Behind Jade Luan Manor, within a secluded bamboo grove.
A gentle breeze swept past, and fallen leaves made no sound.
Zi Ling sat beside a round bluestone table, propping her cheek on one hand as she idly toyed with the dead leaves on the table.
For her, these days spent at Jade Luan Manor had been even more boring than her time at Gluttonous Wolf Mountain.
At Gluttonous Wolf Mountain, at least everyone there had been familiar faces.
If she wanted to fool around and stir up some trouble, there had always been people to clean up after her.
Even if she took things too far, no one had dared say anything given her status...
But here in the Eight Hundred Miles of Linked Clouds, she was surrounded by unfamiliar demons and monsters.
Especially these past few days.
The flourishing Incense-Fire Power before the stele on the main peak had been uprooted and stolen wholesale.
Everyone in Jade Luan Manor was bristling with murderous intent.
The Palace sisters led people through the mountains all day, searching and investigating. At such a tense, swords-drawn-and-bows-bent moment, no matter how bold Zi Ling was, she certainly did not dare make trouble beneath the noses of those fox demons already seething with rage.
She could only obediently hole up in the guest room at the rear mountain, never stepping through the main gate or the inner door.
As for that little bald donkey Kongming...
Zi Ling cast him a sidelong glance.
Kongming sat upright beneath the bamboo, his eyes lightly closed as his lips moved in an endless murmur of incomprehensible sutras.
It was unbearably dull...
Just as Zi Ling let out a long sigh and prepared to pull out a storybook to read through once more,
a figure suddenly appeared in the distance.