Lu Qianxun, like a rural child seeing the city for the first time, was restless in the back seat, darting from the left window to the right, curiously observing the neon-lit city nightscape outside.
"Chengfeng Daddy, where are we going?" Lu Qianxun suddenly asked.
"Uh..." I glanced at Yaoyao in the passenger seat. "How about we go to my place?"
Although I had resigned from my job, I still had my rented apartment. It wasn't too far from Cuiping Mountain, about seven or eight kilometers. But I had been a corporate slave before, always rushing to the city when I had free time and rarely exploring the Cuiping Mountain area, so I wasn't very familiar with it.
The streetscape gradually became familiar. Jinling's nightlife was much more vibrant than in the Northeast. It was past midnight, yet the roads were still bustling with traffic, even experiencing some congestion. It took half an hour to get home. I parked the car, and invited Yaoyao and Lu Qianxun into my apartment. It seemed it had rained quite a bit recently, and the apartment hadn't been lived in for a while, making it a bit damp. I opened all the windows to air it out and asked if they were hungry.
"I'm not hungry," Yaoyao smiled. "You just take care of your daughter."
"...How did she become my daughter? She calls you Mom too!" I said, half-amused, half-exasperated. Lu Qianxun had been calling us by those titles all along, and we had become too lazy to correct her, accepting these new identities.
"Qianxun, are you hungry?" I asked Lu Qianxun, who was sitting in the living room, staring intently at SpongeBob SquarePants on the TV.
Lu Qianxun's gaze didn't shift. She simply shook her head and said, "Qianxun is not hungry."
"If you get hungry, just say the word, and I'll make you something to eat," I said.
"Okay, Daddy."
I followed Yaoyao to the master bedroom. Yaoyao seemed a bit drained, supporting her lower back as she slowly lay down on the bed.
"Do you need to replenish your energy?" I asked. The TV volume was quite high, but as long as Yaoyao kept her voice low, Lu Qianxun shouldn't be able to hear us.
"...I do, but it has to be quick. That child's visual ability far surpasses my qi-observing technique."
So, it wasn't just X-ray vision?
In that case, it didn't matter if the door was open or closed.
Still, I needed to be cautious; the movements shouldn't be too pronounced.
I lay down beside Yaoyao and first observed Lu Qianxun in the next room. Her attention was still glued to the television. She even walked over and looked behind the TV, of course finding nothing.
The action began. The action ended.
"...How did you do that?" I asked, surprised. We had just started!
Yaoyao smiled charmingly. "It's just a minor skill."
So this was why she was worried about Lu Qianxun discovering something? This could be resolved anytime, anywhere. Three seconds wasn't even enough to describe it; "in the blink of an eye" was more accurate.
I savored the experience. Yaoyao must have channeled a powerful surge of true qi towards me the moment I entered, so strong that before I could react, I surrendered. And before this true qi could cause me any harm, Yaoyao withdrew it. That's why I was fine.
"Under normal circumstances, don't do that..." I suggested, feeling a bit emasculated.
"Hehe, of course not. Under normal circumstances, I enjoy the process more than you do."
After my treatment, Yaoyao's complexion visibly improved, and she became more energetic, pulling me into conversation as she recounted the events of the battle at Cuiping Mountain.
For me, there wasn't much to recount. I hadn't had any opportunity to showcase my skills, only making a marginal contribution when cleaning up the battlefield at the end.
"Those three fellows were indeed very difficult to deal with," Yaoyao said, referring to the enemies. "I underestimated them. The key thing is, I really didn't expect there to be so many masters in the martial world after four hundred years."
"Didn't Shen Xingyue tell you before?" I asked.
Yaoyao shook her head. "It's not that she didn't tell me. She learned from me how to judge an enemy's strength by observing their qi. Shakespeare's people don't have qi-observing techniques. In the Jiangnan region, there was a sect called the 'Ziyang Guanqui Sect' that possessed a similar technique, but it was a small sect. I don't know if they have any successors who can still use it."
I vaguely remembered Shen Xingyue mentioning something about this, but I couldn't recall the details. It didn't matter anyway, as long as I could do it!
I told Yaoyao that I had made further progress, not only being able to see the size of the qi aura but also its color. Yaoyao was very pleased, saying I was progressing rapidly. As we chatted, our bodies naturally moved closer to each other. Yaoyao, as my master, intended to reward her disciple once more. However, just as we were about to embark on a second round, I saw a little alligator crawl in from the living room, approach the bed, and croak at me.
"Why did you change back?" I asked, puzzled.
The little alligator didn't answer, only making that sound.
Yaoyao guessed, "Maybe she's hungry? Yao creatures cannot maintain human form when they are extremely hungry."