"Have you ever considered the relationship between your brother and Shion?"
In the crowded Saint Hall square, Itaen's mocking tone was particularly piercing.
Keke looked at her with a slightly bewildered expression. "Besides lovers, what else could they be?"
The Prince sneered. "You live with him. If you paid just a little attention, you should be able to spot the problem, right? Think carefully. The strange things in everyday life."
Jiang Keke froze for a moment, then began to ponder what she had said.
A moment later, her face twisted with difficulty and pain, and Itaen felt a flicker of satisfaction in her heart.
Her dark emotions finally had an outlet.
Biting her lip, Jiang Keke forced herself to speak:
"Could it be... that Shion is actually Dad's illegitimate daughter? So they're actually siblings? Brother and sister... or sister and brother..."
The Prince, who had been waiting to mercilessly mock Keke and tear her and her brother apart, fell silent.
But Keke had already launched into an endless fantasy, her expression even turning sorrowful. "A brother and sister separated for a long time are the most likely to attract each other. So Shion and my brother fell in love at first sight and became lovers. But when they were about to have a child, they went to the hospital for a checkup and found out they were siblings. They had no choice but to separate. To avoid being condemned by the outside world's ethics, my brother used you as a substitute..."
The Prince sighed wearily. "You're only in middle school this year, right? These manga plots you've been reading—'The Brother and Sister's Fatal Affection: Wrong Marriage, Wrong Love,' 'All the Mistakes Caused by the Prenuptial Checkup,' and 'Lei Shenshen, Yu Mengmeng'—if I remember correctly, they're adult reading materials."
Keke's face flushed red. "I-I only read the synopsis! I didn't read the actual content!"
"It seems your whole family are natural-born liars. I really should ask Jiang Si how he raised you."
"Please, please don't tell my brother. I'll get beaten..."
Beside them, White Fox suddenly spoke to the Prince: "If you can understand it, doesn't that mean you've read it too?"
The Prince turned her head and glared at her. "Who asked you to speak here?"
"Now that you're no longer the Mirror Queen."
"If I hadn't thrown you to Jiang Si back then, you would have died on some roadside a long time ago!"
"Life finds a way."
The Prince was momentarily enraged into laughter. All her resentment, grievances, self-pity, and hatred almost vanished completely.
Anger was truly the best catalyst.
It could burn away all emotions and stir up a person's motivation.
White Fox just nodded, her expression somehow carrying a hint of authority: "Your true fate is lost; your name is on the Wheel of Reincarnation's stele."
Keke quickly grabbed the flailing Prince. "Alright, alright. White Fox, say a little less."
After all, although these words weren't particularly lethal in themselves, paired with White Fox's naturally wooden and blank expression...
The sarcasm was maxed out. Even Keke felt it was a bit much.
"You're no good either!"
Hearing the Cautious Cultivation Type say that, Keke pouted and let go.
The Prince had no strength to begin with. As soon as Keke let go, she fell straight to the ground.
Seeing Itaen writhing on the ground, miserable and pitiful, Keke felt she had gone too far. So she reached out, picked the Prince up, and then pulled White Fox away to stop them from actually fighting.
But after Itaen lost her identity as the Mirror Queen, the Mirror Kingdom's technology naturally became inaccessible to her. Without the support of technology, and with White Fox having lost her Magical Girl powers, even if the two of them did fight, it would be no different from ordinary girls pulling each other's hair.
Thinking about how these two had once stepped into Full Bloom and nearly brought about destruction, Keke found it both absurd and wonderful.
Now she could suppress them with one hand...
After a bit of commotion, the exhausted Prince slumped down against the corner of the wall.
Then she tidied her hair and collar, seemingly regaining the noble air and elegance of a monarch. Her originally pale face even gained a trace of color.
Like a dead person, regaining some vitality and life.
"An ungrateful brat and a middle schooler who reads adult manga."
The Prince let out a cold laugh. "No wonder you don't know anything. You'll always be kept in the dark, always be a fool—that's your destiny."
"You talk as if you know my big brother really well."
Keke finally couldn't hold back her temper. After all, this woman wasn't familiar with their group, and she was a villain. How credible were her words anyway?
"My brother has plenty of secrets. How do you know I don't know? I just don't want to say! Do you know more secrets than me, his little sister?"
The Prince, seeing Keke suddenly toughen up, also calmed down. "Then go ahead and tell me."
"My brother does handstands when he goes to the bathroom!"
Not just the Prince and White Fox, but even the few members behind them who were originally discussing how to go to the old world outside the world couldn't help but glance over.
The Prince massaged her forehead. "You spy on your brother when he goes to the bathroom? What a perverted little sister."
"N-No, it's not like that! He doesn't lock the door when he goes to the bathroom. I pushed the door open and saw him..." Keke's face burned red. "It's normal for siblings living together to accidentally run into these situations."
White Fox suddenly spoke up again: "That's it?"
"Of course there's more! My brother doesn't like romance manga, but as long as it has anything to do with fighting, he can read it with great interest..."
