"Are we here?"
Xu Cheng opened his eyes, sat up straight, and yawned.
"Mm..."
Turning around, he found Nana quietly gazing out the window. In her line of sight stood a red wooden cottage, surrounded by weeds. Lush green ivy covered its weathered walls, leaving only half the window exposed.
Through that remaining half, they could just make out the interior.
The simple cottage had once brimmed with the everyday life of an ordinary farming family, but the awakening of the wife's talent had dragged them all into the abyss...
"Mm..."
Nana came back to herself as a hand gently patted her back.
It seemed to offer silent comfort.
"Brother, I'm fine..."
Following his arm, Nana nestled into Xu Cheng's embrace and murmured against his chest.
Her voice was soft, but two trails of tears ran down her pretty face.
They soaked Xu Cheng's sleeve.
Clearly, the sight had stirred memories deep within her. Her parents had died horribly while she was still young. In the original story, she had been a child desperately starved for affection.
Meeting Xu Cheng in this life had only made her increasingly dependent on him...
After a while, Xu Cheng said gently, "Let's get out first."
Nana gently wiped away her tears and nodded obediently.
Behind the cottage stood two earthen mounds, with gravestones bearing the words, "Graves of Zhang Nan and Bai Yan."
After her parents died, she had not kept her father's surname. Instead, she had made her childhood nickname her proper name, hoping to leave the past behind.
In the Douluo World.
Surnames did not seem particularly important to people.
Take Ju Zi, for instance. That had never been her original surname, but rather a name she had chosen for herself. It was so simplistic that Xu Cheng could not stop grumbling about it, yet even after she became empress, she continued to use it as her official name.
Everyone around her accepted it as a matter of course, never finding it strange.
"Father, Mother, Nana's come to see you..."
Nana took two steps forward and knelt before the two graves.
She gently bowed down, feeling the damp earth around her.
For a long time, she said nothing.
Xu Cheng took two bouquets from his Soul Tool, placed one beside each grave, and stood next to Nana.
It would not have been appropriate for him to kneel before her parents.
Since coming to this world, Nana had been the person closest to him, without exception.
In the future, she would also be his right-hand woman.
So he showed every respect that was due.
"..."
Nana knelt before the graves for a long time, then bowed her head to the ground twice.
Only then did she slowly rise.
When she caught sight of the two bouquets out of the corner of her eye, the girl finally lost control. She threw herself into Xu Cheng's arms and burst into sobs.
Gone was her usual mischievous manner.
"It's all right now. I'm here..."
Xu Cheng gently stroked her beautiful hair.
He caught a faint, fresh fragrance, unsure whether it came from the soap used to wash her clothes or that fabled natural scent of a young girl.
As he felt the girl in his arms pour out her grief.
Xu Cheng slipped into a momentary daze.
It was as though the scene around him shifted, and he stood inside the cottage nearby, with a six-year-old girl throwing herself into his arms and sobbing her heart out.
He had comforted her just like this then, too...
"It's all right. I'm here..."
They returned to the soul-powered car.
Nana still clung tightly to Xu Cheng's arm. Instead of looking out the window, she stared intently at his profile, her lively eyes blinking.
The corner of Xu Cheng's mouth twitched.
He wanted to snap, What are you staring at?!
But remembering that she had just cried and her eyes were still red, he could only helplessly keep his mouth shut.
Still, her gaze made him rather uncomfortable.
"Hahahaha~"
Nana's laughter rang out like silver bells.
She swung his arm freely, making Xu Cheng's body shake back and forth. Then, with her pretty face full of smug delight, she said, "Brother, I just love that look when you can't stand me but can't do anything about me! Bleh, bleh, bleh..."
"You..."
Xu Cheng shook his head helplessly.
Yet a glimmer of amusement flashed in his eyes.
The insecure, affection-starved girl from the original story had gained a touch of playfulness and liveliness under his influence.
Mm, as long as she hasn't gone astray...
After a long while, Nana finally seemed to tire of playing.
Leaning against Xu Cheng's shoulder, she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right, Brother. That Tang Ya, she..."
"Let her go."
Xu Cheng smiled.
Before the two of them left, Tang Ya had departed without saying goodbye.
Of course, he knew her destination.
After agonizing over it for an entire term, this orphan of the Tang Sect had finally made up her mind to follow her father's last wishes, go to Shrek Academy, and revive the Tang Sect...
She had even left Meng Hongchen a letter.
A simple farewell, with a promise to meet again someday.
Xu Cheng had not stopped her because he did not want a corrupted Tang Ya who was merely a tool. He wanted a Tang Ya with a soul of her own, one who could devote herself wholeheartedly to serving the Holy Spirit Cult.
For that to happen, she had to be moved of her own accord, to run headfirst into a brick wall herself before she would turn back...
Of course, he had not done nothing.
Before the girl even set out, he had already instructed Wu Yun to guard her along the way.
"This should be... the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest." Tang Ya wiped the sweat from her fair forehead and gazed ahead with her beautiful eyes.
Dimly, a city appeared in her field of vision.
She lowered her head to check the map again.
A trace of joy surfaced on the girl's pretty face, only to be quickly replaced by gloom.
She was happy that she would soon be home, but what worried her was...
Home was no longer the home it had once been.
Putting the map into her storage Soul Tool, she stroked the ring on her finger. This, too, had been a gift from her close friend Meng Hongchen.
Over the past six months, though she had stayed in the Sun Moon Empire, Shrek Academy's enemy, she had experienced kindness unlike anything she had ever known. Neither her classmates nor her roommates were people she could easily forget.
"No, Tang Ya, you belong to the Tang Sect! To revive the Tang Sect, you must belong to Shrek Academy! Those were Father's last wishes!"
The girl clenched her teeth, trying to hypnotize herself.
Even as warm memories of the academy surfaced one after another, she forcibly cast them aside.
Over this time, she had gradually come to understand.
The Sun Moon Empire and Shrek Academy were mortal enemies, with no possibility of reconciliation. She had no choice.
"Phew..."
With heavy steps and a mind full of tangled thoughts, Tang Ya headed onward.
In no more than an hour.
The familiar, towering city walls slowly came into view.
Tang Ya wrapped herself in a black robe and slipped into the line entering the city. The armored City Defense Army soldiers did not give her much trouble and promptly let her through.
She strolled along the streets lined with blue-gray tiles.
After six months, the familiar streets appeared before her once more, leaving her dazed by how much had changed with the passage of time.
Tang Ya slowly walked onward, a faint, extravagant hope lingering in her heart.
All of this was an illusion. None of it had ever happened. As long as she went home, she would still see her mother's kindly face, hear her father sternly urging her to practice with hidden weapons, and see her fellow disciples laughing and playing after their training...
She did not know how much time passed.
Her footsteps stopped.
She raised her gaze. The vermilion gates, the plaque mounted high above them, and the gray-black stone walls on either side all told her that this was indeed her "home."
The Tang Sect.
But there was one difference.
Two sealing strips had been pasted across those vermilion gates.
Her hope shattered.
Before you continue