The first smile

Yu Sheng looked bewildered as he instinctively followed Liu Qingfeng, running through the fields beneath the scattered starlight.

A long while later...

Liu Qingfeng stopped, panting heavily, but he was smiling. "Haha, how does that feel?"

"It feels like... you're tired?"

Yu Sheng asked after some thought.

"But being tired is a kind of feeling too, isn't it?"

Liu Qingfeng thumped his lower back.

Yu Sheng nodded. "But you're only pretending to be tired..."

Liu Qingfeng stiffened, coughed to cover his embarrassment, and straightened up.

"Actually, I figured something out just now."

"There's no need to insist on turning you into any particular kind of person, and I have no right to change you."

"At the very least... as a teacher, I hope you can live happily."

"Someday, when you suddenly look back on your life, I hope you can face it with a smile and say... I have no regrets."

"That would be enough."

At that moment, Liu Qingfeng no longer had that distinctive authority of a teacher. Instead, he lay freely in the fields, breathing in the fragrance of flowers and grass.

"Teacher, have you... ever had any regrets?"

Yu Sheng looked at Liu Qingfeng. In the moonlight, his still somewhat boyish face was filled with earnestness.

Almost without hesitation, Liu Qingfeng shook his head. He raised his right hand and looked at his missing little finger. "If we're talking about regrets, my only regret is that when my finger was severed back then, I should have immediately switched to holding my sword in my left hand. That way, I could have killed a couple more."

"What a pity."

Yu Sheng looked at Liu Qingfeng's four fingers, his expression growing even more bewildered.

"Do you know what my Awakening Object is?"

Suddenly interested, Liu Qingfeng asked with a hint of pride and mystery.

He seemed much younger now, looking more cheerful and even talking more.

Yu Sheng shook his head.

"A sword!"

"A seven-mark sword!"

Liu Qingfeng's expression was reverent.

As his words fell, several weeds nearby suddenly snapped, as though sliced by a keen edge.

A pale blue longsword appeared above Liu Qingfeng.

Graceful patterns were engraved along the sword, and four crystals were set into its hilt.

Perhaps the only thing marring its beauty was a crack in the blade.

The crack was obvious.

"Back then, my teacher told me..."

"Swords are the most common Awakening Objects in the world of the awakened. They're nothing special."

"But they're also the strongest."

"There's nothing a sword strike can't cleave through."

"As long as you have an unwavering heart, even an ordinary sword can one day transcend the mundane and attain the divine."

"Unfortunately... my hand can no longer hold it steady."

He looked at the sword in midair as though looking at an old companion who had been with him for years.

His eyes held attachment and reverence.

But in the end, it all became a sigh. He waved his hand, and the sword dissipated into the night sky.

"Forget it. Let's not talk about that."

"We'll head back the day after tomorrow. Don't think about anything for these two days. Just treat it as a short break."

With that, Liu Qingfeng got up and walked along the path through the fields, growing more and more distant.

Watching Liu Qingfeng's retreating figure, Yu Sheng's eyes grew increasingly bewildered.

Imitating what Liu Qingfeng had done, he lay down in the field and stared somewhat absently at the stars filling the sky.

"Will doing this... make me happy?"

"It really is comfortable."

Without realizing it, Yu Sheng closed his eyes and fell asleep.

But even sound asleep, he kept his hand against his waist, where a dagger lay, ready to be drawn at any moment without hindering his movements...

Beside the lake.

Zhong Yushu brought over a small folding stool and sat before the gravestone. Looking at the lake, he murmured as though talking to himself, "Little Liu is becoming more and more like a proper teacher."

"But why didn't I die at Demon-Suppressing Pass?"

"All that's left is this broken body, muddling through my days here."

He had none of his daytime slyness now. He seemed more like an old man in his twilight years, talkative and rambling.

He wanted to say a few words about everything.

"What was the point of using divine beast blood to save a useless man like me?"

"What the human race needs is never history, but the future. I'm nothing more than an old man who's gradually being left behind."

"Or... have I truly become afraid?"

"Perhaps."

"Zhong Yushu gets tired too. It's just that... Zhong Yushu cannot afford to be tired."

"So it would be better to let the name Zhong Yushu scatter on the wind."

A breeze passed, as though whispering something in his ear. With a faint smile on his face, Zhong Yushu leaned against the gravestone and fell asleep.

The sky full of stars was reflected on the lake, where water and sky met in a single line, tranquil... gentle.

"Lord Divine Attendant, we must move the plan forward!"

"Jiangbei Province has been taking far too much action lately. Even the Demon-Slaughtering Pavilion has joined the sweep. Our losses have been heavy."

"If this affects the higher-ups' plan, we won't be able to bear the consequences."

Holding his phone, the young man spoke with a solemn expression.

His face gradually darkened, veins bulging on the hand gripping his phone. "Lord Divine Attendant, Jiangbei Province will be at its most vigilant during the exams. Acting then will severely affect our plan!"

"Was this ordered by the Divine Envoy personally..."

"I have no further objections."

"My tone was inappropriate just now, and I raised my voice a little. Please forgive me, Lord Divine Attendant."

The young man quickly adopted a respectful manner and apologized sincerely.

He hung up.

A trace of doubt appeared in his eyes. "The Divine Envoy is personally overseeing this? Could there be a plan I don't know about?"

He stood up and looked at the map of Jiangbei Province on the wall. His gaze settled on Mobei City as he sank into thought.

Early morning.

Opening his eyes and seeing a ray of sunlight falling over him, Yu Sheng could, for some reason, feel a trace of joy in his heart.

This... might be what Liu Qingfeng called... happiness.

Throughout that entire day, Liu Qingfeng no longer lectured him about lofty principles. Instead, he simply took him fishing in the streams among the fields and gathering eggs from birds' nests. He even made two nets so they could catch butterflies among the flowers.

At that moment, he seemed less like a teacher and more like a kind elder.

Things most children had experienced were full of novelty to Yu Sheng.

It was as though...

This world had a dark side and a bright side, and having just emerged from the darkness, he was experiencing everything in the sunlight.

And he was... dazzled by it.

That evening, as he grilled the fish they had caught during the day and breathed in the air of the fields, a smile involuntarily curved Yu Sheng's lips.

A genuine smile.

He could no longer even remember when he had last smiled from the heart.

Perhaps it was somewhere in his memories. Perhaps... it had never happened.