Seven days passed, and Wen Li and Gu Linshu remained in their original courtyard, waiting.
“Master, dinner is ready.”
With no one to take care of them and Wen Li having grown sick of restaurant food over the past several days, the cooking duties naturally fell upon Gu Linshu’s shoulders today.
Basking in the sunlight on a lounge chair in the yard, Wen Li lazily lifted the cattail fan from her face. Seeing him carry the dishes out to the table in the courtyard to accommodate her, she felt quite gratified. Not bad, the disciple had grown up.
She got up and sluggishly sat down at the table, only for several pungent scents to scramble their way into her nostrils.
There was killing intent.
She glanced down, instantly dropped into a horse stance, sprang three meters backward, and wore a look of sheer repulsion.
“You made this?”
“Y-yes, I… I made it.”
Wen Li turned her head to look at her usually fair-faced, scholarly disciple. Right now, he was covered in soot, his face smoked until it resembled cured bacon, and the “unidentified object” he held in his hands was a pitch-black lump.
His cooking was even more terrifying than Xie Tinglan’s had been at the start.
Xie Tinglan was a demon while Gu Linshu was human; how could he be even worse at taming his own two hands?
Gu Linshu placed the final dish—which could hardly be called food—onto the table, looking at her with an abashed and helpless expression.
“M-Master, I… I only know how to eat. Th-this is my first time c-cooking. P-please bear with me.”
“...”
Though speechless, Wen Li still adhered to the philosophy of positive reinforcement. She patted his shoulder. “It’s fine. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. You’ll get better with practice. Your Eldest Senior Sister and Second Senior Brother were roughly the same as you when they started.” Though they were still better than him.
Heartened by her encouragement, Gu Linshu’s eyes lit up. “Th-then, Master, t-taste some.”
“Then again, I’m not really hungry today. You eat it yourself.” Wen Li had no wish to crush her disciple’s confidence, but neither did she want to poison herself. She prepared to head out and find food on her own.
Gu Linshu glanced at the plates of poison on the table, instantly seeing through Wen Li’s thoughts.
“Master, l-let’s go out and eat together.”
“...” This fellow wasn't as easy to fool as Yao Dai.
Wen Li chuckled awkwardly. “You’re the one who said it, not me.”
“Yes.” Gu Linshu silently dumped all the food.
The two switched to another restaurant, where Wen Li ordered a full table of meat dishes—so many they could barely fit.
Having already witnessed her appetite, Gu Linshu remained completely unfazed. Since he had rarely eaten at hole-in-the-wall joints, his own appetite opened up as well. After the two feasted and drank to their hearts’ content, Gu Linshu supported Wen Li as they walked out of the establishment.
“M-Master.”
Burping and sighing at how wonderful life was, Wen Li casually responded.
“Mm.”
“Y-y-your old, old, old...”
After stammering for a long while, Gu Linshu sighed and switched to voice transmission.
“Your old acquaintance is coming.”
Wen Li froze. She glanced over and—whoa, Zongzheng Yingchu!
Fortunately, he was currently seated in a white palanquin. Though he was heading in their direction, they were not his target. Because it was moving so swiftly, the passersby on the street scrambled to dodge out of the way.
Gu Linshu also helped Wen Li step back.
The pristine white curtains of the palanquin swayed in the breeze. Seated inside, Zongzheng Yingchu turned his head as if sensing something, and the lifted corner of the curtain happened to reveal the disguised Wen Li.
Zongzheng Yingchu’s indifferent gaze landed on her belly, which was slightly bulging and unable to be concealed even by her baggy robes because she had eaten so much.
It was her. Her pregnancy was showing so quickly.
There had been a fleeting moment when he suspected she might not be a relative of his old acquaintance, but that very acquaintance herself. After all, he had never felt that familiar demeanor from anyone else. But seeing her now, this woman truly was with child, just as she had claimed.
Given Makabaka’s foul temperament, how could she possibly fancy someone, let alone get pregnant with their child? That person was sinister, sharp-tongued, and prioritized her own interests above all else; it was impossible for her to marry and become someone’s wife like this.
The wind blew and the crowd parted as the palanquin swept past in an instant. All Wen Li caught at the end was Zongzheng Yingchu turning his eyes downward. It seemed he no longer suspected her.
