Not long after Baiheng left, Jingliu watched Lucian head toward the study, then sat alone at the stone table in the courtyard, lost in thought.
However, with the warm sunlight and the quiet surroundings, before she realized it, she had leaned on the table and drifted into sleep.
===
"You will never be able to take my sword in your lifetime."
"We have been master and disciple long enough."
"It's time to say goodbye, my dear disciple."
"NO!"
Jingliu suddenly jolted awake from a fleeting dream of her master walking away, never to return.
Just the thought of being without her master beside her filled her heart with a strange unease, reluctance, and sorrow.
'It must be because I'm still not strong enough...'
Jingliu, with sweat rolling down her face, thought in distress.
'Yes, that must be it. I cannot even take one strike from Master's blade. I only drag him down. I'm not yet worthy of staying by his side...'
It was understandable for her to have this mindset.
Her mother had once been weak, and because of that, she was captured by those cursed abominations, used to threaten her father. In the end, her father compromised and laid down his sword, but instead of saving her mother, they both ultimately perished together.
Needless to say, when one side was frail, the other would inevitably be dragged down.
Jingliu had always known this truth ever since the death of her parents, which was exactly why she never dared to go further in her relationship with Lucian.
It was not because she did not want to—it was because she did not dare.
As Jingliu's mind was a mess, tangled with countless thoughts, the corner of her eye suddenly caught an unusual movement at the edge of the doorway.
She turned her head and saw a fluffy figure clinging sneakily to the red-lacquered doorframe, half of the figure's body peeking out before darting back.
A large, bushy purple tail swayed nervously left and right, betraying the figure's panic.
Such characteristics—who else but Baiheng?
Jingliu moved silently toward Baiheng, her steps light as a breeze gliding over water.
"What are you mumbling about here?"
Jingliu, stopping right behind Baiheng, asked in a cool, even voice.
"Whoa!"
Baiheng jumped in fright, spinning around so suddenly her fox tail practically stood on end.
Upon seeing that it was just Jingliu, Baiheng's tension burst like a punctured balloon—her pretty face flushed bright red, the color spreading from her cheeks all the way to her delicate fox ears.
"You scared me, Jingliu!" Baiheng patted her chest in relief. "I thought it was Lucian... I wasn't ready yet..."
'Ready? Ready for what?' Jingliu wondered inwardly, raising her eyebrows.
In the end, she didn't ask—only fixed her gaze on Baiheng with her clear, icy light-red eyes that pierced through everything like a frozen lake. Her gaze swept silently over Baiheng's burning cheeks, then down to her restless, twitching tail.
"Well, we're close, so I won't hide it from you..." Baiheng said in a somewhat shy tone. "Actually… I'm getting ready to confess to Lucian. I was practicing just now... Lucian, I… I wuv—Ouch!"
Still too nervous, she bit her tongue, then yelped and stuck out her small, pink tongue in pain.
Meanwhile, upon hearing the word 'confess,' Jingliu's eyebrows furrowed without her realizing it.
"Why choose this moment?" Jingliu asked seriously. "Instead of indulging in love affairs, would it not be better to train harder? That way, there would at least be a greater chance of survival."
She knew Baiheng harbored feelings for Lucian, but recognizing them did not mean allowing her to act first.
'I treat you as my closest friend, and yet you want to become my master's wife first?' Jingliu thought with rising frustration. 'No, that cannot happen. I must persuade her otherwise.'
"But that's exactly why!"
Baiheng's eyes shone brightly, her tone firm.
"I mean, since we're about to fight an Emanator of Abundance, I have to hurry up! What if... What if I die tomorrow? If I disappear without even telling him I love him, wouldn't that be a huge regret? A regret all the way back to my great-grandma's house!"
As she spoke, she even waved her fist for emphasis.
"And what if the dream he told us really comes true? What if I end up with nothing left, not even a body to revive? In that case, I'll never have a chance! That's why I need to treasure the time I still have to confess..."
Baiheng's voice grew softer, laced with the fragility and stubbornness of a small creature, but her eyes remained unyieldingly bright.
Hearing Baiheng's determined and passionate words, Jingliu felt something stir faintly in her chest, as if a small ripple had spread across her frozen heart, yet her expression remained unchanged.
"Are you really ready? Are you really sure about this?"
In the end, Jingliu only asked this.
"Mm!"
Baiheng nodded hard, her fluffy tail wagging furiously as if to cheer herself on, but the next moment, her round, gleaming eyes fixed firmly on Jingliu—her gaze carried a sharpness unlike ever before, as if it could peel away the cold mask of aura Jingliu wrapped herself in.
"And you, Jingliu?" Baiheng leaned forward slightly, her foxian intuition keen, her voice lowered like a pebble dropped into a deep pond. "Are you still going to wait?"
Upon hearing this question, Jingliu's fingers curled ever so slightly.
"If I cannot keep up with his steps, I will only be a burden, a weakness..." Jingliu lifted her eyes, though her gaze was unfocused. "In that situation, there will be no lasting bond. I will wait until I can truly take his blade—until the day I am worthy of him."
"Worthy?"
For once, Baiheng's eyes widened in rare seriousness, and with a sharp flick of her tail, it snapped audibly through the air.
"Is love something about worthiness?"
Saying this, Baiheng stepped closer—almost pressing against Jingliu—tilting her head up with blazing determination.
"Love means love! Why add so many rules? We as long-life species indeed live long, but we're not immortal—who knows when our time will be up!"
Baiheng's words spilled out like rapid-fire arrows—each one striking like a sharp fragment, carrying undeniable clarity.
"I don't care about any of those complicated things! All I know is, right now, I love him, and I want to tell him! If I can live happily with him even for one day, that's enough!"
"I just... I just want to have it once, and that's enough... I don't want to die someday with the word 'love' still stuck in my heart, never spoken aloud..."
"You know, that'd be too miserable and pitiful—dying with regrets..."
At Baiheng's heartfelt words, Jingliu fell silent.
As the courtyard filled only with the rustling of leaves in the wind, that single phrase—dying with regrets—struck a heavy crack through Jingliu's icy heart.
Yes.
Why cling to that unreachable 'worthiness'?
As Jingliu recalled the nightmare from when she was eleven, she suddenly no longer wanted to wait.
If Baiheng was going to act, then she had to be faster—otherwise, the next time she saw Baiheng, she might have to call her 'master's wife.'
"Master is... waiting for you in the backyard."
Jingliu turned abruptly, swift as a startled gust of wind, leaving only this lie behind—her voice sounded calm, yet carried a faint, hidden urgency.
"Huh? He's waiting for me?" Baiheng raised her eyebrows, her fluffy tail spinning like a windmill in excitement. "As expected, nothing can escape him..."
In the blink of an eye, she dashed off like an arrow, her light footsteps and faint scent quickly vanishing into the air.
Jingliu took a deep breath, filled with a strange, unfamiliar determination.
In the next moment, she turned sharply and strode quickly in the opposite direction without hesitation—her pace grew faster and faster with each step, until she was almost running, her clothes fluttering wildly in the rush.
'Sorry, Baiheng, but I will always be one step ahead of you.'
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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