The twin bodyguards looked like Mystic Masters, but together they wielded Mystic General power—formidable foes.
Aunt Mu, Jin Tong, and Yu Nu wouldn’t attack without reason. This had to be orders from “Good Big Sister,” her “good ally”!
“Sister Ji Ya, what is this?”
Ji Ya draped her long shawl over her arms and chuckled.
“Little Sister Xian’er, sorry to inform you—our alliance ends here. No need for your sideline support tonight… or any night henceforth.”
“Without my help, can Sister Ji Ya handle it alone?” Yi Xian’er said coolly. “Last night, Yan Zhen barely let loose, and you nearly fell getting out of bed.”
“Th-That’s nothing for Little Sister Xian’er to worry about.” Ji Ya affectionately linked arms with Aunt Mu. “Sister has plenty of helpers, right, Aunt Mu?”
“…Mm.”
Aunt Mu nodded, her expression a bit unnatural.
Yi Xian’er’s brows furrowed. She hadn’t expected Ji Ya to be so shameless as to rope in an elder. And why had Mu Xin’er agreed?
“Aunt Mu doesn’t seem too familiar with this sort of thing, does she?”
Ji Ya smirked smugly.
“You just read a book and figure it out. Not that hard.”
Theory and practice might differ, but she had a month.
She could even train Jin Tong and Yu Nu now. Even if they were hopeless, in half a month they’d manage assists.
Ji Ya hadn’t wanted to go this route—it’d put Aunt Mu in an awkward spot and Yan Zhen might not accept it. But Yi Xian’er was pushing too far. If she didn’t strike back, she’d end up underfoot!
This was her turf!
“Alright, Little Sister Xian’er. You’re done here. Go tuck yourself in the wardrobe for now.”
Ji Ya waved. Jin Tong and Yu Nu sheathed their swords, hoisted Yi Xian’er, and stuffed her into the nearby wardrobe.
“Don’t worry, Little Sister Xian’er. Big Sister won’t close the gauze curtains—you can watch the bed from there to your heart’s content~” Ji Ya glanced at Aunt Mu. “Seal her mouth.”
Yi Xian’er glared at Ji Ya, mouth opening—but the black shadows muffled it.
Ji Ya waved cheekily, then half-closed the wardrobe door, leaving just enough of a gap for her good little sister to vaguely glimpse the bed’s goings-on.
With that done, Ji Ya clapped her hands—right as Yan Zhen emerged from the bath.
“Little Brother Yan Zhen, all clean?”
“Yeah, I prepared the bath for you, Sister Ji Ya. Rub on some Snow Fluorescence Dew before getting in.”
“Sister knows.” With Yi Xian’er handled, Ji Ya’s smile sweetened. “Dinner’s ready in the dining hall. Go eat, Little Brother Yan Zhen. Sister’s already full.”
Yan Zhen patted his empty stomach, nodded with a smile, and headed off.
No maids in the house—meals were delivered from outside, of course, with every dish poison-tested.
He ate until pleasantly full, then returned to Ji Ya’s boudoir and climbed onto the bed to meditate and rest.
Yi Xian’er in the wardrobe spotted Yan Zhen and tried to call out, but her mouth was sealed, body bound, Mystic Power suppressed. She couldn’t do a thing.
Aunt Mu’s binding also isolated auras. Unless Yan Zhen spread his spiritual sense, he wouldn’t detect Yi Xian’er.
Time passed quietly. Much later, Ji Ya emerged from the bath, Ice Mystic Force swirling around her.
Aunt Mu, Jin Tong, and Yu Nu came out with her.
The four women were all dressed in nightgowns, though the colors and styles varied. Sister Ji Ya wore her usual bold red standard style, layered over a tube top and short skirt with a long-sleeved sheer outer robe. Aunt Mu had on a grayish-green robe, its overlapping front panels covering her chest quite modestly. Yet they couldn’t hide the mature beauty’s enticing hourglass figure. As for Jin Tong and Yu Nu, they wore simple spaghetti-strap nightdresses in gold and silver hues, the cute designs clashing sharply with their poker-faced expressions.
Though none of them could quite match Good Big Sister’s status as a devastating beauty, Aunt Mu, Jin Tong, and Yu Nu were still striking women, each with her own unique charm.
The quartet of mistress and servants glided along together like a captivating landscape, a sight for sore eyes.
Yan Zhen smiled faintly. Aside from Sister Ji Ya, Aunt Mu and the others treated him like family rather than an outsider, and he relished that sense of trust.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Little Brother Yan Zhen~”
“It’s fine. I just meditated for a bit. It’s not too late to start now—oh, right, where’s Xian’er?”
Yi Xian’er always appeared so naturally at his side that Yan Zhen hadn’t even noticed her absence.
Sister Ji Ya blinked, her expression unchanging. “Little Sister Xian’er said she was feeling worn out earlier, so she went back to her room to rest. She might already be asleep. We won’t trouble her tonight.”
“Eh? But Sister Ji Ya, aren’t you… “
…super weak at it?
After two treatment sessions, Yan Zhen had a full grasp of Good Big Sister’s capabilities in this regard.
She could hold her own in Closed Cauldron State at first, on par with his cousin. But after releasing once, she lost control and slipped into Open Cauldron, her prowess plummeting to the level of a distant cousin.
This timing coincided perfectly with the shift to the second phase, where Good Big Sister had to maintain the Dual Cultivation State on her own. Yet after a few rocks on him, she faltered and needed outside assistance. Only after he provided Reverse Nourishment could she continue.
Without Yi Xian’er, the second phase would be tricky. After all, Yan Zhen couldn’t just Reverse Nourish on demand; it required the proper process.
“It’s fine. Sister has new helpers.”
“New helpers?”
“Little Brother Yan Zhen, what do you think of Aunt Mu, Jin Tong, and Yu Nu?”
“Ah? This… “
Yan Zhen was stunned. He glanced at the mature beauty, then at the twin sisters, suddenly recalling Aunt Mu’s earlier words: during the treatment, if they were needed for any help, they’d do their utmost—even training Jin Tong and Yu Nu to share the same lollipop.
Jin Tong and Yu Nu went without saying. As half-puppets and half-Dead Soldiers, they would never defy a single order from Sister Ji Ya. But Aunt Mu—a Nine-Star Mystic King and an elder no less—humbling herself to this extent for Sister Ji Ya?
Yan Zhen found it hard to believe.
“Aunt Mu, is this really okay?”
“As long as the little one doesn’t mind.”
Aunt Mu kept her glamorous face taut, her voice cool and detached, though her eyes betrayed a touch of unease.
After her lady’s passing, she had devoted her entire life to Eldest Miss. No matter what Ji Ya asked of her, she would never refuse. She just hadn’t expected it to involve serving her much-younger nephew-in-law this time.
It was a bit beyond Aunt Mu’s pay grade, even as support.
In her thirty-odd years, the first decade or so had been spent in dedicated cultivation, and the latter decade at the side of Ji Ya’s mother. She’d had scant contact with men.
Her cultivation art leaned toward the yin and shadowy, which had also dampened her own desires. She held little longing for romance or matters between men and women, and thus little knowledge of them.
Right now, she was purely being thrown in over her head.
