Respect others' fates

"You're telling me to shut up?!"

The maid wore her hair in two adorable buns and pointed at her own mouth in disbelief.

She was a mortal too.

Although she did not understand why those immortal masters bowed and scraped before her young mistress, falling over themselves to please her, that did not stop her from borrowing the tiger's might like a fox and enjoying their deference herself.

So, to a mortal like her, immortal masters were nothing special.

But before she could lash out,

Li Yang blurred before her eyes, and a deafening blast rang in her ears-

Clang!

From the moment he stepped into the silk shop, Li Yang had sensed something wrong.

He had no Divine Sense, but that did not stop him from drawing on years of experience dealing with demons and evil creatures.

There was something wrong with this shopkeeper!

He sensed a deeply concealed killing intent emanating from him, aimed indiscriminately at everyone, much like a vengeful ghost's.

He drew his sword at once.

With a slicing hiss, he cleaved the kindly-looking shopkeeper in two.

"Ah!!!"

The maid screamed in terror at the sight.

But what frightened her even more was that the bisected shopkeeper did not shed a single drop of blood, and an eerie smile still lingered on his face.

"A Human Puppet, just as I thought!"

Li Yang sheathed his sword and rushed through the silk shop's back door to search. Only a few mortals were working there, and nothing was amiss.

He returned to the shop.

Picking up the bright red cloth bundle the shopkeeper had been about to hand the maid, he tore it open roughly, revealing an exquisite set of red undergarments.

"What are you doing?!"

Although the maid was frightened, she could not help speaking up at the sight.

Li Yang ignored her.

He murmured, "Something really is wrong! They've been tampered with. There's a concealed restriction laid on them."

Seeing that Li Yang was ignoring her,

the maid shouted, "Hey!" Then she demanded, "I'm talking to you! Did you already know something was wrong with him? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Faced with her accusations,

Li Yang turned his gaze toward her.

"Don't!" Ning Xinyao realized something was wrong and immediately tried to stop him.

But it was already too late.

Li Yang's palm had struck the maid's face, sending her flying, and Ning Xinyao caught her.

The force of that slap was perfectly controlled: enough to stun her without damaging her brain.

"Immortal masters are not to be insulted. I'm reasonably easy to talk to. If you meet someone unreasonable in the future, that defiant, accusatory attitude alone will be reason enough for them to kill you."

Li Yang thought nothing of it.

Had this truly been an ordinary righteous cultivator facing a mortal's accusations, there would have been a hundred ways to make this maid disappear without a sound.

"Junior brother! Why did you hit her?!" Ning Xinyao was trembling all over.

Looking at the maid's swollen cheek, she immediately fed her a healing pill, unmistakable panic filling her eyes.

"I'm merely showing her the true face of cultivators." Li Yang shook his head. "She's only a mortal. If she talks back to someone ruthless in the future, she'll certainly be killed.

"So you should thank me."

Li Yang looked at the maid, his eyes earnest.

He did not exert a cultivator's oppressive aura. His gaze was clear, and this was simply advice from someone who had been through it all.

The maid was no fool.

The White Household already maintained a strict hierarchy, and its children with the talent to cultivate were especially arrogant.

Only recently had she heard that Young Mistress Nishang, whom she served, was extraordinary. Coupled with the immortal masters' constant pestering, that had led her to place herself on equal footing with them.

Li Yang's slap had indeed knocked some sense into her.

"Th... thank you."

Ning Xinyao was utterly dumbfounded.

Her own grandaunt had been slapped, yet she still had to thank the person who hit her?!

"Let's go. You don't need to worry about this place. Come back to the White Residence with us."

Li Yang walked over and patted the maid on the shoulder.

This maid was not beyond saving. If he could pull even one person back, he would.

On the way back,

the maid asked curiously, "Are you one of my young mistress's suitors too?"

"Someone who indirectly caused countless deaths isn't worthy." Li Yang did not care and spoke freely. "Your young mistress is the sort who acts like a whore but still wants a monument to her chastity. She's no different from a brothel girl."

