The Ice-Cold Beauty Senior Sister Keeps Falling for Her Own Theories - Chapter 26

As Gongsun Muhan approached step by step, the purple energy sphere glowing in her hand illuminated the dim room.

If she didn’t reveal herself soon, Eldest Senior Sister might really strike her.

“Eldest Senior Sister, it’s me!”

As soon as the words were spoken, the entire room was enveloped in the warm, yellow glow of candlelight.

With a “bang,” the window shut tightly.

Gongsun Muhan stared at Feng Jie, never expecting her junior sister to be so bold. Didn’t she know about the curfew rules of Bixia Sect?

Yet she had come anyway. Why? Another suspicion surfaced in her mind.

Seeing Gongsun Muhan simply staring at her without a word, Feng Jie grew uncertain. Clutching the hem of her clothes tightly, she asked,

“Eldest Senior Sister, aren’t you happy to see me?”

“You… why are you here?”

“Eldest Senior Sister, I missed you, wuwu…”

As she spoke, Feng Jie’s face flushed red, and she naturally clung to Gongsun Muhan’s arm, swaying it gently. “If you won’t live with me, then I’ll just have to come live with you.”

Missed her? Could she be…

No, now was not the time to dwell on this.

“How did you get here? Did anyone see you?”

The distance from the sect gate to the inner and outer peaks was roughly the same. Logically, she shouldn’t have arrived so quickly, let alone managed to hide in the room before her.

Feng Jie immediately straightened up, looking as if she were seeking praise. Senior Sister Wei Qing had told her to avoid the patrolling disciples, and she had followed the advice meticulously.

“I used a teleportation talisman! There’s no way anyone could have noticed!”

“A teleportation talisman? A single-use artifact?”

“Yes! I saw it in the brocade pouch, and it was just the right time to use it.”

For a moment, Gongsun Muhan didn’t know whether to feel happy or regretful. Teleportation artifacts were extremely rare, as they allowed one to travel freely within a certain distance and were generally regarded as life-saving treasures. Moreover, such artifacts were single-use, depleting their power after activation, making them exceptionally precious. Typically, only core disciples of the sect had the chance to possess one.

And now, her junior sister had used one just to see her.

A faint sense of delight stirred in Gongsun Muhan’s heart, though she showed no trace of it on her face.

She gently patted Feng Jie’s head and said earnestly, “Mm, I understand.”

She understood, her junior sister cared deeply for her.

But her own heart was in turmoil, and she didn’t know how to respond.

She, too, felt affection for her junior sister, but it was nowhere near as intense as what Feng Jie felt for her…

Once this matter was resolved, she would have to clarify things with her junior sister. The immortal sect might appear righteous and honorable on the surface, but it was mired in filth beneath… In the end, she would have to leave.

Immediately after, she reinforced the isolation barrier she had set up around the room. Most of the cultivators sent to monitor her were also at the Purple Rank, so they wouldn’t be able to detect it. As long as she remained here, they likely wouldn’t risk exposing themselves by forcibly breaking the barrier.

“Eldest Senior Sister?”

Feng Jie fidgeted nervously, unable to resist adding one more question to the plan she had discussed with Wei Qing. She still desperately wanted to know, “Eldest Senior Sister, why did you reject me so firmly before? Not only did you refuse to live with me, but you’d rather go with Senior Sister Chang than with me!”

In the brief pause, she stole a glance at Gongsun Muhan’s expression. Seeing that she wasn’t as icy as before, she mumbled again, “And… and so fierce…”

Fierce? Gongsun Muhan quickly ran through her memories. When had she given her junior sister such an impression? Had her tone been too harsh earlier? Had she hurt her junior sister’s feelings?

She pulled Feng Jie to sit on the stool by the table, sighed, and decided to explain truthfully, “Those elders are coveting the Bixin Sword. From the moment they left, I’ve been surrounded by people secretly following me. I didn’t want to involve you.”

“So that’s how it is! Senior Sister, you’re so kind!”

Feng Jie couldn’t sit still on the stool and immediately wanted to get up and give her senior sister a bear hug.

How could someone so kind and considerate possibly be a future villain? Would a villain care about others’ safety? At that moment, Feng Jie genuinely felt that the system must have made a mistake from the start. How could someone as good as her senior sister ever turn evil?

Gongsun Muhan reached out and pressed down her restless junior sister, gently refusing the hug.

She noticed that her junior sister seemed to enjoy acting spoiled around her and liked hugging her! Did this further indicate… that her junior sister had feelings for her?

Feng Jie felt a little hurt by the rejection, but upon reflection, it made sense. They had been traveling for so long without bathing. Perhaps her senior sister found her smelly. Her senior sister clearly valued cleanliness, her robes were always spotless, and she carried a faint, elegant scent of bamboo.

Frowning, Feng Jie lowered her head and sniffed her shoulder, convinced there was an indescribable odor.

The candlelight flickered gently, casting a soft glow on her junior sister’s face, making her look breathtakingly beautiful.

In that instant, Gongsun Muhan felt relieved that her junior sister had temporarily lent her the Bixin Sword. At least it wasn’t her junior sister who was now the target of the elders’ greed.

The night was as cool as water. As the two sat facing each other across the table, a strange, inexplicable tension began to rise between them.

“Senior Sister, I’d like to bathe.”

“When are you leaving?”

They spoke at the same time, both taken aback by the other’s words.

Feng Jie was indignant, was her senior sister trying to send her away?

Gongsun Muhan was frustrated, did her junior sister actually want to stay?

Feng Jie felt her progress was too slow. Even if they were just classmates who had known each other for a week, wouldn’t it be normal to stay together under special circumstances? Yet here she was, and her senior sister still wanted her to leave!

