A mother and daughter's conversation across the distance (two chapters in one)

Two years was neither long nor short, and it passed in the blink of an eye.

When Ye Zhiqiu graduated from the Junior Academy affiliated with the Heaven Dou Advanced Academy of Sciences, he entered the intermediate division of Heaven Dou Academy as the top-ranked junior graduate in Heaven Dou City.

Dong Qianqiu followed right behind him in second place.

The two had swept the top two spots among all the junior academies in Heaven Dou City, bringing their three years at the Junior Academy to a perfect close.

After entering the intermediate division, Ye Zhiqiu stopped commuting.

Whether it was because he was in Class One or because of his talent, he received a two-person dorm room. He shared it with a classmate named Zhou Ze. They weren't close, but there was no friction between them either. They usually kept to their own business, which made things pleasantly quiet.

Dong Qianqiu moved into the girls' dormitory, boarding just as she had in the junior division, though she had no roommate—or rather, her roommate hadn't reported in yet.

The intermediate division's dormitories were much better than those in the junior division, however. Hot water was available around the clock, and the cafeteria food had gone up several notches. After eating there for two days, Ye Zhiqiu gave the cafeteria cooks his wholehearted approval.

Nana also applied for a transfer to teach in Heaven Dou Academy's intermediate division.

Her reason was perfectly legitimate: she had finished teaching the junior division's curriculum and wanted to continue teaching ancient martial arts in the intermediate division.

The research institute didn't give her any trouble and promptly approved it.

First, she wasn't breaking any rules. Although the intermediate division didn't really have any ancient martial arts for her to teach, that wasn't important. Second, they actually wanted Nana to have more normal contact with the outside world, which would make it easier to observe her condition.

After all, if someone capable of destroying a warship with her bare hands shut herself in a room all day and did nothing, that would only make them more uneasy.

Besides, Ye Zhiqiu and Dong Qianqiu were growing increasingly close to Nana. That was very good news for the research institutes too. Students meant attachments, and once she had attachments, things became much easier to manage.

That day, Class One, where Ye Zhiqiu and Dong Qianqiu studied, welcomed its last student to report for enrollment.

It was their homeroom teacher's lesson. When the door opened, a little girl with white hair walked in.

It was genuinely white, pure snow-white from root to tip, every single strand. It hadn't been bleached or dyed; its sheen was entirely natural.

She wore a thin blue-and-white jacket. She wasn't particularly tall, but she stood very straight. Her ice-blue eyes swept the classroom before briefly resting on a window seat in the back row.

Dong Qianqiu happened to be sitting beside Ye Zhiqiu, and she looked up just then, meeting the white-haired girl's gaze.

Their eyes met for roughly a second.

Then the white-haired girl looked away, walked to an empty seat in the front row, and set down her bag, her movements unhurried.

Dong Qianqiu glanced at her back, then withdrew her gaze and went back to leafing through her textbook.

Ye Zhiqiu had noticed the white-haired girl too.

In the original story, there was a girl named Lan Mengqin, the young mistress of the Ice Clan. She had twin martial souls, the Heavenly Snow Woman and the Jade Phoenix Zither, and she and Dong Qianqiu were known together as the "Ice and Snow Goddesses."

He narrowed his eyes. It looked like this was her.

After the first lesson, the homeroom teacher called Lan Mengqin to the podium and gave a brief introduction. Their new classmate, Lan Mengqin, had previously been educated at home by her family, which was why she had arrived a little later than everyone else.

A ripple of quiet chatter rose from the class.

"White hair... so pretty..."

"She has such an elegant air. What's her martial soul?"

A month was enough for a class of strangers to become familiar with one another, and enough for some acquaintances to become inseparable.

Ye Zhiqiu discovered that Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin seemed born to gravitate toward each other.

One had deep-blue hair and the other white. Both were the sort of people who stood out immediately in a crowd, and their personalities had quite a few similarities too.

Dong Qianqiu didn't seem very talkative, but once she got to know someone, she could actually chatter quite a bit. Lan Mengqin had initially maintained a somewhat aloof reserve, but after Dong Qianqiu dragged her around for two weeks, that shell gradually came off.

They were also roommates. They went to class and ate together every day, their daily routines overlapping almost completely.

Sometimes, walking beside them and watching the two girls move side by side ahead of him, Ye Zhiqiu found the scene rather harmonious. Had he become the extra one?

One Friday afternoon a month later, their homeroom teacher, Xu Rang, stood at the podium and announced a new rule.

"Starting next week, your daily training will change from individual training to group training. Three people per group, and you may choose your own teammates. Submit your team rosters by Friday."

With that, he turned and left.

The classroom stayed quiet for about two seconds, then instantly erupted.

"Three per group?"

"We get to choose?"

"Who wants to team up with me?"

Ye Zhiqiu leaned back in his chair. Before he could decide whom to team up with, he caught Dong Qianqiu turning around out of the corner of his eye, her gaze landing directly on Lan Mengqin.

