"Someone else is coming out!"
The crowd outside the trial entrance stirred, cultivators craning their necks to get a better view of the stone door.
"Only five remain inside now. I wonder which one got eliminated this time."
"Probably the He family representative. That one always had a significant gap compared to the other four."
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the gathered cultivators as the stone door began to grind open, revealing a sliver of fabric through the widening crack.
Then the murmurs died completely.
Everyone froze.
Some rubbed their eyes, convinced they were seeing things.
"Hua... Hua Bailu?"
"How could she have failed?"
"I refuse to believe it!"
"The other four must have used underhanded methods!"
The accusations started flying immediately, because clearly the only explanation for Hundred Flowers Valley's star alchemist exiting early was sabotage. It couldn't possibly be that she had succeeded faster than expected.
Bailu ignored the theatrical reactions from the crowd. Years of dealing with cultivation world drama had given her an impressive immunity to nonsense. She scanned the gathered cultivators, searching for disciples from her sect.
"Bailu! Over here!"
She turned toward the familiar voice. Without a word, she started walking in that direction, Alexei following a half-step behind.
The crowd, finally remembering to breathe, swooned at her expression. Some particularly dramatic cultivators forgot to inhale for several minutes.
Then someone noticed the teenager walking beside her.
"Who's that with her?"
Alexei resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
He had been standing right there, in plain sight, for several minutes. But of course nobody noticed him until after they finished gushing over Bailu. The cultivation world's obsession with appearance hierarchies was exhausting.
He glanced down and realized Bailu still had a light grip on his sleeve, probably to keep him from getting lost in the crowd. It reminded him uncomfortably of how Qingxue and Yan sometimes guided him through busy marketplaces.
He pulled his arm free.
He hadn't planned to leave the inheritance site so soon. His original intention had been to go back through the trial area and mine every single Brightglow Pearl embedded in those walls. Based on Bailu's description, there should be at least two or three hundred of them scattered throughout the passages.
But then she had mentioned that Hundred Flowers Valley was purchasing pill spirit essences, and that she could facilitate a trade for the items in his inventory.
Money talks. Experience talks louder.
Compared to Brightglow Pearls, which he could collect anytime, since the inheritance site wasn't going anywhere, gaining experience was the current priority. He still needed to fully assimilate that cultivation technique, and his level wasn't high enough yet.
The pearls could wait. But levels couldn't.
So here he was, following a wealthy alchemist to her sect's camp to engage in what was probably going to be the most profitable transaction of his life so far.
They hadn't even reached the Hundred Flowers Valley disciples when several young women rushed forward, clearly assuming Bailu had failed the trial.
"Even if you didn't pass the Alchemy Flame Trial, it doesn't matter! The flames in our valley's Fire Pavilion are just as good as anything in this place."
"Yes. With your talent, how could you possibly lack a spiritual flame?"
Another disciple nodded enthusiastically in agreement.
Bailu found their concern amusing but didn't bother prolonging the misunderstanding. She raised one hand and condensed a cluster of emerald-green flame in her palm, letting it dance across her fingers.
"Who said I failed?"
The disciples froze.
"In Hundred Flowers Valley, hiding something like a spiritual flame would be pointless anyway. Unless I planned to never refine pills in front of anyone again. And since I obtained the flame inside the trial, the other four participants are probably already on their way out. The truth will be obvious soon enough."
The crowd, which had been pretending not to eavesdrop while eavesdropping, erupted into chaos.
"A spiritual flame inheritance?!"
"Then why did she exit before the other four prodigies?"
"The timing doesn't make sense!"
"Yesterday's eliminated alchemist said they hadn't even made contact with the flame yet. Sensing the fire's essence and refining it together should take at least half a month! How could she possibly leave the inheritance site today?"
The speculation continued, but nobody seriously doubted the flame's authenticity. Lying about something so easily verified would be idiotic, and whatever else cultivators were, most of them weren't that stupid.
Alexei had removed his diamond armor the moment the stone door started opening. Standing around in full enchanted gear would draw exactly the kind of attention he didn't want. Better to look like a random nobody than a random nobody wearing suspiciously powerful equipment.
One of the Hundred Flowers Valley disciples, a young woman who looked barely older than Alexei himself, reached toward him.
He sidestepped, putting Bailu between them.
