"Just let it go." Lord Faustin, Immortal Warden of the Sigil Sect, sighed. "If I could have persuaded her to come back, do you think I'd still be waiting now?"
"What happened between you two, anyway?" Lily Bai asked. "What really went down back then?"
Lord Faustin just sighed and said nothing.
"I get it now!" Lily Bai pouted.
"Get what?"
"The only reason a woman would leave her husband and child to go back to her sect and shut herself away is if you did something unforgivable." Lily pointed at him. "You cheated, didn't you?"
Lord Faustin looked world-weary. "Honestly... I really didn't mean to."
"So you really did! How could you do something like that?"
"I honestly don't know! I didn't mean to, I swear." Lord Faustin said, looking utterly miserable.
"Master, why don't you just tell me the whole story?" Lily said. "Maybe I really can help you out!"
Lord Faustin glanced at her and said, "Do you know Lord Sky Xiao?"
"Of course I do! I've even met him before!" Lily Bai replied.
"He had a Divine Attendant named Jean Qiao," Lord Faustin continued.
Lily's eyes sharpened. "Jean Qiao?"
That name was burned into her memory.
One of Emperor Ray Quinn's Jade Permits had been stolen by Jean Qiao.
And then she was eaten by a giant sea beast.
It was Azure Flame who dove into the beast's belly and recovered the Jade Permit.
Some information was lost, but the important parts were still intact.
Using that, she went to the very bottom of Primeval Abyss Gorge and found the rune for 'Clear'...
......
"What? Don't tell me you know her too?"
"No, I don't," Lily Bai said. "By the time I met Lord Sky Xiao, she was already dead."
Lord Faustin looked surprised. "She died?"
"Yep. She was swallowed by a demon whale," Lily Bai said.
Lord Faustin frowned and said nothing.
Lily Bai asked him, "So what exactly happened between you and her?"
Lord Faustin nodded, his face bitter. "That day, I was drinking. The next morning, I woke up and found myself... in the same bed with her! And we weren't wearing any clothes! And just my luck, Claire walked in right then!"
"So did she take advantage of you while you were drunk," Lily Bai asked, "or did you get drunk and do something to her?"
"I still don't get it!" Lord Faustin said. "I'm usually a good drunk, you know that, right? When I drink too much, I just pass out—nothing can wake me, not even thunder!
But she kept insisting that after I got drunk that night, I did something to her... And just when I'd finally managed to explain things to Claire, she came back and told me she was pregnant!
Claire stormed off, and after that, I never saw her again."
Poor kid...
Lily Bai eyed him. "Master, I never expected you to be so popular! Even had a mistress scheming to climb her way up."
"Crown Princess, please don't tease me anymore." Lord Faustin sighed again.
"So what happened next? What about the child?"
"She wanted me to marry her, but I refused. So she got angry, aborted the child, and went back to Lord Sky Xiao..."
Lily Bai frowned and said nothing.
Something about this just didn't add up.
But she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Is she really dead?" Lord Faustin asked again.
"What, are you grieving, or just suspicious?" Lily Bai eyed him.
"I just have a feeling she isn't really dead!" Lord Faustin said.
"A feeling? What makes you say that?"