After the four of them finished the last steeping of tea beneath the ancient tree, the setting sun turned Lake of Life into a golden mirror. Gu Yue rose from the lakeside and brushed the bits of grass from her skirt. Di Tian set down his teacup, fragments of light from the lake reflected in his golden eyes. He was silent for a long time before finally speaking. "My Lord, since you've returned this time—can you stay for one night?"
It was neither an order nor a request, but the tentative question of an old man who had waited tens of thousands of years. Gu Yue turned to look at Di Tian. His golden eyes were still those dragon eyes from over eight hundred thousand years ago, imposing even without anger, yet the fingers holding his teacup—those dragon claws capable of tearing through space—were tightening ever so slightly, as if afraid she would say, "No."
"Alright." Gu Yue sat back down and pushed the teacup toward Di Tian. "I'll stay one night. I'll go back tomorrow."
Di Tian lowered his head. Something flickered in his golden eyes, then was quickly suppressed. He stood and gestured behind the ancient tree. Several ten-thousand-year soul beasts, which had long been waiting on standby, immediately scattered to prepare the evening banquet and accommodations. Holding a thermos cup, Lu Menge hid the smile at the corner of her mouth behind its rim and murmured to Tang Wulin beside her, "Did you see that gesture Di Tian made just now? He started preparing the room last night. He was afraid Gu Yue wouldn't stay. He's lived for over eight hundred thousand years, yet he still gets nervous in front of the Silver Dragon King." Watching Di Tian try to maintain his solemn expression even as his steps were clearly lighter than usual, Tang Wulin suddenly felt that the black dragon humans called the Beast God was more like a father waiting for his daughter to come home.
The banquet was set beneath the ancient tree. The ten-thousand-year soul beasts brought over stone tables and stools, and the table was laden with rare fruits and fine drinks unique to the Star Dou Great Forest. Di Tian sat to Gu Yue's right, Lu Menge to her left, and Tang Wulin across from her. He noticed a plate of unfamiliar golden fruits before him. After peeling one open, he found translucent flesh within, and a faint draconic aura melted over his tongue as he ate it.
Watching him peel the fruit from across the table, Di Tian said calmly, "Dragon Saliva Fruit. A rare fruit found only in the Core Area of the Star Dou Great Forest. One tree bears only one fruit, and it takes a thousand years to ripen. It nourishes dragon bloodlines—you possess the Divine Core of the Golden Dragon King, so it will benefit you."
Lu Menge grabbed one and tossed it to Tang Wulin. "Di Tian, you're playing favorites. Every time I came before, the Dragon Saliva Fruit either wasn't ripe yet or only had one left. Today, you brought out a whole plate—it's all thanks to Wulin." Di Tian raised his teacup without denying it. "Ninth Sister does not possess a dragon bloodline, so Dragon Saliva Fruit has little effect on her. Tang Wulin is different—though he is not a pure-blooded dragon, the Divine Core of the Golden Dragon King has long fused with his bloodline. Dragon Saliva Fruit can help him temper the lingering violent aura of the Divine Core." He paused, then turned to Tang Wulin. "This is the first time My Lord has brought a human back. This plate of fruit should have been saved for you."
Tang Wulin's fingers paused slightly as he peeled the Dragon Saliva Fruit. He looked up at Di Tian and, after a moment, solemnly said, "Thank you, Senior Di Tian." Then he placed the first peeled Dragon Saliva Fruit onto the plate in front of Gu Yue. Di Tian watched the scene with his teacup in hand and said nothing, but the curve of his lips lifted slightly more than usual as he drank.
After the banquet ended, the conversation beneath the ancient tree continued until the moon hung high in the sky. Leaning against the tree roots with her thermos cup, Lu Menge gazed at the stars filling the heavens. Then she suddenly turned to Gu Yue beside her. "There are more stars tonight than there were a few days ago. Are you going to visit the Stone Palace?"
Gu Yue fell silent for a moment, then stood and extended her hand to Tang Wulin. "Come. I'll show you where I used to live."
Stone Palace.
