A Resolute Decision and a Lingering Mystery

Feiluo sat on the railing of a small bridge, swinging her feet. Behind her, Moxi was tending to her hair, which had become disheveled in her hasty departure from the inn.

“My obedient disciple.” Moxi gently combed Feiluo’s fiery red hair, then suddenly spoke.

“What is it?”

“You know, you didn’t have to run away from home. I never intended to force you into participating in the Holy Maiden Selection.” Moxi gathered Feiluo’s hair, pulling a cute bow from her spatial storage.

“Eh? Ouch!” Upon hearing this, Feiluo instinctively tried to turn her head toward Moxi, but her scalp was tugged as her hair was still in Moxi’s hands.

“Don’t move around so much; I haven’t tied it yet.” Moxi gently rubbed the spot where Feiluo’s hair had been pulled, admonishing her.

“Alright~” Feiluo responded, ceasing her movements.

“My obedient disciple, you only needed to tell me frankly that you didn’t want to participate in the selection. There was no need to run away from home. I would never force you to do something you don’t want to.” Moxi skillfully styled Feiluo’s hair into twin pigtails, then lightly patted Feiluo’s small head, signaling that the hairstyle was complete.

“Really…” Feiluo eagerly turned her head to face Moxi, intending to speak, but her words caught in her throat as she met Moxi’s smile and gaze.

That gaze held a myriad of emotions: tenderness, concern, affection, doting love… The depth of these feelings caused the words Feiluo had been about to blurt out to halt abruptly.

A sudden realization struck her: if she didn’t participate in the Holy Maiden Selection, would Moxi be criticized for being an incompetent teacher, for having a disciple too afraid to even contend for the position? Would this, then, diminish Moxi’s prestige within the sect?

Feiluo hesitated. Her primary reason for not wanting to participate in the Holy Maiden Selection was simply an emotional hurdle she couldn’t overcome. After all, she had once been the Sacred Land’s chief disciple, even if she now realized that not everyone within the Sacred Land was necessarily good. Yet, the sudden prospect of competing to become the Holy Maiden of the Blazing Spirit Sect, a sect she had once regarded with enmity, still felt profoundly strange to her.

However, gazing upon Moxi’s sun-like smile, Feiluo suddenly felt there was nothing left to fear. It was just participating in the Holy Maiden Selection; if it felt strange, then so be it. Hadn’t she already decided to participate anyway? There was nothing left to be afraid of.

“No, I want to participate in the Holy Maiden Selection!” Feiluo declared, her gaze fixed on Moxi’s eyes, her tone resolute.

Hearing this, Moxi paused, then seemed to understand something upon seeing the look in Feiluo’s eyes. Vaulting over the railing, Moxi sat beside Feiluo, gently stroking her small head, a tender smile gracing her cool, beautiful face.

The sky gradually brightened as the rising sun emerged from the east. Feiluo and Moxi sat close together, admiring the sunrise.

“My obedient disciple, it seems you haven’t been to Luoxi City before, have you?” After a while of enjoying the sunrise, Moxi suddenly looked at Feiluo and asked.

“Indeed, I haven’t,” Feiluo replied.

“Then, how about we take a stroll around Luoxi City? I’m telling you, Luoxi City is incredibly prosperous!” Moxi suggested.

“Yes, please!” Feiluo nodded happily, her small face alight with anticipation.

Feiluo and Moxi strolled along the street, the steadily rising sun illuminating them and casting their shadows long behind the master and disciple.

Feiluo walked abreast of Moxi, her eyes fixed forward, yet her attention was entirely on Moxi, whom she watched from the corner of her eye. Or, more precisely, on Moxi’s unoccupied right hand.

Unaware of Feiluo’s gaze on her right hand, Moxi softly hummed a tune, walking with the leisurely grace of a stroll through a garden, her cool and ethereal voice lending a unique charm to the unknown melody.

‘Come on, Feiluo! You can do this!’ Feiluo inwardly cheered herself on.

Finally, Feiluo mustered her courage, extended her left hand, and firmly grasped Moxi’s right hand. Feeling her right hand being held, and sensing the softness and delicacy of the tender skin in her grip, Moxi paused, surprised.

She looked at Feiluo, only to see that Feiluo had already turned her head away, revealing only a faint blush on her face from Moxi’s vantage point.

Smiling softly at the sight of such an adorable Feiluo, Moxi’s gripped right hand also tightened around Feiluo’s small one.

Under the sunlight, their two shadows merged seamlessly, becoming one.

“Xiaoyi, have you been searching for your brother’s whereabouts again?”

In the Eastern Continent, within the dwelling of Elder Liu Ruxin at the Profound Spirit Sacred Land.

Liu Ruxin asked her daughter, Lin Yi, who had just returned from outside the Sacred Land, looking travel-worn and weary.

“Yes, Mother.” Lin Yi changed out of her outer garments and sat beside Liu Ruxin, speaking with a dejected and dispirited expression, “I’m sorry, Mother, I still haven’t found any trace of my brother this time either.”

Seeing Lin Yi so crestfallen, Liu Ruxin opened her mouth to speak, but ultimately only let out a helpless sigh. She patted Lin Yi’s back, gently comforting her, “It’s alright, there’s no need to apologize to me, Xiaoyi. If not this time, there’s always next, isn’t there? Perhaps you’ll make a discovery then?”

Lin Yi found no solace in Liu Ruxin’s comforting words, primarily because she had heard such reassurances far too many times over the past few years. Ever since her brother, Feiluo, went missing during a mission with the Sacred Land elders, she had been relentlessly searching for his whereabouts.

Yet, each attempt had proven fruitless. She had even visited the last place Feiluo was seen, but found nothing there except an expanse of extreme glacial ice, forged from snow and ice, seemingly unmelting for ten thousand years, offering no other clues.

However, some of the Sacred Land elders had turned pale when they saw the other elders who had been frozen solid, as if they had witnessed the most terrifying sight in the world. Some elders even muttered repeatedly, ‘It’s her, it’s her, she has actually come to the Eastern Continent again.’

But when she questioned those elders whose faces had turned ashen, every single one became evasive and utterly terrified, rebuking her and ordering her not to inquire further or continue her investigation.

Lin Yi at the time was stunned by the elders’ reactions, never imagining that the usually formidable and commanding elders of the Sacred Land could display such profound fear. This left her both worried and puzzled: worried whether Feiluo could truly still be alive when faced with an entity capable of instilling such terror in the elders, and puzzled as to what kind of terrifying existence could make the elders so utterly terrified.

Consequently, Lin Yi outwardly agreed to the elders’ commands, but in secret, she continued to quietly investigate the matter and anything related to those elders, utilizing opportunities when she went out on missions to keep searching for Feiluo’s whereabouts. However, as a mere ordinary direct disciple, her authority was insufficient to access many places where secrets could be uncovered.

Moreover, she dared not act too brazenly, for she didn’t know if the elders had been constantly monitoring her actions. Thus, Lin Yi had continuously found nothing.

Later, she shifted her approach, no longer investigating the elders, but instead searching for cultivators skilled in ice manipulation whose cultivation realm surpassed the Void Refinement stage. Her deduction of an ice-wielder came from the frozen land and the elders encased in ice; naturally, a cultivator capable of easily freezing so many elders at the Body Integration and Void Refinement stages would possess a superior cultivation base.

A cultivator with such a high cultivation realm and distinct characteristics was, in fact, not difficult to find.

After systematically ruling out cultivators who had already perished, Lin Yi found a clue about that person a few days ago.

“Oh, Mother,” Lin Yi said, looking at Liu Ruxin and asking,

“Do you know the Demon Lord?”