Mortal Transfiguration merely created another self without memories, so whatever sort of person the Mortal Transfiguration body was, the original would be much the same.

Precisely because of that, Li Yang found Bai Nishang's behavior increasingly sickening.

He was even less inclined to think his master was right to have Ning Xinyao play matchmaker between him and her.

"You think so too..." The maid's pretty eyes brightened, but just as she was about to agree, she promptly shut her mouth.

In truth, she also thought her young mistress's grasping behavior was far too ugly.

But she was only a maid and had no right to speak out of turn.

"By the way, why are you wearing a human-skin mask?" Li Yang suddenly asked.

He had noticed long ago that the maid wore a mask over her face.

It was not a Magic Treasure, merely a commonplace face prop used in the mortal world.

Cultivators could see through it at a glance, but since she was Miss Bai's maid, none of them would say anything.

"Because I'm ugly, of course. Wouldn't want to spoil my young mistress's elegance," the maid answered casually.

But Li Yang did not believe that.

If she were ugly, she would only make Miss Bai look more elegant by comparison.

That meant she must be prettier than Bai Nishang, who feared having a maid steal her limelight.

"I'd advise you to leave the White Residence as soon as possible. You're only a mortal. If danger strikes, your young mistress won't die, but there's a good chance you'll be killed by mistake." Li Yang had a fairly good impression of this maid.

There was an innocent, carefree quality about her that made her pleasant company.

"I don't have the talent to cultivate..." The maid grew downcast. "Besides, my parents sold me to the White Residence. It was better than being sold to a brothel back then.

"The White Residence has treated me well, and the young mistress is... reasonably nice, I suppose.

"I won't leave."

Li Yang did not try to persuade her further.

Respecting other people's fates was a good habit.

Later, the White Residence sent people to investigate the incident, but in the end, nothing came of it.

Heretic Cultivators acted cautiously, making even the slightest traces difficult to follow.

Li Yang was bored out of his mind at the White Residence and had nowhere to cultivate, so he chatted with the maid on and off.

The maid, however, was enthusiastic, chatting eagerly with the immortal master who had slapped her, endlessly curious about the cultivation world outside.

Everyone who saw this cast disdainful looks his way.

"He acted so high and mighty before. Turns out he wanted to work his way in through someone close to Miss Bai."

"She's just a maid. Still, she should be one of the maids accompanying the bride into marriage. It might actually work."

"It's useless. Who knows whose gift did the trick, but Miss Bai actually broke the rule that a mortalized body cannot cultivate and became a first-level Qi Refining cultivator."

Li Yang naturally sensed the aura within Bai Nishang's bedchamber.

He also knew what these fellows were plotting by giving Bai Nishang treasures that would help her begin cultivating.

It was simply that a mortalized body had a lifespan of no more than a hundred years and did not carry enough weight in Household Ancestor Ning's heart.

But if they could enable this mortalized body to cultivate and become her Dao companion, their bond would deepen, and the threads of karma would become more entangled.

So once Bai Nishang became a cultivator, these male cultivators pursued her even more fervently.

Only Li Yang and the six sword cultivators from the Sword Alliance remained unmoved.

They shared the same objective-to slay demons and defend the Dao.

In the blink of an eye, the following day arrived.

The maid had fallen asleep leaning against Li Yang.

Another maid came to wake her, and she changed into a presentable new pink outfit.

To the guests, a wedding was a lively affair.

But only those present could see the bustle that began before dawn.

The maids knelt on the floor holding copper basins, attending to Bai Nishang as she washed, had her hair combed, and put on her bridal gown...

As the leading lady, Bai Nishang grew more and more beautiful, while the maids grew increasingly drenched in sweat.

As a guard, Li Yang was responsible for screening the guests alongside Su Hen and the other five sword cultivators, ensuring no demons or evil creatures slipped in among them.

Everything went smoothly.

After the banquet, Bai Nishang bid farewell to her parents, making crying noises without shedding a tear.

The good news that she had become a cultivator had already gone to her head. How could she possibly cry?

Especially after the promises her sweetheart had made to her the previous night, she was filled with wonderful hopes for the future. She was simply too happy.