“Sister Lu Mo, I like you!”
The girl’s shout, which took all her strength, was drowned out by the tolling bell.
‘Did Sister Lu Mo hear her voice?’
‘Did her feelings reach her?’
Elia did not know.
She only saw Lu Mo smiling at her in the twilight.
It was a smile so gentle, so beautiful.
Just like an angel.
As the final toll of the bell faded, the entire world returned to silence.
It seemed that right now would be the best time for a confession.
‘Should I do it again?’
Elia thought to herself. She looked at Lu Mo from a distance for a long time, but then she smiled.
‘Forget it. Next time.’
At the very least, she had used up all her courage for now and needed to gather it once again.
She jogged toward Lu Mo against the light and took Lu Mo’s hand once more.
“All right, Sister Lu Mo, let’s go home,” she said, still appearing perfectly happy.
“Okay,” Lu Mo replied without resistance, her voice soft. “Come on, let’s go home.”
After that day, the distance between the two seemed to grow even shorter.
Elia became bolder as well, beginning to take the initiative to get closer to Lu Mo.
“Sister Lu Mo, want to go out and play together?”
“Sister Lu Mo, my room is a bit cold. Can we sleep together?”
“Sister Lu Mo, can I hold you?”
Elia asked again and again.
In the end, Lu Mo never refused.
However, neither of them ever brought up the bell tower under the twilight again.
Sometimes, when the two of them shared a bed, Elia would secretly watch Lu Mo as she slept.
She watched her hair spread out like seaweed, her long and thick eyelashes, the bridge of her cute nose, and her occasionally trembling lips.
Lightly hugging Lu Mo’s arm, Elia always felt that, at this moment, she possessed the entire world.
“We could be… even closer…”
“For example, becoming a negative number… or something…”
Elia spoke in a low voice under the covers, her face flushing red as she spoke.
The person she loved was right within reach.
But in the end, she still did not make a move.
It was not her style.
“Elia, you can be a bit braver,” she said to herself.
Next time, she would convey her feelings to Lu Mo even more clearly.
Time passed day by day.
Lu Mo had no idea she had brought a wolf into her home; that big bad wolf had set her sights on her many times.
“Speaking of which, Elia’s 18th birthday is coming up soon, right?” she murmured.
Eighteen years old.
That day would be when Elia officially became an adult.
“What kind of gift should I give her?”
Cultivation resources?
Elia was now in the advanced class, and after several consecutive battles, she was already ranked in the top five. She no longer needed Lu Mo’s cultivation resources as much.
Treasures?
She had not found anything suitable yet.
“Then, what about a weapon?”
Lu Mo felt that this Simulated Reincarnation was also nearing its end.
She would eventually have to say goodbye to Elia.
Even if all of this was nothing more than an illusion, she should give Elia a sufficiently precious gift before she left.
***
It was another weekend.
As usual, the two of them had finished buying desserts in Ice Orchid City and were preparing to return to the academy.
“Sister Lu Mo, over there, over there!” Elia suddenly stopped and pointed to a stall that had appeared in a secluded corner of the street.
“Is that… fortune-telling?” Lu Mo recognized the characters next to the stall.
Lately, fortune-telling had become a small hit among the student population, and several divination shops had opened on the streets.
However, Lu Mo did not particularly believe in such things.
“Can we go take a look?” Elia, on the other hand, seemed quite interested.
Seeing Elia’s eyes filled with curiosity, Lu Mo did not have the heart to refuse.
“Let’s go see,” she said with a smile.
“Then let’s go!”
“Elia, slow down…”
Soon, Lu Mo was pulled over by Elia.
The moment the two reached the stall, a figure suddenly jumped out.
“Good afternoon, young ladies! Would you like a reading today? Our shop is newly opened. Buy three sessions and get one free, buy five and get two free! If you sign up for a membership, you’ll get three free sessions…”
It was a girl with curly purple hair who looked quite young.
She spoke with a rhythmic cadence and had a slightly crazed, eccentric aura about her, which instinctively made Lu Mo wary.
Was there even a “top-up membership card” scam in this Simulated Reincarnation?
She highly suspected that if she actually signed up for a card, the purple-haired girl would vanish that very afternoon.
“Is this place… reliable?” Elia looked at the purple-haired girl, feeling a bit hesitant herself.
“It’s reliable, trust me!” The purple-haired girl spoke as she rushed directly to Lu Mo’s side.
“I’ll take a look at this lady first…” Without a word, she lifted Lu Mo’s hand and carefully studied her palm.
‘Reading palms directly?’
‘Then what is that crystal ball next to you for?’
‘Do you know what happens to people who read palms so carelessly?’
Lu Mo ranted frantically in her mind.
She tried to pull her hand away, but the purple-haired girl held on with surprising strength.
The purple-haired girl looked at the palm lines with extreme seriousness. Soon, she actually furrowed her brows and began to mumble absentmindedly, “Impossible… absolutely impossible… how could I…”
‘Are you trying to solve a high-level math problem here?’
Suddenly, the purple-haired girl released Lu Mo’s hand as if she had been struck by an electric shock, retreating several steps with a pale face.
