"Hey." Xiao Tianyao tousled Senja's hair lovingly.

They had arrived at their room after the dinner and changed their clothes. Now, Senja cuddled in Xiao Tianyao's embraced, sulking.

Xiao Tianyao had his arm as a pillow for her and the other arm was in her waist to keep her closed to him.

"Do you really believe that?" He had been trying to coax her ever since they leave the fortune teller.

Xiao Tianyao gave the old lady quite a lot of money to her, despite her consecutive bad news.

Senja mumbled something in his chest and Xiao Tianyao couldn't catch a single word from her, it sound like she was let out a string of curses about the event before.

"I don't understand what you say." He chuckled lightly and pulled away from her so he could see her face.

"How annoying!!!" Senja grumbled.

"It was nothing and you know that." Xiao Tianyao smiled indulgently at his little wife, "She even said you are a man, what are you worry about?"

"But, what if her word put a jinx on you?" Senja raised her head, her face turned red because of her anger.

"People will die eventually. I am not immortal." He offered Senja the basic logic. "You will grow old and die as well."

The wrinkled on her forehead deepened, she didn't want to accept his logic, thus she swatted his hand from her hair. "You know what I mean!" Senja buried her face on his chest again, sulked.

"Alright." Xiao Tianyao said tiredly. "Let's just sleep, okay…"

Senja mumbled something, but Xiao Tianyao ignored it as he pulled her closer and hugged her tightly. He fell asleep in a matter of minutes afterward.

Yet, Senja stayed awake until very late. She couldn't get rid the old lady's word. She knew that she wasn't supposed to believe her, but Xiao Tianyao would go to war soon. Everything could happen.

Word of death was common in war, like two words that couldn't be separated.

And the old lady just gave Xiao Tianyao a jinx.

How she could not upset?

........

The road back was so quiet, along the way Xiao Tianyao and Xiao Jun refused to talk to each other if it wasn't something important. Senja could guess roughly what had happened, but didn't ask anything about their strange behavior.

From the Mountain Sui Sword Sect to the western fortress, where all of their military power and the remaining Shadow Guard from Black Sword Clan were assembled, took a week of time. Along the way there was nothing meaningful that happened.

Like usual, they would stay at the inn in the village nearby and continued the next day.

The five of them arrived at the western fortress when the sun had gone down and all the torch had lit up.

This fortress was bigger than the eastern fortress, the place where Senja met Xiao Tianyao for the first time.

Xiao Tianyao said, this was the first fortress that his great grandfather had built. Years ago this was the sole military concentration of the Kingdom of Azura, before they expanded their territory of authority.

Therefore, when the Kingdom of Azura had very fast development and wide area the Emperor at that time, which was Xiao Tianyao's grandfather, was decided to build four fortresses in each corner of the Kingdom's territory.

That was why, this fortress very huge in size and could accommodate tens of thousands of people.

Senja nodded when Xiao Tianyao explained all of this, when they entered the first gate. There were three gates in total.

Actually, Senja wasn't interested to know the history of this place, but from the way Xiao Tianyao explained it, his voice was laced with proud. This aura emitted from his body as well.

Once they had entered the last gate, Senja could spot Qianru and Xiao Mugi had been waiting for them. Apparently, they had been evacuated to this place since the remaining people in the Greenhill Mountain was only elder and children.

All the men from Greenhill Mountain had gathered there, ready for the upcoming war.

Senja closed her eyes and heaved a deep breath, feeling her surroundings.

It was indeed there were large numbers of people who had resided there and Xiao Tianyao said there would be more people coming.

Senja could feel her heart hammering in her ribcage and couldn't imagine how this war would happen.

"Senja…" Qianru greeted Senja when Xiao Tianyao helped her to get off from the horse before she ran into Xiao Jun embraced.

Qianru hugged her husband for long time, pouring all her longing for him.

Only when they separated Xiao Tianyao stepped closer. Qianru and her brother in law exchanged greeting warmly, their interaction were not awkward at all. Seemingly, Qianru was quite close with him.

"Could you please bring Senja to her room, there is important thing that I need to settle with Jun." Xiao Tianyao said.

"I will." Qianru smiled and grabbed Senja's hand.

When Qianru would pull Senja with her, Xiao Tianyao held her hand. "Walk slowly, she hurt her leg."

Qianru raised her perfect eyebrows in amusement. "Alright…" She replied, dragging her word intentionally.

"What hurt my leg? It has been a week!" Senja grumbled. She could jump and run just fine now.

However, right at that moment, Yang Yu opened his mouth. "Master that's Ye Bai." He raised his finger to pointing a man not too far from them.

Yang Yu knew about Ye Bai. He had met him when they were in the Marple Forest and people from Greenhill Mountain came to help them.

This happened because Ye Bai only focused to hide from Xiao Tianyao and ignored the other people except him. He wouldn't have thought to hide from Yang Yu as well.

Senja head snapped to the direction that Yang Yu was pointed.

He was right, it was Uncle Su with one of the twin.

"He is Ye Bai?" Xiao Tianyao fixed his eyes on Ye Bai and approached him with determined steps.