Reading your words is like seeing you

Dawn Rain Peak, Mysterious Purification Hall.

At her desk, Shang Qingzheng sat silently with knitted brows, her chin propped on one delicate hand as she let out a bored sigh. Her long, slender legs were curled beneath the desk, her skirt spread out to reveal her smooth, bare feet.

Civet Sixteen lay curled into a ball of fur at the edge of the desk, eyes closed in a doze, paying no heed to the girl's sigh.

"Hmph, days have gone by without a single letter, after all the trouble I took drawing those talismans. Has he forgotten?"

After that sigh, annoyance surfaced on the girl's white-jade face. She gave a quiet huff, the corners of her lips dipping slightly, her voice carrying a touch of grievance.

Several days had passed since she parted with Jiang Yang. Shang Qingzheng no longer had any reason to visit the Rain Listening Pavilion, either. After spending months in his company, she really was not used to this sudden separation.

She had been waiting for Jiang Yang's letter these past few days, but he seemed to have forgotten her entirely, leaving her initial joyful anticipation to turn into quiet resentment.

Waiting like this was no solution. Shang Qingzheng could only guess that something might have delayed Jiang Yang.

"If you won't write, surely I can..."

This was no time to stand on ceremony. Mumbling to herself, Shang Qingzheng reached over and pulled a sheet of letter paper toward her.

"Little Sixteen! Stop sleeping and get up to grind the ink."

Shang Qingzheng tapped the civet's little head with her brush to wake the animal.

"Meow?"

Little Sixteen opened sleepy eyes and stretched on the desk. Seeing Shang Qingzheng push the inkstone closer, the civet could only walk over reluctantly.

Watching Little Sixteen grip the ink stick in both paws and begin grinding, Shang Qingzheng turned her gaze back to the blank paper and began composing her thoughts.

Before long, Shang Qingzheng loaded her brush with ink, settled her thoughts, and bent over the desk to write.

"It has been long since we parted, and my thoughts of you are most earnest... Junior Brother Jiang, how have you been?"

After finishing that line, Shang Qingzheng stopped to examine it, thinking:

It's only an ordinary greeting, but does this sound a little too intimate?

After a moment's hesitation, she removed the page and replaced it with a fresh sheet. She raised her brush again, adopting a different tone this time:

"May reading these words be like seeing me, and may opening this letter bring a smile to your face..."

Compared with her first attempt, this wording was rather more restrained, and Shang Qingzheng nodded inwardly.

Then she continued writing, describing how she had been lately, before finding herself unable to resist complaining that Jiang Yang had actually forgotten to write to her.

Yet however many little details she recounted, none were what she truly wanted to express. The more she concealed her feelings, the more hesitant she seemed.

And so, writing and pausing by turns, she finally finished the short letter. It amounted to barely a hundred characters, every one carefully weighed.

Little Sixteen crouched in front of the mountain-shaped brush rest, batting at the brushes with a paw and making them clatter softly.

Looking back and seeing Shang Qingzheng set down her brush, the civet walked over curiously to take a look.

"Go away. No peeking."

Although Little Sixteen could not read yet, Shang Qingzheng still instinctively shielded the letter and nudged the civet's rump to shoo the animal away.

She folded the letter and tucked it away, then took out a pale-yellow Spirit Crane talisman and placed it in her palm.

After pouring magical power into it, she murmured an incantation. Then she placed the letter in the paper crane's beak and called softly:

"Immortal Embryo's Deep Path, heed my command! A spark of spirit light, carry word a thousand miles!"

At her command, the Spirit Crane glowed with pure radiance. Under Shang Qingzheng's gaze, it became a streak of light and flew out of the hall, vanishing from sight.

Outside his cave abode, Jiang Yang was running back and forth across the clearing, practicing his movement technique.

As he circulated his qi and leaped, his figure moved as swiftly as a darting hare. An ordinary person would have struggled even to see him clearly, much less touch the hem of his clothes.

