Hei Xue could only wait—wait for the day when Xiaoyao himself said it was possible. Actually, she felt this was quite good. The days here were relatively peaceful, without strife, at least not affecting her personally.

She discovered that she seemed to somewhat like this peaceful life. Did this mean she had changed a bit? Probably not—this might just be a temporary mood, a fresh feeling.

After a month passed, Xiaoyao had refined a surprising quantity of pills. Not only was the quantity astonishing, but the quality was equally shocking, and the variety was even more remarkable.

Over this month, the Luo family's pill reserves could last ten years. This seemed much faster than Xiaoyao's previous pill refining speed, and not just by a little. Besides Xiaoyao working day and night, this was also due to his strength improvement.

An alchemist's strength improvement could accelerate pill refining speed—this was something everyone knew. During this period, Xiaoyao had continuously improved several levels of strength, so naturally his speed had also increased considerably.

Under the morning light...

"Xiaoyao, are you leaving?" the Young Miss looked at Xiaoyao.

"Young Miss, you've been asking this question since last night—you've asked it dozens of times," Xiaoyao replied somewhat helplessly. This wasn't the time for him to decide when to leave—now was when he had to depart. He was already fully prepared.

...

He had told the Young Miss and the others about his decision to leave several days ago, but the Young Miss seemed to have only realized it last night and kept asking this question.

"I can't bear to part with you," the Young Miss looked at Xiaoyao with a reluctant expression.

"Get lost. You're just upset because I didn't accompany you to drink flower wine. We'll talk about that later—then we'll go to Yihong Courtyard once. After all, I need to handle things there," Xiaoyao said irritably. He didn't believe the Young Miss would actually miss him.

"Hehe, you said that yourself—you have to remember," the Young Miss seemed to have been waiting for this sentence and immediately said with a smile.

"I know. You need to work hard at cultivation. Don't end up becoming a concubine," Xiaoyao said with a smile.

"Do you prefer concubines or wives?" the Young Miss asked with her head tilted. "I prefer concubines, wives aren't as good as concubines..."

"..." Xiaoyao was speechless. The Young Miss really dared to say anything. However, this seemed to be a pattern—generally people preferred the concubine, which was why they took concubines.

But if you married a wife and concubine together, that might not be the case.

Of course, Xiaoyao didn't say this aloud, or he would definitely get eye-rolls from Nangong Suxin and the others.

"Mo Yu, you're going off-topic again. Xiaoyao is leaving now—this is a farewell," Nangong Suxin reminded her.

"Exactly. Young Miss, can't you say something normal? Like, you'll miss me, or ask me to write you more letters," Xiaoyao chimed in.

"Miss you? I'm not Seventh Sister—why would I miss you? I'd rather miss Susu. But you have to write me letters daily—the messenger eagles are ready now. Don't forget," the Young Miss seemed indifferent yet concerned, though it was unclear what she cared about and what she didn't.

"Alright, the Young Miss's farewell is finished. Next," Xiaoyao pulled the Young Miss aside and looked at Guxing. He wanted to hear her farewell words.

"Come back early," Guxing said simply.

"Understood!" Xiaoyao smiled. "We can go now."

Then Xiaoyao prepared to mount his horse, but was stopped by Nangong Suxin.

"Go where? We haven't spoken yet," Nangong Suxin knocked Xiaoyao and said irritably.

"Do you need to?" Xiaoyao asked.

"No matter what, we're your nominal fiancées—we still need to say something," Nangong Suxin said.

"Oh, then go ahead," Xiaoyao didn't mind.

"You... you've got me all confused. I don't know what to say anymore. Come back early—we also need to go back once. Even though Chi Chi is staying here, we should go back and tell our families," Nangong Suxin said.

"Tell them what?" Xiaoyao asked somewhat puzzledly. Going back was normal, but this sounded like there was something to report, possibly related to him.

"About our affairs, of course," Nangong Suxin gave Xiaoyao a look with a somewhat coquettish feeling.

This wasn't a good sign—what are you trying to do?

"What affairs between us?" Xiaoyao asked weakly. We don't seem to have any affairs, and even if we did, there'd be no need to tell your family.

"About our marriage," Nangong Suxin said.

"...You're not serious about this, are you?" Xiaoyao was stunned. He had never taken this matter seriously because he felt these girls couldn't possibly really want to marry him—they were just talking.

From the current situation, Nangong Suxin seemed to be serious, which was a bit hard to process.

