Yue Yang spent several days with the Southern Wilderness Demon King, leaving the new little wife thoroughly content in every possible respect.

She was radiant. She walked around in a state of continuous, poorly concealed happiness.

Eventually — either because someone quietly suggested it, or because she arrived at the conclusion herself — she accompanied Yue Yang back to the Sky Stairway with the respectful bearing of a daughter-in-law, and paid her proper respects to the Fourth Mother. Informal, but the greeting had been made. With her advancement to Perfect Innate Sovereign tier two, and the ancestral bloodline seal now broken, the Fourth Mother and the Night Empress — who had just returned to the Sky Tower — both felt she should dedicate this period to focused cultivation. The unsealing had even stirred the attention of His Majesty, who rarely concerned himself with such matters.

When her elders showed this degree of care and offered this degree of guidance, the quick-minded Southern Wilderness Demon King accepted without reservation. She was his wife now regardless — a brief separation was nothing. Absence only made things sweeter. Besides, he had the Three Realms Compass and could come and go freely. It wasn’t as though she wouldn’t see him for weeks.

So she stayed, with the Night Empress guiding her advancement.

Yue Yang turned his attention to developing the Celestial Dragon Crystal Stone war beast bracelet. Once that was complete, he’d have a proper excuse to visit His Majesty.

Before he could begin in earnest, Duoduo came running to him with good news. The Guiding Spirit she’d been secretly keeping hidden had turned out to be able to read ancient script — not only did she recognize most of the writing in the ancient war puppet schematic book, she could also read the markers on the ancient beast hide treasure map.

Duoduo had talked her into accepting Yue Yang’s protection for the time being.

She still wouldn’t acknowledge him as her master, but she was willing to work for him.

Her condition: she needed the large Soul Stone to continue absorbing energy and advancing.

Yue Yang had been deliberating over the Soul Stone for a while — should it go to Aman or to the Chaos Phantom? To Aman meant boosting her power. To the Chaos Phantom meant possibly rebuilding her physical form.

Giving it to the Guiding Spirit instead was also fine, as it turned out. Aman could go into the Stone World inside the Storm Sea and absorb energy there. The Chaos Phantom would have better opportunities down the line.

“Once she translates the ancient treasure map, the Soul Stone is hers.” Yue Yang was realistic about the value exchange — translating the ancient map was no small task. As for the war puppet schematic book, that required more than just reading the characters; the technical vocabulary was its own puzzle, and rushing it wasn’t useful. He’d leave that for later, especially since Yue Yu was still cultivating on the Sky Stairway and experiments couldn’t proceed alone.

Duoduo received this decision with delight and ran back to share the news. The Guiding Spirit, upon hearing it, was so happy she could barely contain herself. The two small creatures immediately divided the work between them and buried themselves in translation with tremendous enthusiasm.

Yue Yang wasn’t idle during this time either. While they worked, he used Nirvana Flames and Innate Sword Qi to purify the large Soul Stone, which had grown slightly dim on the surface. The process exhausted him thoroughly, but when it was done, the stone had shrunk considerably while blazing with a renewed luminance — looking for all the world like a small sun, dense with energy.

The Guiding Spirit still didn’t dare approach Yue Yang directly, but when she received the stone from Duoduo’s hands, she was so moved she nearly cried. Unable to express it otherwise, she pressed several kisses to Duoduo’s face, then took the Soul Stone and flew happily in circles through the air.

“Pretty much what I expected — the treasure site is close to White River City.”

Yue Yang studied the translated map and found the target within five hundred kilometers of the city. According to the coordinates, entry into the ancient treasure territory required unsealing eight directional locks, after which the central vault door would open.

“Is this White River City here?” Duoduo found a seal point to the southwest, in a water zone roughly ten kilometers outside the city walls.

“Why are the eight seals so far apart from each other?” Yue Yang puzzled over this. The direct-line distance between opposing seal points was close to a thousand kilometers.

“Can Duoduo come treasure hunting with you?” She very much wanted to.

“Not yet — when I’ve unsealed all eight points, I’ll call you.” He laughed and told her not to get ahead of herself.

