Chapter 254: News of the Master

"Oh my, I have an urgent matter at home, next time! Next time for sure!"

"Very, very urgent!"

Originally, that was what Ren Yidao had wanted to say.

If he could, he would prefer not to meet Li Fengyao alone in a place like a secret chamber.

The previous experience had left a slightly unpleasant shadow in Huhu's pure, innocent heart.

Once bitten by a snake, one is afraid of a well rope for ten years.

Although she was not a snake.

Although her bite had not been that painful.

But it was always right to guard against her.

What's more, Li Fengyao's performance in the illusion had made Ren Yidao understand even more clearly what kind of character she was.

Someone who seeks revenge for the slightest grievance?

Describing her that way was even a bit of a compliment; she was at a higher level than that.

If she would seek revenge even for grudges formed in a fake memory, then it would be disastrous if he truly offended her in reality.

That's right.

Ren Yidao was quite self-aware regarding what he had done to her previously.

It was troublesome.

If handled well, it might be a beautiful story.

But if handled poorly, it would be a situation of fighting to the death.

Unfortunately, the probability of handling it poorly was likely over ninety percent.

"I don't want to meet a tragic 'cleaver' ending."

"So, before I have over ninety percent certainty, let's shelve this for now and talk about it later!"

The traditional skills of his hometown had taught Ren Yidao a principle:

"When poor, shelve disputes; when powerful, claim it has been yours since ancient times."

Put on socks before shoes, act like a grandson before acting like a grandfather.

In short, avoid the sharp edge for now.

But Li Fengyao said just one sentence, causing Ren Yidao to helplessly withdraw his thoughts of finding an excuse to escape.

She seemed to have seen through Ren Yidao's desire to escape, but she did not stop him, only speaking leisurely as he was about to slip away:

"Since the Daoist has things to attend to, I will tell you later; I am not in a hurry on my end."

"By the way, I have found some clues regarding the matter you entrusted to me previously."

"It is about the whereabouts of your master, Luoyue Shangren, over these years."

Ren Yidao: "..."

After thinking about it with difficulty, Ren Yidao finally chose to compromise helplessly.

He turned his head and flashed a bright smile at Li Fengyao, who was looking at him with a smile.

"Alright, I suddenly feel that the matter at home is not that important after all."

"Let's go quickly!"

Li Fengyao: "Heh."

Heh, men.

In the end, at Ren Yidao's strong insistence, they did not go to Li Fengyao's secret chamber again, but went directly to his tea room.

In the private room on the top floor, Ren Yidao personally poured tea for Li Fengyao and gently pushed it in front of her.

"Please."

But Li Fengyao did not rush to drink after receiving the tea, instead looking at his face with deep meaning.

"Daoist Ren, you are much calmer now than I imagined."

"Am I calm?"

"Mm, quite calm, at least not how a disciple should look after finally hearing news of a master who has been missing for many years."

Li Fengyao's assessment was quite direct; she might as well have said that Ren Yidao's acting was not enough.

Ren Yidao also held a cup of tea, smiled upon hearing this, and lazily leaned his back against the chair.

"Then how do you think I should be?"

"Anxious? Nervous? Restless?"

"Since you took the initiative to investigate, you should already know some details, right?"

"For example, the relationship between my master and me."

Li Fengyao nodded gently; she naturally already knew some secrets of Luoyue Peak.

"You were accepted as a disciple on behalf of your master by Peak Master Jing, and you have never met Luoyue Shangren herself."

Ren Yidao nodded frankly, then held his tea and sighed:

"That's right, when I was brought into the sect by Senior Sister and bowed to a portrait to become a disciple, my master had already been missing for over a hundred years."

"I have never seen her in person; although I have indeed received many favors left behind by her, if you ask me how deep my feelings for her are, there aren't many."

"Of course, this definitely cannot be said to outsiders, otherwise it would make me look like someone who betrays their master and ancestors."

The logic is the logic, and the situation is the situation, but it cannot be put on the table.

No other reason, the influence is bad.

"How others evaluate me, I personally don't care, but I don't want to implicate others."

It was not about Ren Yidao's own reputation, but rather that it would affect Luoyue Shangren and Jing Yueqin.

Ren Yidao did not want a reputation for poor Qi Observation to fall upon Jing Yueqin.

