He raised his hand to habitually touch his nose and hide his embarrassment, but stopped mid-motion and instead stiffly scratched the back of his neck.
“Last time… the situation was special,” he finally forced out a few words, his voice trailing off weakly with no conviction.
Yun Yao’s blue eyes still quietly watched him, and that gaze made Jiu Baiyun feel extremely awkward.
“Special?”
After that light hum, Jiu Baiyun couldn’t stand being stared at by Yun Yao any longer.
He hurriedly called out to the Yao Fox Demon Venerable in his mind: “Yao Fox! Help! Quickly think of an excuse for me!”
However, the only response he got was an undisguised, gloating voice.
“Figure it out yourself. I don’t want to get involved in this mess of yours.”
The Yao Fox Demon Venerable’s voice carried a trace of laziness and amusement, clearly intending to stand by and watch, even taking pleasure in it.
Jiu Baiyun let out a mental wail, knowing he couldn’t count on this fox who loved to watch the world burn.
His gaze drifted, sweeping over the roof beams and then landing on a speck of dust in the corner, but he dared not look at Yun Yao again.
“Uh… well…”
He cleared his throat, his voice dry.
His brain raced, trying to grab a less ridiculous excuse from the chaotic thoughts.
“Last time… it was, it was because… I suddenly remembered there was a very important matter that I had to go to… Southern Wind City immediately…”
Pressed by the urgency, Jiu Baiyun still blurted out Southern Wind City.
After all, it was the truth, and it felt much smoother than making up a place.
When Yun Yao heard the words “Southern Wind City,” she was first stunned, then tilted her head slightly, as if she hadn’t heard clearly, or as if she suspected her still unhealed injuries were causing hallucinations.
Her brows furrowed tightly, and even the movement pulled at her wound, making her inhale softly.
But her eyes were locked onto Jiu Baiyun’s face, her tone full of doubt and confusion.
“South… Southern Wind City?”
She paused, as if confirming whether Jiu Baiyun was joking, then slowly spoke the second half of her sentence, enunciating each word.
“Lord Jiu, are you… sure? Southern Wind City… wasn’t it destroyed by the ‘Palm Filth’ and turned into a dead zone?”
Jiu Baiyun did not refute her.
Instead, he nodded very seriously, confirming, “It’s Southern Wind City. I was in a hurry to save a friend…”
Yun Yao fell silent for a moment.
After a while, she managed a “Sorry,” and then silence filled the room again.
Jiu Baiyun watched Yun Yao’s blue eyes drop, her head lowering slightly in a flustered manner, and he felt a little embarrassed himself.
He really didn’t have any friends in Southern Wind City.
Back then, he only went to Southern Wind City to look for the Jade Token, and the reason he didn’t want to see Yun Yao was just to avoid getting caught up in trouble.
As he thought that, Jiu Baiyun’s eyes unconsciously drifted to Yun Yao’s Jade Token on the side.
The token was warm and glowed faintly in the dim light.
In his panic earlier, he had only taken half of its Spiritual Energy to recover himself and use for emergency rescue; the other half was still safely sealed inside.
After all, it was a protective charm he had given to Yun Yao in the first place.
If he were to take it all back without even saying a word, Jiu Baiyun felt a bit guilty in his heart, and even a little… like he was taking advantage of her situation.
Moreover, he had given it to her back then because he felt sorry for Yun Yao.
Seeing Yun Yao’s lowered eyes and flustered expression at the mention of Southern Wind City, Jiu Baiyun felt his guilt even more.
He took a deep breath, deciding to break the suffocating silence and try to steer the topic away from himself.
“Well…”
Jiu Baiyun cleared his throat, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping over the Jade Token again before landing on Yun Yao’s face.
He tried to make his tone sound natural, “Speaking of which, that friend of mine in Southern Wind City… he also has a similar token, quite like yours.”
His original intention was to find a common ground, ease the atmosphere, and explain why he could recognize the token and know how to use it, implying that he wasn’t coveting her possession.
However, when these words reached Yun Yao, who had just recovered a little, it was like a thunderbolt on a clear day.
“Sister Xiao Bai?!”
Yun Yao almost instantly lifted her head, her blue eyes trembling violently.
Had something happened to Sister Xiao Bai!? Ignoring her own pain, she lunged forward, frantically trying to grab Jiu Baiyun’s sleeve, her voice rising with a tremble.
“How is Sister Xiao Bai?”
Jiu Baiyun reacted quickly.
Just as Yun Yao was about to say something, he immediately frowned and said, “What Sister Xiao Bai? My buddy is a man!”
His voice echoed in the simple room, sounding especially jarring.
Yun Yao was stunned by his firm tone and reaction, her forward-leaning body froze, and her outstretched hand stopped in mid-air.
In her blue eyes, the fierce worry and urgency about “Sister Xiao Bai’s” safety that had flared up were largely dissipated by this sudden denial and the word “buddy.”
Instead, it was replaced by deep confusion and a hint of bewildered interruption.
“A… a man?”
She repeated in a murmur, her brows tightly knitted, seemingly completely unable to understand the connection between Jiu Baiyun’s “buddy” and the “Sister Xiao Bai” she cared about.
She looked at Jiu Baiyun, her eyes full of incomprehension.
“But… Lord Jiu, you just said ‘he also has a similar token’… This token was given to me by Sister Xiao Bai…”
Her voice was weak but carried a stubborn desire for verification.
At this moment, Jiu Baiyun wanted to bite his tongue.
Flustered earlier, he had tried to change the subject and casually made up the story about a friend having a similar token, completely forgetting that he had personally given this token to Yun Yao.
Jiu Baiyun felt the veins on his forehead start to throb again.
Facing Yun Yao’s confused and persistent blue eyes, he only felt his scalp tighten as his brain ran at full speed.
“Uh… well…”
“I just said similar, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the Sister Xiao Bai you mentioned!”
The flame of worry that had ignited in Yun Yao’s blue eyes seemed to be doused with cold water, suddenly extinguished, leaving only wisps of confused smoke and a scattered blankness.
However, in this brief standoff and confusion, a sharp pain suddenly exploded from her waist and abdomen.
The forward lunge she had made in panic earlier had violently pulled at the wound that had only just begun to heal.
Yun Yao inhaled sharply, her body involuntarily curling up.
Her face turned even paler than before, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead.
The intense pain cleared her chaotic mind a bit.
She looked at Jiu Baiyun’s expression—a mix of helplessness, embarrassment, and a trace of nervousness—and then looked down at her own hand trembling slightly from the pain.
Now she understood that she had been too worried and anxious.
Earlier, joking with Jiu Baiyun was also her way of trying to relax, but she hadn’t realized her nerves were still this tense.