"Who was that?"
Li Chen paused in surprise and looked toward the voice. A little girl in a long pink dress, with a face as exquisite as a porcelain doll, ran cheerfully over and tugged gently at the woman's hem, wheedling for her attention.
Perhaps it was his imagination, but Li Chen actually saw Frostblade Dong Nü smile.
Yet she soon returned to her cold indifference and stood there impassively.
"Big sister..." With an endearing innocence, the little girl took out a loop of string, wound it around her fingers, and began making string figures.
Making string figures was a favorite game among children of the Puppet Dao. It also trained the fingers' dexterity and served as practice for simulating the Mechanism-Performance Method. This little girl seemed especially skilled; in no time, she had made squares, diamonds, kites, butterflies, and various other patterns.
Hope shining in her eyes, she held her hands out before Dong Nü.
Dong Nü watched her silently. After a long while, she finally bent down, reached out, and took a turn.
The little girl's eyes curved into crescents as she smiled and lightly clapped her hands. "You're amazing, big sister."
"Xiao Xue has done well. It seems her divine soul truly is compatible with Dong Nü. Given time, she will surely become an excellent successor as Weapon-Bearing Envoy!"
Not far outside the courtyard, two middle-aged men in luxurious brocade robes approached and craned their necks to look inside.
Li Chen paused and turned to look. Both were experts at the late stage of Foundation Establishment. One had an imposing bearing, and behind him followed a tall woman in white, wearing a high hat shaped like a feathered crown. She too carried a sword at her waist, and the aura of her divine soul was vast and