“Then Duoduo and Lingling will keep translating the ancient schematic book for you.” Duoduo had given the Guiding Spirit the name ‘Lingling’ entirely on her own initiative. Her naming approach was roughly on par with Yue Yang’s — which was to say, minimal effort — but as long as the Guiding Spirit was happy with it, that was what mattered.

“A shame Wuhen is still busy on her assignment. If she were here, you two wouldn’t have to work so hard on this.” Yue Yang reached out and patted Duoduo’s small head. Cultivating a child into someone remarkable was genuinely among the most satisfying things in the world.

With that settled, the scoundrel in question left the Sky Tower and returned to White River City.

During the days Yue Yang had been away, Liuye hadn’t been out much.

She had been cultivating. Hard.

She and Yue Bing were the most diligent and most obedient of the entire group — no one else came close, least of all in terms of self-discipline. Because Liuye spent nearly every hour in the Iron Cross Hotel training, Qingping’s visits usually found her absent — most of her time was spent inside the Grimoire World, especially with Yue Yang away. She didn’t go out easily, giving nothing that could be exploited.

Sea Fatty, Ye Kong, and Snow-Hungry Wolf, by contrast, were out every day making noise, without a single quiet moment between them.

For the purposes of surveillance and proximity, Qingping had essentially given up on the harmless Liuye and focused on embedding herself with Sea Fatty and Ye Kong’s group, using her guide role as cover to walk every street of White River City alongside them. After several days of no unusual activity, Old Iron Anchor had gradually relaxed.

By this point, the news of the Gentle Breeze Queen’s powerful coronation had spread everywhere. White River City’s attention and alertness had largely reoriented toward Greenvalley City.

“Liuye, we’re going fishing this noon. Want to come?”

Qingping arrived at the usual morning hour, knowing that however early she came, the diligent Liuye would already be drenched in sweat. The only reason she didn’t wonder whether the girl had slipped out for other purposes was that pressing the door-puppet bell always produced Liuye within moments — however deep in the Grimoire World she was, she sensed outside contact immediately and emerged.

After several days of observation, Qingping had concluded that this work ethic was genuine. Before sunrise every morning, Liuye was already training. She’d stop when Qingping arrived, rest briefly, make herself something to eat, then return to practice. No plans in the morning? Cultivation. Nothing at midday? Cultivation. Evening free? More cultivation. Qingping had never encountered anyone this dedicated in her entire life, and the supposed cultivation fanatics of White River City would have needed to hang their heads in shame by comparison.

When asked about it, Liuye explained simply that her cultivation level was insufficient and she needed to catch up quickly or she’d slow the group down. She also said with certainty that she wasn’t even the most dedicated — there were many people around her who worked harder.

Qingping didn’t believe that.

But she couldn’t find any sign that Liuye was lying, and eventually concluded that the people this girl spent time with were simply all cultivation fanatics — a conclusion that received some supporting evidence when she noticed that Sea Fatty, Ye Kong, Snow-Hungry Wolf, the Tianra Prince, and the Liqie brothers were all, beneath their social exteriors, exactly the same way.

They played hard when they went out. When they weren’t out, their personal training was the self-punishing variety.

Their time spent cultivating was less than Liuye’s. But only barely.

Qingping filed an exasperated report upward: these people’s home culture apparently just involved sitting down to cultivate the moment there was nothing else to do. Old Iron Anchor, upon receiving this, reportedly sat in wordless silence for half an hour.

The door opened to reveal Liuye in the process of wiping sweat from her face with a white cloth, fine droplets still beaded at her hairline, soft strands of hair clinging to skin that glowed from the warmth of recent exertion. Her freshly water-washed face still held a natural flush, her chest still rising and falling with the rhythm of training just ended. Droplets traced slow paths down the curve of her neck, too shallow for the collarbone to catch, pooling together and sliding beneath her collar.

Qingping felt no jealousy toward Liuye’s appearance. She herself was fully grown and carried the confidence that came with mastery of subtle body-shifting and cosmetic technique. Liuye was clearly still in the process of becoming — still carrying that faint trace of the not-quite-there that would eventually resolve into genuine beauty. The full picture wasn’t assembled yet.

