Early the next morning, everyone went to Five Beauties Manor to pick up the five girls including Hua Yixing, and on the way they went deep into the mountains to find Bi Xinyu and Mo Lan. Only then did they all head together to Hundred Springs Valley.

"Speaking of which, going on a trip to the Four Paths is such a great thing—Young Master Lu, why didn't you call us?" Bi Xinyu cooed at Lu Zheng in a spoiled tone.

Lin Jing'Er did not indulge her at all. "I did go to your cave dwelling, but it was empty. Then I went to Mo Lan's, and there was a thick Restriction set up. I didn't dare to break in." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Hearing this, Bi Xinyu shot Mo Lan a sidelong glance and pinched an orchid-finger gesture. "Isn't it just because this troublemaking woman keeps stirring up enemies, and in the end I have to help her stand guard?"

Mo Lan also gave Bi Xinyu a sidelong glance. "If you've got the guts, then next time you're being chased, don't come running to my cave to beg for help."

"I won't, I won't. Next time I'll go straight to the county and look for Young Master Lu." Bi Xinyu threw Lu Zheng a flirty look, her fragrant tongue lightly licking her lips. "Young Master Lu would never ignore me."

Mo Lan rolled her eyes. "You lusty snake who thinks about men all day long!"

Bi Xinyu shot back, "Brainless poison scorpion!"

Everyone laughed at that, and Liu Qingyan stepped forward to pull Mo Lan over, taking the chance to feel her pulse.

Shen Ying smiled. "If you run into an opponent you can't handle, you can head to Peach Blossom Plain. Even if I'm not there, Tao Qing and the others are."

Mo Lan nodded. "It's fine, the opponent wasn't that strong. If they were, we'd have our ways.

Besides, this lusty snake can't provoke any really powerful enemies. Most of them are Demons with hormones clogging their brains. The two of us together can handle them."

Bi Xinyu snorted, then turned around and pulled Liu Qingyan away. "She's already fine, don't worry about her. Come tell me how your trip went—did you run into anything fun?"

Liu Qingyan let herself be dragged off helplessly, but having just taken Mo Lan's pulse, she'd confirmed that Mo Lan's body was indeed fine.

"The floods were raging and the people were in misery. How could there be anything fun?" Liu Qingyan said helplessly.

Beside her, Liu Qingquan cut in, "Wasn't the matter with Ouyang Kong of Yizhou fun enough? He sent two people out, they got beaten back, then he made a move himself and almost overturned the cart. If brother-in-law hadn't helped, he'd have become a complete joke, right?"

Everyone had shared their experiences on the road after coming back, so Liu Qingquan also knew quite a bit.

When Liu Qingyan heard this, she reached out and tapped Liu Qingquan's small head. "Ouyang Kong of the Yizhou Anomaly Suppression Bureau is a provincial Governor. Are you someone who can make fun of him? Talk again when you can beat him."

"Sis! I've grown up already, you can't keep knocking on my head!" Liu Qingquan complained with a bitter face. "I'm not smart to begin with. If you keep knocking, I'll get even dumber."

"You're still my little sister even if you grow up. And if a couple of taps can make you stupid, then you're beyond saving. Might as well stay dumb." Liu Qingyan raised her hand again, and Liu Qingquan had no choice but to shrink her head back.

Lu Zheng glanced over and had to admit that Liu Qingquan had indeed grown up.

When they first met, she had been a little loli not even ten years old. Now she was sixteen or seventeen, a fresh little apple.

Her height wasn't much less than Liu Qingyan's, her figure was slender and graceful, the childishness had faded from her face, and in addition to the liveliness in her eyes there was now a hint of alluring charm. Paired with a pleated skirt of green-vine cloud patterns, at a glance she was already a curvy little beauty.

It was just that, having been sheltered by Lu Zheng and Liu Qingyan all these years, Liu Qingquan did nothing but study and play, so her personality was still that of a little girl, to the point that Lu Zheng hadn't even noticed her growth.

The little loli from back then… has ripened already…

Tsk tsk…

Chatting as they walked, they soon arrived at Hundred Springs Valley deep in the mountains.

White mist billowed in Hundred Springs Valley. From the depths of the valley came a few rustling sounds, as if someone was still running the springs.

They ignored it and went off on their own to a remote spot, finding a few springs close together, with dense forest all around so they wouldn't run into other people.

The girls from Five Beauties Manor, giggling, dragged Liu Qingquan off to another spring, but just as Lu Zheng had stepped into the water on his side, Liu Qingquan jumped over wearing a white one-piece swim dress.

Then Bi Xinyu, wearing a bikini, sashayed over step by step, circling in front of Lu Zheng a few times before finally coming to Liu Qingyan's side and picking up a banana to eat.

Lu Zheng was speechless and forced a topic. "So where's the guy who injured Mo Lan?"

"Of course I killed him." Mo Lan's voice came from the spring next door, coldly. "Then I sucked him dry until he was just a layer of skin."

Bi Xinyu rolled her eyes. "You didn't need to say that last part. I'm in the middle of licking a banana here."

Lu Zheng: →_→

But when Bi Xinyu saw a strand of golden phoenix-light looking over along with Lu Zheng's gaze, she couldn't help shivering and chomp—she bit off half the banana in one go.

Lu Zheng: (°ー°〃)

"Cough, cough!" Lu Zheng coughed twice, continuing to change the subject. "So that's why Mo Lan only now finished healing up?"

"More or less. After she recovered, we realized you'd all gone out. Then the floods were raging, and quite a few demons and monsters took the chance to cause trouble, and there were Daoists, Monks, Sword Heroes, Martial Artists, Alchemists and other Abnormal People roaming everywhere."

Bi Xinyu said, "We didn't want to get dragged into it, so we just stayed up in the mountains and didn't come out. Only after the floods ended a few days ago did we go to Peach Blossom Plain to chat with Sister Shen."

"Excellent!" Lu Zheng stuck his thumb up.

...

Soaking in the hot spring, everyone casually chatted about the flood-relief journey, describing the situation back then to Bi Xinyu, Mo Lan, and Liu Qingquan.

Compared to five years ago, this year's flood-relief trip had been much safer. Not to mention having two top experts, Si Lingxi and Lu Zheng—just Liu Qingyan and Shen Ying alone were already enough to handle most situations.

...

The girls from Five Beauties Manor were frolicking in the other spring next door, occasionally eating a slice of watermelon or Hami melon, or pinching up a grape or cherry, feeling utterly comfortable.

On this side, Bi Xinyu stayed by the Liu sisters' side chatting, while Liu Qingquan lay on Liu Qingyan's shoulder playing with a fallen leaf, taking small sips of cherry juice, bored out of her mind.

Meanwhile Shen Ying nestled against Lu Zheng's side, picked up a grape, gently peeled it, then held it between her jade-like fingers and brought it to Lu Zheng's mouth.

With a "slurp," Lu Zheng not only ate the grape, he also sucked all the juice off Shen Ying's slender fingers.

"Heehee!" Shen Ying giggled, and the hand she had under the water suddenly stopped behaving.

Lu Zheng was speechless and shot a look in Liu Qingquan's direction, but Shen Ying only arched her brows and sped up instead.

Lu Zheng: (*°ω°*)ﾉ

Sitting on Lu Zheng's other side, Si Lingxi glanced at the two of them, sighed, and lowered her eyes back to the book in her hands.

A moment later…

Liu Qingyan suddenly froze, Bi Xinyu looked over this way with a half-smile, while Liu Qingquan's nose twitched, and her ears abruptly turned red. With a "whoosh," she bolted back into the spring next door.