That way, once Demon Jing got angry, he would definitely not have a good outcome...

"However, since there are no outsiders here, I don't need to go through the trouble of pretending anymore."

He looked at the thoughtful Li Fengyao and chuckled:

"Although it's strange for me to say this, our relationship is quite a bit deeper than that of ordinary friends, isn't it?"

Not to mention anything else, at the very least, it certainly went in quite deep.

"The daily facade for the outside world is already tiring enough; I don't want to continue pretending here."

"How others see it is not important; how one feels oneself is what matters most."

"Whether it's me or you, it would be better if we both relaxed a little."

After speaking, Ren Yidao stretched as he pleased and took a sip of hot tea like an old man.

"Slurp... Ah!"

He had already said his piece; how to decide was left to Li Fengyao herself.

Li Fengyao watched him in silence, observing his unrestrained and lazy demeanor, which was completely different from how others saw him.

Then, she sighed softly and smiled bitterly:

"It's simple to say, but to actually do it, how is that easy..."

Having worn a mask for a lifetime, how could it be so easy to just take it off?

"It is very easy."

Ren Yidao maintained his lazy posture, half-leaning on the chair, his eyes slightly open as he stared at Li Fengyao's chest.

"For the first step, you only need to move your fingers."

Although he had not transformed into his Fox Demon true form, his every move at this moment would easily make others think of a cunning fox.

There was a casualness within his elegance, and one could almost see a tail slowly swaying behind him.

That's right, as long as you want to, then you can.

Li Fengyao: "..."

She knew what he was looking at, and she also understood why he was adopting this aggressive attitude.

It was to make her choose to bow her head, to seize the right to speak in this conversation.

They were similar.

Neither was willing to lower their head in this conversation, and both wanted to firmly grasp control in their own hands.

At the beginning, she had the upper hand, but now he was going to snatch that momentum back.

The other party's methods were not particularly clever, but they were the same as her own previous approach.

This was an open card, an undisguised, overt scheme.

You could choose to ignore it against your own heart, then he would lose, but... you wouldn't win either.

But as for herself, how could she not want to be able to relax as he said?

In this life of hers, did she really want to wear this mask forever?

She was silent for a long time, then laughed helplessly.

"This really is... hehe."

Having been immersed in the field of interests for so long, Li Fengyao felt that there were only interests in this world, and no such thing as emotions at all.

But now, she had suddenly encountered an outlier who didn't talk about these pros and cons, but only about feelings.

Was he wrong? Or was he right?

"Yeah, that's not important."

Winning or losing, it actually doesn't matter; what matters is one's own feelings.

Shaking her head, she gently pulled off the heirloom on her neck and undid the disguise.

Her long hair fell down, her brows and eyes changed, and her figure altered.

In less than the time it takes for a breath, Li Fengyao transformed from that gentle-as-jade Second Prince into a stunningly beautiful woman who had never been shown to the world before.

"Hoo..."

She exhaled like an orchid, gently moved her tense shoulders, and leaned back, imitating Ren Yidao's posture.

Comfortable.

After being suppressed for so long, taking off the disguise created such a great contrast that she wanted to close her eyes and take a nap.

But just as Li Fengyao was about to fall asleep, she noticed the gaze from across from her.

Opening her eyes slightly, she discovered that Ren Yidao was staring at her without any avoidance.

"What are you looking at?"

Ren Yidao's gaze rested on her now-heaving chest, but there was no desire in his eyes, only curiosity instead...

Uh, curiosity?

What does this mean?

"I'm looking at that Jade Ring of yours; I was just thinking about a question."

"What question?"

"You tell me... if a man were to wear this thing, what would he turn into?"

Looking at Ren Yidao strangely, Li Fengyao raised an eyebrow and asked:

"... Do you want to wear it?"

Ren Yidao shook his head immediately, indicating that no such thing had ever happened.

"Uh, no, pretend I never said that."

Cross-dressing is impossible; it will never happen in this lifetime.

Li Fengyao looked Ren Yidao up and down, then nodded thoughtfully.

"So, you like it like this..."

"No, no, no."

Ren Yidao straightened his back and sat upright to explain:

"Although I don't know what you are referring to, I think you must have had a major misunderstanding."

Seeing his expression, Li Fengyao rolled her eyes and curled her lip, saying:

"Heh, let's just believe your story for now."