“So strange, so strange…”
She murmured repeatedly, “It’s as if you… don’t belong to this era, don’t belong to this world at all…”
“How can you say that about Sister Lu Mo!” Elia thought the purple-haired girl was insulting Lu Mo and spoke up indignantly.
A faint trace of pressure radiated out, threatening to envelop the purple-haired girl.
But just before that pressure could land, the purple-haired girl glanced at Elia and unexpectedly knelt on the spot.
“Greetings… Lady Empress! I beg for your forgiveness for my previous rudeness!” the girl shouted.
“?!”
The pressure stopped in mid-air.
Elia looked at the purple-haired girl in bewilderment.
“Stand up,” Elia said to her after a few seconds.
Only then did the girl stand, slightly adjusting her skirt before sitting back down in front of the crystal ball.
“You two, I apologize for the offense just now. I’ll give you a 50% discount on the fee. How about I give you one free divination session now?”
“Let me think… Lady Empress, seeing as you are in the prime of your youth with the bearing of a young ruler, how about I calculate your marriage prospects?”
“Hey, wait…”
Before Elia could say anything, the purple-haired girl had already infused power into the crystal ball. Runes lit up within the deep sphere.
*Bang!*
In the next instant, the entire crystal ball shattered without warning!
The purple-haired girl looked up sharply, staring at Elia with a look of utter shock.
In her expression, there was a mix of complexity and melancholy.
“Eh?” Elia was stunned once more.
A second later, Elia saw the purple-haired girl flip over the table, lift her skirt, and sprint away.
“Catch her — ” An angry voice rang out from not far behind Elia.
The two turned their heads and saw several figures dressed in dark purple suits rushing forward, following closely behind the purple-haired girl.
“Time is up. You must return,” an elder said to the purple-haired girl.
“I won’t go back!” the purple-haired girl yelled, then suddenly burst into wild laughter. “Hahaha… I’m not crazy! You’re the ones who are crazy!”
“What I can see, you can’t! — “
The figures of the purple-haired girl and her pursuers disappeared.
Lu Mo and Elia watched blankly, only snapping out of it after several minutes.
“Did we just… get a free reading?”
“I guess so.”
“Whatever, let’s go,” Lu Mo said.
Getting it for free was meaningless.
They had simply run into a lunatic today.
“Yeah…” Elia replied absentmindedly.
She looked down at the shattered crystal ball. The fragments reflected the world in front of her.
She saw her own reflection standing alone in one of the large shards.
But Sister Lu Mo’s reflection…
It was cut into jagged pieces by the many tiny shards.
***
The two figures disappeared from the stall.
It was not until much later that a middle-aged woman walked back holding a stack of “Grand Opening Sale” posters.
“Huh?”
“Why is my table flipped?”
“Why is my crystal ball blown up?”
“I haven’t even opened for business yet!”
***
On the way back, Elia kept thinking about what had just happened.
“Sister Lu Mo.”
“Yes?”
“Do you believe in fate?”
“Of course I don’t. Are you still worrying about that lunatic’s words?”
“…A little.”
Empress.
For some reason, at that moment, the purple-haired girl’s words had instantly pulled her back to that night 4 years ago.
She seemed to hear the whisper of a certain existence amidst blood and fire, making her skin crawl.
“You cannot escape the past.”
“…” She opened her mouth.
“The threads of fate will eventually converge once more in the future.”
— It had said to her.
In the next moment, Elia felt herself being embraced.
Softness, warmth, and that familiar, faint scent caused Elia’s restless heart to calm down significantly.
“Sister Lu Mo…”
“Elia, it’s okay. Everything is fine,” Lu Mo said softly as she held her. “There is no such thing as fate.”
“You are free, and you deserve to be happy.”
“And if there ever comes a day when a so-called fate tries to take you away, I will stand before you and cut that fate to pieces!”
A cold light flickered in her eyes.
Just like many years later, when she would raise the Eternal Battle Flag to wage war against destiny itself.
Elia responded in a low voice and held Lu Mo even tighter.
***
Meanwhile, in the Frostwhisper Imperial Family.
“Prince Ferrosen, we have received a response from Shadow Moon Hall. They expressed their willingness to cooperate with us and restart the investigation into the Seventh Royal Family.”
“The elder who was involved back then will also be coming.”
“Understood.” The man nodded, signaling for the other to leave.
The subordinate bowed and departed. Soon, he was once again alone in the cold palace.
“The members of the Seventh Royal Family were all slaughtered?”
“Then what is the meaning of this?”
He looked at the statue in front of him.
The statue was crafted from ice that never melted, taken from the deepest part of the Far North.
It depicted the hazy figure of a woman.
The statue was the key to opening the Ancestral Gate.
It was also the proof of the Frostwhisper Empire’s supreme imperial power.
Ever since the late emperor fell and the pure-bloods disappeared, the statue had been silent for years.
Yet not long ago, the statue had suddenly moved, erupting with an unprecedented Frostwhisper aura.
It had abruptly turned its direction, gazing toward the south.
And that direction…
Was precisely where Lu Mo and Elia were located.