"Let's make a team, the three of us," Dong Qianqiu said.

"Sure." Lan Mengqin agreed without hesitation.

Then both girls looked at Ye Zhiqiu, their eyes saying, Any objections?

What objection could Ye Zhiqiu possibly have? He shrugged. "Sure, no problem."

Their three-person team was settled just like that, and they submitted their roster that very afternoon.

The three also often went to play in the Douluo World. Inside the simulation pods, they faced all kinds of simulated soul beasts. Ye Zhiqiu took the front line and controlled the battlefield, Dong Qianqiu dealt damage in close combat, and Lan Mengqin provided ranged coverage and support from the rear with her Jade Phoenix Zither.

Their coordination in virtual battles grew increasingly seamless and practiced. Instead of fighting individually, they now faced soul beasts with clearly defined roles.

In the blink of an eye, another year passed.

Their three-person team had been established for a full year. Over the past two years, they had also visited the Douluo World together no fewer than a hundred times, taking part in assessments ranging from soul beast hunts to battles against soul masters, and had saved up a considerable stash of Douluo Coins.

Ye Zhiqiu alone had over a thousand Douluo Coins, while Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin had each saved more than eight hundred. Among all the second-year teams, they were indisputably the strongest.

All three of them were now ten years old.

Lan Mengqin was slightly older than Dong Qianqiu and Ye Zhiqiu. She had already been nearly ten when she reported in and was now approaching twelve, while Ye Zhiqiu and Dong Qianqiu had both crossed the threshold of eleven during the past year.

Their ages didn't affect anything, though. Ye Zhiqiu remained the team leader.

He was also the tallest of the three. When he stood a little straighter, he was half a head taller than Lan Mengqin. Dong Qianqiu was the shortest. She refused to admit it, but it was quite obvious when they stood together.

Ye Zhiqiu's looks had matured considerably over those two years. His brows and eyes had become sharply defined, and his features were gradually losing the round baby fat of several years earlier. His smile still carried that casual, carefree air, but when he wasn't smiling, the occasional glimpse of something in those black eyes made people feel he wasn't someone to cross.

Dong Qianqiu was growing increasingly beautiful too. Her long, deep-blue hair was tied in a high ponytail, her features cool and her skin fair. When she stood there silently, she naturally exuded a sense of distance.

Lan Mengqin's white hair was especially striking in the sunlight, and her ice-blue eyes were clear and bright. She usually said little, but her words occasionally had barbs, especially when speaking to people she didn't know well.

When she stood beside Dong Qianqiu, one cold and the other aloof, no one in their entire year dared approach them casually. Over time, though no one knew who had started it, everyone began calling them the Ice and Snow Goddesses.

"Xiuxiu is the Ice Goddess, and Mengqin is the Snow Goddess. Together, they're the Ice and Snow Goddesses."

Ye Zhiqiu laughed for ages the first time he heard the name. He hadn't expected their title from the original story to appear after all.

Afterward, he courted death by calling Dong Qianqiu "Ice Goddess" to her face. She swung her spear shaft at his shoulder, and he only barely dodged it.

Ye Zhiqiu had nicknames of his own too.

At first, some people called him "Mr. Schemer." Later, others called him "One-Slash Guy"...

Finally, someone—no one knew who—said that his blade was as white as moonlight when he fought, that his strikes were too fast to follow, and that he always targeted vital points. People began calling him "Moonshadow."

In private, Ye Zhiqiu said to Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin, "About that nickname. Could we change it to something more imposing?"

"Like what?"

"Like 'The World's Most Handsome Man.'"

"In your dreams."

As their team's reputation grew, some fools inevitably came looking for trouble.

It happened on an ordinary Thursday afternoon.

Ye Zhiqiu had just finished his last theory class and was about to head to the training grounds to find Dong Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin.

He had just reached the bend in the plane-tree-lined path outside the training grounds when three figures sauntered out of the shade to one side.

Ye Zhiqiu glanced at them without slowing down.

They were three boys, all at least half a head taller than him, wearing the uniforms of the intermediate division's upper years: dark-gray jackets with fourth-year badges pinned to their chests.

The leader had very short hair. Arms folded, he looked Ye Zhiqiu up and down.

"You're Ye Zhiqiu?"

Ye Zhiqiu stopped and looked at the three boys in front of him. He wasn't flustered; he simply came to a natural halt, hands in his pockets, and asked in an ordinary tone, "Need something?"

The short-haired boy moved half a step closer and lowered his head toward him, dropping his voice. "I hear you're pretty close to the Ice and Snow Goddesses?"

Ye Zhiqiu glanced at him without replying.

Why was it this kind of dumbass? What era was this, and he could still run into one?

Seeing his silence, the short-haired boy assumed he had been cowed. He spread his lips in a grin and continued, "Pretty impressive, keeping two all to yourself. Aren't you afraid of choking on more than you can swallow? If you know what's good for you, stay away from them."

The two boys behind him also moved closer, forming a semicircle and blocking Ye Zhiqiu in the middle of the path.

