“WOC, isn’t that—?”
“Huh? Isn’t that person—?”
“Luo Dan’er/Limuqun?!”
In the sky and in the bustling marketplace, their gazes met, both filled with indescribable shock.
Almost at the same moment, Zuo Qiuli’s voice echoed in Limuqun’s mind: “Hey hey hey, Limuqun, that little brat Luo Dan’er is calling out to me with her heart-voice. What’s going on outside?”
“You can’t see? The two flying in the sky.” Limuqun replied in confusion.
“See what? Just now Luozhilan suddenly went crazy and dragged me to hide. The two of us are huddled in the wine cellar of this tavern right now, so what’s happened?”
“It’s nothing major, just that Luo Dan’er is flying in the sky with some mysterious Palace Master.”
“Luo Dan’er? What is she doing here?” Luozhilan’s heart-voice was tinged with shock.
“Who knows? Can’t high-level cultivators sense your heart-voice communication?”
“Heh.” Speaking of her specialty, Zuo Qiuli’s voice brimmed with pride and confidence: “The cultivators in this Memory World are all manifestations of Luozhilan’s divine sense. No matter what their cultivation is in the Real World, here their strength is fabricated. I’m confident no one will detect us.”
“Alright, alright.” Limuqun nodded, continuing, “Then patch Luo Dan’er’s heart-voice through to me, let me ask her clearly. You look after Luozhilan, and whatever you do, don’t let her see someone who looks exactly like her has replaced her position, or it’ll be another huge headache.”
“Relax, she’s shivering in my arms right now, doesn’t even dare to lift her head, there’s no way she’ll notice.” Zuo Qiuli’s heart-voice drifted in. “I’ve already connected you. Just call out to Luo Dan’er in your mind and you can communicate.”
Before cutting the link, she added a rather playful tease:
“Daddy, be careful out there, your daughter and I are waiting for you to come home.”
“Cut it out.” Limuqun’s face flushed, and he refocused his gaze on Luo Dan’er, who looked at him with eyes full of confusion.
“Luo Dan’er!” he called in his heart.
Up in the sky, Luo Dan’er’s brows knitted. Clearly, she’d heard Limuqun’s call.
In the next instant, both of their heart-voices blurted out at the same time:
“What are you doing here?”
??
“I’m carrying out the plan, what else?”
Again, they spoke in unison.
“Stop copying me!”
For the third time, their words overlapped, and the two rolled their eyes in speechless exasperation.
“Alright, alright, I’ll go first.” Not wanting to waste any more time, Limuqun spoke up: “Luozhilan says she’ll only hand over the Obsession Clue if Zuo Qiuli and I play House Play with her for a whole day. What about you?”
House Play?
Luo Dan’er paused, seemingly not understanding Limuqun’s words, but still replied inwardly, “This Palace Master at my side seems to be Mother’s older sister.”
Older sister?
This stunned Limuqun as well, but Luo Dan’er continued:
“She told me all sorts of secret Luo Clan matters, saying the Luo Clan once made a grave mistake and was punished to guard the Evil Sun here for eternity, forbidden from leaving.”
Her heart-voice grew uneasy as she spoke: “Limuqun, I feel something’s off. If the Luo Clan can’t leave, how did Mother end up cultivating at the Cloud Expanse Sect?”
“How would I know her family affairs.” Limuqun silently took note of all this, then asked:
“Any other information?”
“Hmm… let me think, probably not.” She pondered, then suddenly switched topics, impatiently asking, “Hey Limuqun, when will you guys be done over there? Mother’s older sister is nothing like her at all, she’s a super strict, nitpicking old nag, the pressure is really getting to me.”
“Soon, soon, I’m in a hurry too.” Limuqun reassured her while reminding, “Be careful, don’t let that Palace Master at your side notice anything unusual. If you find out anything or if there’s an emergency, make sure to contact us immediately.”
With that, his figure flickered and vanished into the crowd.
In the sky, the Palace Master, revered by the masses like a solitary moon, seemed to sense a change in the young girl’s gaze and sent over a wisp of divine sense:
“Lan’er, what’s wrong?”
“N-nothing, I just saw someone who looked a bit like a character from a storybook.”
