On the western side of the formation, Xiao Xue closed her booklet and edged closer to Lu Piao. "Do you think Nie Li can unravel it this time?"
Lu Piao took the grass stem from his mouth and twirled it in his hand. "If he says he can, he can. When has he ever said anything we couldn't count on?"
"True." Xiao Xue lowered her head and fiddled with a corner of the booklet. "I'm just a little worried. What if there's real danger inside the formation array? That restriction at the Gulan Ruins last time-if Nie Li hadn't spotted it beforehand, some of us might never have made it out."
"Wasn't Shen Fei there that time?" Lu Piao glanced at Shen Fei beside the formation. "The two of them going in together is better than one going in alone. Nie Li always keeps something up his sleeve. He wouldn't send himself down a dead-end road."
Xiao Xue murmured in agreement, fell silent for a while, then spoke again. "You've been going to the City Lord's Mansion all the time lately. Hasn't your family said anything?"
"Mother nagged me a bit, saying I'm never home. Father hasn't really bothered. He's been too busy with the trading firm's affairs to spare me any attention." Lu Piao sounded casual. "Besides, I'm stronger than I was six months ago by more than a little. I can take on missions I wouldn't have dared touch before and still get them done. They can see that, so there's not much they can say."
"Your cultivation has risen so quickly. Nie Li must have helped a lot."
"He gave me the cultivation technique and offered pointers a few times." Lu Piao smiled. "But he never pushes me. I only go ask him when I get stuck in my training. That's just how he is. Ask, and he'll tell you; don't ask, and he won't step in. But you know he's watching all along."
Xiao Xue watched Lu Piao's profile as he spoke, her lips shifting slightly. She opened and closed the booklet two or three times before finally lowering her voice. "Then what are your plans for the future? Will you keep working with Nie Li, or do you want to strike out on your own?"
Lu Piao thought for a moment. "I'll stick with him. He's bound to leave someday. Glory City is too small to hold him. When he goes, I'll just go with him."
"That sounds good." Xiao Xue stayed silent for a long time, her fingertips tracing back and forth across the booklet's cover. Several breaths passed before she spoke again, her voice even softer. "Then when you leave... will you tell me?"
Lu Piao turned to look at her. Xiao Xue didn't raise her head, but her fingers tightened around the booklet. Lu Piao tucked the grass stem back into the corner of his mouth and answered indistinctly, "Of course. I'll definitely tell you when the time comes."
The tips of Xiao Xue's ears reddened a little. She didn't press him. Lowering her head, she opened the booklet and picked up her pen, but held it above the paper for a long time without setting it down. She glanced toward the formation. Xiao Ning'er stood on its other side, studying the patterns on the ground, her fingertips moving slowly above them. Xiao Xue looked away and drew a few circles in a corner of her booklet, then scribbled them out. "Xiao Ning'er came today too."
"If Shen Fei came, of course she would." Lu Piao spoke naturally. "Those two have been pretty close lately. Haven't you noticed?"
"I have. Xiao Ning'er never used to get this close to anyone from the Sacred Family, but lately she's been coming to see Shen Fei a lot."
"Shen Fei, well..." Lu Piao considered his wording. "He looks quiet and unassuming, but he's actually pretty methodical about things. Nie Li thinks highly of him too. Says there's more to him than meets the eye."
Xiao Xue glanced toward the formation again. Xiao Ning'er had crouched down and was drawing something on a sheet of rough paper, occasionally looking up at the patterns on the tall tower before lowering her head to continue. She was quiet and focused, much like Shen Fei on the other side of the formation as he watched Nie Li's movements. Separated by the formation, the two occupied opposite sides, each quietly going about their own work.
After finishing a pattern, Xiao Ning'er straightened her back and flexed her wrist. She lifted her gaze from the rough paper and happened to catch Xiao Xue looking her way. She nodded to Xiao Xue, who nodded back. Xiao Ning'er put away her carving knife and paper, took a few steps toward the western stone stairs, and sat down beside Xiao Xue.
"What are you talking about?" Xiao Ning'er sounded more relaxed than usual.
Xiao Xue closed the booklet and set it on her knees. "Nothing much. Just how Lu Piao keeps going to the City Lord's Mansion. How are your inscriptions coming along?"
"Not bad. I still need to think through the course of a few patterns." As Xiao Ning'er spoke, her gaze swept over the corners of the booklet in Xiao Xue's hands, which were covered in doodles. The same shape appeared in several places, looking something like an abbreviated name, though she couldn't quite make it out. She didn't point it out and changed the subject instead. "You said Lu Piao keeps going to the City Lord's Mansion. What does he do when he's there?"