Seeing their looks turning more and more like they were looking at an idiot, Keke couldn't help but drop some real bombshells. "And my brother is especially popular with Magical Girls. I know a lot of Magical Girls who like my brother—Silver Lotus, An Shiyu, Susan. And Senior Iris has always been particularly concerned about my brother; she must like him too. And a whole bunch more..."
As she spoke, noticing that the two people's looks, which had been like they were looking at an idiot, gradually turned serious, Keke grew even more smug. "Hmph! You didn't know that, did you? There are plenty of people who want to marry my brother! And my brother does have someone he likes—I know that!"
"Who?"
Both White Fox and Itaen asked subconsciously at the same time.
"That's a secret." Keke looked confidently at Itaen. "You first. Tell me the secret you know."
Itaen let out a derisive laugh. "Calling you an idiot was an underestimation."
"Right?"
"You're a big, fat idiot."
"Huh?"
Itaen looked at Keke with a sense of relief, then couldn't help but sigh. "You and Jiang Si are truly siblings."
Both of them were impossible to figure out.
Keke pouted. "So, are you going to tell me or not?"
Hearing Keke say this, the Prince fell silent.
Not far away, Hyacinth was watching them, her seemingly lifeless pupils fixed calmly on the Prince.
But in truth, no one could threaten her.
She was the proudest Prince.
As long as she wanted to do something, no one could stop her. She was the freest, most honorable ruler of the Mirror Kingdom.
She was...
She recalled Jiang Si's final expression and his lip movements.
「...I allow you to hate me, to take revenge on me. So hate me forever.」
The Prince suddenly felt a wave of apathy wash over her.
So she simply said, "One day, you'll see it for yourself."
"He... isn't really good at lying."
If he were good at lying, he should have kept deceiving her until the very end.
She would have preferred Jiang Si to have tried his hardest to deceive her until the end, even if she uncovered it herself.
Rather than exposing it so carelessly and indifferently.
As if, from beginning to end, he never cared at all, and it was only her own stupidity that prevented her from seeing it.
Itaen took a breath. She raised her head and looked at Keke.
In terms of appearance, the two siblings were indeed somewhat similar.
Especially the mouth and ears—places that made people see them as the same person.
Yet she felt no trace of disgust or hatred.
She tugged at the corner of her mouth, forcing a disdainful smile, but in reality, she had no mood for mockery.
Instead, she felt a sense of pity for their shared plight.
Like looking at a past version of herself.
"Really, the more I look at you, the more I dislike you. The more I look at you, the more disgusted I get."
Keke immediately felt indignant. "Same to you!"
The Prince breathed heavily for a moment, then slowly stood up again, holding onto the wall.
Leaning on the wall and holding her head high, she walked away into the distance. "I'll look forward to it. To the day you become me."
"I want to see if he truly doesn't care about anyone, or if it's just me..."
Keke watched the Prince staggering away, wobbling as if about to fall, and felt compelled to invite her: "No matter what, do you want to team up with us? We've formed a Saint Hall team..."
"Not needed."
Itaen pushed her hand away.
She raised her head stubbornly and proudly, looking ahead as if she still wore her crown.
"I alone am enough. I alone am enough. It's always been like this."
"I just have to start over. This time, I absolutely will not fail. I alone can change the world. I will never rely on anyone else again..."
Watching Itaen mutter to herself and walk away, Keke felt a hollow emptiness in her heart.
She turned to look at White Fox, as if asking her, or perhaps just talking to herself: "What do you think my brother has been hiding from us?"
White Fox just shook her head silently.
"Forget it."
Keke smiled. "If my brother doesn't tell me something, it's definitely for my own good. She doesn't know my brother at all. Anyway, I'm going to get stronger—stronger than Teacher Shion."
Keke wasn't smart, but Keke knew that her brother would never hurt her.
So she wouldn't be provoked.
With that, the two of them pulled up the list and looked at the cheap ticket.
The hottest event at the Saint Hall recently—the instance outside the world. Not only could you earn a large number of points, but it was also said you could get the world's essence from outside the world.
Keke rubbed her finger on the ticket, glanced at White Fox, and asked, "Want to go?"
White Fox directly pressed her finger down on it.
"Keke has grown up."
When Jiang Si returned to the Azure Cloud Sect and told Bingtang about Keke's matter, Bingtang instead smiled happily. "We should encourage her more. It's a good thing that the child is willing to be independent."
"No need to encourage her."
"But since Keke has taken the initiative to say she wants to live separately, it's probably best to go along with it. Maybe Keke feels embarrassed living with her brother all the time. It's inconvenient for siblings this old to live together anyway."
"Makes sense."
"So after this, come live at my place."
Jiang Si shook his head. "That's inconvenient too."
"It's convenient," Bingtang immediately retorted, pausing what she was doing. "My house is big, with plenty of bedrooms. Just pick one you like."
Jiang Si fell into thought.
Qinghua, watching Lady Bingtang display an expression of eagerness for the first time, lay on the table and shook her head, thinking that Lady Bingtang was far too skilled compared to those female characters in games.
