Hello, My Name Is Gu Yue

Tang Wulin leaned against the wall for a few breaths, steadying his breathing. Morning light filtered down from above, shining on his torn school uniform. He raised a hand to press against his chest, confirmed that the dull ache had mostly faded, then let go and headed toward the alley entrance.

The sports field had already quieted down. The blood-red canopy had dispersed, and blue-gold light pressed down from the sky, driving the last layer of dark red from the edges to the center before crushing it there and swallowing it completely. Tang Wulin stopped behind a broken wall, half his body hidden in the shadows. He saw Yun Ming standing in the middle of the field in white, the Sky-Reaching Divine Spear already withdrawn into his body. Zhuo Shi came over carrying Wu Changkong, with Ya Li following behind. The Federation had also taken away the corpses of the two evil soul masters.

After watching for a while, he withdrew his gaze, sat down against the broken wall, and waited.

The smoke and dust over the field gradually settled, while the shadows between the shattered bricks slowly shortened. He heard someone calling his name from the direction of the teaching building, their voice breathless.

"Blue Silver Grass—! Where did you run off to—?!"

Tang Wulin stood, patted the dust off his pants, and walked out from behind the broken wall.

The campus was anything but quiet now.

The ruins on the sports field were still there. The blast craters had yet to be filled, while broken walls and shattered bricks lay scattered under the sunlight, their shadows stretching long and slanted. Every window in the classrooms near the field had been shattered, leaving empty frames hanging in place. Inside, rows of desks had been overturned, with books and stationery strewn across the floor. Soul-guided lamps still cast a dim yellow glow in the entrance hall. Students gathered in twos and threes in the open space, clearing rubble—some carried it, some lifted it, while others stacked the scattered books into neat piles on the steps.

Tang Wulin carried half a construction panel toward the entrance, with Xie Xie beside him. Each held one end, and the weight of the panel made Xie Xie grimace.

"Where the hell did you go just now?" Xie Xie asked, tilting his head as he panted. His golden hair was covered in dust, and sweat streamed down his face in muddy streaks. "When everyone gathered earlier, I looked everywhere and couldn't find you."

"I hid." Tang Wulin set the panel down in its designated spot, straightened up, and rubbed his shoulder. "What about you? Is the injury on your head serious?"

"Just a scrape." Xie Xie pressed the bandage at his temple and grinned at him. "You didn't see it just now—Teacher Wu was incredible. There were two Titled Douluos on the other side, and he held them off by himself for a long time. Ice-blue sword light filled the sky."

"That strong, huh?" Tang Wulin replied as he bent down to pick up shattered bricks and toss them into a cart. But his mind was on something else. If Wu Changkong could hold off two opponents until Yun Ming arrived, then his combat strength was clearly far greater than it had been at the same point in his previous life. Would Class Five's homeroom teacher still be Wu Changkong? Or had some things already begun to change?

What he did not know was that Wu Changkong was leaning against the wall beside a window at the entrance of Eastsea Academy. His external injuries had already been treated. White bandages wrapped around his shoulder and ribs, their outline faintly visible through his thin shirt.

"Are you really going to teach First Grade Class Five?" he asked. His voice carried a laziness and dependence no one had ever seen from him before. "What if they don't listen?"

Long Bing stood opposite him, flipping through a stack of name lists. Morning light fell over the ends of her hair. She closed the roster, turned around, and smiled. "There aren't that many bad children in this world. At their age, it's the perfect time for enlightenment. I hope a responsible teacher will truly pay attention to them. You've seen the other teachers. More or less, they're all a little irresponsible."

Wu Changkong pushed himself away from the wall and fell silent for a moment. "I'll discuss it with Director Long. I'll teach them."

Long Bing was slightly taken aback.

"Didn't the school mention it when I made that breakthrough?" Wu Changkong spoke unhurriedly, every word clear. "If the right opportunity arose, we would have the authority to establish a special class, and the academy would support us with everything it could. If they are qualified, we'll begin that plan this time. If they aren't, I'll still help them improve their control over their martial souls and soul power."

"Besides, what they lack now isn't just basic education. If they give up on themselves and feel inferior, only becoming strong themselves can help them break free from those problems at the root and let them know that they can do it." He added.

Long Bing watched him for a long time. The morning light softened the expression on her face. She pressed her lips together in a smile, and the warmth in it slowly spread from the corners of her mouth to her eyes. "All right. I can't argue with you. Then I'll wait at the finish line for your good news."

On the plaza before the school gates, the roar of soul-guided mechas rang out in waves. Several large crane vehicles dispatched by the Federation were lifting broken beams and pillars from the ruins one by one. The creaking of their mechanical arms and the low growl of their engines mingled together, while workers shouted back and forth without pause.

"I'm exhausted—! Why do students have to help with this too?!" Xie Xie threw down a construction panel and collapsed onto a nearby concrete block, throwing back his head and gasping for breath.