After saying this, she couldn't hold it in herself and burst out laughing.

Ren Yidao also shook his head and began to laugh as well.

The two of them laughed like this for a while, and when they stopped, the look in their eyes when they gazed at each other had become much clearer.

There was less wariness and more closeness.

They were similar.

Perhaps there was a bit of repulsion between those of the same kind, but there was even more mutual appreciation.

In this world, only a soulmate is hard to find.

After laughing easily for a while, Li Fengyao took out a Jade Slip and tossed it toward Ren Yidao.

"This is?"

"The information you wanted me to look up."

With a faint smile on the corners of her mouth, Li Fengyao stopped playing coy.

"This is the detailed information on Feiyun Ravine from Wanhua Valley and Beigan; the overlapping parts of the two sets of data have been deleted, leaving only the different parts."

What she didn't tell Ren Yidao was that the value of this information exceeded many people's imagination.

In order to access it, she had paid a not-insignificant price within Wanhua Valley.

"Additionally, although I am not clear on exactly how strong your Senior Sister is, my advice is not to risk trying it."

"You will understand the specific reasons after you have seen it yourselves; I won't explain further."

Ren Yidao raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and nodded slowly.

"I understand."

He had actually already made his plans.

From the very beginning, Ren Yidao had no intention of letting Jing Yueqin see the complete information.

He would look through it himself first after receiving the data, and finally make a small, selective deletion... er, selection.

Finally, he would hand the abridged version, which retained the essence, to Senior Sister.

What is this behavior called?

This is called great censorship!

It is a significant, protective mechanism for her!

Besides, what middleman doesn't earn a price difference?

And as Ren Yidao put the Jade Slip away, Li Fengyao tossed out another Jade Slip.

"This one is regarding the traces of your master."

"It is a pity that even I did not find many clues."

But Ren Yidao was not disappointed; instead, he was somewhat surprised:

"Not many? So there are still some?"

"There are some, but they are all suspected sightings; it is hard to determine if it is Luoyue Shangren herself."

Li Fengyao did not explain directly, but first stood up to stretch, then sat down beside Ren Yidao.

After sitting down, she adjusted her posture and naturally leaned her head onto his shoulder.

Since this was a space where she could take off her disguise, she simply did everything she wanted to do.

Following her heart.

Seeing that Ren Yidao did not dodge and did not tense his body, she shook her head with some disappointment.

A pity.

"I searched through all the clues after Luoyue Shangren went missing, then eliminated them one by one."

"In the end, out of fifty-seven suspected clues, only the final three remained."

"The time span of these three traces exceeds a hundred years."

"The first one was shortly after she went missing; an anomaly occurred at Feiyun Ravine, and an object flew out rapidly toward the overseas region. Someone once tried to intercept it but was repelled, and it disappeared without a trace."

This was the one Li Fengyao considered most likely; the time was the shortest, and it was closest to the place where she went missing.

"The second one was a hundred years ago; a lunar anomaly occurred in the southern part of Beigan. Several people claimed they had the hallucination of the moon falling from the sky at night, but they found nothing the next day."

This was the one she considered the least likely, only because it was closest to the location of Divine Path Sect and the phenomenon was related to 'Luoyue'.

"And this third one..."

Li Fengyao looked up at Ren Yidao's profile and found that his expression was as calm as before, but his eyes had become profound.

He was not as indifferent as he appeared on the surface.

No matter how relaxed one speaks, a person who truly does not care would not choose to compromise with others over things they do not care about.

"The last trace of her suspected appearance... was in the Eastern Wasteland."

"One hundred and thirty years ago, a person calling themselves Luoyue Shangren fought someone for a treasure in Death Valley in the Eastern Wasteland, and after seizing a newly emerged secret treasure, they left and disappeared completely."

"And the Dao Technique she used was indeed somewhat similar to your master's."

And this time, Ren Yidao's body finally tensed up.

He narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly in his Heart Star:

"Eastern Wasteland..."

"Clan Uncle, are we going to use the Cross-Boundary Teleportation Array directly?"

Chu Yiping nodded and said in a deep voice:

"Delays lead to changes; we must leave Beigan as soon as possible."

He had a feeling in his heart that was becoming increasingly intense.

If they didn't leave now, they were afraid they wouldn't be able to leave at all!