The shipnt zone stretched out in quiet rows, each crate stamped with Xianzhou insignias that glowed faintly in the lantern light. Sunny walked ahead, March sticking close enough that their footsteps fell in sync. The air slled like polished tal and incense — an odd combination that sohow worked.
March tilted her head as they walked.
"This place looks... familiar. Not in a literal way, but in a... ’I’ve seen this in stories’ kind of way."
Sunny humd.
"The cultivation subgenre."
Her eyes brightened.
"Yes! That."
The words tugged sothing loose inside him — sothing old, dusty, and tucked away in a corner he hadn’t touched in years.
As a kid, whenever he wasn’t feeding his sister or keeping the leak in their ceiling from flooding the room, he read. His family’s phone was practically a fossil — cracked, overheating, held together by tape and desperation — but it still loaded text. And text was all he needed.
He used to lie on the floorboards of their Outskirts apartnt, shoulder pressed to the wall for warmth, reading stories about people who defied the heavens, who split mountains with a flick of their wrist, who never had to cower from a landlord or skip als to keep a child fed.
He used to think he’d grow up like that.
Unmovable. Untouchable.
Seeing the Luofu’s architecture — the jade-like beams, the floating sigils on the walls, the impossibly elegant curves — dragged that feeling back up from wherever he’d buried it.
"What are you thinking about?"
Sunny blinked at March’s sudden question, before shrugging.
"Nothing much. Just the brain-rotting stuff I used to read back in the day. Powerful foe appears, get stronger, beat them up, stronger foe appears, unlock hidden technique, beat them up, ascend to another realm, rinse and repeat. Bleh. What kind of garbage was I reading? Those old guys had no idea what they were doing..."
Sunny was really starting to question his child self’s sanity.
March tilted her head.
"Old guys?"
He scratched the back of his head.
"Uh... yeah? That crap was tens of thousands of years old... before the Nightmare Spell, I think. Nobody would publish anything that didn’t sell. Stuff with character depth or whatever."
March choked when she heard about how ancient that sounded.
"That’s pretty prehistoric."
They turned down another corridor of crates, the lanterns flickering warm gold across their faces. Sunny found himself strangely comforted by the subject — cultivation novels. It was ridiculous, but real. Sothing he hadn’t talked about in so long it felt like a foreign part of himself.
Well, he never talked about them with anyone.
March, arms folded behind her head, continued rambling.
"I an, I’ve read cultivation stuff too — but the modern kind. You know, the Xianzhou takes. They’ve turned it into an art form now. Big budgets, flashy adaptations, cool sword choreography — it’s practically a cultural pillar."
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"Cultivation is a cultural pillar? I’ve never heard anything so stupid!"
"It’s an important industry!"
"Do you even know what an industry is?"
Sunny snorted. March glared at him, cheeks puffed like she wanted to hit him, but didn’t. For a mont, it was almost... peaceful. Warm, even.
He wondered, very faintly, if March was actually... likable.
He imdiately shut that thought down.
’Nah. Definitely a hallucination.’
He opened his mouth to change the subject — but one of his shadows snapped upright, its form stretching, pointing sharply to the right between two tall stacks of tal crates.
Sunny froze. March noticed instantly.
"What is it?"
He frowned.
"Soone almost got slid..."
They broke into a run at the sa ti, feet hitting tal flooring in uneven echoes.
An Awakened knight lay slumped against the wall, armor cracked, glimring with the faint scent of copper. Blood seeped from a deep wound near his abdon.
March skidded to her knees beside him.
"Hold still!"
She pressed her hand over the wound. Frost spilled from her palm, sealing the bleeding instantly. The man shuddered, color draining from his face.
"Beware... The... Mara-struck..."
Sunny and March exchanged a look. A hidden conversation was spoken between them as they deeply gazed towards eachother. Then, they looked back towards the knight with profound expressions.
"Worry not, brave junior who has... uh... honored his clan. My companion and I are not so arrogant as to court death. To comprehend the Dao, one must also face it?"
Awkwardly finishing his speech, he turned towards March, who sent him a thumbs-up as she continued where he left off.
"Our venerated sect has never backed down from a challenge! Rest assured, we will defeat the Mara-struck, showing them that they are nothing more than a tiger picking a fight with a dragon!"
’Ah, good one. The classic comparison to animals and mythical creatures. Man, we’re good at this.’
In perfect sync, the two of them spun away from the knight with a dramatic flourish, ensuring that their clothes and hair flutter with the utmost majesty. Having surely engraved a great impression into their audience, the two of them take a single step forward...
...Before racing away, exuding nothing but giddiness.
On the other hand, the knight simply stared at his rapidly-disappearing saviors.
"...What?"
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