The Women Enter! A Different Feeling

"Don't talk nonsense." Ling Luochen shot Ma Xiaotao a glance. Her voice was cool, but the faint curve at the corner of her lips betrayed her equally relaxed mood.

Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao stood side by side, the two young girls not yet fully recovered from the solemn atmosphere of the meeting just now.

Xiao Xiao's fingers unconsciously wound around the ends of her grass-green ponytail. Her emerald-gold eyes darted about as she examined the ancient wooden statues deep within the hall, ones she had never seen before.

Wang Dong, meanwhile, pressed her lips together slightly and occasionally stole glances at her master's back, though no one knew what she was thinking.

Lin Ciyan stood at the very front, his hands still tucked into the pockets of his long robe. His posture was as languid as if he were in his own living room. Yet deep within those gold-white eyes lay a focus that others would find difficult to notice.

Mu En's gaze swept over the young people one by one before finally settling on Lin Ciyan. A faint smile flashed through his aged eyes.

"Ciyan, help me up."

Lin Ciyan stepped forward, his slender fingers gently supporting Mu En's arm.

Through the thin sleeve, he could feel the old man's arm, little more than skin stretched over bone and sinew. Warmth seeped through the fabric, yet it made his heart sink slightly...

He had grown thinner still since before they left for the tournament.

Mu En moved slowly, truly like an old man who had entered his twilight years, gradually rising from the low couch.

Yet his waist remained hunched, bent at nearly ninety degrees like an ancient tree bowed beneath the weight of time.

"Teacher, slowly."

Lin Ciyan's voice was very soft. The strength with which he