After teaching her for just three days, Annie was already getting impatient. After all, she had never been a qualified master, teacher, mentor, or trainer.
So!
She eagerly urged Shi Qingxuan to hurry up and use the "martial arts" she had taught her—the "using flute music and inner power to create illusions" kind—to deal with the four disciples of the Evil Emperor Xiang Yutian: "Going Against the Natural Order" You Niaojian, "Great Emperor" Ding Jiuzhong, Zhou Laotan, and "Enchantress" Jin Huan Zhen. Those four villains!
Shi Qingxuan had only just learned the skill, and now she was being pushed into using that miraculous "sound-killing" technique to face those four wicked men. Naturally, she was a thousand, no, ten thousand times unwilling. She made excuses again and again, claiming she had no idea where the four men had gone, hoping to buy herself more time.
Who could have guessed that Annie would immediately point out the exact location of that so-called "Great Emperor" Ding Jiuzhong—and even explain that it wasn't far from Laojun Temple, where the two of them were staying? With no choice, Shi Qingxuan could only steel herself, take her jade flute, and set off.
After a journey of just half a day, Shi Qingxuan arrived alone at a small town that seemed to have escaped most of the ravages of war. She found her target at an open-air teahouse beside a narrow stream, only two or three zhang wide.
"..."
Once she confirmed that the person drinking tea was indeed Ding Jiuzhong, Shi Qingxuan was still curious about how Annie had known he was hiding in this town. But she didn't ask. She simply kept her questions to herself and stood silently outside the teahouse, flute in hand.
She stopped about fifty or sixty paces from him, leaving