Volume Fifteen: "Immortal and Mortal Destinies Sealed upon the Three-Life Stone" - Questions of Love by Lamplight, Love Whose Beginnings None Can Name

Just as Xing Yan and the other three set out on their return journey, Qiong Rong suddenly cried out.

Hearing her cry, Xing Yan thought something had happened and hurried to ask, only to see the little girl looking utterly miserable as she said in a tearful voice:

"The back of my jacket is torn!"

Xing Yan quickly went around behind her and saw two large holes, one on either side of her padded jacket, with cotton stuffing and loose threads spilling out. Through them, he could faintly glimpse her smooth, tender skin. Now that Qiong Rong had calmed down, she had suddenly felt a chill on her back; reaching around to touch it, she had discovered the two holes. The little girl sobbed miserably:

"Waaah... This is my favorite jacket!"

Naturally, Xing Yan had no idea that these holes had been made when that strange pair of wings sprouted from Qiong Rong's back in the heat of battle. He assumed she had accidentally torn her jacket on branches while fighting in the forest. Seeing her distress, he hurried to comfort her:

"It's all right. Once we're back, we'll ask Sister Xueyi to mend it..."

With such everyday chatter, the three members of the Four Seas Hall, who had just slain monsters and subdued fiends with awe-inspiring might, resumed their journey home. As for the water spirit they had rescued, her body was made of water essence, after all; along the way, she slowly regained consciousness and gradually understood what had happened.

On the return journey, Xing Yan passed the pine-and-cypress-covered mountain again and saw that the entire peak had been burned black. Broken branches and ruined leaves lay scattered everywhere. Smoke still rose from the forest fires across the slopes, where tongues of flame flickered and sent up billows