Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

What kind of wooden hairpin?

Xie Qiao frowned, looked down and saw the rather unsightly wooden stick in Hao Jing's hand, and subconsciously spoke.

"Where did you find this tree branch? It's quite nice." He pointed to the object in Haojing's hand.

"What tree branch! This is the hairpin Zhou Jinghuai gave me!" Hao Jing quickly put the wooden hairpin into his pocket, afraid that he would lose it.

"He gave you a hairpin? Does he like you?"

Xie Qiao, naturally, didn't quite grasp the situation. He quietly took a few steps back, distancing himself from Hao Jing.

Seeing this, Hao Jing's face instantly turned red with anger. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed Xie Qiaodao.

"What do you mean? I said this hairpin was given to me by him to give to Thirteen!" He quickly explained to Xie Qiao, afraid that Xie Qiao would misunderstand his relationship with Zhou Jinghuai.

But looking at Xie Qiao's somewhat confused eyes, one could tell that this guy was up to no good.

"Then why did you come to me? Go find Thirteen." Xie Qiao naturally slapped Hao Jing's hand away from his sleeve.

To make it easier for him to patrol the palace, Shen Mu had specially arranged for him to also have the identity of a member of the Imperial Guard. Now, he was dressed in a black and red outfit and stood ramrod straight.

Upon closer inspection, he is considerably more handsome than Haojing.

"If I could find her, why would I come to you first?" Hao Jing quickly replied, recalling the question Zhou Jinghuai had once asked him.

"Did you tell him about Chongming's return to the capital a few days ago?"

"Who?"

"Zhou Jinghuai!" Hao Jing's tone was inevitably a little angry. Every time he spoke to Xie Qiao, he was like a block of wood.

"Oh, I think that's what he was talking about. I happened to be returning to the capital when I saw him on the city wall. I thought it would be faster for two people to look for the master than for me to go alone."

Xie Qiao tried to recall the incident carefully, but then realized that he hadn't seen Zhou Jinghuai again since then, so he completely forgot about it.

For him, the only thing he wanted to do was to capture the Demon Lord Chongming.

That's it.

"And then what?" Hao Jing was slightly taken aback; he hadn't expected Zhou Jinghuai to know about this as well.

"Then I parted ways with him. He went to the palace to see the official, and I went to the Shen residence. And then you met me at the palace gate, didn't you?"

Xie Qiao looked completely bewildered; clearly, he hadn't realized the seriousness of the matter.

Haojing looked at him and sighed deeply.

Although he has now made a mess of things by gathering a group of refugees from neighboring counties to entangle Zhou Jinghuai, he is inevitably out of touch with the news and temporarily unaware of what is happening in the palace.

But how long can this be kept secret?

There were very few people in the mortal realm who could actually fight Chongming.

If you exclude Shen Mu and the others, only Thirteen is left.

If we really reach that point...

The more Hao Jing thought about it, the paler his face became. He suddenly raised his head and glared at Xie Qiao, a surge of anger rising from his chest to his throat. Then he saw the sword behind Xie Qiao.

I stubbornly suppressed that feeling of frustration.

He can't beat Xie Qiao.

"I knew it! I knew how he knew about this. Did he also go to the palace today?" Hao Jing felt a terrible headache coming on. It seemed he had to ask Shen Mu for leave and rest for a while.

It would be better to take this opportunity to slip away.

Otherwise, once Zhou Jinghuai finds out about this and goes to the authorities to demand the release of the person, and after his investigation, he'll definitely be able to pin the blame on him.

"He entered the palace. I saw him leave in a great hurry. That should have been the time he bumped into you." Xie Qiao was ordered to guard this corner tower so that he could observe the entire Nanyang Imperial Palace.

He naturally saw Zhou Jinghuai's whereabouts after leaving the palace very clearly.

"I met him at the palace gate. I mean, where did he go before he left the palace?" Hao Jing was now eager to know whether he needed to escape the mortal realm.

He could just find some unknown place, stay there for thirty or fifty years, and come back when Shen Mu's anger subsided.

"He went to... the Imperial Study, right?" Xie Qiao thought carefully, recalling that Zhou Jinghuai had come out of the Imperial Study and walked directly out of the palace through the palace road.

I did not go to any other places.

Ever since Chongming made his move at Mingyue Palace, the place has been completely surrounded by Shen Mu's Imperial Guards.

He had already taken control of the palace passageways within three palace gates, preventing anyone from entering Mingyue Palace. Naturally, Zhou Jinghuai was also unable to enter.

Hao Jing's heart tightened again upon hearing Xie Qiao's words.

"So... what did they say?"

"I can't hear, how would I know?" Xie Qiao tilted her head slightly, staring intently at Hao Jing, who was gradually becoming flustered.

Haojing must have forgotten that they are currently in the mortal realm. In the mortal realm, they are all deities without divine power, so how could they have super hearing to hear the sounds coming from the imperial study?

Not to mention, he had no interest in Zhou Jinghuai at all.

If Chongming were inside, he would definitely go and listen in person. But since Chongming hasn't shown up yet, he needs to stay on the corner tower and wait for the brothers to come and relieve him.

Hao Jing sighed softly, and couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

"If the Emperor of Nanyang tells Zhou Jinghuai about Chongming injuring Thirteen, I'm afraid Zhou Jinghuai will soon be demanding that Lord Shen take him away!"

Although he didn't want to tell Xie Qiao the identity of the girl in the dark room.

But right now, the only thing we can do is to find Xie Qiao and work together to find a way to stop Zhou Jinghuai's news.

"What did you say? Chongming injured Thirteen? When did this happen?" Clearly, Xie Qiao, who was usually a bit dim-witted, didn't quite understand Hao Jing's words.

Literally, he thought it meant that Chongming had reappeared.

Thinking of this, Xie Qiao asked, unusually excited.

"Where did he fight with Mr. Thirteen? Do you want me to go help?" He said confidently, subconsciously touching the sword at his waist, a personal item he brought down from the divine realm.

It was left to him by an old acquaintance and he never parted with it.

"..."

Hao Jing was completely impressed by Xie Qiao's reaction.

He even doubted himself, wondering why Xie Qiao had remained so naive throughout the two hundred years they had spent together.

Ultimately, it's because he didn't try hard enough.

Hao Jing walked forward earnestly and patted Xie Qiao on the shoulder, saying...

"The one our master brought back, that's her."

"what?"

Xie Qiao was full of surprise again. It seemed that Hao Jing's words had finally made sense to him, and he subconsciously exclaimed in surprise.

He truly hadn't expected that the girl lying in the dark room would be Mr. Thirteen!

"But she... shouldn't she be a man?"

Xie Qiao naturally didn't understand why the girl lying in the dark room recuperating was Mr. Thirteen. Although he had only met Mr. Thirteen a handful of times.

But judging from his appearance, he still preferred to believe that Thirteen was a man!