♂,
When I stood up, I looked back for my wife, but she had already vanished without a trace. She was shy, and afraid someone might see her—or discover what had happened in the room.
I hurriedly burst through the door and opened it in my disheveled clothes. When I looked toward Shao Zi, however, her eyes darted toward the bed. I coughed lightly. "What are you waiting for? Hurry and come with your master to see what's going on."
"Oh, oh, it's just... something seems wrong outside. We've been trapped by some kind of grand formation, and the Lesser Heavenly Court has completely disappeared. This entire palace has been emptied!" Shao Zi said hurriedly. She and I immediately flew outside while speaking!
Sure enough, there were blue skies and white clouds all around, with the sea breeze gently blowing and the smell of seawater rushing into my nostrils. At this moment, the only people in the palace were Shao Zi, Xiang Ling, and Xiao Jiao, who lived in another residence within the palace.
As for everyone else...
Shao Zi and I flew straight into the air and surveyed the surroundings. This palace was also one link of the floating island. It was not very large, roughly the size of a soccer field, but someone had forcibly carried it here.
It seemed the other party's target was very clear: to separate me from the Lesser Heavenly Court. Although the floating island had lost some of the immortal-spirit supply from its power furnace and would eventually fall into the sea, it was still slowly descending for now, so I would not become a drowned rat just yet.
And from the looks of it, there was no one here.
"A palace this large, and not a single person?" I asked, somewhat puzzled.