Silver Light Protection

When Cai Yue'er arrived at the Soul Guidance Teaching Building, it was already broad daylight.

She stood at the stairwell, gasping for breath, one hand braced against the wall and the other pressed to her chest.

She had not run this fast in a very long time.

The third-floor corridor was long. Sunlight streamed in through the window at the far end, casting square patches of light and shadow across the floor.

The corridor was so quiet that she could hear her own heartbeat—thump, thump, thump—striking against her eardrums again and again.

Her laboratory was at the very end of the third floor. A sign hung on its door, reading: "Unauthorized Personnel Keep Out."

The corners of the sign had curled up. She had hung it there three years ago.

Three years.

She had dug that core formation out of the ruins and studied it for three years.

She had traced every circuit by hand, repeatedly deduced every layer of its structure. Even the metal casing around the core had been polished bit by bit by her own hands.

She took a deep breath and hurried down the corridor.

Her footsteps echoed through the empty hallway, growing more urgent.

Then she stopped.

Right outside the laboratory.

The door was shut.

Not locked. Shut.

A faint glimmer leaked through the crack beneath the door. It was not the white light of a Soul Guidance Lamp, but a gentle, tranquil silver-white glow.

Cai Yue'er's hand rose and hovered before the door.

She did not push it open.

She stood there, her fingers only an inch from the door, yet that inch felt like an uncrossable chasm.

Because she had no idea how far he had gotten.

If he was assembling that core, if he had dismantled the core formation and was reconstructing it, then if she pushed the door open now, changes in airflow, vibrations from sound, even interference from the fluctuations of her Soul Power—

"Boom."

Cai Yue'er's eyelid twitched.

She withdrew her hand.

Only then did Feng Wuyu catch up, appearing at the end of the corridor, gasping for breath.

"Y-you ran so fast for what—" He leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

Cai Yue'er ignored him.

She stood at the door and stared at it, her expression like that of someone facing a bomb disposal expert dismantling a live bomb.

After Feng Wuyu caught his breath, he walked over and followed her gaze toward the door.

"Why aren't you going in?" he asked, reaching out to push it open.

"Smack."

Cai Yue'er slapped the back of his head.

The sound was sharp, echoing through the corridor for three seconds.

Feng Wuyu staggered forward from the blow. His head buzzed, and stars flashed before his eyes.

Clutching his head, he turned around in disbelief. "Y-you hit me for what?!"

"Keep your voice down."

Cai Yue'er's voice was extremely low, barely more than a breath, but it carried unquestionable severity. "He's inside."

"So wha—"

"He's working on the core."

Cai Yue'er lowered her voice even further, forcing Feng Wuyu to lean closer to hear her clearly. "I can sense Soul Power fluctuations. Very fine, very steady, but they haven't stopped moving."

Feng Wuyu froze for a moment and lowered his own voice. "What level core?"

"A level-seven core made of Soul-Forged Mithril."

"He really got it? Where did you hide it?"

"In a hidden compartment in the room."

"..."

Her expression was complicated—heartache, tension, and an indescribable emotion that seemed like anger, yet also like... shock.

She fell silent for a moment, then suddenly turned around and strode toward the other end of the corridor.

"Where are you going?" Feng Wuyu called softly.

"To find Xiao Fang."

"What for?"

"To ask when Jing Heng went in."

Cai Yue'er's figure disappeared around the corner at the end of the hallway.

Feng Wuyu remained where he was. He looked at her departing back, then at the tightly shut door. After hesitating for a moment, he did not follow.

He leaned against the wall opposite the door, crossed his arms, and stared at it.

The silver-white light leaking through the crack was faint, but steady. It rose and fell rhythmically, like breathing.

He suddenly recalled what Yun Jingheng had said in his forging room the night before.

"Forging is truly miraculous. It can actually create such divine objects."

At the time, Feng Wuyu had felt distressed.

But now, he suddenly felt... perhaps he was not quite so distressed after all.

After a while, hurried footsteps sounded from the end of the corridor.

Cai Yue'er returned, followed by a middle-aged man.

Director Fang of the Soul Guidance Department was around forty, dressed in a wrinkled white lab coat. He had clearly been dragged out of bed, his eyes still half-closed and his face utterly bewildered.

"Director Fang," Cai Yue'er said urgently, "the key to that third-floor laboratory is with you?"

Director Fang rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Y-yes. What's wrong, Elder Cai?"

"Did anyone come to get the key from you last night?"

Director Fang thought for a moment. "No."

"Then how was the door opened?"

"I didn't open it."

Cai Yue'er and Feng Wuyu froze at the same time.

"Then who opened the door?" Feng Wuyu asked.

Director Fang scratched his half-bald head. "That door's lock has been broken for half a month. It still hasn't been repaired. You can open it just by pushing hard."

Feng Wuyu: "..."

Cai Yue'er's eyelid twitched again.

"When did he go in?"

She asked, "Did anyone see him?"

"Him? Who went in?"

"Yun Jingheng."

