Mu Yanyan barked in a low voice.
"I haven't told anyone."
Meng Chenyu said anxiously, "How could I casually tell outsiders about something so important?"
Mu Yanyan's face darkened, a sharp, icy light shooting from her eyes. "Are you certain?!"
Her voice suddenly dropped much lower.
An unprecedented sense of oppression abruptly rose in the air.
Her expression solemn, Meng Chenyu thought it over carefully before finally declaring, one word at a time, "Yes, I can be completely certain. I have never mentioned it to anyone!"
Mu Yanyan did not relent, pressing relentlessly. "Anything related to it, on any topic?!"
Meng Chenyu took a deep breath. "Yes! Anything related to it, on any topic!"
Mu Yanyan said coolly, "But this information has already leaked. You didn't tell anyone, I didn't tell anyone, and your senior sister is even less likely to seek her own death... so how did this information get out?"
"Well..." Meng Chenyu blinked her sprite-like eyes several times, her face crumpling. "I really don't know how it leaked."
Mu Yanyan's eyes flashed like cold lightning. "Look me in the eyes when you speak!"
Feeling wronged, Meng Chenyu raised her head and looked into Mu Yanyan's eyes, lifting her right hand. "Master, I swear to Heaven, it really wasn't me! Not the slightest scrap of information has leaked from me!"
"If even half a word is false, may Heaven forsake me!"
Her face dark, Mu Yanyan fixed her cold, lightning-like gaze on Meng Chenyu's face.
Meng Chenyu met Mu Yanyan's eyes without blinking.
After a long, long time, Mu Yanyan said coolly, "All right. Since it wasn't you, we'll leave it at that. There's no need for such a grave oath. However, we need to discuss the time and place of your senior sister's breakthrough again."
"Yes, Master."
Meng Chenyu immediately regained her earlier liveliness. She bounded over like a little deer and wrapped her arms around Zuo Xiaonian's shoulders, laughing. "Sister Xiao Nian and I are as close as sisters, so close we're practically one person. How could I possibly leak something so important about her? Master, if this were ancient times, I'd even be planning to share a husband with her..."
The expression on Zuo Xiaonian's cool face did not change. With some distaste, she removed Meng Chenyu's hand from her shoulder and snorted. "If we shared a husband, I'm afraid you'd still be a virgin when you grew old..."
Meng Chenyu flew into a rage. "What's wrong with me? What's so bad about me? Why would anyone look down on me like that? If even a cultivation maniac like you can get married, how am I any worse than you?!"
Zuo Xiaonian said blandly, "You're small."
Meng Chenyu: "..."
Zuo Xiaonian raised her eyes. "You're flat."
Meng Chenyu: "..."
Zuo Xiaonian curled her lip. "You're dark."
Meng Chenyu: "!"
Zuo Xiaonian: "And you're uglier than me."
Meng Chenyu: "!!!"
Zuo Xiaonian: "Just look at yourself. Your whole body is an eyebrow-height staff, straight from top to bottom... truly so tall and straight. If a man ended up with you, he'd honestly be better off feeling his own pectorals..."
This plainly delivered string of honest truths struck Meng Chenyu on the forehead like a club. The delicate girl was utterly defeated.
Meng Chenyu staggered back several steps and collapsed onto the sofa, looking as though she had nothing left to live for. Covering her face, she cried out frantically, "Master, I don't want to live anymore! Not unless you beat this sharp-tongued woman to death! Who would believe it? Who would believe that Zuo Xiaonian, my senior sister, famed for her outward beauty and inward wisdom, a celestial fairy in human form, could have such a venomous tongue!"
Mu Yanyan spun around and returned to her chair, barking, "Zuo Xiaonian, that's enough! Why are you spouting such honest truths? Your junior sister is still young! She could still develop!"
"Boo-hoo..." Meng Chenyu sprang up and fled in tears, covering her face.
With a senior sister like this and a master like this, there was nothing left to live for. All she could do was seek solace in external things... like street racing?!
"She's gone," said Zuo Xiaonian.
"It wasn't her," Mu Yanyan said quietly. "I observed her with the Cold Moon Mirror Heart Method just now. She truly wasn't lying."
"Mm." Zuo Xiaonian pressed her lips together, but said nothing more for a long while.
"You still don't trust her?" Mu Yanyan asked.
Zuo Xiaonian said coolly, "It's not that I don't trust her. I just don't want anything to go wrong. If it's because my own preparations are lacking, that's one thing, but if it's because..."
"It won't happen," Mu Yanyan said. "Set your heart back in your belly. When the time comes, I'll invite a few good friends over. With at least four Infant Transformation cultivators guarding you, nothing can possibly go wrong on this little patch of ground in Phoenix City!"
Zuo Xiaonian said, "Thank you, Master. But Master, the location of the breakthrough when the time comes..."
Mu Yanyan said, "We won't settle on a breakthrough location now. The previous one is canceled. We'll choose again, and leave the new location undecided for now."
"We'll adapt everything to the circumstances!"
"All right."
"If we simply don't decide, even we won't know. Outsiders will have even less chance of finding out," Mu Yanyan said slowly.
The instructions were finished.
Mu Yanyan asked casually, "Are you still going home today?"
"Yes, Master."
"If you ask me, there's really no need for you to go home every day."
Mu Yanyan said, "Your cultivation has already reached its current limit. What matters most during this time is actually calming your mind."
"Ah, speaking of calming my mind, I can only truly do that when I'm with my parents."
Zuo Xiaonian smiled. "Master, all information about my family has been sealed off, hasn't it? What level of classification is it under now?"
Mu Yanyan said, "Back when you passed through the Thorny Road with Eight Pressures, I reported your family circumstances and had them listed as Class A secrets. Now that you're about to cross the Yin-Yang Boundary, I've submitted another report to have your family information listed as Class S secrets."
Zuo Xiaonian nodded. "Master, if my breakthrough fails... I hope that classification can be maintained for sixty years."
"You certainly won't fail."
"I need your guarantee, Master."
"All right! As your master, I guarantee it!"