Jian Huan couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Shen Jizhi looked at her, puzzled.
Under the bright moonlight, Jian Huan wore a light green dress. Her willow-leaf eyebrows were slightly raised, and her bright eyes danced with laughter, like the rippling surface of a moonlit lotus pond.
Shen Jizhi frowned. "What are you laughing at?"
Jian Huan barely contained her laughter. "I just remembered something."
Shen Jizhi: "?"
"Using meat buns to lure dogs," Jian Huan said seriously. "Have you heard that saying before?"
Shen Jizhi: "..."
Pretending not to understand, Shen Jizhi changed the subject back: "What was that clue you mentioned earlier?"
Jian Huan tapped lightly on the windowsill: "First, tell me how you advanced from the first level of Qi cultivation to the second level?"
Oh, that.
Shen Jizhi had nothing to hide: "Daily practice, and then just waited."
Jian Huan: "Did you take any spirit pills?"
Shen Jizhi merely glanced at her briefly, his eyes giving her the answer.
Jian Huan paused, then changed her question: "How long did you wait?"
Shen Jizhi: "One year."
Jian Huan sighed: "That seems a bit slow."
Shen Jizhi: "."
Shen Jizhi: "Now, your clue."
Jian Huan straightened up: "The usual arrangement, split fifty-fifty?"
Shen Jizhi agreed: "Fine."
They each had their own strengths, and working alone might not be enough to find Chu Chu.
Besides, with a life at stake, finding her one day sooner meant better chances of survival for the child.
Meeting Shen Jizhi's gaze, Jian Huan slowly spoke: "Actually, I don't have much of a clue, but I want to try drawing a talisman for finding people."
Shen Jizhi's expression shifted: "You don't trust the tracking butterfly?"
"It's not that." Jian Huan tilted her head, smiling softly. "I just trust myself more."
Shen Jizhi nodded: "Fair enough."
Using the tracking butterfly wasn't their own ability after all.
After a brief pause, Shen Jizhi said: "In an hour, I'm planning to go out."
Jian Huan was surprised: "So late? Where are you going?"
Shen Jizhi replied: "In a city as big as Azure Dragon City, there must be more than one missing girl. I'm going to the magistrate's office to check the records."
If other children were missing, they might find clues from those cases that could lead them to whoever took Chu Chu.
Jian Huan hesitated for a moment, then pulled out an invisibility talisman and a teleportation talisman from her robes and passed them through the window.
Before Jian Huan could say anything, Shen Jizhi flatly refused: "I won't buy them."
He was just going to the magistrate's office, where there were only ordinary guards, no cultivators, so there wouldn't be any danger.
Jian Huan rolled her eyes: "...I'll let you use them first and keep a tab! Just return them if you don't use them!"
Only then did Shen Jizhi take them: "Thank you."
Jian Huan closed the window sullenly and sat down at the table, picking up the Xuantian Mirror to look.
[Feather is Yu Qing has become your fellow Daoist.]
Jian Huan's eyes lit up, and she immediately asked: [Elder Yu, good evening. This disciple has a question: are there any first-level talismans that can track people?]
Yu Qing, who had already heard about this matter from Jiang Mian, replied: [No, tracking talismans are usually fourth-level techniques.]
First-level talismans were relatively 'static,' while fourth-level ones were more 'dynamic.'
Since tracking targets move, tracking talismans naturally needed to move as well.
Strictly speaking, tracking talismans were advanced versions of teleportation talismans, which made them quite challenging for talisman masters.
Jian Huan felt slightly disappointed.
[Feather is Yu Qing: However... you can use teleportation talismans creatively to find people.]
[Money Plenty Has Talismans: What do you mean, Elder?]
[Feather is Yu Qing: If you draw a teleportation talisman on something carrying a person's essence, it should be able to lead you to that person. However, there are many limitations. For instance, with your skill level, it won't work beyond ten miles. Also, the item should have been used by the person within the last three days; after that, the essence becomes too weak to be useful.]
Well.
But Chu Chu had been missing for ten days already.
Shen Jizhi was changing clothes.
He had asked the housekeeper for some night-walking clothes, and just as he was halfway dressed, the window opened and Jian Huan climbed in from outside.
Shen Jizhi's expression twitched violently, spiritual energy flickering at his fingertips, almost pushing Jian Huan off the windowsill.
But remembering the two talismans she had just lent him, he ultimately withdrew his spiritual energy.
Shen Jizhi quickly fastened his upper garment.
But Jian Huan had already seen that dazzling expanse of white skin and those perfectly sculpted muscles.
Jian Huan hadn't expected to encounter this scene, and her face flushed. She slipped and landed on the windowsill with one foot inside and one foot outside.
She stared wide-eyed, momentarily speechless.
Shen Jizhi's expression darkened: "Next time, please knock."
Jian Huan explained: "The window was closer..."
Knowing she was in the wrong, her voice grew increasingly quiet: "Alright, I didn't mean to... I'll definitely knock next time..."
Shen Jizhi finished putting on his night-walking clothes and stood tall facing her, his expression still carrying a hint of frost: "What is it?"
Jian Huan looked at him.
The night-walking clothes wrapped him up completely, but damn it, her mind kept returning to what she'd accidentally seen earlier.
She shook her head to clear it, pushed herself up, and jumped into his room: "I just wanted to tell you that when you're looking through the case files, focus on children who've gone missing in the last three days."
Shen Jizhi: "Understood."
Jian Huan: "Also, could you lend me some clothes you've worn?"
Shen Jizhi looked up with an indescribable expression: "?"
Jian Huan coughed and repeated what Elder Yu had told her: "I want to test if Elder Yu's method works, to see if I can find you later."
Shen Jizhi wordlessly put his changed clothes into his Mustard Seed Pouch, refusing through action rather than words.
Jian Huan: "?"
Jian Huan laughed in anger: "Well done, Shen Jizhi! Some teammate you are, not even willing to help. Fine, we'll search separately, and whoever finds her first gets thirty thousand spirit stones!"
She threw down the challenge and turned to walk toward the window.
But remembering something, she turned back toward the door instead.
Shen Jizhi stood directly between the window and the door.
Neither of them moved aside. She walked straight into him, pushing him back a few steps, head held high as she marched out the door with an air of righteous indignation.
Hmph, only dogs climb through windows from now on!
...
Shen Jizhi remained silent for a moment, then after gathering his things and pulling up his black mask, he left the room and disappeared into the night.
Though he couldn't fly on a sword, his movements were agile and light as a swallow.
Just after leaving the Chu family gate and crossing one street, he suddenly stopped, hiding in the shadowy grove like a tree.
Shen Jizhi lowered his gaze, quietly looking at his feet.
After a while, he turned back.
Jian Huan's window was open, candlelight burning steadily, casting its glow on the woman bent over drawing talismans, creating a peaceful nighttime scene.
However, if one listened carefully, the slight sound of teeth grinding could be heard.
...
Shen Jizhi gracefully climbed through the window.
Hearing the movement, Jian Huan whirled around, but upon seeing who it was, wordlessly turned back.
Shen Jizhi took out his outer garment from the Mustard Seed Pouch, placed it gently to the side, and said softly: "You'd better try after an hour."
By then, he should be out of the magistrate's office, making it convenient for her to test the teleportation talisman.
After placing the clothes down, Shen Jizhi didn't linger. He climbed back out the window, but before leaving, he made sure to close it for Jian Huan.
