“Everywhere.” Feng Jiu’er was genuinely unwell — mostly exhausted.

Her martial arts had been stripped away, and though her body bore no visible injuries, she was utterly drained. Even after lying down for the entire morning, she had still not recovered fully.

At most, she appeared a little more spirited than before, but her body remained weak.

Lan Yue could not tell how much of what she said was true and how much was embellishment, but her condition did look genuinely poor.

“You… let go first.”

The manor master’s faint sigh was thoroughly helpless, yet somehow unexpectedly human — a sight rarer than anything seen in a hundred years.

Even Long Yan could not help but let out a silent exhale. The manor master… seemed to have genuinely fallen under this girl’s spell.

“But I like holding onto Uncle’s arm.” Just like holding onto her own father’s arm.

Though, to be fair, Uncle was only ten-odd years her senior. Still, to Feng Jiu’er as she was now, he felt more like a father than Feng Junzhuo ever had.

Only, this father was a slightly awkward sort.

And it was precisely that awkwardness that made him all the more endearing.

She had a truly remarkable, truly extraordinary maternal uncle — the master of the Foundation of All Under Heaven, with wealth to rival a nation. Just thinking about it made her feel a surge of vanity. Saying it aloud would certainly earn her a great deal of face.

Long Yan gave a soft cough, leaning over slightly. “Manor Master, I… will go outside and see if there is anything I can help with.”

Xue Gu, seeing this, could only rise to her feet as well. “Young… Master, then… I will go attend to my duties as well.”

The room emptied of people, and still Feng Jiu’er refused to release her hold on Lan Yue’s arm.

Lan Yue genuinely could not fathom why this girl was so fond of clinging to his arm — like a child sticking close to its father.

Father… The thought gave him a moment of disorientation. The idea was too strange.

“Uncle, you are widely traveled and knowledgeable. Could you help me look at this map and tell me what place it indicates?”

Once only the two of them remained, Feng Jiu’er drew a topographical map from her sleeve pouch.

This was the second thing she could not work out. The masked woman had stripped away her martial arts — but why, then, had she given her this topographical map?

This map bore some resemblance to the phoenix mark on the small of her back, but she would never have pieced that together on her own had the masked woman not given it to her.

It turned out the phoenix mark on her lower back was indeed a map. The way it recorded information was quite unusual — when she looked at it herself, she could make nothing of it. Now the masked woman had deciphered it for her, yet even looking at the deciphered map, she still had no idea what place it depicted.

“Where did you get this?” Lan Yue took it and studied it carefully. His ink-dark sword-like brows drew together slightly.

“Uncle, do you know what place this is?” Seeing his expression, Feng Jiu’er’s eyes brightened with a flicker of anticipation.

“I don’t.” Only the vaguest sense of familiarity — but too faint to say where he had seen something like it before.

Feng Jiu’er was a little disappointed. The loss in her eyes gave Lan Yue a feeling of guilt — as though he should have been able to satisfy this girl but had fallen short.

The guilt of having let one’s own child down.

“I will think on it further.”

“All right.” Feng Jiu’er tucked the map away and returned it to her sleeve pouch, then seemed to remember something. “Uncle, have you ever heard of the Phoenix Clan?”

Lan Yue’s expression darkened, and displeasure crept into his voice. “That is nothing more than idle speculation on the part of the world at large. There is no such thing as a Phoenix Clan.”

He clenched his palm tightly, his expression turning forbidding. “And even if there truly were — they would be… demons!”

A chill settled over Feng Jiu’er’s heart. She could not see through to what secrets her uncle kept within, but his revulsion at those two words — Phoenix Clan — was unmistakable. Why?

Why did she bear a Phoenix Clan mark on her body? Why did her uncle detest those words so deeply?

“I see that your body has no serious injury. It is time I returned.” This time Lan Yue used a little more force, and pushed her away.

Feng Jiu’er sat on the bed, tilted her head up, and blinked at him. “Uncle, I have completely lost all my martial arts now.”

“And so?” Was she not putting on a show of not caring one bit? Though Lan Yue knew full well that this indifference was a performance for everyone else’s benefit — she simply did not want the people around her to worry.

This girl… whatever one might say, she was at least more resilient and more composed than he had imagined.

A small creature of only sixteen or seventeen, and yet she was truly putting herself through hardship.

When he himself had been sixteen or seventeen, he had been in the fullest bloom of youthful high spirits — full of fire, seeming so bold and brave, when in truth he could not withstand even the slightest setback.

When the elder sister he had idolized died in battle, he had fallen into complete and utter despondency. Had that not happened, the Long Family would not have perished so swiftly.

Compared to this young girl standing before him now, he at that age had been, in all honesty, utterly outstripped.

“Uncle, I have a great many enemies, each and every one of them eager to see me dead.” Feng Jiu’er blinked at him again.

“And… so?” This wicked girl. Two sentences, and she had actually made him feel a genuine unease.

“Nothing. I simply wanted to tell Uncle that I may be facing a very great, very serious danger. I may be assassinated tonight.”

“What nonsense are you talking?”

“Uncle, stay and have dinner with me!” Her eyes curved into crescents, and all the pitifulness she had shown a moment ago vanished in an instant.

Lan Yue genuinely wanted to give her forehead a firm smack. What was this? One moment pitifully forlorn, the next all grins and mischief — making a person both furious and exasperated, and yet truly… unable to stop worrying.

“I am busy…”

“Even the busiest person still needs to eat.” He showed no sign of relenting. Feng Jiu’er immediately collapsed onto the bed with all the energy of a wilted flower, putting on an expression of one at death’s door. “Uncle can’t even spare the time for one evening meal with me. If I truly am assassinated, come tomorrow, you will never see me again.”

“Be quiet!”

“Uncle, they hate me to the bone. They will sever my hands and feet, gouge out my eyes, cut off my tongue, tear me limb from limb, they will—”

“I told you to be quiet!”

“Uncle, they might start by breaking my legs so I can only crawl when I come to see you and Grandfather.”

“You—”

“Uncle…”

“Fine, I will stay! Are you satisfied?” Could she please stop talking now? To someone else’s ears, hearing all this was utterly desolate. It was painful to hear.

Feng Jiu’er covered her lips, grinning. “Uncle, I still want to say one last thing.”

“No more.” He had already agreed to stay and keep her company. What more could she possibly want?

“But I am in a bad mood right now. My martial arts have been taken from me. I am already so terribly suppressed. If you won’t let me speak, I might die of it.”

“Oh, I am truly going to die from holding it all in. I am in such a bad mood, I feel so awful, I need to pour my heart out. Uncle, I feel so awful.”

Lan Yue stared at her. He drew a slow, deep breath.

What would happen if he knocked her out with one slap? All this chattering was absolutely maddening.

“Uncle…”

“You may say one thing!”

“I want to eat food you have cooked!” Heh heh!