"Where did you find him, Junior Sister?" the disciple asked, peering past Bailu.
"He helped me during the trial," Bailu replied. "We will talk about it back at camp. There are too many people around."
The disciple clearly wanted to ask more, but Bailu had already turned and started walking away.
The Hundred Flowers Valley camp wasn't far away, only about a fifteen-minute walk from the outer edge of the entrance zone.
The area was surprisingly organized. Different sect camps were set up in loose clusters, each one occupying its own territory.
Alexei had expected it to be more crowded, but the camp was relatively quiet. Most of the cultivators present were women, although he knew from earlier conversations that Hundred Flowers Valley did accept male disciples. If he remembered correctly, they made up around thirty percent of the sect.
Interestingly, their current Valley Master was male, which broke the historical trend of female leadership.
He ended up staying at the camp for two full days.
The spirit stones for purchasing pill spirits were currently at another Hundred Flowers Valley camp near the secret realm's core entrance, and transferring that much currency required coordination, paperwork, and several layers of verification.
Cultivation world banking was somehow both more and less efficient than he'd expected.
The transaction itself was massive.
Everlasting Peach Essence sold for 60,000 mid-grade spirit stones each. He sold four, earning a total of 240,000.
Emerald Cloud Fruit Essence went for 100,000 low-grade stones each. He sold twelve, bringing in another 12,000 mid-grade.
Yellow Dragon Fruit Essence moved in bulk, seventy units for a total of 38,000 mid-grade.
Just those three alone pushed his level to 275.
But the real profit came from the smaller sales.
With Hundred Flowers Valley backing the transaction, he had little trouble selling off the rest of his fruit essences, even the lower-grade ones that would normally sit unsold. The camp's location near the trial entrance helped a lot, with a steady flow of medical cultivators from different families looking to stock up on rare materials.
Bailu's presence didn't hurt either. Her explanation to outside buyers was simple: "Obtained during the trial."
It sounded completely reasonable. It was believable. And technically, it wasn't even a lie.
The cultivators ate it up. After all, where else would someone acquire such a large quantity of pill spirit essences all at once? The trial was the only logical explanation.
By the time the dust settled, Alexei's level had skyrocketed to 308.
He stared at his status screen. That should be enough to fully assimilate the cultivation technique, with plenty left over for other projects.
Worth it.
While waiting for the final spirit stone payments to clear, Bailu offered to escort him back to the inheritance site one more time.
"If you want those Brightglow Pearls, now would be the time. Once the trial officially concludes and word spreads about what's inside, the place will be picked clean within a week."
She had a point.
They went together, with Alexei mining every pearl embedded along the trial route. It took several hours, but the results were worth it.
By the time he finished, he had exactly 300 Brightglow Pearls.
He counted them three times just to be sure. If even one had been missing, he would have torn the entire inheritance area apart looking for it. Fortunately, the number was perfect.
When they returned to the entrance, a crowd of cultivators was still gathered outside, waiting for the remaining four participants.
Someone must have told them that message talismans and communication jades didn't work through the trial's formations, so all they could do was wait.
Alexei didn't envy them. Apparently, FOMO existed even in the cultivation world.
---
Back at the Hundred Flowers Valley camp, Alexei prepared to leave.
He was fully geared up once more. The female disciples who had been lingering around the camp for the past two days watched as he headed out.
"Come visit again sometime!" one of them called out cheerfully.
He waved vaguely in their direction and kept walking.
Visit? Yeah, no. These Hundred Flowers Valley cultivators had zero concept of personal space. The past two days had been an exercise in dodging overly friendly questions and deflecting thinly veiled curiosity about his background.
Even after he made it clear he was annoyed, their interest had only grown.
Cultivators were weird.
Bailu stood at the edge of the camp, watching him leave. In her hand, she held the small vial of clear essence he had given her just before departing as payment for her help and for keeping quiet about his abilities.
She turned the vial slowly, studying the way light refracted through the liquid inside. Whatever this was, it wasn't ordinary. She could feel that much just from holding it.
"Do you think we will see him again?" one of her senior sisters asked as she stepped up beside her.
"Maybe," Bailu said. "The cultivation world is smaller than people think. If he stays active, our paths will cross again eventually."
"You sound almost hopeful."
Bailu didn't answer, just smiled faintly and tucked the vial into her storage pouch.
