Xijiu suddenly recalled the spiritual stones that she had stolen from Suiye City and nodded silently. She knew that Yun Yanli was not lying. However, there was still one question in her mind. "If there are spiritual stones in the city, why don"t the b.l.o.o.d.y Bats attack every day? Why are they only coming once every ten days? Is it a cycle for the spiritual stones to be exposed every ten days? Are the stones otherwise sheltered by some wizardry barrier which prevents the bats from sensing their presence?"

Gu Xijiu"s questions were on point, and Yun Yanli could only let out a sigh after some thought. "It is more or less so. I cannot tell you more about it. Xijiu, it is not that I do not trust you. This is the secret that every city bears. As a governor, I have vowed to keep the secret. I am sorry."

Gu Xijiu merely smiled at him after hearing his response. She wanted to see how long he could keep on pretending. She knew that he would personally appoint the governor of every city. Therefore, he must have dismissed the governor that he had appointed to take his position. But why would he trouble himself if everything was under control? 

Unfortunately, Gu Xijiu was not able to extract much information from him. She would have to do her own research and find out more on her own. 

"All right, I have told you everything that I can. Xijiu, shouldn"t you hold your end of the deal and show me the source of your spiritual power?" Yun Yanli had not forgotten about their arrangement. In fact, Yun Yanli had not found out the ident.i.ty of the culprit who stole his spiritual stones. He was somewhat convinced that Di Fuyi could be the thief. After all, the b.l.o.o.d.y Bats would only attack if there were a large number of spiritual stones in the same area.

Di Fuyi looked into his storage bag and took out a claw. He explained, "It is nothing much, really. We were having a meal. All that is left is this claw." The claw was the size of a little finger, so it was hard to tell what animal it came from.

Yun Yanli was annoyed. "Prince Nianmo, are you trying to fool me? What kind of bird can provide such an immense source of spiritual power?"

"The Blue Phoenix," Di Fuyi answered nonchalantly.

Yun Yanli was speechless. He had never seen Blue Phoenix, but he had heard about it. He knew that it was one of the mythological beasts, but never knew that it was actually edible. Mythological beasts naturally possessed great spiritual power, but he was not sure if the claw really belonged to a mythological beast.

Yun Yanli took the claw and tried to sniff it. He could already sense an extraordinary source of spiritual power in that brief moment. He was curious. "Where did you get it from?"

Di Fuyi had a sip of tea before answering, "This is your second question. Now, what have you prepared in exchange for the information?"

Yun Yanli did not know what to say. At least he knew the source of the spiritual power was not the spiritual stones. He decided to end the conversation and leave resentfully. 

Meanwhile, Gu Xijiu was still studying the claw in the carriage. "Is this really the claw of the Blue Phoenix?"

Di Fuyi nodded. He then took the claw and shattered it into pieces. He noticed that Gu Xijiu had a confused look on her face. "It is dirty," he explained. 

Gu Xijiu shook her head in disapproval. "Even a feather from this creature would be considered precious, let alone its claw that still bears spiritual power. It is a waste."

Di Fuyi took out the remaining half he had of the creature and said, "There is more."

Gu Xijiu was delighted. "You should keep this for yourself. You are still weak. This will come in handy for your recovery."

"You are complaining about me being weak," he teased smilingly.

His smile had distracted Gu Xijiu slightly, so she decided to change the topic. "You are doing quite well, aren"t you? I saw that you were carving a diamond with your hand earlier."