Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The next morning, when the sun rose, the guard opened the entrance to the Lake of Clouds. The participants of the next round tried to outdo each other as they ran to get the boats at the dock.
In no time, a few hundred boats took sail and went in the direction of Lake Heart Island.
But Jiang Yuan seemed to be calm. Yan Wugui looked over at her and yelled, “Hey! If we do not hurry, we might be left with broken boats!”
“You really underestimate Yunjing’s aristocratic families.”
By now, most had already left. Jiang Yuan walked over slowly and took out an item from her bag and threw it into the water. The item then enlarged and turned into a boat.
“Cool!” Yan Wugui’s eyes shone. He had seen this treasure in a book once, but the records of it were from the Era of Heavenly Sovereigns. The ones passed down had become less and less powerful.
The three of them got into the boat, and Jiang Yuan snapped her fingers. A light could be seen, and the boat started sailing.
During the morning, it was smooth sailing.
But as time passed by, they met up with water beasts here and there, delaying their journey by a while.
When night fell, the three of them rotated shifts to steer the boat.
The Lake of Clouds was huge, so it would take about two days for them to reach Lake Heart Island. For this round, it was a competition of speed; whoever arrived first would get into the next round. Therefore, it was the most ruthless round. The participants would do anything to get into the next round.
The night was luminous with starlight, the moon full and bright. Lu Mingshu sat at the bow. It was her turn now. She could not do anything, but she needed to be wide awake.
Perhaps it was because it was nighttime, but the beasts were apparently all asleep instead of harassing them.
After a while, she could hear shuffling from the hold of the ship, and Yan Wugui emerged from within.
“It’s still not your turn,” she whispered.
“I know,” Yan Wugui said and plopped down beside her. “I’m feeling energetic, so I’m here to accompany you.”
“…”
They sat in silence for a while, and Lu Mingshu’s hand suddenly felt warm. She wanted to draw her hand back, but Yan Wugui pressed it down. “Shh,” he whispered and started writing something on her hand.
Her palm felt itchy, but Lu Mingshu tried to focus on what he was writing.
“Jiang, something wrong.”
Lu Mingshu looked up at Yan Wugui, and he flashed her a cheeky smile.
This world’s cultivation method seemed to be superior to theirs, so Lu Mingshu and Yan Wugui didn’t dare to use methods like dreaming messenger or secret transmission. What if the other party could hear and listen to their long conversation?
Lu Mingshu tilted her head and started to write in his palm.
“What?”
Yan Wugui furrowed his eyebrows and slowly wrote down a reply.
“She’s using us.”
Lu Mingshu raised her eyebrows. “You found out something?”
Yan Wugui grinned and shook his head, mouthing, “Sorry.”
Lu Mingshu rolled her eyes. “Then why are you telling me this?” Lu Mingshu thought that there was something wrong with Jiang Yuan too, but…
Yan Wugui continued to write. “Be careful, don’t end up as her stepping stone.”
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Lu Mingshu nodded. Even though they had not talked about it, ever since Jiang Yuan approached them, she and Yan Wugui had a mutual understanding. Prince Jiang did not have a great background, she was stubborn and domineering too. So, they both let her take the lead so that, sooner or later, her motive would be revealed.
“Indeed not siblings.” Prince Jiang’s voice rang in her ears, and soon, she was in front of Lu Mingshu.
Jiang Yuan smirked and pointed to their hands. “It’s hard to see siblings doing such things.”
Lu Mingshu looked down at her hand to realize that Yan Wugui was still holding it. And previously, while they were writing on each other’s hands, they seemed like a sweet couple.
She drew back her hand immediately and wiped her hand, annoyed.
But Yan Wugui was still all smiles. He looked up at Jiang Yuan and nodded. “Prince Jiang is really observant. To be very honest, she isn’t my biological sister.”
“Oh?”
Lu Mingshu sat at the side, waiting to hear him talk nonsense. “Yeah. She’s adopted, so we can be considered green plums and hobby horses. Sadly, our parents do not agree to this, so we decided to join this debate together.”
“Eloping?” Jiang Yuan leaned back, raising her eyebrows.
“Hey, it’s not like that.” Yan Wugui grinned. “If we succeed here, we can go back well-regarded.”
“Hah…” Jiang Yuan laughed. She suddenly leaned in, staring at him coldly. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
Yan Wugui shrugged. You can choose to not believe if you do not want to.
“Ji Xulin and Ji Zhenzhen, such nice names, but those aren’t yours, right?” She sneered. “Even in Bell Woods, there wouldn’t be aliens in an aristocratic family.”
Aristocratic families were the mainstream culture in this world because of the seals that were passed down by the family. In order to maintain the pure blood, they did not marry aliens, so their offspring would surely be true humans. Sometimes there were those kinds of marriages and the offspring would be without a seal, so they were seen as aliens. Some chose to fake it, but no family would fake it for two of their kids.
So, either the Ji family was problematic, or they were people taking the Ji siblings’ identities, and the latter seemed to have a higher possibility.
Yan Wugui and Lu Mingshu didn’t reply, but they didn’t seem to be scared either. They had already signed a contract, so who cared if she wanted to expose them at this point?
“Which rebel army are you from?” Jiang Yuan whispered.
Yan Wugui stared at her weirdly. Does she mean…?
Before he could reply, Prince Jiang shook her head. “Whatever, no matter which army you are from, leave immediately after this. I do not care about your grudges with the emperor. It’s not my problem.”
Lu Mingshu and Yan Wugui looked at each other in confusion. What is she trying to hide?
Yan Wugui came up with an idea quickly and grinned. “Prince Jiang, why are you so cold-blooded? We have signed a contract, it’s a great chance to turn an acquaintance into a friend!”
“Dream on!” Jiang Yuan sneered. “I’m a true human, why would I help overthrow the emperor?”
This sentence sent chills running down both of their spines.
So there’s somebody in this world who wants to overthrow the emperor? And it’s the aliens?
“Ah, calm down, Prince Jiang!” Yan Wugui continued to probe. “It’s not like all aristocratic family members have a good life. Look at yourself. You are way stronger than everyone, yet you have to put in so much more effort! It’s so unfair, so why shouldn’t he be overthrown?”
“Hmph! Are you very fair then? Cultivating is always unfair. Some have a lot of resources, but some have nothing. Only winners survive.”
“What about Eldest Miss Nie?” Lu Mingshu suddenly asked. “Is she a winner? Why must she have everything? Even the Floating Cloud young master… oh yeah, he’s an alien too, right? You must have done so much for him, but what about him?”
“Shut the hell up!” Jiang Yuan snapped. “What does any of that have to do with you?”
Lu Mingshu heaved a sigh of relief after provoking Jiang Yuan. She still had feelings like a normal person after all. I thought she was actually cold-blooded.
“You’ve given so much, yet nobody recognizes your effort. Even if they do, they ignore it. Prince Jiang, what’s all this hiding your feelings for?”