Gu Linshu transmitted, “Master, he’s a cultivator, so why does he ride a palanquin instead of flying directly?”
“Flying requires controlling your own spiritual energy—how tiring is that? A palanquin has people carrying you, and you can show off to let everyone know you’re going out. How nice is that?”
She hurriedly pulled Gu Linshu down an alley to head back.
She was terrified of getting caught in that man's sights.
However...
Just as Wen Li and Gu Linshu walked back into the alley leading to their courtyard, her footsteps ground to a halt.
“What is it?”
Gu Linshu’s expression turned solemn. An enemy?
“Burp~”
Wen Li suddenly let out a loud burp.
“...” Gu Linshu’s expression froze.
Wen Li waved her hand. “Sorry about that. Ate too much, holding in the air felt terrible. It’s nothing, it’s nothing, let’s go.”
Tugging along Gu Linshu, whose face was a mix of irritation and helplessness, she reached the courtyard entrance. But the moment she took a step up, she abruptly stopped.
Wen Li’s expression grew taut; this time, she had truly stopped because something was wrong.
Gu Linshu, however, had no desire to be fooled again. He raised his hand to push the gate open.
Bang!
The instant Wen Li grabbed his arm, kicked off the ground, and retreated ten meters backward, the gate was violently blasted apart by a formidable force.
Had Wen Li not been so vigilant and fast, both of them would likely be lying flat on the ground right now.
“Run!”
Wen Li didn’t even bother looking to see who had attacked. Clutching Gu Linshu’s hand, she bolted at full speed as Hold On instantly transformed into a long sword beneath their feet.
Whoosh!
Several black-robed cultivators who had been lying in ambush inside the courtyard burst out, only to catch sight of a streak of trailing light. They stood in stunned disbelief—they had never seen anyone flee so cleanly and decisively in their lives.
“Pursue! Take them alive!”
Instead of soaring into the sky, Wen Li flew her sword low, weaving frantically through the residential quarters of ordinary mortals.
Gu Linshu asked in confusion, “M-Master, wouldn’t th-this be too, too slow?”
“Idiot, right now it’s not about running, it’s about hiding!”
Wen Li shoved a Disguise Pill into his mouth, stripped off his exquisite outer robe, ripped off his white trousers, and stuffed them into her storage bag.
“Master!” I’m not that kind of person!
Gu Linshu cried out in horror, subconsciously swallowing the pill.
Wen Li glanced back and sensed the auras drawing closer and closer behind them. They were in the sky!
She directly stowed Hold On, dragged Gu Linshu into a smooth knee-slide into a muddy patch ahead, and flung out tattered rags from her storage bag, draping them over Gu Linshu.
At the same time, she threw on ragged beggar’s clothes of her own.
Plop!
After the two crashed into the mud, Wen Li slapped two Spirit-Erasing Talismans onto each of them, then immediately kicked Gu Linshu.
“Ah!”
He fell straight into a pigpen three meters to their left.
Meanwhile, Wen Li grabbed a handful of plaster dust from a wall, smeared it across her face, ruffled her hair into a mess, dropped to her knees, and rolled her eyes back.
Like a severely disabled person, she crawled toward the crowd around the corner in a twisted, shadowy scuttle.
“Ah, aba, ah, kind sirs, spare some change, ah~”
Dragging mud along the ground, she produced a chipped bowl from somewhere and clattered it noisily.
When the black-robed cultivators flew through the sky above the alley, they saw neither of the two figures nor any spiritual aura. Passing right over the alley, they continued searching the surrounding area.
Wen Li was in no hurry to stand up. Instead, she continued babbling and begging for money. In truth, the common folk of Houchi Kingdom were quite warmhearted; seeing how pitiable she was, several people actually tossed copper coins into her bowl.
Meanwhile, Gu Linshu, whom Wen Li had kicked into the pigpen, held his breath and lay motionless in the pen, staring blankly into the eyes of three old sows.
“...”
“Oink, grunt~” The three sows grunted softly.
“M-may I borrow your spot to lie down for a bit? Thank you.” The boy was surprisingly polite.
Having guessed that Wen Li was disguising them as mortals to deceive the cultivators, he was smart enough to remain lying there without getting up until she called for him.
Rate on N.U.
