Gao Xiaolian nodded. “I didn’t accidentally let it slip. Someone had caught up to me, during which the Black Poison Hag interfered and took me away...they wholly believed that Daddy had the Lapis Armour, and that now that he was dead, those ghastly things would definitely be in my hands…”

She was yet another Zhang Chengling.

Gu Xiang interjected, “Oh, yes yes, after we were separated at Dongting the last time, Cao-dage and I bumped into Lord Seventh. Lord Seventh said that they were going to think of a way to save Zhou Xu’s life, and we looked for you together for a while. But we just didn’t know which faraway place where a bird wouldn’t even shit you two ran off to in order to get hitched…”

Hearing that her words were becoming more ludicrous, Cao Weining hastily coughed once to cut her off.

Yet, Wen Kexing paused. Ignoring Gu Xiang’s nonsense, he asked, “Lord Seventh said that there is a solution?”

Gu Xiang said, “The Great Shaman said that he’s thought of some, and made us contact them after we’ve found Zhou Xu--according to rumours, those women in black are the surviving foes of the Nanjiang Black Shaman years back. The Great Shaman killed most of them in the early years, but then they conned a bunch of silly wenches from somewhere into becoming their followers, and have been scraping by for a good few years. This time, they’ve come to muddy the waters, and the Great Shaman said that this was a good opportunity to net them all. Cao-dage and I had nothing to do, so we went to keep a lookout, all in the name of gathering merits by doing good deeds. Who knew that we’d bump into Miss Gao? This time, we’ve struck gold gathering merits!”

Wen Kexing glanced at her with a strange look, frowned slightly, but did not say anything. Instead, he turned his head to ask Zhou Zishu, “What do you think?”

Zhou Zishu was silent for a long while, before he sighed and said, “Almost all those who know what happened have died, leaving only that one person. The victors and the losers are evident--why do you need to ask me such a question?”

At the same moment, Lord Seventh and the Great Shaman, the subjects under discussion, were also at an inn. Lord Seventh was happily playing with a chopstick, and was childishly trying his hardest to stand it on its end.

Unfortunately, the head of that chopstick was not flat, but had a slight curve to it. He had been trying for a long while without success, but was still determinedly positioning it with his full concentration, even neglecting his meal.

The Great Shaman watched him for a long time, then finally sighed. Gently, like he was coaxing a child, he said, “Beiyuan, stop playing. Eat your meal properly.”