Startled, Zu An got up and followed the source of the sound, his senses alert. The beauty who had been sleeping on the silk ribbon had disappeared.

His gaze moved downwards, and landed on Yun Jianyue, who was on the ground, rubbing her bum. Her long hair was all over the place, and she seemed rather dishevelled.

He looked at the swaying ribbon above, then back down at her. He seemed to have made a connection, and his lips curved upwards.

Yun Jianyue suddenly turned around to look at him. “You’re dead if you laugh!”  she said with a dangerous expression.

Despite her expression, her face was already heating up. This was just too embarrassing! Just a moment ago, she had vowed that she would never fall, yet it hadn’t taken her long to humiliate herself.

She was the glorious Sect Master of the Holy Sect! Embarrassing herself like this in front of a youngster was so humiliating that her toes were digging into the floor.

“Don’t worry, I’ve gone through strict training. I won’t laugh, unless… I can’t hold it in.” Zu An couldn’t hold it in.

Yun Jianyue stared daggers at him.

You have successfully trolled Yun Jianyue for 233… 233… 233…

Her face felt like a furnace. “You give it a try, then! Let’s see if you fall off!” she said coldly.

Zu An shook his head. “I’m someone who has random thoughts all day. I cannot achieve purity of mind. I won’t embarrass myself.”

Yun Jianyue remained silent.

She remembered his advice from a moment ago. She had assumed that she would be fine.

“I refuse to believe in this nonsense!” She said with a snort. With a tap of her toes, she was back on the silk ribbon.

Although she swayed a little, she seemed to be balancing well.

“Your soul is wounded,” said Zu An. “It’ll take longer for you to recover if you force yourself and fail to get any rest.”

Yun Jianyue realized that she was indeed trying to force herself to stay awake, so that she wouldn’t suffer the intense embarrassment of falling off again. 

Now that she was back on the silk ribbon, she understood what he had meant. This method of sleeping required one’s mind to be empty. Even though she had reached the realm of grandmaster, her soul was damaged, and her thoughts were all over the place. There was no way for her to stay calm and fall asleep.

She could do it while she was awake, but once she fell asleep and lost conscious control, she would easily fall off.

Zu An could tell from her stubborn silence that she was not about to be dissuaded. “I’ll turn in first, then. If you still can’t stay balanced, then come sleep on the bed. We can share it, one on each side. We’re all warriors, anyway. We don’t have to bicker over such small matters.”

Without waiting for her response, he turned around and fell back to sleep.

Yun Jianyue froze, and her resolve wavered slightly. This situation was an exception. If she did not get proper rest, her soul would recover more slowly. Why put herself through this torment just because of her pride?

Furthermore, would this fellow even be able to do anything to her? He was enamored with Honglei, and besides, she was much older than him.

She was strong as well. If he really crossed the line, she would make sure he regretted being born into this world.

Thus, she made her decision.

However, it seemed a little too shameful to go over right then. Thus, she lay on the silk ribbon for a while longer. Only when she heard his breathing gradually slow down and saw that he had already fallen asleep did she gracefully hop off the silk ribbon.

She noticed that Zu An was sleeping almost at the edge of the bed, and had left most of it to her.

Yun Jianyue’s expression flickered several times, but she still lay on the empty side in the end. Of course, she stayed far away from him, and didn’t touch him at all.

She took a deep breath. She calmed her ragged breathing and said coldly, “I don’t care if you’re really asleep or not, but I’ll cut off your hand if it crosses over. Got it?”

Her only reply was Zu An’s breathing.

Yun Jianyue thus closed her eyes, still feeling rather restless. However, her soul was seriously injured, and she was in desperate need of rest. She finally lost her grip on her consciousness, and drifted off to sleep.

…

Meanwhile, Cheng Xiong was in no mood to sleep. His eyes were bloodshot as he continued his investigation into the assassination attempt within the Palace of Peace.

So many things had happened in the palace, and he knew that he was going to be executed by the emperor if he didn’t find anything out.

