Jade Rabbit

Since that day.

Every day at five, Jingliu would summon Bai Heng to wait at the training grounds.

After six consecutive days, Bai Heng felt that his back no longer ached, his legs no longer hurt, and even his heart had stopped beating. It was as if his entire being had ascended.

Every day, he trained from five until sunset, then went to the Alchemy Commission for the full course of treatment... or rather, emergency resuscitation.

After repeatedly visiting the Alchemy Commission, Bai Heng had not only become familiar with its alchemists, but had also met a young friend who came by every few days to obtain medical certificates.

Her name was Qingque. According to her, she was not only the most valued diviner under Divination Commission Master Fu Xuan, but also the designated supervisor of Luofu's largest high-end mobile knowledge repository.

Once he looked into it a little further.

Bai Heng discovered that this so-called most valued diviner was actually the "head honcho" of the Divination Commission, someone who was about to be demoted as far as she could possibly go—in other words, a gatekeeper. Still, Fu Xuan did indeed look after her quite often.

In a sense, she could be considered "highly valued" by Fu Xuan.

As for that so-called designated supervisor of a high-end mobile knowledge repository, it simply meant librarian.

The identity Bai Heng had given her was that of an utterly ordinary errand boy from the Tactical Stratagem Bureau, currently trying to figure out how to live off a rich woman.

Qingque had this to say about it:

"You're barely twenty and already thinking about living off a rich woman. What are you going to do when you're two hundred? Bai Heng, Bai Heng, I think you've got great potential to become the chief disciple of my Slacking Sect."

The two of them got along splendidly, to the point where it felt as though things could turn into: Heng, having drifted through life alone and never met a kindred spirit, if Que does not disdain me, I would gladly become your...

But some words were ultimately too difficult to say, and Bai Heng naturally never voiced them.

As for Jingliu, aside from seeing her at the training grounds, Bai Heng had little idea where she went. He could not even find a chance to give her the two Fire-lick Rabbits.

The one consolation was that under Jingliu's tutelage, his swordsmanship had progressed at a pace that could only be described as astonishing.

In merely six days, Jingliu said he had recovered twenty percent of his former strength. As long as he did not forget her teachings and remained diligent in practicing the sword.

Defeating her might take only a year.

On the seventh day.

After Bai Heng finished applying medicine at the Alchemy Commission for the last time, he contacted Xiao Si and arranged for him to pilot a starship to the Xianzhou and take him home.

Before leaving, he did not forget to give his fellow patient Qingque a salted-fish pendant as a farewell gift.

When Bai Heng boarded the starship for his return journey, only Jing Yuan came to see him off.

But Bai Heng was not surprised. After all, every reunion marked the beginning of the next farewell.

If he left, Jingliu would never see him off.

But if he came, then no matter how many hardships lay in the way, Jingliu would appear before him.

"What are your plans for the future?" Bai Heng stood at the Starport Docks and asked the Luofu general before him, who was traveling incognito.

"What else can I do? Guard this corner of the Luofu for a few more centuries, then it will be time to retire. What about you? When are you planning to come back and marry Master?" Jing Yuan asked, one hand on his hip, dressed in plain clothes.

"I don't know. Perhaps next time."

"Then don't go flirting around out there. Jingliu has waited seven hundred years for you," Jing Yuan said meaningfully. Then he took out a wooden box and handed it to Bai Heng. "A parting gift for you."

"Do brothers like us really need to be so formal?" Bai Heng asked. In his impression, Jing Yuan was not someone who cared about such ceremonial niceties.

But Jing Yuan's next words made the wooden box in Bai Heng's hand feel instantly heavier.

"Inside is the remnant soul of the Suiyang Di Kui. It was yours to begin with. It was sealed deep within the Prison of Confinement. I obtained the Marshal's approval and the Ten-Lords Commission's pardon before I could retrieve it. Now, I am returning it to you," Jing Yuan said solemnly.

"Di Kui..."

Bai Heng weighed the wooden box, clearly made from no ordinary material, in his hand and said in a low voice:

"You trust me that much?"

Jing Yuan placed a hand on Bai Heng's shoulder.

"Little Bai, even if one day you truly use Di Kui's remnant soul to obtain that power, you will still be my junior brother. The Hunt will not become your enemy, and neither will I."

Jing Yuan had already said that much, so Bai Heng had nothing more to say. He stored Di Kui in the storage bracelet he carried with him.

"I'll take this ticking time bomb back to the Astral Observatory. Hopefully, it will just be a dud."

The Ancient Dragon—or rather, the remnant soul of the Suiyang named Di Kui in Bai Heng's possession—was the key to how he had become a Destruction Emanator back then.

Now that it had returned to his hands, perhaps it was fate of a sort.

But even if he could make another deal with this remnant and obtain its gaze once more.

That depended on whether the old thing still harbored evil intentions.

Or whether the strength of Bai Heng's consciousness could make the Ancient Dragon named Di Kui bow its head in submission.

"Then farewell, Jing Yuan." Bai Heng raised his arm and gave a parting wave.

"Farewell."

Jing Yuan watched Bai Heng board that pitch-black starship and saw it pass through the Jade Gate, vanishing into the Star Sea.

Meanwhile, at the Divination Commission.

Fu Xuan held two snow-white Fire-lick Rabbits in her arms as she admired the seasonal flowers and trees within a pavilion.

A moment later, her ears twitched. Behind her came the soft tread of cloud boots and a cool voice.

"Why did the Divination Master invite me here today?"

Fu Xuan turned around, her amber eyes lifting slightly.

The visitor wore plain robes and possessed a cold, captivating beauty. It was Jingliu.

"For no particular reason. Someone merely asked me to entrust these two Fire-lick Rabbits to you. Each of them has a letter in its mouth."

"A letter?"

"Correct."

"Read them for me." Jingliu parted her lips softly.

Fu Xuan naturally understood that Jingliu could not casually remove the black veil before her eyes, so she took the two letters from the Fire-lick Rabbits' mouths.

At that moment, the two Fire-lick Rabbits hopped down from Fu Xuan's pink skirt one after the other and nuzzled against Jingliu's feet.

Fu Xuan had not opened either letter before Jingliu arrived.

Now that Jingliu had asked her to read them aloud, she was curious herself. She unhurriedly opened the envelopes and began reading them one by one.

"First letter: Children cannot go a day without their mother. Following me, they might go hungry, so they should stay with you, Master Jingliu. Oh, right. We have a legend there that says the fairy maiden on the moon has a Jade Rabbit by her side. Master Jingliu, you have two of them, so you're a little better off than she is. If you ever get angry someday, just imagine these two rabbits are me and beat them up hard. Don't hold back. What child wasn't raised on beatings... There's also a photograph in the letter. The angle is pretty good."

"Second letter: If you fail to keep them alive, it's not a big problem. Add more scallions, ginger, and cooking wine, then simmer over low heat... What the hell is this?"

While reading the second letter, even with Fu Xuan's excellent composure, she nearly blurted out a Xianzhou curse.

But just as she was about to condemn that coldhearted fellow, she unexpectedly noticed a faint smile on Jingliu's usually chilly, indifferent face.

"Lady Sword Champion?"

"I didn't smile."

Fu Xuan's lips twitched.

"I hadn't even asked."