Two days later.

  Tang Doudou arrived at the foot of Dream Mountain.

  She gazed up at the white mist that concealed the top of Dream Mountain. It was so foggy that the path up was vague, just like her past journey had been.

  The inn at the foot of the mountain was now uninhabited. Tang Doudou tied the horse up near the inn and started heading up Dream Mountain.

  She went by what she could remember of the path that Mu Ye had led her on and soon got to the bamboo forest. The peach tree was still there like before, the tombs were also undisturbed. Everything was just as before.

  She frowned. For some reason, the stillness of this place felt off. What exactly was going on?

  As she wondered this, she started heading towards the bamboo house.

  It was as she had expected. There was no trace of Mu Ye. She searched through the entire house and found that the large chest with the Swayflower was also gone.

  Could it be that there was some unexpected change in circumstance which forced Mu Ye to take the chest with him and leave?

  If Nan Maner didn't find Mu Ye on Dream Mountain, why didn't she go back to Green Maple City to tell her?

  And what did Yun Hai tell her to come to Dream Mountain for?

  No matter how much she thought about these things, she couldn't figure out any answers. She was also completely lost as to what to do next. She couldn't help but laugh self-mockingly. Perhaps Yun Hai was just joking with her and left that message to make her take a pointless trip to Dream Mountain.

  Wait!

  Her facial expression changed drastically. As if Yun Hai would waste time messing around with her!

  He had clearly been using the tactic of luring a tiger away from its domain in the mountains!

  This was not good!

  When this possibility occured to Tang Doudou, she hastily rushed back to the foot of the mountain, but the horse that she had tied up near the inn was already gone.

  "Crap!" Tang Doudou covered her face and stomped in helpless irritation. She started running towards Green Maple City, but after a while, suddenly stopped.

  It was definitely too late now to get back to Green Maple City, and she might even fall into a trap Yun Hai set up for her.

  She glanced in the opposite direction, in the direction of Huai City.

  Her gaze turned resolved and she started heading towards Huai City.

  Since it was too late to go back to Green Maple City, it would be better to head to Huai City to discuss further plans with Jun Xin. The more people, the more power. It would be harder for her to deal with Yun Hai on her own, and she would eventually have to go back to Huai City anyways.

  However, this trip didn't go that smoothly. First, black-robed men almost saw through her human skin mask, then she encountered Elder Yu. However, at that time, he seemed troubled and distracted. It was probably because Bai Feiyun had gained influence in the Alliance Head Residence.

  Despite it all, she managed to make it safely to Huai City. However, the city gates were filled with a long line of people since every person had to be inspected meticulously before they were allowed to enter the city. Even young girls that had not been married were not spared the inspection.

  When Tang Doudou saw this from a distance, she didn't dare to walk up.

  She stopped beneath a tree to think about her options, then decided to come back and check the situation at night.

  It was just a pity that she had given the bamboo flute to Nan Maner. Otherwise, she probably could've called Jun Xin out by playing the flute! Oh, she forgot. One, she didn't know how to play a flute and two, even if she knew, Jun Xin might not hear it and if he did, he wouldn't know it was her!

  So, Tang Doudou became even more depressed.

  As she looked towards the seemingly endless line in front of the Huai City entrance, she became even more depressed. She couldn't help but wonder if Yun Hai's goal had been to force her back to Huai City from the start.

  After resting for a while more, she looked around Huai City and found an old temple to rest in.

  When she got to the temple, she felt pain from her stomach and attributed it to the fact that she had used inner strength to travel. She pressed softly on her stomach as she entered the temple. The temple was damp, so she pulled the red sash off the Buddha statue and placed it on the straw before sitting down.

  Nan Maner had taught her a couple lines of a chant to revolve her inner strength when her stomach hurt to ease the pain.

  After revolving her inner strength in that way a couple times, her pain did ease quite a lot. Then she started making preparations for sneaking into Huai City.

  __________

  Credits: Translated by Chiyomira

  [Chiyomira's Corner]

  Enjoy~