Black Cloud, Clear Wind Dao Academy.
After instructing Li Yuanyuan to arrange separate accommodations for Mingchen and Mingxiu, Lin Hui kept Mingde and Weiwei behind in their own quarters.
They bathed, ate, and rested. A physician was brought in to examine all four and treat their various ailnts. It wasn't until the following morning, once their conditions had fully stabilized, that everyone finally sat down for a proper talk.
Upon hearing the news, Lin Hui's wife, Liu Xiao, hurried back from the Rain Palace to look after Weiwei, who had moved into their ho. Lin Hui took charge of Mingde; Liu Xiao handled Weiwei. It was simply easier for two won to talk and manage things together.
In the small courtyard, pear blossoms drifted through the air. Liu Xiao—dressed in a sparse, open-fra set of armor covering only three vital points—set down her longsword and hung it on the wall rack outside the room. With her back turned, the full curve of her figure was on display to Weiwei.
Liu Xiao lacked Ouyang Yining's generous proportions above the waist, but her perfectly rounded hips were striking enough that Weiwei, following her into the courtyard, felt her face flush and dropped her gaze.
“Have a seat. I’ve been away on business myself and only just got back. The mont I heard about you and Master Mingde, Senior Sister Weiwei, I rushed straight over.”
Liu Xiao turned around and casually unbuckled her armor, stripping it off with effortless ease. The natural, unselfconscious motion only made Weiwei lower her gaze even further, too self-conscious to keep looking.
It wasn't shyness—she simply felt inadequate by comparison.
Though bathing had restored her original appearance, months of hard labor and poor nutrition had left her gaunt, and the vitality had drained from her body. Aside from her pretty face, everything else fell far short of Liu Xiao.
"We're both won. Why lower your head?" Liu Xiao glanced down at herself in confusion, then draped a robe over her shoulders. "Oh—are you unaccustod to the Inner City's style of dress? Almost everyone inside the Moon Tower dresses like this. For a Called One, armor only needs to cover a few vital points. The rest of the body is forged of copper skin and iron bones, offering greater durability than the armor itself. Wearing too much just slows your movent and striking speed."
"I… I see," Weiwei nodded.
"Sit down. I'm genuinely curious about what happened to you all after you left Xinyu Town. Take your ti, Senior Sister. If there's anyone you need to take revenge on, anyone you want dead, just say so—I'll fetch their heads for you!" Liu Xiao said bluntly, patting her ample chest.
"No… it's nothing, really. The people who hard us were all killed by Junior Brother at sea…" Weiwei kept her head bowed, a faint sting rising in her chest at the sight of Liu Xiao's effortless, radiant confidence.
"That's a real pity. I'm not great at comforting people, so please don't take offense if I say sothing wrong, Senior Sister. But now that you've returned to the Clear Wind Dao, don't leave again—stay and grow alongside everyone else. Black Cloud is far better than Tuyue." Liu Xiao encouraged.
"Mm… I know. Thank you, Sister Xiao." Weiwei nodded gratefully. From the corner of her eye, she quietly took in her surroundings, then finally voiced the question she had been holding back. "Speaking of which, what exactly is Junior Brother's current situation? Why did he co to Black Cloud City, and why is he with the Black Army?"
Liu Xiao held nothing back, recounting everything from Tuyue to Black Cloud in sequence.
At first, Weiwei found it unremarkable. Back in Xinyu Town, she had already sensed that Lin Hui had the drive and potential to expand the Clear Wind Temple. That much made sense.
What ca after, however, was sothing else entirely.
The Clear Wind Temple tapping into the Inner City's network, allying with the Inspectorate Division, and rising to dominance in the Outer City—that was one thing. An elite from one of the Inner City's Three Great Powers coming to exchange martial arts—that was another. But then ca the sudden exposure: Lin Hui had concealed so much of his strength that, once hunted down, he could no longer hold it back, and everything erupted at once.
When she heard that Lin Hui had cut loose during the convoy's transfer into the Mist Zone and killed the Palace Master who had ambushed them on the spot, Weiwei's jaw dropped.
What had she missed over these past few years? Had she really been gone for years, and not centuries?
Hearing that the convoy had boarded a ship and crossed the sea to Black Cloud eased her shock slightly. But just as she was catching her breath, Liu Xiao shifted the subject to their days in Black Cloud—how Lin Hui had sohow found his way into the Moon Tower's circle of influence, how the Clear Wind Dao Academy had put down firm roots, and how Lin Hui now held a lucrative official post in the Inner City.
Each revelation left Weiwei more dumbfounded than the last.
Even during her ti as a laborer, she had heard enough from others on the ship to understand what Black Cloud was—a sprawling, powerful urban district that dwarfed Tuyue in every respect. Yet just like that, the Clear Wind Temple—no, the Clear Wind Dao—had planted its flag here, and Lin Hui had secured a seat in the Inner City?
But what she found truly incomprehensible was that Lin Hui had actually defeated a Palace Master. She clearly rembered that when she left, his strength was only at the Circulation realm. Just how many years had it been?!
From Circulation to Palace Master—how many realms separated those two? Weiwei couldn't even begin to fathom the distance. She asked aloud before she could stop herself.
"Circulation to Palace Master? Well, Circulation generally corresponds to the High-Tier Call realm. Once Circulation breaks through to the Minor Three Harmonies Grandmaster realm, it corresponds to a Divine Officer like . After that, a Major Three Harmonies Grandmaster corresponds to a High Divine Officer, and only a peak Luminous Extre Grandmaster corresponds to a Palace Master."
"Wait—Xiao Xiao, you… are a Divine Officer!?" Weiwei snapped to attention, staring in shock.