He held nothing back, sprinting with all his strength each time according to the formula's instructions. Yet whenever he reached a dead end or a rock face, he always turned at precisely the right moment without slowing in the slightest.

Jiang Yang came to an abrupt stop and looked back. Illusory figures he had just left behind still lingered throughout the clearing, slowly fading.

"Awesome!"

He could not help pumping his fist and letting out a quiet cheer.

He could twist, leap, and maneuver endlessly within a mere few paces, with all the exquisite ingenuity of building a ritual sanctuary inside a snail shell. It did consume a fair amount of magical power, though. Clearly, it was meant for maneuvering in magical combat rather than traveling long distances.

Wind-Folding Returning Shadow isn't bad at all. It's only a second-grade movement technique, and I don't know how it would fare in the Foundation Establishment Realm, but it should be enough for fighting opponents in the Qi Refining realm...

Jiang Yang considered it silently, forming an initial impression of the movement technique.

He had never fought an actual magical battle, so he had yet to learn how effective those illusory figures would be. But the ability to double back and change direction alone was enough to satisfy Jiang Yang.

Setting everything else aside, pairing it with his Sword Art to rush into close range should be enough to give an enemy a very big surprise.

Three or four days had passed before he knew it. Apart from leaving his cave abode twice for meals his body needed, Jiang Yang had spent all his time absorbed in practicing his new Spells.

He had originally intended to wait until his weapon arrived before practicing it together with the movement technique. But while cultivating the Clear-Wave Mystic Shield, he occasionally suffered spell backlash, the reverse flow of magical power battering his meridians painfully and forcing him to stop and rest.

Unwilling to waste that resting time, he had picked up Wind-Folding Returning Shadow and begun studying it.

Once he saw that the qi-circulation routes for the movement and shield techniques did not conflict, he simply began practicing them in alternation.

Whenever the Clear-Wave Mystic Shield backfired, he came outside to practice his movement technique. Once his meridians recovered, he returned to forming hand seals and condensing the shield. He repeated this until his magical power ran dry, then went back to meditate and regulate his breathing.

With Spells in hand and his interest burning strong, he felt no fatigue despite all the repeated exertion.

He was much like he had been in his previous life when first picking up a new game, so absorbed that he could not put it down, forgetting sleep and meals alike.

Now, after several days, his success rate with the Clear-Wave Mystic Shield had risen considerably, and he had gained a deeper understanding of the spell.

Still, Jiang Yang was not satisfied. His goal was to have the spell follow his thoughts, casting it within a single breath.

Magical combat was not a match in an arena. Most battles were ambushes or sudden encounters, and enemy cultivators were no fools. They would not give him time to leisurely form hand seals and chant incantations.

Jiang Yang still had only a partial understanding of magical combat. For the sake of keeping his life intact in the future, he needed to hold himself to strict standards.

"I've still got forty percent of my magical power. A few more rounds, then I'll go back and meditate once it's gone."

Jiang Yang briefly checked his reserves and, deciding he could still keep going, prepared to continue.

Just then, a sound came from the sky. Jiang Yang looked up and discovered a paper crane glowing with pure light, circling above his head.

"This is..."

The familiar design made Jiang Yang hesitate for a moment before realization suddenly struck.

"Isn't that the Embryonic Immortal Spirit-Guiding Talisman? Oh no! I was so caught up in practicing my Spells that I forgot..."

Jiang Yang instinctively felt for the paper crane tucked in his sleeve. Recalling what he had promised her a few days ago, he inwardly cursed.

The Spirit Crane carried a spiritual marker Jiang Yang had left behind. Having found its intended recipient and confirmed his aura, it dropped a letter from the sky, then flew away on its own.

Jiang Yang reached out to catch the letter. No longer in the mood to practice, he turned and returned to his Cave Abode to take a break.

It's my fault for getting so absorbed in practice. Sorry, sorry...

Walking into the inner room, he scratched his head and looked at the envelope in his hand, silently apologizing to her as he opened it.