"Lu Qingning, where are you going so late?"
Xiao Hongyu tilted her head to look at her.
Felling as though everything she thought had been seen right through, Lu Qingning took a step back and said, "Ah... Senior Sister, I'm feeling a bit awake, so I thought I'd go out and practice a little longer."
Xiao Hongyu was half a head taller than her, requiring Lu Qingning to tilt her head up slightly to see her face clearly.
"Well, there's no need to push yourself so hard. Go to sleep when it's late; a message has just come through from Master on the Transmission Talisman."
As Xiao Hongyu spoke, she walked into the room, and Lu Qingning curiously followed her inside.
Xiao Hongyu sat down at a chair and materialized the contents of the Transmission Talisman, causing a few lines of text to float in mid-air.
[Oh, Hongyu! Your master has managed to escape from that wicked woman, hahaha! I'm coming to reunite with you all right now! Once I get back, I'll definitely teach our new little disciple in person!]
Lu Qingning stared at these lines of text.
How is it that her master seems rather unreliable?
After standing quietly for a long moment, Lu Qingning spoke up: "What is Master... what kind of person is she?"
Xiao Hongyu pursed her lips in thought. "She is an unfathomable person."
Unfathomable—?
Someone who could make the Senior Sister say such a thing must surely be extremely formidable!
Thinking this, Lu Qingning nodded to herself.
...
In the western part of Qingzhou, within Wu'an City
Ye Zuilan poured a bowl of wine from her flagon and drank it down in large gulps.
"Ha! The wine in Qingzhou is still the best!"
Ye Zuilan finished it in a single draught and immediately poured herself another bowl.
"Honestly, after dragging my feet for half a year, I've finally shaken off that crazy woman Luo Xue. All that tossing and turning has made me lose quite a bit of weight."
While drinking, Ye Zuilan pressed a hand against her lower back and muttered complaints to herself.
Having finished the entire flagon, Ye Zuilan still felt unsatisfied and called out, "Hey, waiter! Another pot of wine!"
"Coming right up, patron!"
It was mealtime, and the tavern was bustling with an endless stream of patrons, so no one paid any attention to how Ye Zuilan might differ from anyone else.
Before long, the waiter brought over another pot of wine.
Upon seeing the newly arrived wine, Ye Zuilan pounced on it like a starving tiger, eagerly pouring and drinking.
Startled by her ferocious, tiger-like eagerness, the waiter instinctively jumped back two paces.
Ye Zuilan hummed a tune to herself as she drank.
"Enjoy your drink, patron."
The waiter collected the old flagon and bowl.
Acting as if he had not the slightest fear that Ye Zuilan might try to skip out on the bill, he went back to attending to the customers at other tables.
Watching the waiter walk away, Ye Zuilan chuckled to herself. "The people of Qingzhou are still far too naive. It's about time I taught them a lesson and let them experience the cruelty of the real world."
Pondering this, Ye Zuilan picked up the flagon, poured a single bowl of wine, and intended to pour the remainder into her flask to take with her.
She patted her waist, only to find her flagon missing. After patting herself a couple more times, she remembered that she had been in such a rush to escape earlier that she had left all her belongings behind with Luo Xue, keeping only the Transmission Talisman used to report her safety.
"Sigh, when I see Xiao Xue next, I really ought to give her a proper talking-to. Not only did she seal my cultivation, but she had to take my things too."
With a helpless sigh, Ye Zuilan finished her bowl of wine and poured herself another.
In the distance, the waiter and the tavern owner kept glancing over at Ye Zuilan. Although the two of them appeared outwardly busy with other customers, the moment Ye Zuilan had stepped through the door, she had caught the attention of every single waiter in the establishment.
For no other reason than that Ye Zuilan's face was simply too eye-catching.
Although Ye Zuilan had used magic to alter her appearance before coming out, the face she had chosen was precisely one of those featured on their tavern's wanted posters.
Moreover, any Wangyou Tavern within Qingzhou that discovered someone from the wanted posters and reported it to the higher-ups would receive a reward of ten thousand taels of silver, while cultivators would be rewarded with a thousand High-grade Spirit Stones.
