An eerie silence fell over the room.
Only after an indeterminate stretch of time did Shui Rao'er raise her hand slightly and say wearily, "Forget it. Why bother arguing with you? Tell me why you're here."
The disciple pressed his lips together and reported, "Wei Qian's Soul Lamp... has gone out."
Shui Rao'er had been about to lift her teacup to moisten her lips. At those words, the cup fell with a sharp crack, shattering into several pieces.
Still, she was a Nascent Soul Cultivator, and she soon regained her composure after hearing the news. She sighed inwardly, cold light shifting in the depths of her eyes. For a moment, no one could tell what she was thinking.
"What about Wei Xin?"
The disciple felt the pressure emanating from a Nascent Soul Cultivator, and cold sweat poured down his body.
He felt that if he answered poorly, his master might kill him with her very next palm strike. Those hateful senior brothers and sisters of his knew perfectly well that their master's temper had grown increasingly strange, yet they had still sent him...
But he dared not leave his master's question unanswered, so he replied somewhat evasively, "Wei Xin's Soul Lamp is still lit."
Shui Rao'er, however, was hardly so easy to fool.
"Do you think that's what I wanted to hear? Hmm?"
Knowing he probably could not escape this calamity, the disciple simply closed his eyes and spoke bluntly. "Wei Xin vanished after leaving the Secret Realm."
"Is Su Jiu still alive?"
The disciple gritted his teeth and continued, "She is."
"Then it seems everyone else following her in secret was wiped out as well."
Shui Rao'er spoke casually, but the disciple dared not take her words casually.
"Who was in overall charge this time?"
A trace of hatred