaze deep and inscrutable.
"Husband..." Jiang Peilan called hesitantly.
With no outsiders present, Cui Qiezhe faced his wife, Jiang Peilan, with an unusually impassive expression, one that even seemed cold.
"What is it?" Cui Qiezhe asked flatly, without the warmth he showed others.
Jiang Peilan paused. Gone, too, was the sharpness she displayed in public. She stepped forward and asked softly, "Husband, why did you give the Calamity-Transforming Pill to that Qi Refining junior?"
The Aohai Cui Clan, Eastern Ya Cui Clan, and Hengyang Lu Clan had each contributed [tribulation-transforming heavenly gang] and [calamity-relieving heavenly gang], inviting the Hengyang Lu Clan's True Lord to refine three Calamity-Transforming Pills, one for each clan.
Publicly, these three Calamity-Transforming Pills could be exchanged for battle merit. In truth, that was merely a means of attracting rogue cultivators and cultivators from other clans. Their recipients had long since been decided.
They were a direct-lineage Nine Turns Qi Refining cultivator of the Hengyang Lu Clan, the Aohai Cui Clan's eldest young lady, Cui Yuanxi, and Cui Zhaowei, daughter of the Eastern Ya Cui Clan's head-Cui Qiezhe's only daughter.
Now Cui Qiezhe had given someone else the Calamity-Transforming Pill that should have belonged to their daughter. No matter what, she had to ask him about it.
Cui Qiezhe frowned, his voice growing colder still. Rather than explain, he said, "Are you questioning me?"
Jiang Peilan's breath caught. Behind her back, her index fingers circled each other. She bit her lip lightly and