Growing stronger was so I could protect you.

"You can use chess pieces, but don't start thinking you're the one playing the game."

"Once you treat everyone as a chess piece, you become something on the chessboard yourself."

Qian Renxue fell silent.

She remembered those words for the rest of her life.

Once, Qian Renxue spoke of her mission.

After hearing her out, the strange man remained silent for a long time.

"What about you?"

"What?"

"What do you like? What do you want? If the power behind you disappeared tomorrow, and your bloodline vanished too, would you still be you?"

Qian Renxue froze.

She realized she had no answer.

Her entire life had been defined from the moment she was born.

She was Qian Xunji's daughter, Bibi Dong's shame, Qian Daoliu's hope, and the young master of Spirit Hall.

But who was she herself?

"I don't know."

The strange man merely told her, as always:

"Then take your time thinking about it. There's no rush. Tell me when you have an answer."

He disappeared for another few months.

When she was twelve, the strange man vanished for a very long time.

Usually, he disappeared for a month or two at most, but this time, it was eight full months.

Whenever Qian Renxue visited the valley, all she found were lonely rocks and flowing water.

For the first time, she felt panic.

She realized she had grown used to having him around, used to someone who never asked about her identity or wanted anything from her, someone who was simply there.

Used to not needing to pretend in front of him, not needing to smile or put on an act.

She began waiting for him in the valley, sometimes for an entire day.

More than once, She Long urged her:

"Your Highness, it's time to return."

She merely shook her head, then returned to her chambers.

Eight months later, he finally returned.

That day, she was sitting by the stream in a daze when a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind her:

"Oh, you're still here?"

She whipped her head around.

He was a little thinner, but his eyes were the same as ever, quiet as a deep pool.

Qian Renxue rushed over and raised her hand to strike him, but halfway up, she lowered it again.

"Where did you go?"

"To take care of something."

"What?"

"Personal business."

Qian Renxue gritted her teeth in anger:

"Couldn't you just... forget it."

She turned to leave.

"I went somewhere very far away and saw many things I'd never seen before. This time, I came back to bring you something."

"What?"

Qian Renxue felt a flicker of delighted surprise.

Then she saw the strange man take out a cloth bundle, revealing a little wooden bird inside.

The little bird was crudely carved, all crooked and lopsided:

"I carved it myself. It isn't much to look at, but it should be able to fly."

"Keep it. Whenever I'm not around, think of it as me."

Qian Renxue took the Wooden Bird and clasped it in her palm.

She did not turn back, because she was crying.

It was the first gift she had ever received with no strings attached.

Under the strange man's guidance, Qian Renxue gradually grew.

She won over half the Heaven Dou Empire's court officials and secretly took control of two-thirds of its army.

Later, she even met her mother, Bibi Dong, in private-not as Xue Qinghe, but as the Angel God.

Bibi Dong looked at her with a complicated expression.

"You're... nothing like your father."

Remembering the strange man's words, Qian Renxue smiled:

"Thank you."

She thought she could finally control her own destiny.

Yet that day, he died.

He died at the hands of Tang San, who had already become a God King.

The Sea God Trident pierced his chest.

Qian Renxue saw it with her own eyes.

That strange man who fished in the valley, the man who had said, "Then take your time thinking about it. There's no rush," the man who had carved her a Wooden Bird... turned to ashes amid a sky filled with golden light, just like that.

At the very end, he looked in her direction, his lips moving.

Qian Renxue read the words on his lips:

"Don't... be afraid..."

Under Tang San's purge, Qian Renxue's power crumbled like earth collapsing and tiles shattering.

Spirit Hall was destroyed, the Angel Godhood was shattered, and her trusted followers were executed one after another.

Bibi Dong also died in that great battle.

Qian Renxue knelt amid the ruins, clutching the Wooden Bird.

Crooked wings, rough carving marks.

He had carved it with his own hands.

Suddenly, she remembered how he had asked her in the valley, so many years ago:

"Why become stronger?"

Back then, she had said she did not know.

She had never known.

Only at this moment, only when she knelt amid the ruins, only after she had lost everything, did she finally understand.

Why become stronger? To protect the people she wanted to protect.

But she had understood too late.

She no longer had anyone she wanted to protect.

When she opened her eyes again, Qian Renxue found herself lying on a soft bed.

Sunlight streamed through the window, warm and gentle.

She abruptly sat up and looked down at her hands.

Small and pale.

Qian Renxue stared blankly for several seconds. Then memories surged in like a tide.

The Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, Dream Academy, Shi Meng, Hu Liena, Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong...

She remembered them all.

But she soon realized something was wrong.

The Bibi Dong of this world was not her mother.

Bibi Dong had not been violated by Qian Xunji and turned into a woman consumed by resentment. She was even very kind to her.

It took Qian Renxue quite some time to confirm this.

Then she received a message.

[You have not been reborn. You are the Qian Renxue of a parallel world, brought into this worldline. In this world, you are still Qian Xunji's child.]

[That strange man's name is Shi Meng. He has now been reborn in this world, but for the time being, he has forgotten the memories of his previous life.]

Upon receiving this message, Qian Renxue immediately turned over the Wooden Bird. On its underside were two tiny characters she had never noticed before:

"Shi Meng."

Qian Renxue's hands trembled, her heart overflowing with excitement.

She finally knew his name.

Shi Meng. Such a lovely name.

"Reborn in this worldline?"

Wait for me. I'll find you again.

Nine years old, starting over once more.

This time, she was no longer the Qian Renxue whom fate pushed along.

She knew how to walk her own path.

She began infiltrating the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace as Xue Qinghe, but her methods were more practiced, more composed.

She still gathered power, but this time, it was neither for herself nor for Spirit Hall.

It was for the man named Shi Meng.

She secretly searched for traces of him, sending out many people, but never received any definite news.

Until this day, when She Long brought back a report.

"Your Highness, a new academy has opened in Suotuo City. It's called Dream Academy, and its head is Ning Rongrong of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Apparently, there's someone at the academy named Shi Meng."

The teacup in Qian Renxue's hand immediately fell to the floor and shattered:

"He... what does he look like?"

"Black hair, around twelve years old, and he looks exactly like the portrait you provided. They say he's already rank forty-nine."

Qian Renxue closed her eyes, a face flashing through her mind.

It really is him!

She rose, walked to the window, and looked toward Suotuo City.

The sorrows and joys of two lives, a lifetime's unwavering obsession-all converged in this moment.

"Shi Meng, I've found my answers to the questions you left me."

"In this life, it's my turn to protect you."

Dream Academy.

Shi Meng looked at the two girls before him, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

How did they end up coming together?

"So, you both want to join our Dream Academy?"