Tang Wulin stood before the palace gates, looking up at the ancient structure that had slumbered across from Lake of Life for tens of thousands of years. Its walls were built from huge blocks of bluestone, moss creeping through the seams, yet every pattern in those seams remained clear—traces of the Origin Force that had seeped through them while the Silver Dragon King slept. Gu Yue pushed open the doors. The hinges let out a heavy groan as moonlight poured through the stone windows in the roof, illuminating a stone platform at the center of the hall, carved from a single piece of lake stone. A layer of withered Silver-Scaled Grass lay spread atop it—grass that had been laid beneath Gu Yue when she slept tens of thousands of years ago. It had long lost its luster, yet faint silver veins could still be seen in its blades.
"This is where I slept for tens of thousands of years." Gu Yue walked to the stone platform, her fingertips gently brushing over the Silver-Scaled Grass. Her tone was calm. "Tens of thousands of years ago, I closed my eyes here. Tens of thousands of years later, I woke up here. The outside world had changed. Humans had invented Soul Tools, built cities, and driven soul beasts into hunting grounds. But when I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was still this lake and this forest. Di Tian knelt outside the palace gates and said, 'My Lord, you have awakened.' At that moment, I thought I had merely taken a nap."
Tang Wulin walked to her side and looked down at the yellowed blades of grass on the platform. He remembered what Di Tian had said by the lake—how, for tens of thousands of years, Di Tian had stood upon that bluestone every day, listening for any sound from this Stone Palace. He did not repeat Di Tian's words to Gu Yue, because there was no need. When Gu Yue told Di Tian that he no longer needed to kneel, she had already known. She simply was not good at saying such tender things in the Star Dou Great Forest—just like Di Tian.
Gu Yue gently placed the Silver-Scaled Grass back onto the platform and led Tang Wulin farther inside. The walls along both sides of the Stone Palace's corridors were covered in dragon reliefs—some dragons rode clouds and mist, some coiled above mountains and rivers, and some battled deities among the clouds. Gu Yue pointed at one relief in particular: a complete dragon with its head raised proudly, its tail curled around itself, and two now-dim gems set into its eyes. Her voice echoed through the empty Stone Palace, softer than usual. "This is the Dragon God. The origin of all dragon bloodlines. Both the Golden Dragon King and I were born from His division."
Tang Wulin stood before the relief for a long time without moving. This was not the first time he had heard of the Dragon God—the Golden Dragon King had mentioned Him countless times in his sea of consciousness, and Sister Lu had also said in the forging room, "You deserve the name Dragon God Armament." But this was the first time he had faced the Dragon God's image. The Dragon God on the relief was whole, golden and silver scales intertwined across His body. Though the gems in His eyes had dimmed, they still retained a trace of ancient majesty. The Golden Dragon King was silent in Tang Wulin's sea of consciousness—not because he was unwilling to speak, but because even he did not know what to say. A half that had been divided for tens of thousands of years stood in the Stone Palace of another half that had been divided for tens of thousands of years, gazing upon the original complete form of itself. At such a moment, words seemed superfluous.
Gu Yue stood quietly at his side. Only after his unsteady breathing settled did she lead him onward. Beyond the stone archway at the end of the corridor lay a smaller stone chamber. A round carpet covered the center of the room—Di Tian replaced it every year—and in one corner rested an ancient qin. Its strings were intact, though its body had grown somewhat dull. Gu Yue entered and sat before the qin. She gently plucked its finest string, and its clear, distant tone echoed between the stone walls.
"This is the Dragon God's Qin. After He divided, no one ever played it again. When I was little, I sat on this carpet while the Golden Dragon King lay beside me—sometimes in dragon form, sometimes in human form. He always said it was a relic of the Dragon God and couldn't be touched carelessly, but whenever I plucked the strings, he never went to tell on me." She withdrew her hand and looked at the faint vibration left on the string by her fingertip. "Later, during the war of the God Realm, the Golden Dragon King was sealed by Tang San, and I was sealed within the Elemental Core and put into slumber. This qin was left here and never sounded again. Now that the Golden Dragon King is within you, this qin has finally waited for the person it was meant to wait for."
