“How did you know I wasn’t asleep?”

Zhou Jiuyu was puzzled. Whether it was hiding the disc or pretending to sleep, he thought he’d done it flawlessly.

“I’m not blind, Young Master. When we first came here, this reader wasn’t here. You must’ve left it on purpose.”

Nan Mengling’s voice was flat.

Zhou Jiuyu fell silent for a moment. Then he quietly walked over to her side, slowly sat down, and spoke in a low voice.

“Now you know everything. What are you going to do? Go kill him?”

“Kill... your master?”

Nan Mengling hugged her knees and buried her head. Her body curled in a little, and her voice was low.

“I can’t kill Master...”

Zhou Jiuyu had expected that much. One cruel truth after another had been laid bare. Mengling needed time to accept it all before she could think about herself, about the present, about the future.

“Then I’ll take you out tomorrow. We’ll clear your head a little. Take it slow. Think it through slowly. I’m here for you.” Zhou Jiuyu smiled a little.

“I don’t want to clear my head, Young Master.”

To his surprise, Nan Mengling shook her head.

She stared at the frozen final frame on the TV. She stared at the expressionless Sword God. She stared at her ruined mother. And she stared at... her father’s corpse.

At last, the girl’s gaze settled back on her master. Her eyes were firm, but her voice was weak.

“It’s not that I can’t bring myself to strike at him, Young Master... It’s that I can’t kill him. I can’t kill him...”

Zhou Jiuyu froze for a second. Then he understood.

The girl was stronger and more decisive than he had imagined. From the moment she learned the truth, she had cut off the last lingering attachment she had toward her master. In its place, there was only the intent to kill for revenge.

From that moment on, when her sword pointed at the Sword God, there would be no hesitation and no trembling.

What she was lost over wasn’t whether her sword could be aimed at the Sword God.

It was that even if she aimed it at him, she still didn’t have the strength to cut off his head.

“My sword is still too immature, Young Master... Right now, I can’t kill the Sword God.”

Nan Mengling let out a sigh. That was where her confusion lay.

Now that the truth from back then had all surfaced, she knew it clearly. Her father and mother had both been killed by the Sword God. What she had to do now was kill her way back to Sword God Mountain.

But with her current strength, even if she went back, she’d only end up captured and corrupted instead...

So where was she supposed to find a path to become stronger?

The master who had taught her everything, the one she had trusted most, had already become her enemy. Who else could help her now?

“Don’t panic, don’t panic. Who do you think I am? I already arranged all this ages ago.” Zhou Jiuyu pulled out a long strip of paper from his pocket and spread it open. “Tomorrow, we’re going to the place that provides awakening stones for powers. Once you awaken an ability, and add in this Young Master’s training plan... taking down some tiny Sword God won’t be easy?”

Nan Mengling, who had been lost in confusion, looked at the one-meter-long list of training items.

Her eyes instantly cleared up.

Then she got even more confused.

Before she could think further, a large hand rubbed her hair.

“Alright, alright... don’t think so much for now. You’ve been thinking all day. Time to rest. No matter how many plans we make, you still need enough rest to carry them out.”

Nan Mengling was rubbed so comfortably that her eyes narrowed slightly. Then she nodded.

“Mm.”

“...”

So Zhou Jiuyu went to take a shower. This time, he really was going to sleep.

But when he came out of the bathroom and saw Nan Mengling already tucked into his blanket, warming the bed in advance, his expression instantly turned serious.

“I said rest. I didn’t tell you to climb into my bed!”

Zhou Jiuyu was a little afraid he wouldn’t be able to keep himself under control. To protect his chastity, he chose to drive away this secretly horny woman.

“But the floor is cold, Young Master.”

Nan Mengling quietly hugged him.

Her thinking was simple. She wasn’t alone anymore. When she was lost and hurting before, she could only cry by herself. But now that Young Master could be leaned on, why shouldn’t she?

Zhou Jiuyu’s body instantly stiffened.

Because this wasn’t some ordinary hug.

Her soft chest pressed against his arm. Her black-silk-clad legs pinned his body. Her soft, delicate figure wrapped around him like a hanging ornament. The unique floral scent on the girl carried a faint allure that kept disturbing his mind.

“Stop messing around!”

Zhou Jiuyu shouted, but Nan Mengling didn’t react at all.

He could only sigh.

“You don’t need to do this. I’m helping you because you’re my maid. Pour tea, serve water, that’s enough... Warming the bed was just a joke. You don’t need to sell your body like this. You don’t need to do this. I’d still help you with everything I’ve got.”

Nan Mengling silently raised her head and glanced at him. Her voice was faint and quiet.

“You’re the idiot, Young Master.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

Zhou Jiuyu paused, but Nan Mengling didn’t answer.

“I think you’re asking for it. Are you getting off the bed or not? If you don’t, I’m really going to do it.”

A crisp smack sounded under the blanket.

Nan Mengling’s face instantly turned red. Her jade-like body trembled in Zhou Jiuyu’s arms. Her black-silk-covered feet tensed up under the blanket.

But she still said nothing. She didn’t even open her eyes.

