"This is far too rude." the old priestess cried. "Untie them, quickly!"
But judging by her expression, she was clearly caught somewhere between laughter and exasperation.
Qing Bazhi crooked his finger, and the vine slithered like a snake, coiling back around his arm.
The man with the disheveled hair sat up with a thump, still looking utterly dazed.
The other, thinner one pushed himself up from the ground with his hands. Though his face bore smears of dirt, one could still make out his delicate good looks.
"We will speak of the hunt later; I will give you a satisfactory answer, Bazhi." At this point, Qing Jiuye stepped forward and said, "Now there are three Dragon God Envoys—what do we do?"
"You needn't give any answer." Qing Qishu said through gritted teeth. "Suspending the hunt was my decision—I am the one who will satisfy Bazhi!"
The priestess did not seem inclined to interfere in this; speaking only to the matter of the Dragon God Envoys, she said, "Tomorrow we shall simply open the altar and verify them all together."
The "Dragon God Envoy" still sitting on the ground had by now probably come back to his senses, and was mmphing something through his lips.
"Bazhi, you should not strip them of their right to speak," the priestess said.
Qing Bazhi therefore walked over, seized the man's chin, and with two crooked fingers plucked out a pinecone-shaped thing, tossing it casually out the window. It was this thing that had temporarily silenced their tongues.
Seeing him walking this way again, the other comely man with the pinned-up hair hurriedly copied the example, reaching into his own mouth to dig out his "pinecone."
"May I ask you a few questions?" The moment his voice returned, the man still sitting on the ground fixed his eyes on the white-haired old woman and asked—clearly he had seen who was the one giving orders here.
The priestess's voice was very gentle: "Of course you may."
"This altar you speak of opening—what altar is it? What are you trying to do? How will you verify?" Now that he could finally speak, he clearly treasured this chance to say his piece, firing off questions like a string of arrows: "What exactly are you people? Which tribe? What is all this nonsense about Dragon God Envoys? What kind of god is this Dragon God? Aren't dragons just a legend? Besides you, are there other human peoples out there? What will it take for you to release us?"
In remote antiquity, the human race had dwelt gathered in tribes. This question, mixed in among the others, was unmistakably treating the people here as survivors of that ancient age.
Vast and boundless as the present world is, with its uncountable lesser worlds, secret realms, and worlds beyond the heavens... it was not unheard of for a people, cut off from the world since the near-ancient era, to have propagated in seclusion down to the present day.
"Speak slowly, no need to be nervous. In the land shaded by the Dragon God, you will come to no harm. I am the present priestess of the Holy Clan; your safety is my charge." The old priestess's voice carried a power that soothed the heart. Kindly, she said, "What are your names? Where do you come from?"
"My name is Wu Quji." The man with the disheveled hair stood up, forthright as beans poured from a bamboo tube: "From the State of Qi in the Eastern Domain, of the Golden Needle Sect."
The other, resigned, twitched his lips; seeing how honest the man was being, he had no choice but to follow suit: "I'm Su Qi, from Qi."
His voice was rather coarse, which did not match his delicate features.
Qing Qishu said blankly, "What place is the State of Qi?"
He turned to look at Jiang Chen: "Are you from this place too?"
For reasons of her own, the old priestess cut in: "The homeland of the Dragon God Envoys touches upon the secrets of the gods. Ask no more."
Jiang Chen could roughly appreciate how Su Qi felt. This Wu Quji was honest to a fault—a stranger in a strange land, and he simply laid his whole background bare...
He could only answer vaguely: "More or less."
Freed from their fear and unease, Wu Quji and Su Qi now also noticed Jiang Chen.
Seeing him with his clothes intact, refreshed in spirit, a beauty at his side and a cute little girl hiding behind him, they could not help feeling a twinge of envy...
They had all come to enter the Seven Stars Tower secret realm, and their star positions were not far apart. Wu Quji's had even been ahead of his.
By what right?!
But this was no time for envy.
Wu Quji was looking at the old priestess with the utmost earnestness: "I've answered all your questions; now it's your turn to answer mine."
The priestess was somewhat taken aback; she had probably not expected a man so utterly blunt.
But she had weathered many storms after all. Only slightly stunned, she said, "This old body is aged; my memory is not what it was. One at a time—what was it you asked first?"
"This altar you spoke of opening—what altar is it?" Wu Quji asked.
"No, that doesn't seem to be it." The old woman racked her brains with visible effort: "One question further back."
Wu Quji thought for a moment, then repeated, "May I ask you a few questions?"
"You may not." The old priestess refused flatly.
Wu Quji: ...
Jiang Chen: ...
Wu Quji was blunt and direct, but he was not stupid. With the old priestess refusing to answer, he naturally dared not draw his blade, hold it to her neck, and force her to talk.
There was no choice but to shut up.
"Ah, age has worn my spirits thin." The old woman sighed. "Qishu, Jiuye, Bazhi, you three—escort the three candidate Dragon God Envoys to rest first. Tomorrow we open the altar and verify them, to see which of them is the envoy truly summoned by the Dragon God, come to help our Holy Clan win new life."
"Gracious madam, let Qing Hua do the escorting." Qing Qishu said in a muffled voice. "I'll stay here and give Bazhi his explanation later."
His expression was quite resolute. He had been the one who lost the hunt; no matter what, he could not let Jiuye give the explanation in his stead.
Bazhi snorted. "Letting these stinking men near Qing Hua—what a thought. As for explanations, wait until the Dragon God Envoy is confirmed! If not a single one of them is real, do you think you and Jiuye can escape?"
Jiang Chen and Wu Quji could not help shooting Bazhi a glance. This man with his eight braids, saying "stinking men" at every turn, really was rather hateable.
Wu Quji even lowered his head and sniffed at himself... Having been dragged all this way, he did carry a bit of an odor.
The priestess waited a moment; seeing that neither Qing Qishu nor Qing Jiuye spoke, she nodded. "Then you may withdraw."
Her gaze swept in turn over Jiang Chen, Wu Quji, and Su Qi. "Rest well tonight, all three of you; there is no need to worry about your safety. Entry to and exit from the God-Shaded Land both require permission—it is very safe here."
Jiang Chen grasped the meaning beneath her words—this place is safe, but if you think of fleeing, escape is impossible. Don't go looking for trouble.
Perhaps it was the experience of Wu Quji and Su Qi bolting at the sight of Qing Bazhi that prompted this reminder.
Ever since Qing Bazhi had returned to the God-Shaded Land, Qing Qishu's mood had not been good. After Bazhi demanded an accounting of the hunt, he had sunk altogether into gloom.
Bazhi would escort Wu Quji, Jiuye Su Qi, and Qishu Jiang Chen.
They set out in these three pairs.
"Rest, is it? Really only rest? The kind of rest I'm thinking of?"
On leaving the inner room, Jiang Chen heard this Su Qi pressing his questions without stop.
In the inner room before, he had kept silent whenever he could, terrified of being noticed. Now that he sensed danger had passed, he had entirely let loose.
His voice was coarse and grating, truly rather noisy.
Judging by the temperaments these Holy Clan warriors had shown—
Bazhi would likely have beaten him soundly, and Qishu would likely have answered with cold mockery.
But it was Jiuye escorting him, so the answer was only: "Yes."
Jiang Chen turned his head and saw Su Qi heave a deep sigh of relief, eyes brimming with tears: "Oh, Mother, I thought I was going to be eaten."
A grown man speaking in such a "delicate" tone...
Jiang Chen, who had been observing his "competitor," immediately turned his eyes away and could not help shivering.