Star Dou Great Forest, core region. The waters of Lake of Life were calmer than when Gu Yue had last left. A faint silver gleam rippled across the surface, Origin Force left behind by the Silver Dragon King during her tens of thousands of years of slumber, still nourishing the soil and water in the deepest part of the forest. Several soul beasts with millennia of cultivation drank by the shore. When they looked up and saw the two approaching, they first became instinctively wary, then sensed the familiar aura emanating from Gu Yue, one ingrained in their very bones. They all lowered their heads and retreated to either side, clearing a path toward the core region.
Gu Yue walked ahead, her steps somewhat slower than usual. Her black hair fell over her shoulders, and its tips occasionally flashed with an exceedingly faint silver beneath the fragmented light filtering through the canopy—a resonance instinctively stirred in the Silver Dragon King's bloodline as they neared Lake of Life. Tang Wulin walked beside her, carrying a cloth bundle carefully wrapped in Blue Silver Grass. Inside was a gift he had brought for Di Tian. He said nothing, but he walked exactly alongside her, neither too close nor too far away—the distance she was most accustomed to during practical combat classes.
"Lake of Life is just ahead. Di Tian usually meditates beneath the ancient tree by the lake. The last time I came, he left a stone for me beneath the tree—the one the Dragon God sat on back then." Gu Yue suddenly spoke, her voice especially crisp amid the silence of the forest.
Tang Wulin turned to look at her and gave a quiet response, lifting the bundle slightly. The Golden Dragon King turned over in his sea of consciousness, his dragon tail lightly tapping the sealing dais, his tone carrying a rare trace of sentiment. Tang Wulin replied, "We're already at the doorstep." He had lived with this old dragon in his mind for years now and had long grown accustomed to referring to the two of them as "we."
The two passed through the final stretch of dense forest, and the full expanse of Lake of Life suddenly opened before them. The lake was clear as a mirror, reflecting the branches and leaves of the towering ancient trees around it and the sky overhead, fragmented by the canopy. Two people sat beneath the ancient tree by the shore. One was Di Tian—golden-eyed and black-haired, his expression stern as he sat cross-legged atop the thick roots. He was not wearing his usual cloak today, but a dark robe embroidered with dusky golden dragon patterns at the cuffs. The other sat opposite Di Tian with her legs crossed, holding her ever-present thermos cup. Her silver hair glowed softly beneath the shade as she lowered her head and said something to Di Tian in a tone that sounded like casual chatter.
Tang Wulin froze. "Sister Lu? How did you get here before us?" Gu Yue also paused, but she was far calmer than Tang Wulin—clearly, she had long grown used to Lu Menge's "teleporting visits."
Lu Menge turned and waved her thermos at them, smiling brightly. "Oh, you're back? I got here one cup of tea before you—surely you know the speed of the Nine-Headed White Tiger. Sit down. Di Tian just brewed tea, and it's still hot." She pointed to the tea tray resting on the ancient tree's roots, where a purple clay teapot and several coarse ceramic cups had been placed. Di Tian lifted the teapot, his movements surprisingly practiced, refilled Lu Menge's cup, then took out two new cups and filled them both.
Gu Yue walked up to Di Tian and lowered her head slightly. "Di Tian, I'm back." Di Tian set down the teapot, rose to his feet, dropped to one knee, and bowed his head. The movement was exactly the same as it had been tens of thousands of years ago. "My Lord. The disturbance in Lake of Life has subsided—it was a brief resonance from the Dragon God's lingering aura at the lakebed during the cyclical Leyline Tides. This subordinate has confirmed it. There is no need for concern."
Gu Yue reached out and helped him up by the arm. "Get up. I've said it many times. You don't need to kneel." Di Tian rose with her support, a faint smile flashing through his golden eyes. "If My Lord says I need not kneel, then I will not kneel. But when My Lord returns next time, this subordinate will still kneel—this is this subordinate's respect for My Lord. It has nothing to do with whether My Lord permits it."
Tang Wulin stepped forward and offered the cloth bundle with both hands. "Senior Di Tian, this is a gift for you. I forged a pair of tea knives myself. Gu Yue said you enjoy tea, so the edge of this one was made from an alloy tempered with Golden Dragon King blood and vitality while I was quenching it in the forge. It should cut tea cakes a little faster than ordinary blades. The other is a White Tiger bone blade blank Sister Lu asked me to bring. She said you had requested it from her before." Di Tian took the bundle and opened it. Two delicate tea knives lay within. One faintly glimmered gold, while the other was smooth and jade-white. He looked at the two knives for a long time in silence, then raised his head and met Tang Wulin's gaze directly. The scrutiny in his golden eyes gradually turned into a faint acknowledgment.