Of course Luo Dan’er wasn’t dumb enough to sell out her teammate, so she made up an excuse on the spot.
The Palace Master nodded, not pressing further, but admonished,
“In the future, don’t waste your time on such useless things. If your cultivation suffers, I’ll have Aunt Xue punish you with solitary confinement.”
“Oh, okay, I understand.”
“Alright, let’s go to the Festival Altar to take a look at the ceremony.”
The Palace Master raised her jade-like hand, and the two transformed into a streak of moonlight, soaring away. Luo Dan’er nodded dazedly and, glancing back from the corner of her eye, saw that the marketplace behind was already swallowed by clouds.
“Spirit paper, Blessing Spirit Paper for sale, cheap—”
“That’s the fake Daoist! He uses yellow paper to fake spirit paper and sells it! Brothers, get him, beat him within an inch of his life!”
“Hey hey hey, use your words, not your fists! If you have to hit, don’t hit my face!”
As the Palace Master and the celestial maiden disappeared in a flash, the crowd that had been kneeling in worship instantly returned to its earlier hustle and bustle.
The din of voices, the shouts, the calls of street vendors, all blended into the endless tide of people, ceaseless and unbroken.
In a corner of the marketplace, Limuqun finally struggled free from the throng, hurriedly running ahead, only to be yanked into the shadows by a slender, delicate hand that shot out from the darkness.
“Hey, who are you—”
The sudden pull knocked him off balance, and he landed squarely on his backside.
Limuqun looked up, just about to rebuke the culprit, when he realized it was none other than Zuo Qiuli, who had just hidden with the young Luozhilan.
“Hey hey hey, Zuo Qiuli, I got some critical intel!”
He sprang upright, excitement written all over his face:
“WOC, you know—”
“Shh 🤫, keep your voice down.”
Zuo Qiuli pressed a slender finger to her lips in a shushing gesture.
She pointed to her arms—somehow, the young girl within had already fallen into a deep sleep, her closed, delicate features like a jade carving.
“She was so scared, I worried she’d do something extreme, so I used a Hypnosis Technique to put her to sleep.”
Cradling the sleeping Luozhilan, Zuo Qiuli gently stroked her hair, actually emanating a kind of maternal warmth.
“What do you mean, Hypnosis Technique? Why not call it Sleep Aid Technique? It sounds creepy.” Limuqun muttered, having a bit of PTSD just hearing the words ‘hypnosis’.
Lowering his voice, he leaned closer to Zuo Qiuli’s ear and said, “This intel is absolutely explosive, you know the Palace Master who just flew off with Luo Dan’er? She’s Luozhilan’s older sister!”
“Sister?” Zuo Qiuli frowned, “That can’t be right. If it’s her older sister, why would she be so afraid?”
Limuqun mused, “I heard from Luo Dan’er that Palace Master is an ultimate, invincible Pressure Monster, and Luozhilan is a total Masochist.”
“Don’t tell me…” He clapped his hands in shock, “Could it be that young Luozhilan had some Forbidden Sisterly Love towards the Palace Master? Then the Palace Master rejected her, and ashamed and upset, she couldn’t face her, which is why she’s so scared and hiding?”
“That’s right, it all makes sense now! No wonder we saw her crying by the creek that day!”
As Limuqun’s ‘world-shaking wisdom’ steered the story further and further off course, Zuo Qiuli cut in speechlessly, “You’re such a hopeless fool. Can’t it just be that she’s at a rebellious age—wants to resist her strict sister’s discipline, but is also afraid of even more nagging if she does?”
“I’ve seen plenty of those scenes in your own Memory. Like when you snuck your Red Envelope Money to buy a Game Console, got caught by your parents, and hid in your room, too scared to come out. Why can’t you understand it when it’s Luozhilan?”
“That’s not the same, I did that for the sake of passion.”
Limuqun pursed his lips, clearly bored with the most likely, but also most mundane, explanation.
He had been hoping for some melodramatic family soap opera.
He waved his hand, then asked, “So what now, do we keep playing House Play with her?”
Zuo Qiuli thought for a moment and said,
“We’ll keep going, but we’ll have to do it a different way.”