"How can you say that, Master Luo? And to think I used to admire you. I never imagined you were this kind of person. Steward He is so gravely injured, yet not only do you show no sympathy, you even kick him while he's downā¦" a young nun standing beside the middle-aged one exclaimed in dismay.
"That's right, Master Luo. Steward He has always treated you with the utmost respect. I never imagined you could say such a thing!"
Luo Xinlan was exceptionally intelligent. The moment the middle-aged nun opened her mouth, she knew the woman intended to frame her. Although she still didn't know why, the potential consequences of this incident filled Luo Xinlan with a sense of dread.
Everyone on Luoshui Island knew that Master Huitong was in a state of extreme fury. At a time like this, anyone who dared to provoke her would surely meet a gruesome end.
"Have you considered the consequences of this?" Luo Xinlan quickly regained her composure. She looked at the middle-aged nun and said coolly, "And what's the point of it all?"
The middle-aged nun said coldly, "I don't know what you're talking about. More than one person just heard you. You said the abbot was making a mountain out of a molehill and that Steward He had it coming. Hmph, you can explain yourself to the abbot!"
"That's right. From the very beginning, the abbot suspected there was a mole feeding information to the assassin. Whether that mole is youā¦ well, you can explain that to the abbot yourself."
"We all heard it. You said the abbot was making a mountain out of a molehill and that Steward He had it comingā¦"
All of them talking at once, they drove Luo Xinlan into a corner.
Looking at their revolting expressions, Luo Xinlan seethed with anger. Just as she was about to speak, a perfectly calm voice drifted in from outside. "How very interesting."
Luo Xinlan, who had been on the verge of an outburst, trembled slightly. She instantly swallowed the words she was about to say as a tidal wave of shock crashed through her.
'Heavens, how can this beā¦'
Those three simple words, spoken in a perfectly calm voice, exerted an immense pressure, like the eerie silence before a storm. It even gave the middle-aged nun and her companions a strange feeling.
As if in the next moment, the heavens would collapse and volcanoes would erupt.
"Who's there?" The middle-aged nun was the first to react, her voice a sharp bark. "Show yourself!"
Her voice was stern, but it had an unmistakable undercurrent of blusterāfierce on the surface, but cowardly underneath.
The other women said nothing, clustering warily around the middle-aged nun.
"Come out? Shouldn't you be the ones to come out? I'm already outside. How much more 'out' can I get?" the calm voice replied, tinged with a hint of playful mockery.
The middle-aged nun froze for a second, then realized she was being toyed with. Her expression turned icy as she yelled, "The assassin who tried to kill Steward He is here! Everyone, get over here!"
"Quick, capture him!"
"The assassin is here!"
In contrast to the middle-aged nun's somewhat disciplined cry, her companions lacked such composure. The invisible pressure from moments ago had brought them to the brink of collapse.
So, hearing the middle-aged nun's shout, they all began to yell instinctively.
Unfortunately, their cries were met with silence. This puzzled them, and the deep sense of unease they felt intensified.
"Go on, keep shouting," the mocking voice suddenly echoed from right inside the room.
"Aah!" The middle-aged nun lashed out with a palm strike toward the empty air from where the voice had come.
A vicious blast of energy from her palm, carrying immense power, tore through the air with a sonic BOOM.
"Die!"
the middle-aged nun bellowed.
"You're the ones who deserve to die!" The voice was no longer playful, but filled with cold, murderous intent. It was like a cat that had tired of playing with its mouse and was finally revealing its vicious, cold-blooded nature.
A soft thump.
The middle-aged nun, a Tier Seven Sword Venerable, lowered her head. She stared blankly at the large, dark patch blooming across the front of her black habit and felt the searing pain radiating from her chest. The corners of her mouth twitched violently, her face contorting in agony.
"Youā¦ you dare kill meā¦"
With those last words, the middle-aged nun collapsed to the floor with a THUD.
As for the other women, a tiny red dot appeared on each of their foreheads, between their brows. The dot slowly widened, blossoming into a blood-rimmed hole the size of a thumb.
A mere gust of finger windā¦ had bored straight through their solid skulls!
It was so incredibly potent that a single wisp of finger wind had dealt a devastating blow to them all.
Xu Luo felt not a shred of remorse for killing them in an instant. 'They dared to slander my mother like that.' If he hadn't shown up, his mother, with no way to defend herself, would have been in unimaginable peril.
"Xiaoā" Luo Xinlan began to call out to Xu Luo instinctively, but his voice suddenly echoed directly in her mind.
"Mother, don't reveal who I am. I'm masked, so no one knows my identity. In a moment, I'm going to drop the domain I've set up and openly abduct you. Once we're back in the Imperial Capital, I'll give you some Elixirs, and you can go into seclusion to cultivate. As long as they can't find you, they'll never suspect you've gone home!"
Xu Luo spoke quickly, adding, "Once you've increased your strength and come out of seclusion, even if they dare to come knocking on our door, we'll make sure it's a one-way trip for them!"
