The woman froze for a moment.
Then she lowered her head and looked at her hands.
At her arms, her waist, the hem of her skirt.
At the wildflowers blooming amid the ice.
She stood there in a daze for a long time.
A very long time.
Then she lifted her head.
She looked at Bai Lan.
Light shimmered in her emerald-green eyes.
"Master..."
She spoke.
Her voice was as gentle as jade, like the rustling of a bamboo grove in the spring breeze.
It was also like the tinkling of a mountain stream running over stones.
It was the first time she had spoken in a human voice.
"I can finally... meet you like this."
Bai Lan looked at her.
At the light in her eyes.
Suddenly, he remembered the first time he had seen her.
Back then, she had been nothing more than a Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo.
She had stood all alone at the very edge of the Soul Beast Forest.
He had walked over and reached out to touch her bamboo stalk.
At the time, she had quivered slightly.
As if responding to him.
From then on, she had stayed by his side.
From the Soul Beast Forest to Shrek Academy.
From ten years to a hundred, from a hundred to a thousand, from a thousand to ten thousand.
From a Solitary Bamboo to Iron Core Bamboo, from Iron Core Bamboo to Arrow Bamboo, from Arrow Bamboo to Tiangang Bamboo.
And now—
A hundred thousand years.
She had transformed into a human.
At last, she could stand before him and look at him with human eyes.
She could call him Master in a human voice.
"Come here," Bai Lan said.
She walked over.
She stopped in front of him.
She was much taller than he was.
She