Feng Siqian's face showed a vigilant expression: "Why should I tell you my age?"
The unspoken subtext was, this is not something to ask a girl, don't you know?
Qi Yu quickly put on a look of apology, and then silently calculated in her heart.
How many years have her master and mistress been companions?
Both of them were at the Nascent Soul stage, with a lifespan of around three thousand years. Hmm... no, it doesn't seem like it can be calculated like that.
Her mistress is the Demon Lord...
Should her mistress's age be calculated according to demonic cultivation or immortal cultivation?
Thinking of this, Qi Yu suddenly turned around and asked Qi Nian a question completely unrelated to the sour date incident: "Senior Sister, how long have Master and Mistress known each other?"
"Ah? This..." Qi Nian was stunned by the question. After thinking for a while, she replied, "I've been in the Beiyuan Sect for over twenty years, and Senior Brother entered ten years before me. Hmm, but I heard that Master and Mistress became Dao companions as early as two thousand years ago when they first entered the Nascent Soul stage, so it should be over two thousand years."
Qi Yu said "oh" and counted on her fingers in her heart.
Feng Mingqi, this Demon Race Crown Prince, was ranked second. Six months ago, he bought the Heavenly Thunder Barrier needed for demonic cultivators to form a core from the Demon Realm's Mingcang Tower to block the heavenly tribulation.
One of the conditions for demonic cultivators to form a core is that they must be at least 600 years old.
That means Feng Mingqi is at least six hundred years old.
Feng Siqian is Feng Mingqi's sister, and her age cannot be low.
Ah, calculating it this way...
Qi Yu looked at Qi Nian, full of doubt. Her second senior sister cultivated alone, and her cultivation, at most, should not be hundreds of years old.
How could there be talk of "since childhood" between these two people?
While Qi Yu was racking her brains trying to figure out Qi Nian's true age, Feng Siqian, standing beside her, was still investigating the culprit who picked her sour dates.
"Stop chatting, I absolutely cannot let that little thief who stole my sour dates go." Feng Siqian lifted her skirt and turned to walk out.
Qi Yu wanted to follow, but she touched the sour dates in her pocket and felt a little worried. If she were discovered later, she wouldn't be able to clear her name. So, she followed without a word.
As they walked, Qi Nian, standing beside her, suddenly stared at the ground and said, "Hey, Feng Siqian, look, there's a sour date pit here. I know who stole the sour dates!"
The sour date case was inexplicably solved, and Feng Siqian turned back with a look of confusion, not understanding what she meant.
Qi Yu also looked at Qi Nian with confusion, wondering if her second senior sister was going to expose her.
However, as it turned out, Qi Yu was overthinking.
Qi Nian did want to shift the blame for picking the sour dates onto someone else, but that unlucky person wasn't her.
Qi Nian pulled Feng Siqian to a spot slightly further away from Qi Yu and said mysteriously, "Feng Siqian, you should know that your second brother has come to the Beiyuan Sect, right?"
"I know. He even boasted to me about it. Isn't it just that he has formed a core in his demonic cultivation, so Mother allowed him to enter the Beiyuan Sect to be Father's disciple... In a few years, I'll form a core too, and I can too."
"I'm not talking about that. I'm asking, don't you suspect that he picked the sour dates from your sour date tree?" Qi Nian unashamedly threw the blame onto Feng Mingqi: "Siqian, you should go and settle accounts with him. Without a doubt, in the entire Beiyuan Sect, the only person who could secretly pick your sour dates is him or me."
When Feng Siqian heard this, her eyes widened, and she felt it made sense.
She angrily ran off to settle accounts with Feng Mingqi.
Qi Nian stood by leisurely and watched for a while. Seeing Feng Siqian far away, she then turned around and hooked Qi Yu's shoulder: "Alright, the dangerous person is dealt with. By the way, that box of sour dates I gave you earlier, you didn't eat them all, did you? Don't forget to leave me half."
"...Second Senior Sister, of course there are still sour dates," Qi Yu pursed her lips, looking speechless: "But is it really okay for you to be so shameless??"
Actually, more than these words, Qi Yu wanted to ask Qi Nian if she and Feng Siqian grew up together since childhood. If so, it would prove that Qi Nian was not human at all.
But... the words reached her lips, and Qi Yu ultimately did not ask.
After all... even without asking, the answer was quite obvious.
Feng Siqian was, after all, the Third Princess of the Demon Race. Could just anyone pick the sour dates from the sour date tree she planted in her small courtyard?
Moreover, judging by the way Qi Nian and Feng Siqian interacted, their ages didn't seem to be vastly different. Therefore, it was obvious that Senior Sister Qi Nian had known Feng Siqian for a very long time.
The only remaining question was, Senior Brother Yue Zhiyin was not human, but the Crown Prince of the North Sea Dragon Clan. Second Senior Sister Qi Nian was not human, her race was temporarily unknown. Third Senior Brother Sui You was the Phoenix Lord of the Phoenix Clan.
Mistress Yu Zhen was the Demon Empress of the Demon Race.
She and Si Qing were innate spiritual artifacts.
There were only so many people around Master. Most of them were not human. Did Master know about this?
Qi Yu did not ponder this question for too long.
Because Feng Mingqi and Feng Siqian had started fighting.
To be precise, after Feng Mingqi was accused of being the thief who stole the sour dates, he didn't even have time to clarify himself before being unilaterally chased by Feng Siqian.
Feng Siqian also knew that Feng Mingqi's true identity should not be exposed, so she kept yelling at Feng Mingqi the whole time:
"Feng Mingqi! You stole my sour dates, it was you! You clearly stole my sour dates, and you still won't admit it!"
"...Ancestor, where did this black pot come from to be put on my head? Why would I be so bored as to steal your sour dates? Feng Siqian, Third Princess Feng, can you stop being so violent? Be careful you won't get married later!" Feng Mingqi said as he ran behind Qi Yu to hide.
"Who are you calling unlikely to get married?!" Feng Siqian tried to hit him through Qi Yu, but couldn't reach him.
Qi Nian, as the culprit of the sour date theft, had perfectly shifted the blame and was leisurely leaning to the side, watching the excitement.
Qi Yu didn't want to be accidentally injured by Feng Mingqi and Feng Siqian, so she slowly moved out of the battle zone and leaned next to Qi Nian: "Here."
She grabbed a handful of sour dates from her storage bag and gave them to Qi Nian.
Qi Nian took half from her palm, and the two of them ate them, taking bites alternately.
While eating, they enjoyed watching Feng Mingqi and Feng Siqian, this brother and sister, fight.
It was called fighting, but in reality, neither of them used lethal force. Feng Mingqi was always running away, and Feng Siqian was chasing him with her fists.
"Second Senior Sister," Qi Yu asked in a casual tone, "What race are you? How old are you this year?"
This sudden, out-of-the-blue question made Qi Nian almost choke to death on a sour date pit. After pounding her chest and swallowing the pit, she took a while to recover before turning to look at Qi Yu in surprise:
"What?"
Qi Yu said nothing, just stared at her fixedly.
Qi Nian: "..."
After their eyes met for a good while, Qi Nian was the first to break.
She looked at Qi Yu with a sincere expression: "May I ask why I was exposed?"
Before, she was sure that Qi Yu had no memory of her saving her in the underworld.
So Qi Yu must have guessed that she was not human through her own abilities.
But...
After so many years.
Master, Mistress, Senior Brother, Third Brother, Fourth Brother, Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, none of them had seen through it.
How did Qi Yu know?!!