Little Ones

After a brief stop in Eastsea City, Tang Wulin and Gu Yuena set out once more. Rather than heading directly to Shrek City, the heart of the vortex, they bought Soul Train tickets to Skysea City. Like Eastsea City, Skysea City belonged to the Eastsea Alliance and was one of the twin stars of this coastal region.

The train sped along the coastline. Outside the windows stretched the boundless azure sea, along with the occasional silhouette of a modern city flashing past. Compared to Eastsea City, which retained more traces of history and a stronger sense of everyday life, Skysea City struck them with an overwhelming sense of futurism as its outline gradually sharpened on the horizon.

The towering buildings were no longer simple cubes, but featured streamlined, spiral, and even floating designs. Massive holographic advertisements shifted and flowed across the sky. Soul-powered hovercars were no longer a rarity; like dense yet orderly schools of fish, they darted at high speed along predetermined aerial routes, leaving low hums in their wake. Cleaning robots glided silently through the streets, convenient public soul-powered facilities stood everywhere, and pedestrians hurried along in fashionable clothes. The entire city resembled a precision soul device operating with perfect efficiency.

"The changes here are even greater than in Eastsea City," Gu Yuena commented softly as she looked outside. Eastsea City had ancient clans like the Xie Family and the Xu Family overseeing it, so its development placed greater emphasis on combining heritage with tradition. Skysea City, meanwhile, was more like a showcase window for soul-powered technology that the Federal Government had built with all its strength, where everything was measured by efficiency and advancement.

Tang Wulin nodded. He could sense the enormous, orderly currents of soul power flowing beneath the city, the core soul-device network that supported its entire operation. Following the crowd off the train, the two entered Skysea City's grand soul-powered station. The interior was vast, with a dome projecting a holographic blue sky and white clouds overhead. The light was soft and bright.

Just as they were about to follow the signs toward the exit and blend into this brand-new city, a quarrel among children from the nearby rest area caught their attention.

Several children who looked to be around ten years old stood gathered together, and the atmosphere was somewhat tense. One boy, slightly older and the tallest among them, was pinching the ear of a delicate-looking, fair-skinned little boy. His expression fell somewhere between teasing and scolding.

"Hey, Xiao Yi! You've got some nerve!" The older boy had a loud voice, carrying the boisterousness unique to his age. "Before soul power class was even over, you dragged Lin Xiaoyu off with you. Learning bad habits at such a young age! Tell me, instead of cultivating properly, where were you planning to sneak off to with your 'little girlfriend'?"

The little girl called Xiaoyu stood to the side, her face instantly flushing red like a ripe apple. She stamped her foot anxiously and hurriedly waved her hands in denial, her voice urgent and embarrassed. "Zhang Hu, stop talking nonsense! I'm not his girlfriend! We... we're just good friends! We just wanted to... to take a walk by the beach and see whether there was a new soul-powered surfboard performance today!"

The delicate little boy called Xiao Yi grimaced in pain as his ear was pinched, yet he still tried to remain calm as he argued, "Brother Hu, let go! We really were just going to take a look! I finished all of today's training tasks!"

"Finished them? You call that finished? It was barely passable! As a Soul Master, you don't have a shred of ambition!" Zhang Hu refused to let it go, putting on the airs of a little adult. Yet there was not much malice in his eyes; it was more like an older brother's teasing as he established his "authority."

This scene made Tang Wulin and Gu Yuena, who happened to be passing by, stop in unspoken agreement.

Tang Wulin looked at the delicate little boy struggling to defend himself with his ear pinched, then at Lin Xiaoyu, who was blushing furiously and desperately explaining herself. He could not help smiling. A memory seemed to travel to him through the warmth between his fingers.

It had been at the entrance of Eastsea Academy, with sunlight streaming through the windows of a soul-powered bus. Back when he was young, his outstanding forging talent had caught the attention of his senior sister, Mu Xi. Mu Xi had done the same thing then, reaching out to pinch his ear. He still remembered how Gu Yue's face had darkened. Almost without hesitation, she had slapped away Mu Xi's hand from his ear, the movement crisp and decisive. What followed was Mu Xi's teasing, half laughing and half scolding.

"Not bad, Tang Wulin. You're already fooling around at such a young age—you've even got yourself a little girlfriend?"

Back then, just like the little fellow before him, he had been somewhat embarrassed and helpless. Yet because of Gu Yue's instinctive defense of him, a trace of sweetness had quietly risen in his heart, one that even he himself had not fully understood.

At the thought of it, the corners of Tang Wulin's mouth rose uncontrollably, revealing a warm, nostalgic smile. He instinctively turned his head to look at Gu Yuena beside him.

Almost at the same moment, Gu Yuena turned to look at him as well. In those black eyes, disguised by her altered appearance, the same understanding and remembrance were clearly reflected. Evidently, she too had recalled that moment in Eastsea City ten thousand years ago. Mu Xi's teasing term, "little girlfriend," had crossed ten thousand years of time and reappeared now in another form among another group of children.

Their gazes met. Without needing words, they both saw that tacit understanding and warmth that transcended time in each other's eyes. They smiled softly in unspoken agreement. There was no mockery in those smiles, nor any condescension—only the tenderness and shared understanding of seeing an innocent childhood, of seeing reflections of their own past.

The children's dispute continued. Zhang Hu was still "educating" the little fellow, while Lin Xiaoyu continued trying to clear things up. Yet this tiny interlude was like a gentle breeze, dispersing the alienation brought by Skysea City's overly cold sense of technology and adding a touch of vivid life to the modern metropolis.

Tang Wulin and Gu Yuena did not linger, nor did they interfere with the children's world. Like countless ordinary passersby, they simply turned naturally and continued toward the station exit, the faint smiles still on their faces.

Naturally, Tang Wulin reached out and took Gu Yuena's hand. Her fingers moved slightly, then obediently let his warm palm envelop them. Their hands clasped tightly together, their fingertips conveying silent communication and comfort.

They crossed the broad, brightly lit station hall and passed through the automatic glass doors. A more tangible vision of Skysea City rushed toward them: noisier traffic, denser crowds, and more dazzling soul-powered lights and shadows.

Hand in hand, they merged into the tide of this futuristic city. Yet their state of mind differed slightly from that of the hurried people around them, all pursuing efficiency and technology. Their steps were unhurried, their eyes filled with curiosity, as well as a faint longing for the age of innocence stirred by that childhood scene just now.

The teasing words "little girlfriend" from ten thousand years ago, along with the children's similar banter ten thousand years later, were like an invisible thread cleverly linking past and present. On their journey to seek out their heavy past, they had unexpectedly picked up a light, bright fragment of memory.

Their journey through Skysea City began quietly amid this subtle atmosphere that mixed the chill of technology with warmth. No one knew whether this advanced city, which seemed to have little connection to their past, would be like that children's quarrel that had happened to reach their ears—whether it would bring forth the deepest memories upon the blank canvas of their recollections.