Years of life-and-death battles, countless narrow escapes, and my master's constant nagging and reminders.
All of that had turned me from an ordinary kid into someone who watched carefully and stayed on guard whenever I encountered strangers or supernatural threats.
If Chef Zhou alone had been putting on an act, it might have been hard to tell whether he was deceiving Gong Bo too.
But now, the two housekeepers behind us had moved a little closer to my master and me.
Even that tiny movement made me sense something was wrong.
And earlier, one of the housekeepers had tried to take my sword bag...
With them positioned like this, my master and I were clearly surrounded.
The moment a fight broke out, we would be attacked from both front and rear.
But why?
My master and Gong Bo had known each other since they were young. They had been friends for decades.
Could my first guess have been right? Was the "You" in Gong You actually the character "由"?
Was Gong Bo's surname Huang?
A member of the Southern Miao Huang Family.
We killed three members of the Huang Family yesterday, so was Gong Bo going to attack my master and me?
That was the only answer I could think of, and the most plausible one I could piece together from everything I knew.
Otherwise, we had spent most of our time in Mountain City. There was no conflict of interest between us and Gong Bo.
And Gong Bo and my master had decades of friendship between them.
Those thoughts put me on high alert.
My master had also noticed the two housekeepers moving closer behind us.
But he said nothing about it, merely addressing Gong Bo and Chef Zhou.
"Crystals! They're a very special kind of stone.
"My disciple