"All right, I'm here. Which one of you wanted to see me?" Lin Qi smiled easily. "Don't let those little lackeys outside waste my time! I hope you understand that, as the foreign minister of an empire, the people I usually meet are figures of standing. It isn't as if just anyone can stop me on the street and expect to see me whenever they please!"
Lin Qi took out a cigar and put it between his lips, then took out another and stuffed it into the gaping mouth of the Heaven-Devouring Serpent coiled around his shoulder. Man and snake leisurely puffed out clouds of smoke as they strolled inside.
Beyond the manor gates lay a fairly spacious level courtyard, with a classically designed fountain at its center, lawns all around, and a circular drive. Wearing a long dress with the air of a proper lady, Yun Tianyi stood there dumbfoundedly, carrying a bucket of chicken feed and feeding a flock of chicks.
A silver-haired old woman with a kindly face sat on the fountain railing, leaning on a dragon-headed cane as she watched Yun Tianyi feed the chickens with a cheerful smile. But when Lin Qi kicked the gates open, startling the chicks into hopping and scattering in panic, the old woman's face immediately darkened. She narrowed her pair of phoenix eyes, which flashed with emerald light, and gave Lin Qi a long, penetrating look.
"At your age, you don't even know how to knock?" The old woman viciously struck her dragon-headed cane against the ground and rose to her feet in fury.
With a bang, the ground beneath the cane split open across a wide area. An invisible force traveled along the earth, abruptly reaching Lin Qi's feet before erupting with explosive force. Lin Qi's expression changed slightly,