Venerated Venomous Consort

Gu Xijiu gave him a casual reply, “Why? Are you checking on me?”

Yun Yanli answered cheekily, “I dare not. I am just worried about you.”

Gu Xijiu pretended to look around and told him exactly where she was at the moment. “Are you done with your work?” She asked keenly.

“Not yet. Xijiu, please be careful. I’ll see you in Luo Hua City later on; probably in a month or two.”

“No worries, you go ahead with your work. I do not know where to continue searching anyway, so there is no point to trouble you.”

“Xijiu, you do not have to be so formal with me. Like I said, your problem is my problem as well. I will still continue the search for Mr. Fuyi.”

“All right.” The conversation through the directed audio spell then came to an end, so Gu Xijiu kept it away.

Like a bat in the dark, Yun Yanli dressed entirely in his black robes. He was quietly observing Gu Xijiu from the top of a tree, not too far away from where she was currently located. Relieved, the sight of her grilling meat in the woods made him believe that Gu Xijiu was not the thief who had broken into his secret chamber.

Swiftly, he sprung into the air and disappeared. After the disappearance of his class-one and class-two spiritual crystals, he had to delay his plan. While his men searched for the stolen spiritual stones, he also sent some of the hunters to retrieve more stones to replace the lost ones. The hunt for class-one spiritual stones would require his personal effort, so he would definitely have no time for Gu Xijiu.

…

After keeping the directed audio spell, she continued to munch on her grilled meat. The Firmament Stone said, “Master, it seems like Yun Yanli still cares about you.”

Did he care about her? Gu Xijiu answered scornfully, “He was just close by.” The only reason he called was that he had doubts, so he needed to check on her.

The Firmament Stone was becoming more anxious. “Has he started to suspect us? Master, will our spiritual stones be taken away from us?”

Gu Xijiu was speechless, for the only thing that it cared about was the spiritual stones. If Yun Yanli found out what she had done, the consequence would not be as simple as returning of the spiritual stones.

“Master, if he insists that you must return the spiritual stones, you can give him the ones in your storage bag. I shall not return the ones that I have kept, as he will never find out that there are more stones hidden in a bracelet. When he finds out that the amount does not tally, you can always argue that someone else had taken the rest,” the Firmament Stone suggested.

Gu Xijiu was frustrated with its useless suggestion. Sternly, she answered, “Don’t worry. When he finds out, I will give him the bracelet, so he can smash you open to retrieve the stolen spiritual stones.”

The Firmament Stone remained quiet. Gu Xijiu threw away the bones in her hand and leaped onto the back of the Clouded Leopard King. “Time to go,” she commanded.

“Master, will Yun Yanli continue to follow us?”

“Of course not! He no longer suspects me, so there is no point for him to follow us, which is great. We have other matters to attend to.”

…

Gu Xijiu finally returned to Luo Hua City. There were not many changes in the city. The first thing she did was to go and meet her people. She had been away for a long time- about three months. She returned to find that most of the older people above 60 were already dead, all except the clan leader.

Gu Xijiu asked about their deaths, but there was nothing odd about them. They died of old age, without any suffering. As for the younger ones, their work was not overexerting at all. Also, their quality of life had been greatly improved. However, the people here seemed to have aged significantly. For example, Tie Dan and Tie Niu were actually in their early 20s, but they looked close to 30 now.

“Xijiu, I heard that the people in the city generally age faster.” Hua Zhichun sighed.