The baby girl blinked at those words, her eyes darting all over the place, looking around curiously. She was putting on her best "Don't mind me, I'm just a regular kid" act.
"Hiss—" Jill Young took a slow breath, looked up at the sky and down at the ground, shaking her head and sighing, then with a face full of exasperation said, "Sis... do you realize that newborns sleep all day? How could this one be so lively..."
The baby froze for a moment at those words, then immediately shut her eyes and tilted her head, as if falling sound asleep. If you listened closely, you could even hear her tiny snores—proving with real action that she was a "sleep-on-command" normal kid.
"Heh..." Jill Young looked up at the sky, speechless. She'd only been joking, but now it seemed her wild guess might actually be spot on... But!
"Hmph!" Jill Young lowered her head, her eyes hidden in shadow, lips curling into a wicked grin. Her inner sadist was awakening.
"Guess I was overthinking it. Still, this kid is kinda... weird..." Jill Young's voice was like a devil's whisper, slow and sinister. "Normally, a baby this age should be bawling their eyes out..."
The baby pouted, ready to cry.
"Or sucking on their fingers..."
The baby stretched out her hand and tried to bite her fingers.
"Or puffing up her cheeks to act cute... Huh? Not sure how to act cute? No worries. But at the very least—she should be... peeing the bed, right?"
The infant opened her eyes wide, staring at Jill Young with a look like she'd just been struck by lightning.
"Hehehe, don't worry, don't worry, big sis is here to change your diaper!" Jill Young cracked her knuckles with a wicked grin, looking every bit the big bad wolf in grandma's clothing as she reached for the baby's swaddling clothes. She rubbed her nose, feeling a little itch at the tip. If this really is that person, teasing her like this is kind of exciting.
Sure enough, a flash of struggle crossed the baby girl's face before she steeled herself, opened her mouth, and—using a voice no newborn should have—said, "Stop right there!"
Kids' voices are always crisp and cute, and the first time they call out for mom or dad, it's enough to make anyone tear up. But nobody's ever heard a newborn speak—this voice was... honestly, unimaginable. Yet when she yelled "Stop right there," she somehow radiated the aura of a seasoned ruler, like one of those anime loli empresses—adorable, sure, but also definitely in charge.
Jill Young's expression instantly became a cocktail of "amused," "unbelievable," "absurd," and "oh come on, this is way too dramatic." She took a deep breath and pointed down the mountain: "Those nutcases down there, they're your subordinates, right?"
"Yes." Since she'd already spoken, the baby girl confessed without hesitation.
"When they say 'kill the demon woman,' they're talking about you, aren't they?"
"Correct." The baby girl answered simply, but she was clearly surprised by Jill Young's calm reaction. This white-haired woman was just too chill—it made her even more suspicious.
"You're the Empress Tianshan of the Spirit Eagle Palace, successor of the Freewind Sect—the one who, thanks to a martial arts mishap, gets magically rejuvenated every thirty years, right?" Jill Young squinted, but she was basically sure.
Hearing Jill Young say that, the baby girl looked utterly shocked. "How did you know?!"