"...?!"

Director Fang thought for a moment, then turned and walked to the other end of the corridor, knocking on the door of the duty room.

A young teaching assistant poked his head out.

"Xiao Zhou, who was on duty last night?"

"Me."

Xiao Zhou rubbed his eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall. "What's wrong, Director Fang?"

"Did anyone enter Laboratory No. 3 last night?"

Xiao Zhou froze, then thought for a moment. "Y-yes, yes! A kid came in during the middle of the night."

"What time?"

"What time..."

Xiao Zhou scratched his head. "Let me check the records... around three in the morning. I even stopped him then and asked which class he was from. He said he was from the Inner Court."

"The Inner Court?" Director Fang turned to look at Cai Yue'er and Feng Wuyu.

"Yes." Xiao Zhou nodded. "He said he was working on a small project and needed somewhere quiet."

"I thought he sounded pretty serious, so I let him in. What... did something happen?"

Director Fang did not answer. He turned to Cai Yue'er.

Cai Yue'er stood still, the expression on her face shifting again and again.

Three in the morning.

It was now eight in the morning.

Five hours.

He had been inside for five hours.

Five hours without coming out.

Her lips moved slightly, as though she wanted to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.

She turned around and walked back to the laboratory door, stopping before it.

The silver-white glow beneath the door was still there, still steady, still rising and falling.

She closed her eyes and released a thread of extremely fine Soul Power perception, carefully probing through the gap beneath the door.

Then her expression changed.

It was... disbelief.

She withdrew her perception, opened her eyes, and remained silent for a long time.

"What is it?" Feng Wuyu came closer and asked in a low voice.

Cai Yue'er did not answer.

She turned around and went to the duty room at the other end of the corridor, asking Xiao Zhou for a sheet of paper and a pen.

Then she leaned against the wall, bent over, and wrote several words on the paper.

Feng Wuyu leaned over to look.

There were only two lines on the paper. The handwriting was messy, clearly written with trembling hands:

"Food is outside the door. Eat when you have time."

There was no signature, no name, no extra words.

Feng Wuyu looked at the note, opened his mouth as if to say something, then suddenly felt as though something was lodged in his throat.

He had known Cai Yue'er for many years.

This woman often forgot to eat even her own meals.

Cai Yue'er folded the note, returned to the laboratory door, bent down, and gently slipped it through the gap beneath the door.

Her movements were light and slow, as though afraid of disturbing the person inside.

After slipping in the note, she straightened up, stepped back twice, and stared at the door for a long time.

Then she suddenly turned around and glared fiercely at Feng Wuyu.

"Why are you glaring at me?!" Feng Wuyu looked utterly innocent.

"If you hadn't let him go steal things," Cai Yue'er said in a voice so low that every word felt like a blade.

"Would he have come here?"

"When did I ever let him steal things?! He came on his own! He searched the hidden compartment himself! He found it himsel—"

"Why didn't you stop him last night?"

"I—"

Feng Wuyu choked on his words.

He opened his mouth, wanting to defend himself, but Cai Yue'er was no longer looking at him.

She turned and strode toward the end of the corridor, her boots tapping crisply against the floor.

"Where are you going?!" Feng Wuyu shouted.

"Back."

Cai Yue'er did not look back. "I won't come again until he comes out."

"You're not coming back? You're not going to watch your core?"

Cai Yue'er's steps paused.

She stood at the end of the corridor with her back to Feng Wuyu and fell silent for a moment.

"Would watching help?"

Her voice was soft, as if speaking to herself. "He's already halfway through. Going in now would only ruin things."

She paused.

"We'll talk after he comes out."

With that, she left.

The sound of her boots grew more distant before finally vanishing at the stairwell.

Feng Wuyu stood in the corridor, looking toward where Cai Yue'er had disappeared, then back at the tightly shut door.

The silver-white light beneath the door remained steady, rising and falling like breathing.

He suddenly sighed and dropped into a chair outside the door.

The chair creaked and nearly fell apart.

He sat there with his arms crossed, staring at the door, his expression swinging repeatedly between heartache, helplessness, and anticipation.

Director Fang and Xiao Zhou stood at the other end of the corridor, staring at each other.

"Um..."

Director Fang cautiously spoke up. "Elder Feng, would you like to get something to eat? I can have someone bring you—"

"I'm not going," Feng Wuyu said dully.

"But that child—"

"Wait." Feng Wuyu said only one word.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, but his brow remained furrowed.

The corridor fell silent.

Sunlight streamed in through the windows, shifting from square to square, very slowly.

Feng Wuyu sat there without moving, like a guardian deity standing watch at the door.

Xiao Zhou retreated into the duty room, poked his head out for a glance, and whispered to Director Fang, "Director Fang, that child... where did he come from?"

Director Fang glanced at him, then at the tightly shut door at the end of the corridor, and gave a bitter smile.

"He came from the Inner Court. His surname is Yun. What do you think?"

Xiao Zhou's eyes widened. "The... the Pavilion Master's son?!"