Chapter 3180 — A Warm Phone Call

The phone rang several times, and no one answered. After a moment it switched to the automated message: "Hello, you have reached the home of Shu 007, the universe's number-one, invincible, adorable, genius, prophetic, confidential, all-purpose detective and spy. To leave a message for little Shu, press 1. To leave a message for Brother Arrowbrand, press 2. To leave a message for Sister Yaoyao, please hang up—she has gone far away..."

"Pfft..." Gu Mengyao nearly burst out laughing at that last line. She knew the earlier part of the recording—it had been there when she was still at home—but that final sentence had clearly been newly altered by Shen Yushu.

Yet a moment later, Gu Mengyao was puzzled again. Where had everyone in the villa gone? Why did no one answer the phone? She glanced at the time without thinking, and only then realized it was already the small hours. Cultivating day and night as she did, she scarcely paid attention to time anymore. In the Palace of the Dark Night there were disciples on duty both day and night, and those accomplished cultivators largely replaced sleep with cultivation.

But even at this hour, Wei Zhao ought to be answering the phone. And at this hour, there ought to be all the more people at home, oughtn't there?

Somewhat puzzled, Gu Mengyao dialed Wei Zhao's cell phone, intending to ask where he was.

On Wei Zhao's end, he had just had Wu Chengtian and Feng Sanmang deal with the corpses of the Pure Yin Heavenly Venerable and Dongfang Yinxing, and had only just returned to the villa when his phone rang.

Seeing the familiar caller ID, Wei Zhao's heart gave a sudden leap! This was... the eldest miss calling?

"Yaoyao?" Wei Zhao answered, his voice betraying a trace of startled uncertainty.

"Yes, it's me. Wei Zhao, are you all right?" Gu Mengyao's voice seemed very calm, just as it always was whenever she called him—carrying a natural warmth.

"I'm fine. And you?" Wei Zhao did not mention that two experts at the peak of the late Heaven rank had just come calling; he was afraid Gu Mengyao would worry. The matter was over in any case, so whether he spoke of it or not made little difference.

"I'm doing well too. My standing in the Palace of the Dark Night is even higher than Xiaoxiao's in the Ice Palace. The Grand Elder hardly bothers with me now, so I'm still quite free." Speaking of this, Gu Mengyao felt a touch of pride. It seemed she was not the most useless after all—at least, among Wei Zhao's women, she was rather formidable!

"That's good." Wei Zhao nodded. This was what he had worried about most; if Gu Mengyao was safe and well in the Palace of the Dark Night, then he could rest easy. "You've begun cultivating already, haven't you? How is your progress?"

"Quite well. The cultivation method I'm practicing is called the Silkworm-That-Drives-the-Phoenix Manual. What a strange name—it's just like your cultivation method. They're both odd!" Gu Mengyao did not mention the connection between the two; she trusted that with Wei Zhao's intelligence, he would easily make the association. The eldest miss could drop hints now too.

"The Silkworm-That-Drives-the-Phoenix Manual?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. He knew who the First Silkworm was—the wife of Emperor Xuanyuan. And the name of Gu Mengyao's cultivation method was very similar to his own, indeed matched to it. Wei Zhao did not believe Gu Mengyao had failed to notice, and he suspected that in bringing it up, the eldest miss might be hinting at something. So he laughed and said, "Yes, it's much like mine. Who knows—perhaps they were split from a single method, and we could even practice dual cultivation!"

"Go die!" The eldest miss's face flushed slightly. Though she and Wei Zhao had made their feelings known, it had only been a confession after all, and the two of them had not been together since. In their former life together there had been the occasional ambiguity, but their relationship had never been confirmed, so at this moment the eldest miss was still quite shy, and somewhat unused to Wei Zhao's teasing. "I was only saying it casually. I'm an expert at the peak of the late Yellow rank now—about the same as you were when you first came to Songshan City!"

"Oh? That fast?" Wei Zhao was rather surprised.

"Not bad, I suppose!" the eldest miss said smugly. "By the way, where's little Shu? Why didn't you two answer the phone just now?"

"Oh, we were doing a few things in the villa's courtyard just now, so we weren't inside," Wei Zhao said vaguely.

"You? And little Shu? In the villa courtyard in the middle of the night?" Gu Mengyao's tone turned odd. "Wei Zhao, you didn't go off with little Shu for a bit of outdoor action, did you?"

"Uh..." Wei Zhao was momentarily stunned, then caught between laughter and tears! Still, he could hardly blame Gu Mengyao for being suspicious; his tone just now had indeed been a little mysterious and suspect. So Wei Zhao asked with a laugh, "Yaoyao, are you jealous?"

"Jealous of what? If I were the jealous type, I'd have died of it long ago. What about Xiaoxiao, Xinyan, and Jingjing?" Gu Mengyao said crossly. "Besides, even if it were little Shu, it wouldn't be a big deal. She's always going on about being some kind of concubine anyway—I'm used to it..."

"Sweat—it really was just two guests arriving, and we went out to take a look," Wei Zhao said with a wry smile. "As for me and little Shu, if anything were going to happen, it would have happened long ago. There was no need to wait for you to leave. And you know what little Shu is like—if she wanted to do something, she wouldn't bother hiding it from you at all!"

"That's true enough." Gu Mengyao nodded, thinking she had probably read too much into it. "As long as everything's fine on your end. I'm going to call my daddy, then give little Shu a call. If you need me for anything, just text me—I have to turn my phone off while I cultivate. When I finish, I'll see your message and get in touch!"

"All right. Yaoyao, take care!" Wei Zhao urged.

"I will. I'm doing fine here, so don't worry!" Gu Mengyao said with a smile.

After hanging up on the eldest miss, Wei Zhao felt slightly relieved. It seemed Gu Mengyao was doing well in the Palace of the Dark Night. He could not help but admire the eldest miss—her presence was formidable indeed, enough to hold her ground.

Gu Mengyao's second call was to Gu Pengzhan.

"Yaoyao?" Gu Pengzhan was a businessman, and naturally his cell phone never left him, day or night. Receiving a call from Gu Mengyao, he was both startled and delighted! Since Gu Mengyao's departure there had been no word from her. Though Gu Pengzhan worried, there was nothing he could do. After all, he understood the Palace of the Dark Night better than anyone: if they could contact you, they would; if they could not, there was no use trying.

For so many years, Ye Rou'er had left not a single word. Gu Mengyao had only just gone—could he really hope for news of her? So Gu Pengzhan had already steeled himself for not seeing his daughter for ten years.

Only, he had never expected that after merely half a month, his daughter would call! RS