The roof tiles vanished one after another. Once enough space had been cleared, Blue Demon's blood-smeared head poked through the hole, ceaselessly sniffing the air inside. Catching the faint fragrance he had sought for so long, he froze for a moment, then trembled all over with delight. He immediately widened the opening, slipped silently into the room, and climbed soundlessly down the beams and pillars on all fours.
Why was she here?
This room still belonged to the Guest Hall, but it stood in a corner and was less spacious and luxurious than the other chambers. Its door and windows were all barred from within, making it well secured. There were no other guards inside. Blue Demon lowered his guard and followed the fragrance, sniffing all the way, until he finally found a trace of the moon beside the window.
From a distance, he could barely make out her features, seeing only a luminous patch of white in his blurred vision. He crawled within inches of her and carefully sniffed her from head to toe, confirming that it was indeed Baozhu.
She had not gone to bed, but lay fully dressed on her side on a narrow chaise longue, her cheek resting on her right palm in the auspicious sleeping posture. She slept peacefully and serenely, like Guanyin reclining upon a lotus. Beside her head lay the Fish Intestine, which was also the Rhinoceros Illumination.
Why was she sleeping peacefully here? Had she not been imprisoned?
Utterly baffled, Blue Demon crawled around her, searching, and discovered a statue of Skanda less than a foot tall on the little table beside the chaise longue.
Ah, so that was it.
She had once stood beneath Skanda's Vajra to seek shelter, and he, too, had asked this protector who shared his lineage and