Chapter 263

Xie Yu pressed his lips together in a slight smile and then leaned lazily against the back of his chair, his tone playful: “Miss Zhou, pour wine for the Taoists.”

Zhou Yimei’s gaze darkened slightly.

Pouring wine was something usually done by maids or servants.

With these words, he was openly telling everyone that the once unattainable Zhou family young miss was now completely powerless, subject to his whims.

Such pettiness.

Under normal circumstances, Ning Ning would have already drawn her sword and stepped forward, but constrained by the rules of the Futu realm, she had no choice but to wait on the sidelines for the story to unfold.

She had been idly resting her chin in her hand, silently watching Zhou Yimei, waiting for her to pick up the wine jug.

Suddenly, she blinked rapidly.

The woman in the white dress was slender and graceful but weakened by illness. As she rose and walked, her body swayed slightly, and she let out a soft cough.

She held the wine jug with her left hand.

Though her right hand was also placed on the porcelain jug, her fingers were limp, as if they lacked any strength, merely forming the shape of holding something.

There was something wrong with Zhou Yimei’s right hand—it likely couldn’t be used anymore.

This made Xie Yu’s request for her to pour wine even more malicious.

Weakened and exhausted, she had to rely on her left hand to support the heavy wine jug.

Unsurprisingly, when she poured the wine for Xie Yu, her arm trembled slightly, spilling a bit of the wine.

This, of course, was Xie Yu’s intention.

“What’s this? Could it be that Miss Zhou is now incapable of even—”

The young man, his features cold and sinister, smirked, his jade-like face clouding over with a faint frost.

He was just about to utter a humiliating remark when another clear female voice interrupted from nearby.

“Thinking back on Zhen Xiao after all this time, what I remember most clearly is that day on Mount Wangyue.”

Ning Ning sounded deeply sentimental, lost in her memories. “He drained my heart blood to save his white moonlight, and then he prepared to fly off with his sword. But my spiritual energy had been completely drained, and I couldn’t control the Xinghen Sword. That bastard sneered at me and said—”

“What’s this? Could it be that, as a sword cultivator, you can’t even manage sword flight?”

Xie Yu choked.

That sounded suspiciously like the line he was about to deliver.

“To hell with sword flight! Did he not know how weak I would be after having my heart’s blood drained out? If he loves flying so much, why not just cut off his hands and feet, rip out his spiritual marrow, destroy his bloodline, tie him to a sword, and fly him like a kite! His head could serve as a ball for a game of kickball, that dog of a man!”

Ning Ning finished angrily and then lifted her lashes, giving Xie Yu a slight, teasing smile. “What do you think, Lord Demon?”

Xie Yu: …

Xie Yu: “I-I suppose… yes?”

Though he said this, why did it feel oddly like he was scolding himself?

Thanks to Ning Ning’s outburst, Xie Yu completely forgot the lines he had prepared earlier. Zhou Yimei cast a grateful glance at her, then turned slightly and approached Gu Zhaozhao.

The two women had once been mistress and servant, but now their statuses were worlds apart.

Seeing her approach, Gu Zhaozhao’s gentle, harmless smile deepened.

“Thank you, Miss.”

When Zhou Yimei poured the wine, her back was to Xie Yu, creating a blind spot in his view, making it difficult for him to see what was happening between the two women.

But Ning Ning could see everything clearly.

Just as Zhou Yimei tilted the wine jug downward, Gu Zhaozhao’s arm “accidentally” bumped into her injured right hand.

Immediately, Zhou Yimei’s right arm trembled violently, and the jug fell to the ground, shattering with an unexpected crash accompanied by Gu Zhaozhao’s hurried gasp of surprise.

Wow.

Ning Ning applauded in her mind—this vicious supporting female character vibe was perfectly on point.

“What’s going on?”

Xie Yu seemed to be under a halo of intelligence reduction. His already fragile IQ kept decreasing—minus 1, minus 1, minus 1—as he roared like a furious dragon: “Zhaozhao! Are you hurt? And you! Zhou Yimei! What tricks are you trying to pull?”

Here’s hoping the drums and gongs at this man’s funeral sound better than this.

Ning Ning silently covered her ears.

“I’m fine; don’t blame Miss; it was all my—”

“Zhen Xiao is nothing compared to the one I truly loathe—my twin brother who looks exactly like me.”

Bai Ye interrupted Gu Zhaozhao’s soft voice with a cold, mocking laugh: “That day, when snow sealed the city, we were walking side by side on the long stairs. Suddenly, he just tumbled down by himself! When He Xiaochen helped him up, the bastard actually had the audacity to say—”

“I’m fine; don’t blame my brother for pushing me; it’s all my fault. If I’d been more careful, I wouldn’t have fallen down the stairs.”

Gu Zhaozhao choked a bit.

That sounded suspiciously like the line she had just been about to say.

“I just want to say—roll! If you love falling down stairs so much, go ahead and roll! If I really wanted to harm you, do you think I’d use such a idiotic method? You’re an idiot, fine, but can you not drag me down with you? Hurt you? You’re not even worth it! Always finding a way to make yourself the center of the drama!”

Gu Zhaozhao’s face turned ashen as she lowered her head and shakily shoveled food into her mouth.

“And He Xiaochen! How could she fall for such a crude trick? Her brain must be as muddled as a wrongful conviction! I must have been blind to fall for her in the first place. What a fool, deluding herself!”

Born into a scholarly family, Bai Ye had finally found a way to showcase his eloquence at this Ten Methods Assembly, though it turned out to be in the form of insults.

He spoke non-stop, breathlessly ranting from start to finish, and afterward gulped down a mouthful of water.

Hoarsely, he asked, “Lord Xie, Miss Gu, do you think I’m right?”

Xie Yu and Gu Zhaozhao both twitched at the corners of their mouths.

Unbelievable, utterly unbelievable.

It was as if the two of them had their brains eaten by this group of cultivators. All their thoughts and words were exposed, and they were interrupted so badly that they couldn’t even say a word.

For the first time, Xie Yu felt a twinge of doubt.

Had he truly gone too far with Zhou Yimei?

Could it really have been Gu Zhaozhao who caused the wine to spill? But—

No, it was all just a coincidence.

His youthful affection had been trampled underfoot by Zhou Yimei.

They had agreed to leave together, but all he got was the family’s servants coming at him with sticks, trying to kill him.

Only Zhaozhao, who brought him clothes and food when he was starving and who gave him medicine on the brink of death, was the last pure and untarnished part of his heart.

As for this group of cultivators, they were no longer even truly human.

Sitting here were only a few bodies that seemed normal, but their kidneys were already hollowed out.

He didn’t need to speak to them any longer.

“Hehe, the funniest thing about those idiots is that they’re completely oblivious to their own stupidity. Even if they sense something’s off, they’ll always find some excuse to justify it.”

Ning Ning turned to Bai Ye and remarked, “People who are unaware of their own faults—looking in the mirror won’t help them at all.”

Bai Ye agreed wholeheartedly: “On the bright side, their parents must have had a great sense of humor. Otherwise, how could they give birth to such clowns?”

Xie Yu: …

Xie Yu felt as if these two were mocking him with their little back-and-forth banter.

But he had no proof.