The rhythmic creak of wheels against the stone road filled the interior of the carriage like a tired metronome. Outside, the wind blew steadily, carrying with it the distant scent of heated metal and spiritual oil — signs that Lin Huang was already approaching the industrial regions under the influence of the Sun and Moon Academy.
He rested his chin on his hand, watching the scenery slowly change through the small reinforced window.
Open fields gave way to wide roads marked with metal rails embedded into the ground. Small soul tool carriages passed in the distance, some gliding almost silently, others releasing rhythmic bursts of spiritual steam.
"We still have a long way to go with this…" he muttered, remembering the vehicles of the Lin Clan. Functional, yes — but still crude compared to what he was seeing now.
The carriage swayed slightly as it crossed an uneven patch of road. The discomfort made him shift his posture.
These seats are still terrible…
He let out a restrained sigh, then turned his gaze back toward the horizon. Deep in his chest, there was a strange feeling: not anxiety, not pure excitement — something quieter, as if he were simply accepting the next stretch of the road without resisting it.
Several days had passed since he left the Lin Clan.
And with them, the scent of Su Mei's kitchen still lingered stubbornly in his memory.
The creaking of the wheels slowed to a stop. The carriage decelerated gradually.
When Lin Huang raised his head again, metallic towers rose on the horizon like steel lances piercing the sky. Elevated rails crossed the air in long arcs, carrying spiritual transport platforms that moved with a deep, constant hum. Energy cores pulsed within crystalline structures embedded in the academy's outer walls, illuminating everything with a cold, orderly glow.
The Sun and Moon Academy.
As he passed through the steel gates, a subtle pressure settled over his shoulders.
It was not hostile — just… dense.
The air itself felt saturated with refined spiritual energy, so different from the freer circulation within the Lin Clan's territory. His body responded instinctively, his spiritual channels adjusting to the new rhythm of the environment.
Some students nearby slowed their steps for an instant.
It was not conscious. Just a faint discomfort as they approached him, as if their instincts sensed something unusual within that calm, overly stable aura for someone so young.
Lin Huang kept his gaze low, following the metal guidance plates toward the registration hall.
The sound of footsteps echoed through the tall corridor, mingling with the rhythmic clicks of hidden mechanisms within the walls.
The instructor in charge of registration only raised his eyes when Lin Huang stopped in front of the desk.
"Name."
"Lin Huang."
The man scanned the documents, then looked back at the young man in front of him. A brief silence followed.
"Age… Rank twenty-six?"
"Stabilizing at twenty-five," Lin Huang corrected calmly.
The instructor raised an eyebrow slightly, hiding his surprise behind a restrained cough.
He activated a spiritual reading device. The crystal glowed in deep orange hues, with a darker thread slowly rotating within its core.
The man frowned for a brief moment. Something there… felt too dense for someone at that level. But he did not comment.
"Dormitory, Sector Three. Single room," he said, sliding a metal token across the desk. "The integration assessment will be announced soon."
Lin Huang accepted the token and inclined his head in thanks.
As he walked away, he had the strange feeling that the man had sensed something, even if he did not understand what it was.
No one here will treat me like the 'Lin Clan prodigy'…
Strangely enough, that thought made him feel lighter.
The dormitory was clean and orderly, with polished metal walls and discreet spiritual inscriptions in the corners, regulating temperature and energy flow. A small built-in desk, a simple bed, and a meditation space beside the window.
No luxuries.
He set his luggage down and began organizing his few belongings. Between clothes and cultivation materials, he took out a small bundle of carefully wrapped spiritual seasonings.
His fingers hovered over the fabric for a second longer than necessary.
The scent of the kitchen came to him unbidden — hot steam, sizzling oil, Su Mei's voice complaining that he was getting in the way while "helping."
The corner of his lips lifted faintly.
When he finished, he sat down in the meditation space. Outside, the distant sound of gears and footsteps blended with the night wind beginning to sweep across the academy courtyard.
He closed his eyes.
The Digestive Technique activated almost immediately. The denser spiritual energy of the environment flowed through his channels with a sensation of gentle pressure in his chest, accompanied by controlled warmth.
His cultivation did not surge forward.
But it settled.
The residual instability between Rank 25 and Rank 26 smoothed out a little more, like sand settling at the bottom of a container after being shaken.
Deep within his still-closed spiritual sea, something stirred.
A vague silhouette of a fox lifted its head for a fleeting instant — not conscious, merely an instinctive reflection to the new environment.
At the same time, beneath the skin of his forehead, the external spirit bone pulsed once.
Lin Huang frowned faintly, but the sensation quickly faded.
