Awakened: The Spirit King!

Feng Wei wouldn't have continued using her powers if she knew that the one she passionately serves with all her heart was spying on her and Feng Shu.

However, as she was too confident and he wasn't just out of the detection range of her exceptional skill and spying on them with his divine sense instead of his eyes, but also using auxiliary talisman to camouflage himself, she couldn't detect him.

If he had set his gaze on her either, she would have immediately realized that someone was peeking at her because she had a sixth sense, and of course, then she would have immediately stopped.

Feng Wei was radiating willfullness.

Her attitude gave a headache to Feng Shu, who rubbed her temples pitifully before giving a severe look to Feng Wei. "You're inviting disaster our way by acting overconfident. The Manor is full of hidden dragons and crouching Tigers. Who knows how skilled they are? It may be possible for one of them to bypass your detection and, coincidentally, chance upon a scene where you are using your powers.

What will happen then? We will have to run away. Because of your silliness, my peaceful life will be at risk of ending. If not for yourself, then for at least me, stop, already."

The only reason Feng Shu was still holding back from slapping some senses into Feng Wei was that she didn't want to disturb her lord and his wife.

"You're overthinking things." Feng Wei said, "Lord of Clouds will protect us. The secret guards won't leak our secrets to people outside the manor as they are loyal to him."

What Feng Wei said did make sense to Feng Shu, but she was still against using their special powers. Of course, she had reasons behind it.

"Who will protect him or the Manor then? You or me, who can't tussle with a spirit grandmaster for even a minute? Do you not realize our truth or are ignorant of the fact that the Xie Manor is in the center of the whirlpool? The walls have ears and eyes.

If an enemy's spy that has infiltrated the manor finds out that we are offspring of an evil spirit yet, he is still keeping us and making the news public, the royal family, the neutral faction, and the faction led by the bastard of a minister, which is supporting the first young lord, will have a reason to force him to abdicate from his position.

Besides, mother requested us not to use our powers in the mortal and spirit realm without her permission. She is long dead but is your heart too? Had you already forgotten that she is why we can live in peace, why we are still alive?"

Feng Shu poured salt on Feng Wei's wounds by mentioning the consequences of her actions as well as their adoptive mother.

"Stop complaining and focus on cleaning the courtyard. I will tone down the use of my spirit powers."

Stupid and ignorance bred Feng Wei's confidence. Feng Shu, thankfully, shed rays of wisdom on her in time. She didn't want to implicate the Lord of Cloud or the Xie Manor. Thus, she lowered the use of her powers to almost negligible. Feng Wei turned silent and less willful after Feng Shu gave her an earful. But there was a morbid emotion swirling in her eyes.

Why were they born like this? Being the offspring of an evil spirit wasn't their choice, and they weren't bad, so why did they have to live in fear of others finding out about their truth every day? Why did they need to suppress themselves and act like mere mortals? Feng Shu sighed, turned her attention away from Feng Wei, and focused on the task at hand.

Just like ordinary mortals, the two sisters were using brooms to brush the dust and the leaves on the ground to one side.

Xie Yang, who was peeking at them using his divine sense, saw that Feng Wei generated small dark gales of winds each time she moved her broom gently, and the dark wind gales carried the dust and leaves away and into the garbage bag.

Xie Yang curled his lips up into a smile. Even in his wildest dreams, he wouldn't have thought that only in a while of spying them he would find the answers to many complex matters!

The first good news was that Xie Yang had narrowed down the list of suspects who could have possibly poisoned him to Doctor Zhang. Initially, he was suspicious of Feng Shu and Feng Wei. He believed that they might have poisoned him. But after gaining more information about them, he was sure that they didn't have any desire to harm him. First off, his mother was their benefactor.

They weren't the type of people to bite the hands that feed them, and they didn't have any enmity with Xie Yang. Thus, they couldn't possibly be the hands behind his poisoning. The chance of Doctor Zhang being the wolf in sheep clothing has increased to 99%. It was just that this person had a credible reputation in the city, and Xie Yang's father was on good terms with him.

Unless he had concrete evidence, Xie Yang couldn't and didn't dare to accuse him of anything insidious.

The second good news was that his two maids were experts. Since they dared to boast about being able to survive for a whole minute against a Spirit Grandmaster, they had the strength to defeat our stall, a Spirit Master. They initially fooled him like everyone else. He was confident they weren't spiritual cultivators as they lacked the basic requirements to become one.

They didn't have a spirit mark either, so they couldn't possibly be borrowing powers from a spirit. That only meant that they were ordinary mortals. Xie Yang identified them as one. Only now did he realize that they were crossbreeds with powerful evil elemental meridians! He failed to identify them as one because they were 99% human and could close their meridians at will, becoming 100% human!

