"Man... Mandarin?"
"And very standard Mandarin at that. More standard than yours."
"The stationmaster seems to know you..."
"Woo!"
"So it seems."
Hearing their voices felt wonderfully familiar to Chen Shu, and he couldn't help smiling. Still, he remained polite as he replied, "Esteemed friends, this can't be the first time someone who speaks Mandarin has come here, can it?"
"It isn't."
They were looking at him and Ning Qing.
Chen Shu was looking at them, too.
There were four people and one cat.
One woman was short, though her proportions were unexpectedly good. She was pretty, but a long, narrow scar ran down from the corner of her left eye, lending an edge to her coquettish features. Another woman was sweet-faced and shapely, with her hair in a bun and a youthful style. Her features and expressions were lively and bright, like a blend of sunshine and sugar. The third woman was tall, long-haired, and flat-chested. She was strikingly beautiful, though her expression suggested she wasn't particularly gentle.
The man the New Sage had called the stationmaster stood in the middle.
The cat was a little larger than an ordinary one and somewhat resembled a ragdoll. A strange mark adorned its forehead. It looked proud and aloof, with piercing eyes. Standing ahead of the four people, it watched Chen Shu and Ning Qing warily.
At first glance, it looked like a pet standing before its owners. A closer look, though, revealed that it was protecting the humans behind it.
Chen Shu could also sense its power.
That power was strange and undisguised. If he had to describe it, he would say it came from a transformation of Spirit Power, but it belonged to a different system from Great Yi's. For the moment, he couldn't judge what rank of Great