Clear Harmony Water Palace.
Xu Xuan entered through the main gate and stepped into a side hall, where he saw a woman seated on a precious coral chair. She wore a peach-red ruqun, her bearing radiant as the morning blossoms, her beauty bright and captivating.
In her arms was a girl in an Ink Skirt, with light wreathing her jade horns, a reverse scale on her neck, and Gray Plumes growing along her throat. Quiet and graceful, she was listening to Yang Yuanxin explain the scriptures.
Seeing Xu Xuan enter, Mu Yu jumped out of Yang Yuanxin's arms. She was already as tall as an eight- or nine-year-old Human Race child, and she flung herself straight into Xu Xuan's embrace, saying softly:
"Father."
She paused briefly and looked up at Xu Xuan, a hint of grievance in her ink-dark eyes.
"You're never around all day, and you never spend time with me."
Mu Yu was so quiet and gentle that she scarcely seemed like Dragonkin. She was also more attached to Xu Xuan, sometimes shedding tears when she could not find her father.
Yet she had never asked about her birth mother. She seemed to acknowledge only Xu Xuan. Although she called Yang Yuanxin Mother and was close to her, it fell far short of how she would have treated her own mother.
Perhaps this is simply the nature of Dragonkind.
Xu Xuan picked her up and coaxed her for a while before Mu Yu finally smiled.
"Where did your elder brother go?"
When he asked, Mu Yu merely buried her head in his chest and refused to answer.
"Sheng'er had Mo Xi take him out to catch fish. By now... they should be making trouble over in the Skybow Sea. He's already pestered quite a few Foundation Establishment demons."