Despite feeling uneasy inside, Ah Qing still maintained an excellent dance posture, even feeling a sense of joy from having surpassed Shi Qingjun by so much—it was supposed to be like this.

As she wielded her sword and pondered various thoughts, the longsword in her hand traversed through space, while her demeanor and dance posture both reached their peak at this moment.

She even gradually adapted to Xu Chang’an’s gaze at this time.

But reality is often disappointing, and Ah Qing’s complacency didn’t last long. At the moment her skirt’s hem lifted, her heart suddenly trembled, and she had a premonition.

It was a very mysterious feeling, like consciously trying to feel your breath; only when you notice you’re breathing do you shift breathing from passive to active.

At that moment, Ah Qing realized what she had instinctively overlooked, something extremely important.

She trusted this feeling deeply, unlike the inherently invincible Immortal Chaoyun, this feeling had saved her more than once before she fully matured.

’What exactly have I overlooked...’

Ah Qing’s eyes slightly narrowed, and at that moment, she finally vaguely remembered what she had overlooked.

She had thought before that among the factors making her uneasy was the name ’Shi Qingjun,’ but she felt it was impossible for them to appear in the brothel, thus she ignored it.

In an instant, the knuckles holding her sword turned white.

So Ah Qing finally became serious. Her gaze began to sweep over every inch of space, like a cyan snake devouring the air, slowly... her gaze enveloped everything around her.

Finally, those light green pupils constricted, and her sight penetrated layer upon layer of space.

She saw a person who absolutely shouldn’t be here.

Her body trembled slightly, and Ah Qing’s rationality momentarily collapsed, her steps faltered, and her sword dance came to a halt.

——

"?"

Ah Qing, who was supposed to have recovered her strength, suddenly slipped up, and her faltering posture prompted several girls to gasp in surprise. They didn’t know if she encountered some accident or perhaps stepped wrong and twisted something?

Yun Qian couldn’t find the reason for the moment, so she turned to glance at Xu Chang’an, but unexpectedly didn’t meet his gaze—he was turning to converse with Wen Li, who also raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Unlike before, even Wen Li couldn’t find any fault with this lapse, as if it wasn’t staged.

Upon discovering Ah Qing’s mistake, Xu Chang’an immediately looked at Wen Li, wanting to see her thoughts, thus he missed Yun Qian’s gaze.

"..." Yun Qian watched the back of Xu Chang’an’s head for a while before slowly turning back to look at the flustered Ah Qing.

She blinked.

It seemed indeed that both Ah Qing and Wen Li were formidable individuals—they could momentarily draw her husband’s attention away from her. It’s hard not to be impressive.

Miss Yun didn’t mind these things.

But Li Zhibai did.

Unlike everyone else, Li Zhibai wasn’t just watching the sword dance. In fact, she had been paying attention to the Sect Leader, who was also listening to the tunes, only she refrained from looking in her direction to avoid disturbing the Sect Leader’s enjoyment.

But Ah Qing’s sudden loss of composure still caught her attention... because from her perspective, it was clear that Ah Qing lost composure after noticing the presence of the Sect Leader.

"...How could this be?" Li Zhibai looked at Ah Qing’s trembling and shrinking eyes and squinted her own.

"Ah Bai?" Zhu Pingniang, unaware of the situation and resting with her eyes closed, only sensed some commotion below the stage and Li Zhibai’s suddenly accelerated heartbeat, so she opened her eyes and asked.

"It’s nothing; your daughter seems a bit tired." Li Zhibai replied. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Oh." Zhu Pingniang nodded and closed her eyes again, not dwelling on it.

Once Zhu Pingniang was again immersed in her own aura, Li Zhibai frowned and looked down at the stage.

Ah Qing stared blankly at the stage below.

At the end of her sight, a girl continued to take a bite of an apple.

What on earth happened?

Ah Qing... actually recognized the Sect Leader?

Although Li Zhibai didn’t understand this at the moment, without a doubt, Ah Qing’s sudden loss of composure was due to discovering the existence of the Sect Leader, so even though it seemed unfathomable at first, she had to accept this fact.

"If that’s the case... then I understand." A spark flashed through Li Zhibai’s mind, and suddenly many things connected in her head; it seemed she discovered the ’truth.’

[Ah Qing... is the student of the Sect Leader?]

This was Li Zhibai’s thought.

Firstly, there was a restriction on the Sect Leader’s appearance. Other than special beings like Xu Chang’an, those who could recognize the Sect Leader’s true appearance were undoubtedly acknowledged by the Sect Leader among those of the Qiankun Realm.

Li Zhibai certainly wouldn’t mistake Zhu Pingniang’s daughter for the Demon Sect’s Sect Leader, as she had just been calling herself Ah Qing’s aunt, so Ah Qing could only be someone recognized by Shi Qingjun.

But even Li Zhibai, wracking her brain, couldn’t possibly imagine that half of Qing Province’s celebrated ones would be flaunting their figures on stage.

Therefore, from the outset, Li Zhibai’s assumption was wrong, but ironically, she formed her own logical narrative in her mind, one that still worked—referring to her guess that Ah Qing was considered a ’candidate disciple’ favored by Shi Qingjun.

At this moment, Li Zhibai believed that Ah Qing had once been highly regarded by the Sect Leader, and not just ordinarily so... she didn’t know the reasons, but if so, it was easy to explain where Ah Qing’s ancient-feeling sword dance, which even amazed her, originated.