This reward was immensely tempting to anyone.
So much so that over the years, they preferred to wrongly execute an innocent than let a target slip through.
If they reported someone up the chain only to discover they had made a mistake, the worst that would happen was a tongue-lashing from their superiors and a half-month's forfeiture of profits. But if they managed to secure the reward, it would be an astronomical fortune.
Therefore, the moment Ye Zuilan stepped into the Wangyou Tavern, the staff had secretly sent word upstairs.
After sipping the very last drop of wine, Ye Zuilan uncapped her flagon, shook it upside down against her lips to ensure not a single drop remained, and then leisurely stood up.
It's time to let you all witness my mastery of illusions!
The moment Ye Zuilan stood up, she shifted her attire and features from those of a wealthy young master to a pale-faced scholar, completely transforming her entire aura.
As she brushed past someone on her way out, the rich young man who had been eating and drinking so heartily just moments before vanished without a trace.
Just as Ye Zuilan stepped out of the tavern, she noticed that the sky had suddenly turned dark.
"Sister Zuilan, I trust you've been well since we last met~"
A pair of soft, boneless hands caressed her neck.
Ye Zuilan shuddered.
That voice, that movement, that illusion.
Ye Zuilan's mouth twitched slightly, but she maintained an expressionless face as she said, "Su Zhiyun... long time no see."
The icy sensation on her neck vanished as a figure drifted past right in front of her.
Su Zhiyun was dressed in a red and white ruqun, her long brown hair cascading down like a waterfall, with a pair of pointed ears atop her head. Most striking of all were the nine tails swaying behind her.
"Indeed. After all these years apart, I never expected Sister Zuilan to return to Qingzhou just to see me~"
Holding a folding fan and gently fanning herself, Su Zhiyun walked leisurely toward Ye Zuilan.
Just as Ye Zuilan tried to move and escape, she found that her body felt as heavy as if it had been filled with lead, leaving her completely unable to budge.
"Little Su, over all these years... you've really grown up."
At these words, Su Zhiyun's expression darkened with complicated emotions. Gritting her teeth, she said, "That's right, I've grown up... Back then, Sister Zuilan, you swore up and down that you would love me, protect me, and stay with me forever. And then what?! After you handed me over to that old man, you completely washed your hands of me! Twenty years! You didn't even once set foot in Qingzhou!"
Ye Zuilan's mouth twitched. "How did you know I never came to Qingzhou..."
"How would I know?! If you had ever come to Qingzhou, the people at every single Wangyou Tavern across the entire region would have reported it to me!"
"Ah..."
Ye Zuilan was left completely speechless.
Su Zhiyun gently wrapped her arms around Ye Zuilan, whispering softly in her ear, "In the past, Sister always loved the wine I brewed, so I opened taverns all across Qingzhou—just so that if Sister ever came back here, she would be able to drink my wine, and just so I could find Sister again."
I really have to thank you so much, Ye Zuilan thought, forcing her expression to remain steady.
Ye Zuilan let out a sigh. Come to think of it, all her own illusion techniques had been taught to her by Su Zhiyun. After all these years, the other woman's mastery of illusions must have advanced tremendously; no matter how she altered her appearance, in Su Zhiyun's eyes, she still looked exactly as she always had. That must have been how she exposed herself right inside the Wangyou Tavern.
What Ye Zuilan didn't know, however, was that Su Zhiyun had simply sketched out over a hundred portraits of the various faces Ye Zuilan had worn in the past.
Since Ye Zuilan only ever used a few habitual disguises when altering her appearance, Su Zhiyun had guessed her identity with ease.
Su Zhiyun lightly released Ye Zuilan, stepped back a few paces, pressed her index finger to her lips, and said, "Sister Zuilan, wait here just a moment. Zhiyun will be right back to keep you company."
With that, she batted her eyelashes at her with a slight smile.
And in the next instant, she vanished right before Ye Zuilan's eyes.
After Su Zhiyun left, Ye Zuilan let out a long breath. "Phew! What an eventful life I lead..."
Though, come to think of it, Su Zhiyun probably wouldn't be as utterly outrageous as Luo Xue, right?