Immortal Kingdoms

"Ara~ It's not that sincere of you to keep away such secrets, no?"

With a brush of gentle wind, the female beastkin was already standing behind Leonardo, gently massaging his shoulders while sniffing his silver hair. "Mhm~ the smell of imminent danger! Ara~ you're so cute!"

Leonardo frowned, but he had to admit that the force in her dainty hands felt just right. Of course, if this was any ordinary human being, their shoulders would have already snapped out of shape.

"Well, if all of you could report your cultivation to me, then might also tell you about my subordinate." After giving it some thought, Leonardo chose to compromise with this ridiculously powerful yet simple-minded woman.

"Haha, I'm fine with that. I'm a level 67 High Saint, my husband is level 66, and this is the general range of everyone here, they're all High Saints," the woman grinned, her white fangs sparkling.

"How can you tell him something so important?!" The human old man finally opened his eyes, sternly looking down on his peer, his expression sharp. Then again, it's understandable, no one would feel comfortable with their cultivation exposed.

"Oh, ara~ Adrian, stop being so paranoid! If he couldn't tell that you're a High Saint by now, he'd have spent his life in vain. I merely confirmed his suspicions, right, ara~?" The beastkin continued to massage Leonardo's shoulders while smiling kindly.

Juvia to the side was also smiling.

Ingrid in her high chair was also smiling.

Leonardo kept his eyes closed in a lazy manner, also wanting to test the limits of his physical body under this 'kind' and 'gentle' treatment.

A few moments later, a faint cracking noise echoed in the silent room, indicating that Leonardo's shoulder bones were dislocated, but not broken.

Leonardo frowned, his expression growing a bit pale, but that was it.

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

The joints and shoulder blades then followed, but with a face of surprise, the female beastkin realigned Leonardo's bones and shoulders back into shape, her expression earnestly apologetic.

"Ara~ I got carried away because your body seemed so strong. Hehe." She stuck out her tongue, a bit embarrassed. "I've never seen a human with such a strong body before!"

"Oh well," Leonardo cracked his neck and moved his shoulders about, getting them back into shape, "I would have told you one open secret in exchange for your open secret, but you've now exposed one of my hidden secrets; my physical body." Leonardo shook his head, "Sigh, now you'll have to offer me something else if you want that piece of critical information."

"Ah! You tricked me!" The female beastkin cried out, but she didn't seem particularly resentful about it.

"Haha!"

A robust voice echoed, the beastkin male who was seemingly asleep stretched while laughing.

"Silly girl, he didn't trick you, I feel like what he said is very reasonable. Even I was surprised by that physique, let alone some of his enemies who are definitely unaware of this hidden secret. Mhm, one's cultivation base is an external and open secret, but one's hidden strength and battle prowess that diverts from the norm are vital secrets for a warrior. Kid, I like you!" The man then beckoned for the woman, gesturing for her to return to her seat.

She huffed, crossing her arms while walking back with her tail swaying, "Ara~ hubby, stop calling me a little girl in front of others, I'm only two months younger than you!"

Although she said that, she was clearly happy with the attention and affection imbued within that rebuking tone of this man, choosing to give up on her chair and sit directly on his lap instead, wrapping her arms around his neck while letting out faint purring sounds from the intense vibrations in her throat.

"Ahem! My lord has just pointed out that his excellent subordinate is also an open secret, just like everyone's general cultivation base. It's just that not many people bother thinking too deeply into some matters, their attention being drawn away from realizing that fact." Juvia took to the stage again, speaking in an unhurried yet proud manner.

Everyone except for the beastkin pair furrowed their brows, trying to analyze the hidden meaning in Juvia's words. Then, Adrian jumped to his feet with shock riddling his old face, "Don't tell me… Ghost Face?! That man is actually your subordinate too?!"

Everyone else seemed to instinctively reject this notion, especially the male elf who frowned, "That's impossible, we have collected data over every saint that interacted with him ever since his departure from Valdmor, our intel shouldn't be wrong."

"Exactly," the female elf spoke up, "out of his five saint subordinates, none of them can possibly be Ghost Face."

"Didn't the report mention six saints?" Her husband looked at her oddly, "There was a total of six saints in the Crouching Dragon Province battle, House Regalia dispatched two of their saints to oversee a temporary alliance between the Issac Household and the Samuel Household, which also dispatched two of their saints. In the epic of the battle, it broke down into six solitary battles between the saints, so that means there are six… No?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Adrian frowned, "This woman is also a saint, but the reports didn't mention any elf on the battlefield, meaning there were actually seven subordinate saints. However, we haven't heard anything about Bloodthirsty showing up recently, could it be that he is Ghost Face?"

"Stop relying on your memories, I have the reports here…" The female elf spoke up, waving her hand to bring out a scroll of paper from under the table, "From the former mercenary group Grim & Reaper we have Miko, Misaka, and Sitri. Then, you have Pandora and the former elf princess Juvia, and last but not least we have Bloodthirsty… This sounds a bit off…"

"Exactly! That's a total of six, but Juvia wasn't involved in the Crouching Dragon Province battle at all! How can you say there isn't a seventh?"

"Didn't you just say five? How are they seven now?"

"I meant five excluding Bloodthirsty as he was the commander back then, so I naturally overlooked him."

"But that brings the count back to six, where did the seventh come from?!"

"That's because… The elf… It only makes sense- Ugh, my head hurts!"

…

The beastkin pair as well as Ingrid watched with interest as the human pair and the elven pair went back and forth arguing about three simple numbers.

Five?

Six?

Seven?

It seemed like an illogical paradox with sufficient evidence to arrive at a conclusion, but this was the case of too much information it actually confused them rather than helped them out.

This was precisely a result achieved because even until today, no one knew that Leonardo and Bloodthirsty were one and the same, at least not on this side of the Sky Mountains. Hence, some people may confuse Bloodthirsty to being Ghost Face if they thought deeply enough, but their intellect would instinctively reject that notion as ludicrous for more than one logical reason.

Juvia had a trace of pity in her eyes, sighing, "Isn't this enough proof that Ghost Face being my lord's subordinate is an open secret? Doesn't this scene seem rather too familiar to you all?"

Everyone who was watching with interest suddenly froze at this realization.