Split Zone 13

Volume 4

234 Hiding in the Palace of Cold Blood

I didn’t mind being an idiot right now.

I was still hugging him tightly as I said, “That’s right. I’m just so annoying…”

Nie Zun seemed to freeze for a split second before turning around suddenly. He leaned in close as he grabbed my arm.

I felt his bangs brush against my forehead as he closed in, an arm reaching for my chest. I frowned as I felt the pinch.

“This is what you want, right?” He spoke with cold sarcasm.

I remained perfectly still as I looked at him. I could see everything with perfect clarity. This was no illusion.

Even though he spoke harshly, he could not hide those lonely and sorrowful eyes of his. I bit my lip as I let him do as he pleased, not saying a single word.

After a while, he let me go. I thought I saw tears in his eyes. My vision seemed to blur as well, making me unsure who was the one crying here.

We were both silent now, but an enchanting voice came from somewhere near the entrance of the hall. It sounded like it came from outside the hall.

Nie Zun reacted quickly and pulled me behind one of those huge pillars in a corner. The pillar was big enough that it could hide the both of us behind it.

White light shone in when the doors to the palace hall opened, making its interior shine even brighter. I squinted slightly as I focused MF on my vision, trying to get a clearer look.

I was quite shocked at what I saw. These two…

There were two individuals who walked in. They were in identical floor-length brown robes with their faces covered in black chiffon masks. Those demonic eyes could not be obscured by their masks.

Those outfits looked familiar.

I suddenly realized these were the women who were in that underground stone room when we were looking for Laurel previously. But didn’t they die in there?

Even though they were far away from me, I would definitely be able to recognize those demonic eyes anywhere.

I could hear their conversation from where I was.

“We don’t know when owner will be back. If owner isn’t back soon, we’ll have to keep looking at those trashy things. Those trashy things are really stubborn. We can expect death if one of them manages to escape from here.”

“Haha, that’s right. But there’s no need to worry, jiejie. They are merely heirs from the outside world. Even if their abilities are extraordinary among heirs, it’s nothing in this Palace of Cold Blood. Owner is wise to have locked them up separately. You know where they are too. Do you think they’ll be able to do anything on their own?”

“Hmm. I know that, but I’m still a little uneasy. Owner was so serious about getting us to keep an eye on them, so I’m just afraid that something will go wrong.”

“It’s alright, jiejie. Owner will be back very soon. We can always get the shaman to contact owner anyway.”

“Enough of that nonsense. What right do we have to contact owner like that. Let’s just be patient.”

“How many of those reformed bodies are favored like jiejie is? Haven’t you seen the new batch? They’re all trying to emulate you. This shows that owner sees jiejie as important.”

“That’s sweet of you. You’re not bad either. There’re others who’re following your example too. Let’s support each other, meimei. We’ll definitely be rewarded like this.”

“Yes, jiejie. I’ll listen to jiejie.”

They sounded like concubines in the royal palace. But if my eyes were not fooling me, that meimei was the one who poured those leeches on Song Lu in that stone room.

Seems like this meimei has some tricks up her sleeve.

From their conversation, the owner they were referring to seemed to be Du Yue, since this is the Palace of Cold Blood. As expected of Jiao S’s teleportation pill, it brought me right here.

Jiao S might be trapped and her MF might be under some form of restriction. If it weren’t, I should have been able to reach her immediately.

If this was the Palace of Cold Blood, then those trapped heirs they were talking about should be referring to my friends as well.

Though I was upset at hearing that conversation, it gave me quite a bit of information. At least I now know they’ve been locked up separately. This would make a rescue attempt much more difficult especially when I still didn’t know where they were.

Du Yue wouldn’t know that I’ve teleported here so quickly, since I was in the demon cave just moments ago. This means I had an opportunity to save them.

I guess the only way to find out where they were was to capture the weird women who just appeared.

Nie Zun held me back just as I was about to peek my head out from behind the pillar. I met his eyes as I turned, seeing him shake his head at me.

All that anger and anxiety in my heart seemed to simmer down at this.

Though I wasn’t able to understand what he was really getting at, the fact that he held me back made me calm down. As I pondered, I recalled something important.

I wasn’t sure if those women in that stone room were the same ones in front of us now. At that time, the women chose death over being captured. If I were to show myself now, Nie Zun and I would immediately be exposed, and we might not even be able to get any information from the two of them. Moreover, we were in enemy territory.

We had to have a proper plan for this.

I retracted my foot, which had been peeking out from behind the pillar earlier.

Seeing me calm down, Nie Zun began to let go of me, but I grabbed him tightly instead. He looked at me before refocusing on the two women. He didn’t do anything else.

At this, I continued grabbing his hand tightly as a smile formed on my face.

The two women had not realized that there were two strangers peeking at them from behind a pillar as they walked over to that silk gauze curtain.

“We have to keep this clean. Owner looks upon this throne as a prized possession.” The one who was addressed as jiejie lifted a corner of the silk gauze carefully as she bent down.

“Chirp…” A beautiful chirping sound emerged from behind that silk gauze. A bright, white light appeared before a translucent, icy phoenix flew out. Its feathers looked like beautiful white crystals as it flew into the air, producing snow that fluttered around it.

I had never seen such a beautiful bird in real life.

From the looks of it, it resembled the legendary ice phoenix. The ice phoenix was gentler than the fire phoenix and it was a creature which always looked cold as it left a trail of snow wherever it went.

“Oh my. What’s wrong with this precious baby today? It usually doesn’t want to leave the throne.”

As the two ladies started running towards the ice phoenix, it seemed to be flying straight at Nie Zun and I.

This was bad.

However, I saw Nie Zun staring at the eyes of the ice phoenix. Right, Nie Zun’s pupil abilities.

I wondered if Nie Zun’s ability would hurt that beautiful, living creature. It’s not often that I could see creatures like these which weren’t human in the Split Zone. Even if I had, they were all monsters which had the intention to kill me. I suddenly felt a little pity for the creature.

Nie Zun’s eyes churned like a deep lake, and I subconsciously squeezed his hand. He seemed to sense it as his pupils enlarged. At the same time, the ice phoenix also sensed something and flew in the opposite direction immediately, going towards the two women.

“My dear creature, what’s wrong with you today? Why are you playing like this?” The two ladies were at a loss when they saw the ice phoenix flying in circles near the ceiling.

I guess this ice phoenix is no simple creature.

“This won’t do, jiejie. It doesn’t want to come back at all.”

“We can’t leave it as it is though. We’d be in hot soup if it flies out the door. It’s a precious treasure of owner’s. Isn’t it weird though? For two years, it has always stayed on that throne. Why is it so lively today?”

“This is why I’m worried. How about we get it back with MF?”

“Oh meimei. We can’t be hasty. We’d be in greater trouble if we end up hurting it. It might be missing that fire phoenix. How about we lure that fire phoenix here?”

“Are you joking, jiejie? You know the temper of that fire phoenix. We can’t even tame this ice phoenix and you think you can lure that fire phoenix here?”

“That’s true… What do we do? How about we go get the high priest?”

“That’s a good idea. Let’s go look for the high priest. She’s still an outsider even though she’s highly-favored. If anything happens, we can just push the responsibility to her.”

“Yes, let’s go.”