Farewell

One afternoon, Tang Wulin finally finished her grueling forging lessons.

Seeing how hard she had been working, Mang Tian suggested that she get some proper rest and gave her an early break.

Free from her studies, Tang Wulin naturally went to find Luo Qing and Na'er.

"Big Brother! Na'er! I can play with you two again!"

Tang Wulin hurried over. During this time, she had been practicing forging nonstop, and whenever she got home, she was usually so exhausted that she fell asleep as soon as she lay down.

But she did not regret it. As the older sister and currently the eldest daughter in the family, she wanted to help her parents shoulder some of the burdens of daily life.

What she regretted most was that she no longer had time to fool around with Luo Qing and Na'er.

Just as she happily approached, wanting to see whether they had missed her, she suddenly realized that Luo Qing and Na'er seemed to be studying something and had not noticed her arrival.

Seeing how utterly absorbed they were, Tang Wulin instinctively chose not to interrupt them. She merely sat quietly to the side and waited for them to finish what they were doing.

"Carve a little deeper here."

Luo Qing pointed at the dragon's wing. The spot he indicated was crucial—carving too much might cause the wing to break, while carving too little would make it look overly bulky.

"Okay, here?"

Na'er carefully held the carving knife and gently blew the fallen wood shavings aside.

"Is it finally finished?"

Na'er raised the wooden carving above her head. In the lingering glow of the setting sun, it looked especially lifelike.

Though it was a dragon made of wood, its vivid expression and the pose of its beating wings made Na'er almost unable to believe that such a beautiful piece had come from her own hands.

Only then did Luo Qing notice that Tang Wulin had been watching beside them for quite some time.

"Why didn't you say anything when you got here?"

"Wouldn't I have disturbed you two? What were you teaching Na'er to carve, Big Brother?"

Tang Wulin stepped closer, curiously leaning in to inspect it.

"Na'er, did you make this? What a cool dragon!"

Na'er seemed a little more confident now.

"Of course I made it! Brother Luo Qing taught me step by step! This is for Sister. Later, I'll give Brother Luo Qing a gift of his own."

Na'er handed the wooden carving to Tang Wulin. Tang Wulin instinctively reached out to accept it, her heart filled with emotion.

"So it was for me? I'll absolutely, absolutely treasure it!"

Tang Wulin carefully put away the carving.

The three began walking back to Tang Wulin's home. On the way, Na'er said something that left both of them stunned.

"Sister, Brother, if one day I regain my memories and have no choice but to leave, will you still remember me?"

"Of course we will! No matter where you are, you will always be family to us."

Tang Wulin felt a pang of reluctance.

She might seem a little airheaded, but when it came to important matters, she could always pick out the problem from the crucial details.

For Na'er to say this now, didn't it mean that her little sister would be leaving her before long?

"Wulin is right. No matter what, you're a member of our little group. And I believe that a brief parting will not lead to permanent separation. Farewell means an even more wonderful reunion next time. But if that day truly comes, I hope you won't forget me and your sister."

Luo Qing rubbed her silver hair and spoke gently.

Hearing this, Na'er's voice choked up.

Tang Wulin pulled her into her arms and gently patted her back to comfort her.

After a while, Na'er finally felt much better. She wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and looked earnestly at the two of them.

"Then it's a promise! One day, I'll definitely come back to find you!"

Na'er still ran home in a flash.

This surprised Tang Ziran and his wife, who were cooking in the kitchen.

"Was she crying?"

Sure enough, when Tang Wulin and Luo Qing went to Na'er's room to look for her afterward, they found only a letter left on the table.

The letter recounted all the little moments they had shared over the past days and expressed her reluctance to leave.

But her own destiny would eventually come for her, and the past followed like a shadow.

Na'er had also promised in the letter that, as long as she had the chance, she would definitely return to find them.

"Na'er must have gone home..."

Luo Qing looked at the one remaining item on the table. A slip of paper attached to it bore delicate handwriting: "For Brother Luo Qing..."

It was a necklace. Set into the silver-white chain was a sapphire shaped like a teardrop.

Luo Qing reached out and picked it up, only to find that it instinctively absorbed the soul power from his body.

"This is a storage-type soul tool? And judging by its capacity, it doesn't seem cheap either."

Luo Qing subconsciously clenched the necklace in his hand, then seemed to sense something and glanced out the window.

Outside stood two figures dressed in black, one large and one small. The smaller one seemed to notice his gaze and hurriedly hid behind the larger figure.

Luo Qing acted as though he had not seen them and shifted his gaze elsewhere.

"That was close. I almost got discovered."

Na'er hid behind Di Tian and patted her chest in lingering fear.

"My Lord, is that the ally we can win over?"

Di Tian's voice was steady, yet he was extremely respectful toward Na'er.

"That is light from beyond this world, a noble dragon that does not belong to this world. Moreover, he is upright by nature and will not tolerate those lowly scum from the God Realm. Our future lies here. Join hands with him and wage war against the gods—"

Na'er had privately tested Luo Qing's views on the gods before, and his answer had delighted her greatly.

"Parasites with no use whatsoever, who are even harmful to the world."

Who Luo Qing had instinctively been referring to at the time went without saying, but such an answer naturally revealed his stance.

"My Lord's foresight fills this subordinate with admiration."

Di Tian also knew what kind of enemy the God Realm was. To deal with such a troublesome enemy, they had to seize every moment available to grow and find as many allies as possible.

But the current stage of the plan had already been completed.

Na'er took one last deep look in that direction. After putting away the reluctance on her face, she turned and left with Di Tian.

Elsewhere, Luo Qing watched them leave and felt relieved as well.

"The next time we meet will be years from now. I wonder how much you'll have grown by then."

He comforted Tang Wulin, who was saddened by her little sister's departure, and explained the situation to Tang Ziran and his wife when they arrived afterward.

They accepted it quickly, as though they had long expected this day to come.

"It's all right, Wulin. Na'er merely went home. I'm sure she misses you too."

The couple comforted their grieving daughter.

The day ended with the sorrow of parting.

In the days that followed, Tang Wulin became even more devoted to forging. It seemed as though she wanted to numb herself through this endless cultivation.

At that moment, Luo Qing appeared behind her.

"You don't need to push yourself so hard. You should rest."

Mang Tian had been standing to the side for a long time. No matter how dull he was, he should have noticed that something was wrong with his apprentice's mood.

There was none of her usual spirit when she swung the hammer. It was as though she were using forging to numb herself.

So he called the only person who could persuade Tang Wulin.

"But am I really useless? I eat the most at home, and my martial soul isn't strong either. I need your protection in everything, Big Brother. Even Na'er leaving... that should have been because of me, right?"

Luo Qing immediately understood the mindset of the person before him.

She was the type to blame every mistake on herself, believing that her talent was not good enough, that becoming stronger required too many resources, and that she was burdening her parents.

She thought her appetite was too large, making the family unable to bear the burden, which was why Na'er had chosen to leave. She thought she was useless and could only rely on his protection to live peacefully.

"It's not like that. Everyone can undergo the transformation of dragon and serpent; you simply have not yet reached the step of leaping through the Dragon Gate. Besides, didn't you promise me? That you would always keep a passionate heart. And in the end, you will grow."

Luo Qing reached out to wipe away the tears at the corners of Tang Wulin's eyes, then smoothed the slightly disheveled hair that had been messed up during forging.

"Growth? If one day I no longer need to rely on you, Big Brother, would that count as growth?"

Luo Qing fell silent for a moment.

"Then that would mean Big Brother is useless..."