At Pei Yi's widened eyes of astonishment, Jun Sheng laughed to herself, but still kept that bemused wicket expression on her face.
"It's okay you're unwilling…." A mischievous light glinted in those obsidian black eyes.
"I-I'll have a look , to prevent you from your dark deeds!"
"Pfft."
Pei Yi stared at Jun Sheng for a second before stooping forwards.
"It's this way." Jun Sheng leaned against a cranky old tree, raising an eyebrow at the numb figure treading in the wrong direction.
Pei Yi halted, with a defiant stare she took off again in the direction that Jun Sheng pointed to.
Jun Sheng suppressed a chuckle and followed.
Pei Yi trudged in the ankle deep snow, lips pursed. Her face was numbing a bit from the frosty wind.
Rubbing her fingers together to make them a little warmer, she tried her best to keep steady on the slightly slippy ground.
With difficulty she travelled. But then a figurine 'flew' past her.
"Huh?"
Pei Yi stared at Jun Sheng, who happened to be hovering three inches off the ground. In front of her.
Jun Sheng lifted an eyebrow at her: "Well your pretty boots can't do that, can they?"
On her fur boots inscripted some magical commands, patterns which looked like pentagrams with swirls and runes magically written into it.
Unnoticeable to the human eye normally, but now glowing silver against the brown fur boots in the dark.
After the moment of surprise Pei Yi regained her usual expression, along with the posture which had disappeared for some moments during their encounter.
With a small smile Pei Yi reached into her sleeves and took out her pouch.
Under Jun Sheng's gaze she slowly took out an entire stack of yellow paper. Rune paper.
Red swirls, language of the unknown.
A stack of money, in Jun Sheng's eyes.
And Pei Yi was somehow gracefully attaching the 'money' to her feet, covering her white snow boots in yellow paper.
"Oops-" Pei Yi hissed.
Ah. Maybe not quite the 'graceful' bit. She just ripped one. Maybe...graceful clumsiness?
Jun Sheng winced.
That was at least five class green rune stones, ripped just like that….
(The currency used between cultivators: rune stones. Red being the most common and has the least value, then increasing in order of: Orange, yellow,green, cyan, blue, violet. There are a few special ones other than these, but they are seen too less on the market that they weren't used much at all)
Pei Yi, done with her 'masterpiece', stamped around to make sure that non would fall off, held a piece of paper, the inscription looking slightly different from the others.
Focusing her mana onto the paper, she closed her eyes. It was a strange feeling but welcome, like a hot chocolate on a cold day. The warmth circled her.
Cyan fire licked their way up the piece of rune paper, disintegrating cinnabar turned into pure magic, and she levitated.
Without sparing a glance at Jun Sheng, Pei Yi flew towards the direction of the inn.
Jun Sheng sighed. Why'd she make so much extra trouble in the first place? She had just been slightly annoyed and said for Pei Yi to come along too. It was a spur of the moment thing….
With another sigh of annoyance, Jun Sheng followed.
"Wait, do you know where to go?" Jun Sheng yelled.
"No…"
"Well then wait up for me."
Pei Yi steadied herself in the air for a moment to turn around. She looked at Jun Sheng.
Her eyebrows wrinkled a little as if in contemplation.
"I think not." With that she turned around and flew. Higher.\
Completely unaware of the fact that she's doing this on free will and enjoying it a little.
Besides the little bit of infuriated emotions starting to burn inside of her, Jun Sheng wanted to laugh a little. Out of anger? She didn't know. Probably frustration.
Hm...this actually feels...nice…? The whooshing night air cleared her head and senses even more than on the cliff.
With curiosity Pei Yi looked down. The forest below had some blinking ominous light dots, occasionally lighting up a leaf or two.
Not at all 'scary' or 'legs trembling' as those ladies of other families had told her.
She angled a finger so that it had the star of venus balanced on the tip of it.
At that she smiled, but continued to focus on the travelling again.
Maybe plan on how to stop the dark deeds of that girl.
"It's not like you know already that she wasn't going to do anything bad with it and that you are only using this as an excuse to go out to somewhere new and have 'an exciting night life' as one of the aunts had said" A voice inside her said flatly.
Shut up. Pei Yi said back politely. With a little smile that looked a little sadistic under the ominous dots of mana-flies.
Then her thoughts drifted to the times when her aunt had been around, saying strange things to her, like a world without mana but people could still fly. And when mother hushed her aunt when her aunt said something about 'nightlife' in front of them.
And also the times when she walked past their bedroom door which wasn't closed properly, to hear something like "Soap drama", "Idol", and a lot of squealing.
They….are strange people. Pei Yi shook the mangle of thoughts out of her head.
Pei Yi saw that there was a place glowing weakly and knew that that was her destination.
With grace she landed.
A soft thud sounded, meaning that Jun Sheng had, too, arrived behind her.
She was a little aware of the organised chaos. Maybe it was the gaping hole in the middle of the barrier.
Jun Sheng, behind her, tutted. Pei Yi kept her icy expression as she stepped into the eruption of an inn.
Jun Sheng ran her tongue over her molars, narrowing her eyes a little with an expression of slightly irritated impatience.