The two retraced their route and surfaced. The full moon cast its silver light from above, and a breeze swept across the lake, sending ripples over water as clear as a mirror.
Having just walked the line between life and death, they felt as though a lifetime had passed.
Cao Jinxing returned to the island in the middle of the lake first. Xuan Yuan Fourteen, who had been waiting anxiously in the pavilion, immediately leaped at him.
"Everything all right?"
Cao Jinxing dispelled the moisture from his clothes and caught Fourteen's plump body.
"Meow, meow~"
Fourteen turned his little head, his mismatched eyes sweeping southeast with a hint of killing intent. Half-foot-long claws sprang out!
Cao Jinxing raised an eyebrow and released his true qi, bringing all the moisture within a hundred meters under his control. He soon detected people hiding behind the lake embankment to the southeast, watching them.
They had probably come to investigate after seeing the two fall into the water, and Fourteen had remembered them.
"It's fine. Just small fry."
Cao Jinxing paid them no mind.
Word of his identity had already spread. These people probably were not here to trouble him; most likely, they were watching Qin Xuanji.
Behind him, Qin Xuanji had already dried herself off. Her beggar's clothes hung loosely around her as she said, "Let's go."
Cao Jinxing paused. "Where?"
Qin Xuanji's brows shot up, and she planted her hands on her hips. "You forgot already?"
"Oh..."
Cao Jinxing remembered. She wanted to taste the Spirit Liquid produced by the [Wine God Stone]...
"All right. Where are you staying?"
"I only arrived in Hangzhou this morning."
"Your luggage?"
"I hid it."
"Fetch it first, then come find me at the Post Station on Bluestone Street. I'll put in a word, and you