"Blue-faced lion, let's talk. Since I came, I never intended to leave empty-handed."
"I'm taking these dozen or so people with me. Name any terms you like, as long as you don't ask me to kill myself."
Elder Qingming stood with his hands behind his back, his face stiff and cold, his gaze sharp as blades, his eyes all but bulging from their sockets.
"Mei Erni, what do you think this place is?"
"You say I can name my terms, and I'm supposed to release them? Where would that leave my dignity? Where would that leave the Immortal Alliance's authority?"
"Dignity and authority? Heh heh heh..."
Aunt Mei looked as though she had heard the greatest joke in the world.
Her laughter echoed liltingly through the morning light, three parts mockery and seven parts sorrow.
"Blue-faced lion, why didn't you think about your dignity when you slandered people at the Secret Realm's exit? Why didn't you think about the Immortal Alliance's authority when you searched them in public? You threw your dignity beyond the highest heavens long ago, and now you're talking to me about dignity?"
Aunt Mei abruptly stopped smiling. Her gaze was piercing as an awl, her face frosty, and every word bristled with thorns.
"Utterly laughable."
Qingming's face instantly turned livid.
She had picked the very pot that would not boil. This was his sorest spot, his greatest humiliation today.
Yet Aunt Mei insisted on tearing open that wound, in front of so many people, and rubbing salt into it.
His old face burned as though someone had slapped him in public.
The gazes around him-some awed, some assessing, some gloating-all stabbed his face like needles.
Outrageous.
"Mei Erni, you're courting death! I'll have your life!"
Qingming roared in fury, truly becoming a blue-faced lion with its