He had men scouring the palace for assassins, and he questioned all the guards that had been on patrol. He demanded every last detail from them, and was not willing to let even the slightest clue slip past him.

As each troop was interrogated, one of them finally said guiltily, “We remembered two embroidered envoys coming out of Lord Eleven’s room.”

“Golden Token Eleven?” Cheng Xiong frowned. Him again? His eyes lit up in realization. “You’re certain that it was two embroidered envoys?” he hurriedly asked.

After all, the Embroidered Envoy enjoyed special status. Their members rarely even revealed their identities to each other. They would head to an official room if they had matters to discuss, and there were areas specially designated for them to carry out their work. None of them would invite another embroidered envoy into their private residence.

“Yes, I’m sure. The other embroidered envoy was smaller in stature, so everyone assumed that perhaps Lord Eleven had a certain taste, and had found someone of a smaller build to play with.” The guard laughed nervously, secretly glad that his superior didn’t have such fetishes. It was always better to look upon another’s misfortune than to have to suffer it yourself.

“Wait, the other person seemed to have been dressed as a golden-token envoy as well… He couldn’t be Eleven’s subordinate, could he?” said another guard, clearly puzzled.

“Really? I didn’t notice anything. Their uniforms did look very similar.” The guards began to discuss among themselves whether the subordinate was also a golden-token envoy.

Cheng Xiong could feel his excitement growing. There was definitely something suspicious with this Eleven!

After his previous failure, however, he didn’t dare rush straight in. Instead he summoned the gate guards.

Eventually, he learned that, not long after the Palace of Peace had been attacked by assassins, two embroidered envoys had departed the imperial palace. One of them had a golden token, but no one knew anything about the other one hiding behind him.

Since the Embroidered Envoy were rather mysterious, everyone tended to step cautiously around them, and none of them had dared to look too closely.

Cheng Xiong let out a sinister laugh when he heard all this. Let’s see where you try to run off to now!

…

Zu An didn’t know that a huge, sinister web was slowly closing in around him. At the moment, he was sleeping extremely soundly.

Next to him, Yun Jianyue was enjoying her sleep even more. In the middle of the night, however, she was suddenly awakened. She had sensed Zu An turning around with an evil smile and sneakily reaching his hand towards her.

She sneered. She was about to chop off his limb to teach him what it meant to offend a sect master.

Unfortunately, she discovered to her horror that she was, for some reason, completely powerless. Her eyelids were also incredibly heavy, and she couldn’t muster the strength to resist.

During this moment of distraction, his hand was already on her.

She was about to explode from anger. She tried to struggle frantically, but she just couldn’t seem to find any strength.

“Stop resisting. The more you resist, the more excited I become,” she seemed to vaguely hear him say.

She felt his hand slide under her clothes, and her entire body went rigid. Her eyes flew open.

Sunlight streamed in through the window. She realized that it was already morning. So it was just a dream… Why the heck am I dreaming something so embarrassing?

Some time after she had made great strides in her cultivation, her soul had stabilized, and she rarely dreamt.

The damage to her soul from her battle with the emperor was probably what was causing her to dream. Only, she hadn’t dreamt of her battle against the emperor, but dreamt of this fellow instead. This was extremely disturbing.

He definitely did something to me in the middle of the night!

Alarmed by this thought, she instinctively looked to the side. She was just about to scold him, but what she discovered left her completely stunned.

The two of them were hugging each other tightly. It wasn’t Zu An’s arms around her, though. She had somehow taken the initiative to embrace him.

She was wrapped around him like an octopus, her thighs pressed against his waist.

Yun Jianyue was utterly stupefied.

She knew that she had always been a restless sleeper, which probably contributed to her falling off the silk ribbon in the middle of the night. However, she didn’t expect it to be this bad.

Even more upsetting was the fact that it was now morning, and his… little one… was fully awake and risen as well. It was pressed right up against her lower abdomen, and she could sense its ferocity through her clothing.

“No wonder I had that dream!” Yun Jianyue was so angry that she kicked him right off the bed.