The astonishment on Luo Xinlan's face was impossible to hide. She had so many questions for her son, but she knew this wasn't the time to ask them.
Xu Luo materialized. He was clad head to toe in black, with a black hood and a black mask covering his face, leaving only his eyes exposed.
Xu Luo then dispelled his domain, placed two fingers in his mouth, and let out a sharp whistle.
An enormous eagle appeared out of nowhere, descending from the sky like a dark cloud.
Xu Luo led Luo Xinlan outside. His gaze swept the area, and just as he expected, he saw people rushing in their direction.
Xu Luo gave a cold smirk. With a flick of his wrist, a terrifying wave of power slammed down on the building they had just left.
The elegant little building instantly disintegrated into dust, leaving nothing behind.
Luo Xinlan watched, her heart hammering in her chest. 'What level of power is this?' she thought in terror. 'How can he be so fearsome? Isā¦ is this really my Xiaoluo?'
"Hmph! A few shameless curs dare to block my path? You're courting death!" Xu Luo's voice suddenly became deep and boisterous. Even his stature seemed to unconsciously swell, making him appear much larger.
Then, looking at Luo Xinlan's astonished face, Xu Luo let out a sinister laugh. "I've killed them all. Now, you're going to come back and be my father's Lady of the Stronghold!"
As he spoke, Xu Luo, under the dumbfounded stares of the arriving crowd, led Luo Xinlan and leaped directly onto the giant eagle. He glanced back at the people rushing over and said with great disappointment, "I was hoping to grab one for myself, too. But it looks like all you have here are nuns and a bunch of common, painted faces. How boring!"
He even let out a sigh. Then, the giant eagle beat its wings and soared high into the sky.
The arriving crowd was collectively stunned for a moment, and then they erupted in a wave of indignation.
A few lay disciples of Luoshui Nunnery were furious. "What does he mean, 'common, painted faces'? That's outrageous! Utterly despicable!"
The expressions on the nuns' faces were priceless. "I've heard of men kidnapping a Lady of the Stronghold for themselves, but this is the first time I've ever heard of someone kidnapping one for their fatherā¦"
"Scoundrel! Where do you think you're going? Get back here!"
A thunderous roar shook the very heavens. A figure shot toward the giant eagle like a bolt of lightning, and a brilliant beam of sword energy, like a rainbow, slashed through the air toward the massive bird!
It was Master Huitong!
On the whole of Luoshui Island, only she possessed such terrifying might!
"Hey, old woman! You're too old to be my father's Lady of the Stronghold, so you'd best turn back!" the boisterous voice called down from high above, dripping with mockery. "When you have a moment, get a few pretty young ladies ready for me. I'll come pick them up myself! HAHAHAHA!"
The giant eagle suddenly accelerated, dodging the impossibly sharp beam of sword energy. It quickly shrank to a black dot and vanished into the distance.
"ARGH! This is infuriating!" Though Master Huitong was incomparably powerful, she had been a step too late. She hovered in mid-air, her face as black as thunder, watching in a fury as the giant eagle flew higher and higher until it was just a tiny black dot in the sky.
Aboard the giant eagle, Xu Luo pulled off his mask and hood, revealing a handsome, refined face. He looked at his mother and grinned. "Wasn't I amazing?"
"Amazing my foot!" Luo Xinlan rapped her son sharply on the head, feigning anger. "Look at you, all grown up and capable now, huh? Daring to poke fun at your own mother? Kidnapping a Lady of the Stronghold for your father? Fine thenā¦ go on, go kidnap one!"
Xu Luo put on a pained, pitiful expression. "It wasā¦ a desperate time calling for desperate measures, wasn't it? If I hadn't done that, they would have eventually suspected our own family. Now, they can rack their brains all they want, but they'll never guess that the person who 'abducted' you was your own son."
"That's no excuse to spout such nonsense!" Luo Xinlan looked at her young son, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Then, her eyes reddened. She pulled Xu Luo into a tight embrace and said in a choked voice, "My good son. Mother missed you so, so much!"
The rims of Xu Luo's eyes turned red as well. He hugged his mother back and said with deep emotion, "Mother, I missed you too."
"BOOHOO! Master Mao missed Mother toooo!" Master Mao's head poked out from Xu Luo's pocket as he howled.
"Shut up!" Xu Luo shoved Master Mao's head back into his pocket.
Master Mao's furious voice echoed from inside the pocket. "You rotten brat, you've gone too far! Just you wait! One of these days, this Master will show you what's what!"
"Ah, whatā¦ what is that?" Only then did Luo Xinlan realize something was amiss. Not only did her son control a giant eagle of peerless speed that was clearly no ordinary creature, but he also had a talkingā¦ Spirit Beast in his pocket!
A High-tier Spirit Beast!
Luo Xinlan was no ignorant woman of the world. She knew perfectly well that a Spirit Beast capable of speech had to be at least Tier Nine!
A few Tier Eight Spirit Beasts could also speak, but they were exceptionally rare.
'In the two years since I entered Luoshui Nunnery,' she wondered, 'what in the world has happened to my son?'