Chapter 205

Ning Ning had previously covered Pei Ji’s eyes with her hands. As she grew more sleepy, she lost her strength and let her right hand rest on his shoulder. When she saw Luan Niang get up, she instinctively shuddered and poked his thin cheek with her finger.

“There’s something wrong with the incense.”

Pei Ji actually used his spiritual energy to transmit his voice. His cold, indifferent voice in the night was as chilling as winter snow, with a touch of lazy fatigue: “Luo Yuanming should be asleep by now; no need to worry about him.”

The incense must have contained a sleep-inducing ingredient, which was why both she and Pei Ji felt a sudden wave of drowsiness.

Ning Ning slowly gathered her spiritual consciousness from within, trying to wake herself up. At the same time, she quietly transmitted her voice to him: “Luan Niang has gone out—we should follow her.”

Pei Ji responded with a low “Hmm.”

She was never one to hesitate. After making up her mind, she intended to move immediately. However, when Ning Ning gently pushed the wardrobe door open and was about to leave the wooden wardrobe, she found herself firmly bound by something, unable to move an inch forward.

Right.

Her heart skipped a beat. She looked down and noticed that Pei Ji behind her was also taken aback.

Earlier, while moving around in the wardrobe, touching his face and eyes, Pei Ji suddenly lowered his head and whispered “Don’t move” in her ear.

As if to restrict Ning Ning’s movements, when he spoke, he lowered the hand covering her lips and swiftly wrapped his arm tightly around her soft waist.

Later, the incense grew stronger, and the room was plunged into darkness. Both of them, with their own thoughts and the rising fatigue, forgot about this matter.

Now, as the wardrobe door opened, the moonlight fell between the youth’s brows, cold and sharp like a transparent blade, waking Pei Ji up instantly.

He couldn’t see Ning Ning’s expression, but he felt the warmth of her body just inches away. His arm was pressed tightly against her waist and abdomen, separated only by a thin layer of clothing, as if he could touch her slender waist and soft flesh.

That stifling heat surged up again.

“Pei Ji?”

The place where she was held felt warm. Ning Ning, dizzy from the incense lingering at her nose, saw Pei Ji not moving and, in her panic and embarrassment, blurted out, “Let go first; we can do it again later—”

—Later do what???

Ning Ning: …

Pei Ji: …

The drowsiness in her head vanished because of her words. Ning Ning felt mortified, wishing she could bury her head in the ground. After a long silence, she covered her entire face with a trembling right hand.

Pei Ji said nothing, silently releasing his hand from her waist.

Cheng Ying, rarely quiet, curled up like a soft-bodied worm, twisting around while making a strange “gurgling” sound of suppressed laughter from his throat.

Luan Niang had drugged the incense and went out at midnight, while Luo Yuanming was fast asleep. Ning Ning knew that she couldn’t delay any longer, and she didn’t care about the shame and regret. She forced the extra emotions back to the bottom of her heart and said sullenly, “Let’s go.”

Luo Yuanming indeed slept soundly. Under the bright moonlight, his handsome face was completely unguarded in sleep. He fell asleep with a faint smile. His body turned towards the spot where Luan Niang had been, with an outstretched arm in an embracing posture.

It’s a pity that the person next to him ruthlessly brushed away that hand and disappeared long ago.

Ning Ning sighed in her heart and cast a simple concealment spell on herself and Pei Ji.

This spell was useless against someone of equal or higher cultivation, but for someone like Luan Niang, with no cultivation at all, it would be difficult for her to notice them even from a distance.

The woman seemed wary of Luo Yuanming, frequently glancing back to ensure nothing was amiss in the room after leaving. Ning Ning slowed her pace and breathed as she followed. Not far from the room, Luan Niang stopped in the shadows at the corner of the courtyard wall.

The bright moonlight illuminated her profile, revealing skin as white as jade and a bone structure as delicate as snow.

Perhaps it was just an illusion, but at that moment, Luan Niang seemed even more beautiful and pale than before, her captivating eyes filled with allure. Her skin, smooth as silk, glistened under the moonlight, looking like a flower tree covered in snow, resembling a fairy born under the moon.

Without hesitation, Luan Niang lowered her eyes and raised her sleeve, pulling out an item that was familiar to Ning Ning from her cuff.

The talisman is square and thin, with the characters outlined in cinnabar. The talisman is used by cultivators for instant communication.

“Strange.”

Ning Ning immediately sensed something was wrong: “The girls at Nuanyu Pavilion said that Luan Niang had been in the brothel since childhood and had never learned any spells… how could she know how to use a communication talisman?”

Could it be true, as the girls said, that although Luan Niang’s body remained, her soul had been replaced, becoming a completely different person?

But if that were the case, why did she buy that painting? Only the real Luan Niang would care so much about her past as a young girl, right?

Pei Ji noticed her confusion and said calmly, “Luan Niang has spiritual energy within her; perhaps someone taught her a few spells.”

Although they had the concealment spell, Ning Ning couldn’t get too close, making it impossible to hear what Luan Niang was communicating.

She wrote quickly, recited an incantation, and sent the talisman off, soon receiving a reply. The response was short, likely only a few sentences, but Luan Niang smiled contentedly after reading it.

That smile was somewhat eerie.

Ning Ning watched as the woman under the moon finished reading, then leaned against the wall thoughtfully. A spark appeared at her fingertips.

—a blue flame, not very conspicuous in the night. It gnawed at the bottom of the letter like a will-o’-the-wisp, then burned more and more fiercely until it swallowed up the entire page, leaving only grains of ashes blown by the wind.

Ning Ning was startled again: “Is that spiritual fire?”

Unlike the communication talisman, using spiritual fire required much higher cultivation. The way Luan Niang used it suggested she had reached the early foundation establishment stage.

Though foundation establishment was just the entry level of immortality cultivation, for someone who had never touched it before, it was quite incredible.

People in Luan City all thought the madam was an ordinary person. No one ever mentioned Luo Yuanming teaching her any spells. The most crucial point was…

Ning Ning frowned.

Even if Luan Niang was a genius, a rare talent in immortality cultivation, and Luo Yuanming had taught her everything he knew, they had known each other for less than a year. Mastering spiritual fire in such a short time seemed unlikely.

After burning the letter, Luan Niang glanced around and wrapped her clothes tighter as she headed back towards the bedroom.

With both the city lord and his wife inside, Ning Ning couldn’t go back to that bedroom. Pei Ji’s voice was still a bit hoarse. He glanced at her quickly before looking away.

“Shall we go?”

“There’s one more place I’m curious about.”

Ning Ning shook her head, a glint in her eyes as she gave him a mysterious smile: “Do you remember? The former madam of the city left nothing behind… except for a room that Luan Niang ordered to be sealed.”

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Luo Yuanming’s first wife, Song Xianning, was said to have always had a distant relationship with him, and later they often quarreled. In a fit of anger, she moved to a secluded courtyard.

Their relationship fluctuated, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but Song Xianning’s illness worsened daily until she passed away young, now a forgotten name in Luan City.

Shortly after her death, Luan Niang moved into the city lord’s mansion. Luo Yuanming, though a gentleman, remembered their past affection and kept the residence in the corner of the mansion.

Luan Niang, out of jealousy, ordered the courtyard to be sealed, forbidding anyone, including Luo Yuanming, from entering.

Pei Ji didn’t quite understand why they needed to search that room.

“This is how I see it.”

Ning Ning said, “Luan Niang ordered a thorough search of the bedroom and study to clear her name, finding nothing. So those places should be clean—don’t you think it’s strange she ordered this place sealed?”