Jiu stared unblinkingly.
Although she had let go of her hand, the Palace Master’s pale gray eyes were still fixed on Jiu Baiyun.
“Jiu Baiyun… take it slow… what do you need?”
‘What does he need?’
Jiu Baiyun inwardly ranted crazily.
‘I need you to stay away from me!’
‘I need you to stop coveting my tail!’
But he didn’t dare say a single word of these out loud.
Jiu Baiyun opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.
Mainly because the Palace Master was like this, he had no idea what to say—no matter how he explained, it felt useless.
His furrowed brow, hesitant expression, and dark look clearly fell into the Palace Master’s “observation.”
The Palace Master tilted her small head, silver-gray strands swaying against her shoulder.
She seemed to be “interpreting” Jiu Baiyun’s silence and embarrassment very seriously.
Deep within those pale gray pupils, a data-stream-like glow flickered faintly a few times.
After a moment, a hint of “sudden realization” appeared on her delicate face.
“I understand.”
Her ethereal voice carried a note of certainty as she turned her small body slightly toward the dense forest where those people had disappeared, and her pink lips parted.
“It’s because those people ran away.”
As if confirming the root of the problem, her tone was as flat as stating an objective fact.
“Them… ran away. Jiu Baiyun… unhappy.”
In the Palace Master’s extremely simple logic, Jiu Baiyun’s current “unwillingness” and “difficulty” were likely because his companions’ departure had soured his mood.
Since she said “take it slow” and “what do you need,” and Jiu Baiyun was unhappy because of his companions’ departure, then resolving this “unhappiness” was the first necessary step toward achieving “willingness.”
She slightly raised that fair little hand—this time not pointing at Jiu Baiyun’s tail, but far into the depths of the forest.
An icy and vast field of mental energy seemed to spread out instantly, enveloping that area.
“So…”
The Palace Master’s voice remained ethereal and childish, yet very calm, as if stating the most natural thing in the world.
“I’ll catch them all back.”
“!!!”
What?!
Hearing the Palace Master say that, how did you jump to that conclusion!!!
A look of shock and panic involuntarily appeared on Jiu Baiyun’s face.
“Wait! That’s not it! That’s not the reason!!”
Jiu Baiyun almost shouted, his voice distorted by extreme tension and urgency, cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead.
He lunged forward, instinctively reaching out to stop the Palace Master’s hand pointing at the forest, but his movement froze halfway, afraid that this action would provoke her further.
After all, no matter how calm he appeared on the surface, the aura the Palace Master radiated was no joke.
She was very likely at the Six Profound Period, or even the Seven Profound Period.
Although she couldn’t compare to the former Fox Demon Lord or himself, she could easily crush him in his current state, let alone Su Zhiyun and the others.
Fortunately, when Jiu Baiyun’s words fell, the Palace Master’s raised hand did pause.
She slowly turned her head back, her delicate face once again consumed by a dense, impenetrable confusion.
Her pale gray eyes stared unblinkingly at Jiu Baiyun, as if asking: Not that?
Then what?
Why?
Meeting that pure, impurity-free gaze filled with an inhumanly persistent confusion, Jiu Baiyun felt his thoughts freeze.
He opened his mouth, countless ideas flashing through his mind, but they were quickly dismissed one by one.
‘No! Any explanation might be twisted and misunderstood by this Palace Master with her bizarre way of thinking. I have to redirect her target somewhere else!’
In a flash, a name leaped into his mind.
Jiu Baiyun took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his churning emotions, and hurriedly said:
“It’s… it’s the Great Lan Sect!”
That name seemed to trigger an invisible switch.
The Palace Master, clinging to his leg, had the pure confusion on her delicate face instantly fade away.
She slightly narrowed those pure pale gray eyes, and deep within them, an extremely faint glimmer of data vanished in an instant.
“Great… Lan… Sect.”
She slowly uttered those three words in her ethereal, childish voice, with a thoughtful tone of confirmation.
Then, her small head turned toward the Silent Feather Guard standing beside her like a silent statue.
Without a word, she simply “looked” at the guard with narrowed pale gray eyes.
The Silent Feather Guard’s body, covered by the gray-feathered cloak, made no unnecessary movements, but almost the moment the Palace Master’s gaze landed, his arm, clad in fine gray feathers, rose naturally.
Two metallic gray feathers, about the length of a finger and a shade duller than the cloak, as if pulled by invisible threads, separated from his cloak and floated precisely into the Palace Master’s pale, almost translucent little hand.
The Palace Master took the two feathers and began to gently rub her small fingers over their cold, hard surface.
She lowered her head, silver-gray hair falling forward, focusing on “reading” the information contained within the feathers.
Jiu Baiyun held his breath, nervously watching the Palace Master’s expression.
And that exquisitely carved little face, after a few breaths of rubbing the feathers, clearly darkened.
She looked unhappy.
The originally innocent and bewildered expression vanished, quickly replaced by obvious displeasure.
Her small brows furrowed, her pink lips pressed together, and her whole face radiated an offended displeasure.
The motion of rubbing the feathers stopped.
The Palace Master raised her head, her pale gray eyes looking back at Jiu Baiyun, yet seeming to see beyond him, now harboring a cold, pure anger.
“They… got away.”
Her ethereal voice carried a dissatisfied confirmation, as if stating a regrettable failure.
Then, that dissatisfaction escalated rapidly.
“They… also bullied someone.”
The words “bullied someone” were pronounced with notable clarity, carrying a sense of justified condemnation.
Logically, the Great Lan Sect was no small sect, but in the Palace Master’s mouth, it seemed like a sect that could be wiped out with a wave of her hand.
After this simple conclusion, a cold killing intent, utterly opposite to her delicate appearance, spread across the Palace Master’s small face.
She extended her tiny finger, pointing toward the distant Pure Black Palace that radiated an ominous aura as if it wanted to devour everything, and her ethereal voice rang out.
“Return to the palace… and kill them.”
The Silent Feather Guard, enshrouded in gray feathers, paused almost imperceptibly the moment the Palace Master’s words fell, as if receiving an invisible command.
Then he turned and made an extremely simple gesture toward the flock of Mountain Sparrows behind him.
The previously relatively quiet flock instantly grew restless.
Like a black tide suddenly surging back, countless scarlet compound eyes glimmered, and the rustling of wings merged into a suppressed hum.
They uniformly changed direction and turned into a surging black torrent, speeding toward the distant Pure Black Palace that swallowed the light, disappearing into the end of the scorched ruins in the blink of an eye.
The Silent Feather Guard’s figure also blurred, as if blending into the twisted light and shadow, disappearing without a sound, leaving only the silent ashes and scorched earth behind.