"Haha, look how scared you are. Of course not—we're just going back for a visit. We've been here so long that they're all worried. Your father is here, but our fathers are over there," Nangong Suxin patted Xiaoyao's shoulder and said with a laugh. Her earlier words seemed to really be just joking, wanting to see how Xiaoyao would react.

"You scared me to death. If you were serious, I'd definitely leave you over there," Xiaoyao patted his chest.

"You dare!" Nangong Suxin shouted, and at this time, Nangong Third Miss seemed to say the same thing simultaneously, glaring at Xiaoyao.

"What do you think?" Xiaoyao didn't mind and asked back directly.

He would definitely dare—Xiaoyao could do anything. They all knew this, especially regarding this matter. For Xiaoyao, there was no burden at all, so naturally he wouldn't have any qualms about doing it.

"Hmph!" the Nangong sisters snorted.

"Alright, everyone has said farewell—now it's my turn. Boss, Young Miss, and everyone else, take care of yourselves. Don't push too hard, put safety first, and if anything happens, don't tough it out," Xiaoyao said.

Everyone else? Being categorized under such general terms again.

Xiaoyao wasn't saying this casually. He had a feeling that after this trip, something would happen that might bring some trouble to Guxing and the others, though it wouldn't be fatal.

Because of this, Xiaoyao felt this could also be a kind of training. He just reminded them while preparing some emergency items—like pills, equipment, and so on.

"We should be the ones saying that to you," the Young Miss said, then glanced at Hei Xue. "You should be careful of the people around you."

"..." Hei Xue remained silent. You're being way too obvious—why not just point at me while you're at it?

But Hei Xue believed that if she said this, the Young Miss would definitely point at her and say it again, so she chose silence.

She couldn't win in a fight, plus Xiaoyao would help the other side—what else could she do but stay silent?

"Big brother, take care," Lingling looked at Xiaoyao. Everyone else had finished speaking, so she finally had a chance to say farewell—who told her she was the youngest?

"You be good too. Learn more from your Sister Guxing—don't learn from Sister Mo Yu. She's just a bad person," Xiaoyao said with a smile, patting Lingling's head.

"Mm!" Lingling nodded.

"What did you say?" the Young Miss glared at Xiaoyao.

"Departing for the Carefree Sect. Oh, if Miss Wang comes, please entertain her for me. I think I can return in less than three months," Xiaoyao mounted his horse and said finally.

"Got it," Nangong Third Miss said.

Wang Yanyu had already received news of Xiaoyao's return and planned to come meet him, but currently Xiaoyao had no pressing matters, and it was impossible to have Wang Yanyu go to the Carefree Sect.

The Carefree Sect was an unorthodox sect, while she was a disciple of the premier orthodox sect—she couldn't casually enter unorthodox territory.

It was only a few months anyway. Xiaoyao felt that including travel time, three months would be about right—at most it would be delayed by another month or two. If nothing unexpected happened, that's how it would be.

Because Hei Xue was somewhat anxious, this time Xiaoyao headed to the Carefree Sect at full speed. Both rode the fastest horses, rushing there all the way.

They didn't change horses during the journey either. Xiaoyao had ways to keep the horses maintaining their stamina, so the time was greatly reduced.

Plus nothing major happened along the way. Ten days after leaving Flowing Moon City, they reached the Carefree Sect, though they still needed several more days to reach their destination.

That's right, this wasn't a mistake. Reaching Carefree Sect territory didn't mean reaching their trip's destination—the destination was still far away.

The Carefree Sect wasn't some small sect with just a few mountain peaks, but a super sect—and a top-tier super sect at that. Ordinary super sects had territories spanning thousands of li, let alone the Carefree Sect.

The Carefree Sect was equivalent to a large nation, with territory spanning several thousand li. Within the Carefree Sect, there were no properties belonging to any outsiders—everything was internal to the Carefree Sect. However, this "internal" didn't mean harmonious coexistence.

The Carefree Sect itself had numerous schools, just like the Demon Domain, with various large and small schools and forces distributed throughout the Carefree Sect's territory.

It was just that in scope, the Carefree Sect was much smaller than the Demon Domain, and it didn't have the Demon Domain's darkness. Though this was unorthodox territory, unorthodox didn't mean demonic—it stood between the demonic and orthodox paths.

Therefore, when Xiaoyao entered the Carefree Sect, he felt it wasn't much different from other places—just more martial conflicts, some people being more unreasonable, and most people going their own way.

However, as long as you didn't provoke others, no one would come provoke you.

(End of Chapter)