When night fell fully over the academy courtyard, he slowly opened his eyes.
In another wing of the complex, Zhang Lexuan walked alone along the external corridor. The night breeze brushed gently against her hair as her gaze wandered across the distant lights of the spiritual cores.
For a brief moment, she felt a strange fluctuation in the air.
Not pressure.
Familiarity.
She paused, her eyes drifting toward the far courtyard.
…Maybe I'm imagining things.
Even so, a name surfaced in her mind without warning.
Lin Huang.
Lexuan took a slow breath and pushed the thought aside, continuing down the corridor, unaware that, on that same night, the distance between them had quietly shortened for the first time in a long while.
Inside a silent cultivation chamber, Xu Tianzhen opened his eyes.
The air around his body still trembled faintly, remnants of the intense training session he had just completed. Sweat traced down the side of his face, yet his expression remained calm.
He slowly clenched his fists.
There was a strange sensation in his chest — not frustration, not anxiety.
Expectation.
Lin Huang…
The name came without anger. Only with the memory of that overly calm gaze, that posture that always seemed one step ahead of the world around him.
Xu Tianzhen stood up, wiping the sweat from his face with his sleeve.
"Not yet," he murmured to himself. "But I will reach that point."
Outside the cultivation room, the academy corridors remained brightly lit. The world kept moving — and so did he.
Meng Hongchen's room was a mess of organized chaos.
Soul tools were scattered across the desk, cultivation scrolls piled carelessly, bottles of spiritual essence lined up along one corner. In the middle of it all, she sat on her bed, staring at her own hands.
That day's training had been harsh.
Yet the smile forming on her lips was not one of exhaustion — but of restrained anticipation.
She stood up and activated a small spiritual measuring device. The glow reflected in her eyes, brighter than the last time she had checked.
"Hm… I improved," she muttered with quiet pride.
Lin Huang's image passed through her mind, not as a distant memory, but as a nearby goal.
Next time… I won't be left behind.
Meng Hongchen fell back onto the bed, staring at the metallic ceiling.
The thought made her let out a soft laugh, alone in the silent room.
By the edge of a quiet lake, Qiu'er sat with her feet almost touching the water. Moonlight reflected off her silver hair, breaking into soft fragments of light that trembled with the breeze.
She held a small pendant between her fingers.
Simple. Old. A symbol of a promise made long ago.
The wind passed, sending gentle ripples across the surface of the lake.
"So you really went to the Sun and Moon Academy…" she murmured, to no one in particular.
There was no resentment in her voice.
Only curiosity.
Qiu'er slowly stood up, pressing the pendant against her chest.
If he was moving forward… then she would move as well.
Even if it was only to see with her own eyes what kind of person he was becoming now.
Back in the dormitory, Lin Huang closed the window and sat down at the edge of the bed.
The atmosphere of the Sun and Moon Academy felt too quiet for a place where so many different wills crossed paths.
Yet somewhere within that same night, people he had not yet reunited with were thinking of him.
Without knowing it.
Before those gates of steel and light, Lin Huang finally understood that he was not stepping into merely an academy — but into a point of convergence of destinies.
Far from the cold glow of the Sun and Moon Academy, within the borderlands shared by the Three Great Empires — Star Luo, Tianhun, and Dou Ling — the night air carried a different kind of stillness. This was a region under the distant influence of Shrek Academy, where soul beasts were more cautious and cultivators more wary.
At the edge of a dim forest clearing in that territory, Su Mei stood quietly. The scent of damp earth mixed with faint traces of soul beast presence. She tightened her grip on her cooking tools, her breathing steady but tense.
The soul beast before her was not large — but its aura was dense, its eyes reflecting the moonlight with wary intelligence.
This was the second step of her path.
Somewhere beyond the trees, the faint silhouettes of escorts from the Lin Clan waited in silence.
Su Mei took a slow breath and stepped forward.
At the same time, along a remote road leading back toward the territories under the influence of the Sun and Moon Academy, near a border city where the lands of different powers met, a small village lay unnaturally quiet.
Smoke still rose from a few chimneys, yet no laughter echoed through the narrow streets.
At the center of the village, a girl with flame-colored hair stood alone.
The heat around her twisted the air, warping the lantern light into trembling shadows. Her eyes were unfocused, as if she were struggling to restrain something burning deep within her chest.
This border village was the place she had been staying in for some time now — close enough to the frontier to avoid attention, yet close enough to the main roads that rumors of the Sun and Moon Academy still reached her ears.
No one dared to approach her.
And from afar, an old villager could only whisper a name passed down in fearful rumors:
"Ma Xiaotao…"