"Oh? Didn't I ntion that? I broke through to Divine Officer a few years ago—my realm has only just consolidated." Liu Xiao nodded matter-of-factly. "Still, the gap between my own ager strength and Ah Hui's is far too vast. Every day is unspeakably miserable for … Fortunately, the higher-ups arranged a very capable assistant for him who can carry so of the weight. Otherwise, I'd still be losing sleep over where to find others to share the load."
Weiwei studied Liu Xiao's perfectly composed expression and said nothing.
A Divine Officer… She had only ever heard of such a realm from a distance—sothing she had yearned for beyond asure. She had imagined countless tis what it would feel like to possess the aptitude of a Called One: rising to greatness in a single step, forging copper skin and iron bones, entering the Inner City as a natural-born elite. But now…
Wait. What did she an by sharing the load? Sharing what? What was unspeakably miserable?
A creeping unease took hold of Weiwei as she studied Liu Xiao's untroubled face. She quickly asked what she ant.
"Oh, that." Liu Xiao said casually. "Ah Hui's constitution is simply too powerful—I absolutely cannot bear being intimate with him alone. That's why, even though we've been married for so ti now, there isn't the slightest sign of pregnancy, so…"
"You…" Weiwei hesitated, almost asking whether Liu Xiao really didn't mind. The words reached her lips, and she swallowed them back down.
All at once, she rembered how her father had once tried to arrange a match between her and Lin Hui. Back then, she hadn't seen anything particularly outstanding about him.
No—that wasn't it. The truth was that she had been dazzled by surface appearances alone, set on finding a man of her preferred type and nothing more.
But now, looking at Liu Xiao—luminous, bold, and commanding—and then at herself, gaunt and rely passable, a quiet, hollow sense of inadequacy settled over her.
If I had agreed to be with Lin Hui back then… The thought surfaced unbidden, and she pushed it back down.
What was missed was missed. There was no point in regretting it now.
Liu Xiao talked on softly—the surroundings, their living arrangents, the rhythm of daily life—and Weiwei listened, pressing down the bitterness rising in her chest. Yet for so reason, as she sat there taking in the small, ordinary details of their life together, watching the quiet happiness that moved through Liu Xiao without her even noticing it, her eyes grew hot.
"Ah—why are you crying?" Liu Xiao broke off abruptly, suddenly noticing sothing was wrong.
"It's nothing… I'm just… just happy…"
…
In another courtyard.
Lin Hui and Mingde sat across from each other. By now, they had gone through the recent changes and the relocation of the Clear Wind Dao in full.
"Then what will you do about things in Tuyue?" Mingde asked.
"The disciples there will have to endure a bit of hardship for now. It'll be so ti before I can move that branch over," Lin Hui replied.
His herb garden base was still there, along with several Clear Wind Dao disciples, his apprentice Tao Xuehai, Mingxia, Han Xiaoyue, and the rest. He would return sooner or later—but first, he had to deal with the dangers waiting in the shadows.
"Regardless, now that you're here, Master, please don't leave again. The Clear Wind Dao has a solid foundation, and I have developed several martial arts of my own, all derived from the Clear Wind Sword Technique. If you study them carefully, another breakthrough may well be within your reach," Lin Hui said.
"I know… To think that, after a lifeti of cultivation, I would ultimately be saved by my own disciple." Mingde's lips trembled, the bitterness plain on his face.
Once he had composed himself, he asked carefully about the city. When he confird that Black Cloud was in every way superior to Tuyue, he settled into his new ho with a asure of peace.
Mingxiu and Mingchen were another matter. Both had long since severed their ties with the Clear Wind Temple, and after Lin Hui rescued them, they had quietly hoped to lean on the Clear Wind Dao for a soft landing. But when Lin Hui stated plainly that he would only take in Mingde and Weiwei, they had no grounds to object and left without a word.
Once the Black Mist anomaly at sea was fully resolved, Ouyang Yining compiled a detailed report and submitted it to the City Lord's Moon Tower. With that, Lin Hui's standing in Black Cloud was thoroughly cented.
After settling Mingde and his daughter, he turned his attention at once to preparing for his voyage to Eagle-man Island.
The influx of the Wind Disaster's power was accelerating. He needed to advance his cultivation of the Star Breath Sword Canon as quickly as possible to suppress the Wind Disaster Force. A bone-deep premonition told him that if he delayed, the consequences would be dire.
…
anwhile, shortly after Lin Hui resolved the anomaly…
Within the Black Cloud Inner City, atop a floating black mountain peak.
Zhang Yao, Second City Lord of the Heart-Guarding Tower, sat upright inside the summit palace, drinking with a woman in a short skirt made of bead chains.
The woman's appearance was strikingly bizarre. She had four eyes and a head of long silver hair as fine and translucent as spider silk. Eight arms grew from her back, reaching in every direction to snatch food and drink from the table and feed them into her mouth in a continuous, unhurried stream.
This was Tang Hanxi—Inner Court envoy and Federation assemblyman.
Zhang Yao had no idea what had brought Tang Hanxi to his door, but given her standing as a Federation assemblyman, he had no choice but to receive her with proper hospitality. Tang Hanxi was not human; she ca from the Demon Bone clan, and her strength was formidable—rivaling even his eldest brother, Xie Chang'an. Zhang Yao could not afford to offend her, and he knew it.
When she had eaten and drunk her fill, Tang Hanxi wiped her mouth, clearing the bloody residue from her lips. She ate exclusively raw—the table behind her looked like the scene of a slaughter.
"Brother Zhang, I ca because I've been hearing rumors." She leaned back, unhurried. "Word has it that your city recently promoted a mortal Vice City Lord who isn't a Blood Ancestor. Is this true?"
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