"Elder of Eastern Peak, have you been well lately?"
"Well, well..."
"Hall Master Jiang, has that nephew of yours advanced to the ranks of the powerful?"
"He has, he has."
"Hall Master Xiong, are you still pursuing that matter involving Jiang Shan of the Arms Hall?"
"When people fight over treasures, casualties are inevitable."
"Oh, then I can rest easy." Mu Bai let out a long breath, relief spreading across his face. "We haven't seen each other for a few years. How have we grown so distant?"
Mu Bai swept his gaze around him. The twenty-odd Elders in the Elder Hall all turned their heads away, pretending nothing was amiss. When he looked at Xiong Ji again, Xiong Ji was no longer paying him any attention either.
"How strange."
Seeing their odd behavior, Mu Bai did not invite further snubs. He sat down and began weighing the current situation in the Eastern Ridge instead.
Strangely, the Elder Hall remained so quiet that not even a crow or sparrow could be heard. People were presumably communicating through Divine Sense, but they kept Mu Bai a thousand miles away.
After another two days of waiting, all thirty-four Xiu Zun Elders had finally returned.
Every Elder who returned to the Elder Hall had arrived smiling, but upon seeing him, they reacted as though they had seen Madam Seven Emotions. Their entire bodies seemed to tense, their expressions changed at once, and they found their seats and sat down quietly, looking exceedingly well-behaved.
Mu Bai simply could not be bothered with them either. Elder Xiong Ji was understandable; that was his nature, as Mu Bai had already learned in prison. But the others? When they had visited the Mu Lan Pavilion before, several had even called him brother.
*It looks like they're all wary