Looking at the pale golden-haired girl before them, several guards exchanged glances, simply because they had never seen such a beautiful girl in their lives.
A single glance from her was enough to make their hearts tremble.
“Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, is there something you need?” The girl’s voice was filled with timidity, sounding very frightened.
The lead guard was completely stunned, even forgetting where he was, until his companion elbowed him from behind.
Only then did he snap out of it.
Feeling his cheeks burning, he awkwardly cleared his throat.
“Ahem, uh, little miss, we are guards from Cardin City. There’s been a strict crackdown in the city recently, so please cooperate and let us come in for a quick inspection,” the guard said with a flushed face, but still managed to state their purpose in a very proper manner.
“Um… you want to come in…?”
A troubled look appeared on the girl’s delicate little face, making her seem fragile and pitiful.
Seeing this scene, the guards instantly felt their heartbeats skip a beat.
They subconsciously wanted to just leave, and some even felt like apologizing to this fragile, pitiful girl.
But they quickly came to their senses.
They knew very well that if they failed this mission, their heads might actually roll.
No matter how charming and delicate the girl was, they understood that their own heads were obviously more important.
“Yes, little sister, this is for the safety of the entire city,” the lead guard said solemnly, though his eyes kept sneaking glances at Mo Baiwei’s figure.
Just moments earlier, when she heard the knocking, Mo Baiwei had felt utter despair.
She had even briefly considered ending her own life — better to die than be captured by them.
But the instant her hand touched the knife, she suddenly remembered the ring Phil had given her.
Without thinking too much, in a moment of desperation she slipped it onto her finger.
It was a last-ditch hope, but she knew this ring was her only chance.
She wrapped her tail around herself several times and stuffed it into her skirt.
After checking her appearance, although she looked mostly human now, those glaringly obvious pointed ears still filled her with anxiety.
However, time was running out.
The impatient guards outside were about to start breaking down the door.
With no other choice, Mo Baiwei hid the bottle of royal elf blood in the wardrobe, gritted her teeth, and forced herself to open the door.
And then… she discovered they didn’t seem to see through her disguise at all.
Perhaps… this ring really was incredibly useful.
Mo Baiwei let out a long breath of relief, her racing heart finally calming down a little.
Following behind the guards, she actually still felt quite uneasy and nervous inside.
The guards searched around.
The moment they stepped into the bedroom, the scroll suddenly turned bright red.
In an instant, swords were drawn — five or six gleaming blades were pointed straight at Mo Baiwei.
“Miss, what’s the meaning of this?” The goodwill the guards had felt toward the girl instantly turned into cold suspicion.
Their heated minds felt as though they had been doused with ice water, sobering up immediately.
If this girl really was a foreign spy, then they had almost been completely bewitched just now.
“No, no, please listen to me, sirs!”
Seeing the swords, Mo Baiwei was so frightened she kept waving her hands.
She hurriedly rushed into the room and pulled out an elven dress.
“It’s this! This is an elven-style outfit I bought from an outside merchant! It must be this dress that caused the problem!” In her panic, Mo Baiwei took out one of her old dresses, fumbling in her haste as she tried to explain to the guards.
“Oh?” The lead guard glanced at the dress.
Sure enough, a bright red light flashed from it.
Without changing expression, he signaled another guard to take it, then threw the dress into the living room and scanned the bedroom again.
Hm.
Nothing.
The scroll showed only dim light this time, no reaction at all.
It really was just the dress that triggered it.
That’s what the guards concluded.
Thinking about how they had almost offended this innocent girl, a trace of shame appeared on their faces.
They had actually suspected such a pure and kind little girl of being a foreign spy, and had even crudely pointed swords at her throat.
“Sorry about that, miss.”
Feeling that a mere apology wasn’t sincere enough, the lead guard turned around and stuffed five silver coins into Mo Baiwei’s hand.
After one last glance around the room, they turned and left.
Mo Baiwei took the silver coins, honestly still a bit dazed.
…Huh? What just happened?
It wasn’t until the guards’ figures disappeared down the stairs that her brain finally started working again.
Just now she had been searched.
The guards had swept through her place because the royal elf blood aura was too strong — they had almost exposed her right at the door.
She only brought out the dress thinking it could attract the most attention.
She never actually believed a single piece of clothing could completely resolve the situation.
But when they entered the bedroom, she noticed the scroll suddenly stopped detecting anything, as if something was completely shielding it.
It must be this ring…
Remembering the warm current the ring had sent through her earlier, Mo Baiwei became even more convinced that this ring was an incredible treasure.
This damn groundhog… to just casually give away such precious treasures.
But anyway, being able to hide her presence with something other than the pendant was definitely a huge blessing.
Not bad.
That brown-haired steel-plate groundhog finally did something decent for once.
After seeing the guards off, Mo Baiwei collapsed onto the bed without any grace, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Everything that had just happened felt almost like an illusion.
Looking at the ring on her ring finger, Mo Baiwei truly experienced — for the first time — what it felt like to communicate with humans in this body.
A strange new feeling made her oddly look forward to the future.
But she also knew very well that openly revealing everything to humans was completely unrealistic.
She didn’t have the conditions for it, nor the courage.
Shaking her head, Mo Baiwei threw the chaotic thoughts out of her mind.
Just now during the inspection, she had noticed her pendant.
Right now it was lying innocently in the gap between her quilt.
Picking up the pendant again and examining its patterns — still no change — Mo Baiwei irritably tapped the gemstone.
When she was in mortal danger earlier, it had disappeared who-knows-where, and only showed up now.
If this pendant had a spirit, she really wanted to drag it out and give it a good scolding.
But no matter how annoyed she felt, survival was still the priority.
Besides, it was just an accessory — why get mad at a piece of jewelry?
Feeling still somewhat stifled, Mo Baiwei simply gave up thinking about it.
She looped the thin cord around the back of her graceful neck again.
Green light flashed — and Mo Baiwei turned back into Wei Bai.
“Holy crap, that scared me to death.”
Wei Bai clutched his chest, still shaken.
“I was almost discovered.”
If he got found out, he might even lose his human identity.
Having already lost his elven status, if he lost his human status too… he’d probably end up wandering the Borderlands with those lawless outlaws.
But Wei Bai was puzzled by one detail.
Why didn’t the guards check the locked room next door at all? Were they just not interested?
Normally if they were going to search, they should have checked every room, right? They couldn’t just skip it because he had some stuff inside…
Carrying this question, Wei Bai appeared in Phil’s room holding the glass bottle.
“Bro… I mean, great alchemist! This ring is seriously amazing!” Wei Bai’s praise at this moment was 100% genuine — this thing had basically saved his life.
“Oh? And where’s the thing I asked for?” Phil didn’t respond to his praise.
Instead she cut straight to the point.
Her lazy voice sounded as if she had just woken up.
“Right here! All of it!” Hearing her mention the blood, and seeing her act like she had just taken a nice nap, Wei Bai felt a surge of anger.
If it weren’t for this woman asking him to fill a bottle, he wouldn’t have had to deal with the guards while feeling dizzy and weak from blood loss!
This damn woman — while he was nervously dealing with life-and-death guards, she was sleeping comfortably in the luxurious suite’s big bed.
And moreover…
Who knew that when this groundhog said “a bottle,” she actually meant this freaking huge bottle?!