Elia had never cried this hard before.
By the time she stopped, she had practically fainted from exhaustion.
In her slumber, she had a dream.
In the dream, the world was pitch black, and the only thing beside her was a flow of warm light.
She clung to that beam of light with all her might.
“Eh… I just…”
It was only when she woke up that she realized she wasn’t holding onto light, but rather Lu Mo’s leg.
Her tears and saliva were smeared all over Lu Mo’s thigh.
In her dream, she had struggled desperately to catch that beam of light.
In reality, she saw that Lu Mo’s silk stockings had been torn in several places. The smooth, white skin of her thigh was pressed red, marked by several scratches.
“Wah!!!”
Elia bolted upright in the next second, terrified.
“Lord Lu Mo, I didn’t mean to tear your clothes… no, I didn’t mean to get handsy with you… wait, that’s not right either.”
She waved her hands in a panic, trying to explain clumsily, but it only seemed to make things worse. “I, I, I…”
In response, Lu Mo merely smiled. “Did you rest well?”
Elia suddenly stopped her frantic movements and lowered her head.
After a long silence, her face turned a bright red, and she replied in a tiny voice, “…Yes.”
“Do you want to go for a walk with me?” Lu Mo asked.
“…Alright,” Elia replied.
Lu Mo moved to stand, but her body suddenly swayed.
“Lord Lu Mo, you—” Elia’s heart instantly tightened.
Did Lord Lu Mo get injured while helping her refine the Frost Haze Essence earlier?
“My legs… they’re numb… help me for a moment…”
Lu Mo’s legs were trembling.
Elia had been sleeping on her lap for quite a while. Her legs were so numb she could hardly keep them together.
“I, I’m coming!” Elia quickly stood up to support Lu Mo.
However, the moment she stepped forward, she tripped over the Crystal Box and fell straight forward.
The two figures collided and tumbled backward together.
*Rrrip—*
The sound of fabric tearing echoed once more.
“I’m sorry, Lord Lu Mo…” Elia’s faint, mournful voice drifted through the darkness again.
It was fine.
Lu Mo was already used to it.
Whether it was in the real world or in the Simulated Reincarnation.
‘In terms of being clumsy, Afu is actually even better at it.’
***
Before long, the two figures appeared in the academy’s plains area.
Lu Mo walked in front while Elia followed cautiously behind.
From time to time, Elia would steal a glance at Lu Mo.
Whenever Lu Mo noticed her gaze and turned back, Elia would abruptly look down just before their eyes met.
This behavior repeated itself several times.
Elia had slept for several hours, and by now, the sky was beginning to dim.
A massive setting sun hung on the distant horizon, and the surrounding clouds looked as if they had been set ablaze. An orange-red glow stretched for 1,000 miles, looking absolutely magnificent.
As dusk fell, the sky darkened bit by bit.
At the boundary where the setting sun met the night, the evening glow and the darkness, light and shadow intertwined to form a dreamlike, hazy belt of radiance.
The two of them sat down amidst the tall grass, watching the sun slowly disappear.
The wind blew past, making the grass rise and fall like ocean waves. It caught the young girl’s hair, brushing it against her face and making it feel slightly itchy.
Neither of them spoke. They simply sat there, looking into the distance at the crimson-stained sky.
The world was quiet and beautiful. Elia’s emotions gradually settled during this time.
There were some things she finally had the courage to say.
…
“I’ve caused so much trouble for Lord Lu Mo again today…”
She spoke up, turning her head to look at the girl sitting beside her. “Actually, Lord Lu Mo, I’ve always had a question. Why are you… willing to be so good to me?”
“Because I promised someone I would take good care of you,” Lu Mo replied with a gentle smile.
They both knew who that person was.
But today, to avoid being overwhelmed by sadness, neither of them mentioned that name.
“But even so, you’re being a bit too good to me.”
Whether it was teaching her how to cultivate every day without tire.
Or specifically choosing the Ice Orchid Institute just to find a cultivation path and secret techniques that suited her.
Or standing up for her in the academy.
Even going so far as to get covered in blood just to give her a piece of Frost Haze Essence.
Even that person wouldn’t have gone to such lengths for her.
“As you can see—I’m a failure. I can’t do anything. Even when opportunities are given to me, I only waste them and let you down…”
As Elia spoke, her voice began to choke up again. “I can’t give you anything, and I can’t repay you… I’m not worth… you being this good to me.”
The sun was setting.
The final remnants of light were being swallowed by the night.
The light on their bodies grew dimmer as the pitch-black night shrouded the earth.
“I don’t need Elia to give me anything,” Lu Mo said with a laugh. “These are all things I’m willing to do. And I believe that one day, Elia will shine.”
Elia was startled and snapped her head toward Lu Mo.
The last sliver of sunlight vanished at the edge of the sky, night descended completely, and the world fell into darkness.
Yet she saw that there was light in Lu Mo’s eyes, illuminating her and the entire world around them.
“You’re unwilling to settle, and you work very hard. I know all of it.”
As Lu Mo spoke, she looked up at the night sky. “Just like the stars in the sky—”
Elia followed Lu Mo’s gaze upward.
There was no moon in the night sky, but when she looked closely at that dark shroud, she could see stars beginning to twinkle.
