Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 46: Master, You Cannot Spend the Night in Shiniang's Room Anymore

"Xiaoxiao, Xiaoxiao?"

Her master's gentle call pulled Yu Xiaoyan from her thoughts. A seasoned actress, the young girl looked up, a troubled expression naturally forming on her face.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, Master... Xiaoxiao was too engrossed in cultivation last night. Paired with the shock from failing at Sword Control just now, I'm feeling a bit dazed and tired."

Pei Yuhang nodded and set Yu Xiaoyan down.

"Since you're tired, Xiaoxiao, you should hurry back to your room and rest. As for your Divine Soul, I'll find a suitable Elixir and Cultivation Technique soon. I'll call for you when I have them."

Yu Xiaoyan opened her mouth, about to say that there was really no need for her master to be in such a hurry. In fact, if possible, she wanted to drag the matter out for as long as she could.

Then, as her master bent down to set her down, the collar of his robes slipped, revealing his reddened and swollen collarbone...

The mark of a bite was clearly visible on his fair skin.

She remembered that his wife was recuperating in seclusion not far from here.

Yu Xiaoyan didn't need to guess which woman had left that hickey.

It was agonizing. She felt as if her heart had been plunged into a vat of acid, and her fingers clenched tight with a sour ache.

She had to rack her brain just to steal a fleeting moment of intimacy with this man, but his officially wedded Dao Companion could do whatever she wanted to him without any inhibitions.

It felt as though a treasured Flying Sword—one she would only dare to meticulously maintain, terrified of scratching or denting it—was being casually ridden by someone else as if it were nothing.

If her idiotic Eldest Martial Sister—all ambition and no nerve—had seen this, she probably would have just lowered her head, pretended she saw nothing, and then secretly wallowed in self-pity and sour envy.

Perhaps, in the dead of night, she would even start imagining how joyful and proud his wife must have felt while leaving that hickey, and then she'd be unable to stop herself from humming softly...

'Too bad. I'm nothing like that foolish senior sister.'

Unlike the simple-minded Qing Yueqiu, who came from a poor background, Yu Xiaoyan had grown up in the splendor of a Prince's Mansion. She had witnessed the cutthroat scheming of the Mortal World's elite and experienced the drastic ups and downs of human relationships.

She was in a completely different league than that foolish Eldest Martial Sister—leagues and leagues ahead!

Faced with the affectionate hickey on Pei Yuhang's neck, she didn't shrink away like a timid quail and pretend not to see. Instead, she brazenly grabbed his collar and pulled it open.

Yu Xiaoyan pointed to the mark—a remnant of a Dao Companion's private pleasures, now exposed to the air—and demanded righteously, "Master! You spent the night at your wife's place, didn't you!"

"Uh..."

Pei Yuhang was completely flabbergasted by his young disciple's sudden move, especially since she had seen the mark his Dao Companion had left.

He was suddenly mortified, feeling the same shame as if his own child had found something intimate belonging to him and his wife.

This made him subconsciously want to deny it.

'Ah, Xiaoxiao, these are just mosquito bites. Don't read too much into it. You're not even thirty years old yet. At your young age, you shouldn't concern yourself with things that aren't suitable for children...'

Pei Yuhang's mind was a mess as he frantically tried to figure out how to talk his way out of it.

Seeing her master's flustered reaction, the corners of Yu Xiaoyan's lips curved slightly upward.

'Such an adorable expression~'

While lamenting that she didn't have a Memory Stone to record her master's adorable state, she pressed her advantage and declared with righteous gravity:

"Master, you've lived for over one hundred and twenty years! How can you still be as reckless as a young man? Don't you know your wife is weak and needs to recuperate in peace right now?"

"Of course I'm aware of her physical condition..."

"Then why were you still spending the night in her room? Aren't you just harming her?!"

"But... but I didn't do anything in her room."

Evidently, judging by Yu Xiaoyan's skeptical and distrustful gaze, she didn't believe a word her master said.

That suspicious gaze wounded Pei Yuhang. He felt that his noble, upstanding image in his young disciple's eyes had been fractured by an irreparable crack labeled "lecherous."

Yu Xiaoyan patted Pei Yuhang's shoulder earnestly and said with great solemnity:

"Master, you have to promise me. Your wife's body really can't take any more strain right now. You must be considerate of her!"

"I know that, of course..."

"Then you must promise me that you won't spend the night in your wife's room anymore! Otherwise, you're just trying to take advantage of her and prevent her from returning to her cultivation path!"

"Ahem! I only stay the night in her room to take care of her. What are you even thinking?"

Pei Yuhang put on a senior's airs, hoping to use his authority to end the conversation.

But Yu Xiaoyan deftly parried his attempt. "If your wife needs looking after at night, you can just let my senior sister do it! I'm sure she would be delighted to take care of her!"

"If you only spend the night in your wife's room because she needs care, well, Xiaoxiao needs care, too. Can you come spend the night in Xiaoxiao's room, Master?"

"Of course not! You're not a child anymore..."

Pei Yuhang rejected the idea harshly, almost by reflex.

Although Yu Xiaoyan had expected this outcome, seeing her master reject her so unhesitatingly still sent an unbearable ache through her Dao Heart.

She suppressed the bitter ache in her heart and smiled. "You're right. In that case, Master, you can no longer use 'taking care of your wife' as an excuse to spend the night in her room anymore!"

"What if one day you can't control yourself, or she can't control herself? That would be big trouble!"

Listening to Yu Xiaoyan's grave warning, Pei Yuhang surprisingly found himself thinking she had a point.

After all, the reason he had fled Liyuan's room so quickly that morning—subsequently venting his Yang Fire to clear the heavy snow from the Cold Palace—was precisely because of Liyuan's diligent hickey-making.

He had started to feel himself growing aroused.

He had rushed away from his Dao Companion to avoid hurting her.

Now, his own disciple was pointing this out to him, making Pei Yuhang feel even more ashamed.

'I should have realized this sooner. Since my body's Yang Fire is so easy to lose control of, I shouldn't be spending the night alone with Liyuan. It's too dangerous.'

Seeing the look on her master's face, Yu Xiaoyan knew he had taken her suggestion to heart. A smile played on her lips.

'If I want to steal my master from his wife, the first step is to make sure they have fewer and fewer chances to meet.'

'Scenarios that could deepen their bond—like Dao Companions spending a sweet night together or reminiscing about their shared past—are absolutely forbidden!'

Yu Xiaoyan had to get her master accustomed to life without his wife by his side.

And at the same time, she had to get him accustomed to life with *her* by his side.

'By the time he realizes what's happening, he'll be completely unable to live without me... I will become an indispensable part of Pei Yuhang's life!'

'Just you watch, you dumb cow of a senior sister! Sooner or later, I'll make you call me the master's wife!'