"Continue," Xu Lai said.
"The Supre Emperor, as you know, I lost many mories. But as luck would have it, I just rembered the part about Jing Ke. I didn’t ntion it earlier; it wasn’t because I was intentionally hiding it from you..."
As Heavenly Dao droned on, Xu Lai frowned impatiently.
Heavenly Dao quickly steered the conversation back on track. "Jing Ke sohow heard that there is an ’Immortal’ within the Nine Kings’ Palace, and he wanted to place the person from the coffin into the palace to prolong their life..."
Xu Lai rubbed his temples.
The Nine Kings’ Palace. It was one of the most dangerous forbidden territories in the Immortal Domain. An Emperor Realm powerhouse had once tried to force his way in, only for his corpse to be found adrift among the stars—a deeply strange and mysterious fate. It was said to be even more perilous than the Samsara Sea, which controlled the reincarnation of all living beings in the Immortal Domain!
"Who is the person in the coffin?"
"What is Jing Ke’s true identity?"
"Which power is behind him?"
Xu Lai peppered him with questions, one after another. Heavenly Dao looked blank for a mont before steeling himself to say, "The Supre Emperor, I really don’t know any of that..."
"You don’t know?" Xu Lai said calmly, "Don’t make search your soul."
Heavenly Dao’s expression turned bitter. "The Supre Emperor, I am willing to extract my mories concerning Jing Ke for your perusal."
Without any ceremony, Xu Lai sent a sliver of Divine Sense into Heavenly Dao’s forehead.
A mont later, Xu Lai opened his eyes, his brows deeply furrowed.
He possessed a secret soul-searching technique, so he knew that Heavenly Dao’s mories of Jing Ke were complete, not fragnted or missing. As for the other mories, Heavenly Dao had not made them available, and Xu Lai hadn’t forced a complete viewing. Therefore, even if Heavenly Dao had other secrets, he had not hidden anything regarding Jing Ke.
"This is all you know, and you still hid it from ?" Xu Lai gazed deeply at Heavenly Dao.
"...It wasn’t that I hid it, I just now rembered," Heavenly Dao said awkwardly. Even he didn’t believe his own words, but he had to say sothing.
Xu Lai waved his hand, dismissing him. Heavenly Dao fled as if he had received a grand pardon.
Sitting in the enclosed space, Xu Lai’s eyes flickered. Senior Sister, are you still alive? Are Master and my Senior Brothers still around, too?
Xu Lai had never been so plagued by anxiety and uncertainty. I dearly hope this is just a small joke of yours, Senior Sister. That you, Master, and my Senior Brothers will suddenly appear behind , smiling and saying, ’Little Junior Brother, we’ve finally found you.’
Sighing, Xu Lai stood up and continued to search the room Jing Ke had once occupied. He checked every corner, but to no avail. The place was unnervingly clean. Other than the four lines of evanescent script he had seen earlier, there was no other useful information. It was as if everything had been deliberately erased.
Xu Lai suppressed the disappointnt in his heart and gestured to collect the small dinsion created by the Barrier. He stored it in his Storage Space, planning to examine it further when he got ho.
「At the lakeside.」
Xu Lai raised an eyebrow slightly. Ji Jie was actually here.
She was chatting with the two ordinary won. "You’re saying you saw an Immortal here just now? For real?"
The sky was gradually growing dark. The setting sun’s afterglow fell upon Chen Yuanyuan’s face. The ordinary woman was still on the verge of a breakdown after her encounter with the Snake Demon. Although this strange woman had appeared out of nowhere, Chen Yuanyuan still felt the overwhelming urge to pour out all her bottled-up terror.
"Of course it’s true!" Chen Yuanyuan said excitedly. "A giant snake tens of ters long turned into a mist of blood, and there was a young man, he... he... he..."
Her words devolved into a complete stutter as she saw Xu Lai suddenly appear next to Ji Jie. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fainted dead away.
Xu Lai was speechless.
Was I that frightening?
He tapped a finger on Chen Yuanyuan’s forehead, reviving her instantly. Yet, the woman didn’t open her eyes or get up from the slush-covered ground. She was still feigning death...
Xu Lai paid her no more attention and turned to Ji Jie. "What are you doing here?"
"I was worried, so I ca to check on things." Ji Jie’s eyes shimred as she spoke softly. "It seems like you didn’t find him. Then again, he’s been missing for years. No one knows where he went."
"This is indeed his residence," Xu Lai replied calmly. "And my agreent with you... remains unchanged."
With that, Xu Lai’s figure vanished.
Chen Yuanyuan’s squinted eyes snapped open. She blurted out incoherently, "Did you... did you see that? He vanished again! Was he an Immortal?"
"No." Ji Jie smiled gently. "Immortals aren’t like that."
"If he’s not an Immortal, then is he a ghost?" Chen Yuanyuan continued to argue.
Only Song Xuan, whose eyes flickered with fear, said nothing. She gently tugged at her best friend’s arm, not wanting to interrupt her rambling. She couldn’t help but whisper, "Chen Yuanyuan, she knows that Immortal!"
That single sentence was like a bucket of ice water poured over Chen Yuanyuan from head to toe. Chen Yuanyuan, who had been in shock ever since the Snake Demon’s death, finally snapped back to reality. She gasped, and her body went rigid, toppling backward once more.
"KIKIKI, don’t worry, I don’t eat people." Ji Jie’s lips curled into a bewitching smile, her cherry-red lipstick looking exceptionally vibrant.
For so reason, the sight of the woman’s smile filled Song Xuan with a terror that surpassed even what she’d felt when facing the dead Snake Demon.
She asked warily, "Who are you? And what is your relationship with that Immortal?"
"Him?" Ji Jie thought for a mont, then replied, "I’m his woman."
With that, her figure also vanished.
WHOOSH—
A bone-chilling wind swept past, making both Song Xuan and the still-feigning-death Chen Yuanyuan shiver. Another person had vanished right before their eyes!
"Yuanyuan, let’s go back to Yanjing," Song Xuan said, biting her pale lower lip. "Let’s not look for a master anymore. This place is too eerie."
Chen Yuanyuan scrambled to her feet and scurried back to the car. "Hurry up, Song Xuan, hurry!"
「On the way down the mountain.」
To their utter despair, dozens of giant snakes appeared on the road. Each one was two to three ters long and looked remarkably similar to the Snake Demon that had exploded into a bloody mist. Flicking their forked tongues, they began chasing the car.
"AHHH!!!" Chen Yuanyuan clamped a hand over her mouth, stifling her screams.
Song Xuan’s palms were drenched in sweat. Forcing down her terror, she floored the gas pedal, racing down the mountain under the cover of night.
What they didn’t know was that these were the offspring of the Black-patterned Snow Snake. Though their bloodline was impure, they lived at the bottom of the lake. The death of their ancestor had roused them from their slumber, and upon waking, they needed to feed.
Fortunately, Song Xuan’s driving skills were astonishing. She drove fast enough on the snowy mountain road to keep them from being caught.
* * *
Xu Lai returned to East Sea at exactly five o’clock and drove to the kindergarten to pick up his daughter.
"Daddy!"
The little girl sprinted over with sheer joy, exclaiming, "Daddy, have a strawberry."
Yiyi held a small box filled with various fruits—strawberries, grapes, and sliced pears. It was the fruit box the kindergarten handed out every afternoon.
Xu Lai popped the strawberry his daughter offered him into his mouth. "Delicious," he praised.
"Hehe." Yiyi bead. "Daddy, have a grape."
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