Wu Long looked at Cao Xiang with a calm gaze that left her confused as there was not a hint of guilt, but there was also no sadistic satisfaction from toying with people’s emotions that someone who would do something like that would be expected to show in this situation.

There was simple tranquility, like an observer, a bystander who was not involved in the events unfolding around him.

After a moment, her eyes widened as she glimpsed something else deep in his eyes and then slowly turned to look at her daughter in shock, to see Cao Mei looking at her with tears in her eyes.

“I will leave you two for now”

Wu Long smiled and simply turned around as Ye Ling winked at Cao Xiang with a gentle smile and turned to follow Wu Long. Wei Lan looked with surprise and then understood the meaning of Wu Long’s actions as she shook her head at this cruel kindness.

She then turned and went away as she realized that the time Wu Long talked about was going to come later, only when Cao Mei came to her to seek advice on her own.

The mother and daughter were left by Wu Long almost exactly like this morning, but the meaning of the silence between them was now profoundly different as emotions and thoughts passed between them through their gazes.

“But really, did you have to do it so crudely?”

As they were walking away Ye Ling said with a slightly emotional sigh.

“It worked, didn’t it?”

“I am not disputing that, but there could have been more gentle ways…”

“Hoh, I didn’t expect such words from someone who left Feng Yi on her own while taking everyone else to see me”

Wu Long chuckled and Ye Ling first paused and then laughed as she could not refute his statement. It was truly quite cruel when one thought how she would feel when she learned about it.

“Still, they were not in a critical enough state for such drastic measures”

“Critical or not critical is divided by a thin line, and more often than not when it is critical it is already late” 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.

Wu Long shrugged his shoulders as he witnessed countless relationships between people over myriads of mortal lifetimes.

“You know what? You really did change a little”

“Heh, you were the one who said I did not, weren’t you?”

“I know, but you got more mature when it came to the matters of the heart…”

Ye Ling paused as she spoke with a pondering expression, and he looked at her, visibly intrigued by what she was saying”

“… though not your own, hahaha”

She then laughed at his wry smile that read ‘I should have known that was coming’.

“That is not fair you know”

“Life’s not fair, deal with it”

She chuckled and they both laughed as they went through the inn corridors to join the others.

—

Closer to the evening Old Yen returned to the inn as he left right after leaving Nie Changsheng with Butler Bang.

Wu Long was enjoying the company of beauties on one of the many terraces overseeing the inner courtyard as Luo Mingyu was discussing the Dao with Gong Cui and everyone was listening with rapt attention as they felt their cultivation bottlenecks becoming looser.

When he noticed Old Yen coming into the inner courtyard he silently stood up, motioning the others to not mind him and go on as he left the terrace and came down to the garden.

Old Yen approached him and joined his stroll as Wu Long went close to the pond.

“Prince Nie You you were asking about was exiled to a remote Imperial Villa in the Yen Kingdom on the northern tip of the continent, after an incident where he was caught red-handed by the Blade Empress’s men. He was supposed to be confined there but as some investigation showed he had been seen in the Yen Kingdom court some time earlier this year. There are no accounts of a figure who could be his Master”

As Old Yen spoke about the Yen Kindom Wu Long noticed a hint of hurried speech and a little exaggerated indifference, as if he was trying not to draw attention to it. He smiled as he nodded after the man finished his report.

Old Yen gulped as he saw the smile on Wu Long’s face in the reflection of the pond.

“Um…”

“You have something to say?”

“This subordinate has been untruthful…”

“There are three things you have to remember:

First, you do not need to speak in such terms as I prefer casual speech. I am not saying to be overly friendly but my ego is not so fragile as to be held up by servile language of my subordinates.

Second, I might not be interested in your secrets but do not deliberately try to misguide me into not noticing something. But also, do not expect me to do something about what worries you or what you are not satisfied with if you do not tell me about it.

And third…”

Wu Long paused and Old Yen gulped with his heart beating like war drums as every moment of silence was making him more and more nervous. A bead of sweat came down the side of his forehead as he looked at Wu Long with strained eyes, his mind racing with the possibilities.

“Anyway, what is it that you are so uncomfortable about?”

Wu Long finally asked after a full minute of thinking, and Old Yen slightly stumbled and almost fell into the pond. Wu Long did not give him time to reply to the “three things to remember” and pushed through with the talk while inwardly being thankful that Hua Ziyan was not around. He could not simply say that ‘three sounded better than two’ after all.

“Khm…”

Old Yen finally cleared his throat and decided not to dwell on the third thing he had to remember even though he was tempted to ask. His instincts that helped him navigate the darker side of society for years screamed at him that he better not linger on this topic. In the end, he decided that Wu Long deliberately left the third one unannounced as a means to make him more disciplined and mind his conduct.