Jiu Xinyi felt that her eyes deceived her for a moment when she saw the surroundings shift from one to another. She was inside the cave, for sure, but in a split second, it totally changed. The only thing that didn't was the man who stood in front of her whose hand was lifting up her chin with a deadly look painted on his face.
Despite the increasing danger she's experiencing, a thought came across her mind 'Did we just teleport?'. She knew teleportation portals existed and just now, she experienced it first hand when she entered the spiritual abyss. Teleportation portals were used to travel from faraway places to a certain destination and they were only available for the imperial family to use. Putting up a teleportation portal is extremely hard because of its complexity, time, and a demand for at least a middle ranked mythical king to make one. But the thing that bothered Jiu Xinyi wasn't the extreme requirement for a single portal to be put up, but the fact that this man that brought her to a completely different place didn't even have to lift a single finger to use teleportation. 'Just who is this man?' she thought to herself.
Cutting off her train of thoughts, "You're not mute, are you?" his piercing gaze directed straight to her eyes. Seeking an answer.
Jiu Xinyi gathered her courage and spoke, "If only you'd step back a bit more." She knew he was gorgeous, even deadly, but what mattered the most to her at that exact moment was to remove the restrictions to her movements and get him off of her face. She wanted to catch her breath and break free from the heavy pressure he was exuding.
A smirk formed on his lips as he decided to humor her request. He took a single step backward and crossed his arms across his chest.
Jiu Xinyi gave off a light sigh and adjusted her sleeves. 'Fine then, that's better than nothing.' She complained inwardly.
"What do you want?" She asked, trying to fish out any information she can squeeze from him.
To her dismay, he didn't even drop his guard down. "Who do you think should be asking questions here, miss? I'd like to tell you that I don't like repeating myself. How did you get in? What is your motive?" His deep voice resounded in the whole room.
"Look, I just followed the sound of the guqin you were playing out of curiosity." He raised his brow after hearing her response. He wasn't even least convinced with her reason at all, but instead, he kept his eyebrow raised, waiting for her to continue explaining. "That's it." She added.
He let out a laugh and gave Jiu Xinyi a doubtful look. "You think I'd believe it just like that?"
"Do I know you to have any hidden motive against you?" She sneered back at him.
"Well, everyone outside my empire is after my head."
"Not that I know of."
Jiu Xinyi remained calm and collected, she kept her expression in check despite hearing something incredulous. 'His empire? What does he mean?'
Her aloofness caught the man's interest and gave her a thorough overall look. 'She's not bad.' He commented.
He waved his fingers, ushering a shadow hidden in a corner of the room. "Master..." A man in all black appeared, kneeling on one knee with his head cast downwards right before him.
Jiu Xinyi's eyes shifted from the man who wore all black that seemed to be his servant and to the stranger that brought him to this unknown place.
"Find out everything about her." He ordered the man kneeling in front of him with a stern look on his face. The man replied with a firm "Yes, master!" before leaving the room in a blink, just like what she saw earlier, his servant disappeared after a black smoke engulfed him.
'Wow, he dared to order someone to dig up my background right in front of me without even hiding it! Just how thick-skinned he is?!' Jiu Xinyi's thoughts were complaining nonstop that she didn't even notice the guy approaching her.
He studied her expressionless face and wondered, "You're too calm for someone being brought to an unknown place."
'I'd rather not let you catch me unguarded! Like I'd let a stranger see me being defenseless.' Jiu Xinyi tried hard not to roll her eyes at his statement and just gave him a compliant smile before turning the other way around to assess the place she's been dragged into.
The room screamed luxury as her eyes traveled at every detail inside the room. The furnishings were adorned with gold and gemstones. Everything was extravagant that even the silk used was obviously of high quality. 'Seriously, who is this person?' A question that still kept lingering unanswered inside her head.
"Where am I?" She asked, turning her head to face the man that had brought her along, more on like kidnapped her.
He walked towards a chair and seated himself leisurely, looking at her directly into her eyes. "Why don't you guess?" He asked back.
"Who are you? Where did you bring me?" Despite his daring gaze, she didn't falter one bit and proceeded to ask another set of questions.
"Fengliang Empire." He answered.
"Fengliang Empire?" Jiu Xinyi asked in confusion. She hasn't heard anything about the said empire so she was entirely clueless about where she is at the moment.
"I suppose you outsiders call it the dark continent." He answered, smiling wickedly at her wide-eyed facial expression. 'Now that's new.'