"Y-you wait for me a moment..." Linghu Shaozi's voice trembled slightly. She was clearly terribly bashful. After all, she was still only a half-grown girl, and being discovered drying her clothes inside was something she found hard to accept.
I had also been a little careless. I usually encountered formidable cultivators—those who could fall into water without wetting their clothes or pass through fire without catching alight—so I hadn't paid it much mind and had thus failed to notice until I walked in on her.
But the timing seemed somewhat off as well. I lowered my head and looked at the ground beneath my feet, finding a chaotic mess of muddy footprints. They marked the path she had walked back and forth along. Clearly, she had gone into the water several times. Could she have discovered the secret of what the Four Little Immortals had hidden beneath it?
"Shaozi, did you go into the water to retrieve Senior Four Little Immortals' belongings?" I couldn't help asking.
"This... how did you know? You... didn't go into the water." Linghu Shaozi asked in surprise, but then she said, "Oh. You saw my footprints..."
I marveled inwardly at the little girl's cleverness. She wasn't merely good at stirring up trouble. She probably had the same thirst to pursue the unknown as I did. Once someone like that took to learning, they would progress by leaps and bounds.
"You escaped from Nun He Qing in the middle of the night. Did you know that it might implicate every disciple in the sect and make everyone come looking for you?" I said calmly.
"I... I was wrong... I didn't know the sect rules forbade us from going out. I just wanted to come out... and look around." Linghu Shaozi didn't mention that she had come