Already wounded, Clara Heart had forced herself to chase all the way from Blossom Mountain to the Southern Lands. Now, clutching the Silver-White Pearl, her face grew even paler.
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead, and her whole body seemed about to collapse.
Nathan Young watched in alarm, quickly lowering his voice: "Why don't you rest for a while and recover? The Pearl is in your hand—sooner or later, you'll learn what you need to know. If something happens to you, I can't afford the consequences."
Clara slowly closed her eyes, exhaustion showing as she shook her head. "Nathan, have you ever heard the name 'Birdie'?"
"Birdie? The one from Tusita Palace, or someone else?"
"You know two?"
"Yeah." Nathan nodded. "Besides the one from Tusita Palace, I know the one you mentioned before—Belle's previous life, a golden canary also called Birdie. On the eve of the great war, His Majesty sent us to sneak into Blossom Mountain and take her. That monkey only learned her true identity at the moment she was annihilated."
At these words, Clara was completely stunned.
Under the moonlight, her eyes widened. Amid her pale features, a look of bewilderment slowly appeared.
"Belle's previous life... was called Birdie?"
Her hand, gripping the Pearl, trembled slightly.
"Birdie is Belle, Belle is Birdie, Birdie is Belle, Belle is Birdie..."
Clara kept murmuring, her expression growing dazed.
The monkey's half-joking promise to the golden canary flashed through her mind. In that instant, she seemed to grasp what had truly happened.
Clues that had once been a tangled mess now wove themselves together, forming a gradually clearer pattern.
Tusita Palace's Birdie, the golden canary Birdie, the Monkey, the origins of the war more than six hundred years ago, Belle's scattered soul, and that one remark from Lord Lao.
When the Monkey demanded that Belle be revived as a condition for returning the Adamantine Ring, Lord Lao replied, "That was your idea."
His expression was so confident, as if Belle had already been revived.
Why would two of the greatest powers in all the realms choose to take an insignificant girl like her as their disciple—and spoil her so thoroughly?
Why is it that no matter how she misbehaves, Lord Lao never gets angry?