A New Journey

"Hey, how long are you going to stare at that puppet? Aren't you bored?"

Across the boundless sky, an enormous black shadow swept like a phantom between blue skies and white clouds. Its massive body cleaved through the air, leaving a long wake behind it like a ribbon dancing endlessly across the heavens.

This was a means of transportation unique to the Jia Ma Empire: a Flying Magical Beast.

Six finely crafted wooden cabins rested securely on the magical beast's broad back.

At that moment, Ge Ye and his two companions, along with Xiao Qian, were resting inside those cabins.

The cabins were simply but comfortably furnished, with a faint scent of wood that offered a measure of tranquility even on this journey high above the ground.

"Martial Uncle Ge, Yanran keeps staying in that Xiao Qian's room. Don't you think it's a little inappropriate?" The young man's face was full of displeasure, and he finally could not help voicing his resentment to Ge Ye.

His brows were tightly furrowed, and a trace of jealousy showed in his eyes.

Ge Ye was sitting cross-legged on the bed. At the young man's words, he gave a helpless, bitter chuckle and shook his head. "You know perfectly well what that young lady's temper is like. How could I possibly keep her in line?"

A hint of helplessness and exhaustion appeared on his face, as though this situation was giving him quite a headache as well.

The young man's expression grew even darker, and he unconsciously muttered, "Hmph, once we get back to the sect, he'll get what's coming to him!"

"What did you say?" Ge Ye's expression abruptly changed, and he fixed the young man with a stern gaze. "I'm warning you. Until we find out why the Great Elder values him, you'd better not provoke him."

The young man smiled awkwardly, trying to ease the tension, and hurriedly waved his hands. "I wouldn't dare do anything! But we still have to report what happened in Wutan City to the sect, so I..."

"You didn't add any spice to the story, did you?"

Ge Ye's brows knitted tightly, his eyes full of suspicion and concern.

"No, no! It was all the truth."

The young man waved his hands repeatedly. As for what lay behind his shifty gaze, no one knew.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in Xiao Qian's room was rather strange.

"You've been standing there watching me stare at the puppet for so long. Aren't you bored?" Xiao Qian asked mildly in return, his gaze still resting on the puppet, as though everything around him had nothing to do with him.

Nalan Yanran stamped her foot in anger. "You haven't accepted my challenge today! I'm waiting for you!"

Urgency and frustration showed in her eyes, and both her hands were clenched tightly into fists.

"I'm not fighting today."

Xiao Qian spoke without turning his head, reaching out to gently stroke the puppet's face. It felt as delicate as human skin, perfectly smooth and without the slightest flaw.

An indescribable emotion emerged in his eyes, as though, at that moment, this puppet was the only thing left in his world.

"The word 'puppet' doesn't do you justice. From now on, your name will be Fairy Spirit Puppet."

Xiao Qian murmured to himself, his voice very soft.

Seeing the tangled tenderness and guilt filling his eyes, Nalan Yanran could not help breaking out in goosebumps.

She simply could not understand why Xiao Qian's feelings for this puppet ran so deep.

"Y-you... don't tell me you made a puppet like this to satisfy some disgusting fetish of yours? And she even looks exactly like that sister of yours in name!"

Nalan Yanran's eyes widened, disbelief written all over her face as all sorts of strange ideas flashed through her mind.

A moment later, her eyes widened even further, as though she had uncovered some earth-shattering secret. "Could it be that your forbidden romance can't be made public, so you're using this to soothe your longing for her?"

As she spoke, her expression softened considerably. She seemed to have truly imagined a plausible, tragic story, and her eyes even held a trace of sympathy and curiosity.

Nothing could be crueler than lovers destined to become brother and sister...

"Your eyes tell me you're thinking about all sorts of filthy nonsense. But whatever, as long as you don't say it aloud and foul my ears."

Xiao Qian seemed not to have heard her words at all, remaining immersed in his own world.

He casually picked up the teacup on the table, his movements somewhat mechanical, like a wooden puppet without a soul.

Out of habit, he tilted the cup toward his mouth. It should have been the most natural of movements, yet in the next second, he suddenly froze, as though time itself had stopped flowing.

The teacup was completely empty. There was not even a single drop of tea inside.

He simply stared blankly at the empty cup, his eyes hollow and lifeless, his entire body sinking into deathly stillness like an inanimate statue.

Even the air seemed to congeal, and an inexplicable sense of oppression spread through the room.

"What's wrong? Can't you pour it yourself if there's no water?" Nalan Yanran said irritably, her voice breaking the eerie silence.

Yet she found that Xiao Qian still did not move, as though someone had cast an immobilizing spell on him.

Only after a long while did Xiao Qian seem to wake from a dream. He slowly set the teacup down, the movement heavy and sluggish, as though the cup weighed a thousand tons.

Then he slowly lifted the kettle and poured tea into the cup.

His movements were slow and stiff, stripped of their former ease and grace, like an old man who had lost all his vitality.

"Come to think of it, is it just my imagination? You seem a lot scruffier than before." Nalan Yanran seemed to be deliberately finding fault, choosing to lift precisely the kettle that would not boil.

Xiao Qian turned his head numbly, following Nalan Yanran's gaze toward the full-length mirror in the room.

The image reflected in the mirror left him somewhat dazed.

A boy in his teens should have been at his most spirited and carefree, like the morning sun newly risen, brimming with life and vigor, filled with limitless possibilities.

Yet the person in the mirror looked completely different.

His somewhat disheveled collar and hems curled haphazardly, as though ravaged by a gale, having lost their original neatness.

His uncombed hair resembled a tangled bird's nest, with several strands hanging carelessly over his forehead and obscuring eyes that had once been bright and lively.

He looked thoroughly bedraggled, like a failure beaten down by life, with none of his former bearing left.

She was right.

Xiao Qian thought to himself in bitter self-mockery.

It turned out that, without his noticing, that girl had long since seeped into every aspect of his life, like spring rain silently nourishing all things.

Yet he had been utterly unaware. Only now, after she had left, did he realize how different his life had become. Traces of her lingered everywhere, and every little detail reminded him that she had once been there.

The little things he had once taken for granted had now become needles piercing his soul. Each one stabbed into the softest part of his heart, leaving him in agony he could neither endure nor escape.