-"Any wish at all. I am an Arbiter."
Zhao Shuying showed no sign of pleasure. She did not even put on her usual polite air of flattered surprise and grateful delight.
Her expression was grave as she asked, "Is the real disaster coming?"
Yu Xunge countered, "Why can't it simply be my gratitude for all your years of effort?"
"You respect me," Zhao Shuying said with certainty. "You generously reward me after I put in mental effort or labor, but you wouldn't suddenly appear before me and give me a wish."
Yu Xunge pressed her lips together in a faint smile. Should she say that everyone she knew was clever, or that they all knew her too well?
Her smile slowly faded, and a rare trace of uncertainty appeared on her face. "I don't know how it will turn out either."
It was as though she had returned to those dark days on the River of Time, before she pulled Zai Jiu out of the Invasion Sequence.
She could face any hardship or danger, because she never regretted her decisions and had the confidence to start over, provided the price she paid did not include anyone else.
Back then, the worst-case scenario was that every living being on Zai Jiu would pay for her mistaken choice. Now, it was the entire Star Sea and the Mountains...
What if she was wrong? Could the hundred years of happiness she had given everyone make the worst possible outcome a little less terrible?
Silence fell over the room.
Zhao Shuying looked at the person seated across from her, dressed in an exquisite, understated black robe, its long train spread across the floor. Such a somber color somehow gained a touch of gentleness on her.
She held a book that shone with platinum light.