The senior sister who had been enthusiastically waving at Alexei's retreating figure finally lowered her hand and gave Bailu an amused look.
"You should have asked for his name at least."
"I know his name."
"Then you should have asked where he's staying. Or which sect he is affiliated with."
Bailu's smile widened slightly. "If the Heavens will it, we will meet again. If not, then it wasn't meant to be."
"That's a very poetic way of saying you forgot to ask."
"I didn't forget."
"Sure you didn't."
Another senior sister, who had been listening to the exchange, finally spoke up.
"You were perhaps a bit too forward with him these past two days."
Bailu's expression cracked slightly. "I was perfectly professional."
The two senior sisters exchanged knowing looks and started laughing.
Bailu sighed, shook her head, and walked back toward the main tent.
Behind her, her seniors continued their teasing, but she paid them no mind.
She had work to do.
---
After leaving the Hundred Flowers Valley camp, Alexei had zero interest in continuing to explore the Verdant Vine Secret Realm.
His inventory was completely full. He had gear strapped all over his body because there was nowhere else to store it. Even his off-hand held a shield instead of being free for placing blocks.
The low-grade spirit stones had all been crafted into mid-grade ones to save space.
Once he left the inheritance zone's boundary, he hopped about twenty centimeters into the air and landed on the Pale Sky Blade. He picked a random direction and took off at high speed, wind whipping past his face.
Right now, he needed to find somewhere safe and isolated to assimilate that jade slip he'd picked up in the inheritance site.
Technically, he'd hit the level requirement back when he'd accumulated enough experience to reach Level 200. But between the Hundred Flowers Valley disciples hovering around him constantly and the need to finish all his transactions, he'd put it off.
Now, with 308 levels saved up, he was ready.
----------
[POV: Li Yan'er]
Meanwhile, at the entrance to the Verdant Vine Secret Realm's core rift...
Yan'er's essence collection plan was officially underway.
She'd already consumed the transparent candy Alexei had given her weeks ago, and her aptitude had jumped from low-grade Earth spiritual root to mid-grade Earth spiritual root. A noticeable improvement, though she still couldn't identify what material it had been made from.
In her previous life, she'd possessed Mengyao's spiritual roots and immortal bones. With that kind of talent, reaching the Immortal Realm had been a matter of steady cultivation, not spiritual fruit consumption.
Besides, the stronger your innate talent and the more spiritual roots you had, the less effective treasures became at improving aptitude. Once you hit top-grade Immortal spiritual root level, you'd need dozens of times more resources just to push a little further. It was practically impossible.
Spiritual fruits didn't all ripen at the same time, unlike what the illustrated manuals suggested. Those records were only meant as a rough guide, giving cultivators a general sense of the expected yield.
She remembered visiting a major foreign sect's medicinal garden in her past life and seeing a Brightglow Fruit tree up close. Its fruits ripened in batches throughout the year. In abundant years, one tree might produce three to five fruits. In lean years, none at all.
And once mature, those fruits could only remain on the tree for three days before losing their spiritual essence and falling off naturally.
Now that she had this mysterious essence as a foundation, she felt even more anticipation for the legendary-grade essence that would appear soon.
Among the materials used to form a legendary essence were genuine Heaven-tier spiritual fruits, ones that could directly enhance fire-attribute spiritual root talent.
That level of targeted improvement was far beyond what the transparent essence could offer.
After refining it, it wouldn't be impossible for her talent to rise to the level of a Heaven spiritual root, or even to awaken a fire-attribute spirit body.
For a brief moment, she felt something close to gratitude toward that unremarkable boy. If he had recognized the value of the transparent essence, it would never have fallen into her hands.
But she dismissed the feeling immediately.
This was simply her fortune. Why should she be grateful?
It wasn't like she'd asked for it.
According to the memories, the entire rift would experience a surge of spiritual energy in about half a day. That surge would mark the beginning of the evacuation from the secret realm.
After that came a week-long withdrawal period.
The legendary essence would appear once that wave of spiritual turbulence had passed through the entire realm.
Unfortunately, she could no longer remember the exact timing or appearance of the essence. She had lived another 170 years after failing her tribulation. By the time she was reborn, she had already passed 500. The essence had only been popular for around 200 years at most, just a brief moment in the span of her life.
To be safe, she decided to start buying now. The price couldn't be too low, so she set it at 30,000 low-grade spirit stones.
