I gently stroked her back, but unfortunately, apart from passing through her body, the projection could not leave behind the slightest trace. That made the little girl weep uncontrollably, and she knew full well that she could not truly touch me.
At that moment, I wished even more that my true self were here, so I could properly comfort the sorrow in her heart. Unfortunately, my true self was still sitting inside the secluded chamber of the interface.
"It's been two years, yet you haven't grown at all. You're still exactly the same." I smiled. When I had first met her at the Far Eastern Immortal Gate, she had looked just as she did now—thirteen or fourteen years old, yet already beautiful enough to take one's breath away.
Li Zhier raised her head. Tears still fell like beads from an abacus, and her eyes seemed veiled in mist, making anyone unable to resist the urge to protect her. What man could possibly reject a girl like this?
"Why did you only come now... Even if it were a pet that had gone missing... you should have missed it and searched for it... But you—you simply vanished without a word... Sob... Am I, Li Zhier, really that unwelcome to you? Do you know... sob..." Li Zhier wept as she reproached me.
"How could you be a pet? Even if you were one, could there be a pet as clever as you? Besides, this place is worlds away from Sky City, with the Sky Gate lying between us. How could I possibly find you?" I accepted her torrent of complaints with a gentle gaze, though I truly had no idea how to comfort her.
"You're the lord of Sky City... Is there anything you can't do... Whatever you want to accomplish, don't