Absolutely not.

So, she spoke first, “Senior Sister, I can’t go back… There’s only one teleportation talisman in the pouch!”

Then, she added firmly, “I used it to get here.”

Feng Jie stared defiantly at Gongsun Muhan.

“…”

Was her junior sister pulling another stunt, like last time with the sand in her eyes?

Gongsun Muhan fell silent for a moment, then, for some reason, asked the same question as before, “Are you sure?”

How annoying! Senior Sister never trusted her.

Resigned, Feng Jie pulled out the pouch and was about to dump its contents when Gongsun Muhan quickly used her spiritual power to seal the opening.

“In that case, you may stay.”

Feng Jie grinned, “Great!”

But the next second, she saw Gongsun Muhan stand up and remove the door latch.

Without a word, Feng Jie rushed over and pressed down on her hand before she could open the door. “Senior Sister, it’s so late. Are you going out?”

“Yes.”

Gongsun Muhan withdrew her hand. Her junior sister’s palm was warm, like a piece of fine heated jade, but she had always been sensitive to heat.

“I’ll find another empty room. You can have this one.”

After speaking, she glanced at the landscape screen placed horizontally and added, “There’s a prepared bath inside. You can use it anytime.”

Huh?

Wait a minute?

Feng Jie hadn’t expected such a hitch. She had come all this way, yet she still couldn’t share her senior sister’s bed!

Absolutely not! She had already boasted to Senior Sister Wei Qing about it, not to mention the system’s new task was glaringly clear.

She glanced at the door bolt in her senior sister’s hand, then squeezed sideways into the gap between her senior sister and the door, pressing her back tightly against it. Spreading her arms wide, she said with utmost seriousness, “Senior Sister, you can’t leave!”

“If you go, I’ll be exposed. They’ll find out I came to see you after curfew, and you’ll be implicated as my accomplice. We’ll both be punished. So, the best plan is for us to stay in this room together tonight!”

“I won’t let them find out.”

“They definitely will!”

“…”

“But Senior Sister, you just said there are people secretly guarding you. If you leave now, won’t that draw their attention…?”

Feng Jie’s voice grew increasingly hesitant and soft.

Seeing Gongsun Muhan simply watching her with those deep, ink-blue eyes, Feng Jie’s earlier resolve wavered. Was she being too unreasonable?

She reluctantly stepped away from the door.

But Gongsun Muhan turned and walked toward the inner cabinet. “Aren’t you going to bathe?”

Feng Jie only saw her senior sister’s steady figure bypass the screen, her silhouette flickering in and out of view behind the candlelit screen.

Gongsun Muhan rummaged haphazardly through the cabinet for a change of clothes. She felt strangely unsettled, why was she so… awkward? It shouldn’t be a big deal for senior and junior sisters to share a room, yet whenever her junior sister took the initiative, she inexplicably wanted to push her away…

Suddenly, beneath the pile of clothes, a wisp of purple spiritual energy flashed across her palm, winding up her wrist before vanishing, one strand disappearing into her chest, the other into the hair at her temple.

Gongsun Muhan picked up the clothes and returned to the table, only to find Feng Jie sitting obediently on the stool, tilting her head with a smile as she waited, like a well-behaved little squirrel waiting for its owner to pat its head.

“Senior Sister~”

“Go ahead. These are new disciple robes for you to change into.”

Feng Jie snatched them from her hands and dashed off without looking back, but not before calling out, “Senior Sister, don’t… disappear by the time I come out.”

At that moment, Gongsun Muhan’s gaze fell on the spot where Feng Jie had been sitting. On the table, partially obscured by her earlier position, the door bolt she had casually placed earlier had somehow securely latched the door on its own.

Moreover, a trace of spiritual energy clung to it, bearing the mark of a sealing talisman.

Gongsun Muhan couldn’t help but lower her head with a soft laugh. No wonder her junior sister had run off so quickly.

Before long, the rustling of shed clothing ceased abruptly.

The muffled sound of someone entering the water marked the beginning, followed by droplets splashing like beads onto the jade pool platform, reminiscent of orioles singing among blossoms and the murmuring of flowing streams. The delicate sounds of water wove intricately into the air…

Gongsun Muhan silently began reciting the Heart-Cleansing Mantra, settling into meditation to calm her mind.

When Feng Jie first slipped into the bath, she was fully alert. To ensure she wouldn’t forget the details of the strategy, she took out the guidebook given to her by Senior Sister Wei Qing and began reviewing it.

It was a palm-sized book with a yellowed cover boldly inscribed with the words “The Rules of the Master.” In the lower right corner, a smaller line of text read, “Best used in conjunction with the Eighteen Techniques of Passion.”

Senior Sister Wei Qing had promised to bring her the Eighteen Techniques hidden in the seam of her bed the next time, so for now, she would make do with what she had.

The outer sect disciples were truly thoughtful, the bath was covered with a thick layer of dried flowers and leaves. She scooped up a handful and brought it to her nose. Though they looked withered and yellow, they didn’t smell unpleasant at all, instead giving off a faint medicinal fragrance.

She scattered the dried flowers back into the water, picked up a dry towel to wipe away the moisture, then turned over in the pool, leaning against the bath platform as she enthusiastically continued her study.

Rule One: Know when to advance and when to retreat.

The key lies in advancing when she retreats and retreating when she advances.

…

By the time the moon had quietly descended from the clouds for a brief rest, it was already midnight. The sudden sound of the water clock startled Gongsun Muhan.

Two hours had passed.

Behind the screen, all was quiet, could it be that her junior sister still hadn’t come out?