Ye Zhiqiu looked at the boy on the left, then the one on the right, before returning his gaze to the short-haired boy's face with a smile.

"So you're here to start trouble?"

"You can take it that way."

Ye Zhiqiu nodded, then said, "Let's go somewhere else, then. There are cameras outside the training grounds. It'll be a hassle if a teacher sees us afterward."

The short-haired boy froze for a moment, then sneered. "You know how to behave."

Behind the training grounds was a corner screened by plane trees. The cameras really couldn't see it, and people rarely passed through.

Ye Zhiqiu stood in the middle with the short-haired boy facing him, while the other two blocked him from behind, one on either side.

"It's not too late to get scared now." The short-haired boy flexed his wrist, his knuckles cracking twice. "Just promise to stay away from those two, and we'll let this go today."

Ye Zhiqiu looked at him, stayed silent for two and a half seconds, then said, "Are you going to fight or not?"

"What?"

"I said, are you going to fight or not? Are you fucking deaf, dumbass?" Ye Zhiqiu replied, still gently.

The short-haired boy's face darkened. "You're pretty damn cocky."

Then he stepped forward, clenched his right fist, and swung at Ye Zhiqiu's chest.

It wasn't fast. To Ye Zhiqiu, it was actually rather slow.

He shifted half a body-width to the left. The punch skimmed past his shoulder, stirring a gust of air.

Then he raised his right hand with the motion and gave the outside of the short-haired boy's forearm a measured tap. It wasn't forceful, but it borrowed the momentum of the punch perfectly, guiding it sideways.

The short-haired boy's balance tipped, and he staggered diagonally forward.

"Unsteady balance, shoulder raised too high when you punch, and a weak lower body. Complete trash," Ye Zhiqiu said.

The short-haired boy's expression changed, his face heating with anger. He steadied himself, turned, and threw another punch, this time aiming for Ye Zhiqiu's abdomen.

Ye Zhiqiu turned aside and lightly tapped the outside of his elbow as he exerted force. Again, the tap wasn't hard, but it interrupted the rhythm of his strike perfectly.

"Your elbow flares out too far, so your power can't carry through. All enthusiasm and no skill."

At those taunts, the short-haired boy's eyes reddened, his blood surging like a raging bull's. He charged a third time, now infusing his fist with soul power. The wind of his punch was noticeably fiercer than before.

This time, however, Ye Zhiqiu didn't sidestep. He took a step back, waited for the punch to reach the end of its extension, then turned his right hand over. A long white blade emerged from his palm. He didn't attack, merely holding it across his body.

The short-haired boy's fist struck the flat of the Absolute Blade with a dull thud. A sharp pain shot through his fist, as though he had punched something incredibly hard. His finger joints hurt so badly that he sucked in a breath.

"What are you two standing around for? Get him!" the short-haired boy shouted furiously at the boys behind him.

The other two exchanged a glance and charged as well.

Three against one—it looked quite lively.

Ye Zhiqiu stood among the three, his left hand in his pocket and the Absolute Blade in his right, dealing with them at an unhurried pace.

The tall, thin boy's martial soul was a short black staff. He swung it with enough force to whip up the wind, but left plenty of openings.

The plumper boy's was a shield. Its defense was decent, but he was far too slow.

Ye Zhiqiu tested each of them in turn, talking as he fought:

"You swing that staff too wide and can't pull it back. Against someone who knows how to fight, you wouldn't even keep hold of it. How did someone like you reach the upper years? Money?"

"You hold that shield so high that your feet are wide open. You're no different from that other piece of trash."

"You three are in the same class, right? Your coordination is awful. Even ants work together better than you. You're beneath insects."

Hearing those taunts, all three boys seethed like raging bulls, their faces turning red, yet none of their attacks accomplished anything.

The short-haired boy grew more frantic as the fight went on, his movements becoming increasingly sloppy.

The other two weren't much better. Their rhythm had been completely disrupted, and their already shaky teamwork fell to pieces under Ye Zhiqiu's verbal assault.

After another few exchanges, Ye Zhiqiu had had his fill of fun.

He stepped back to open some distance, then extended the Absolute Blade. Its tip skimmed the short-haired boy's collar without touching his skin, merely cutting the threads holding the buttons to his uniform's neckline.

Several buttons fell to the ground with a series of clicks.

The short-haired boy froze. He looked down at his open collar, then back up at Ye Zhiqiu, his face alternating between livid and pale.

Ye Zhiqiu dismissed the Absolute Blade and slipped his hand back into his pocket.

"Still want to fight?"

The short-haired boy opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end he merely gritted his teeth, turned, and left without even picking up the buttons.

The other two boys ran after him. One glanced back at Ye Zhiqiu as he fled.

Ye Zhiqiu stood where he was and watched their retreating figures disappear, then shook his head. Sigh. These dumbasses just kept coming to his door.

Just then, two figures rushed out from the direction of the training grounds' main entrance.

"Zhiqiu!"