Discussion Under the Moon, Bulma's Thoughts!

Bulma thought to herself, There he goes again.

He was clearly standing right here, yet his soul seemed to have drifted beyond the heavens.

Holding her juice, she took a deep breath. As if she had finally made up her mind, she pushed open the glass door and stepped onto the terrace.

The lively noise behind her was instantly shut out, and a cool night breeze carrying the scent of the sea blew against her face.

"Hey."

Bulma walked over to his side, leaned against the railing like he did, and spoke.

"Isn't it boring, standing here alone and staring at the moon? The party's lively. We all made it through, and everyone's happy."

Hearing her, Lin Xuan slowly turned his head. His moonlit eyes were utterly calm.

"It's not boring," he said softly. "The moon looks nice tonight."

Bulma curled her lip.

"The moon's there every day, but friends don't get to gather like this every day."

Unable to hold it in any longer, she gathered her courage and asked the question she had been keeping bottled up for so long.

"Lin Xuan... haven't you been getting stranger and stranger?"

"Ever since you set off on your own, and then we met again at the martial arts tournament, you've felt completely different. It's like... even though you're standing right here, your heart is somewhere very, very far away."

"That feeling makes me... a little uneasy."

Lin Xuan looked at her. Those sky-blue eyes were filled with seriousness, along with a trace of grievance she herself had not noticed.

Instead of answering right away, he asked, "Oh? Strange how?"

Bulma was caught off guard by the question and struggled to find the right words.

"Before, you were mysterious. You made people want to figure out what you were really thinking."

"But now..." She pointed at Lin Xuan, then at the moon in the sky. "You're like this night sky. I can see you, but I feel like you're so far away from us, like I'll never be able to reach you. The way you look at us, at the martial arts tournament, at everything in this world—it's like you're watching a play. You... never really put yourself into it."

After hearing that, Lin Xuan actually chuckled.

"Watching a play... that's a fitting way to put it."

He turned around and leaned against the railing beside Bulma, his gaze returning to the bright moon.

"To you, the world is made up of data, formulas, and physical laws. But to me, this world is a book that needs to be read with the heart."

"A book?" Bulma froze.

"Mm." Lin Xuan's voice was soft and calm. "The laughter and cheers at the party are the words in that book. The fighting spirit of the martial artists is its plot. Your intelligence, Goku's innocence, Krillin's hard work, Yamcha's persistence... all of these are what make this book so wonderful."

"I stand here, seeming distant, but in truth, I am both a character in the book and its reader. I need to experience the characters' joys, anger, sorrows, and happiness, but I also need to step outside the book and understand the direction and meaning of the whole story. I call this process—tempering the heart amid the mortal world."

Bulma was completely dumbfounded.

Tempering the heart amid the mortal world?

What was all that supposed to mean? It sounded even harder to understand than quantum physics.

Yet strangely enough, she seemed to understand something.

She understood why Lin Xuan always felt so distant.

The way he viewed the world was different from everyone else's.

While everyone else was fighting desperately for victory, wishes, and friends, he treated all of it as a kind of "cultivation" and "insight."

The difference in the way they thought left her feeling somewhat helpless.

But at the same time, an even stronger curiosity rose within her.

This man was even more extraordinary than she had imagined. His world concealed things she knew absolutely nothing about.

Yet beneath that curiosity lay an even deeper worry.

Bulma's thoughts abruptly returned to reality.

Her tone instantly sharpened.

"Then what about danger? What about death? Are those chapters in your stupid book too, meant for you to 'experience'?!"

She suddenly grabbed Lin Xuan's arm with such force that even he was a little surprised.

"That Red Ribbon Army! Those exploding drones! Are you treating them as parts of a book to 'read' too? Do you know people can die from that?!"

"Lin Xuan, you're not some immortal, and you're not some reader! You're a living, breathing person! You can get hurt, you can bleed! Can't you stop looking at everything with that detached attitude? I'm worried about you, do you understand?!"

By the end, her voice carried a trembling, tearful edge she could no longer hide.

Under the cool moonlight, the anger in the girl's eyes looked more like a fear of losing him.

For the first time, the calmness on Lin Xuan's face changed.

He lowered his head and looked at Bulma's hand gripping his arm, then raised his eyes to meet hers, shimmering with tears.

He could feel the warmth of her palm, her racing heartbeat, and the concern she could not hide.

This, too, was part of tempering the heart amid the mortal world.

And it was a very warm, very real part of it.

A warm current slowly spread through his heart.

"Sorry."

Lin Xuan's voice was very gentle.

"I didn't mean to make you worry."

He raised his other hand and gently covered the back of Bulma's hand.

"It wasn't that I wasn't afraid, nor was it that I wasn't angry. When facing those scum who trafficked children, what I did was pass judgment."

Looking into Bulma's eyes, he said word by word, "And I cherish my life very much. Because in this world, there are things... and people I want to protect."

Bulma's breath caught.

In Lin Xuan's eyes, there was no longer that calmness that seemed to see through everything, but a seriousness she had never seen before.

At that moment, she felt as if the invisible wall between them had cracked open a slit.

Seeing her stand there in a daze, Lin Xuan's lips curled up slightly.

"Your concern is a very precious gain... on my path of tempering my heart tonight."

He released her hand and took a yellow talisman folded into a triangle from his robes.

This talisman was completely different from the one he had given her before. Its patterns were more than ten times as intricate, and beneath the moonlight, a faint halo seemed to flow across its surface.

"The one I gave you before was only a simple alarm."

He gently placed the warm talisman in Bulma's palm.

"But this is a real shield. It contains... more of my insights. If you ever encounter a danger you truly can't handle, it will protect you in my stead."

Bulma lowered her head to look at the talisman radiating warmth in her palm, then looked up at Lin Xuan. Her heart was beating so fast that it felt almost abnormal.

This was a gift he had specially prepared in response to her concern.

"You... you idiot..."

She muttered softly, her cheeks growing a little hot. Then she clenched the talisman tightly in her hand as though she were holding a treasure.

"This thing is the last line of defense, got it?! You need to be careful too!"

"Got it." There was an added warmth in Lin Xuan's smile.

For a while, neither of them spoke again. They merely leaned against the railing side by side, enjoying this brief moment of quiet.

The bright moon in the night sky seemed to have softened as well.

Early the next morning.

As the first ray of sunlight fell over Papaya Island, the entire island instantly erupted in thunderous cheers.

From the loudspeakers came the host's voice, so excited it had gone hoarse, ringing across the sky.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the much-anticipated semifinals of the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament!"

"After the brutal preliminaries, eight of the finest martial artists have emerged! They are the embodiment of strength and will! The pinnacle of martial arts!"

The massive cheers rose wave after wave.

"Now, I declare that the first semifinal match officially begins!"

"The two contestants are—"

The host deliberately drew out his words, driving the atmosphere to its peak.

"The lone wolf from the desert, the man whose Wolf Fang Fist is as fast as lightning—contestant Yamcha!"

"And—"

"The greatest dark horse of this tournament! A mysterious powerhouse who has crushed his way through the competition with unfathomable skill—contestant Lin Xuan!"

As the two names were announced, two figures slowly emerged from opposite sides of the arena and stepped onto the stage beneath the gaze of the entire crowd.