“Why?”
The impatient Shen Yuan pressed.
Ruan Lingyu next to her pouted in disgust. This guy, as the right-hand man of the official…had no integrity at all. Now he had the nerve to play coy in front of her, completely shameless.
“Because the boy she wants to marry is already twenty-eight years old. If he hasn’t found a partner by the end of this month, according to the dynasty’s laws, he will have to join the army. So you just need to wait here like a hunter waiting for a rabbit.”
Clerk Yuan suggested enthusiastically.
“Thank you for the reminder, Clerk Yuan.”
Ruan Lingyu said a perfunctory thanks, then left with a few junior sisters, as she really couldn’t stand his pretentious demeanor anymore.
“Senior sisters, where shall we look for that imposter? Should we go to the prefecture capital? Or, as Clerk Yuan suggested, wait here like hunters waiting for rabbits?”
The impatient Shen Yuan asked.
“Of course, we’ll wait here like hunters waiting for rabbits. We won’t find her in the prefecture capital.”
Ruan Lingyu said without thinking.
“Why?”
Miao Xiang weakly inquired.
“Are you stupid! Junior Sister’s home is in the prefecture capital. If there were a girl who looked exactly like her there, it would have been all over the place. How could we have never heard of it? Therefore, her identity information must be fake.”
Yun Fei rolled her eyes at Miao Xiang.
“Second Senior Sister is right.”
Miao Xiang said, biting her little finger.
“Alright, from now on, we will focus our surveillance on the county office. Five people, two shifts. Three during the day, two at night. We’ll ensure someone is on guard for twelve hours a day. Understood?”
Ruan Lingyu instructed.
“Understood!”
The junior sisters took their orders.
…
As night fell, Huang Qi arrived at a small county town and saw signs of human habitation again.
Huang Qi released his spiritual sense and probed a passerby. He remembered his master saying that spiritual sense could penetrate the body and directly detect the soul, so whether the other person was possessed by a vengeful soul or an evil ghost could be seen “at a glance.”
As expected, his spiritual sense passed directly through the person’s body, clearly seeing the person’s “naked” soul.
Of course, this kind of detection wasn’t useful against everyone. If the other party’s spiritual sense was stronger than yours, they could completely defend against it.
Having learned from previous lessons, Huang Qi dared not travel at night anymore, so he found an inn to stay in.
“Shopkeeper, what day is it today?”
Huang Qi asked the shopkeeper impatiently.
“It’s the twenty-fifth of the sixth lunar month.”
The shopkeeper gave Huang Qi a strange look, thinking that although the girl looked pretty, she didn’t know the date.
“What? June 25th?”
Huang Qi broke out in a cold sweat. He thought he had only stayed in that cave for two or three days, but he had actually stayed for six days. It turned out that nothing in the illusion could be believed.
“There are only four days left until the end of the month. I must hurry back as soon as possible.”
Huang Qi was anxious in his heart. But the problem was that after so many days, people from the HongHua Sect had probably spread throughout the entire Huang Tian Prefecture, and the road ahead would definitely be full of obstacles.
“It seems I have to be careful with every step I take from now on.”
Huang Qi planned this way and entered the room. Because he was afraid of being discovered, he immediately released his spiritual sense to monitor the entire inn.
Not long after, Huang Qi suddenly opened his eyes because the thing he least wanted to see had happened. Two young men in HongHua Sect disciple attire entered the inn and started talking to the shopkeeper.
“Shopkeeper, have you seen a woman as tall as me, who looks exactly like the Hong Ling Immortal from the HongHua Sect?”
One disciple asked the shopkeeper as he inquired.
“Uh… Hong Ling Immortal, I’ve only heard of her, I haven’t seen her yet.”
The shopkeeper replied somewhat embarrassedly.
“You haven’t even seen the Hong Ling Immortal? What a country bumpkin.”
The disciple sneered contemptuously.
The shopkeeper’s face showed anger, but he dared not speak out.
“That woman was wearing a green wide-sleeved flowing immortal dress, and perhaps a veil.”
Another disciple added.
“Damn it, just give me my tooth token name!”
Huang Qi cursed inwardly.
“Yes! She just checked into the inn, in the second room on the right on the second floor.”
