"Let's get straight to the main point."
"Sure," Lu Wan replied leisurely. "First of all, I don't really want to meet you, but my family is not going to let me off if I don't make a deal with you."
"It's the same with me," Wei Cheng replied coldly. He didn't like Lu Wan, not in the slightest bit. Having to stay in the same room with this boy alone made him felt like he wanted to puke.
"My father wishes for us to make a deal with each other, but I'm sure that…."
Ye Jiao didn't listen to their conversation as she could sense that the two of them were faking their politeness. Their eyes were glaring at one another as if they wanted to kill each other right here, right now.
As she had another goal to do in this residence, Ye Jiao sneaked out of the room towards the other side of the room. Her eyes caught the nearby kitchen and she slowly made her way there.
"Where's the food for Madam? It's almost time for breakfast!"
"Over here!"
"Quick!"
It was still early in the morning, so the kitchen was hectic. They had to prepare food for several people as there were a lot of madams in this residence. Ye Jiao's eyes noticed the familiar clothing on the female servant.
Even concubines have their own rank, which also means that they have different servants assigned to them. She only knew a bit, but she recognized this particular servant because she had seen her a few times. Su Lian only has a few servants following after her and this was one of them.
'I'll try to follow after her.'
Ye Jiao used her technique to erase her presence as she followed after the servant. Her technique might not be perfect as she developed it herself because it was needed, but it was more than enough to fool the majority of these servants. They have never seen a real fight and only stayed in this residence, so she had a great advantage against them.
Detecting other people's presence was not easy if they had never practiced it beforehand.
The servant walked deeper until it reached a grand quarter. The wall was decorated nicely with several guards guarding. Some of the guards had Wei Family crest on their armor, but some others have Su Family crest instead.
'Ah, I forgot that Su Lian is the princess in Su Family.'
Ye Jiao recalled people talked about how Su Lian was the princess of Su Family. As the daughter of direct lineage, Su Lian has an important position and would be given the best of everything. There was nothing that she asked that wouldn't be given to her. This resulted in this woman always acting on her whim and forming a lot of hate.
Well, in the first place, it was not weird to see a woman got jealous when she saw her husband favored another woman.
"Su Daji! What's the meaning of this!"
Before Ye Jiao could get closer, she heard the sudden yell from Su Lian. Her body flinched in place as her eyes wandered around, trying to find a perfect place to watch over.
'That tree's leaves are right outside the wall.'
With a swift movement, Ye Jiao climbed the tree and used the leaves and leftover snow to cover up her presence. By making sure that she didn't move too much and kept her presence to the minimum, no one would be able to find her.
"Sister Su Lian," Su Daji, Su Lian's cousin, smiled sweetly. "I'm just worried that you're going to get sick because of the weather."
"It's already spring!"
"It's still rather cold, and I have a lot of spare fabric. There's nothing wrong for me to send some to you."
Su Lian's eyes were filled with rage as she pointed out. "Scram! No matter how talented your son is, he'll never be able to surpass my children."
It was a fact that Wei Liao's talent was not as good as the others. Wei Liao was still 12 years old, so there was still some time for him to form his core. Even though there was some sign, she knew that it was not the time, yet. Still, she was a bit impatient as it would become an embarrassment for the Wei Family if Wei Liao turned out the be same as Lu Zhi, unable to form the core even at the age of 13.
Su Daji frowned slightly. Her son was the weak point he had. He couldn't believe that Su Lian, who has lower talent than hers, could possibly bore talented children. On the other hand, she, who had greater talent, only had an ordinary child.
"At the very least, I'll be able to protect him well," Su Daji smiled. She turned around. "I won't bother you anymore because I have to protect my son. Rest well, Sister Su Lian."
Watching the proud back of Su Daji, Su Lian got the urge to smash the nearby pot around her. She was angry that she couldn't do anything to retort back. After she had lost her core, she no longer has enough strength necessary to protect her children. Added with the sneer and jeers she received all this time, she was angry.
"Madam, it's time to eat."
"Scram!"
"Madam, please have some food. It would do you no good to not eat anything."
As Su Lian was throwing a tantrum, Ye Jiao climbed down from the tree into the residence by jumping down the roof and sneaking into the bush. She saw the departing back of Su Daji as her heart was filled with hatred. She still remembered how that woman tried to kill her back then.
If not because of her mother, she would have died in that woman's hand.
Her eyes landed on the nearby servant who has similar stature to her. That servant was tending the garden, trying to make her presence as small as possible in fear of getting seen by Su Lian.
'Perhaps… I can make them turn against one another.'
After waiting for Su Lian to go quite far, Ye Jiao approached the servant. She moved to the girl's back and hit the back of her head with swift movement, she put on the outer layer of the servant's clothes. Her face darkened when she realized that it was still slightly too big for her.
Her stature seemed to be extremely small compared to the average people.
Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, she moved to the direction of the other servants. They were all also trying to tend the garden because Su Lian had unintentionally let her great strength destroy part of it. Even though she was no longer Eon Energy Master, her strength was still more than that of ordinary people.
"You, help over here!"
"Yes," Ye Jiao changed her voice and moved to the designated spot. Seeing the crater on the ground, she sighed to herself. It seemed that Su Lian was still the same as before. That woman's strength was simply too big.
"I really wish Madam can reign her temper," one of the servants murmured.
Ye Jiao smiled bitterly, acting as if she was also feeling that it was hard to accept. Thanks to the mission she had done so far, she had learned how to act better. Well, they still relied on Lu Wan's enchanting poison most of the time, though.
"Yeah, do you think that if Madam recovers her core she'll become better?"
"I don't know," the servant sighed. "You're new here, right? You should have seen her when she still has her core."
"Isn't it better than now?"
"Yeah," another servant admitted. "But how do you expect for her to build one again? It takes years just to build one's core."
Children normally took six years to form their core. Some of the more talented one formed it in four years like Lu Wan or if they were oddballs, they would be like Ye Jiao and formed it within two and half a year.
"Well, in my village I heard that it's possible to take other people's core."
Ye Jiao's words caused the servants to be surprised. They looked at Ye Jiao with incredulous expressions.
"How is it possible?"
"Yeah, if it's possible, there will be a lot of children dying by now."
"My village is located near Barbarian Kingdom, so I heard about them on the passing," Ye Jiao immediately lied. "Because their areas are filled with fight, there are high possibilities for them to lose their core. This is the reason that they start to take slave children's core."
She had just learned this around two weeks ago and now she was retelling it again. Internally, she was glad that she listened to Lin Jie's explanation or she might not be able to know so much.
"Is that true?"
"Do you truly know how?"
"Are you telling the truth?"
When the servants heard the last question, their body froze. This time, the one who asked the question was their Madam, Su Lian.