The night was black as ink, the stars scattered sparsely overhead.
Outside Sunset Glow Retreat, a figure quietly appeared on the bluestone path. It was Lei Hao, First Seat of the Nine Heavens Immortal Sect.
"Hm?"
Lei Hao paused, extending his divine sense above the bamboo grove, where it collided soundlessly with another strand of divine sense.
"What a coincidence, Fellow Daoist Lei."
Mu Nanyan revealed herself and greeted him with a smile.
Lei Hao frowned slightly and asked tentatively, "Fairy Mu, it's late. What brings you here?"
Mu Nanyan smiled charmingly and answered with easy grace, "With nothing else to do, I was planning to visit Chen Beiwu at Sunset Glow Retreat, see the bearing of the master who opened a path for Foundation Establishment, and ask him a question or two."
At that, her lovely eyes shifted, and she countered slyly, "Since you're here at this hour, Fellow Daoist Lei, might you be heading the same way?"
A trace of embarrassment flashed through Lei Hao's eyes.
As the architect of the four-sect alliance, if news spread that he had visited the Jade Purity Immortal Sect, his allies could easily misunderstand, potentially even causing the alliance to collapse.
Thus, after some hesitation, he had chosen to visit Chen Beiwu privately late at night. He had never expected to run into Mu Nanyan even then.
Still, to be fair, Mu Nanyan had a truly outrageous amount of time on her hands. She was actually disregarding the proprieties between men and women to visit a male cultivator in the dead of night. Had she taken a fancy to Chen Beiwu, an old cow looking to graze on tender grass?
"Ahem."
Lei Hao coughed twice and nodded calmly. "What a coincidence. I was planning to visit Fellow Daoist Chen as well."
Since