The only thing confusing him was the reason behind why his mother adopted them and why his father agreed to let them enter the Manor and become his family. Did they not know that they are evil spirit offsprings? Or were they not afraid of people pointing their fingers at them and accusing them of harboring and colluding with evil spirits and leading a rebellion to overthrow their sovereignty?

There wasn't a shortage of Ignorance and stupid people, who anyone with a glib mouth could sway with a few inspirational words. And the people and spiritual cultivators that hate evil spirits weren't short in number either. His father accepting them into the family was the same as picking up a stone and smashing his foot with it.

'I need to have a talk with father about them.'

'But first, I need to make my stance clear to them.'

Xie Yang jumped down the rooftop and landed a step away from Feng Shu, his figure blurring into existence.

"My lord, w-what are you doing here, and when did you get here?"

Feng Shu was shocked as he appeared in front of her too suddenly and mysteriously.

'There's a chance he must have eavesdropped on our conversation. No! He knows that we are offsprings of evil spirits! What should I do?! Maybe if I hit the back of his head with enough force, he will forget about what happened here! It's worth a try!'

Feng Wei moved in for the kill, but Xie Yang shot her a stern stare.

"Remove that ridiculous thought out of your mind."

In an instant, she put her broom down and started sweeping the ground, acting as if she hadn't raised it to smash his head just a moment ago.

"I don't understand what you mean, my lord." She acted so innocently that any passerby would believe that she didn't have the strength to truss a chicken, but Xie Yang knew she was strong enough to wring his neck and wasn't buying her act.

He stepped away from her, walked past Feng Shu, and sat on a round stone. He motioned the two of them to sit down, too, and they did. He was their lord, and they were honestly loyal to him.

"I know what the both of you are, but know this, I don't have any prejudice against crossbreeds of any nature. Instead, I think it's ridiculous how people of today blame them when something terrible happens and accuse them of being harbingers of misfortune and death. I know I haven't been much of a lord and even less of a person you two could rely on, but I hope you can believe me this once."

The two twin sisters were sweating nervously and wondering what he had to say and how much of their talk he had heard. Feng Shu was glaring daggers at Feng Wei. She was angry. Her little sister had landed her in trouble, and she also had the guts to sneak an attack on her Lord. How dare she?! Feng Wei was evading her gaze and keeping her head, her heart almost bursting out of her chest.

Will he abandon them? Will they have no choice but to run away? Or will he force them to surrender to the authorities?! She was worried that he wouldn't live up to her expectations and would directly throw them into the fire pit.

However, their eyes widened when they heard that he held no prejudice against their kind. Abundant happiness filled their heart. But a good person like him, who had not an ounce of racism, only existed in a fairy tale.

"Do you really mean it?" Feng Shu stared at Xie Yang and tried to read what was in his mind through his expression. His still eyes and gentle smile only revealed that he held no ill intention against her or her sister.

"You two are the offsprings of an evil spirit, and according to the empire's rules, It's my duty to hand you to the authority and let them deal with you as they like. But before all that, you are my maids. I don't mind disobeying the emperor for people good to me. I won't let others harm you for a stupid reason. I have grown up with you. For the past eighteen years, you two have taken care of me.

You're more humane than others. There's no evil in you two. I know that better than others. You're safe here. I won't tell a soul about your truth and keep it a secret. So don't think about running away and stay put."

Xie Yang was sure that if he didn't insist on making them stay, then tomorrow, they would vanish from the Manor. Feng Shu indeed had the idea of taking her sister away from the Manor. But after seeing how he was willing to cover for them and finding out he was sincere to them, she changed her mind.

"Our thanks to the lord."

"We will not betray your expectations."

The two had only seen others looking at them with unkind eyes after discovering they were evil offspring. After all, there was a chance that they could go crazy and kill everything in their sight. But this was their first time seeing someone setting a gentle gaze on them even after knowing that they were crossbreeds of dubious nature. Their heart warmed, and they put their trust in him.

"Let's have a talk, shall we?"

"Alright."

Xie Yang wouldn't have reached far in his life if he had been judgmental. He never maltreated others just because of their race. Instead, everyone was equal to him. It didn't matter if they were humans or not; he would kill them if they harmed or tried to harm his interest or the people he cherished, and he would protect his people irrespective of their identity.

There were rapists, murderers, and all sorts of criminals among humans. But did that mean every human was terrible? Nope! Similarly, while offspring of evil spirits had a notorious reputation, Feng Shu and Feng Wei didn't have an ounce of resentment.

They were good people. And the chance of them going losing control was negligible. Unless their lives were at risk, they would most definitely not lose control and go berserk.

Xie Yang accepted them with open hands even after knowing their truth.

Thus, he won their trust, and they became fiercely loyal to him!

In a sense, he had gained two experts as strong as a spirit master!

(...)