Like?
There were so many kinds of “liking.”
Even a love meant to last a lifetime came in many forms.
There was a kind of liking that was love—one where no matter how flawed you were, it didn’t matter; one that accepted everything willingly, that took all your imperfections as your virtues, your specialness, and was content to dote on you and indulge you for a lifetime.
And there was a kind of liking that was simply liking—the kind felt for friends, for family.
Anyone could see that Jun Buli was genuinely quite fond of this girl Situ Jing’er, but everyone assumed that fondness was the latter kind—the affection for a little sister.
Yet what Miss Xiao the Ninth had said was clearly the former kind.
How much did Miss Xiao the Ninth even know about Jun Buli, to say such a thing? Perhaps it was simply a woman’s intuition.
In truth, even Miss Xiao the Ninth herself wasn’t entirely sure why she was so perceptive, why she’d seen through it at a single glance.
Faced with Jun Buli’s harsh rebuke, Miss Xiao the Ninth chose to lower her head and fall silent.
She didn’t know who she was, nor who these people were—only that, as things stood, they didn’t seem to bear her much ill will.
“Keep an eye on her,” Jun Buli instructed Meng Duo’er, then leapt up into a tree himself. Having gone two days without proper rest, on top of the previous night’s exertions, he leaned against the tree, and though he had no desire to sleep, he closed his eyes all the same.
He and the Xiao family had agreed on a three-day deadline. Today was the second day.
Last night, the Xiao couple had left through the secret passage, no doubt to fetch reinforcements—reinforcements that would likely turn out to be Baili Xiaosheng and the poison corpse Shiliang.
He’d entrusted this matter to Baili Weisheng, and felt at ease about it.
For now, all that remained was to wait.
Finding Baili Weisheng and swallowing up the Xiao family’s power in Nanzhao were the two most important goals of this trip.
Once he could absorb the Xiao family’s influence, Nanzhao would essentially fall under his control as well. He hadn’t had time to attend to Nanzhao before, and had originally planned to leave it to his father, but as things now stood, it seemed he would have to handle it himself.
He would swallow up every beast army and poison army here, turning Nanzhao into Da Zhou’s military arsenal!
Jun Buli sat in the tree while the poisonous beasts lay obediently sprawled beneath it. Meng Duo’er sat on a low branch, swinging her legs. With Situ Jing’er gone, she felt quite bored.
After a good while of silence, Miss Xiao the Ninth rose to her feet. “I’m leaving.”
She had no wish to waste time here with these people—she kept feeling as though there were something important she needed to do, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t recall what it was.
Jun Buli opened his eyes and looked down at her without a word.
Meng Duo’er had no choice but to press Miss Xiao the Ninth back down into a sitting position. “Miss Xiao, please sit. That girl earlier wasn’t lying to you—we’re the ones who kidnapped you.”
“Then why did you kidnap me? Just to have me sit here?” Miss Xiao the Ninth asked.
Meng Duo’er didn’t know how to answer her, but Zizhu, growing impatient, said, “Just sit when we tell you to sit. What’s with all the questions?”
A group that had seen a talking poisonous beast would at least feel some fear.
Yet Miss Xiao the Ninth remained eerily calm. She glanced at Zizhu and said, “I don’t want to sit here. I want to leave.”
“Gag her mouth and tie her to the tree!” Jun Buli finally ordered coldly.
Meng Duo’er’s mouth twitched, but she had to admit this was the best solution—she had no idea how to explain things to someone with amnesia who seemed to have no emotions at all.
Before long, Miss Xiao the Ninth had been gagged and tied to the tree trunk. She looked at Meng Duo’er calmly, which made Meng Duo’er’s skin crawl involuntarily. She quickly leapt up into the tree, whispering to Jun Buli, “Don’t you think she’s strange? Ordinary amnesia doesn’t usually look like this!”
