"Hm? How did you know?" Grace asked.
"Lady Sophia just told me that I look about thirty or forty percent like her son. And this demon creature has some resemblance to me too, so I figured as much."
"Oh... you know, you're right. In human form, he does look a bit like you," Grace mused.
"Grace, how do you know he's a demon?" Rina Chu asked. "Have you ever seen a demon before? I never have!"
"I've never seen one either. I read about it in a book," Grace replied. "Demons can shapeshift into human form, but their pupils are different from ours."
"Which book says that?" Rina Chu asked, puzzled. "I've never seen a book like that!"
"I'll lend it to you next time," Grace said. "Bobby, are you okay now?"
"I'm totally fine," Bobby said. "Actually, the pill Lady Sophia gave me was like a miracle elixir. I feel amazing all over after taking it."
"That's great..." Grace breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey! Rina Chu! Bobby! Why are you two hiding here and slacking off?" Someone called out to them. "We're all working ourselves to death over here!"
"Coming, coming!" The two hurried over.
Grace let out a sigh of relief.
Good thing they came looking for Bobby, or who knows what would've happened to him...
She entered the Sanctum to deal with the Sevenfold Phantom Spider.
To her surprise, Ray had already rolled it up into a disk and was rolling it around on the floor.
The spider rolled smoothly, never tipping over, until Benny the Feathered Serpent Hatchling caught it at the other end and kicked it right back.
The Sevenfold Phantom Spider stared with its big, dazed eyes, looking completely dizzy...
Did these two... think Grace had just given them a new toy?
Grace couldn't help but laugh and headed out.
The Spirit Alliance was celebrating for five days straight, and many of those invited didn't show up on the first day but trickled in over the next few.
Many Spiritual Alchemists were with the President, awaiting his instructions.
But Grace didn't want to go over there.
She didn't want Bianca Whiteshire to set her sights on her again.
Honestly, she didn't want to go to her master's place either—she'd just been there, and they'd said Crown Prince Evan Xiao and the others had left the mountain for some business.
So she wandered the mountain by herself.
The mountain was lined with Spirit Trees, circling the edges.
There were plenty in the middle too.
Spirit Trees, in a way, were symbols of royal power—ordinary folks weren't allowed to plant them.
The Spirit Alliance really was something special. Not only could they commune with the gods, but here, Spirit Trees were just ordinary landscaping.
Grace walked to where Bobby had gone out earlier and reached out to touch one of the towering Spirit Trees.
She did it purely out of habit.
But the moment her hand touched the tree, her heart suddenly trembled.
The instant she touched the Spirit Tree, she felt something she couldn't describe.
It was like that flash of lightning before a storm.
Or maybe that muffled rumble before a mountain collapses—enough to make her heart skip and fill her with a powerful sense of impending crisis.
She wondered if she was just being paranoid.
But then she remembered some strange things that had happened the last few times she'd touched a Spirit Tree, and couldn't help reaching out again.
This time, she pressed both hands against the Spirit Tree.
That same sensation spread from the tree into her body, so intense she couldn't ignore it.
She hugged the Spirit Tree and thought: Spirit Tree, Spirit Tree, are you trying to warn me about something?