The Seventh Princess Insists on Making Me Live Off Her - Chapter 8

Hearing the voice, Lian Liejin turned around and saw a young woman who was clearly dressed as the daughter of a wealthy family. She wore a simple blue robe and held the phoenix lantern as she stood nearby, calling out to her.

“I… I would like to exchange lanterns with you,” the young lady in blue said, blushing as she spoke. “May I?”

“You like the rabbit lantern?”

Lian Liejin looked at the red candle inside the rabbit lantern. She had chosen it only because its candle was larger. The candle inside the phoenix lantern was too small.

Hearing Lian Liejin’s question, the young lady in blue became secretly delighted.

“Yes. I like the one… in your hand.”

“I suppose that would be fine…”

Lian Liejin frowned. She was simply worried that the candle was too thin to start a fire.

“How about this? Would you be willing to exchange the candles inside the phoenix and rabbit lanterns?”

“Mm.”

The young woman’s face and ears were burning red. She had barely heard what Lian Liejin said.

After all, this was the first time she had taken the initiative to ask someone for a lantern during the Lantern Festival. Exchanging lanterns signified an intention to pursue marriage, so it was indeed rather impulsive.

However, a single breathtaking glimpse of the person before her had already left her completely captivated. Without even stopping to think, she had chased after her.

A cold wind swept across the river.

Lian Liejin coughed twice, attempting to draw the young lady in blue back to her senses.

“If you agree, then once we exchange the candles, this rabbit lantern will belong to you.”

Seeing the woman nod, Lian Liejin placed the rabbit lantern on the ground. Just as she was about to take the phoenix lantern and exchange their candles—

Almost instinctively, without any conscious thought, something stirred in her heart.

She gently turned her head and saw a woman dressed in red standing five meters away.

“Liejin.”

Gao Jingxi approached with graceful steps.

Dressed in red beneath the bright moonlight behind her, she was so beautiful that no words could describe her.

It was impossible to tell what was more breathtaking—the moonlight in the sky, the snow covering the ground, or Gao Jingxi herself.

“I have been looking everywhere for you.”

At that moment, even Gao Jingxi could no longer tell whether she was saying those words to Guan Xie or to Lian Liejin.

There had been too many inexplicable feelings in her heart tonight. Then, by pure coincidence, she had encountered Lian Liejin standing with someone else while holding a lantern that symbolized a pledge of love.

The sight was strangely unpleasant to her eyes.

“Your High—weren’t you at Tianyuan…”

Lian Liejin desperately wanted to slap herself several times.

She had just confessed without being asked!

“Where was I?”

The candlelight from the lantern faintly enveloped both of them.

Lian Liejin could almost see her own reflection within Gao Jingxi’s dark eyes.

“Young lady, I arrived first.”

Hearing the dissatisfied voice of the young lady in blue, Gao Jingxi’s gaze sharpened. Her smile seemed filled with ice and snow.

She grabbed Lian Liejin’s clothes and pulled her down, forcing her to bend at the waist.

“What did you just say? Where was I?”

Only an inch separated her from Gao Jingxi’s red lips.

The beauty’s breath was as fragrant as orchids. Lian Liejin found it difficult to breathe, and her mind began suffering from a lack of oxygen.

As a result, after waiting for a long time, Gao Jingxi finally received an entirely unrelated answer.

“I was trying to start a fire.”

The beauty raised her phoenix eyes slightly, plainly unconvinced.

“It’s true.”

Lian Liejin removed the candle from the lantern and said to the young woman in blue,

“You may take the rabbit lantern since you like it.”

Carefully shielding the candle flame in her arms, she led Gao Jingxi toward the place where she had left the radishes and cabbages.

She pointed at the ground.

“Look. There is a pot.”

Seeing the mess scattered across the ground, Gao Jingxi suddenly laughed.

“Cabbages and radishes?”

“That’s right. Pearl, Jade, and White Jade Soup.”

After starting the fire, Lian Liejin took a dagger from her robes and began peeling the round radishes she had washed earlier.

The young lady in blue had disappeared at some point.

The streets in the distance remained packed with people, but only the two of them were here.

Firewood crackled within the flames.

Gao Jingxi crouched beside Lian Liejin and propped her head against one hand.

“Does the Princess Consort often do things that cause others to misunderstand?”

“What makes Your Highness say that? I do not believe I have.”

Lian Liejin did not raise her head, keeping her eyes fixed on the radish in her hands.

After a while, Gao Jingxi said nothing more.

Instead, something bright and glittering suddenly appeared before her eyes.

“A lantern made from a radish.”

Lian Liejin held up the lantern and smiled with great enthusiasm.

“Surely no one has ever done this before, and no one ever will again.”

She had carved the radish into a hollow sphere resembling the finest white jade. A tiny red candle had been placed in its center.

The flame flickered unsteadily, constantly appearing as though it might go out. A tree branch had been pushed through the radish as a handle, giving the lantern a strangely amusing charm.

Accepting the lantern, Gao Jingxi looked intently at Lian Liejin and parted her red lips.

“There is.”

“What?”

A great burst of fireworks once again blossomed across the sky.

Lian Liejin could not clearly hear what Gao Jingxi had said, but the princess refused to repeat herself. She held the radish lantern tightly and focused on watching the fireworks.