One, two, then dozens, then hundreds of stars were radiating light in the night sky.
Perhaps it was because the sunset earlier had been too brilliant, or perhaps because the darkness had descended too quickly, she hadn’t noticed when the stars had lit up.
“The darkness has never truly swallowed this sky,” Lu Mo said softly. “The flickering stars and the bright moon are all the sky’s way of resisting the dark. If I were to compare Elia to the sky, then every drop of your sweat and every bit of your effort is a star resisting the night. The night will eventually pass, just as Elia will surely shine. One day, the sun will rise from the depths of the darkness, and the dark will finally be dispelled.”
Lu Mo looked back down at Elia, her gaze clear and without reservation.
The girl’s face appeared even more exquisite under the night sky. Elia was dazed as she watched her, and her face actually turned red.
“Stars… the sun…”
She murmured the words, but she still spoke up with some worry, “But… but… does Lord Lu Mo really think that highly of me? Do you really believe in me that much? What if I really have to stay like this for my whole life? What if I use all my strength and still end up falling into the darkness? What if—”
“No.” Lu Mo shook her head, interrupting Elia. “I believe in Elia. Just as Elia believes in me. Don’t think about failing, and don’t feel guilty or regretful. Just keep running forward like this. Elia, keep going—”
The girl spoke with great conviction.
It was like a decree; her will could not be defied.
It was also like a prophecy; what she said would surely come to pass.
Elia stared blankly at Lu Mo for a very, very long time.
She felt Lu Mo’s trust in her, her willingness to give everything without reservation.
This was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
She couldn’t refuse a Lu Mo like this.
It was true in the past, and it was true now.
After a long while, she suddenly smiled at Lu Mo.
With her eyes swollen and her hair a mess, she looked quite ridiculous.
She felt as though something in the depths of her heart had changed.
It was only a small change, and a true transformation might take a very, very long time.
Lu Mo smiled back at her.
After sharing a smile, they both looked up together at the night sky filled with stars.
“Sister Lu Mo.”
That night was the first time Elia stopped calling Lu Mo “Lord.”
“Hmm?”
“Can I borrow your shoulder?”
“Of course.”
Under the faint light, the little girl’s shadow leaned against the young woman’s shadow.
A trace of warmth spread from Elia’s cheek to the depths of her heart.
The pleasant fragrance caused her lips to curl into a happy arc involuntarily.
“Thank you, Sister Lu Mo,” she said. Then, she voiced the concern still hidden in her heart, “But, Sister Lu Mo, now that you’ve given the treasure to me, what will you do? Will I affect your cultivation…?”
“It’s fine.” Lu Mo shook her head. “In the end, the Frost Haze Essence is just an external object to me. Actually, my main reason for defeating Xiong Da and fighting Kadina to the end was to use them to temper myself. The path I want to take is the Path of the Ultimate Sword, one that doesn’t rely on external things and focuses solely on oneself and the sword.”
She activated her light novel writer talent and began talking nonsense with a straight face. “Actually, cultivation resources and treasures are all illusions to me. Only my will is real. What I must do is carry my will to the very end… in the end… my boundaries will be the boundaries of the world. I shall be my own god!”
Illusions? Reality?
God?!
Elia was stunned as she listened.
She had never heard of such a subversive path.
If anyone else had said this to her, she would have definitely thought they were insane.
But because Lu Mo told her with such a serious expression that this was her path, she was inclined to believe her.
“You don’t believe me?”
Seeing Elia’s shocked expression, Lu Mo spoke again. “How about this: I swear to the heavens that if I am lying, let 10,000 arrows pierce my heart—”
“Don’t!”
Elia hastily tried to cover Lu Mo’s mouth, but by then, Lu Mo had already finished the last word.
‘Sister Lu Mo is telling the truth, right?’
‘She won’t be pierced by 10,000 arrows, right?’
‘That’s right!’
‘Sister Lu Mo is telling the truth!’
‘So, that kind of thing will definitely never happen.’
Elia kept telling herself this as she engaged in a fierce internal struggle.
While she was fighting with her thoughts, Lu Mo suddenly pointed at the night sky and said, “Look, a shooting star—”
When Elia looked up, she indeed saw several stars streaking across the night sky.
“Aren’t you going to make a wish on the shooting star?” Lu Mo asked.
“Oh, that’s right!” Elia woke from her daze and hurriedly closed her eyes, telling the shooting star her thoughts in her heart.
Her small hands were clenched tight, and her face was full of sincerity.
‘I won’t let Sister Lu Mo’s expectations down. I hope that one day I can become very, very strong!’ she said to the shooting star.
***
In the reality of the dead of night, a single star similarly streaked across the night sky, vanishing in an instant.
“I made it in time.”
Elia opened her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. She had managed to finish her wish just before the shooting star disappeared.
If Lu Mo were present, she would have seen that her expression and movements while making the wish were exactly the same as they were back then.
‘This time, I hope I can protect Sister Lu Mo until… I reach the end of my life,’ she said to the shooting star.
“If the wish I made to the shooting star back then was the one I made just now, would many things be different?”
She stood above the sky and talked to herself, a look of sorrow in her eyes.
When she turned her head, that angel-like girl was no longer there to look at her and kiss her forehead.
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