Night had fallen deep over the small courtyard in the back hills of Eastern Splendor Stronghold.
Even after Zhao Zhen left, He Pingtian and the other two remained stunned, unable to collect themselves.
They looked at Li Yun with profoundly conflicted eyes. Their young chief was from another world?
"Chief..." He Pingtian began with difficulty. "Was everything you just said true?"
Li Yun nodded, his expression open.
"What? Do you think I'm some kind of freak?"
He Pingtian hurriedly shook his head. "No, no. I, He Ping, just... just find it all too shocking. So there really are other worlds beyond the Purple Moon Continent, and other living beings too."
Poison Granny and One-Eyed Maniac nodded as well, their eyes full of curiosity.
Li Yun smiled but offered no further explanation.
He knew they needed time to digest the news.
"All right, off you go. What happened tonight stays buried in your guts."
The three bowed in unison.
"Yes!"
Meanwhile, Zhao Zhen and his party had left the Crouching Dragon Mountains far behind and were racing through the night.
"Your Highness, do you really believe that boy?" one Martial King could not help asking.
Zhao Zhen did not answer directly. "What do you think?"
The Martial King hesitated. "I... I can't say. If he truly is from Blue Star, and he crossed the Beast-Grazing Land, then his strength is nothing like what it seems."
Another Martial King cut in. "Could the Dragon Soul have helped him?"
Zhao Zhen shook his head.
"Impossible. The Dragon Soul was born in the Crouching Dragon Mountains. It cannot leave them, so it could not have helped him cross the Beast-Grazing Land."
"Besides, I don't think he made any of that up."
"If he wanted to lie, he wouldn't invent something so outlandish that