Dong Qingyan spoke with great conviction, as though every word were gospel truth, but did Yang Kai really believe her?
"Really?" Yang Kai's smile turned even more unsettling.
"Would I lie to you?" Dong Qingyan puffed out her chest and gave it a confident pat. "Relax, I guarantee you'll be able to get close to wherever you want to go!"
"Heh heh..." Yang Kai let out a skin-crawling laugh, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on Dong Qingyan.
The laugh was both lewd and sinister, raising goosebumps all along Dong Qingyan's arms. She swallowed nervously and said in a small voice, "You look really creepy when you laugh."
Yang Kai straightened his expression and dropped the pretense. "Tell me—how did you find out about all this?"
"Find out about what?" Dong Qingyan feigned ignorance, her expression turning visibly awkward.
"About where I'm going." Yang Kai narrowed his eyes at her and held up a single finger, wagging it. "Don't tell me your brother told you. Dong Qinghan isn't that careless!"
Back at the Dong family medicine shop, Dong Qinghan had sent Dong Qingyan away before even speaking with Yang Kai—he clearly hadn't wanted her to learn Yang Kai's identity. So why would he suddenly drag her into this for no reason?
Moreover, it had barely been an hour since the two of them parted. An hour ago, Dong Qinghan had been completely at a loss. In such a short time, how could he possibly have come up with a solution?
On top of that, with this little mischief-maker's eyes darting around every which way, it would take a blind man not to see something was off.
"My brother really did tell me," Dong Qingyan insisted firmly.
Yang Kai chuckled darkly, grabbed Dong Qingyan by the arm, and started dragging her toward the door.
"What are you—what are you doing!" Dong Qingyan refused to budge, screaming in alarm.
Yang Kai frowned. "Keep yelling and I'll knock you unconscious."
Dong Qingyan immediately clamped her mouth shut but threw all her weight backward in resistance. Unfortunately, her strength was far below Yang Kai's, and she was helpless against his grip. In the blink of an eye, she had been dragged to the doorway.
"What exactly do you want?" Dong Qingyan looked at Yang Kai with a pitiful, pleading expression.
"I'm taking you back to Dong Qinghan. I'm sure he hasn't left yet!"
"No! I finally managed to sneak out—if you send me back, I'm done for!" Dong Qingyan's face went white.
Yang Kai flashed a grin. "Then tell me—how exactly did you find out about all this?"
"Fine, fine, fine! I'll tell you!"
Only then did Yang Kai release her.
Dong Qingyan glared daggers at him. She rubbed her aching wrist, calmly straightened her disheveled clothing, and then sat back down on the bed in a huff.
"Go on, then. If you dare lie to me, I really will send you back to your brother." Yang Kai said with a straight face.
"I overheard it myself." Dong Qingyan sneaked a glance at Yang Kai, and when she saw his expression darken, she quickly added, "I'm not lying—really, I overheard it myself."
Yang Kai smiled. "How could you possibly eavesdrop? You're only at the peak of the Separation-Union Realm. How could you hope to evade the Divine Sense of the Wind and Rain Guards?"
While he had been speaking with Dong Qinghan, the Wind and Rain Guards had been monitoring the surroundings the entire time. If Dong Qingyan had truly been lurking nearby and listening in, those two old foxes would never have let it slip by undetected.
"I have my ways," Dong Qingyan said with a smug look, sitting on the edge of the bed and swinging her legs back and forth.
Seeing the utter disbelief on Yang Kai's face, Dong Qingyan's mood soured immediately. "I'm the young miss of the Dong family—of course I have one or two secret artifacts for protection... er..."
"Secret artifact?" Yang Kai raised an eyebrow in surprise. What kind of artifact could possibly hide from the Divine Sense of a Shenyou Realm expert? And the Wind and Rain Guards were already at the late stages of the Shenyou Realm—roughly the seventh or eighth layer at that. An artifact capable of fooling them was no small thing.
Realizing she had let something slip, Dong Qingyan's face filled with chagrin. She eyed Yang Kai hesitantly and said in a small voice, "I can show it to you, but you can't steal it from me."
Yang Kai didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He nodded silently—he was genuinely curious about this so-called artifact.
Seeing that he had agreed, Dong Qingyan solemnly produced an ancient piece of jade from inside her robe.
Yang Kai focused his gaze on it. The jade had a dark yellow hue, appearing almost natural and unworked, but within the stone, faint interlocking patterns were visible—clearly the marks of a refiner's hand.
Dong Qingyan channeled her Yuan Qi into it, and Yang Kai frowned as he realized her entire aura had vanished in an instant.
"You haven't reached the Shenyou Realm yet, so without Divine Sense of your own, you won't be able to truly appreciate the wonders of this artifact," Dong Qingyan explained. "But I'm really not lying—this is how I fooled those two old men."
As she spoke, Yang Kai had already released his own Divine Sense to scan the area around her. Sure enough, just as she'd claimed, his Divine Sense swept over her position and detected absolutely nothing. With his eyes closed, he would have had no idea there was anyone sitting there at all.
This artifact was actually quite interesting.
"Put it away," Yang Kai said with a serious expression. "And never show it to strangers in the future."
Dong Qingyan grinned. "Don't flaunt your wealth in public—I'm not an idiot, you know!"
As she spoke, she tucked the ancient jade back into her robe.
"How much did you overhear?" Yang Kai asked with a smile.
"Pretty much... all of it." Dong Qingyan stuck out her tongue.
"And how much do you actually understand?"