The setup of Lu Bai, a powerful expert who had suddenly appeared, was much like the kind of situation that only happened when a Traveler entered a dimension.
But something felt off. Jiang Yue looked at Lu Bai, confusion mingling in her beautiful eyes.
Still, Jiang Yue made no sudden move. Instead, she led everyone to a reception room.
The reception room was as warm as spring. Luo Chuan, who had been soaked the whole way here, no longer felt cold.
She boiled water and brewed tea, its delicate fragrance wafting through the room with the steam. Every move Jiang Yue made was a pleasure to watch.
But the longer Lu Bai looked at her, the stranger he found her. He caught a hint of something "nonhuman" about her.
Not a monster, a furry, a monster girl, or any other sort of nonhuman being. Rather, her very nature might not be as simple as that of an ordinary human.
Could Jiang Yue be a robot? But wait, do robots need to use the toilet?
Neither of them was a monk, but the conversation that followed between Lou Jingren and Jiang Yue could only be described as an exchange of Zen riddles.
Both seemed to want to work together, and both seemed willing to do their part in this troubled age.
But they just wouldn't say so outright. Instead, they chatted about this and that.
Even something as simple as a swallow returning to its nest was given deeper meaning from a human perspective, then used as a springboard to express their own views.
In the end, they even took the bright moon in the sky as their topic, discussing its waxing and waning to draw conclusions about the joys and sorrows of human life.
If they had been discussing literature or something like that, Lu Bai might not have understood much, but he wouldn't have minded.
But you two came here to discuss working together!
Watching them smile at each other as if they had found kindred spirits, Lu Bai felt a headache coming on.
It was as if they had said nothing, yet somehow managed to spout a whole lot of nonsense.
Lu Bai rubbed his hands. These people seemed to need treatment. Maybe if their legs hurt on rainy days, they'd stop acting like this.
People who spoke in riddles belonged in Gotham. They shouldn't be let loose to torment normal people.
But the two of them didn't give Lu Bai a chance to step in. They simply smiled at each other, as if they had reached some kind of agreement.
"Then, we won't keep you any longer. Jiang Yue will appear when the time is right," Jiang Yue said earnestly.
"Then we'll take our leave," Lou Jingren replied, his eyes full of admiration. Who wouldn't fall for a fairy as elegant and accomplished as her, who mastered poetry and the arts and even played along when people spoke in riddles?
Lu Bai simply smiled without a word. She looked elegant, but who knew what she was really thinking?
Jiang Yue smiled and followed everyone out, observing every courtesy to perfection.
She only escorted Lu Bai and the others as far as the entrance to the Three Moon Pavilion. Then she stood in the doorway and watched them go.
By the time Lu Bai and the others reached the boat, Jiang Yue had gone upstairs in the Three Moon Pavilion. Leaning on the railing, she gazed at the bright moon in the sky, her face weighed down by an inescapable sorrow.
Lou Jingren looked back at Jiang Yue in the Three Moon Pavilion, and the admiration in his eyes slowly changed into something else.
A hint of sorrow appeared on his face as well. To worry over another's troubles was the beginning of falling for them.
"Fairy Jiang Yue must be worrying about all the common people under heaven right now."
You had to admit, some people really fell for the charm of a flawless person. That sense that you could admire her from afar but never touch her only made her more captivating.
"We're running out of toilet paper. This is a serious problem."
"The head decides what the body does. When the head is involved, it's a top priority."
"So what are we having for dinner tonight?"
Jiang Yue's thoughts jumped around so much that she didn't even notice Lou Jingren watching her from the riverbank.
Lu Bai carried Luo Chuan along, feeling as if he'd been nothing more than an extra. From beginning to end, it had been people from the academy and the Three Moon Pavilion doing all the talking.
Lu Bai had just been there to watch the show.
After they returned from River Heart Island, Lou Jingren politely bade Lu Bai farewell.
Standing by the river and watching the thinning crowd, Luo Chuan finally began to shiver when the night breeze swept over him.
"Master, I'm cold!" Luo Chuan said through chattering teeth.
On the way back from River Heart Island, Lu Bai had used him as a merit-earning release-and-rescue tool once again.
The riverbank was nothing like River Heart Island, with its unscientific setup.
"Don't you have Internal Force?" Lu Bai said. "Use it."
Internal Force was actually much like muscle. The difference was that muscles were trained by lifting weights, while Internal Force was trained by guiding it through the body's meridians and acupoints.
Use it or lose it. Within certain limits, that was the truth.
"Here?" Luo Chuan asked, his face full of disbelief. It was already night, but thanks to the Three Moon Pavilion's business, plenty of lanterns were still lit around here.
There were far fewer passersby, but quite a few people were still out.
His soaking-wet appearance had already drawn plenty of attention. If he spent the whole way back throwing punches as he practiced his dynamic form, rumors would be spreading across East River by the next day.
Some idiot hadn't gone to bed at night and was wandering around punching the air.
A good reputation mattered a great deal to scions of prestigious families.
But under Lu Bai's cold gaze, Luo Chuan could only obey. He began practicing the Mountain and River Fist passed down by his family as he walked toward the inn where they were staying.
Meanwhile, his doubts finally took a back seat.
Why hadn't Lu Bai revealed what was happening at Lianwu Mountain after arriving at the Three Moon Pavilion and meeting its people?
Their entire purpose in coming here was to use this information to rally these "righteous people."
But after Lu Bai arrived, he barely said a word. Once Lou Jingren and Jiang Yue finished speaking in riddles, he simply left with them as if nothing had happened.
Lu Bai knew that, of course. He wasn't the sort of person who was content to play a supporting role.
Under normal circumstances, he would have interrupted their riddles in every sense of the word and forced things onto his own track, getting down to business.
But after entering River Heart Island, Lu Bai had been drawn to the connection between the Three Moon Pavilion and the Travelers. He felt his original plan had been too crude.
It would have been fine if they were merely local natives with limited knowledge. But if they were a faction closely connected to the Travelers, they would probably see through Lu Bai's true intentions very quickly.
Things might not have ended up as badly as they possibly could, but Lu Bai wasn't willing to leave that possibility unchecked.
He still needed to keep things in his own hands as much as possible and make sure everything moved forward at his pace.
"Looks like the value of the news about Lianwu Mountain has dropped sharply once again."
He had originally planned to use this information to bring together those who wanted to resist the Holy Lands but didn't want to side with the Hundred Flower Grave.
But these people weren't fools. They had already secretly gotten in touch with the Three Moon Pavilion.
"Of course, it's not completely useless." Lou Jingren had let a few things slip earlier. For example, he'd met people from Spirit Connection Temple, Late Crane Temple, and the Force Union Sect here.
It was obvious that those who had come to the Three Moon Pavilion together all belonged to the same faction.
But the world was far more complicated than just two or three factions.
Lu Bai's goal was only to gather a certain amount of strength and gain a greater advantage in the conflicts to come.
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