A light snow quietly fell, covering the *Cloud Mansion* with a fresh layer of white.
On the bed in his bedroom, Ye Anping's eyelashes trembled slightly, and his consciousness gradually returned. He felt refreshed. It was probably the first time in several years that he had slept and woke up naturally.
He held his breath, opened his eyes, and forced himself to sit up from the warm bed as usual.
However, as soon as he sat up, he felt a burst of dizziness and pain in his head.
"Tsk..."
Covering his forehead and frowning, he looked around to see where he was.
Ancient porcelain vases showing traces of time, exquisite screens embroidered with beautiful women dancing in sword routines, mahogany tables and chairs...
There was no doubt that this was the single bedroom that Yun Yiyi arranged for him, but Ye Anping vaguely remembered that he seemed to have been drugged by Yun Yiyi last night...
After that, his memory got a little fuzzy.
How did he get back?
Was it possible that last night's experience was just a dream?
Ye Anping had no sense of reality. He pinched his nose bridge and took a deep breath before getting off the bed. The moment he saw the clothes he wore, he gasped.
"Hiss--"
The white cotton underclothes he was wearing were stained with blood as if he had been on the battlefield, and there were stinging itches on his chest and back.
?
In a rare panic, Ye Anping trotted to the corner of the room in front of the mirror, took off his clothes, and looked at his reflection.
The muscular chest of the man in the mirror was covered with rows of tooth marks, some of which had even broken the skin and were still oozing blood.
However, it could be seen that the teeth that bit him were quite neat, small, and delicate, like a tiny tiger's teeth...
"..."
Stupefied, Ye Anping turned sideways to look at his back. There were teeth marks on his chest, and his back was covered in bloodied scratch marks. The back of his neck was also a mess...
One, two, three, four... a total of twelve hickeys.
He vaguely remembered that at the beginning, he still barely had a trace of sanity, but later, when Yun Yiyi cried and screamed for mercy, that last trace of rationality was kicked out of his brain by instinct, and then...
"She must have been...."
Ye Anping pressed his temples hard, trying to remember the last scenes, but his mind was so chaotic that he couldn't remember anything. However, looking at the sunlight coming through the window, he was slightly relieved.
If something really happened to Yun Yiyi, it would be impossible for him to wake up in this room. When the servants found them in the morning, they would definitely call the Sword Sect guards to escort him to the *Heavenly Prison* and lock him up.
"Whew..."
Ye Anping let out a sigh of relief, and at this time, Xiao Tian's voice came from behind. *"Anping?!"*
Xiao Tian just came back from Yun Yiyi's place. When Ye Anping was sleeping, she had been running back and forth between them, calling out to Ye Anping, then going to Yun Yiyi's side, kicking her in the face and scolding her for being a "bad woman" for most of the day.
She flew to Ye Anping and said, *"Anping, how do you feel? Go back to bed and get some more rest. Don't blame yourself for what happened yesterday, it was my fault. If only I had realized beforehand that she put something in the tea... Humph! That nasty woman!"*
Well... who took advantage of whom?
Watching Xiao Tian angrily stomping her feet in mid-air, Ye Anping looked at the injuries left by Yun Yiyi on his body and replied, "I'm fine. I'll just put some salve on these wounds and they won't scar."
Xiao Tian pursed her lips, staring intently at Ye Anping's expression.
It was written in the *Heavenly Dao Scroll* that a former owner of the Scroll was kidnapped by a dual cultivation sect Elder when he was in the **Eastern Region**. He was squeezed dry by several female Elders of that sect for almost a year before he finally escaped. After that, he suffered from a strange disease of "fear of women", which caused inner demons to appear in the *Nascent Soul* forming process, and then his meridians shattered and he died.
She was now worried that Ye Anping would follow in that man's footsteps.
Anyway, she should counsel him!
*"Anping, it's really okay! Just pretend you had a nightmare last night. There are good and bad girls in the world. Don't hate all girls because of what happened yesterday. Think about Yu Die, how cute she is~"*
?
Ye Anping raised an eyebrow. "Cute?"
*"Ah... isn't she?"* Xiao Tian paused and blinked, tilting her head. *"If that doesn't work, think about your little sister, Pei Lianxue. You won't say she's not cute, right?"*
Ye Anping sighed slightly, waved his hand, and took out a new set of clothes from his storage bag.
"I'm really fine. I'm kinda worried if Miss Yun is alright."
*"What's there to worry about?"* Xiao Tian frowned. *"She absorbed a lot of your yang energy yesterday, and now she's about to break through to the late stage of Foundation Building."*
"Huh? She's going to break through?"
*"Well, yes, you did it... all night last night..."*
Xiao Tian blushed a little, shook her head, approached Ye Anping, and put her little hand on his chest. Closing her eyes, she probed inside with an incredulous look on her face.
She originally thought that Ye Anping's spiritual energy had been drained by the 'golden-haired vixen', but now, she discovered that he was...
*"Eh? Anping, you have been drained of so much yang energy, how come your cultivation level has risen instead of falling?"*
"..."
Ye Anping hesitated. He understood why Xiao Tian would feel that he had been taken advantage of by Yun Yiyi.
But it seemed that after taking the medicine yesterday, the settlement for killing Yun Kunwu kicked in just at that time, and then, involuntarily, the pure spirit energy was sent into Yun Yiyi's body through dual cultivation.
Ye Anping hurriedly dived his spiritual sense inward to check his own meridians. He found that, probably because of Yun Yiyi's *Seven-Element Flower*, the meridians in his body were now more refined and firmer than before.
If this was a business, he would still make a profit.
It was easy to condense energy but difficult to refine the meridians. Besides, what he didn't lack right now was this refined spiritual energy.
Ordinary cultivators needed to meditate for months or even years to achieve this kind of refined spiritual energy, but for him, it took just one settlement reward.
In this situation, when the next settlement came, he would be able to directly break through without having to retreat somewhere to meditate for half a year in order to advance to the late stage of the *Foundation Building*. This would save him a lot of time.
*"Anping, what's going on?"*
"It's just a special physique."
*"What kind of physique?"* Xiao Tian's eyes lit up. *"Tell me!"*
"Nope."
*"Oh~ come on, tell me~"* Xiao Tian circled around Ye Anping. *"Tell me, tell me..."*
Ye Anping waved her away with a dark face, then put on the new set of clothes from the storage bag, washed his face, and bandaged his wounds.
After he changed into new clothes and walked out of his bedroom onto the *Cloud Mansion* porch, he saw Huang Quan in the distance, running toward him with an anxious face.
"Master! Master!! It's not good!!"
When Ye Anping heard this, he thought something had happened to Yun Yiyi and asked in a hurry, "What's wrong? Did something happen to Miss Yun?"
"Ah..." Huang Quan paused, lowered her head, then looked at Ye Anping. "Master, what on earth did you and the Young Lady talk about yesterday? The Young Lady just told me that she doesn't want to marry you anymore and that you should go back to the ***Hundred Lotus*** Sect..."
Ye Anping was taken aback. "Where is Miss Yun now?"
"In the main house. Master, please go over and persuade her... The Young Lady made a mess in the house last night. The vases and porcelains were broken all over the floor, and the table was kicked over. This was the first time in my life that this slave had seen the Eldest Lady get so angry. What on earth did you tell her last night?"
"Nothing... I'll go take a look."