She remembered it had sold for only 20,000. Offering thirty thousand would guarantee success.
"Miss Yan'er, are we really raising the price this high?" one of her guards asked while setting up the stall. "20,000 already seems quite generous."
Yan'er smiled gently. "It's fine. These are items cultivators risk their lives to obtain. How can we undervalue them? I'll have to trouble you all to work hard later."
Playing the kind, pure-hearted young mistress had been her role for an entire lifetime. By now, it was second nature, perhaps even more flawless than before. In this life, she was far more popular within the sect than she'd ever been previously.
"We wouldn't call it trouble. It's our duty," the guard said. "To serve such a considerate master… I could die without regrets. You must be trying to help those struggling independent cultivators. You are truly kind."
Yan'er was very satisfied with the reaction. A persona like hers couldn't afford even the slightest flaw.
In the cultivation world, once one possessed enough strength, reputation could be magnified without limit.
As for Mengyao, she would find her eventually. It was inevitable.
But right now, she was still insignificant. She lacked influence. There was no way she could mobilize enough manpower to conduct a large-scale search across the entire Eastern Territories. She would need time to build up her strength.
But that process wouldn't take more than thirty years.
And in this life, Mengyao no longer had access to Celestial Path Sect's resources as a first-rank sect disciple. By the time she found her, wouldn't Mengyao be completely at her mercy?
Her smile grew sweeter at the thought.
----------
[POV: Alexei]
Alexei flew for nearly half an hour before picking a remote stone cliff and tunneling straight into it. Once inside, he sealed the entrance behind him and took out the jade slip from his inventory.
[Verdant Lamp Cultivation Method]
He focused his will, and experience orbs began pouring out from his hand, completely enveloping the jade slip in a glowing cocoon of green light.
The process lasted nearly twenty minutes.
When the light finally faded, the jade slip looked exactly the same. But that wasn't the point.
His hand trembled slightly as he stared at it, his heartbeat quickening.
He waved the slip at empty air, and it vanished from his palm.
Then he waited. But nothing happened.
"Shouldn't there be, I don't know, sudden enlightenment? Or knowledge flooding into my brain?"
Frowning, he opened his inventory.
The jade slip was gone.
"Are you serious right now?"
He'd lost 200 levels assimilating this thing. That was a massive investment, and he had nothing to show for it.
After a long breath, he opened his status panel to check if anything had changed.
---
[Name: Alexei Volkov]
[Level: 108]
[Cultivation: Body Tempering - Muscle Tempering (Third Stage)]
[Qi: 40/40]
[Vitality: 35]
[Spiritual Power: 1]
[Attack: 5]
[Movement Speed: 2.75]
[Health Regeneration: 0]
[Qi Regeneration: 0.75 per hour (meditation: 1.05 per hour)]
[Aptitude Distribution: Mixed (Earth 3, Wind 3, Metal 2, Water 2, Fire 2, Ice 2, Thunder 2, Wood 2, Light 1, Darkness 1, Void 1, Time 1)]
[Sacred Body: ??? (LOCKED)]
[Known Techniques:
- Cultivation: Verdant Lamp (Heaven-tier)
- Basic Earth Reinforcement (Body)
- Basic Earth Coating (Tool)]
[Bound Natal Artifact: None]
[Heavenly Dao Merit: 1,800 points]
[Heavenly Dao Karma: 0 points]
---
Alexei stared at the panel floating in his vision.
"Huh."
A lot had changed.
His old status had been almost bare, but now the panel was packed with new information.
Vitality, Spiritual Power, Attack, Movement Speed, and Regeneration.
None of those had been there before.
So the system hadn't just updated his strength. It had started showing a much more complete picture of his body.
His aptitude distribution was unchanged, which at least meant that part had remained stable.
Then his eyes moved lower.
Sacred Body: ??? (LOCKED)
He frowned.
That was definitely new, and it raised far more questions than it answered. If it was locked, that meant he either had one and couldn't access it yet, or he was supposed to unlock it later.
Below that was Known Techniques.
His gaze lingered on the new cultivation technique for a moment before he focused.
