Chapter 66: You've been targeted, do you know that?

The two-person party had now become a trio of three.

With the addition of an extra person, the atmosphere between Lu Xiao and An Yunzhi naturally shifted once again.

The previous tacit understanding vanished, replaced by polite formality.

With Ruan Xian present, the two of them could certainly no longer be as close as before.

This Senior Sister Ruan was exceedingly overbearing—a fact that could be perceived immediately from the expression on her face and the tone of her voice.

The two women sat by the cliff chatting for quite a while.

Lu Xiao sat a little further away, not eavesdropping on their conversation.

Yet he could easily guess that their discussion undoubtedly involved his own appearance.

He had expended a considerable amount of energy earlier while drawing away those ferocious beasts.

After eating some food and resting for so long, he had already recovered more than half of his strength.

Seeing that Lu Xiao had nearly finished resting, Ruan Xian suddenly walked over.

She spoke in a commanding tone.

"Go to the lake on the eastern side and catch some more fish. Yunzhi said you could handle it alone, so off you go by yourself."

Perhaps she did not mean to, but Ruan Xian's tone certainly carried a rather condescending feel to Lu Xiao's ears.

Hearing this, Lu Xiao frowned and gave no response.

Standing behind Ruan Xian, An Yunzhi cast a pleading look toward Lu Xiao.

Hesitating for a moment, Lu Xiao decided not to bicker with her.

He turned around and headed toward the eastern side.

Watching Lu Xiao's figure disappear into the mountain forest, the two women sat back down.

During their earlier conversation, An Yunzhi had recounted to Ruan Xian most of what had happened over the past few days.

Naturally, there were still certain details she left unsaid.

Yet even what she kept unsaid was already known to Ruan Xian.

At this moment, Ruan Xian had already walked over to the small wooden cabin and circled it once.

"This cabin is quite secluded and well-built, but it is rather small.

It should only be big enough for one person to live in, right?

Where on earth does this Junior Brother Lu sleep at night?"

Confronted with such a sudden line of questioning, An Yunzhi was visibly flustered for a fleeting second.

However, her reaction was extremely swift, and she immediately came up with a suitable reply.

"We divided the night into the first half and the second half, taking turns to go inside and rest for half the time each."

This was a rather brilliant response.

After uttering these words, An Yunzhi secretly praised herself twice in her heart.

Yet this explanation failed entirely to convince Ruan Xian.

Instead, upon hearing this, Ruan Xian let out a cold huff.

"My good junior sister, you have actually learned to lie to your own senior sister for the sake of this man.

Splendid, it seems this Junior Brother Lu possesses quite some tricks up his sleeve."

"What are you saying, Sister Ruan..."

An Yunzhi's momentum weakened by several more notches; a lack of conviction always led to this result.

"Are you still stubbornly arguing for him?

This morning, your senior sister here saw with her very own eyes the two of you stepping out of that wooden cabin together.

Come now, give your senior sister another reasonable explanation and see if you can make me believe it."

Ruan Xian sat before the wooden cabin, one leg crossed lazily over the other.

Then she simply stared quietly at An Yunzhi.

"That is because the suppression within the ruins has been growing heavier, and it is currently the bitter winter.

That is why..."

Pinned under Ruan Xian's gaze, An Yunzhi found her words trailing off, unable to finish.

In truth, her words were half-true and half-false, possessing a certain degree of credibility.

Yet Ruan Xian understood her far too well; a mere shift in her tone of voice was enough for Ruan Xian to deduce a multitude of things.

Seeing An Yunzhi fall silent, Ruan Xian hesitated for a brief moment before speaking.

"Junior sister, you have been targeted by someone, do you realize that?"

Ruan Xian's sudden declaration caused An Yunzhi to frown.

She then looked over at her with a puzzled expression.

"This Junior Brother Lu is the very person to whom you gave that meat pie on that day.

Did you think he only appeared in that single spot?

You may not remember, but I do.