Gao Jingxi seemed very different tonight.

There was even a faint trace of gentleness about her.

Lian Liejin had no interest whatsoever in admiring the fireworks overhead. She was too busy staring at the beauty before her.

“You greatly resemble someone I know.”

Gao Jingxi lifted her head slightly, looking first at the sky and then at the person beside her.

“This humble subject has a very ordinary face.”

Once again rendered speechless by Lian Liejin’s answer, Gao Jingxi decided not to concern herself with the woman’s peculiar logic.

She sighed.

“That person also knows medicine. You truly resemble her. No—you are remarkably alike.”

“Then her medical skills certainly cannot be as good as mine.”

Gao Jingxi’s gaze made Lian Liejin’s head grow hot. She chuckled foolishly twice before suddenly remembering the bottle of pills containing Immortal Powder.

“Was that person the one who treated Your Highness’s injuries?”

After receiving Gao Jingxi’s confirmation, Lian Liejin snorted coldly. Her peach-blossom eyes immediately filled with frost.

“Any beast who uses that kind of medicine to treat someone deserves to be struck by lightning and die a miserable death.”

“The matter has not yet been settled, has it?”

Gao Jingxi became slightly nervous.

The question turned over on her tongue several times before she finally asked,

“Princess Consort, where did you learn medicine?”

“It was a small place in Qing—”

A sharp sound tore through the air behind them.

Lian Liejin reacted with incredible speed and immediately shoved Gao Jingxi aside. The two narrowly avoided an arrow.

Blue-green stellar power surrounded the arrow. The starlight swirling around its shaft vaguely resembled a skull.

Although the grass beside the riverbank was damp and soft, it could not completely cushion the force of Lian Liejin’s push.

Gao Jingxi’s head was still spinning when Lian Liejin forcefully pulled her back to her feet.

Unexpectedly, whoever had fired the hidden arrow was extremely cunning.

The two had only just avoided the first arrow when two more followed in rapid succession. Although neither struck them directly, the stellar power carried by the arrows still inflicted internal injuries.

“Your Highness, there is an assassin.”

Lian Liejin forced down the surging blood and qi within her body. A strand of stellar power had grazed her right shoulder.

Beside her, Gao Jingxi spat out a mouthful of blood and said weakly,

“The archer’s stellar-power rank is far above mine.”

Gao Jingxi was already the youngest Star Master. Although she had only reached the initial level, finding someone stronger than her was no easy matter.

The enemy could see them, while they had no idea where the enemy was hiding.

Gao Jingxi immediately made a decision.

“Princess Consort, the assassin is most likely targeting me. The field of vision here is too open and favors an archer. Cough… We can only enter the woods. Once inside, we may be able to—”

Lian Liejin hurriedly helped Gao Jingxi steady her breathing, then pulled her toward the small forest.

However, the arrows seemed to have eyes.

One after another, they flew toward the direction in which the two women were fleeing.

The originally dark forest was almost completely illuminated by eerie green starlight, making it appear even more sinister and terrifying.

“Princess Consort, the assassin’s star chart must be some kind of hunting falcon. It allows her archery to remain unaffected by the darkness.”

Another arrow flew toward them.

Gao Jingxi pushed Lian Liejin aside, causing her to slam directly into a tree and experience the same dizziness Gao Jingxi had suffered earlier.

Even more frighteningly, the trees struck by the arrows slowly began to burn.

Thick black smoke rose from the damp wood, choking the air and making it difficult to breathe.

The owner of the arrows seemed impatient. After confirming their location, she no longer hesitated.

A piercing howl accompanied a barrage of countless arrows.

Green light symbolizing death shot through the forest directly toward the two women.

Suddenly, the green light before Lian Liejin’s eyes was gradually overwhelmed by rising golden radiance.

A dragon’s roar shook the heavens.

The golden starlight that had been drifting in every direction began gathering together, gradually becoming solid. It transformed into a four-clawed golden dragon and soared into the sky.

Everything happened within the space of an instant.

Lian Liejin had no time to stop Gao Jingxi’s nearly suicidal actions. This woman was actually attempting to challenge someone far above her own rank, hoping to kill a stellar cultivator many times stronger than herself.

As though she had heard Lian Liejin’s thoughts, specks of starlight shimmered around Gao Jingxi’s body.

She said firmly,

“Even ants struggle to preserve their lives. How could you and I do otherwise?”

Amid the blazing firelight, countless young phoenixes circled Gao Jingxi.

The phoenix chicks continuously flew toward the golden dragon in the sky.

As the saying went, the finishing touch was to dot the dragon’s eyes—

Two golden phoenixes with long, trailing tails flew like meteors pursuing the moon and transformed into the golden dragon’s eyes.

The flying dragon soared through the heavens and charged furiously into the distance.

The moment the green arrows in the forest touched its golden light, they vanished into nothingness.

The golden dragon’s enormous body illuminated a distant mountain, setting the sky ablaze with flames.

Its attack struck its target.

Gao Jingxi immediately exhausted all her strength. The phoenixes and golden dragon dispersed at the same time.

The violent wind sweeping past nearly knocked her to the ground.

Lian Liejin rushed forward and caught her in her arms.

“It is not over yet…” Gao Jingxi forced herself to say.