---
[Verdant Lamp (Heaven-tier) - LOCKED:
Vitality Bonus: 0%
Movement Speed Bonus: 0%
Attack Bonus: 0%
Wood Attack Bonus: 0%
Fire Attack Bonus: 0%
Health Regeneration: 0
Qi Regeneration: 0
Technique Effect: Not Activated]
---
He could open the technique window, but he couldn't interact with it. Everything was locked.
He closed it and leaned back against the stone wall of his cave.
This was still progress. His status panel showed more information, which was nice. But the technique itself was completely inaccessible. He couldn't activate it, train it, or use any of its bonuses.
"What is the unlock condition? Do I need to reach a certain cultivation stage? Become an alchemist?"
He pulled up the status panel again and focused on the Heavenly Dao Merit section.
1,800 points.
1,800 sounded like a lot, but he had no frame of reference. Was that good? Average? Or completely pathetic by cultivation world standards?
And where had it even come from?
He hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy recently. Maybe the system tracked good deeds and rewarded them with merit points?
Then again, what good deeds had he actually done?
He couldn't think of anything.
As for Karma, it was sitting at zero.
That made sense. He hadn't gone around slaughtering innocents or committing atrocities. Everything he had killed had been trying to kill him first, and apparently the system didn't count self-defense as negative karma.
Which was reassuring, in a strange way.
At least the cosmic accounting system didn't think he was a piece of shit.
He closed the status panel and sat there for a moment.
The technique was locked. The Sacred Body entry was locked. Most of the bonus stats were still sitting at zero.
From a purely practical standpoint, the cultivation technique was basically useless right now.
Still...
He brought it back up and slowly scrolled through the information again.
"Could be worse," he muttered.
The technique was still locked, but at least now he knew it existed. And when it finally unlocked, whenever that happened, he would have access to everything he needed.
That was far better than stumbling around in the dark.
He dismissed the panel, opened up the stone wall he had sealed earlier, then paused.
Leaving now felt like a waste.
Bailu had mentioned that there was more than one inheritance site within the Verdant Vine Secret Realm. The others simply hadn't been found yet. And if this place was large enough to hide multiple sites...
An idea began to take shape.
He stepped back into the cave and got to work. Obsidian formed in his hands as he set the blocks into place, building a rectangular frame four blocks tall and five blocks wide.
Once it was complete, he took out flint and steel and struck it.
Purple light flared to life within the frame. Wisps of violet energy drifted outward before being pulled back in, looping in a slow, hypnotic pattern.
He leaned forward and pushed his head through, glancing around.
The world beyond was empty. Pale basalt stretched endlessly in every direction beneath a low ceiling of bedrock.
There were no piglins in sight, which was a shame. If any had been nearby, he could have gathered gold, mined ancient debris, and crafted a lodestone to anchor this location.
As it was, he would have to rely on luck to find the portal again from the Nether side.
Even so, the numbers were still in his favor.
The journey from the sect to Jade Prosperity City took eight days by flight with a spirit boat. Traveling through the Nether would reduce that to a single day.
If his understanding was correct, then he had just created a fast-travel route to a hidden realm, one that most cultivators could only enter during rare opening periods.
"Not bad."
He pulled back, sealed the cave entrance with stone, and rose onto his sword, heading out to rejoin the others beyond the core area.
---
Not long after he left, a group of five cultivators passed by in the distance.
One of them, a man in his thirties at the Foundation Establishment stage, suddenly slowed mid-flight and narrowed his eyes at the mountainside.
"Hold on."
The others slowed, turning back toward him.
"What is it?"
"I just saw someone come out of that mountain."
They followed his gaze. The cliff face looked completely ordinary, just unremarkable stone with a bit of moss and nothing that stood out.
"Are you sure? I don't see anything."
"My spiritual sense is sharper than yours. You know that." The man frowned. "We should take a look. If someone is hiding something there, it could be valuable."
"I don't know..." one of the others said. "It feels wrong to mess with someone else's stuff."
Even so, he was already drifting toward the cliff face as he spoke. The others followed without another word.
When they reached it, they began examining the surface, running their hands over the stone and sending threads of spiritual energy into it to search for anything unusual.
At first, nothing stood out.
Then they found something strange.
One section, about a meter wide, was too smooth compared to the natural rock around it.
They exchanged a brief glance.
"Dig it open."
Working together, it took them less than three minutes to break through the sealed entrance and step into the hidden chamber beyond.
Then they froze.
