No. 009 Sucker

Qiu Jinyou saw the atmosphere turn awkward and could only smile. "Little Junior Sister, you wanted to invite Jiujiu home with you too, didn't you? The timing might not have seemed right earlier, but we're sisters of the same sect. There's no need for me to hide this from you. My wedding with Lan Yezhou will most likely run into trouble, so the bonding ceremony probably won't happen on schedule. Who knows how long it'll be delayed? Why don't you go home with Little Junior Sister first, Jiujiu?"

Qiu Jinyou had put it mildly. Luo Mingxi and Lin Chunhe hadn't heard Wen Que's earlier complaints about Lan Yezhou, so they were still surprised by how quickly things had changed.

But judging by Qiu Jinyou's reaction, this was no longer a question of whether the wedding could happen on time. Even if the Lan Family could offer a reasonable explanation, the friendship between its head and Master Qiu, built over many years, would probably be destroyed.

"Second Senior Sister?" Luo Mingxi looked at Qiu Jinyou with concern.

As members of the same sect, Luo Mingxi felt she ought to stay by Qiu Jinyou's side and be her staunchest support. As for that mess back home—even in the worst case, if she wasn't her parents' biological daughter and could never return to the princess's residence or the imperial capital, she was still a disciple of Endless Peak in the Heavenly Sun Sect. That hardly made her homeless, did it?

Qiu Jinyou understood her look. Luo Mingxi had always been easy to read. She smiled. "It's nothing serious. I can handle it. You haven't been home in a long time, and Jiujiu hasn't seen the sights of the dynasty's capital yet. Why don't you take her?"

Luo Mingxi felt relieved at once, her fighting spirit rekindled. "All right." She turned to Wen Que. "Wen Jiu... Third Senior Sister, would you come with me?"

[Aaaah, the splendor of the Amber Dynasty! I'm finally coming to see you!]

"Of course, of course! As long as you don't mind having me along!"

[Little Junior Sister usually can't stand me, but this time she actually invited me home with her. Oh, my poor little heart is pounding! Has she finally realized how wonderful I am? Forget it, there's nothing especially wonderful about me. Maybe she felt sorry for me after I got struck by lightning and wants to take me out to cheer me up?]

Luo Mingxi: Lovely thought. Don't think it again.

As for Lin Chunhe—

"Second Senior Sister, I..." Lin Chunhe, who had finally managed to collect himself, wanted to go with Wen Que too. He could only hear her thoughts when he was close to her. If she left with Luo Mingxi, what would he listen to?

Only by going with them could he get a front-row seat to the gossip, complete with the most direct commentary.

Lin Chunhe had finally grasped the benefits of having Wen Que around.

But Qiu Jinyou smiled and said, "Since Little Junior Sister and Jiujiu are both leaving, while Master and Eldest Senior Brother are away, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to stay and back me up, Little Junior Brother."

Lin Chunhe straightened his back, suddenly feeling the weight of responsibility. Qiu Jinyou had asked, so of course he wouldn't refuse. Still, he regretted not being able to go with Wen Que. Before she and Luo Mingxi left, he stuffed them with an assortment of pills for self-defense.

[Ah, Little Junior Brother is so good to us. Too bad he's such a fool. Someone could take him for a ride and he'd never know it.]

Lin Chunhe: Huh?

[Poor sucker of a Little Junior Brother...]

Unfortunately, Wen Que and Luo Mingxi had already gone too far for Lin Chunhe to hear her anymore. His round face crumpled as he looked at Qiu Jinyou pitifully.

"Wah, Second Senior Sister, how could she do that?"

She had left without explaining anything. How had he become a sucker?

Qiu Jinyou thought about Lin Chunhe's usual free-spending habits and how he handed out pills to anyone he met. He really was a bit of a sucker. But from what she knew of Wen Que and what Wen Que had complained about these past few days, the "sucker behavior" that had prompted that remark had to be more than that.

Wen Que didn't seem concerned, though, so it probably wasn't urgent. They would have to wait until she came back.

If it were urgent, as it had been with Qiu Jinyou, Wen Que would come charging over in a panic, afraid Lan Yezhou might take advantage of her at a vulnerable moment.

Their Wen Jiujiu was protecting them in her own way, too!

Look at her now: she had followed Luo Mingxi wearing the face of someone off to enjoy a spectacle. Who was to say she hadn't insisted on going because she was worried Luo Mingxi might be taken advantage of?

With Wen Que there—or, more precisely, with Wen Que's "complaints" there—they could just about stop worrying that Luo Mingxi would be misled by a pretty face again and come off worse for it.

As long as Luo Mingxi kept a clear head, probably no one in the entire Amber Dynasty's imperial capital, even if they all joined forces, could make her suffer an injustice.

"Wow! So this is the imperial capital! It looks... so, so magnificent!"

Only then did Wen Que realize how limited her vocabulary was. She had no words for everything before her eyes.

Luo Mingxi glanced at Wen Que. Now she ran out of words? When she was complaining, that little mouth of hers could rattle off insults without a single curse word and never pause for breath. Where had her limited vocabulary been then?

The Amber Dynasty hadn't earned its name for nothing.

The dynasty revered amber. Even gold was worth less than genuine amber there.

And deep within the imperial capital stood the Amber Tower, a landmark visible clear as day even from far away, all nine stories of it!

It was said to be not only the Amber Dynasty's defining landmark, but also the vessel of the entire dynasty's vital energy and a symbol of its spirit.

According to legend, the Amber Tower had been carved from a single enormous piece of amber, giving it the form of a great tower.

A less reliable tale claimed that a giant dragon was sealed inside that amber. That was why the tower was also said to be the dragon vein that sustained the Amber Dynasty's fortunes.

As long as the Amber Tower stood, the Amber Dynasty would flourish without end, passed down from generation to generation.

Luo Mingxi and Wen Que were still up among the clouds. To keep anyone from spotting them and frightening the mortals below, Luo Mingxi had even cast a concealment spell. With Wen Que chattering away like this, she might startle someone otherwise.

Though the Amber Dynasty was a land inhabited by mortals, the legends about amber and the imperial family's reverence for cultivators meant that it also supported quite a few of them.

But by common agreement, cultivators traveling through the mortal world followed its rules and did not casually interfere with mortal lives. Most kept a low profile.

To be honest, most people who dared parade around the mortal world calling themselves immortals were swindlers.

"Little Junior Sister, are we going straight in?"

Wen Que was startled to see Luo Mingxi fly past the city below and head directly toward the imperial capital.

Wen Que rarely went out, but she knew something of the rules for conduct in the mortal world. That was especially true of the Amber Dynasty, which featured in most of the storybooks she had read.

She also knew the Amber Dynasty had hired cultivators as Attendants and even had a post called Imperial Preceptor, paying an enormous price for their help in protecting the imperial capital.

If Luo Mingxi charged straight toward the imperial capital like this, then—