Hearing the chattering and laughter coming from not far away, Xue Qilin pulled her gaze away from the the place that cannot be seen and looked at the place Gong Tianyang is located in again.

The three members of the Gong Clan have already surrounded Gong Tianyang.

Lying in Gong Jing’s arms Gong Tianyang said something to Gong Tianqing, which caused her to cover her mouth and smile. Beautiful laughter rang. Probably to tell them that he’s okay, Gong Tianyang raised his thin arm again, grinned, and showed his deflated biceps.

Seeing him grinning cheekily, Xue Qilin appears to feel a warmth, too. She couldn’t help putting on a gentle smile.

“I shouldn’t disturb them…”

Xue Qilin turned around, wanting to leave the room in order to give them space. But, she was stopped by Gong Tianyang.

“Older Sister Xue, where are you going!”

He sounded a little dissatisfied.

However, after Xue Qilin turned back, she saw Gong Tianyang beckon her happily. Where is there any dissatisfaction?

“I’m tired! You go ahead and talk! I’m going to sleep!”

“No! Older Sister Xue is my benefactor!”

“You know that I am your benefactor, yet you won’t let me go to sleep?”

Xue Qilin asked in amusement.

Gong Tianyang puckered his lips and answered confidently, “A benefactor should look like one! As a benefactor, isn’t it inappropriate not to let me express my thanks?!”

Wow, this fallacy of his does make some sense! This little weasel! Xue Qilin doesn’t know whether he should be angry or humored.

“Yang’er, don’t talk nonsense!”

The one to rebuke Gong Tianyang was actually Gong Yue.

He lowered his head and clasped his hands at Xue Qilin.

“For being prejudiced against and offend Senior Xue, Gong Yue apologizes here. I ask Senior Xue not to mind it. You are a benefactor of the Gong Clan. If there is anything that you need in the future, please speak up. The Gong Clan is willing to do anything in its power to help you.”

Gong Yue’s sudden expression of goodwill caught Xue Qilin off guard. She could only scratch her head in embarrassment.

“It was something that required little effort… As for your lack of respect towards me, I haven’t kept that in mind either…”

She isn’t someone who bears grudges. Except for deep-seated hatred, she basically forgets things when she turns her head. No matter how badly others treat her, as long as they don’t cross her bottom line, she will at most adopt an unconcerned attitude. She only feels a minor antipathy towards Gong Yue.

“Senior Xue’s generosity makes this junior feel ashamed…”

Gong Yue lowered his gaze and sighed, ashamed.

“You flatter me!” Xue Qilin stroked the back of her head, feeling both proud and embarrassed, “Don’t praise me, or I’ll get conceited.”

“Older Sister Xue is really shameless!”

Gong Tianyang scratched his nose, mocking Xue Qilin.

“Leave me alone!”

Xue Qilin glared at him, and then turned around and quickly walked out of the room, ignoring Gong Tianyang’s urging for her to stay. She firmly believes that a time like this should be spent with your loved ones, not an outsider like her.

She planned to stay in the hall and wait for everything to settle down, and then inquire about Gong Tianqing’s wishes, to see whether she should leave by herself, or bring Gong Tianqing along.

In the end, Xue Qilin was forced to stop before she left the courtyard house.

“Hmm?”

A team of people is rushing in her direction.

The person in the lead is a girl in a palace dress. She is about sixteen years old, is beautiful and lovely, and exudes a luxurious temperament.

The most eye-catching thing is her long hair tinged with the shade of water. Her hair can only be described as “long”, frighteningly so. Although it has been folded several times, but Xue Qilin estimates that her hair is at least twice her height.

Xue Qilin took a few more looks at her, and then fixed her gaze on the woman beside her.

The woman is tall and well-endowed, has a sword in her hand, and is dressed like a maid. Her long, grayish-black hair is like the deathly stillness in deep winter. However, none of this is the reason why Xue Qilin looked at her.

The real reason why Xue Qilin gazed at her is because of her majestic atmosphere.

There is no doubt that she is a Heaven Realm practitioner.

However, she gives off a sense of familiarity. Xue Qilin feels that the maid’s breath is quite familiar.

To have a Heaven Realm practitioner serve as a guard, who is this girl? Xue Qilin is puzzled about the identity of the girl dressed in a palace dress.

Accompanied by the ringing sound of ornaments dangling, the girl in a palace dress came up to Xue Qilin and examined her from top to bottom without any regard for the other party sentiment.

“Xue Qilin…?”

Although the question sounded a little hesitant, but both the tone and expression carried some certainty. Evidently, the girl in a palace dress likely just asked a question to which the answer she already knows.

Dissatisfied with this, Xue Qilin asked in reply with knitted eyebrows, “Who are you?”

Another maid — not the one with a sword — suddenly took a step forward and yelled furiously.

“Impudent! You were asked –”

The girl in a palace dress raised her hand to signal the maid to stop. The maid said, “complying with princess’s order”, bowed, and backed away.

Princess? Could it be — Xue Qilin was taken aback a little.

“I don’t have time to play with you here. The answer to my question, is it yes, or is it no?”

The girl in a palace dress narrowed her eyes slightly and asked a second time.

There was a certain pressure of a superior — even more intense than the imposing manner of the Heaven Realm practitioner beside her — in her voice.

“What if it is yes, what if it is no?”

If the other party asked nicely, Xue Qilin would have answered frankly — she isn’t incapable of accommodating people. But the arrogant way the girl in front of her asks questions is really irksome.

“– likes to use the character ‘咩’ [2]. Mhm, you must be Xue Qilin.”

The girl in a palace dress nodded as if pleased with her guess.

In fact, she must already have a certain understanding of Xue Qilin, or else she wouldn’t know about Xue Qilin’s speech habit. Xue Qilin suspects that she deliberately investigated her.

The girl in a palace dress, who seems to believe that the lass in front of her is Xue Qilin, immediately cut to the chase and asked seriously, “Have you cured Gong Tianyang? Where’s that Tailor person? If I haven’t guessed wrong, he should be gone, right?”

How does she know? Xue Qilin’s eyes widened reflexively.

Seeing the lass’s reaction, which is equivalent to a tacit agreement, the girl in a palace dress sighed lightly.

“It seems that I’m late. Royal father, this prank of yours has gone too far.”

Then, without explaining anything, she bypassed Xue Qilin, who is still in the dark, and walked towards the room at a quick pace.

“Hey, wait –”

Xue Qilin, who snapped out of it, turned around and planned to call her, but then the Heaven Realm maid blocked in front of her and bowed to her.

Xue Qilin was dumbfounded, not understanding what the other party means by this.

However, the thing that dumbfounded her even more came next.

“Yinping greets Young Ancestor.”

“… you called me Young Ancestor? You’re from the Merak Temple!”

“Yes, I am a 24th generation disciple of the Merak Temple. According to seniority, I am a junior disciple sister of vice-Temple Master Ye.”

“This…”

Xue Qilin was left speechless. She was completely unaware that there was this person in her sect, since neither Ye Zhen nor Qi Qiqi told her this. She doesn’t know how to face this disciple called Yinping.

However, she couldn’t look into this.

“– Yang’er!”

A panicked scream suddenly resounded across the sky.

[2] – 咩 is a final particle which transforms statements into questions that indicate doubt or surprise. Only the MC uses it