The Snow Lotus bud atop the Martial Scripture swayed gently, but within a few breaths, it grew smaller and smaller, then suddenly went out.
Lu Yuque realized this was the method her father had mentioned for suppressing the Snow Lotus bud, but the thing before her froze for a while at the sight. It raised an expressionless face and stared straight at her.
"Lu... Yuque, little Que..." it said, stiffly and eerily. "Tell Mother, where has 'Sword Unbound, the Scripture of No Solution' gone?"
Its hand gently stroked the woman's warm neck.
Lu Yuque gasped like a fish, raised a hand to point behind her, and said in a trembling voice, "Th-they took it."
The thing climbed into the treetops like a spider and vanished into the night sky in two or three movements.
But it never vanished from Lu Yuque's nightmares again.
Elder Hu and Li Li were silent and rigid, as though they, too, were there that night.
"Younger Sister Yuque," Li Li said hoarsely, "y-you might have seen some things wrong. Perhaps it was someone who had practiced some strange art. How could there be ghosts in this world?"
Lu Yuque lowered her head and shook it. "That absolutely wasn't human."
Elder Hu was silent for a moment. "You said it might have come after the Snow Lotus bud. But our sect hasn't seen it."
"...I don't know."
"Do you have 'Sword Unbound, the Scripture of No Solution' on you?"
"Yes." Lu Yuque started, then took the Martial Scripture out from deep within her clothes.
"And now that Snow Lotus bud has grown back?"
"Yes."
Lu Yuque unwrapped the bundle. The book lay quietly inside, its swaying white bud tender and lovely, like something not of this world.
Lu Yuque suddenly felt it was like live