Su Chen woke up two days later.

When he opened his eyes, he discovered that he was lying on a bed crafted from redwood. A soft, muslin canopy was draped across the bed, and the room was filled with the smell of a light incense. This incense, along with the pink bedding and the bejeweled mirror in the room, clearly indicated that he was in a girl’s room.

He gingerly sat up, trying to remember what had happened, but no matter how hard he thought, he could not recall anything after he had passed out. All he remembered was that he seemed to have passed out in Gu Qingluo’s embrace.

“Qingluo!” When he thought of Gu Qingluo, Su Chen involuntarily cried out.

This sound reached outside the room, and a person rushed into the room and stared at Su Chen, joy appearing in their eyes. It was precisely Gu Qingluo.

She immediately leapt into Su Chen’s embrace. “You’re finally awake!”

“I’m fine! I feel great right now,” Su Chen said to comfort Gu Qingluo.

He wasn’t lying. At this moment, his consciousness felt incredibly sharp, and his entire body was full of energy.

“I know,” Gu Qingluo replied as she wiped away some tears. “The doctor said that you were just too tired and that you would be fine after a nap. But who would expect that you would sleep for two straight days.”

“Two days, huh?” Su Chen murmured. “So how did the battle from two days ago turn out?”

Gu Qingluo replied, “Don’t worry about it. We won. It’s all because of you that the beast race wasn’t able to wreak too much havoc.”

“And the Demonic King and Azure Wolf Demonic Lord?”

Gu Qingluo replied, “The Azure Wolf Demonic Lord was badly wounded because of you. In the end, it couldn’t handle Father and the other’s combined attacks, so it ran away. It was so fast that no one could do anything to stop it. However, that Demonic King was doomed. Even though it was powerful, its speed was only average, and thus there was no possible way for it to escape. Even so, fighting it was still quite frightening, and we weren’t able to take it down by ourselves. It took two of the nearby cities sensing the changes here and them sending a few more Spirit Burning Realm cultivators to slay that beast.”

When Su Chen heard that they needed the aid of Spirit Burning Realm cultivators from the neighboring cities to kill the Demonic King, he could only sigh in wonder at how strong these Demonic Kings were.

An entire city had been mobilized to deal with a Demonic King. Who knows what might have happened if a Demonic Emperor had shown up? And there were still many Demonic Kings and Emperors still amongst the beast race. No wonder humans were unable to completely stop the beast race from infiltrating human borders. They needed the combined efforts of five different races just to secure a territory that they could call their own.

“Right, where am I right now?” Su Chen asked as he thought of something.

“My room, of course,” Gu Qingluo stated matter-of-factly.

Su Chen was taken aback. “You mean that I’ve been sleeping in your room for the past few days?”

Gu Qingluo nodded seriously.

Su Chen’s expression immediately changed. “Not good! If that’s the case, then won’t Patriarch find out about the relationship between me and you?”

According to Su Chen’s plan, now was not yet the time for him to appear on the scene!

However, Gu Qingluo had arranged for him to sleep in her room. The relationship between them had probably been revealed to everyone by now.

“Uncle, do you not understand? This was all a ploy!”

Within the main hall of the Gu Clan, Zhou Qingkuang stood there, staring angrily at Gu Xuanmian.

Gu Xuanmian drank his tea calmly. “Understand what?”

“Su Chen!” Zhou Qingkuang said loudly. “This is all a part of Su Chen’s scheme!”

He took two steps forward. “What reckless purchases? What Flight Network? It’s all fake, a scheme! Su Chen’s true goal has always been Qingluo. He wants to marry Qingluo, so he created a pretense of being a businessman so that he could tie the Gu Clan to himself via profits. I was also delayed by situation after situation before coming here because of Su Chen’s silent interference behind the scenes.”

Gu Xuanmian expressionlessly played with the dregs of tea in his teacup. “Oh? Is that so? Then I treated you wrongly before this.”

“Why are you still acting so indifferently, Uncle?” Zhou Qingkuang took two more steps forward. “Do you not understand yet? Qingluo and he have known each other for a long time, and they have been having secret relations since a long time ago! Even that Long Shaoyou is Su Chen’s subordinate. I did some investigating. Long Shaoyou is from Clear River City, and before coming here Su Chen was Clear River City’s Knowledge Executor! And he and Gu Qingluo were even classmates at the Hidden Dragon Institute! Do you get it now? This is all a devious scheme! Su Chen’s the one pulling the strings behind the scene!”