“What are you saying…” Jun Buli said quietly, recalling how he’d seen Miss Xiao the Ninth speaking with the Xiao patriarch earlier—that too had seemed unusually flat, without much emotion.
“A Gu,” Meng Duo’er said, dropping her voice even lower. Nanzhao’s Gu-cultivation techniques had countless variations—poison-corpse Gu were the most terrifying and demanded the highest skill.
But aside from poison-corpse Gu, there were also many kinds of Gu used to raise people—implanting Gu worms into a human body so that the Gu and the person merged into one, known as a Gu-person.
Miss Xiao the Ninth’s lack of emotion rather resembled the condition of a Gu-person.
Jun Buli seemed to have thought of something and was about to climb down from the tree, when suddenly Baili Weisheng came running from a distance, a massive beast army chasing after him like ten thousand troops!
“What’s going on!”
Jun Buli shot up into the air, and saw, behind the pursuing beast army, a palanquin carried aloft by flying beasts, soaring through the air. Seated in the palanquin was a man in white robes, handsome and refined, fanning himself with a folding fan.
Jun Buli found the man strangely familiar, but couldn’t place who it was for the moment.
Baili Weisheng’s abilities were considerable—immune to all poisons, unable to die or perish—but even he had his limits alone. If Jun Buli’s estimate was correct, the beast army chasing him must be the entire beast clan’s forces, mobilized in full.
For Baili Weisheng not to be fleeing under such circumstances would be sheer folly.
The one commanding the beast army must be that white-robed man—could he be the reinforcements the Xiao couple had gone to fetch?
Jun Buli sneered inwardly, about to unleash the Heaven-and-Earth Poison Sack, when he heard Baili Weisheng shout, “Trap Miss Xiao the Ninth! Quickly!”
At this, Meng Duo’er also leapt up. Hearing Baili Weisheng’s words, her heart lurched—could her earlier suspicion have been correct after all?
“Trap her, quick!”
Baili Weisheng was practically frantic, his roar shaking the very heavens!
“She’s Xiaosheng!” Meng Duo’er’s heart jolted with shock!
Why could the Xiao family control Shiliang? Because the Xiao family used Baili Xiaosheng to control Shiliang!
Why could the Xiao family control Baili Xiaosheng? Because the Xiao family had raised Baili Xiaosheng into a Gu-person, stripping her of emotion, leaving her to obey only her master!
So Miss Xiao the Ninth was, in fact, Baili Xiaosheng, living at the Xiao estate under the identity of the Ninth Miss, so that no one would ever suspect—and her appearance must have been achieved through a disguise!
Thinking it through this way, everything fell into place.
“That man is her master,” Jun Buli said, understanding at last.
Without another word, Meng Duo’er dove down and grabbed hold of Miss Xiao the Ninth, and at the same moment, all the poisonous beasts surrounded them as well.
Jun Buli hovered high in the air, narrowing his eyes at the approaching white-robed man.
Even with the man’s overwhelming show of force—a veritable army of thousands—Jun Buli paid it no mind. He would show this man exactly what it meant to be king of beasts!
Finally, the entire beast army came to an abrupt halt, and the white-robed man stopped as well. He looked at Jun Buli, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold smile, equally unafraid.
The most panicked of all was Baili Weisheng—this wasn’t like him at all normally. What on earth was going on?
He was moving so fast he nearly collided with Jun Buli, but when he saw Meng Duo’er below, holding Miss Xiao the Ninth captive, his face changed drastically, and he cried out, “Get away from her!”
With that, he dove down at top speed!
First he’d said to trap her, now he was saying to stay away from her? Meng Duo’er was utterly confused, but she had no time to worry about that now—what she wanted was certainty: was Miss Xiao the Ninth really Baili Xiaosheng?
She reached out and gently touched the area near Miss Xiao the Ninth’s ear, and sure enough, found the edge of a disguise mask. Without hesitation, she ripped it off in one violent motion.