For an entire day, An Fei had wandered about in the so-called Grace Street. Aimless and with neither purpose nor intention, the young girl had devoted an entire day’s worth of time lazing about in civilian society of Bei Tang.
She had breakfast and tea in a small teahouse at the farthest end of the street, lunch at a street-side diner specializing in noodle dishes, and dinner in an ancient restaurant.
Just as she had promised Xilong, she avoided instinctively triggering the second condition of the <Steps of Underlying Shadow>.
That meant that she had been exposed to the thousands of people who had strolled alongside of the street during the day, and the uncomfortable sentiment continued to savagely beat from within her heart. The wooing calls of young men as they discovered a young woman sitting by herself with a book clenched in her hand, the concerned sermons from the wizened elderly as they spotted a young girl seated without her parents, and the curious children upon their discovery of just about anything – An Fei was dragged into a spiral of chaos, regardless of whether she liked it or not.
To be completely honest with herself, the experience of having to deal with the chaos, much less integrating herself into it – was downright infuriating.
She wanted to turn herself invisible just as she had always done so previously, or return to the Sanctum where it was peaceful.
She had spent a previous lifetime drowning in such fervent chaos mixed with impure intentions, and had lost her tolerance. Rather than having to ward off the desiring gazes of young men running rampant with hormones swimming in their bloodstream, providing unconvincing excuses to the concerned elderly strangers, and chasing away the children who wanted to steal her book because of some supposed, unknown value, the young girl wanted to climb into the soft and luxurious blankets and sleep.
It felt repulsive, having to deal with fake intentions all day long.
Especially when such impure motivations and countenances were what Xilong felt was considered human.
But when that middle-aged stall owner placed an apple besides her and left without saying a word, An Fei felt confused. She had searched for impure intentions within the withered pair of eyes, but all she received was curiosity and sympathy.
The curiosity was obvious, for she was a young girl sitting outside for the entire day with a book clenched in her hand.
Given her status as a mere mortal girl and thus someone whose interests should not be as esoteric as those of cultivators, it would be an unusual sight – especially so for an ancient world as the Shattered Star Continent.
But… why the sympathy?
“Why do you seem so confused?”
Xilong’s voice resounded directly next to her right ear, prompting An Fei to scratch at her earlobe in reflex. The heavenly dragon reeled its head back to avoid the sweeping claws of the young girl, and instead swiveled its gaze towards her front.
“Isn’t it refreshing to not have to constantly watch your back for any betrayal? That young fellow back then didn’t have any malice or ill intention in his gaze, so why are you so concerned?”
“This is refreshing? Since that old man didn’t have malice in his gaze, he isn’t hiding anything particular in his mind?”
An Fei pointedly stared towards a random batch of space, coincidentally landing her gaze upon the lazy complexion of the heavenly dragon concealed by the skies. The young girl traced an annoyed circle in the air as she stomped around with her feet.
“Everything is so noisy, and their stares are obnoxious. Whenever I mispronounce something, there’s always to awkward and consternating stare, not to mention a verbal reprimand in a language that I don’t know,” An Fei chuckled with ill intent.
“How is this supposed to be relaxing and capable of assisting in the creation of an artificial soul? Constantly feeling disturbed and stressed in this… foreign environment is supposed to help?”
“It is uncomfortable solely because you do not understand what it is to be human.”
The heavenly dragon’s rebuttal was instant, its tone gentle while slightly coarse in its choice of words.
“You once lived in a world where suspicion and indiscriminate wariness ruled over your consciousness, for your entire life as a matter of fact. With such a limited scope of understanding towards the social needs and wants of a human, how can you possibly feel immediately comfortable in an environment that doesn’t stew in such suspicion?”
How could suspicion be considered the only aspect of a human being? Moreover, how could she, who only knew suspicion, understand what it meant to be human?
Cold rationality quickly deciphered the implied meaning within the scarlet dragon’s words, and An Fei directed a baleful glare towards a random patch of space in her moment of spite.
The young girl released a light sigh and patted the top of her head with the slightly ragged edge of the curled book, as though she were rubbing the discontent out of her body.
“So? To make me gather this profound ‘understanding,’ you made me sit in the middle of an open street and read philosophical treatises for the entire day?”
“Of course not,” Xilong snorted with a disdainful yet invisible glare.
“Holding the book was meant to be a layer of deception to ward away any suspicious glances from your direction. Otherwise, do you think that the mortals of this city will take it kindly when they witness a mortal girl muttering to herself while aimlessly wandering through a bustling street of trade?”
…er?
What was that again?
The young girl’s head immediately snapped towards the direction of the heavenly dragon’s voice. Her expression one of utter disbelief, An Fei parted her lips to interrogate, but couldn’t force a single word out of her chest.
Did she just get pranked by this usually patient and indulgent dragon?
“It would be hopelessly naïve for anyone to assume that throwing you into a chaotic environment full of humans, and instructing you to interact with them when you have no prior experience, would be of any benefit. Just observe for now – observing while standing in the same field yields a better result than attempting to deduce a human’s thinking process from philosophical texts!”
“You… you just changed your words, didn’t you?”
The suspicion within An Fei’s heart couldn’t help but grow upon detecting the abnormality behind Xilong’s statement. When she pressed forwards with ever-growing momentum, the scarlet dragon continued to respond with ever-increasingly evasive answers, prompting her forehead to knot.
囧.
“Answer me on this one aspect – was this entire day wasted for naught or –“
Hu!
The soft but easily discernable sound of rustling cloth rubbing against metal was immediately captured by An Fei’s perception, and a twinge of alarm raced through her heart.
With a faint exhale of breath, the young girl immediately willed the golden kernel of light to collide in a balanced mixture of Yang and Yin attributed spiritual essence, ignoring the sharp twitch of pain that raced through her lower body.
Her vision gently warped for a few seconds as though a faint transparent film had been placed over her eyes, and her ears rang with a low hum. When the abnormal symptoms dissipated a few breaths of time later, the young girl opened her eyes to observe the unusual circumstances of the Grace Street.
Through the small section of space that had unconsciously formed due to the <Steps of Underlying Shadow>’s interference, An Fei could easily spot the disturbance.
There, just fifteen paces to her right, surrounded by black-robed men on all sides, was a young woman dressed in attire befitting that of a temple shrine maiden.
The scarlet sleeves combined with the white tunic rustled against the rhythm of the bleating wind as the shrine maiden grasped onto a slender longsword with her right hand. In response, the black robes fluttered in tune with the accords of the winter wind, creating a motley blend of shadowy hues.
“Xu Lingxin! Hand over the Shadow Blighting Pearl, and we’ll treat this matter as though nothing happened!”
Quiet murmurs began to arise within the large sea of people, and gradually, a massive clearing was established to reveal the black-robed men and the scarlet-robed shine maiden to the entirety of the Grace Street.
Though they dared not speak loudly and quickly made way for the cultivators, none of the civilians abstained from engaging in some form of gossip in hushed whispers.
“The Haunted Buddhist Sect is causing trouble again?”
“The Haunted Buddhist Sect causing trouble isn’t that uncommon – the mayor and the clan representatives have been complaining about such issues for decades. But this time, they provoked the shrine maiden of the Morning Star Temple?”
“What’s that Shadow Blighting Pearl? Just from the name of it, it sounds ominous…”
An Fei could only understand the initial shout that was in the common tongue shared amongst Great Yong and Great Yan, for her mastery of Bei Tang’s infuriating language was significantly weaker than most infants.
However, the excited mood of the crowd seemed to have infected her as well, for the pair of scarlet irises began to display a diminished glow.