A portal stood at the center of the room. Its frame was made of black obsidian, and within it swirled a deep purple light. Small particles drifted out from the surface, only to be pulled back in a moment later.
The entire structure glowed, filling the chamber with a violet light.
"What's that?"
None of them had ever seen anything like it. It didn't match any natural formation, nor did it resemble the teleportation arrays used by the sects. It felt out of place, as if it belonged to an entirely different world.
They'd imagined finding nothing, or maybe some minor treasure, or at worst a corpse.
But not this.
One of them stepped forward cautiously and extended his spiritual sense toward the portal. A faint pulling force came from it. The longer he looked at it, the faster his heart began to beat.
"Should we... go through?"
"No."
"What if it's valuable?"
"And what if it kills you instantly?"
They stood there, arguing in hushed voices, none of them willing to take the first step.
Finally, the Foundation Establishment cultivator spoke up, "Here's what we're going to do. The one who just left, judging by their equipment, is probably from a major sect. There's a good chance they'll come back with reinforcements."
"So what do we do?"
"We sell the information. This is clearly some kind of treasure site or a hidden entrance. The sects will pay well for a location like this. We make a profit without risking our lives, and if they do come back with their people, there'll be too many witnesses for them to silence everyone."
The others nodded. There was no point standing around guessing when they could turn this into spirit stones right away.
"How much do we charge?"
The Foundation Establishment cultivator grinned. "Now that's the real question."
----------
In Jade Prosperity City, a teahouse stood near the square outside the Verdant Vine Secret Realm.
Yan sat by the window, with Mengyao on one side and Qingxue on the other. From where they were, they had a clear view of the sealed realm entrance across the plaza.
Qingxue was staring at it again.
She had been doing that on and off for the past hour.
"Qingxue, you can stop worrying. News came out this afternoon. The entire realm experienced spiritual energy fluctuations. He will be out within seven days."
Qingxue's face flushed slightly. "I'm not worried."
"Sure you're not."
Yan took a sip of tea, hiding her smile. Qingxue's denials would be a lot more convincing if she didn't keep glancing toward the entrance every thirty seconds.
Mengyao, sitting quietly beside them, was far more composed. Though Yan suspected that had less to do with patience and more to do with the girl being lost in her own thoughts.
At the next table over, a group of cultivators was talking loudly enough that their voices carried across the entire teahouse.
"Did you hear? Bailu already passed the Spiritual Flame Trial two days ago. She obtained Verdant Vine's flame inheritance and left the site while the other four cultivators are still stuck in the trial area."
"Really? I hadn't heard anything about that."
"It's true. My… uh, my cousin's friend saw it happen. That flame is terrifying. Even from three hundred meters away, you can feel the heat. They say even Nascent Soul cultivators would die instantly if they touched it. And if you place a spiritual plant nearby, it gets refined and purified in seconds."
"Three hundred meters? Are you serious?"
"Of course. And think about it. This is a flame left behind by someone strong enough to create a pocket dimension. How could it be ordinary?"
"You're right. That kind of flame has to be at least Immortal-grade."
"Immortal-grade? That's too low. If you can feel it from three hundred meters away, it's definitely Saint-grade or higher."
Yan listened with mild interest.
"I didn't realize the flame was that powerful," she said, glancing at Qingxue. "Bailu's alchemy talent was already impressive. With a flame like that, she might become the top alchemist in the Eastern Territories within a century."
Mengyao's eye twitched.
She had gone through the trial herself. She knew exactly what that flame could do.
It was second-grade, with no offensive power at all. You could stand right in the fire and not get burned. Three hundred meters? Please. You wouldn't feel anything even at three.
And her master's envious expression… was that meant to be serious?
Yan could refine ten-pattern pills. When she went out to earn money, she held back, producing only eight or nine-pattern pills to avoid drawing attention. Calling her the top alchemist on the continent wouldn't even be an exaggeration.
Bailu's flame was decent for alchemy, better than most first-grade pill flames. But even before her rebirth, the best record she had heard was that Bailu could reliably produce seven-pattern pills, with maybe a 50% chance at nine.
Compared to Yan, there was no comparison. It was like a candle next to the sun.
Mengyao took a sip of tea and said nothing.
Let them talk. The truth would come out eventually. And when it did, the disappointment would be worth watching.
The thought made her pause.
Since when had she started thinking like that?
It was probably Alexei's influence.