A Moment of Solitude and Doubt

“Venerable cultivator, this is your room.” After leading Feiluo to her room, the shop assistant addressed her respectfully.

“Mm.” Feiluo nodded, acknowledging them.

“Then I shall not disturb you further. Should you require anything, simply find me downstairs.” Having said their piece, the shop assistant turned and departed.

Feiluo surveyed the room’s decor; though somewhat antiquated, it was remarkably clean, suggesting diligent upkeep. A large wooden bathtub stood within the room, from which billows of steam steadily rose.

She scanned the room’s layout, pinpointing its central spot. Feiluo’s fingertips gathered spiritual energy, causing a faint red glow to ignite there. Then, she waved her finger, using her arm as a brush handle and her digit as the tip, sketching strange yet wonderfully Dao-infused runes and lines in the air.

Feiluo continuously drew dozens of runes, then connected them with lines, causing brilliant radiance to blossom amidst these conjoined symbols and strokes. Finally, two grand arrays, overlapping one another, were thus brought into being by Feiluo’s hand.

Gazing at her masterpiece, Feiluo placed her hands on her hips, a hint of playful pride gracing her features.

‘Honestly, I’m quite decent at drawing arrays.’

‘It’s not as terrible as the Array Formation class teacher made it out to be.’

‘At the very least, I’ve drawn the arrays for isolating sight and sound quite well, haven’t I!’

‘After all, for a master of slacking off, blocking the teacher’s gaze and isolating one’s own voice are absolute necessities!’

Indeed, the arrays Feiluo had just drawn were precisely two formations designed to prevent others from prying and to keep sounds within the room from leaking out. After all, for a cute little loli traveling alone, encountering any perverts would be truly unfortunate. Thus, these two arrays were absolutely essential!

Witnessing her arrays activate and function seamlessly, Feiluo finally relaxed. With practiced ease, she shed her night clothes, storing them away in her spatial bracelet.

Feiluo glanced at the bathtub, which was nearly as tall as she was, then at her own rather pitiable height, sighing helplessly. After locating a stool in the room, she stepped onto it, clambering with some difficulty into the tub.

The warm water instantly enveloped Feiluo’s entire body, prompting a long, contented sigh. Fortunately, the water level was not too high; it was just right for her head to peek out after she sat down. Had the water been too deep, she wouldn’t have been able to sit, forced instead to stand and bathe, which would have been utterly peculiar.

Feiluo leaned against the tub’s side, her arms wrapped around her thighs, seated in a curled-up posture within the bath. She quietly watched the candlelight flickering on a nearby table, her thoughts drifting, soaring back to the Blazing Spirit Sect, which she had only recently departed.

‘Am I truly leaving the Blazing Spirit Sect, leaving Moxi?’

Feiluo felt as if she were in a dream, and even if she were to awaken the next moment, she wouldn’t be surprised.

‘I wonder how Moxi will react when she discovers I’m gone tomorrow?’

‘Will she feel sad, feel distressed?’

At this thought, Feiluo vigorously shook her head, attempting to banish the idea from her mind.

‘How could that be? That’s Moxi!’

‘The Demonic Venerable, feared by countless orthodox magnates!’

‘How could she possibly grieve or be sad for a mere disciple like me?’

‘Moreover, she’s the culprit who transformed me into my current state. Even if Moxi truly were sad, I should be feeling happy instead.’

‘But why…’

‘Does it hurt so much here?’

Feiluo clutched her chest, feeling an emptiness there. It was like half of a completed puzzle had suddenly vanished, or a photograph of two people had been torn, leaving only one, no longer whole. This sensation left Feiluo profoundly distressed.

She cupped water in her hands, splashing it directly onto her face. With a ‘splash,’ the water streamed down Feiluo’s cheeks, droplets falling onto the surface, yet failing to create any ripples in the churning bathwater.

Though the feeling of emptiness had not vanished from Feiluo’s heart, after having bathwater splashed directly onto her face, she felt considerably more awake, the drowsiness brought on by the warm embrace of the water largely dissipated.

‘By the way, is Moxi truly as evil as the Holy Land elders claim?’

She lifted her head, staring blankly at the ceiling, a question suddenly forming in her mind.

Logically, as the Holy Land’s chief disciple, she ought not to doubt the words of its elders. Yet, Feiluo couldn’t help but ponder it within her heart.

Having grown up within the Holy Land since childhood, she had naturally received instruction from many of its elders. Whenever those Holy Land elders spoke of Moxi, their expressions invariably shifted dramatically—some cursed, some showed apprehension, others anger… all their varied reactions could be summarized as fear of Moxi.

Thus, before she ever met Moxi, her impression was of a terrifying and evil Demonic Venerable. After all, how could an entity that wasn’t evil inspire such dread in the Holy Land elders, who represented the righteous path?

However, to her now, to Feiluo who had lived with Moxi for five years, the elders’ fear seemed utterly strange and discordant. Moxi was clearly not as terrifying as they claimed. On the contrary, in Feiluo’s eyes, Moxi was actually very girlish.

She would lose her appetite after indulging in too many delicious sweets, would linger for a long time over beautiful and novel things, or even stop to bandage and treat an injured kitten. All of this, Feiluo had witnessed with her own eyes and experienced alongside Moxi.

Therefore, Feiluo found herself bewildered.

The antagonism towards Moxi, ingrained in her during her time in the Holy Land, now clashed with the beautiful companionship she shared with Moxi, leaving her at a loss.

‘Were those righteous elders of the Holy Land truly slandering and defaming Moxi, or had Moxi actually been deceiving her all along, with all her actions merely a facade?’

‘No!’

Feiluo shook her head, convinced that Moxi had never deceived her, and that all her actions were expressions of Moxi’s truest nature. For she could genuinely feel that Moxi had always treated her with sincerity, never with pretense!

Thus, the answer to her previous question was ready to emerge, self-evident.

Feiluo huddled further into the warm water, tightening her grip around her knees. She quietly gazed at the placid water’s surface, her eyes lost, her emotions tangled.

After a long while, Feiluo finally let out a soft sigh.

For her, having grown up in the Holy Land, she was unwilling to believe that its people had always been slandering Moxi and the Blazing Spirit Sect. Yet, how could everything she had personally witnessed during these past few years—these five years of living alongside Moxi and her friends from the Blazing Spirit Sect—allow her to continue believing the words of the Holy Land’s people?

Feiluo closed her eyes, allowing her petite body to drift and bob in the water. She emptied her mind, no longer wishing to ponder anything else, hoping only that she could now simply drift into slumber, easing the weariness in her heart.