“Who gave you the nerve to run off without so much as a word?”
The one pinning Aqing down was a tall woman, pretty of feature though not excessively striking, gentle and serene, in a plain long robe.
“I… I left a letter.”
Aqing instinctively tried to flee, only to find that no matter what she couldn’t wrench free of the other’s palm. She could only squeeze out an obedient smile, her voice piteous as she begged for mercy. “Auntie, cut me some slack, won’t you?”
“Xu Qing’er!”
The woman called Auntie pinched her cheek in exasperation and scolded, “You’ve got a death wish, is that it? Is the outside world a place you, a Core-Nurturing, can go wandering into? And you still dared take away the Xu family’s formation manual! Are you trying to vex your father to death?”
“There’s so many interesting things in the books, and I’ve never seen a single one of them. Just let me look a while longer…”
Aqing went on begging for mercy, but the corner of her eye stole a glance toward the Eight-Direction Dining Hall. When would Big Brother Shen finally notice he’d lost her.
“Heh, still waiting for someone to rescue you.”
The woman simply hoisted her up and said softly, “This time I came out having brought the full set of the Hundred-Ghost Spirit-Stilling Grand Formation. Want to give it a try?”
“Hmph.”
Xu Qing’er splayed her four limbs toward the ground and outright gave up struggling.
Auntie was the Xu family’s oddball, with no love for studying formations, yet gifted at cultivation instead. An extreme-peak Mixed Origin cultivation that left a whole crowd of the clan’s elders unable to say a word. Add to that Father’s extreme fondness for her, preparing her all manner of finished formations, and the two combined made for strength hard to imagine.
“I advise you’d best put me down, or else…”
“Or else what?”
A touch of arrogance ill-suited to her gentle features surfaced on the woman’s face.
“Or else you might have to stay here.”
A cold, detached voice sounded behind the woman. Alarm surfaced on her face, and she instinctively made to look back, only to immediately feel that palm pressed tight against her spine. Heat flickered in and out between its fingers. As though it could melt a path infant.
The woman drew a deep breath, loosened her five fingers, and tossed away the girl in her hand. “Who are you?”
Aqing’s face bloomed with delight, and she scurried in a streak to hide behind Shen Yi, poking out only her head. “I’m not going back!”
Hearing this, Shen Yi raised an eyebrow. He shot Aqing a sidelong glance.
He’d just seen that woman gripping her, threatening her in a low voice, and assumed she’d been caught by someone from Xuanguang Cave. Now it seemed more like a story of a rebellious runaway junior caught by family.
Shen Yi casually put away the Parting-Flame. Not bothered to mind it any further, he turned back toward the dining hall.
Useful to him though Aqing was, it didn’t warrant snatching her away right before her elder’s face — after all, the places he meant to go were all rather dangerous. Truthfully, a Core-Nurturing already, and still an obedient caged bird with no freedom — that rather caught him off guard.
“Eh!”
Aqing was just preparing to explain a little, to ask Big Brother Shen to release her aunt, when she suddenly found her backer had vanished, and once again met the woman’s cold face.
She shuddered all over and hurriedly squeezed out a smile, trying to rouse the other’s tenderness. “Auntie, Qing’er knows she was wrong.”
Only to find the woman rubbing her wrist and reaching for her.
“Auntie!”
“Auntie, I’m Qing’er… Xu Wanyun, don’t push things too far!”
“I’d say you’re the one pushing things too far. What did you just call me?” Xu Wanyun scooped her up in one motion, meaning to give her a good thrashing, raised her hand — then, looking at that piteous little face, couldn’t bring herself to.
She sighed and looked toward the direction the young man had left. “You dared give him a presence-concealing formation-plate too. Do you not know there’s a Xu-family mark on that plate? If he had ties to Xuanguang Cave, you’d already be a dead woman.”
The one who’d approached her soundlessly just now, and she who’d approached Xu Qing’er a moment ago, had used the very same thing.
“He doesn’t have ties, though.”
Xu Qing’er beckoned. Xu Wanyun, puzzled a moment, leaned her face in. The next instant, her fair face changed abruptly. Two long fingers pinched on again, wishing she could tear Xu Qing’er’s face to shreds with the force of it.
Grown quite the talent — barely out and already daring to provoke Xuanguang Cave, and a true Spirit-Transformation Perfected Master at that. Wearing such a smug, boastful look about the young man. All that about being able to take part in a Spirit-Transformation clash of arts, delivering the meritorious final strike at the end.
“…”
Xu Qing’er rolled her eyes tearfully. “I only told you because your Xu family has a feud with Xuanguang Cave. Don’t go telling anyone outside.”
“Your Xu family, your Xu family!”
Xu Wanyun vented her fill on the girl’s cheeks, then finally let go, wearing an expression of lingering fear. She waved a hand to withdraw the presence-concealing formation around them, and no longer spoke of what had just happened.
“Come home with me.” Xu Wanyun said, brooking no dispute.
“I still want to go see the age-tree… a living age-tree, you know, that might even have become a spiritual root. Don’t you want to see it?” Xu Qing’er tempted her. She knew this aunt best of all — the other had no love for formations at all; in the whole clan, she was perhaps, besides herself, the one who most detested hiding inside formations.
“Don’t put on the act. If you didn’t want to be out here, why come find me yourself instead of having Father come?”
“I…”
Xu Wanyun was momentarily stumped, then shot her a sullen glare. “Just this once. There won’t be a next time.”
An extreme-peak Mixed Origin Grandmaster, with a great many formations besides. One might say she was among the very foremost of the strong in this region. Yet she hadn’t even the qualification to breathe free air. Set in anyone’s place, they’d feel resentment too — only, the serene manner she performed day to day had fooled the whole clan; only this niece could see through her disguise.
“Tell me, then, where’s the age-tree? I’ll take you to see it.” Xu Wanyun adjusted her breathing, feeling the faint heat still on her spine, somewhat unresigned. Using the Xu family’s own things to deal with Xu-family people — it was simply outrageous.
“I don’t want you to take me. Your jianghu experience is too shallow, foolish to death.”
Xu Qing’er, freed at last from her plight, dashed straight for the dining hall. Walking inside, she found Shen Yi in the corner. She patted her chest and handed over the little booklet. “Big Brother Shen, these are the things I just traded for — used up roughly thirty percent of the storage pouch’s stores, and trading for that news took about another forty percent.”
“All settled?” Shen Yi lifted his eyes.
Xu Qing’er turned to look at her aunt walking expressionlessly into the dining hall, and said falteringly, “More or less.”
“What are all these?”
Shen Yi leafed through the booklet, finding he couldn’t make much sense of what was recorded on it.
“I looked over the techniques they brought to trade — all worthless things. The truly formidable methods, few people carry on them, so I simply traded for some other things.” Aqing leaned close to Shen Yi’s ear, her breath fragrant as orchid. “These are all for repairing the Nine-Sword Calamity-Ending Grand Formation. I can fix it, you know — and improve it, too.”
Seeing the two in such a posture, Xu Wanyun instinctively clenched her five fingers.
“Keep your distance from me.”
Shen Yi, somewhat at a loss for words, pushed Aqing’s head away. Don’t forget — in outsiders’ eyes, this kid was still in a scholar’s guise, and with such a handsome, delicate appearance besides, misunderstandings arose easily.
“Oh, oh!”
Xu Qing’er nodded obediently.
At this, Xu Wanyun’s anger finally subsided a little. She composed her expression and walked over to sit down across from Shen Yi.
(End of Chapter 281)