Searching from Every Direction

After dinner, Shui Yue'er paid the bill, and the group left the Sea Flavor Pavilion laughing and chatting.

Night had fallen completely, but the snack street was more crowded than ever, bright with lanterns and alive with vendors' cries.

Shui Yue'er led everyone through two alleys, avoiding the crowds, and reached the relay station outside Vast Sea City's north gate.

A luxurious carriage bearing Skywater Academy's crest was already waiting there.

It was drawn by two specially bred ice-attribute Soul Beast horses. Snow-white from head to hoof, they had fine ice crystals drifting through their manes in the night wind.

The carriage was larger than an ordinary one, with room for ten people. Soft cushions lined the interior, and a delicate little charcoal brazier stood in one corner, warming a pot of tea.

"Climb in, cuties." Shui Yue'er opened the door and gestured for them to enter.

Jiang Lan climbed aboard with Doro in his arms and froze at the luxury inside.

The cushions were softer than his bed at the Sea God Palace. Orange peel roasting on the brazier gave off a faint fragrance, and a little bookshelf in the corner held several neatly arranged Soul Master guides.

"This is way too fancy, gah..." Jiang Lan set Doro on a cushion and sank into it himself. The little orange flippers of his penguin onesie kicked twice against the seat, and his eyes narrowed in bliss.

The girls climbed in one after another. Shui Yue'er boarded last, shut the door, and tapped the carriage's front wall to signal the driver to set off.

The two Ice Soul Horses snorted. Their hooves struck a crisp rhythm on the stone road as the carriage rolled smoothly out of the relay station and headed northeast along the main road.

Once they left the city, the road grew bumpier, but the girls in the carriage were all Soul Masters. The jolts might as well not have existed.

Xue Wu dozed against Yu Hairou's shoulder, three other girls huddled together and chatted softly, and Shui Yue'er kept teasing Doro without giving up.

Doro sprawled across Shui Yue'er's lap, rubbed until she rolled belly-up. Her stubby little legs curled against her chest, her eyes half-closed, and every so often she let out a contented "Doro~"

She had abandoned all resistance. She even pushed her head into Shui Yue'er's palm, utterly forgetting whose Martial Soul she was.

Jiang Lan lay on the cushions with his head on Shui Bing'er's thigh. The little penguin beak on the hood of his onesie bobbed up and down with the carriage.

He meant to say something, but sleepiness swept over him like a tide after the meal. His eyelids grew heavier, and before he could speak, his breathing had settled into a steady rhythm.

The carriage raced through the night. The driver cracked his whip, and the two Gale Horses' hooves beat a crisp, steady rhythm.

The world outside gradually fell quiet. Only the wind whistled past the carriage windows, punctuated now and then by a distant night bird's cry.

After the carriage passed through Vast Sea City's gates, Jiang Lan's disappearance threw the city into a modest uproar.

The supervisor of the Vast Sea Great Soul Arena was the first to realize something was wrong.

Not long after he dispatched his men, one team hurried back with news that nearly made him yank out his goatee.

"What did you say?" The supervisor rose from his chair, planting both hands on the desk. "The child isn't on the snack street anymore?"

"Absolutely certain!" The messenger wiped sweat from his brow. "As you ordered, sir, I followed him from the Soul Arena all the way to the snack street. Everything was fine until a group of girls in blue-and-white battle dresses suddenly appeared. They surrounded the child, pinched and hugged him, and then they all went into the Sea Flavor Pavilion."

"I kept watch outside, but the child left with those girls through the back door! They climbed straight into a carriage! I couldn't even catch up!"

The supervisor slowly sat back down, absently twisting the tip of his goatee.

A six-year-old prodigy had just thrown a heaven-shaking punch in the Soul Arena, and before the supervisor could learn anything about him, a group of girls had whisked him away.

If his superiors found out, his days as supervisor were probably numbered.

"Keep searching. Follow the road out of the city." The supervisor rubbed his brow. "Find him at all costs."

Meanwhile, Salas, head of the Spirit Hall Vast Sea City Branch, received the news too.

"He's gone?!" Salas slammed the table and sprang up, making the teacup jump three times. "What do you mean, gone?!"

"J-just what it sounds like." The deacon kneeling on the floor barely dared to breathe. "By the time our scouts reached the Sea Flavor Pavilion, the child had already left. According to a waiter, he ate with seven young women in blue-and-white battle dresses, then took a carriage from the back door."

"Blue-and-white battle dresses?" Salas frowned and thought for a few seconds. "That's Skywater Academy's uniform! Skywater Academy took him?"

He paced the room several times, then stopped abruptly, a shrewd glint flashing in his clouded old eyes. "Send word to the nearby Spirit Hall Branches at once. Have them watch Skywater Academy's movements closely. If they spot a six-year-old in a penguin outfit, do everything possible to win him over. Spare no expense!"

The scouts from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, meanwhile, used a more unusual method of tracking him.

Instead of following Jiang Lan, they went straight to the woman selling grilled small yellow croakers.

She described Jiang Lan's appearance in detail and mentioned the girls in blue-and-white dresses. The scouts immediately identified them as Skywater Academy students.

Thus, all three parties reached almost the same conclusion at once: Jiang Lan had left Vast Sea City with people from Skywater Academy.

The supervisor was drinking tea when he heard. He spilled it down the front of his clothes.

Salas was writing a letter when he heard. He crumpled the paper in his fist.

Yet the person all three factions were frantically searching for was curled up inside Skywater Academy's luxurious carriage, sleeping the sleep of the dead with his head on Shui Bing'er's thigh.

Jiang Lan had a dream.

In it, he returned to Sea God Island, where Mom Bo Saixi stood outside the Sea God Palace waiting for him to eat.

The table was piled with garlic grilled fish, braised sea cucumber, and steamed king crab—all his favorite dishes.

He rushed over and reached for the biggest crab, only for Mom Bo Saixi to snatch him up and smack his bottom.

"That's for sneaking off! For leaving without a word! For making me worry!"

He struggled desperately in the dream, shouting, "Mom Bo Saixi, I'm sorry!" But her smacks grew harder and harder, sending him spinning through the air.

Then he woke up.

Jiang Lan opened his eyes groggily and found his face pressed against something soft.

He shifted his head. Whatever touched his cheek was soft and springy, with a faint, pleasant scent.

Jiang Lan blinked as his vision slowly focused. A swath of blue-and-white skirt fabric filled his view.