Return to the Academy!

Tang San sighed inwardly—not out of helplessness, but out of relief.

He walked into the room, found a stool to sit on, and stretched his hands out over the stove fire.

Three people, three pairs of hands, six palms in total, occupied a small space above the hearth. The firelight reflected on their faces, bathing them in an orange glow.

Old Jack brought out three bowls of hot soup, one for each. It was radish and bone broth; the meat on the bones was so tender it was falling off, and the radishes had soaked up all the savory juices, bursting with flavor with every bite. After two sips, Huang Fei seemed to come back to life, and his tongue loosened.

"San, how does the first spirit ring feel?"

"Very good," Tang San said earnestly. "The spirit skill is Entangle. The vines are much tougher than before and possess regenerative capabilities. I tested it with a tree branch; it grows back within three seconds after being severed."

"Not bad." Huang Fei nodded, casting a meaningful glance at Tang Er. "You've chosen the right path. Keep it up, and don't let those messy theories lead you astray."

Hearing this, Tang San looked at Huang Fei, lost in thought. He felt that Huang Fei's words weren't so much a compliment as they were a warning.

"Aren't you on the same path?" Tang San asked. "Even though your first spirit ring isn't very old, it's also a life-attribute vine, right?"

Huang "120-year Green Vine" Fei paused.

"Yeah, it is. More or less."

He didn't continue the topic, lowering his head to finish his soup.

Tang San didn't press him. He downed the rest of his soup, set the bowl aside, and leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at the fire.

He had done so much today. He had traveled all day, returned to an empty home, read the letter his father left behind, gained a little sister in the back mountains, and was now sitting by Old Jack's stove, drinking radish soup with Huang Fei and Xiao Wu.

None of these events were monumental on their own, but piled together, they made for a heavy day.

"Get some sleep early." Huang Fei set down his bowl, yawned, and was the first to stand up. "I still need to wander around the village tomorrow and see if there's anything good to eat."

"Didn't you say you came back to repay the village?" Tang San reminded him.

"Eating every pot in the village is a form of repayment. It's stimulating consumption. Boosting domestic demand, get it?"

Tang San didn't understand what "boosting domestic demand" meant, but he was certain of one thing—Huang Fei would definitely eat everything edible in the village tomorrow.

The night grew deeper.

Old Jack cleared out the largest room for the three children. There was one large bed and an improvised wooden cot, covered with thick mattresses and two layers of quilts. Xiao Wu insisted on sleeping in the large bed alone, while Tang San and Huang Fei took the wooden cot—Xiao Wu's reasoning was "I'm a girl, so I'm the boss." Tang San had no objections, and Huang Fei had even fewer, as he could sleep anywhere.

After the lights went out, the room darkened, with only moonlight leaking through the gaps in the window paper, painting a thin white line on the floor.

Xiao Wu turned over in bed, pulled the quilt over her head, and was soon fast asleep. She must have been truly exhausted.

Tang San lay with his eyes open, staring at the blurry ceiling above.

"Huang Fei."

"Yeah." A muffled voice came from beside him, not the perfunctory tone of someone already asleep, but the kind of response that said, "I hear you, but I don't want to move."

"Why do you think Father left?" Tang San asked.

This question had been stifling him all day. Ever since he saw that letter, he had been asking himself, but there was no answer. He had considered many possibilities—his father had enemies to hide from, his father was looking for clues about his mother, his father didn't want to be a burden—each felt right, yet each felt wrong.

Huang Fei was silent for a long time.

Just when Tang San thought he had fallen asleep, Huang Fei's voice sounded again.

"He left because he had finished what he needed to do. What remains is your own path."

Tang San didn't speak.

Huang Fei added, "And it's not that he isn't coming back. He's waiting for the day you walk up to him."

Tang San turned his head toward Huang Fei. In the moonlight, he couldn't see his face clearly, only a vague silhouette lying on his side with the quilt pulled up to his chin.

"How do you know?" Tang San asked.

Huang Fei didn't answer.

A moment later, he heard Huang Fei's steady breathing.

Tang San withdrew his gaze, looked at the ceiling, and repeated the two sentences Huang Fei had just said in his mind.

Then, he closed his eyes.

The moon moved out from behind the clouds, the moonlight brightening and widening the white line on the floor to the width of a palm.

Three children, under the same roof, dreaming their own separate dreams.

The road back to Nuoding City was slower than the journey there.

On the way there, the carriage had been rushed; Old Jack wanted to get the children to school as soon as possible, so they barely rested. On the way back, there were only three of them—Tang San, Huang Fei, and Xiao Wu—with no carriage, relying entirely on their own two legs. Tang San had wanted to ask Old Jack to help hire a carriage, but Huang Fei stopped him, citing "walking saves money."

Tang San thought it made sense. Xiao Wu thought walking was fun. Huang Fei thought that since he didn't have to walk himself, he could just follow the two of them.

And so, they set off.

It took about a day and a half to walk the main road from Holy Soul Village to Nuoding City. The first day went smoothly; the three chatted and laughed along the way, snacking on dry rations when hungry and drinking from streams when thirsty. Before dark, they found a cheap inn in a small town to spend the night. They continued their journey early the next morning, and at this pace, they would reach Nuoding City by around noon.

Huang Fei walked at the very back, his pace unhurried, hands tucked into his sleeves, radiating an aura of "I could lie down at any moment." Tang San walked in front, turning back from time to time to ensure Huang Fei was still within sight. Xiao Wu walked in the middle, her ponytail bobbing, humming a nameless tune, looking to be in high spirits.

On both sides of the main road were vast stretches of fields. The wheat had been harvested not long ago, leaving the land bare, save for short stubble and a few lonely trees. In the distance lay a range of low hills covered in shrubs and weeds, gray and dull, as if they hadn't yet awakened from winter.

After walking for about an hour, the main road ahead took a turn, leading into a small grove of trees.

It was called a forest, but in reality, it was just rows of poplar trees planted along both sides of the official road. Their crowns intertwined overhead, slicing the sunlight into patches of light that paved the Kitsuchi road. When the wind blew, the light patches swayed as if gold had been shattered across the ground.

Tang San's footsteps suddenly slowed.

It was not because he had seen anything, but because of his intuition.

Having lived in the Tang Sect for so many years, what kind of danger had he not encountered?

Sometimes, there is no need for the eyes to see; the body itself simply knows—this road is wrong.