No matter how harshly Zhou Jiuyu messed with her, she never even let out a muffled groan. She only kept blushing, head lowered...

After all, this was exactly what she wanted.

The desire she had been holding in all day was finally getting a tiny bit of release.

Besides, compared to taking care of herself, being punished by Young Master...

Young Master really was... better...

So Nan Mengling quietly enjoyed herself in silence.

Until... Zhou Jiuyu changed tactics.

If being rough didn’t work, then he’d be gentle instead.

No rubbing, no hitting. Just his fingers drifting over her pale arms and thighs, brushing close and then pulling away...

The moment her long lashes trembled slightly, he stopped at once.

Then, when her breathing grew quick and restless enough, he teased her a few more times.

But just as her breathing was about to turn ragged, he stopped again.

After less than a minute of that cycle, Nan Mengling couldn’t keep pretending to play dead anymore. She couldn’t hold back at all.

Her expression turned hazy. She bit her lip and opened her eyes.

“Young Master, I was wrong. Please stop tormenting me...”

“If you know you were wrong, then get down.”

“No.”

“If you don’t get down, I’m really going to start thinking you’re an idiot... Don’t think I won’t actually make you warm the bed.”

Zhou Jiuyu’s voice also turned low and eerie.

Young Master’s threat echoed in Nan Mengling’s ears. The desire surging through her body made her tremble uncontrollably. But she bit her lip hard, her tone firm as she glared at Zhou Jiuyu.

“I’m not an idiot, and I’m not getting down, Young Master!”

“Looks like you still need punishment— mm?!”

In that instant, Zhou Jiuyu’s mind went blank.

He had wanted to keep edging her a little longer, but this little pervert actually seized the chance and stole a kiss from him!

Damn it. She didn’t even stop after one kiss...

She was hugging him and kissing him now?

This wasn’t just clinging to him anymore. Her whole body had pounced on him and pressed against him.

And Nan Mengling’s hurried breathing was finally starting to find release.

She had endured it for so long... so long, so very long...

She couldn’t take it anymore...

She couldn’t hold back anymore...

Young Master, this snake-skin idiot who only knew how to talk, was as slow as a block of wood...

But just as she was about to be fully satisfied, the two of them suddenly jerked apart with a hiss.

One was a pure and innocent virgin who only knew how to tease and didn’t dare go further.

The other was a secretly horny girl full of lustful thoughts, but with zero real experience.

With a combination like that, of course they were going to bite their tongues and lips.

“My first kiss! You damn female pervert!”

Zhou Jiuyu was completely dumbfounded. His mind was blank.

“Mm...”

But Nan Mengling was breathing slightly, as if she were still savoring it, still a little unsatisfied. Her long lashes trembled faintly, as if carrying a trace of shiver.

“No, you have to compensate me!”

Zhou Jiuyu pressed his bleeding lip, gritted his teeth, then unwillingly bit back at Nan Mengling’s soft pink lips.

“Young Master, no, let me catch my— mm...”

Nan Mengling’s pupils shrank.

She still hadn’t recovered from that strange feeling just now. But now Young Master had bitten her again.

When she had stolen a kiss from him earlier, all she had felt was shyness and comfort...

But now that he was the one controlling it, she felt unbearably ashamed...

She wasn’t stupid, and she wasn’t easy to fool.

She just liked Young Master.

That was why she was willing to be fooled.

But liking him was one thing. Even if she let herself be fooled, she still wanted to know that she was being fooled. She wanted to grasp everything, understand everything.

But when she was completely controlled by him, when her mind went blank...

A fierce sense of shame came rushing in.

She thought she wasn’t an idiot.

And yet she was being toyed with like one.

He was biting her lips, and she still wasn’t pushing him away...

Being ashamed and angry yet helpless wasn’t the most humiliating part.

Being ashamed and angry, yet sinking into it anyway...

That was the most humiliating part...

She really had become an idiot...

But being Young Master’s idiot... wasn’t so bad...

“Strawberry flavor. Pretty sweet...”

There were a few more bite marks on Zhou Jiuyu’s lips now, broken open by teeth, but he didn’t care. He simply turned onto his side.

“Alright. Sleep.”

Nan Mengling also blankly turned onto her side.

This time, she really had gone stupid.

“No, what are you doing now?”

Zhou Jiuyu felt the blanket shake violently. Before he could even turn around, he noticed the spot where he was lying had become wet. Very wet. And over a large area...

This definitely wasn’t some unspeakable kind of liquid. This was...

He immediately turned his head and saw only his stupid maid, her face so red it looked ready to drip blood, stammering and unable to speak.

This idiot...

She wet the bed...

...

That night, the young master and his maid made such a fuss in the hotel that neither of them got proper rest.

But in City Four, dark currents were stirring just the same.

Before dawn had even broken, two wanted posters had already spread among the various power factions, drifters, and mercenaries in City Four.

One photo showed a delicate-looking young man. The order was dead or alive.

The other showed a cold and distant girl. The order was capture alive, unharmed.

Reward: Spirit Energy Breathing Method

For a moment, it was as if the White Moon hanging over City Four was slowly being stained with blood.