Night Watch, a Delightful Conversation (Sweet!)

"Dean, do you think there is?"

After that, they chatted for another two hours...

Shui Qinghan brushed the crumbs from her hands, stood up, and swept her gaze over the three students. "All right, enough small talk."

"Now, let's arrange the night watch. This is something you must learn as well."

"Anything can happen at night in the Far North—blizzards, nocturnal attacks by soul beasts, even a sudden plunge in the cave's temperature. Any one of those can be fatal."

"The person on watch must stay alert and wake everyone else immediately if anything seems wrong."

She raised one finger. "We'll count the night as ten hours. I'll take four hours, and the three of you will each take two."

"Dean, I'll take four hours." Wu Changkong stood up. "We came to the Far North for my soul ring. I should be taking on more responsibility."

Shui Qinghan glanced at him and reached out to pat his head. "No need. You're still growing. Get more rest."

With that, she turned and walked to the cave entrance. She sat cross-legged beside the barrier, her back to the three students as she looked out at the pitch-black blizzard beyond the cave. Xue Wu asked, "Then shall we rest first?"

Shui Bing'er held her hands over the fire and looked at Xue Wu. "You sleep. I want to cultivate a little longer."

"Changkong, what about you?"

"I'll cultivate for a while too."

Xue Wu spread out her blanket, yawned, and wrapped herself in it as she leaned against the rock wall. "You two really are in sync... I'll sleep first, then. Wake me when it's my turn to keep watch."

Not long after she finished speaking, she fell asleep.

Shui Bing'er sat cross-legged and closed her eyes. "I'm cultivating now."

"Mm, all right."

Wu Changkong sat opposite her, watching her peaceful face.

Whether it was her appearance or personality, she resembled Long Bing greatly—calm, strong-willed, cold on the outside but warm within.

But Wu Changkong knew very clearly that Shui Bing'er was Shui Bing'er, not anyone's shadow.

He would rather regard her as a completely new person, get to know her and understand her, than force memories from twenty thousand years ago onto her.

He withdrew his gaze, closed his eyes, and began circulating the Mysterious Heaven Technique.

Although his soul power had already reached a bottleneck, this period of cultivation would not go to waste. Once he broke through, it would all show.

Four hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Shui Qinghan rose and walked over to the two of them, lowering her voice as she asked, "Which of you will keep watch?"

Wu Changkong and Shui Bing'er ended their cultivation at the same time and opened their eyes.

"I'll do it."

Their words fell at the same time. They looked at each other, then both awkwardly looked away.

"You two are really in sync, huh?"

"How about this? You two keep watch together. It's easy to get sleepy alone, but the two of you can talk to stay awake."

Wu Changkong glanced at Shui Qinghan. The dean was setting him up again.

Throughout this trip, she had seized every opportunity to create chances for him and Bing'er to be alone together. Now she was even matchmaking them during the night watch.

"Bing'er, what do you think?"

"Okay." Shui Bing'er nodded.

Shui Qinghan patted both of them on the shoulder, then turned and returned to her bedding. She lay down and shifted the blanket-wrapped Xue Wu slightly to one side.

The two sat side by side at the cave entrance.

Shui Bing'er hugged her knees and tilted her head to glance at Wu Changkong before asking, "Changkong, have I met you before?"

"What makes you say that?"

"On the day of the martial soul awakening, I saw a boy staring at me the whole time."

"Was that you?"

"How did you know it was me?"

"I could tell."

"You both have white hair, and the way you looked at me back then... how should I put it? It was very similar to how you look at me now."

"It was me." Wu Changkong nodded. "You still remember that? I thought you'd forgotten long ago."

After all, that encounter should have been nothing more than a brief little episode to her, and there was no reason for him to bring it up himself.

"Because you were staring straight at me with tears in your eyes." Shui Bing'er cocked her head. "I thought someone had bullied you and made you cry."

"You noticed me?" Wu Changkong was a little surprised.

He had always thought that she had merely glanced at him that day before getting into the car and leaving.

"Mm." Shui Bing'er nodded and looked at him seriously. "What happened to you then?"

Wu Changkong opened his mouth, but swallowed the words when they reached his lips.

What could he say?

That seeing her face had reminded him of a lover who had died?

He could not say such things, at least not now.

"My... eyes got some sand in them."

Shui Bing'er snorted. "Oh, please. I'm not stupid."

She turned her head to look at the starry sky outside the cave and fell silent for a while.

Wu Changkong thought she was angry and was about to explain when she spoke first.

"Still, when you suddenly said you wanted to get to know me outside the Shui Family home, you really startled me."

"Who asks whether they can get to know someone the first time they meet, and gets that nervous about it?"

Wu Changkong scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed. "I thought it was a little abrupt too."

"It was rather abrupt." Shui Bing'er turned to look at him. Yet there was not the slightest trace of blame in her eyes, only a faint smile. "But I felt that you were sincere."

"It wasn't the kind of politeness people put on. You truly wanted to get to know me, which was why I was willing to get to know you."

"Now, it seems I judged you correctly."

Looking at the smile at the corner of her lips, Wu Changkong suddenly felt as though something had struck his chest.

"It's my honor to be recognized by Lady Bing'er."

His words made the tips of Shui Bing'er's ears turn even redder. She took out a stack of blueprints from her storage soul tool and spread them between them, changing the subject. "Oh, right. I drew several battle armor design drafts. Help me see if they work."

Wu Changkong took the blueprints and carefully examined them one by one by the firelight.

There was no problem with the overall framework of Shui Bing'er's designs. It was obvious that she had thoroughly absorbed the introductory lessons from the past half month, but there were still mistakes in several details.

"This part is wrong." He pointed at the curvature parameter of the shoulder armor. "The Ice Phoenix's frost energy conduction efficiency is higher than the Skyfrost Sword's. The energy pathways in the shoulder armor should be wider, but you made them narrower instead."

Shui Bing'er leaned closer to look and frowned. "I thought narrower would be more efficient."

"That's true for ordinary metals, but you're using Sinking Silver for the framework. Sinking Silver itself greatly enhances soul power conduction, so if the pathways are too narrow, it'll instead cause..."

Shui Bing'er listened attentively, nodding from time to time as she committed each of his suggestions to memory.

The two discussed the blueprints for more than two hours.

When Wu Changkong lowered his head, he saw that Shui Bing'er's hands had turned red from the cold.

The nights in the Far North were bitterly cold. Even with the bonfire and charcoal fire, icy air kept seeping in through the cave entrance. Shui Bing'er had kept her fingers exposed while drawing, and they had long since been badly chilled.

Suddenly, Wu Changkong reached out and took her hand.

Wu Changkong's hand was larger than hers, its palm warm and covered in thin calluses from years of forging and swordsmanship. It completely enveloped her hand in his palm.