Before buying that meat pie, he had already paced back and forth past numerous tea houses and taverns.

He even lingered for a long time at the very tea house where we were seated, only leaving after being driven away by the waiter.

He thought his actions were completely stealthy, but I took note of him."

The reason Ruan Xian remembered Lu Xiao was actually quite simple.

It was simply because Lu Xiao's appearance was rather striking.

Thus, upon seeing him back then, an impression had naturally remained in her mind.

"Senior Sister, it was Junior Brother Lu who went to queue up for the meat pies first, and it was we who voluntarily approached him.

If Junior Brother Lu truly harbored any ulterior motives, he would have had countless opportunities to succeed long before now; why wait until this late stage without making a move?"

Hearing An Yunzhi's defense, Ruan Xian nearby emitted a light snort.

"That is because what he schemes for is far more than just a fleeting thing.

He wants both your person and your heart.

Just look at how many days have passed—haven't you grown quite fond of him?

The moment your senior sister utters a couple of critical words about him, you anxiously rush to his defense.

Judging from this alone, his plan has already succeeded by more than half."

An Yunzhi frowned, clearly still unconvinced by these assertions.

"Besides, Junior Sister, think back on all those things you mentioned earlier.

When going out to train and hone oneself, why would anyone bring along so many stale, dried flatbreads?

Why would one bother carrying vegetables and melons?

If he claimed he had no idea about the shackles left behind by the immortals here, why would he bring so much food inside in the first place?

A normal cultivator out on training trials would invariably carry a blade or a weapon.

Yet he brought a firewood chopper—a chopper that happened to be perfectly suited for constructing a wooden cabin.

Junior Sister, one or two coincidences can be explained away as mere chance.

However, when so many coincidences pile up together, do you really believe them?"

Ruan Xian's successive barrage of words indeed stirred a whirlwind of speculations within An Yunzhi's mind.

Yet a moment later, she shook her head once more.

"Sister Ruan, Junior Brother Lu saved my life—that much is absolute and real.

Without him, I could hardly have escaped the sharp claws of those ferocious beasts.

Surely he couldn't have foreseen that I would be injured and that he would happen to have the exact opportunity to rescue me?"

Ruan Xian nodded.

"I do believe that his act of saving you was indeed a coincidence.

Yet by weaving genuine accidental encounters into various plots, he made the whole scheme far more believable.

Junior Sister, you claim he knows nothing about these ruins, but I, on the contrary, feel that he understands them far better than we do.

While we remain ignorant and utterly powerless against the rampant beasts in the ruins, your Junior Brother Lu requires your guidance in martial arts, yet proves exceptionally capable when it comes to dealing with beasts. He effortlessly lured the beasts away and even managed to disorient them, making it difficult for them to track him back.

Don't you find that deeply suspicious?"

With these remarks, Ruan Xian had practically slapped the label of a cunning villain squarely onto Lu Xiao's head.

Faced with such a continuous string of accusations, An Yunzhi truly did not know how to retort.

Deep down, she still refused to believe that Lu Xiao harbored any sinister plots or schemes.

Yet her senior sister spoke of these things with such absolute certainty...

If one works backward from a given result to find causes, an endless multitude of reasons can always be unearthed.

For instance, when someone achieves remarkable success and then looks backward to trace the reasons,

those reasons turn out to be varied and myriad, even reaching back to what they did at the age of three or what innate qualities they possessed...

When such causes are probed deeply, saying they are unrelated feels wrong, yet claiming a definitive connection is equally impossible.

No one could ever pin down an exact measure of how related they truly were.

"Furthermore, let me tell you one more thing, Junior Sister An.

This Junior Brother Lu told you that he has no sect affiliations.

Yet I am not only certain that he belongs to a sect, but I have already figured out precisely which lineage's disciple he is."

Without a dragon's body, one does not recite the dragon arts.

Upon seeing Lu Xiao circulate the Dragon Blood Body-Tempering Technique, Ruan Xian had convinced herself that she had uncovered the absolute truth.