Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Night

Gu Yue had eaten and drunk her fill, and her mood had improved considerably. She followed along at an unhurried pace.

Seeing Chen An and Tang Wuling standing face-to-face, unable to say a word for a long while,

a trace of amusement flickered through her eyes. She walked straight over and broke the awkward silence.

"Tang Wuling, where did you go after the Class Advancement Tournament?

You and Chen An are practically inseparable most days. Chen An even went out for a meal this afternoon, yet you were nowhere to be seen. What a pity."

Chen An's ears twitched slightly, and an inexplicable, subtle feeling rose in his heart.

Perhaps he had seen too many similar plotlines in the past, but to his ears, Gu Yue's words faintly carried a hint of understated bragging: I was with Chen An, while you weren't.

But Tang Wuling failed to catch that subtext entirely. Hearing this, she honestly explained,

"Teacher Wu Changkong noticed something unusual about me during the Class Advancement Tournament. He called me over afterward and ran a series of tests on my spiritual power and physical strength. All the readings had increased by quite a bit."

Gu Yue narrowed her eyes slightly, her long lashes lowering as she softly uttered two meaningful words.

"Is that so."

Those changes had come from the loosening and release of the first seal within Tang Wuling's Golden Dragon King bloodline. There was no way Gu Yue could fail to sense it.

Her response was her silently weighing the matter of the Golden Dragon King's seal.

While the two girls were talking, Chen An's gaze unconsciously swept toward the roadside bushes.

The streetlamp's light was blocked by the shrubs there, leaving the area in darkness.

A strand of hair swayed faintly through a gap in the grass, and half a figure hid timidly behind it.

The light was too dim to make out her full face, but Chen An recognized that outline at once. It was Li Chushui.

No wonder Tang Wuling had seemed so awkward and hesitant earlier. So after the tournament, instead of coming to find him, she had gone to Li Chushui first to confide in her.

Tang Wuling quickly changed the subject, a faint worry appearing between her brows.

"By the way, today's Class Advancement Tournament was forcibly halted. I wonder what arrangements the academy higher-ups will make in the end."

Gu Yue had little interest in that and did not care about the outcome at all. Her gaze fell on Chen An again, the emotions in her eyes dark and unreadable.

After a moment, she spoke lightly, finding an excuse to leave.

"It's getting late. I should head back, wash up, and rest. You two can talk."

With that, Gu Yue did not linger. She turned and left, leaving only Chen An and Tang Wuling beneath the night sky.

The evening breeze rustled through the campus trees, and the atmosphere fell silent once more.

"Sorry for making you wait here so long."

Chen An was the first to break the silence.

Tang Wuling hurriedly waved her hands, turning her face slightly aside.

"I wasn't waiting here for you the whole time. Li Chushui was with me, so it wasn't that long."

After that came another stretch of wordless silence.

Tang Wuling took a deep breath and forced herself to sound casual.

"Alright, don't make things so weird. What happened in the lounge this morning, you... you shouldn't keep thinking about it anymore, understand?"

Though she sounded open and unconcerned, a faint blush had already spread across her cheeks and the tips of her ears.

To be honest, Chen An had never had any strange thoughts about Tang Wuling.

He was not at an age where he was inexperienced in matters of the heart. Since she wanted to turn the page, he followed her wishes and stopped dwelling on that awkward incident.

"Mm."

He agreed, then asked,

"Sister Wuling, you waited here for me so late. Is there something you wanted?"

"It's not really anything important."

Tang Wuling looked toward the campus in the distance, where lights glimmered here and there.

"I just wanted to ask whether you could take a walk around the academy with me."

"Sure."

The two walked side by side along the lamp-lit path, slowly making their way toward the dormitories.

The dim yellow streetlights were sometimes broken apart by thick tree canopies, casting mottled shadows across them.

At other times, they stretched their small shadows across the pavement, one bright and one dark, swaying continuously with their steps.

Tang Wuling could still hear the warning from that golden figure in her spiritual world—the Golden Dragon King's secret could never be revealed to anyone, not even a little.

With so many thoughts she could not share, she could only find other topics to ease the knot in her heart.

"How did you get that Millennium Soul Ring?"

Tang Wuling turned her head and asked curiously.

"I can't really explain it either."

Chen An used the same explanation he had given Ye Yingluo before. Knowing that Tang Wuling would not press further, he answered even more simply.

"Maybe it's a rare trait of my martial soul. It has a strong affinity with water, and after the Soul Spirit fused with my martial soul, it brought out my potential."

Tang Wuling nodded firmly, a genuine smile blooming in her eyes. She was sincerely happy for the younger brother beside her.

"You're amazing, Xiao An. Your talent is getting stronger and stronger."

After that brief joy, a faint shadow fell over her expression again. She hesitated for a long time before softly speaking, her voice as light as the evening breeze.

"If... one day, I disappeared, what would you do? It's just, just a hypothetical question. I'm not saying I'd really leave!"

How could Chen An fail to understand that this was not an offhand hypothetical?

The Golden Dragon King's seals grew more dangerous with each layer. After experiencing the first seal loosen, Tang Wuling had truly felt the terror of the power lurking within her.

One day in the future, she might really be devoured by the Golden Dragon King's power and vanish from the world.

If they could not find Tang Ziran and his wife, then once she was gone, he would be all alone.

Chen An weighed his words in his heart, then ultimately chose an answer that was somewhat melodramatic and missed her meaning entirely.

"If you disappeared too, I'd live my life well. At the same time, I'd travel to every corner of this world, search through every trace, and look for signs of you."

Tang Wuling was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.

The heavy pressure in her heart eased somewhat, and she continued asking,

"What about you? Is there anywhere you really want to go?"

Chen An looked up at the night sky and thought for a moment.

"Shrek City. The continent's greatest Soul Masters gather there. It's incredibly prosperous, and it has the towering, magnificent Spirit Pagoda. The only regret is that you can't see the sea there."

"No sea..." Tang Wuling murmured softly.

Having grown up beside the sea in Aolai City, the ocean had long been etched into her memories. If she could not see it for a long time, it really would feel like something was missing.

The two chatted idly all the way, passing flower beds and training grounds. Before they knew it, they had reached the intersection dividing the male and female dormitories.

"We should part here."

Tang Wuling stopped and waved to Chen An, her eyes carrying a gentle smile.

"Good night."

"Good night, Sister Wuling."

The two bid each other farewell.

Only after Chen An's figure had completely disappeared through the entrance of the boys' dormitory did movement finally come from the bushes.

With leaves tangled in her hair, Li Chushui crawled out of the grass and hurried over to Tang Wuling, her face full of curiosity.

"Well? Well? How did the conversation go?"

Tang Wuling's cheeks warmed slightly. She raised a hand and pushed away her friend, who had leaned in close.

"Stop teasing me. Chen An is my younger brother. How could our relationship possibly become the kind you're imagining?"

Inside a room in the girls' dormitory.

After washing up and shedding the day's exhaustion, Tang Wuling lay down on her bed, tightly hugging the little doll Chen An had given her when he first enrolled.

The soft fabric pressed against her chest. With a faint smile on her lips, she slowly closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.