Xi Weilan listed her favorite dishes one by one, and with every name she called out, another dish appeared on the table.
Before long, the entire table was covered with all kinds of delicious food.
She happily picked up a pig’s trotter and began gnawing on it, eating with great relish.
Lu Jinshuang sat beside her. She gently wiped the oil from Xi Weilan’s face with a handkerchief and said softly, “Slow down. We’re not going to fight you for it. If it isn’t enough, just have your sister bring out some more.”
“Thank you, Sister Jinshuang!” Xi Weilan remembered to thank her even as she ate.
Xi Qingyue smiled faintly. “Sister Jinshuang, don’t worry about her. Let her eat her fill. We can clean her up afterward.”
The girls ate inside the carriage while the guards dined at the stone table outside. Everyone enjoyed the meal immensely.
Inside the county office, the Ninth Prince wandered around after entering, trying to gather information about the place.
Unfortunately, Xi Qingyue’s guards knew nothing whenever he questioned them. There were also several people following him, so he couldn’t ask too openly and had no choice but to give up for the time being.
After careful observation, he discovered that only a few guards, such as Nan Yun, carried concealed weapons. The ordinary guards had none, and he didn’t even catch a glimpse of the powerful weapon he had seen before.
He had no idea where Xi Qingyue had hidden those things, so he planned to search the area thoroughly in the middle of the night.
Xi Qingyue had much the same idea. She was also planning to deal with the Ninth Prince that night.
She wasn’t about to feel at ease with a highly skilled prince harboring impure intentions staying nearby.
After dinner, she brought out several reclining chairs and lazily lay in the courtyard, admiring the moon. Xi Weilan and Lu Jinshuang reclined on either side of her. Each of them had a small table beside their chair, topped with pastries and various drinks.
Xi Weilan held an osmanthus cake in her left hand and a cup of milk tea in her right. Her mouth never stopped moving.
Lu Jinshuang gazed at the stars scattered across the sky and the bright moon hanging overhead, her face filled with wonder.
“The moonlight is beautiful. The scenery up there must be even more breathtaking. I’d really like to go up and have a look. Yue, just how high can you fly? When will you be able to take me all the way up to see what the stars look like?”
She had seen Xi Qingyue hovering high in the sky before, but she had no idea how high she could actually fly.
Xi Qingyue shook her head with a faint smile. “I’m not capable of flying that high yet. Seeing the stars is still a long way off. As for how high I can go, probably a little over a hundred zhang. I can’t fly any higher for now.”
Her wind-based supernatural ability was currently at level five. Reaching an altitude of several hundred meters was no problem for her. Once she broke through to level six, she estimated that she would be able to reach heights of over a thousand meters. In this world, such an ability would be enough to convince people she was an immortal.
When Lu Jinshuang heard her casually mention a hundred zhang, her eyes widened. More importantly, she had caught the word “for now,” which meant Xi Qingyue would be able to fly even higher in the future.
She abruptly stood up and excitedly circled Xi Qingyue twice before throwing her head back and laughing delightedly.
“Yue, can you take people with you? Take me up there sometime so I can have a look. My qinggong is nothing compared to yours. I can’t fly as high or as steadily as you, let alone hover in midair.”
Looking at her eager expression, Xi Qingyue nodded. “All right. Just don’t scream.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she rose from her chair, grabbed Lu Jinshuang by the arm, and shot into the sky like a meteor.
Xi Weilan, who had been eating, watched the scene with excitement. She hurriedly set down what she was holding, jumped out of her chair, and shouted toward the sky, “Sister! What about me? I want to see too!”
The next instant, the two who had flown away landed on the ground again. Xi Qingyue picked Xi Weilan up and instantly took off once more.
Lu Jinshuang was carried into the sky, brought back down, and then taken up again without the slightest preparation. Fortunately, she had a strong enough heart not to be scared to death.
In the courtyard, Dongxue and Nanxing stared in utter shock. They could no longer see the three women.
Nanxing gazed upward with open admiration. “The Commandery Princess is incredible! Could she be an immortal from the legends?”
Dongxue patted her on the shoulder. “What are you thinking? If the Commandery Princess were an immortal, she would have gone to the immortal realm long ago. Stop reading those ridiculous storybooks until you turn your brain to mush. This is called a divine ability, all right?”
Nanxing pursed her lips. “Would an ordinary person be able to use a divine ability? You couldn’t find a second person like her anywhere in all of Great Jing. Since you admit it’s a divine ability, then she’s practically a god.”
The two of them grew more and more carried away, chatting animatedly.
Several hundred meters above the ground, Xi Qingyue came to a stop with the other two. She also created a layer of protection around them.
Lu Jinshuang looked down at the nighttime view of the city, her face filled with awe. “I never imagined that one day I’d be able to stand this high and look down below. It’s incredible.”
Xi Weilan was equally excited. “Sister, this is even higher than last time!”
Both girls were delighted, while Xi Qingyue merely smiled faintly. “This height is nothing special. If we could go a little higher, we’d be able to see the clouds during the day. But this isn’t high enough for that, and at this altitude the scenery below is too far away to be useful.”
She genuinely felt it wasn’t very useful. After all, her enemies couldn’t fly this high. A single shot was enough to deal with them.
Lu Jinshuang was speechless. “How can you say it’s useless? If a large army suddenly launched an attack, you’d only need to fly a little higher to see them coming. That would be more useful than anything else.”
Xi Qingyue didn’t think much of it. “Well, you’re right. But to me, it makes no difference when they attack the city. The result will be the same.”
Lu Jinshuang nodded. “That’s true. No one can defeat you anyway, especially not against the gun in your hands.”
They stayed in the sky for quite a while, moving to several different locations before finally arriving above the county office.
Xi Qingyue looked down at the government compound, the corners of her lips curving upward. “Let’s go see how the Ninth Prince is doing. If he isn’t behaving, we’ll cripple him first. I don’t trust that qinggong of his.”
Lu Jinshuang nodded in agreement. As for any notion of deep sibling affection, she had none.
She wasn’t familiar with the Ninth Prince to begin with. He was also one of the masterminds behind the Guangling Pavilion, responsible for abducting so many children and refining them into human pills. She neither wanted nor dared to have a younger brother like that.
Xi Qingyue brought the two of them down silently onto the roof, but she did not attack immediately.
She used her supernatural ability to conceal the three of their auras, then simply lay down on the roof above the Ninth Prince’s room and continued watching the stars.
The Ninth Prince had no idea that anyone was above him. He was still gloating over the hidden weapons he expected to obtain that night.
Sitting at the table, he lifted a cup of tea and drained it in one gulp. He then said disdainfully, “You two little brats can stay away from the county office if you like. Once I take those hidden weapons from those guards, we’ll see. If I can’t get the powerful ones, I can at least take one of the smaller ones.”
He had his eyes fixed on the pistols carried by Nan Yun and the others. If he couldn’t act openly during the day, he would simply take them at night. With his qinggong, no one would notice.
Setting down the teacup, the Ninth Prince opened the door and walked out. His destination was the courtyard where Nan Yun was staying.
Watching him leave the courtyard, Xi Qingyue gave a mocking smile. “So that’s what he’s after. My things aren’t so easy to take.”
She knew the Ninth Prince meant no good, but she had never expected him to stoop to theft—much less try to steal her gun.
Lu Jinshuang looked surprised. “What does he want with the gun? Could he be planning to steal it and give it to Prince Kang?”
Xi Qingyue shook her head. “I don’t know. Perhaps he wants it for himself. Let’s follow him and find out. We can also see whether Nan Yun is vigilant enough. Consider it a training exercise.”
