Baixi City.
Located in the southern part of the Wei Kingdom, it was a remote town.
Because of its remote location, the people of Baixi City were less affected by the Human-Demon War.
And in the northern part of the city, there was a private school.
The school’s teacher didn’t care about social status. If anyone wanted to send their child to study, the tuition was just one jin of rice or flour per month.
This school had been open for a full fifteen years.
But today was the school’s last lesson.
After bidding farewell to his students, the scholar walked slowly ho.
Back at ho, the scholar swept the courtyard by himself, then sorted out so clothes and placed them in his Storage Pouch.
Finally, the scholar took out a longsword that had been kept in a cabinet, put on a bamboo hat, and walked out of the room.
But just as the scholar closed the door and turned around, a woman in an ink-black dress was standing at the entrance, smiling at him.
"Well, well, Senior Brother. It’s been a long ti," Shang Jiuli said, her eyes curving into a smile, just as they had over a decade ago.
"Yes, it has been a long ti." Luo Yang nodded and said calmly, "How have you been? Care to sit in the courtyard for a while?"
"Do you have tea?" Shang Jiuli asked.
"I have wine." Luo Yang patted the wine gourd at his waist.
"Never mind, then. I’m not drinking from sothing you’ve already drunk out of," Shang Jiuli said, looking sowhat disgusted.
"Oh, that’s fine. I brewed this wine for a long ti myself, so I’d hate to part with it anyway." It seed Luo Yang hadn’t really intended to offer her any, either. He was rely being polite.
Shang Jiuli didn’t get angry. After all, this was just how her Senior Brother was; this was the Senior Brother she knew. "Senior Brother, dressed like this... are you going on a long journey?"
"Yes." Luo Yang nodded. "I’m going to see a place a little farther away."
"How far?"
"The Demon Race’s World."
"..." Shang Jiuli was speechless for a mont.
But looking into her Senior Brother’s eyes, Shang Jiuli knew he was serious.
Shang Jiuli sighed and asked, "Senior Brother, are you going to look for that little rabbit, Xiao Yue?"
"In a way, yes, but not entirely."
Luo Yang raised his head and looked toward the horizon.
"I want to go see Demon Suppression City. I’ve heard there’s a stone monunt there. In the entire world, that’s the only place where Junior Brother’s na still remains.
I also want to see that so-called savage land the Human Race speaks of, to see for myself how different it truly is from this World of Ten Thousand Laws."
Shang Jiuli lowered her head with a smile, her long eyelashes trembling as if lost in recollection. "That’s good."
"I’m off." Luo Yang adjusted his bamboo hat and started to walk forward. He paused when he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Shang Jiuli. "Sotis, when you feel like crying, you should just cry. It’s tiring to always force a smile."
With that, Luo Yang took a step and walked off into the distance.
Only Shang Jiuli was left standing there, as if she had never left, had never moved on.
Just as Shang Jiuli clenched her small hands, her eyes misting over, she let out a deep breath and sighed with a hint of lancholy resentnt.
"Honestly... I was finally trying to have a quiet mont."
Wiping away the tears welling in the corners of her eyes, Shang Jiuli turned and smiled at the white-dressed woman before her. "Miss Bai, it’s been a long ti."
"It has been a long ti," Bai Ruxue said, looking calmly at Shang Jiuli.
"Did you co looking for , Miss Bai?"
Shang Jiuli looked at the Lord of the Four Seas. Compared to the innocent and sowhat naive girl she once was, she seed to have truly grown up now.
"That’s right. I’d like to ask you for a favor, Senior Sister."
Shang Jiuli was stunned for a mont. She never thought Ruxue would ask her for help.
"Alright." Shang Jiuli nodded. "But what is it you need my help with, Miss Bai?"
"A painting. I’d like to ask you, Senior Sister, to help paint a very long painting."
...
Over the following year, Bai Ruxue took Shang Jiuli to one place after another.
These places included She Mountain in the forr Qi Kingdom, the long-renad Shiqiao Village, Qingshan City, the Qi Kingdom City, and more...
Bai Ruxue and Shang Jiuli retraced the steps of every place Xiao Mo had ever been.
At each location, Bai Ruxue would have Shang Jiuli paint it onto the sa scroll.
Bai Ruxue never said why she was doing this.
But Shang Jiuli had a faint guess—
A goose leaves a trace when it flies by; the wind leaves a sound as it passes.
So how could a person who lived in this world for decades not do the sa?
’Ruxue wants to combine all the places Xiao Mo once visited into a single painting. It’s very likely she intends to use these imprints of mory, one by one, to slowly gather Xiao Mo’s soul.’
’But could this actually succeed?’
Shang Jiuli didn’t know.
There was indeed such a theory from Ancient Tis, but it existed only in legends.
A year later, Bai Ruxue and Shang Jiuli finally arrived at a courtyard on Yumo Peak in Bailu Academy.
After Shang Jiuli, brush in hand, painted the courtyard where Xiao Mo had once lived onto the scroll, the entire painting was finally complete.
"I hope this painting doesn’t disappoint you, Ruxue."
Shang Jiuli turned and handed a scroll to Bai Ruxue.
The scroll was a Magical Artifact. When unrolled, it revealed a painted scroll five li long.
It recorded Xiao Mo’s two lifetis.
And after a year of non-stop painting, Shang Jiuli had consud a great deal of her ntal energy, and her face was pale.
Bai Ruxue accepted the scroll and carefully placed it into the Qiankun Bag in her sleeve. "You’ve worked hard this past year, Senior Sister. I owe you a favor."
Shang Jiuli lowered her head, a flicker of loneliness in her eyes. "You don’t owe anything, Ruxue. It is the world that owes Xiao Mo far, far too much."
"But, Ruxue," Shang Jiuli raised her head, her gaze fixed on the young woman’s eyes, "everything you’re doing... it might all be for nothing..."
Shang Jiuli bit her lip, hesitating, but finally decided to say it. "Ruxue, he’s gone. You shouldn’t keep spinning in place. You need to move on."
"If ’moving on’ ans I have to give up looking for him, then I never want to move on in this lifeti."
Bai Ruxue looked directly into Shang Jiuli’s eyes.
"By comparison, Senior Sister, perhaps I’m not the one who truly needs to move on."
Bai Ruxue gave a slight bow, then turned and left, leaving Shang Jiuli standing alone before the courtyard.
Looking at the empty courtyard, Shang Jiuli couldn’t help but recall the laughter and celebration of the three of them drinking in this very yard before their Junior Brother left the mountain.
It was as if it all happened yesterday.
But now, after their Junior Brother’s soul had shattered and scattered, their Senior Brother had gone to the Demon Race’s World, and Ruxue was spending her life searching for his Residual Soul.
And yet, she was still standing in the sa spot, not moving at all.
She walked into the courtyard, sat on a stone bench, and raised her head to look at the sky.
After a long ti, Shang Jiuli couldn’t help but let out a smile.
’And here I am, lecturing others.’
’I’m the one who needs to move on...’
’Only I...’
’...am still in this courtyard.’
’Trapped in that ti.’
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