Chapter 274: Where Is the City Lord’s Wife?
Upon entering the courtyard of the guest quarters, they saw a line of female servers waiting.
The City Lord Mansion’s steward who had led them over chuckled. "These servers have been prepared for our honored guests. Please, feel free to choose one for yourselves."
Lu Sangjiu’s gaze swept over them, and she could tell they all had cultivation around the Early-stage Foundation Establishment.
Although their aptitude seemed average at best, their cultivation likely bolstered by Elixir Pills, wasn’t it a waste of talent for a minor City Lord Mansion to use those in the Foundation Establishment Stage as maids?
Or perhaps, these so-called maids were actually meant to spy on them?
It would be difficult for those in the Foundation Establishment Stage to keep tabs on Golden Core Stage cultivators, but it wouldn’t be a problem for them to keep an eye out and pass along messages.
As she was pondering this, she heard Xie Ningyuan speak up. "I’m not accustomed to having maids. There’s no need."
The steward’s expression immediately became troubled. "Immortal Monarch, it’s not that I wish to insist, but the City Lord himself ordered us to take good care of you. If we were to be so negligent, the City Lord will surely punish us."
"These maids would also be implicated and punished. I implore the Immortal Monarch to be understanding."
The maids all turned to Xie Ningyuan with pitiful expressions. "We beg for the Immortal Monarch’s mercy."
Xie Ningyuan glanced impassively at Lu Sangjiu, who thought for a moment before giving a slight shake of her head.
Only then did he pretend to be persuaded, his attitude softening. "If that’s the case... I’ll choose one, then."
Since Xie Ningyuan’s refusal had failed, the others didn’t bother trying to decline a maid, and each person simply pointed to one to get it over with.
The maid assigned to Lu Sangjiu said her name was Little Green. She would stand guard at the door to the guest room and said to just call if she needed anything.
Lu Sangjiu heard this and thought, ’Well now, they really are here to watch us, aren’t they? Standing guard right at the door. It’ll be hard to slip away and act on our own without some tricks up our sleeves.’
Despite this, no one said anything more. They each accepted the arrangement and returned to their own rooms.
Lu Sangjiu had just sat down when her Communication Talisman began to vibrate repeatedly.
She took it out and saw that everyone except Xie Ningyuan and Shen Yuzhao had sent her a message. The content all expressed the same central idea: something was wrong with the City Lord.
’Hmm... I have to say, this City Lord is really not very good at hiding his abilities. Out of our group of six, five of us have already noticed something is off with him.’
Xie Ningyuan hadn’t said anything, but that was only because he knew she had already figured it out.
As for Shen Yuzhao, he was the truly naive and innocent one, never one to randomly suspect others of having ill intentions.
After some thought, Lu Sangjiu replied to them: "Let’s play it by ear at the banquet tonight."
Then, she actually lay down to rest.
After all, traveling via Teleportation Array was genuinely exhausting.
She was quite carefree. She fell asleep almost as soon as she lay down and didn’t wake until she heard Little Green knocking on her door. "Lu Fairy, the banquet is about to begin. The City Lord invites you all to join him."
Only then did Lu Sangjiu groggily open her eyes. Yawning, she got up and went out the door.
When she went outside, the others were already waiting for her.
Seeing her emerge with a yawn, Yan Zui wore a complicated expression. "Fellow Daoist Lu... don’t tell me you just woke up?"
"I did," Lu Sangjiu nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Then she asked, "None of you slept?"
The others: "..."
’Excuse me? In this obviously suspicious City Lord Mansion, there was no way they could have fallen asleep.’
Seeing that no one was speaking, Lu Sangjiu put on a regretful look. "You really didn’t sleep? That’s a shame. You missed out. The mattresses here are really soft, it was so comfortable to sleep on."
When Luo Linlang heard this, she started to feel a little regretful too. "Really? If I’d known, I would have taken a nap. To be honest, I’ve felt sore all over since we got out of the Teleportation Array."
Yan Zui: "..."
’Seriously? Are you two martial sisters always this flighty?’
To keep the topic from straying even further, the maid standing nearby cleared her throat. "Everyone, shouldn’t we be heading out? We shouldn’t keep the City Lord waiting."
Lu Sangjiu acted as if she had just snapped back to reality. "Oh, oh, you’re right! We absolutely mustn’t keep the City Lord waiting. Let’s go! Senior Sister, you can just sleep when you get back tonight."
The group chatted as they walked, soon arriving at the banquet hall.
Along the way, Yan Zui finally began to understand. Lu Sangjiu was deliberately cultivating the image of a brainless simpleton.
’Is she trying to make them lower their guard?’
Once she realized this, Yan Zui started to play along intentionally.
As a result, the maids who followed them all involuntarily formed an impression of Lu Sangjiu as a "beautiful idiot."
"Our honored guests have finally arrived! Please, take your seats!"
As they all took their seats, Yan Zui noticed the City Lord sitting alone in the host’s seat and couldn’t help but ask, "Why don’t we see the City Lord’s Wife?"
The City Lord’s smile froze for a moment before he replied, "Ah, what an unfortunate coincidence. My wife has been feeling unwell lately. We don’t know what strange illness she’s contracted, so it’s inconvenient for her to receive guests. My apologies."
Yan Zui nodded. "I see... Speaking of which, your wife and my mother are from the same clan. You could say we’re distantly related. I was hoping to pay her a visit on this trip."
The City Lord was taken aback. "Is that so? This matter... Xi’er has never mentioned it to me."
A look of confusion appeared on Yan Zui’s face. "Xi’er? But my mother told me the City Lord’s Wife’s name is Ji Heng. There doesn’t seem to be a ’Xi’ in her name. Could it be that my mother remembered incorrectly?"
The City Lord immediately put on a fake smile. "No, no, Xi’er is actually a pet name I gave my wife. Her formal name is indeed Ji Heng."
Only then did Yan Zui nod in understanding. "Oh, so that’s how it is."
"City Lord, normally we shouldn’t disturb your wife while she’s unwell. But since we are distantly related, I really should go and pay her a visit."
"It might be inconvenient for my friends to go, but there shouldn’t be a problem if I go alone, right?"
Yan Zui had put it so reasonably that it would be churlish for the City Lord to refuse again.
So, after a slight hesitation, he nodded. "Very well. But it’s late today. I’ll have a maid take you there tomorrow morning."
"That works," Yan Zui agreed.
Lu Sangjiu listened silently from the side, thinking, ’Bringing Yan Zui was absolutely the right call. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to get into the City Lord Mansion, discover the strangeness here, or know how many detours we would have had to take.’
’Besides, Yan Zui is really clever. I don’t know if she’s actually related to the City Lord’s Wife, but the City Lord was definitely suspicious. That’s why he mentioned ’Xi’er’—it was clearly a subtle test.’
’Thankfully, Yan Zui seemed to have been prepared, and with just a few words, she forced the City Lord to agree to let her see the City Lord’s Wife.’
’She felt Yan Zui’s line of thinking was spot on. Given the strange City Lord Mansion and the slightly unnatural expression on the City Lord’s face when he mentioned his wife, they absolutely had to meet this City Lord’s Wife, no matter what.’
’Even though only Yan Zui could go for now, she was smart and quite powerful. She should be fine on her own.’