"Pick five of them?"
Looking outside the pavilion towards the huge crowd, Yang Shen felt that if he picked only five of them the remaining would definitely cause a riot.
Able to guess what Yang Shen was thinking, Meirong walked close to the desk and pulled a huge brown file out of it and placed it on the table with a loud thud.
"You can find the portraits of everyone who applied for the mission inside this. Just point towards the five you like and I'll take care of the rest."
Feeling a little awkward from how the situation made it seem like he visited a brothel and was bargaining for women, Yang Shen opened the file and started looking at the portraits one after the other.
However even before he looked through a few of them, Yang Shen had a weird look on his face and felt that something was off.
"Are these portraits…."
"Exaggerated? Yup."
Smiling wryly since every single portrait seemed to be depicting the image of a peerless beauty while he hadn't spotted even a single one of them in the crowd outside, Yang Shen closed the file since he knew that making a decision based on the portraits inside it would only cause him to feel disappointed when he saw their real faces.
"Do you trust me?"
"Nope."
"Ouch. Couldn't you at least hesitate a little?"
Shaking his head, Yang Shen asked her what it was that she wanted.
"How about you let me pick the maids? Since I've seen all of the applicants, I can pick five of the most good looking ones. That is what you want in the maids right? Beautiful faces and curvy bodies?"
"You might possibly be the one who understands me the best inside the sect."
"Really?! What an honour it is!"
Ignoring the sarcasm, Yang Shen couldn't help but feel a little worried that if he allowed Meirong to pick the maids she would pick some ugly ones to get back at him for not helping with the cleaning.
"What? Do you think I'm a petty woman who'll stoop so low to take revenge on you just because you didn't help me with cleaning?"
While worrying over his lack of control in his facial expression due to which all women were easily reading his thoughts, Yang Shen was even more worried that Meirong would do what he was worried about.
"You can of course choose to pick the maids by yourself. But that would mean going out there and looking at all of them before picking just five out of the near hundred women. Are you sure you can do that and then walk away in a single piece?"
Given how many Inner Disciples there were in the crowd outside the Missions Pavilion, Yang Shen was not the least bit confident in escaping them without taking Lijuan's help.
Therefore, it seemed like he really had no option other than to let Meirong pick the maids.
"Fine. But just so you know, I love you a lot Meirong and I'd trust you with my life as well!"
Scoffing at Yang Shen's desperate attempt in hopes of making sure that she picked the good looking ones and not the ugly ones, Meirong used her strength and status to clear a path out for him through the crowd and leave the place without causing another commotion.
…
Stopping near one of the streams of water which flowed down the mountain to wash his face clean of the countless lipstick marks so that Li Na wouldn't get worked up when he saw him, Yang Shen went back to his courtyard.
Entering his courtyard, which hopefully won't look like it's been abandoned due to ghosts living inside it after today, even more hopefully due to work of five pretty women with bodacious bodies, Yang Shen found a serious looking Li Na waiting for him inside the living room sitting on top of a dust covered sofa.
"I have some bad news to share."
"Ba-Bad news?"
Nodding her head solemnly towards Yang Shen who was sharing the impact of the bad news even before she shared it with him, Li Na said, "I can't live here with you."
"You and my Master have two different meanings for the term bad news."
Ignoring Lijuan's commentary, Yang Shena acted like he was devastated from hearing the 'bad news'.
"W-Why? What happened?!"
"Calm down, little Shen. I'll explain."
Turns out that only Outer Disciples were allowed to spend their nights wherever they wanted.
As for the Inner and Core Disciples, they were supposed to spend every night inside their own residences. This was because the Sect wanted them to focus all of their time on things related to alchemy and not by indulging in frivolous activities
Thus, staying outside of one's residences was only acceptable if it was due to a mission.
Or, they could secretly stay outside it and hope to not get caught. But, such a thing couldn't be done many times. And the proof of it was how a Deacon sent a warning to Li Na the very next morning after she spent a night outside her residence for the first time ever.
Either way, long story short, it was bye-bye Li Na and hello erotic maids!
But before that, Yang Shen had a very important decision to make.
Naked or apron?