On fish!

"Little girl, it's only natural that you feel close to me. Every living creature on this planet should feel close to me..."

The illusory Yin Spirit hovering in midair sent out a pulse of spiritual fluctuations.

When the silver-haired girl received it, it automatically became a youthful voice laden with wistfulness, powerfully evocative. An image quietly emerged of someone weathered and heartsore, whose past was too painful to revisit.

Youth and world-weariness were jarringly at odds, yet somehow blended with an inexplicable naturalness.

"Forget it. The past can't be recalled, and there's no need to bring it up again."

"As for who I am?"

"A failure? An unlucky fool whose nest was usurped by a cuckoo? A homeless wretch? Heh, they're all me."

Jiang Dongjun's powers of spiritual evocation were formidable. His dispirited, self-mocking words were deeply affecting; just a few sentences painted the picture of a defeated soul, striking a chord with the silver-haired girl.

"You're a failure, and I have no past. We're both homeless wanderers."

The exquisitely delicate silver-haired child murmured, her lost, helpless expression tugging at the heart.

Using the explanation he had prepared long ago, Jiang Dongjun launched a fierce offensive.

"Perhaps it's precisely our similar circumstances and similar qualities that make the distance between our hearts so small. In other words, that's why we feel close."

"And because of that connection, I've appeared here tonight in this rough state to stop you. I don't want you to keep going and step into an abyss."

"An abyss?" The silver-haired girl's eyes were blank with incomprehension. "That sounds really serious."

"Here, an abyss means something that isn't good." Jiang Dongjun spoke frankly and objectively. "If you keep going, your future self will suffer terribly, forced to face an ill-fated bond born of a cruel twist of fate."

He had no time to deceive her affections by pretending they were siblings. He chose to lay it all bare.

"What's more, it's hard to say whether you wandered here by your own choice or because someone with ulterior motives arranged it."

Communication on a spiritual level was often more direct than words. The silver-haired girl easily understood what Jiang Dongjun meant.

Under Jiang Dongjun's spiritual evocation-

For a moment, the silver-haired girl felt as though the city behind her were a savage beast crouching like a tiger, its bloody maw gaping wide. Two enormous dark figures loomed over it, smiling sinisterly as they waited for her to walk inside and be devoured, leaving nothing behind.

"Keep going..."

The silver-haired girl turned her head in a daze and looked toward the distant city with its scattered lights. Beneath the night sky, it seemed even deeper and darker.

"I have nowhere to go. What should I do? I don't know. But there... there's really something there drawing me in, making me want to approach it without meaning to."

"You see? Just like a moth flying into a flame."

Sensing the girl's wavering resolve, Jiang Dongjun added something stronger.

In his Yin Spirit form, he reached out to the fire and light elemental particles in the air. With a soft pop, a flame spontaneously ignited, giving off a gentle glow. Flying insects hidden in the grass beside the road were drawn over, only to come too close. After several faint crackles, they fluttered to the ground.

"The flame holds an irresistible attraction for them. They can't restrain themselves and draw too close, only to bring destruction upon themselves."

The silver-haired girl imagined herself in their place and shuddered.

"Or, for an even more fitting comparison, have you heard of fish bait?"

"Fish... bait?" The delicately pretty little girl knew nothing of the world.

"Have you eaten tonight?"

A series of stomach growls answered for her, and her tender little face flushed red.

"When you live by the sea, you eat from the sea. I'd like to take you to the shore for some grilled fish and fill your stomach. Would you come with me?"

After a little thought, the silver-haired girl glanced once more at the distant city and nodded.

"I... would. I feel like you don't mean me any harm, big brother."

"Good. We'll go to the sea now. Don't resist. I'll let you experience flying."

The Yin Spirit remained highly vigilant, maintaining contact with the Light of Time and Space at every moment. After slowly approaching the girl, he enveloped her in an invisible force field formed from spiritual power-a method resembling telekinesis-and lifted her off the ground.

With her feet dangling and nothing supporting her body, she cried out in surprise.

Jiang Dongjun was equally nervous, afraid he might frighten her other personality into emerging. He kept the flight as low and slow as possible, until it was almost like riding a kiddie ride.

Fortunately, the silver-haired girl adjusted quickly. She grew accustomed to this seemingly unsecured way of flying, her amethyst eyes surveying her surroundings with curiosity.

"That's amazing... Oh, big brother, my name's Na'er. What's yours?"

"Dongjun. It means the sun god."

"Brother... Dongjun?"

"Call me teacher. I came to see you because I hope to teach you a few things."

"Oh, Brother Dongjun, can we fly a little higher and faster? I feel like I'm about to fall asleep."

Jiang Dongjun neither corrected her form of address nor answered. He merely rose to a height of over a hundred feet and increased their speed to match a car traveling along a highway in his previous life.

"Thank you, Brother Dongjun! You're amazing!"

The girl's clear, silvery laughter rang through the night sky.

A short while later.

Jiang Dongjun brought Na'er back to the soft golden beach where he had first arrived.

It was a resort beach. Jiang Dongjun easily "borrowed" barbecue seasonings, a fishing rod, and a small sampan from the closed shops nearby, then took Na'er out to sea.

"Look, Na'er. This is fishing."

"The little fish I picked up on the beach just now-I tore off some of its flesh and put it on the hook. That's what we call 'fish bait.'"

"Once the bait enters the water, its scent spreads, attracting fish in the sea to gather and fight over it. Only the lucky ones or the strongest among them get to swallow it. And then-just like now!"

Whoosh-

Jiang Dongjun abruptly raised the rod, pulling a large yellow croaker nearly two feet long out of the sea and onto the sampan.

Playing the fish?

Not a chance. As soon as he saw a fish take the hook, he sent a spiritual shock straight at it. Quick and clean.

"Look, Na'er. This will be your dinner soon. Just one unremarkable piece of bait has brought you a big catch that can fill your stomach."

Although she would soon be able to fill her stomach, Na'er could not feel happy.

Her thoughts were in turmoil. Under Jiang Dongjun's powerful spiritual evocation, she saw the sense of closeness she felt in Aolai City as a kind of bait, and herself as the large yellow croaker lying dead in the sampan.

This so-called "spiritual evocation" was no illusion technique. Nor was Jiang Dongjun foolish enough to tamper with the Silver Dragon King's mind using his own meager spiritual power.

It was merely a way for a Yin Spirit to communicate with ordinary living beings, a form of communication that touched the heart directly, making the meaning easier to understand and the experience more immediate.

For instance, when Jiang Dongjun's Yin Spirit recited, "Sunlight on Incense Burner Peak gives rise to purple smoke," the listener would feel as though they were truly there, seeing Mount Lu wreathed in rising mist.

It was precisely this quality that allowed Jiang Dongjun to instill "lessons" in the inexperienced Na'er-and allowed her to understand them.

"Am I... a fish too?"

A chill ran through Na'er. Fear of that alluring sensation took hold, and she instinctively moved closer to Jiang Dongjun's Yin Spirit.

"Not just you. I am too. And ever since the second Sea God took his throne twenty thousand years ago, every living being on Douluo Star has been his fish."