When dealing with such a difficult target like the Sect Master, you couldn't pressure too hard, nor could you be too lax.
Lady Bingtang always gave the Sect Master enough freedom, but when it was time to make a move, she never hesitated.
It was extremely difficult to grasp the balance. Qinghua could only say that Lady Bingtang had observed the Sect Master too carefully.
Every little detail was analyzed perfectly, allowing her to handle him so effortlessly.
"I'll wait until I come back. If I can't find a convenient rental, we'll talk then."
"Alright."
Bingtang smiled faintly. "Don't worry."
Qinghua muttered inwardly: Don't worry about what? Don't worry that she'll absolutely make sure you can't find a rental?
From now on, the rental business in Beihai would probably be completely monopolized by Lady Bingtang.
There was probably no one left who could stop Lady Bingtang from living with the Sect Master. It seemed thisGame was finally going to have its happy ending. As expected, Lady Bingtang would be the one to take the prize...
She watched as Lady Bingtang's fingers danced nimbly on her laptop keyboard, and she tried to sneak a peek at what Lady Bingtang was typing.
In that moment, she caught a glimpse of the word hypnosis...
Then Lady Bingtang closed the laptop and smiled at her, a knowing look in her eyes.
Qinghua shuddered and immediately ducked under the table.
Jiang Si clearly wasn't very interested in this matter either. He simply said, "The entrance to Chongxu has already been opened, and the contact personnel inside have been found. Although I don't know why the Witch Association suddenly went quiet, I plan to enter Chongxu early to obtain the complete formula for the witch reagent and explore the path of the Dao in Chongxu. If anything happens in the new world, you can contact Dragon Lord Shion above."
Dragon Lord Shion was guarding the new world, so there shouldn't be any problems.
Bingtang nodded, then asked curiously, "After severing the Three Corpses, does your Witch Corpse still need the reagent?"
"Yes. I've already used up all the reagent." Jiang Si nodded. "It will disappear once I undo the form. However, my control over mana has improved. As long as it's not disrupted, it won't disappear for a short time."
"How short is short?" Qinghua asked curiously.
"About ten years or so."
"Never mind."
The Sect Master's sense of time was really strange. But then again, this seemed to be the cultivating immortality mindset. After all, they often went into seclusion for a hundred years, so ten years really was a short time.
"Also, since I don't know the ins and outs of this trip to Chongxu, I plan to follow the Cautious Cultivation path. I'll first conceal my strength in Chongxu, develop quietly, plan before acting, accumulate before bursting forth, and eat vegetarian every day to avoid risks and play it steady and safe."
Qinghua almost sprayed out the water in her mouth.
Bingtang looked a bit helpless. "But the commotion Witch Shion made was already big enough. It might be a bit difficult to keep a low profile now."
"That's also part of the plan." Jiang Si quickly defended himself. "Let Witch Shion attract all the attention, while I can secretly make my move. That's the true Cautious Cultivation path!"
"Can you stand it? Sect Master, didn't you always say that the Cautious Cultivation path is just admitting defeat..."
"The Cautious Dao isn't admitting defeat. It's faith, it's a belief." Jiang Si said serenely. "The Cautious Dao means being able to accept things and to endure!"
"You didn't say that before..." ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Jiang Si didn't mind. He just added, "Call Tiyana."
Qinghua was startled. "Huh? Are you going to call her back?"
Bingtang was also a bit surprised. "Back then, didn't you dislike her and send her to the archipelago, telling her never to come back..."
"That was just a trial." Jiang Si said calmly. "If she can't even endure that, how can she possibly uphold her own Cautious Dao?"
"Makes sense."
Bingtang immediately nodded in agreement with the Sect Master, then activated her ice crystal.
Soon, a scarecrow appeared before them.
The scarecrow swayed, as if greeting the two.
"Greetings, Sect Master and Lady Bingtang."
Jiang Si took the lollipop Bingtang handed him and asked, "Do you know why I called you here?"
"I do."
"Can you do it?"
"I can."
"Still dare to do it?"
"I dare."
"How are you planning to do it?"
"Cautiously."
Jiang Si smiled with satisfaction. "Come on. Chongxu needs you."
Even for Bingtang and Jiang Si, the one who would never reveal her true form—the seventh true-transmission.
The Cautious Cultivation true-transmission, Tiyana.
"Master," the last true-transmission said with a faint smile, "going directly is too unreliable. Allow me to make some preparations first."
"How long?"
"Three years... No, make it ten years."
"Get lost!"
Whatever.
Jiang Si let out a cold snort, said nothing more, and strode straight out of the Illusory Moon Cavern Dwelling.
With a wave of his hand, the space-time teleportation gate he had already set up was clearly visible. On the other side, the garbage dumps and mines on the outskirts of Chongxu had already accumulated a large number of Saints of the Hall!
He strode into it and quickly disappeared into the crowd, becoming utterly inconspicuous.
Tiyana or not, I, Jiang Si, could still cultivate the Great Dao through caution in Chongxu!
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