The person in the lead looked towards the two with a mocking smile.

  Jun Xin didn't respond to these words, and Baili Yiling remained silent as well.

  They were both unsure of what to do next. From the earlier exchange it was clear that these people were that mysterious person's subordinates. It was astonishing how far the mysterious person's influence extended. He even had scouts on the vast sea?

  When they didn't speak, the middle-aged man just gave a cold laugh and waved his hand. Four large men immediately appeared behind him and they looked down towards them darkly.

  These two had come to the island where not even birds dared to land and were hiding in this extremely stinky place. There was no way that they were here with good incidents. What happened today couldn't be allowed to spread to the outside world.

  "Kill them." Having obtained an order, the men pulled out their broadswords.

  What to do? Baili Yiling racked her brains to think of a way to escape, but not a single method seemed plausible. Could it be that they were going to die here? She looked towards the approaching blades with despair as she panicked.

  No! She had to stay calm, otherwise they were dead for sure!

  At this time, one of the men had already jumped into the hole. Despite the overwhelming stench, the man's brows didn't even furrow and he casually kicked aside a female corpse as he walked towards Baili Yiling and Jun Xin with a sinister smile. Baili Yiling pulled Jun Xin and took a step back in fear, but discovered that they had nowhere to retreat to.

  This won't do! Even if they were going to die, she didn't want to die in this garbage pile. She didn't want to be eaten by disgusting rats after she died.

  She took a deep breath and gauged the distance between them and the man, then turned and started climbing the wall. Even if she was going to die, she wanted to die outside of this hole, thought Baili Yiling sadly.

  The will brought by the threat of death was extremely strong. The wall that should've taken her half the day to climb out only took her a couple steps. As the sound of something screaming through the wind reached her, she cursed. How could she have forgotten that she wasn't facing an ordinary person? This short distance would probably only take a few steps for that man to cover. Then he'd use that sharp broadsword to hack her right in half.

  Although she was in despair, she still reflexively turned around in the instant as that blade was slashing down to throw something towards him. Based on the trajectory of the object, if that man didn't dodge, his face would be ruined. Baili Yiling was also surprised at the fact that her aim had been so accurate.

  Thunk!

  The man turned his sword to knock away the thing that Baili Yiling had thrown. The object was sent flying outside of the hole and just happened to land by the feet of the middle-aged man. He glanced down and found that it was a simple and unadorned chest. When he saw the design on the box though, his eyes rapidly dilated and his expression changed greatly.

  Baili Yiling's eyelids jumped in shock as well. She hadn't expected that she had thrown that box out of everything. That was the only thing her mother had left in the hidden room.

  The man attacking her was a little enraged and he immediately lifted his broadsword to hack her into pieces. The more despair that filled Baili Yiling's eyes, the more excited he felt.

  "Stop!"

  The middle-aged man shouted and the boardsword that was barely an inch from Baili Yiling's face was shattered by his inner strength.

  What was going on? Baili Yiling looked towards the middle-aged man strangely and found that the man was carefully picking up the small box with a pious expression. When he saw her look over, he fell to his knees in a kneel.

  "We respectfully greet the saint maiden and wish you well for ages to come!"

  It was such strange behavior that Baili Yiling reflexively looked towards Jun Xin. Jun Xin slowly shook his head towards her and indicated for her to wait and see the situation.

  Meanwhile, the middle-aged man seemed very stirred up. He respectfully gave the box back, then berated those men and shouted for them to withdraw.

  "This subordinate didn't know that Saint Maiden had come to grace us with her presence. We have offended with our earlier words, but we hope that Saint Maiden will forgive us!"

  Baili Yiling's brows were scrunched up with confusion. She couldn't figure out what was going on. However, the Seven Great Saint Tribes were the only ones that had something like a Saint Maiden.

  In addition, her mother was the previous Saint Maiden. It wasn't strange that she would be mistaken as the Saint Maiden when people of the Seven Great Saint Tribes saw something of her mother's.

  But why would members of the Seven Great Saint Tribes appear here?

  Were they related with the mysterious person from earlier? All of these were questions that they'd have to investigate. Baili Yiling and Jun Xin came to this conclusion at almost the same time. Baili Yiling looked towards the middle-aged man and said, "It's fine. I also just came to this island by chance. What's more, the ignorant can't be blamed. I won't hold it against you.""Many thanks! Saint Maiden!"

  The middle-aged man saluted her, but it was obvious that his excitement didn't truly reach the depth of his eyes. This made the contrast between his attitude and his true thoughts very clear.

  "Saint Maiden and this young hero are soaked. You must have encountered a storm while ferrying here?"

  Baili Yiling's heart leaped and she nodded. "En.""That's truly fortunate ah! In this part of the sea, there's not many people that survive through the storms," sighed the middle-aged man.

  "Saint Maiden, since fate has allowed you to come to this island, then why not come and rest at my place for a while?"

  Baili Yiling considered it for a while, then nodded.

  This place was a very unusual little courtyard. It was morning, but the courtyard was strangely silent. Through the half-opened window, a person who was sleeping happily could be seen.

  Baili Yiling felt like it had been a hundred years since she had last slept so well. When she felt warm sunlight shine on her, she opened her eyes lazily.

  A delicate small face appeared in front of her. When that person saw that she had opened her eyes, that face filled with fear and the person hastily dropped to a kneel. "Saint Maiden…… I…… I just want to see…… to see if you were awake yet. I didn't mean to offend……"

  What was this situation? Baili Yiling felt a headache as she looked at the maid kneeling on the ground. "Get up first, then tell me what's going on."

  "Un…… Understood, Saint Maiden……"

  Baili Yiling rubbed her own face speechlessly when she saw how terrified the maid was. Were her looks really that terrifying? Oh wait, what did she call her? Saint Maiden? When Baili Yiling recalled this, she felt like slapping herself for having actually forgotten something that important.

  "Alright, you can withdraw for now!" Baili Yiling feigned calmness and waved dismissively. The maid immediately ran out like she had just been granted amnesty.

  Baili Yiling once again rubbed her face speechlessly as she slowly recalled what happened last night. She had almost died, but the situation suddenly took a turn. The middle-aged man whose attitude completely flipped after seeing that box had brought them back to his courtyard. She had been respectfully invited to a hot spring, then a bunch of little maids washed her squeaky clean. She ate with Jun Xin, then fell asleep at the sight of the bed.

  __________

  Credits: Translated by Chiyomira

  [Chiyomira's Corner]

  Enjoy~