Gu Xuanmian glanced at Zhou Qingkuang, a slight smile on his lips. I didn’t expect your investigations to be this thorough.”

“I cannot possibly lose without even being aware of who I lost to!” Zhou Qingkuang replied. “I admit that I was wrong in handling the matter with Long Shaoyou. However, afterwards, I felt that something was fishy, so I secretly sent people to investigate. And through that, I eventually discovered the link between Long Shaoyou and Su Chen. When I put that fact together with Su Chen’s recent actions, it became easy to guess his motives. I wasn’t sure at first, but after the battle with the Beast Race, Qingluo’s actions opened my eyes. When you factor in the fact that Su Chen and Qingluo are both from the Hidden Dragon Institute, I would have to be an idiot to not recognize what had happened!”

His words were filled with anger.

Gu Xuanmian lowered his teacup. “Then you missed one thing in your investigations.”

“What?” Zhou Qingkuang was stunned.

Gu Xuanmian said, “Qingluo and Su Chen didn’t actually meet each other first at the Hidden Dragon Institute.”

“Oh?” Zhou Qingkuang was stunned.

Gu Xuanmian said, “Su Chen is from Northface City, in the Three Mountains Region. He’s the successor of the Su Clan, one of the four large bloodline-less clans in the area, but he seems to have cut ties with them and no longer visits them much. Because he had lost his eyesight early on, his clan didn’t treat him well. But once he recovered his eyesight, he naturally cut off his relations with them. At that point in time, Qingluo was in Northface City’s Lin Clan under my orders to train the Soaring Serpent. He and Qingluo met each other there, and Qingluo even taught him the Flying Flower Hands and Snaking Mist Steps then.”

When Zhou Qingkuang heard this, he felt his heart plummet. “You...... You’ve known this all along?”

Gu Xuanmian sighed. “If even you know to carefully investigate things when something feels fishy, how could I not look into things closely? You’re absolutely right. Su Chen was scheming from the very beginning. Every disaster you encountered was also set up by him in order to have me to annul your engagement with Qingluo.”

Zhou Qingkuang grew excited. “Since Uncle understands, then things couldn’t be better! We should seize Su Chen now and hand him over to the government for punishment.”

“Seize him? Why?”

“Because he schemed against me with malicious intent!”

Gu Xuanmian stared at Zhou Qingkuang as if he were looking at an idiot. “How did he scheme against you with malicious intent? Using Long Shaoyou? Yes, he used Long Shaoyou as bait, but did he force you to attempt killing Long Shaoyou and plundering his wealth?”

Zhou Qingkuang froze. “I...... this......”

Gu Xuanmian said, “You have nothing to say? Don’t blame someone else for exploiting your own greed. This matter was your fault in the first place. You can’t shift the blame to anyone else.”

“But Su Chen and Gu Qingluo have known each other for a long time, and they still chose to keep that a secret from you......”

Gu Xuanmian interrupted him. “He never said that he didn’t know Qingluo. Actually, the first day I met with him, he told me that he knew Qingluo because they were classmates at the Hidden Dragon Institute. It was just that back then I thought their relationship was nothing more than that of classmates; I never knew that they were actually this close.”

“Isn’t it a sin for them to have a secret relationship like this?”

“It’s a sin to have secret relationships?” Gu Xuanmian stared at Zhou Qingkuang patronizingly. “If that’s the case, then there are too many sinners on this continent.”

Zhou Qingkuang stared at Gu Xuanmian in shock. He really would be an idiot if he couldn’t sense the sudden change in Gu Xuanmian’s attitude.

Gu Xuanmian said, “True, Qingluo didn’t tell me about her relationship with Su Chen, but so what? What youth doesn’t have a romantic period in their life? Young girls tend to be emotional and romantic. Her having feelings for one or two boys is not strange at all as long as she can keep her bottom line safe. Qingluo is still a virgin, so she hasn’t overstepped the boundaries I have set for her. I have no reason to punish her. In addition......”

Gu Xuanmian paused and then said the most important reason. “In addition, Su Chen is a good kid.”