Jinde smiled wryly. Right. Xiang Yu hadn’t strayed from the shell’s side even once since the battle as far as he was aware. All his attention seemed to be concentrated on this courtyard as well. Of course, he wouldn’t know if something happened inside.

He sighed and sat down next to Xiang Yu, absentmindedly stroking the top of the shell while he got the fallen god up to the current situation. “… so now, we’re wondering where they could have gone. Do you have any way to locate other fallen gods?”

Xiang Yu shook his head. “No, that doesn’t work. I can locate anyone else but not fallen gods. Well, there is Tian but that is different anyway.” Or not so different. Tian had exactly the same abilities they had, after all. They were stronger though.

Jinde furrowed his brows. In that case, they had an even bigger problem. Xiang Yu had been his only hope of having a shot at finding Jing He soon.

Leng Jin Yu also sat down next to the two of them and looked at Xiang Yu carefully. “So you can find anyone save for fallen gods and Tian, yes?”

Xiang Yu nodded, not sure what he meant. “That’s what I said, yes.”

“Well, could you try to find Jing He then?”

Xiang Yu blinked his eyes and tried. In fact, he had been keeping an eye on Jing He the whole time since Qiu Ling had asked to find moments when the two of them could be together but there hadn’t been anything today so he hadn’t paid that much attention. Now that he thought of it, that connection seemed to have collapsed a while ago. He had just been too deep in thought to realize it.

This time, when he tried to reestablish it, he came up empty-handed as well. He blinked his eyes, not sure what had gone wrong, and then tried again. Still, the result stayed the same. He pursed his lips and returned his attention to Leng Jin Yu. “I can’t find him.”

Leng Jin Yu nodded with a heavy expression. “That means it is sure he has fallen, doesn’t it?”

Xiang Yu’s expression blanked. That … seemed to be the case? He turned to look at the door inside, suddenly feeling guilty. He had been following Jing He’s situation for Qiu Ling but he had missed such a big thing. But really, thinking about it, there didn’t seem to have been anything out of the ordinary!

He furrowed his brows and then shook his head. “That shouldn’t be it!”

Jinde raised his brows. “Why that? Do you have another explanation?”

Xiang Yu shook his head. “No, but … I was paying attention to where he was. He might not have always paid attention but for most of today, he was only staying with his father. It was super boring. Even Jing He looked bored!”

Jinde and Leng Jin Yu exchanged a glance.

“So … you were secretly watching Jing He?” Jinde’s brows raised higher, wanting to make sure that they weren’t miscommunicating here.

Xiang Yu paused and then hurriedly shook his head. “No, I wasn’t! Qiu Ling told me to do it so it absolutely wasn’t a secret!” He didn’t want anybody to think he was doing something bad behind their backs. He absolutely wouldn’t!

Jinde nodded. “Yeah, I don’t mean that. I mean … you were watching Jing He the entire time, right? You might not have always paid full attention but you were watching, right?”

Xiang Yu nodded. “Yes, but it definitely wasn’t a secret!”

Jinde hummed. “Then what else did you see? Jing He supposedly left his father’s palace and then vanished later. If we can find out more about what happened, maybe we’ll find some clues as to what happened later.”

Xiang Yu wanted to answer but Leng Jin Yu raised his hand. “Wait! Could you … show us the path Jing He took and describe while doing that?”

Xiang Yu nodded. “Sure! Do you want to go to the Nine Heavens now? Where should we start? At the Heavenly Emperor’s palace?” He raised a hand, wanting to directly open a portal.

Jinde hurriedly reached out and caught his hand. “Wait! The trueborn gods are currently freaking out because they believe a fallen god took their crown prince. If you go there through a portal the way a fallen god likely kidnapped Jing He, you’ll be surrounded in no time. We have to travel there the normal way.” He glanced at the Mark of Wisdom between Xiang Yu’s brows and his lips twitched. “And we have to cover up that mark somehow.”

Xiang Yu reached up and rubbed the spot, shaking his head. “You can’t. I tried some powder in the past but it’ll shine through since it’s so dark.”

Jinde pursed his lips. “What about wearing something above it? Like the veiled hat I usually wear when I go outside? That should be able to hide it, right?”

“Yeah. I wore a cloak sometimes when I went out. But it’s difficult to see through and once, the hood slipped and then people were running away. Also, they tend to look at you oddly if you walk around in a hooded cloak.” He pouted, not sure why people were so complicated. He hadn’t done anything to them!

Jinde thought for a moment and finally, his face lit up. “Well, I think I might just have the right idea!” He looked through his spatial ring and finally started to pull out things.

Xiang Yu cocked his head and watched as things were stuffed into his hands. “This … What is it for?”

“Well, of course, that’s your new outfit! You go and change into that while the two of us check on Qiu Ling and see if something else is going on that we can help with. After that, we’ll take you to the capital city of the Nine Heavens.” He didn’t wait for Xiang Yu to pull himself out of his daze and instead grabbed his husband, pulling him inside.