Chapter 93: True identity

Now that the matter was settled, it was time to act on it.

Li Qi returned to the inn first to find Shen Shuibi; he planned to bring Shen Shuibi with him.

He went all the way back to the inn.

He knocked on the door from outside: “Shen Guniang, are you busy?”

However, he received no response.

Li Qi’s heart tightened, his brows furrowed, and he pushed the door open without hesitation.

Then, he went in and saw a rabbit.

It really was a rabbit.

Its fur was smooth, shiny, and moist, with two ears drooping over its face like an eye mask, covering its entire face. Its whole body was sprawled on the bed, its backside sticking up, sleeping soundly and snoring.

Li Qi was stunned.

To be honest, it was… his first time seeing Shen Shuibi’s true form.

A bit, uh, cute?

But, wait… this didn’t seem to be a rabbit.

Li Qi clearly saw that natural light points were emanating from Shen Shuibi.

His eyesight was excellent now; he had ample Great Forest Wood Qi. His liver belonged to wood, and among his five organs, his liver had been refined to the extreme. Since the liver governs the eyes, and strong five organs lead to strong five senses, his eyesight had greatly improved when he entered the Ninth Rank.

Therefore, when he focused his gaze, he saw that the light points emanating from Shen Shuibi were exactly like those recorded in the “Beast Section” of the “Zhu” Book of Anomalies.

Shining like the moon, a jade plate suddenly round, it is the Moon Essence.

The so-called Jade Rabbit and Golden Crow, the spirits of the two Qi, represent the sun and moon. The moon hides the Jade Rabbit, and the sun hides the Crow. Such special light points contain hidden runes, which are characteristics of the Essence of the Sun and Moon.

Shen Shuibi… sure enough, she wasn’t an ordinary rabbit; she was a Moon Essence Jade Rabbit.

This thing was not some cute, cuddly creature; it was a Spirit Beast on the same level as the Golden Crow, a renowned Innate anomaly, the physical manifestation of the Moon’s Essence, representing a part of “Taiyin.”

Taiyin is the convergence of the Yin Qi of heaven and earth, opposing the Taiyang, and is key to the harmony of Yin and Yang in heaven and earth. And the Moon Essence is formed from fragments of Taiyin; it is itself a part of Taiyin.

“Truly amazing…” Li Qi sighed, though he had long known that Shen Shuibi was certainly not simple. This was just the first time he had seen her original form, so he was only slightly surprised.

After speaking, he went up and petted the rabbit a few times.

The fur was smooth and felt excellent.

It was delightful.

He petted her for a while, but Shen Shuibi still didn’t wake up. In fact, she even twisted her body, as if she was enjoying the petting, and slept even more soundly.

She seemed genuinely exhausted.

However, she could sleep when they were on the road. Since they were departing tonight, she needed to be woken up to pack her luggage and check out to go to the caravan.

So, he tugged on the rabbit’s ears, preparing to wake her up.

Ah…

This sensation was irresistible…

But Li Qi still had good self-control. He tugged on her ears, and sure enough, Shen Shuibi’s ears suddenly moved, swatting his hand away. Then her two small paws began to rub her eyes.

“Mmm… Empress, what is it?” she murmured softly, her voice still thick with sleep.

“The Empress isn’t here. Wake up, Shen Guniang, we need to leave.” Li Qi picked her up in her rabbit form from the bed and placed her on the table.

Shen Shuibi still seemed a bit dazed, not fully awake from her dream. The entire rabbit lay there blankly, as if she was collecting herself.

Li Qi waited beside her for a while.

Because he could clearly see a “Waking Up” progress bar on Shen Shuibi.

This thing couldn’t display very deep things; it could only show the person’s current actions, so most of the time it was only for observation, but occasionally it could work wonders.

Even this current action wasn’t complete. For example, if someone was talking to him, he would only see the action “Communicating,” and nothing else.

Isn’t that obvious? Of course, Li Qi knew the person was communicating.

But the only good thing was that it gave Li Qi’s perception a small cheat. As long as he wasn’t completely unaware, a progress bar would pop up. For instance, the time he caught Shen Shuibi, he could sense a tiny bit, and even if he didn’t realize it, a progress bar would still appear.

But it was also quite useless.

Because if he truly couldn’t see, hear, or feel anything, then, frankly, it was still useless.

For example, the most intuitive example: for “ghosts,” if he didn’t activate his Qi-sensing vision, he wouldn’t see any progress bars. But if he activated his Qi-sensing vision and could see the ghost’s Qi, then the ghost’s action progress bar would appear.

However, overall, it was still useful, aside from often obstructing his vision.

Still, he didn’t know where it came from.

Was it the effect of an external Dao object…?

Hard to say. He was still too green to discern what it was.

While he was thinking these things, the progress bar was almost full.

Sure enough, Shen Shuibi regained consciousness after it filled, suddenly propping herself up and looking at Li Qi vigilantly.

Then, she let out a miserably shrill scream!

“Wh-what’s wrong?!” Li Qi shuddered at the sound and quickly asked!

“You! Li Qi, what are you doing?! You lecher! Get out now!” Shen Shuibi was both ashamed and annoyed, her voice a mix of alarm and shyness, as she threw a cup at Li Qi.

Li Qi was bewildered, but since he was being pelted, he raised his hands in surrender, then quickly retreated, opened the door, and closed it again.

Then, he heard rustling inside, like the sound of someone getting dressed.

After a while, Shen Shuibi said in a muffled voice: “Come in…”

Only then did Li Qi push the door open again, looking utterly bewildered. But Shen Shuibi had already returned to her usual appearance, her expression still shy and annoyed, looking quite angry.

Shen Shuibi, however, bit her lip, her face full of indignation. After a moment, she finally spoke: “Li Qi, how could you…!”

When she said “how could you,” it seemed she felt it was an unseemly phrase, so she swallowed it back, looking all puffed up with anger.

“Shen Guniang… while it was wrong of me to come in while you were sleeping, I really don’t understand what happened?”

“What happened? How dare you ask! The ancients said ‘look not at what is contrary to propriety,’ how could you just look?!” Shen Shuibi’s voice was almost choked with anger.

Li Qi was even more confused.

“Ah… Shen Guniang, but what did I look at?” He scratched his head.

“I wasn’t wearing any clothes!” Shen Shuibi steeled herself and just blurted it out.

Li Qi was astonished.

“But… weren’t you, furry?”

Besides, weren’t you in rabbit form? Li Qi thought to himself.

Shen Shuibi was so angry she cried, directly picking up the teacup from the table and throwing it: “You have fur on your body too! Can I just look at you then?!”

Li Qi, like a clown, was once again pelted, stumbling and scrambling out of the room, hastily closing the door.

Sigh… what sin have I committed…