Ice Storm sprang to her feet.
By instinct, she almost gathered the power of frost to wrap herself into a hedgehog bristling with ice cones.
Only after several sharp, deep breaths did she suppress the urge to cry out.
She had originally wanted to play dumb, but when she saw Meng Chao's unfathomable eyes, recalled his uncanny foresight along the way, and considered their current situation, she hesitated again and again before finally forcing a bitter smile. "How did you know?"
"Didn't Platinum Embrace say before he died that 'Jackal' Kanus used a Holy Mountain Map from the Holy Light Land—supposedly charted by the Holy Light Army three thousand years ago—as bait to lure both the Lion King and the Tiger King into exploring the Holy Mountain?"
Meng Chao remained perfectly calm. "I thought that even if Destroyer's Horn and Raging Blade weren't particularly intelligent or meticulous sages, a forged Holy Mountain Map shouldn't have been enough to fool them, right?
"So here's the question. As far as I know, 'Jackal' Kanus had always struggled to survive in Turanze. I'd never heard that he had infiltrated the Holy Light Land to steal some priceless map.
"On the other hand, I heard from you that your father stole an extremely important item from your mother. After returning to Turanze, he became one of 'Jackal' Kanus's right-hand men.
"Think about it carefully. Isn't that strange? Your father came from the Leopard Clan. How could he so easily win the trust of an ambitious, deeply hidden, suspicious schemer?
"Unless your father and 'Jackal' Kanus had been plotting for the same thing—the secret hidden in the Holy Mountain Depths."
"That's it?"
Ice Storm neither confirmed nor denied it, her brows still deeply furrowed. "Based on such a simple, crude deduction, you decided I possess