Not wanting to see her hurt by those thorny words, Yuzhen left the place with Ziya, abandoning Chen Ling behind.
"Where are you taking me? What happened?" Ziya, confused and unaware of the reason, asked for an explanation while trying to stop Yuzhen.
Yuzhen replied, though it wasn't the truth, and tried to change the topic. "She has some purchases to make and doesn't want us to wait for her.
Let's explore the area a bit. Don't we need to find the place where medical plants and herbs are sold?"
'Was he angry because he couldn't spend time with her?' Completely misunderstanding the situation, Ziya concluded as per her perspective.
"But I didn't take the list with me…" Realizing her mistake, Ziya intended to go back to the inn, but Yuzhen stopped her.
"It's getting late, and the shops might be closing soon. Let's locate the shop first, and then we can return to purchase the plants at any time," Yuzhen suggested. Ziya agreed, and they set out to explore.
After finding a few shops that sold medical plants, they returned to the inn. To her surprise, Ziya found her belongings outside the room.
"Why are my things lying here? Did I get kicked out of the room?" Ziya wondered out loud. She knocked on the door, but there was no response from Chen Ling.
Yuzhen stopped Ziya from knocking and led her to his room. "It's just a matter of two days. You can stay here."
Yuzhen reassured Ziya, saying, "Don't worry about being together with me. I can sleep on the floor." He offered the bed to Ziya and planned to sleep on the floor.
As she settled in bed, a thought crossed Ziya's mind: 'Why is he being so kind to me? Could it be that he's planning to add me to his harem?' Knowing Yuzhen's future, where he had several lovers, Ziya found it difficult to believe that his current kindness was merely out of goodwill.
Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked, "Why are you being so kind to me?"
Yuzhen began to respond, "That's because..." but he hesitated, remembering the advice he had received from his friends.
["Never think about telling the truth, Yuzhen. Women always want rich guys coming from a powerful background. They are always calculative ones." (Xian Ren)
"Don't believe in his words, not everyone is like that. There are many girls who accept their lover for who he is." (Ying Yue)
"That's about lovers; they have no choice other than accepting it. Girls who aren't committed yet always have a choice. Yuzhen, until she becomes your lover, don't let her know about the past, if you truly want her." (Xian Ren)]
Their voices rang in his mind, and Yuzhen continued, "Senior Rui is my master's friend. How can I let his maid suffer? Isn't it more like insulting him."
'So, he did it out of respect for Rui. What was I even thinking?' Ziya covered herself with the blanket, feeling a bit disappointed by his statement.
The next morning, Yuzhen was the first one to wake up. Seeing Ziya sleeping peacefully on the bed brought him a sense of happiness just by looking at her.
Not wanting to disturb her, Yuzhen got himself ready and went downstairs to fetch some tea. However, as he returned and observed Ziya's sleeping posture, he couldn't help but notice that it somehow resembled his master, Chen Zoe.
Yuzhen was puzzled by his own thoughts. 'Why am I thinking about him right now?' he wondered.
Shaking off the confusion, he gently woke Ziya up and handed her the tea. As he watched her, he couldn't help but notice that the way she held the cup and drank the tea was remarkably similar to his master, Chen Zoe. Unsure if it was all just a coincidence or the result of his own foolish thoughts.
Meanwhile at Longwei peak.
"Finally, it's ready. Now it's time to test it on the cub," Chen Zeon said to himself as he held a newly crafted magic pendant. This pendant was his latest invention, and he intended to test it on the young fox cub.
Expecting to find the cub at Rui's clinic, Chen Zeon headed there. However, upon arrival, he realized the cub was nowhere to be seen. Instead of giving up, he decided to search for Rui, who was taking care of the cub.
...
At Chen Zoe's residence.
Rui was savoring his free time, sharing his food with Zhan that he had originally brought for Chen Zoe, who was currently not at the sect.
"You really like the meet. Have some more."
Suddenly, a god-like figure emerged from the shadows. He had nine tails like Zhan, but his fur was pure white, and he was dressed in red silk clothes adorned with ornaments made of pure gold.
Zhan, sensing danger, quickly hid behind Rui. Without fear, Rui confronted Zhihao, not knowing his identity. "Who are you?"
"Treating a beast cub as a mere pet. Do you have a death wish?" Zhihao asked furiously upon seeing Zhan wearing a collar.
"I think you're misunderstanding. It's not a regular collar. Some medicine has been applied to it, and the smell it emits relaxes his mind..." Rui tried to explain, noticing the resemblance between Zhihao and Zhan. He doesn't want to create a misunderstanding, but Zhihao didn't wait for an explanation and attacked Rui with his tail.
Upon witnessing the attack, Zhan barked at Zhihao, which only further infuriated him. "How dare you raise your voice at your kind for an outsider? Did they brainwash you..."
"Don't touch him if you don't want to regret it later." Rui, barely able to stand after the sharp hit, spoke in fury.
"It's really irks me now." Zhihao spoke.
Hearing Zhan's barking, Chen Zeon rushed to the scene but was startled to find Zhihao lying on the floor, his body slowly turning blue from poisoning.
"It looks like your parents never taught you something important in your life: never make a physician your enemy unless you have a death wish." Rui stood in front of Zhihao and spoke.
"What the hell is going on here? What did you do to him?" Chen Zeon asked, concern in his voice as he carefully held Zhihao in his hands.
"I just poisoned him a bit." Rui replied nonchalantly.