Elm samaras clustered thickly on the branches, like watchful eyes.
"Mother, I'm fine."
By late spring in Linzi City, the chattering clamor had already begun. Summer had yet to arrive, but its restlessness had come early.
Bao Xuanjing spoke helplessly as he watched Miao Yuzhi pinch and prod him all over. "It wasn't just your son who was put in confinement—there were so many people in the Chao Wendao Heavenly Palace! Did you see anyone else come to harm?"
"You mustn't go to that Great Void Illusion Realm again." Miao Yuzhi wiped away her tears. "They put people in confinement just because they say so. It isn't safe at all!"
Perhaps she had grown accustomed to widowhood, or perhaps her precious son truly had done her proud, but she was in far better spirits than she had been in past years. Her cloudlike hair was pinned with ornaments, joy hung upon her willow-leaf brows, and she carried something of late spring's ripened grace. Even her tears were full-bodied sorrow, flowing with the troubles of happiness.
"That is precisely what proves the Great Void Illusion Realm is safe." Bao Xuanjing was unconcerned. "How overbearing is the Jing Kingdom? Had this happened somewhere else, they could have thrown us straight into prison, sentenced us before trying us, and no one would think it strange. Where could you go to reason with them? The Great Void Illusion Realm is not a place where they call the shots, so at least some dignity remains."
"That doesn't mean we should compare ourselves to the worse!" Miao Yuzhi said indignantly. "We've never suffered this kind of loss. Just stay in Linzi—can the people of Jing reach in and take you away? Even when the headmaster of Daluo Mountain came to seize someone, the God of War