Hou Niao stole another glance at the young girl. As luck would have it, she looked over too and shot him a fierce glare.
He chuckled softly. "Senior, you've certainly got your work cut out for you now. Our peacock friend seems lively by nature, fond of talking and moving about. Otherwise, she couldn't possibly have crossed the universe to reach Jinxiu. I even suspect this might have been her own idea-that she slipped away herself, rather than coming at the Peacock Clan's behest."
The Silver-Bearded Daoist wore a miserable expression. "Lord Hou, you see everything coming! She did sneak out, without the clan's permission at all! She doesn't care, but what are we supposed to do? We have to guarantee her absolute safety. She mustn't suffer the slightest injury, or how could we face our ancestors?
"She's a living ancestor. We can't hit her, and we can't scold her. She's put us through the wringer these past days. We spend every day hovering around her, afraid to let her out, so all we can do is find new ways to keep her happy. We three poor old fellows have trotted out several centuries' worth of games, and we're nearly like the donkey of Guizhou, with no tricks left to play.
"See, the moment she heard you were coming, she insisted on playing hide-and-seek and hid herself in the beast pens. Is that something a mature Golden Core cultivator would do?"
Hou Niao reminded him, "Senior, keeping her shut up all the time isn't a solution either. Think about it: she crossed the universe to come to the Brocade Continent from outside. With a temperament like that, can this little garden of yours hold her heart? I'm afraid the novelty will wear off within days. If she runs away again,