"Tonight, I can finally research this rare item properly. Usually Qing Lin is here with me—we've got a team—but tonight I'll be able to study it in depth."
The six women had essentially split into groups. Ya Fei and Yun Yun were one pair—one passionately fiery, the other serenely elegant. Xiao Yi Xian and Queen Medusa were another, the two Xiao Tian enjoyed most because they never stopped competing. Typically, they dealt a thousand points of damage to the enemy and took twelve hundred themselves. Han Yue and Qing Lin formed the last pair, like two docile kittens who followed every instruction and cooperated without question.
As for the groupings, Xiao Tian was ready to overturn them entirely and stop keeping them separate. The facilities in his palace had been built on a larger scale for a reason. Otherwise, it would all go to waste. Waste was shameful. One had to respect the labor of the workers. His current daily routine consisted of cultivation, holding the baby, refining medicine, and holding the baby again. After all, it was his first child, and the excitement hadn't faded in the slightest.
---
Inside Xiao Tian's palace in the Eternal Dream Palace, Han Yue had nearly fallen apart the night before under the combined assault of Xiao Tian and Ya Fei. She didn't stir from her slumber until noon. After freshening up, she walked out into the gazebo. The moment she arrived, Xiao Yi Xian invited her to join her tonight, and Medusa swiftly seconded the invitation. Meanwhile, Zi Yan, cradling the baby, and the little dragon Xiao Huiying watched their conversation with bewildered expressions, utterly unable to grasp what they were scheming.
Han Yue frowned slightly at her two mischievous older sisters. "Continuing is no problem, but we have to agree—always united against outsiders. No infighting allowed." When she recalled Ya Fei being even wilder and more inventive than Xiao Tian the night before, she couldn't suppress a shiver. Then she remembered she had also found it endlessly enjoyable, like a door to a new world swinging open. She shook her head quickly. *What's wrong with me? I must not be fully awake yet.*
As for the two culprits, they were currently strolling sweetly through the Black-Corner Region, sharing a candied hawthorn stick bite for bite.
Xiao Yi Xian walked over and linked arms with Han Yue. "Alright. But can you tell us about last night?"
Han Yue would never tell them. How could she speak of such things? What if they copied and pasted? That would mean one more than last night.
"Yue'er, we're just exchanging cultivation insights. I can also tell you about Cai Li and me." After Xiao Yi Xian spoke, Medusa added with open curiosity, "Exactly. I can give you even more details about Xiao Yi Xian. She knows quite a lot."
Han Yue looked into Xiao Yi Xian's "sincere" eyes and opened her mouth, but the moment she registered Medusa's words, she shook her head furiously. Her expression made it clear she would sooner die than speak. They would not trick her into revealing anything. *Sisters are supposed to be heart to heart, and you want to play mind games with me?*
"Big Fountain, I told you not to interrupt. See? You ruined it." Xiao Yi Xian watched the sliver of information they'd nearly extracted evaporate thanks to Medusa's interruption and sighed helplessly.
"Big Slug, I don't have that ability. Go find Xiao Tian." Seeing the two launch into their daily bickering—even pulling out their nicknames for each other—the other women nearly burst out laughing.
"I think you want it just as much. I know your thoughts very well." Xiao Yi Xian glared at her provocatively.
"How about we spar? It was fine when you rode on my face back then, but you're not calling the shots now."
"Come on, let's go. Who's afraid of who?" Neither would retreat an inch. They materialized on the training grounds of the Eternal Dream Palace in an instant. Xiao Yi Xian suppressed her cultivation to match Medusa's level, a silent agreement they had developed over time. This scene had long since become routine for the women.
"They're just going to fight like that, all fired up? Aren't you going to stop them?" Zi Yan, the newcomer, watched the two already exchanging blows with a thoroughly lost expression, then turned to Yun Yun and the others. She had always believed she was the one who loved fighting most. She had never expected to meet two people who would start trading blows after barely a few words. Her battle-hungry blood was practically boiling.
"Don't worry about them. They're just bored. They won't get serious." Yun Yun gently teased her daughter, whom Zi Yan was holding, and explained in a soft voice.
"Alright then. By the way—what were they talking about with Junior Sister Han Yue earlier? Why did they seem so excited? Was it something fun? Take me along next time." Zi Yan looked at Yun Yun with open curiosity and asked in a hushed tone. Beside her, the little dragon Xiao Huiying stealthily edged closer to eavesdrop. As for Han Yue, the central figure of today's events, she was already deep in whispered conversation with Qing Lin, so Zi Yan couldn't ask the source directly.
"Why is a child like you concerned about such things? You'll understand when you're older." Yun Yun studied Zi Yan's gossip-hungry face with pure amusement and laughed.
"I'm not a child. My body might be small, but I'm not young." Zi Yan shook her head firmly. *I want to grow up. I want to grow up. I want to grow up.* She silently chanted the mantra in her heart.