A fine sheen of sweat seeped out across his forehead.
For some reason, Luo Bin kept feeling his heart miss a beat. It was deeply unsettling.
His face was taut, his lips slightly pressed together. It was instinctive.
That uneasy sense that something was about to happen was instinctive too.
"Who's there!?"
Luo Bin's gaze sharpened with alarm, and he jerked his head up.
Beside the Side Hall's door, a woman had appeared without a sound. She stood holding the doorframe, watching him.
That was not the only gaze he felt on him.
Luo Bin swiftly scanned his surroundings. Throughout the Side Hall's courtyard-behind pillars, among the flowers, beside the well-women stood in seven other places.
They looked remarkably alike, all delicate-featured, though their ages differed.
Luo Bin sensed a faint threat from them, but it was not particularly strong.
The danger came from hostility and wariness, rather than the pressure of their strength?
It was not that these women were weak. The people Luo Bin dealt with were simply too powerful. Besides, he himself had become a Gu master at the Nuo Purple realm and an Emergence-from-Darkness Yin-Yang Practitioner. Few people could overwhelm him with their presence; ghosts would need to be of an even higher rank.
"Eight pretty little wives. That damned bumpkin sure knows how to enjoy himself." Fourth Master Gray's squeaks grew more indignant.
The figures in his sight abruptly vanished, while the aura of the woman inside the Side Hall grew considerably stronger.
"Grandpa Divine Firmament." A gentle, refined voice sounded as the woman stepped lightly outside.
She was rather slight, with a delicate face that still held a trace of childishness. She was not stunning, but her looks grew on you.
The Divine Firmament Daoist let out a small breath, nodded, then glanced at