What she did quietly envy was the scent.

Liuye’s natural fragrance was subtle in ordinary circumstances, only becoming noticeable after training like this — and it was entirely unmanufactured. Qingping could sense in it the signature of a body growing in health and vitality, blooming the way genuinely thriving things bloom. That specific quality — a young woman’s natural presence, untouched and authentic — was something that couldn’t be replicated. Perfume could be engineered to turn heads and cloud judgment. It couldn’t produce this.

Among the mutant fishfolk women, Qingping rarely encountered it, because they tended toward fragrances by preference and toward early maturity by culture, holding few of the values that other peoples placed on a certain kind of untouched quality. Outsiders generally misunderstood fishfolk women as conservative. In reality they were simply selective about which circles they revealed themselves within.

Sea Fatty had spent several days lamenting that the women of White River City were impossible to approach. Qingping had found that privately amusing. If he happened to be a mutant fishfolk man, no matter how much he resembled an unhappy pig, he’d have had no shortage of interested parties. Compared to many fishfolk men who looked like nothing so much as deep-sea experiments gone wrong, the fat man was at least recognizably humanoid.

“Qingping’s here. I’m not coming fishing today — I have something to do in a little while.”

In the few seconds it had taken Liuye to open the door and wipe her face, Qingping’s mind had already run through a thousand observations and conclusions.

“Oh, all right.” She was accustomed to Liuye’s quiet refusals.

“Enjoy yourself.” Liuye nodded politely and started to close the door.

“Wait — you said you have something to do? You’re going out?” Qingping caught it. Liuye almost never went out. Why today?

“Teacher came back last night. We’re going to the Iron Guild and a few other places for business discussions today.” Liuye delivered this casually, and Qingping stood very still for a moment before registering what she’d heard.

“Your teacher? You mean — sorry — Mr. Yue Yang? He came back last night? How did I not know? Who came with him?”

“Just Teacher by himself — he came back quite late. It’s not surprising you didn’t know. There’s a new batch of funds and some gem boxes that were sent through, so we’re buying more ore.”

Liuye had just given away more in one exchange than Qingping’s last several days of careful observation combined.

“Well, I hope the business goes smoothly. You’re sure you don’t need a guide?”

“We should be fine — someone called Scarlet Shrimp from the Iron Guild has arranged things on that end.” Liuye mentioned the name without thinking.

At that name, Qingping’s expression settled into something easy and pleasant. “I probably couldn’t help much in that case — I would have liked to come cheer you on. But if it’s already arranged, then no need. I’ll bring you back something from fishing this evening — I’m not much use at business, but I’m an excellent fisherman. Say hello to Mr. Yue Yang for me. We should all go out exploring again when there’s time.”

“Goodbye.” Liuye closed the door, replaced the door-puppet bell in its position, summoned her Grimoire, and stepped inside. Yue Yang was already waiting. The moment she saw him, Liuye made a small, guilty face and stuck out her tongue.

“So it turns out I can deceive people too.”

“That wasn’t really deception.” Yue Yang was thoroughly entertained. She hadn’t lied — she’d simply omitted enough that a suspicious person would draw their own incorrect conclusions. “You didn’t say a single false word.”

“I still tricked her, though.” Liuye looked very pleased with herself about this, and floated in to set out the breakfast she’d been preparing, then ran back to shower, changed into a clean, sharp training outfit, stood at the mirror to arrange her hair into a high ponytail, and came back out at a quick step — at which point the ponytail began bobbing with characteristic energy.

She accepted the water and snacks Yue Yang handed over and ate with the focused efficiency of someone who had been up since before dawn. Between bites, she snuck glances at him from beneath her lashes. When he looked back, she looked away immediately.

There were almost never chances like this — alone with him, just the two of them, with no one else around. Somehow today everyone had stayed behind, leaving just her teacher and her to go find the treasure together.

For no reason she could clearly identify, Liuye felt a sweetness moving through her. She took a sip of water.

It tasted sweet too.