Tang Wulin sat cross-legged on the carpet opposite her and suddenly asked, "Do you want to—play it together?"
Gu Yue looked at him, then lowered her gaze to the ancient qin that had been silent for tens of thousands of years. Then she shifted half a seat to the side, allowing Tang Wulin to sit beside her. Their fingers landed on the strings at the same time—Gu Yue pressed them down, while Tang Wulin plucked them. The qin's music rippled out from the stone chamber, through the corridor, past the Dragon God's eyes on the reliefs, through the Stone Palace's dome, and drifted toward the opposite shore of Lake of Life.
Beneath the ancient tree on the opposite shore, Di Tian's hand froze around his teacup. He abruptly raised his head toward the Stone Palace. Moonlight reflected from the lake shimmered in his golden eyes, as did the faint music seeping from the palace dome. His fingers trembled slightly against the rim of the cup. A drop of tea splashed onto the stone table, but he did not notice.
"Ninth Sister. That is the Dragon God's melody." Di Tian's voice was extremely soft, as though he feared waking a dream that had slept too long. Lu Menge had already risen to her feet. Facing the Stone Palace, the phantom of nine tiger tails flickered behind her, and her amber fox eyes held none of their usual laziness or amusement. She had lived for so long and passed Lake of Life countless times, believing the Dragon God's lingering echoes had long since been washed away by the lake's tides. She had not even dared hope that this qin would sound a second time. Yet now, a dual melody emerged from deep within the Stone Palace—not a lingering echo, not a reverberation, not any illusion. Someone was pressing the strings and plucking them at the same time.
"Gu Yue presses the strings, Wulin plucks them. When the Dragon God held that qin, it never needed two people to play it—because the Dragon God was originally one. Now that He is divided into two, this piece has become whole instead. Di Tian," she turned to him, her voice carrying a solemnity he had never seen on Ninth Sister's face, though the smile in her eyes could not be restrained, "did you hear it? The Dragon God has returned. Not His divine position, not His power, but the hands of these two little brats pressing the same string at once. I waited all these years just to hear this qin sound."
Di Tian said nothing. He stared toward the Stone Palace, and something moist glimmered in his golden eyes beneath the moonlight. For over eight hundred thousand years, he had guarded the Dragon God's fall, the Silver Dragon King's slumber, countless invasions by human soul masters, and countless natural disasters. He had thought he was guarding a forest, a mission, a name that would never return. Now, the music told him that the Dragon God had never left.
Inside the stone chamber, the final note faded into the air. Tang Wulin's fingers still rested lightly against the strings, while the string Gu Yue held down continued trembling faintly. Looking at her profile, he suddenly felt that this chamber was no longer the empty, lonely space he had sensed when he first pushed open the door—the place where she pressed the strings was so close to his, and the silence accumulated over tens of thousands of years had been filled completely by the notes just played.
Gu Yue turned to look at him as well. Moonlight leaked through the stone window and fell precisely between their fingers—their index fingers, which had both pressed the strings, lightly touched at the edge of the carpet. There was no Water-Mirror Reflection from combat class, no quenching tank in the forging room, no lunch beneath the ginkgo tree, no bamboo skewers before the barbecue stall. There was only the Stone Palace beneath the moon, the music just ended, and their fingers touching.
Tang Wulin took her hand in his palm, holding it gently yet steadily. The Golden Dragon King rolled over in his sea of consciousness, buried his head in his tail, and pretended to be asleep. Gu Yue lowered her lashes and gently withdrew her fingers from his palm—not in rejection, but to interlace them with his instead. She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. "This qin has sounded. For the first time in tens of thousands of years, someone pressed its strings at the same time. It was you and me." Her voice remained as cool as ever, but the moonlight in her dark eyes softened that faint layer of silver light. "From now on, every time we return to the Star Dou Great Forest, we'll come play it once—this is an order." Tang Wulin smiled and answered, "Alright," then clasped her fingers tightly in return.
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