Three days later.
Song Yueyao returned from Cangyu City looking exhausted. Her assignment as Provincial Governor was complete, and she had temporarily laid aside her official duties to report back to the Sandalwood Palace.
She had already learned that Li Hao and the others had left ahead of her. By now, they had surely returned to Qing Prefecture.
Whenever she thought of the strength Li Hao had revealed, she secretly gritted her teeth. After years of studying in Black White Hall, what sort of genius had she not seen? Yet this was her first encounter with someone like him.
It had dealt her confidence quite a blow.
"Yueyao?"
As Song Yueyao was about to return to Black White Hall and give her grandfather an honest account of Li Hao, she happened to run into Su Yehua passing outside.
Seeing her friend, Song Yueyao slowed her steps. "Sister Su."
Only three years apart in age, the two had been close as sisters for over a decade.
"You're back so soon. Did the assignment go smoothly? You didn't encounter any Great Demons, did you?" Su Yehua asked gently, noticing her exhaustion.
At the mention of "Great Demons," Song Yueyao involuntarily recalled the towering platform of demon corpses stacked in neat rows atop that hill. Her expression shifted slightly.
"What is it?" Su Yehua paused in surprise. Had she really encountered a Great Demon?
"Nothing." Song Yueyao shook her head slightly, then a thought struck her. "Sister Su, Li Hao and the others are back already, aren't they?"
"Hmm?"
Su Yehua was rather surprised. Having known Song Yueyao for years, she was well aware of her cool temperament. She regarded outsiders as no different from grass and trees and never concerned herself with them. Why would she ask about the Li Family's two