When Shen Shitao pressed him for answers, Yang Kai simply explained that Qianyue was an old acquaintance of his and didn't go into any great detail. Though Shen Shitao harbored doubts, she wasn't foolish enough to dig too deeply and become a nuisance.
Yang Yan, on the other hand, regarded Qianyue with a thoughtful, probing gaze, her heart filled with unease and suspicion.
Shen Shitao and the others didn't know Yang Kai's true background, but Yang Yan couldn't have been clearer about it.
Yang Kai had come from the outside world and was not a native of the Dark Star. Now an old acquaintance of his had suddenly appeared — could it be that this woman at the Saint King First Stage was also from the outside?
What she hadn't expected at all was that Qianyue wasn't merely from the outside world — she had actually come from the same place as Yang Kai.
Once the hosts and guests had taken their seats, Shen Shitao immediately began questioning Shen Fanlei about where exactly he had gone and why he had taken so long to return. Shen Fanlei's face flushed red, and he cast a pleading look toward Yang Kai, utterly at a loss for how to explain.
He couldn't exactly tell his sister that he'd had nothing better to do than drag Yang Kai along to a brothel in the middle of the night — and that he'd been the one to bring Yang Kai there in the first place. If he said that, a thorough scolding would be unavoidable.
Seeing Shen Fanlei stammering and looking utterly mortified, Shen Shitao seemed to have guessed something. She turned to Yang Kai with a smile and asked, "Brother Yang, where exactly did you and Fanlei go last night? Why is there a whiff of garish cosmetics about you?"
Yang Kai glanced at Shen Fanlei, saw him frantically signaling, and let out a bitter laugh. "Brother Shen, if nothing had happened tonight, I wouldn't say a word. But so much has happened that we probably can't hide it anymore. You'd better just tell the truth."
At these words, Shen Fanlei's shoulders drooped in dejection.
After a moment of hesitation, he gritted his teeth and recounted the evening's events in full detail.
When she heard that the two had indeed gone to a pleasure house, Shen Shitao's lovely face turned so cold that one could have scraped frost from it. But when she learned that the whole affair had so many twists and turns, and that Wang Yuhan had been pulling strings behind the scenes, she was utterly shocked. And when Yang Kai went on to explain the hidden dangers and harms of that dual-cultivation technique to warriors, she turned pale with fright and hurriedly asked, "Fanlei, you didn't actually…"
Shen Fanlei waved his hands frantically. "No, no! Thanks to Brother Yang's timely warning, all I did was have a brief chat about life with the young lady. Nothing else happened at all."
Lv Ying, who had been listening nearby, burst out laughing, and even the worried, angry expression on Shen Shitao's face cracked into an involuntary smile.
To actually enter a pleasure house, pay the money, and then do absolutely nothing of substance — instead dragging the girl into a conversation about life — that was something only Shen Fanlei could have pulled off. Presumably, the young lady who had been assigned to him was completely bewildered.
But precisely because of that, Shen Shitao was finally able to put her mind at ease.
She pondered for a moment, then said with a sharp gleam in her eyes, "So in other words, the reason Fanlei went to that kind of place was because of Wang Yuhan's seemingly innocent remark? And Brother Yang was just someone Fanlei dragged along for courage."
"Whether it was innocent or not, I don't know," Yang Kai said evenly. "But he did go to the Hehuan Tower ahead of us, and he did target me at every turn, obstructing what I needed to do. That much is true."
Shen Shitao's expression shifted slightly. After a moment's thought, she said, "Wang Yuhan should know Fanlei's temperament very well, and he should know what to say at what time and what effect his words would have on Fanlei. It seems his real target is you, Brother Yang, and Fanlei was nothing more than a stepping stone. How despicable. To scheme against you, he would disregard Fanlei's future entirely — where is the slightest trace of a senior brother's conduct? If he had succeeded this time, wouldn't Fanlei's cultivation be permanently stunted?"
Wang Yuhan's actions this time had truly touched a nerve with Shen Shitao, enraging her completely. Her eyes gleamed with icy coldness.
"Fanlei, from now on, have nothing more to do with someone like that. And when we return to the Jidao Sect, you must report this matter to your master."
"What? I have to report to Master too? But what about the matter of entering the Hehuan Tower…" Shen Fanlei immediately grew hesitant.
"Of course, you'll tell him everything in full detail. What? You don't want to? If you won't do it, I'll go to the Jidao Sect myself!" Shen Shitao glared and snapped.
Shen Fanlei didn't dare argue further and obediently nodded his agreement.
It was safe to assume that after this incident, even if Wang Yuhan wasn't expelled from the Jidao Sect, a severe punishment was inevitable — and the former seemed more likely.
Shen Shitao fumed for a while longer before suddenly remembering something. She suppressed her anger, gave Yang Kai a graceful bow, and said, "I owe it all to Brother Yang this time. Otherwise, Fanlei would have fallen for that scoundrel's scheme without even knowing it. I'm very grateful."
Yang Kai waved it off. "Actually, I'm afraid I'm the one who got Brother Shen into this — the fault isn't his. Well, what's done is done, and there's no point dwelling on it. But there is one more thing I'd like to tell Miss Shen."
"What is it? Please speak freely, Brother Yang."
Yang Kai turned his hand over, and a piece of something resembling a dead branch suddenly appeared in his palm. It was charred black all over, without any aura or scent, as though it were nothing more than an ordinary piece of deadwood.
"Do you recognize this, Miss Shen?" Yang Kai asked.