Lady Xu was observant and recalled that this woman seemed to have never eaten or slept in her presence.

That aside, she also never seemed to cultivate or regulate her breath, unlike Peng Bai, or even the Prince of Yan.

She hardly seemed human at all.

The woman in black didn’t even blink. “What dream?”

Lady Xu opened her mouth, unsure how to describe it. After a moment, she said, “I, I dreamed I was in a large temple, and then I fell from mid-air.”

“What about the Prince of Yan?”

Lady Xu froze. “What?”

“What was the Prince of Yan doing in your dream?”

This question was too strange. Why would the woman in black care about her dream? Lady Xu looked completely bewildered. “He seemed to be talking with someone. I don’t remember clearly, and then I fell from mid-air.”

Regarding An’an, she dared not say a word.

When ordinary people wake from dreams, they usually retain only fragmented memories. The woman in black knew that asking more would be futile. She gave a slight “Mmm” and turned to leave.

But Lady Xu remembered what her daughter had said in her ear as she was falling in the dream, and quickly spoke up: “Please, please wait a moment.”

She remembered that An’an wanted her to send a signal upon waking. Her daughter never lied to her, even in dreams, so could she summon help?—The woman in black paused and slightly turned her head.

Peng Bai tightened his grip on his wife’s hand. After years of marriage, he keenly sensed that Lady Xu was different from usual.

Lady Xu patted the back of his hand lightly to reassure him, then said sheepishly to the woman in black, “Where is my Qing’er? The night is chilly, and I’m afraid he’ll catch cold.”

Qing’er was her and Peng Bai’s youngest son, only a few months old, and not confined with them tonight. She hadn’t heard the infant cry for a long time and felt uneasy.

Lady Xu certainly didn’t know that the Prince of Yan wouldn’t allow a child’s crying to wake her when he wanted to bring her into the dream.

The woman in black walked out.

Within two breaths’ time, Lady Xu and the others saw a blur, and the woman was back in the room, holding the baby.

“Here.” Nü Ba knew that since this woman had awakened, the Prince of Yan no longer needed her.

The child was sleeping soundly, sucking his fingers, and wrapped up warmly. Lady Xu was relieved; throughout their journey, the woman in black had been quite kind to the infant.

At least much better than how she treated the three of them.

Lady Xu gestured for Peng Bai to take the child. Seeing the woman in black about to leave again, she quickly said, “Also, I need to relieve myself. Could you please…”

Their movements were restricted to this small room, and they couldn’t leave freely.

Ordinary people had bodily needs, unlike cultivators—this was a fact that even the Great Luo Golden Immortal couldn’t change. The woman in black didn’t hesitate. “Come out.”

Lady Xu slowly walked out of the house. The woman in black casually placed a barrier behind her, preventing the others from sneaking out. Peng Bai’s cultivation was sealed, making him essentially an ordinary person; she wasn’t concerned about him trying to escape with the children.

The woman in black walked at a moderate pace, and Lady Xu could keep up. The night wind rustled, blowing through broken houses and eaves, creating a wailing sound like ghosts crying. She clenched her fists tightly and asked softly, “Tomorrow, can we return to An’an—I mean, the Queen of New Xia?”

Nü Ba remained expressionless. “Perhaps.” The Prince of Yan’s transaction details were not her concern; she had her tasks these days.

Lady Xu’s heart sank slightly. Indeed, she couldn’t place her hopes on An’an’s enemies. She tried to change the subject, searching for a topic but finding none suitable. Finally, she somehow blurted out, “Do you have children?”

Nü Ba looked back at her. “No.”

Her gaze was colder than the night wind. Lady Xu hunched her shoulders and made a small “Oh” sound.

She was no longer the simple country woman from over a decade ago. After years of struggle in the Peach Blossom Realm, her experience had greatly increased. She had overheard conversations between this woman and the Prince of Yan, where the character “ba” was mentioned several times.

Ba? She knew what that meant—a more powerful jiangshi (corpse).

After a few steps, Nü Ba’s voice suddenly reached her ears again. “I should have had one.”

Lady Xu was startled and carefully asked, “Then what happened?”

“I died.”

“…” Lady Xu didn’t know what to say. “Then how did you become, um, like you are now?”

“My husband refined me into a ba, so I could continue to accompany him. But we cannot have children.”

Lady Xu couldn’t help but glance at her. Nü Ba’s eyes were pitch black, of course, devoid of any emotion, looking particularly hollow.

She wasn’t a living being, after all.

Lady Xu’s voice grew even softer. “Is your husband also an immortal? Where is he now?”

“No, he died over a thousand years ago.” Nü Ba’s voice was as calm as still water as if telling someone else’s story. “I was captured by the deity to suppress the earth’s evil spirits. Until his death, I couldn’t see him one last time. Later, when the heavens collapsed and the earth split, mountains and rivers changed shape, and I escaped from my place of suppression.”

“If he entered the cycle of hell after death, I hope the Celestial Demon can help me find him.” Nü Ba said softly. “I am a ba; I cannot enter the netherworld.”

“A thousand years?” Lady Xu murmured, unable to comprehend such devotion. Mortal lifespans barely reached a hundred years, yet she had waited for her husband for a millennium. “The deities are truly merciless.”

This time Nü Ba didn’t respond, only pointing to a latrine ten zhang ahead. “Go there.”

These facilities hadn’t been used for several hundred years but surprisingly had no odor. Lady Xu walked in, her mind becoming active—Nü Ba was standing guard outside, and her cultivation must be very high. Could an ordinary person like herself pull off something under her watch?

She knew these powerful land immortals could monitor a person without using their eyes. However, no one wanted to watch someone relieve themselves, so Nü Ba probably wouldn’t be focusing on her now.

Lady Xu didn’t hesitate and quietly opened her fist.

In her palm lay a pale red whistle.

It was only half a finger long, flat, and elongated. Most strangely, it seemed to flicker between visibility and invisibility, yet Lady Xu could feel it as a solid object in her hand.

Indeed, this was something she had brought from the dream. When the crystal ball shattered, Feng Miaojun had flicked this object into her palm. Her movement had been so quick, her aim so precise, and the crystal ball’s fragments had scattered everywhere that even the Prince of Yan, fully focused on opening the stone chamber, hadn’t noticed.

At that time, Lady Xu had instinctively clenched it in her palm. Upon waking, she discovered she was holding something and had discreetly brought it here.

An’an had planned thoroughly, surely considering that she alone couldn’t evade Nü Ba to send a signal, so she had given her this magical tool—A treasure that could be brought from a dream into reality; she had never seen such a thing before. It truly broadened her horizons.

With this in mind, Lady Xu wasted no time and took a light breath to blow the whistle.

She blew especially hard, but no sound emerged.

The surroundings remained silent, with only the rustling night wind.

Lady Xu blew forcefully two or three more times before putting away the whistle and walking out.