Goodbye Again, Leng Xiaoyue

Outside Eastsea Academy, Leng Xiaoyue stood in silence.

She looked far healthier than before.

It was not merely because her injuries had completely healed.

She was also certain she had gained control of a power that did not belong to this world.

That power was exceedingly strange.

At first, she had not even understood how to control or release it.

She had released it by accident, causing that astonishing incident.

When she regained consciousness, she looked at the hospital.

It could no longer be used. Countless thick vines had bound it tight.

Shock filled her face as well.

What stunned her most was that those people's illnesses had truly been cured.

Many of them had suffered from terminal illnesses, or conditions even more severe and incurable.

Yet they had still been cured.

One could imagine how powerful—and how bizarre—that ability was.

That was what Leng Xiaoyue found most remarkable.

Even she did not understand how she had done it.

But she could vaguely tell that the power had something to do with that boy.

Now that she was near Eastsea Academy, she could faintly sense a connection.

It was so weak that it felt as though a bank of thick fog lay between them.

She could catch only the faintest, most indistinct trace.

She could not even be sure whether it came from Li Qingyue.

But she had a feeling Li Qingyue could sense her with ease.

It was like a relationship between superior and subordinate unlike any other.

Her life and everything she possessed lay entirely within Li Qingyue's grasp.

As the one beneath him, she could perceive only the vaguest hints.

The sensation was strange, utterly different from anything normal.

It even carried an indescribable, innate pressure rooted deep within her life itself.

Yet Leng Xiaoyue felt nothing was wrong with it.

After all, if everything she had truly came from Li Qingyue, it was only natural that he, as her superior, held it all in his hands.

Before Leng Xiaoyue could finish that thought, however, she sensed another pull.

It linked her to another existence.

The mere power carried across that link made her instinctively want to submit.

The urge was so strong that rejecting it never crossed Leng Xiaoyue's mind.

She slowly backed away in silence, her footsteps making almost no sound.

Only when she had vanished completely into the shadows did she head toward the streets behind Eastsea City.

At the street entrance, by Eastsea City's back gate, Li Qingyue stood calmly waiting.

His steps were so light they seemed to blend into the wind.

Li Qingyue turned into a cramped alley.

Before long, the two came face-to-face, approaching from opposite ends of the alley.

Sensing the pull of that power as it answered itself between them, Leng Xiaoyue stared blankly at Li Qingyue.

Her gaze rested on the stunningly beautiful boy before her.

He looked back at her calmly and even gave her a gentle smile.

"Long time no see, Xiaoyue! How's work been lately?"

"These changes in me, and these powers... You really gave them to me? How... how did you do it? How did you give me such terrifying abilities?"

As she looked at the boy before her, Leng Xiaoyue could not keep her voice from trembling.

She knew how terrifying the power she had gained was. That was why, once she confirmed her suspicions, she found it all the harder to believe.

No one who had not experienced it firsthand could truly understand how strong that power was.

Its strength was almost beyond anything she could comprehend.

She knew that simply letting it spill out unintentionally could save many lives.

And once she learned to control it herself, her Martial Soul underwent an equally terrifying transformation.

Not only did it greatly increase the limits and strength of her Martial Soul, it forcibly enhanced every aspect of her body.

Above all, she could feel that her life had somehow been fixed in place at that instant.

She could not be killed. She could not be erased.

She had even cut off her own hand.

Then, before her eyes, the muscles in her arm began to contract and writhe.

Within seconds, a new, complete hand grew from the stump.

The ability was simply too uncanny.

Even in this world, regrowing a severed limb was extraordinarily difficult.

It required slowly cultivating cells, a process that took months at best and sometimes a year.

Even reattaching a fully preserved arm took time and effort.

Yet somehow, she had acquired that ability.

She possessed not only near-limitless regenerative power, but also astonishing vitality.

Most terrifying of all, she could absorb the life force drifting through the world and use it for herself.

To be honest, it felt wonderful.

But more than anything, it left Leng Xiaoyue frightened—or rather, panicked.

She did not know where the power had come from.

At first, Leng Xiaoyue would sooner have believed it was a gift from a god than believe Li Qingyue had given it to her.

But now that she knew the boy had bestowed it on her, she was more panicked than ever.

Even so, a glimmer of hope shone in her eyes.

Feeling the overwhelming pressure of an absolute superior emanating from the boy, Leng Xiaoyue dropped to both knees without hesitation.

She looked up at Li Qingyue with humble devotion.

Only pain remained in eyes that had once been so cold.

"Qingyue, please, save my little brother. I'm begging you. If you'll save him, I'll give you everything I have. Whatever you ask of me, I'll do it."

Leng Xiaoyue spoke softly, her voice trembling.

Even now, she could hardly accept her little brother's death.

This energy—this power—could regrow her severed hand and accomplish things far more incredible and terrifying.

To Leng Xiaoyue, that meant he might be able to bring her little brother back from the dead.

At her words, hesitation flickered in Li Qingyue's eyes.

Because he really could do it.

Even someone who had been dead for centuries could, in theory, be revived, let alone someone who had died recently.

Li Qingyue might even be able to revive someone whose body no longer existed.

After all, the ability was a bug-level power.

He had even considered finding the tombs of the so-called top-tier experts of the previous era, from ten thousand years ago, digging them up, and reviving their corpses outright.

After all, the vast majority of those famous top-tier experts from ten thousand years ago had been Super Douluos or stronger.

Their remains might have been far from capable of surviving ten thousand years intact, but to put it bluntly, some fragments—or at least traces of their presence—ought to remain.

If revival was possible even under those circumstances, then reviving a boy who had died only recently would be easier still.

The problem was that once he opened that door, Leng Xiaoyue would be much more likely to fall.

She might well become a remnant of the Abundance.

Li Qingyue did not mind whether she went from being his Emanator to a remnant through and through.

But he did not want to see someone he knew descend into utter corruption as madness wore away her soul.

Yet when he saw the plea in Leng Xiaoyue's eyes, Li Qingyue hesitated for a long time. In the end, he sighed softly and gave a slight nod.