Chapter 140: Three-Year-Old Xiao and Three-Year-Old Yan

Xiao Jihan glanced at the man's hands, his handsome face filled with hesitation. "He only cheated us out of some spirit stones; isn't crippling his hands a bit too cruel?"

As he spoke, he frowned at Yan Shu, practically writing the words "You are so cruel" all over his face.

Yan Shu: ???

WHAT?!

She couldn't believe her ears and stared at Xiao Jihan in utter shock.

Male lead, are you kidding me?!

You, a protagonist who holds grudges and spends more than half the book slapping faces and seeking revenge, how dare you call her cruel?

Do you not remember Sun Changfeng?! The one who was expelled from the sect and had his cultivation crippled! And what about Qiu Shuran, who was forced to leave the sect!

I know you're a little "white lotus," but it’s just the two of us here—isn't it a bit unfair to pull that act on me?!

Yan Shu was beyond speechless; she just felt exhausted. The male lead must have been possessed by something, as he had started adopting this innocent, pure, "white lotus" persona, ready to throw her under the bus at any moment.

Perhaps seeing the shock on her face was too obvious, Xiao Jihan covered his mouth with his hand and coughed lightly. "Wasn't the plan to leave the City Lord's affairs to your senior brothers? He counts as a witness. If we cripple his hands now, I fear it will be difficult to prove the matter of the spirit stone exchange."

Hearing this, Yan Shu finally let out a sigh of relief.

Right, that was the male lead's usual logic.

She looked at the unconscious man. "Then how should we handle him? What if he runs away while we're gone?"

"That is why we must feed him something."

Xiao Jihan took out a porcelain bottle, shook out a pill, and stuffed it into the man's mouth. "This is a Tier 4 Sleeping Pill. It is effective on anyone below the Nascent Soul stage. For a mortal, without an antidote, he will sleep for at least three days."

Yan Shu couldn't help but ask, "Just what kind of strange things have you been practicing?"

Xiao Jihan put the bottle away and said calmly, "Nothing much. I was just practicing some simple pills to improve my alchemy rank at the time. Sleeping pills, Spirit-Dissolving Powder..."

"Wait." Yan Shu looked at him, stunned. "Spirit-Dissolving Powder can temporarily strip a cultivator of their spiritual power. Isn't that, like the Beast-Attracting Powder, strictly prohibited in the cultivation world?"

Xiao Jihan's long eyelashes fluttered, and he looked at her with an innocent expression. "I only found that out after I copied the jade slips later."

Heh!

Does she look that easy to fool?

Yan Shu stared at him silently, and Xiao Jihan blinked innocently.

"Fine." Yan Shu pouted. "I'll pretend I believe you. Let's go find that secret passage now."

Xiao Jihan curled his lips and nodded. "Alright."

Favorability: 42 (Affection)
Favorability: 43 (Affection)

Seeing the favorability rising, Yan Shu silently swallowed the words advising him not to use the Spirit-Dissolving Powder and changed her tone: "Be careful when you use the Spirit-Dissolving Powder. Don't leave any evidence behind, and whatever you do, don't let anyone identify us!"

Xiao Jihan smiled and replied, "Don't worry. I won't make the same mistake again."

He was meticulous; as long as he didn't want to be caught, no one would ever find out. Besides, as a child of the Heavenly Dao, the male lead had his own bottom line. Even with the Spirit-Dissolving Powder, he likely wouldn't use it for anything truly heinous. With that thought, Yan Shu felt at ease.

The two left the main courtyard and circled through the back residence.

The entire City Lord's mansion, apart from maids, servants, and some female relatives, didn't have a single cultivator. This was highly irregular.

One had to know that every City Lord usually had at least two or three cultivators as bodyguards, and wealthy ones had even more. Yet, the back residence of the Profound Heaven City's Lord didn't have a single one. Even if some had accompanied the City Lord to the secret chamber, it was impossible for everyone to have left.

More importantly, neither Yan Shu nor Xiao Jihan could sense any spiritual energy from any cultivators.

Something was definitely wrong. The plan to quietly retrieve the spirit stones was no longer viable.

Xiao Jihan whispered to Yan Shu, "We destroyed the array in the back courtyard; they will surely realize someone broke in when they return. At this point, there are only two options: cause a scene and tear this mansion apart, or swallow our pride and leave now."

If it were up to Yan Shu—who preferred to avoid trouble and lived with the temperament of a lazy, salted fish—she would definitely choose to swallow her pride and leave.

But even a salted fish has a temper.

Why should she?!

Those spirit stones were earned through the hard work of her senior brothers; why should these scammers get them for free?!

Furthermore, they were already at the doorstep. Since they had encountered this, if she turned a blind eye, who else would look into it?

Should she call her senior brothers? They didn't even have evidence; her brothers couldn't just barge in for no reason, could they?!

She always teased Xiao Jihan for being "Xiao the Three-Year-Old," but if she called her brothers every time she ran into a problem, how was that any different from a three-year-old running to their parents for everything?

Would she then become "Yan the Three-Year-Old," living under the protection of her brothers?

Yan Shu frowned and whispered, "Are you sure the City Lord's thugs aren't very strong?"

Knowing what she was worried about, Xiao Jihan reassured her in a low voice, "Don't worry too much. The City Lord's protectors rarely exceed the late Golden Core stage. Occasionally, there might be a Nascent Soul expert, but that would be considered quite formidable. And there are only two or three of them at most; that should be a small matter for you."

Yan Shu had some bitterness she couldn't voice. In everyone's eyes, she was in the late Transformation stage. Never mind three Nascent Soul cultivators, even three early Transformation stage experts couldn't touch her.

But only she knew that her cultivation had been suppressed to the Golden Core stage. After years of cultivation and nourishment from ten-thousand-year spiritual wine, she was now only at the late Nascent Soul stage.

One Nascent Soul expert was fine, but if there were two...

Escaping shouldn't be a problem. She still had a Substitute Talisman, which contained a restriction from her eldest senior brother. Once she used it, he would arrive immediately!

Indeed, her senior brothers were her true safety net.

Yan Shu summoned her lightning whip and cracked it. "Let's get them! I won't be named Yan if I don't beat them until they hand over the spirit stones!"

Seeing her demeanor, Xiao Jihan nodded. "Right, let's get them! But..."

Yan Shu turned her head. "But what?"

"It's better to put that lightning whip away." Xiao Jihan looked at her. "Once your lightning whip comes out, your identity won't be hidden anymore."

That was true.

When doing bad things, one certainly couldn't use their own identity.

Yan Shu decisively put away the lightning whip and summoned her flying sword.

Xiao Jihan immediately expanded his spiritual sense, and an invisible pressure began to spread throughout the City Lord's mansion.

Mortals were naturally shielded from it. He searched with his spiritual sense inch by inch, and soon, he discovered something unusual in a specific building.

Xiao Jihan retracted his spiritual sense and said to Yan Shu, "Let's go, there's a secret passage there!"