The shopkeeper revealed Huang Qi’s whereabouts without thinking, as he really didn’t dare to offend anyone from the HongHua Sect.
Upon hearing this, the two disciples became spirited and rushed upstairs menacingly.
Huang Qi hated his own foolishness for swaggering around in Hong Ling Immortal’s clothes. Wasn’t this asking for trouble? But now was clearly not the time for regret. He picked up his luggage and jumped out of the window.
Behind the inn was a quiet alley, so Huang Qi did not alarm anyone when he jumped down. He didn’t bother to check the situation in the inn and fled outside.
Huang Qi quickly rushed to the street and then slowed down his pace to walk towards the city outskirts. If it weren’t for fear of attracting too much attention, he would have run away at full speed.
As he walked, Huang Qi suddenly noticed a large clothing store on the street. He hesitated for a moment before deciding to patronize the owner’s business. The reason was simple: wearing the current dress made him too conspicuous, so he had to change it immediately.
Huang Qi walked into the clothing store, and the female shopkeeper immediately greeted him and started to promote her products. After all, in this world, there were plenty of young girls who were desperate for attention, and who would be short of money?
Huang Qi ignored her and was about to buy a skirt to change into and leave. He scanned the store with his eyes and his gaze suddenly fixed, because he saw a blue mid-waist ruqun.
“This skirt looks exactly like the one Hong Ling Immortal was wearing.”
Huang Qi didn’t expect such a coincidence and was momentarily stunned.
“Haha, heaven is helping me!”
Huang Qi quickly came back to his senses and conceived a bold plan in his mind. So, without blinking, he spent two taels of silver to buy the ruqun and started changing in the store.
After changing into the skirt, Huang Qi felt a chill on his chest. He looked down and blushed with excitement. Because the mid-waist ruqun had a strapless design and was very low-cut, it revealed a large expanse of fair skin. From his own perspective looking down, he could even see a deep “scar.”
Although Huang Qi had worn women’s clothing before, he had never worn anything so revealing. He was unaccustomed to it for a moment, but to save his life, he gritted his teeth and walked out, not even wearing a veil.
Yes, the method Huang Qi thought of was to pass off the fake as the genuine article. Since it was difficult to escape, he might as well walk openly!
The female shopkeeper was dumbfounded. She had lived for thirty or forty years and had never seen such a beautiful girl.
Huang Qi ignored her and headed straight outside. To make himself look more normal, this time she didn’t run away again. Instead, she imitated the way Hong Ling Immortal walked from memory, elegantly taking small steps and maintaining a solemn expression.
Thus, Huang Qi was about to walk out of the city gate.
“Wait!”
At this moment, a voice suddenly came from behind.
Huang Qi took a deep breath, then turned his head calmly. He saw that it was indeed the two HongHua Sect disciples who called him.
“What is it?”
Huang Qi asked with a cold face, pretending to be aloof.
“You… are you Junior Sister Hong Ling?”
The two disciples scanned Huang Qi for a while before asking uncertainly. After all, for them, they could only distinguish the genuine from the fake based on their clothes. The one wearing the blue mid-waist ruqun was Cheng Hong Ling, and the one wearing the green wide-sleeved flowing immortal dress was the imposter. This was the information they had obtained before setting out.
“It’s me. Speak directly if you have something to say!”
Huang Qi was stingy with his words, and he indeed had the demeanor.
“Junior Sister, it’s good that you are here. We just found traces of that imposter in an inn, so we followed her out.”
One disciple hurriedly tried to take credit.
“Is that so? What a coincidence, I was also following her tracks.”
Huang Qi lied without blushing or panting. The reason he was so calm was because his strength had greatly increased, giving him the ability to protect himself. If he were unlucky enough to be exposed, he would just run away. After all, these ordinary disciples had low cultivation levels, and they couldn’t do anything to him.
“That’s great! Junior Sister, I just saw her run out of the inn, and she shouldn’t have gone far.”
The other disciple eagerly reported.
“Very good, let’s split up and search!”
Huang Qi immediately made arrangements.
“Yes!”
The two male disciples took their orders and quickly disappeared into the crowd. They never dreamed that the green wide-sleeved flowing immortal dress they were looking for was now lying in Huang Qi’s luggage.