"All right, stop complaining." Tang Wulin dumped the shattered bricks from the cart into a recycling bin, then walked over and sat beside him. The sunlight warmed his face. As he watched the crane vehicles lift away chunks of the broken wall, he suddenly felt that days like this were quite peaceful. After everything he had experienced in his previous life, these ordinary days of moving bricks and sweating instead made him feel grounded.

All the building materials were at the entrance, so they had been sent over to help transport them.

"She's here." The Golden Dragon King's voice exploded in his mind, distant and ethereal, carrying an indescribable meaning.

"Who's here?"

The Golden Dragon King did not answer.

Tang Wulin swept his gaze toward the school gate. Behind the crowd stood a girl with black hair draped over her shoulders, wearing a light gray coat. She stood quietly there. She did not squeeze into the crowd or look around. She simply stood beside the iron fence like a puzzle piece that had been forgotten before it could be placed on the table.

The fingers gripping the shattered brick suddenly clenched tight.

The girl at the entrance had her weight resting on her left foot, her legs offset by less than half a step. She looked relaxed, but she could move in any direction at any moment.

He had seen that posture too many times in his previous life—at Class Zero's training grounds, inside the Spirit Ascension Platform, and on tree branches at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest. Whenever she waited for him, she stood like that. She did not move, did not rush him, and simply waited quietly. On the Extreme North Icefield, her silver hair had been covered in frost, ice crystals hanging from her eyelashes. Her lips had curved slightly as, in the end, she closed her eyes. The wind swept over the ice and scattered her hair across his arm. Then there had been that layer of ice, transparent and impossible to break. She had been inside it, and so had he. Even so, he had still felt that she had left him. The only thing connecting them had been the Golden Dragon Spear piercing through them both.

He blinked, and she was still standing there. Her black hair rested over her shoulders. Morning light filtered through the gaps in the iron fence, breaking into patches of brightness across her shoulders. Her nails were pale pink beneath the light. Alive. Able to breathe and blink.

Tang Wulin did not walk forward or call out to her. He only stood there. A thought rose in his heart, then sank again: This time, I won't let you bear so much alone again.

Long Bing walked out from the entrance hall. She passed through the crowd, the hem of her blue dress lifting in the morning breeze before falling again. She crouched in front of the girl. "Hello, I'm Long Bing, a teacher at this academy. What's your name?"

The girl raised her eyes and looked at Long Bing for a moment. After a brief silence, she said, "Gu Yue."

"Gu Yue." Long Bing nodded. "They're still cleaning up here, and it's dangerous. Are you here to enroll?"

"Mhm. I missed the registration period."

Long Bing was slightly startled. She stood and glanced behind her. At some point, Wu Changkong had already come out of the teaching building. He stood on the steps outside the entrance hall, his blue hair swaying slightly in the morning breeze, bandages still wrapped around his shoulders. He tilted his head, his gaze passing over Gu Yue before landing on Tang Wulin, who was looking over from not far away.

"That one over there." He lifted his chin in Tang Wulin's direction. "Defeat him, and you can enroll."

Gu Yue followed his gesture and looked over.

Tang Wulin stood amid shattered bricks and dust. Morning light shone in from the side, bleaching his torn school uniform pale. Gu Yue's gaze fell on his face, sliding from his brows to the bridge of his nose, then from his nose to his chin before stopping. There was nothing in those eyes—no ripple, no surprise, no trace of recognition. She looked at him as though he were someone she had never met.

Tang Wulin's throat moved. He did not step forward. He only stood there.

Gu Yue looked away and turned back to Long Bing. "If I beat him, I can enroll?"

Wu Changkong leaned against the doorframe. "If you have the ability."

Gu Yue did not speak again. She lifted her foot and walked toward Tang Wulin. Her pace was neither fast nor slow. The hem of her light gray coat swayed gently with each step, while her shoes crunched softly over shattered bricks and dust.

She stopped three steps in front of him. Sunlight shone from behind her, outlining her entire figure in a pale golden edge. The shadow of her hair fell across her shoulders. She raised her chin slightly, looked at his face, and spoke.

"Hello, my name is Gu Yue."

Her voice was soft, clean, and crisp. The final note was short, like a pebble falling into water and vanishing beneath the surface.

Tang Wulin looked at her standing three steps away, black hair falling over her shoulders, the cuffs of her light gray coat rolled up slightly to reveal slender, fair wrists.

He drew a breath and suppressed the turmoil rising in his throat and eyes. "Hello, Gu Yue. My name is... Tang Wulin."

Gu Yue glanced at him and said nothing more. She took half a step back, spread her feet shoulder-width apart, lowered her center of gravity, extended her left hand forward with her palm facing up, and drew her right hand back to her waist. It was the standard opening stance for releasing a martial soul.

Tang Wulin moved as well. He stepped to the left, bent his right leg slightly, held his left arm across his body, and faced his palm outward.

A crimson-gold bloodline soul ring bloomed.

The two stood facing each other, separated by three steps. Morning light covered the entire ruin, and dust drifted slowly through the light between them. In the distance, crane vehicles still rumbled, while the workers' shouts carried over from the school gate, yet those sounds seemed very far away.

Four eyes locked together, as though they could pierce through the years.