"He helps Nie Li move materials and pass tools, and sometimes goes with him to buy things at the Black Market." Xiao Xue glanced at Lu Piao as she spoke. "He trains too, much harder than before. Last time he ran into two silver demon beasts outside the city, he held them off all by himself. When he came back and told me, his grin stretched all the way to his ears."
"That really is quite an improvement. Six months ago, he couldn't even perform the basic sword moves properly."
"Well, he has Nie Li." There was something undisguised in Xiao Xue's tone that she might not even have noticed herself, and the corners of her mouth lifted as she spoke. "Nie Li gave him a cultivation technique and matched him with a suitable demon spirit. He puts in the work himself too, training in the courtyard in the middle of the night. The neighbors have knocked on his door to yell at him several times."
Lu Piao took the grass stem out of his mouth. "Hey, you're spilling all my secrets."
"I'm telling the truth. You woke the neighbor's dog with your late-night training, and the whole alley was cursing you the next day. Can you deny it?"
Lu Piao scratched his head without arguing, a smile tugging at his lips too. Xiao Ning'er watched their back-and-forth bickering, her gaze lingering on Xiao Xue's face for several seconds. Xiao Xue kept looking toward Lu Piao as she spoke. Even when she exposed his shortcomings, her eyes were gentle. Xiao Ning'er remembered when she had first met Xiao Xue, who had still been a girl who blushed just talking to people. When others said her meridians were damaged and she would never break through to Gold rank, she hadn't talked back even after hearing them, merely burying herself in training. Now she sat on the stone steps trading barbs with Lu Piao. Much of the strain that had weighed on her features had eased, and she seemed to have opened up.
"You certainly know him well." Xiao Ning'er's tone was even.
Xiao Xue's ears reddened a little more. She lowered her head, turned two pages of the booklet, then closed it again. "Not that well. We just go on missions together a lot. After seeing things often enough, I remember them." Her voice was very soft, as though she feared a third person might hear.
Beside them, Lu Piao shifted the grass stem to the other corner of his mouth. He didn't join in, but he didn't leave either, simply sitting there listening to the two girls talk.
Xiao Ning'er drew her gaze back from Xiao Xue and Lu Piao and glanced toward the formation. Shen Fei was still sitting on a rock, watching Nie Li's hands, his back tilted slightly forward and his eyes never leaving them. His posture had barely changed since he sat down. He blinked every so often, but his gaze remained fixed on Nie Li's carving knife, as though counting the angle and force of every cut. Xiao Ning'er watched him for two or three seconds. He didn't notice at all, his attention wholly absorbed in Nie Li's technique.
She looked away and lowered her head to the rough paper in her hands. It held the few patterns she had just copied, their lines much smoother than at the start. She picked up her pen and drew an arc in the corner, then stopped halfway through, the tip hovering above the paper.
"Xiao Ning'er?" Xiao Xue called.
Xiao Ning'er came back to herself and lowered her pen to finish the arc. "Hmm?"
"What were you thinking about? I called you several times. You think Lu Piao got stronger because of Nie Li too, right? I'm curious what cultivation technique Nie Li gave him to turn him from someone who couldn't even hold a sword steady into this in just six months."
Xiao Ning'er put her pen away. "I don't know the details. But Nie Li really does have plenty of good things. Those two incomplete legendary inscription scrolls from before-even all the inscription masters in the city put together couldn't recognize everything on them, yet he restored most of them on his own. Any cultivation technique he gives Lu Piao certainly won't be poor."
"I think so too." As Xiao Xue spoke, she tilted her head toward Lu Piao again. "He was just lucky to meet Nie Li. Anyone else might not have been willing to guide him like this."
"Luck is part of ability too. Besides, he's willing to train. Otherwise, nothing Nie Li gave him would help, no matter how much there was."
Xiao Xue fell silent for a while and lowered her head to leaf through the booklet. She stopped at a certain page, looked at it for several seconds, then closed it again. Xiao Ning'er caught a glimpse of the page before she closed it. A few crooked patterns had been drawn there, looking less like inscriptions than idle doodles. Their winding lines joined together into something resembling the outline of a written character.
Xiao Ning'er didn't ask further. She rolled up the rough paper in her hands and put it away, then stood and brushed the dust from her skirt. By the formation, Nie Li had already set down his carving knife and risen to circle the formation, inspecting every corrected pattern to confirm that spiritual power flowed smoothly. Shen Fei had also stood up from the rock and walked to the edge of the formation, lowering his head to study the flowing patterns on the ground.
"It's almost ready," Xiao Ning'er told Xiao Xue.
Xiao Xue stood too, tucked the booklet inside her clothes, and glanced at Lu Piao. He tossed away the grass stem, jumped down from the stone steps, and brushed the dust from the back of his waist. "Come on. Time to get to work."
The four of them walked toward the formation.
Before you continue