Chapter 2492: Overlooked

Zu An and the Saintess exchanged looks. The Saintess pointed to a person and asked, “May I know where you met her?”

“I met her outside town. She was about to enter the town when she encountered a foreign adventurer party,” the person said, feeling honored to be selected by the Saintess. “That adventurer party was mesmerized by her beauty and stepped forward to tease her, but that woman made quick work of them.” Fear flickered across his eyes as he recounted the chain of events.

Zu An asked about the details of the battle. The person replied with a pale face, “She unleashed a black flame. It was terrifying. The adventurers came into contact with it and couldn’t put it out. They were burned to ashes.”

Looks like it really is Manman. That’s her unique black flame. Those adventurers must have deserved death for her to go that far.

“What happened next?”

“I fled because I dared not watch any further. I don’t know where she went next,” that person replied sheepishly. “Given how powerful she is, she should be fine.”

“I know where she went next. She entered the town and bought a stick of candied hawthorn,” someone else added.

Zu An smiled.

Despite Manman’s mature appearance, she has a childish side too.

“She went to the bridge and asked about the Saintess, but we didn’t tell her anything because we were wary about her unknown background.”

“That afternoon, she came to our inn and ordered a few dishes.”

“I saw her south of town...”

The sudden influx of clues felt suspicious, so Zu An asked, “Why do so many of you remember her?”

Usually, one would have been lucky to stumble upon one or two of such clues in their investigation, but a huge bunch of them suddenly sprouted out here. Something felt amiss.

Someone meekly replied, “That lady is so beautiful and... And...”

The Saintess’ face turned cold. “And what?”

Intimidated by the Saintess, the person quickly finished his sentence, “And big! No one could possibly forget about her!”

The Saintess and Zu An were speechless.

Considering Pei Mianman’s curvaceous figure, those words made perfect sense.

Through further questions, Zu An was able to map out Pei Mianman’s movements after entering the town. By the same afternoon, she had already figured out where the Saintess and the Fiend races’ resistance army were. She'd left town and was about to head there when she suddenly received a letter and reversed course, traveling in the opposite direction instead.

Zu An frowned.

What could have been in the letter to make her change her route? More importantly, who sent that letter to Big Manman? She doesn’t have acquaintances in this timeline, so it doesn’t make sense for her to receive a letter.

The Saintess suddenly spoke up. “Big brother Zu, what do you think big sister Pei saw that made her leave right away? Could someone have told her you were in danger?”

Zu An shook his head. “No, that wouldn’t work.”

He and Pei Mianman knew each other very well, and they had codes to verify each other’s identity too. It was unlikely for anyone to be able to deceive her about him. Besides, she knew how powerful he was. The odds of him encountering danger so quickly were slim.

“I can only think of one possibility—she must have left because she found clues about the Brilliant Pinflower, Defying Spirit Tears, or the Aurora Poison Dragon,” Zu An said. Only when it came to the matter of rescuing Ji Xiaoxi would Pei Mianman stray from the plan.

“Ah!” the Saintess suddenly exclaimed. She noticed Zu An looking at her with perplexed eyes, so she explained, “I don’t know about the other two, but there are Brilliant Pinflowers growing near the Fiend races’ Imperial Tomb.”

“The Fiend races’ Imperial Tomb?” Zu An was taken aback. “I was there in the future, but I saw no such flower.”

The Saintess gave the matter some thought before replying, “There are Brilliant Pinflowers in this world, but there are very few of them. Each generation’s Fiend Emperor cultivates them to offer them to heaven. If they're no longer there in the future, they must have gone extinct at some point. The existence of Brilliant Pinflowers is a secret, but there are fiends who know about it. Someone might have told big sister Pei about it while she was gathering information.”

Zu An nodded. That was the most plausible explanation. He said, “I’ll make a quick trip to the Fiend races’ Imperial Tomb.”

He was worried about Pei Mianman. The Lord of Slaughter was at the Fiend races’ Imperial Tomb; Pei Mianman could be in danger if she headed there recklessly. Besides, Ji Xiaoxi and the others were also looking into the Brilliant Pinflowers’ whereabouts. They could be on their way to the Fiend races’ Imperial Tomb too. If so, they could reunite there.

The Saintess exclaimed, “I’ll go with you!”

Zu An advised her otherwise. “Little sister Ling’er, as the Fiend races’ Saintess, you have many responsibilities on your shoulders. The resistance army needs you. Chaos will break out if you arbitrarily leave your post.”

“But...” The Saintess knew he was right, but she couldn’t bear to part ways with him.

Just then, a female elf scout descended from the sky and said, “Saintess, there’s an urgent report from the frontlines. We have detected anomalous movements from the monster army. Everyone is worried that the monsters are preparing for an attack, so they sent me here to invite you back to discuss this matter.”

The Saintess was stunned. She looked at Zu An with a conflicted expression. “Big brother Zu...”

Zu An patted her shoulder. “Little sister Ling’er, you should return. I can settle things on my end. Besides, you'll be indirectly helping me by drawing the monster army’s attention.”

The Saintess nodded. “All right, I’ll return for now to make arrangements. I’ll find you as soon as I’m done. You must take care of yourself.”

Zu An was startled. “You mustn’t go to the Imperial Tomb alone. You’re probably at the top of the monster army’s bounty list now, and the Imperial Tomb is under the monsters’ control. You would be delivering yourself into the enemy’s clutches.”

The Saintess revealed a sweet smile. “Rest assured, big brother Zu. I'm not a reckless person. The monsters won’t be able to capture me that easily.”

Zu An belatedly remembered that the Saintess had already fought with the monsters for many years now. His worry was unfounded. Thus, he stopped the nagging and instead stepped forth to embrace her. “Little sister Ling’er, I’ll take you back to our original time period once we settle everything in this spacetime fragment.”

The Saintess nodded. “I believe that you’ll be able to do it, big brother Zu.”

The two of them hugged for a long time.

“Little sister Qingwu will likely ask about your whereabouts when I return. Should I tell her?” the Saintess suddenly asked as they separated from each other’s arms.

Zu An shook his head.

There’s no point in prolonging the pain. I should use this opportunity to make the Peacock Princess forget about me.

The Saintess nodded, knowing any relationship between those two couldn't bear fruit.

With that, they finally bade each other farewell and left.

While leaving, the elf scout couldn’t help but glance at Zu An. She was curious about the man to whom the Saintess had given her heart.

Zu An wondered if this female elf scout was related to Xue’er. Considering how elves had a long lifespan, she could be Qiao Xueying’s elder from three to four generations ago. However, he quickly reined in his thoughts. His priority at hand was to find Pei Mianman.

A bone-chilling wind blew against him. He had a feeling he had overlooked something, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.