"Tempered with Golden Dragon King blood and vitality—every piece of tea cake cut by this blade will carry the aura of the dragon race. This is the most unusual gift I have received in my life. As for the other bone blade, its blank must be nurtured with one's natal true fire for a hundred days. Ninth Sister, you haven't even been willing to pluck a feather for who knows how many years, yet this time you made an exception for Di."
Lu Menge lifted her teacup without answering directly, but lightly tapped her thermos against Di Tian's cup. Gu Yue sat down on another of the ancient tree's roots, took a sip of the tea Di Tian had poured for her, and casually asked, "What were you talking about just now that had you laughing so happily?" Di Tian set down the tea knives and turned to Lu Menge, his tone as serious as if reporting military intelligence. "Ninth Sister mentioned during our previous communication that Wulin might dye his hair blond before coming to see me. That was what we were discussing."
Lu Menge choked on her tea and slapped her thigh. "That's right! Didn't I tell you? I said that little Golden Dragon King might show up to see you with dyed blond hair, riding a souped-up motorcycle, roaring all the way into the Star Dou Great Forest."
Di Tian turned to Gu Yue. His expression remained stern and serious, but his brows furrowed slightly. He was clearly genuinely confused. "My Lord, isn't blond hair a form of etiquette in human society? This subordinate saw it in the comments under those videos—dyeing one's hair blond and riding a souped-up motorcycle seems to be the highest form of respect when young humans meet the elders of the other party's family. There was also something like, 'When the souped-up bike revs, your parents raised you for nothing.' This subordinate specifically looked up what a souped-up motorcycle was. Ninth Sister clearly said—"
Gu Yue set down her teacup and calmly cut him off. "Di Tian. Stop watching all those random videos." Tang Wulin stood beside them, his ability to keep a straight face undergoing a severe test. The Golden Dragon King was already rolling around laughing in his sea of consciousness, his tail wildly slapping the sealing dais. Tang Wulin opened his mouth as if to say something, but wisely chose silence in the end and turned his face toward Lu Menge.
Lu Menge got up, walked over, and patted Di Tian on the shoulder, speaking earnestly. "Di Tian, watch fewer short videos from now on. The comment sections you've been reading aren't etiquette guides—blond hair is a bad example, and souped-up motorcycles are a joke, not a standard for meeting the parents. And even if humans really had such a rule, Gu Yue would never let Wulin dye his hair blond—she cares about appearances. Right, Gu Yue?" Gu Yue did not answer. She merely raised her teacup and took another sip. But Tang Wulin noticed that when she turned her head, the tips of her ears had reddened slightly, and her lips pressed together faintly—that was her habitual gesture when holding back a laugh.
Di Tian stood where he was and brushed a fallen leaf from the cuff of his tea robe. Then his golden eyes swept from Lu Menge to Tang Wulin, as though recalibrating his understanding of human etiquette. "This subordinate does not understand. Last time, My Lord said Teacher Lu always pretended to be pitiful before Teacher Wulin, and that Teacher Wulin thought Teacher Lu was the young wife of a wealthy businessman in the human world. This subordinate thought these were the etiquette rules of the human world—when meeting elders, one must dye one's hair blond; if injured, one must say one was abused; if two people liked each other, they must not live together. The rules of the human world are harder to unravel than the dragon race's sealing formations."
Gu Yue set down her teacup, her voice still calm. "Di Tian, you've lived for more than eight hundred thousand years. You'll never learn the rules of the human world. From now on, don't believe everything Sister Lu tells you—last time, she even told me that those with the Dragon God bloodline needed to have two children to be safe." Di Tian's golden eyes widened slightly as he turned toward Lu Menge. Lu Menge raised her thermos to cover her face and stared intently at the sky visible through the gaps in the canopy, pretending to study the movement of the clouds.
Di Tian remained silent for a long time, long enough for several more leaves to fall from the ancient tree. He picked up the tea that had already gone cold and drank it in one gulp, then said softly, "This subordinate should continue studying the Leyline Tides."
Tang Wulin finally failed to hold back a laugh. Gu Yue rose, walked to Di Tian's side, poured out the cold tea before him, and refilled his cup with hot tea. "You don't need to understand the rules of the human world. The Star Dou Great Forest is the place you have guarded for hundreds of thousands of years—you understand its rules better than anyone. That is enough." Di Tian accepted the hot tea and lowered his head to look at the amber-colored brew in the cup. He had guarded this forest for hundreds of thousands of years. He had guarded it through the long darkness after the Dragon God's fall, through the tens of thousands of lonely years of the Silver Dragon King's slumber, through countless invasions by human soul masters and natural disasters. Now, in the forest he guarded, there was the human boy the Silver Dragon King had brought back, Ninth Sister sitting with crossed legs and drinking tea, and four people gathered around a stone table beneath the ancient tree. He suddenly felt that perhaps he did not need to understand every rule of the human world. Some things did not need to be taught by comment sections—seeing the golden light on the tea knife and the White Tiger true fire within the bone blade was enough.
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