The sound of footsteps was getting closer. Ji Yunxi narrowed her eyes slightly.
It was still not dawn yet, and it was pitch - black all around. Ji Yunxi looked at the small space inside the cave. If someone came, they would probably be caught before they could even fight back.
She tugged on Li Jiuge's sleeve. "Jiuge, let's go out first. We can't fight properly in here."
"Should we wake them up?"
Ji Yunxi shook her head. "Not yet. Let's see what's going on first. If we shout, we might alert the enemy. If they run away, we'll be in even greater danger later."
It made sense. The two of them immediately tiptoed to the grass beside the cave entrance and hid. Before long, a man came over, looking around warily.
He walked quietly and craned his neck to peek into the cave.
"He must have bad intentions!" Li Jiuge was a bit worried and almost stood up immediately.
Ji Yunxi grabbed her. "Don't be hasty. To catch an adulterer, you need to catch them in the act; to catch a thief, you need to find the stolen goods. He hasn't done anything yet. If we act now and he says he was just looking around, we won't be able to do anything to him!"
Li Jiuge nodded and continued to wait.
The position they were in allowed them to see what was going on inside the cave. Everyone was sleeping soundly.
The man walked in slowly, looked around, pointed at something, then shook his head as if something was amiss. Just as he was about to leave, he saw Ji Yunyi. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly reached for the pouch where Ji Yunyi kept his keys.
"Humph, here he goes."
After saying that, Ji Yunxi pulled out a silver hairpin from her head and flung it directly at the man's hand.
The man was very agile and reacted quickly. He immediately pulled his hand back. The hairpin merely grazed his hand, leaving a shallow cut.
"Hiss!" The man knew he had been spotted and immediately turned around to run. However, as soon as he turned his head, a shiny sword was already at his throat.
The person who came raised their eyebrows and lowered their voice. "Hey, why are you leaving so soon?"
Ji Yunxi walked out of the grass. After taking back the silver hairpin, a wisp of her hair fell, making her look very elegant.
"Who are you and what do you want?"
The man was obviously scared and stammered, "Don't kill me, don't kill me..."
Ji Yunxi frowned. "You've been busy all day, and yet you come here to steal things so late at night?"
"I, I just wanted the keys."
Ji Yunxi shook her head. "If you're not willing to tell the truth, don't blame me for being ruthless. Anyway, we're in this illusory realm. Even if I really kill you, so what?"
"You! You can't do this! If the elders of Kunlun Mountain find out that you're so vicious, they definitely won't accept you!"
Ji Yunxi raised an eyebrow. "I don't care. Besides..."
She deliberately dragged out her words and pointed at a white thing on the ground. "That's a cub of a fierce beast. It's not surprising that you're being hunted down after stealing its child. I'll just kill you, bury you, and say that you were killed by the fierce beast!"
The man's face changed. Knowing he couldn't hide it anymore, he lowered his head. "I'll tell you, I'll tell you! I was sent by someone else!"
His voice was loud. Worried that he would wake the others, Ji Yunxi grabbed his collar and dragged him out.
"Hey! Why are you girls so fierce! Let go of me! There should be propriety between men and women..."
Li Jiuge was extremely annoyed. She stepped forward and kicked him. "Shut up!"
The man didn't dare to say anything after being kicked. He shrank to the side and nodded, indicating that he would be obedient.
Ji Yunxi pressed down Li Jiuge's raised sword and softened her tone. "Speak. Who sent you? If you tell the truth, I won't kill you."
Seeing that Ji Yunxi didn't seem to be very intent on killing him, the man heaved a sigh of relief.
His eyes darted around. Since Lu Chengming's feud with them had nothing to do with him, he said, "Well, I didn't really come to hurt you. I have no grudges against you. I just met the son of the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty on the ninth level. He gave me a stack of silver notes and a prime minister's mansion token and told me to steal your keys."
"Humph! You're no good if you can collude with Lu Chengming!" Li Jiuge was angry. Lu Chengming was really a persistent nuisance!
"You can't say that!" The man retorted. "I didn't want to either, but his status is there! What could I do?"
Ji Yunxi asked, "Did he just threaten you?"
The man pouted. "He also said there would be a generous reward if I succeeded."
Li Jiuge immediately scoffed. "You? What's wrong with Lu? Why does he think you can do it?"
The man got even more angry when he heard this. "You can arrest me, but you can't look down on me. I'm quite famous in the Eastern Jin Dynasty! I'm the disciple of the Thief Saint."
The Thief Saint?
Ji Yunxi had never heard of such a person and was a bit confused. "When did the Eastern Jin Dynasty have a Thief Saint?"
When the man heard that she didn't know, he immediately became proud. "Hehe, you don't know this. Do you know Qing Yunxi? He's our grand - master!"
"Qing Yunxi..." Li Jiuge murmured this name. Suddenly, she felt something was wrong. She turned to look at Ji Yunxi.
She thought that Yunxi had many past lives, such as Hua Yunxi, Yunxi, Jiang Yunxi. Could this Qing Yunxi be...
"Is it related to you again?"
Ji Yunxi didn't expect that someone would be related to Qing Yunxi. After all, although she was quite well - known in this life, compared to her other identities, Qing Yunxi was rather ordinary.
At least she wasn't a noble or someone famous all over the world.
Seeing that Ji Yunxi didn't answer, Li Jiuge immediately guessed that it must be related to her.
"It really is related to you..." Li Jiuge was about to sigh about how wonderful Ji Yunxi's life was in each past life. But then she thought that Ji Yunxi carried so many memories, and there were so many relatives and friends she couldn't recognize.
Wasn't this a bit too cruel?
Watching everything that originally belonged to her become irrelevant to her, and her own identity becoming something people remembered, it always felt like she was erecting a tombstone for herself.
"Yunxi, you must be in so much pain with all these memories, right?" Li Jiuge said with heartache and wanted to hug Ji Yunxi.
Ji Yunxi felt a warmth in her heart. Since she regained her memories, she had indeed been troubled. After all, for her, each past life was an experience, including those deaths and desperations.
The world only saw the achievements of these people but forgot the pain she endured. Pain was easier to remember than happiness.
She smiled slightly. "Jiuge, I'm fine. It's okay."
The man was completely confused. "What are you talking about?"
Ji Yunxi remembered that she hadn't dealt with this trouble yet. She composed herself, put away her smile, and turned to him. "I said just now that you mustn't lie to me."
"I didn't!"
"Liar! Qing Yunxi is a constable. When did she become the grand - master of the Thief Saint? You'd better explain it clearly!"
Hearing this, the man's eyes widened in surprise. "You even know this?!"