As An Fei awoke, she confirmed that the mysterious sensation earlier was indeed just a dream.
Stone walls stood on two sides to resemble that of an alleyway, and the damp humidity of the early morning filtered into her nose with ease.
Her eyebrows crinkling at the faint, astringent odor of moss and mildew, the young girl quickly arose from her position.
Thankfully, her clothes were untouched, completely dry despite sitting directly in the path of several trickles of moisture.
“Ah… I got drunk in public, then talked to some unknown person…”
Her clothes were untouched, but her mind was not!
The young girl felt sorrowful over the fact that she had completely lost control over her sanity yesterday night, leading to her mind leading itself astray and drinking herself to sleep before two unknown young men.
Moreover, the topics that they had talked about before she dared to pass out were sufficient to bring a fierce flush of shame and embarrassment onto An Fei’s countenance.
Oh… oh, how thankful she was that she didn’t get to say much before falling dead drunk, ah.
If, if she were to say that she came from a different world that was teeming with advanced technology and that its inhabitants merely treated cultivation and the existence of spiritual essence as mere mental delusions, would the two young men have glanced at her in confusion or chop her into pieces for delusion?
“Next time, stay away from alcohol… especially around others.”
An Fei prodded herself in the side as she scolded herself in great earnest.
The young girl heaved a light sigh, her right hand grasping onto the leather sheath of the taijijian as she prepared to depart from the secluded alleyway.
caw.
“Ah?”
A soft sound seemed to have graced her ears, but was far too fleeting and weak to escape the conclusion of a figment of imagination. The young girl paused in her steps to tilt her head towards the side, but merely resumed her stride out of the damp and dark corridor of stone.
Caw.
“…am I hearing things?”
Again, An Fei’s motions came to a halt, and her tender brows locked into a deep frown.
Holding the sheath of the taijijian before her chest, the young girl stroked at the elegant craftmanship of the hilt, her mind quickly resuming its peace.
“…must have been the wind.”
And thus, the young girl attached the sheath to the hard-wrapped twine hidden underneath her sash, and neared the end of the corridor.
From her position, An Fei could barely spot the bustling citizens of Dong Lin City as they began their turmoil in a new day.
Caw!
“I’m hearing things!”
The young girl sang to herself as she strode forth, the long sheath of the taijijian lightly bouncing against her leg.
Caw!!
“I’m most definitely hearing things!”
A pair of delicate hands clapped over an equally small and adorable pair of ears, and the pair of legs abruptly gained a skip in step.
Caw!!!
“I don’t hear a mutant crow in the alleyway! There weren’t any bad men either, and I just need to go to a doctor and get my brain checked out!”
CAW!!!
A pair of violet beams of light swept from either side of the alleyway to scatter across the smoothly stacked stones in response to her deliberate attempts of disregard.
The beams radiating an cruel intent to slaughter caused the stones to promptly explode into countless shards of shrapnel that descended towards the young girl’s position, the tips sharpened to a lethal perfection.
An Fei’s figure blurred into a flash of grey color as her body swiftly waded through the rain of sharpened stone nails, accurately spinning and turning to evade the projectiles with ease. As her illusory figure gradually returned to normal, the young girl had already reached the end of the alleyway to stand before one of the main streets of Dong Lin.
The soft sound of wings brushing against stone tickled at the fringes of her hearing, and An Fei turned around to spot the angered little raven flying directly towards her chest.
Gripped tightly on its claws, was the drawstring of a smooth leather bag.
The appearance of the leather bag caused the rock in her heart to drop in relief; the young girl couldn’t help but release a light sigh as she realized that Shen Haoren and the others had not kept it.
Having been granted the opportunity to drop a sorely hidden worry, An Fei took great enjoyment in the one activity she could partake in at the moment.
“Ah…”
With scarlet irises flickering with interest and amusement, the young girl watched a small raven fly towards her bosom with the fastest speed it could muster, only to bounce off the instant it made contact with her body.
CAW!
The little creature was sent flying in the opposite direction with the same magnitude of its initial charge, and soon discovered to its dismay that its small wings were unable to handle the sudden change in momentum.
The black shadow merged into the damp and dark alleyway of the streets, unable to extricate itself from its misery for quite some time.
Nay, it couldn’t even be granted the satisfaction of having achieved its objective; the <Steps of Underlying Shadow> had forbidden the little creature from contacting the young girl’s dress, much less her physical body.
An Fei carelessly reached out with her right hand, smoothly catching the drawstring of the leather bag in her palm.
With an expectant gaze, the young girl loosened the mouth of the bag and began to roam throughout its contents.
The pouch in which she had sifted a small portion of the coins given by Wei Xuan were still there, the pouch of yuebing that she had nicked from the Empress of Great Yong was still there, the small fox’s sleeping body – mm, soft indeed – was still there, everything was still there… huh?
Where were the twin butterfly swords?
“No way…”
An Fei’s countenance instantly paled as her fingers failed to locate the cold, smooth surface of the steel swords and their sheaths whilst roaming through the leather bag.
The young girl took a deep breath and renewed her search with greater vigor, only to end up with the same result regardless of her attempts.
The twin butterfly swords were actually gone… did the little raven forget to bring them?
No, for the last time she spotted them, they were lying neatly in the bag, nestled between the two pouches. Hence…
The young girl’s eyes narrowed, the scarlet irises flickering with a cold gleam.
“Since when?”
When the little creature finally did reemerge, it no longer attempted to attack her in its spiteful anger, and docilely climbed her arm to perch on her shoulder.
Slinging the leather bag around her shoulder, the young girl took a deep breath before merging into the swift currents of the streets of Dong Lin City.
–
“Xiao Hei, where did my swords go?”
Caw!
“Oh, so they were indeed taken away by someone else. Was it a servant of the inn, or someone else entirely?”
Caw! Caw!
“A servant then, huh?”
A young girl and a little crow mumbled to the other as they strolled through the highly tense streets of the city, their minds completely oblivious to the odd scene generated by their actions.
An Fei patted her lips as her mouth stretched into a massive yawn, the quaking of her shoulder eliciting a cry of complaint from the little raven who was in the midst of enjoying a free ride.
Caw!
“My bad, my bad, ah,” the young girl cooed with a smirk.
“Did you choke on the bean? That person said that they were steamed, so it should be easy to eat.”
Caw! Caw! Caw!
“…I don’t want to think about what you said.”
An Fei was enjoying her reuniting with her supply of yuebing, and was savoring the delicious mooncakes without hesitation.
The little raven, on the other hand, could not discover any supplies of ginkgo nuts sold by the vendors of Dong Lin City, and was thus forced to dissolutely peck at steamed meng beans.
Whilst in the leather bag, the small fox was busy gorging on strips of dried and curated meat with pleasure.
As she weaved through the sea of people swarming around her on all sides, An Fei inadvertently shivered at the memory of when the small fox had woken up from its most recent slumber.
The small creature had been reduced to a quivering ball of fur, the three tails lightly swaying with a depressed mood.
When the beams of sunlight descended upon the smooth, snow white fur, the small fox had released a screech of fright and fainted from the startle, causing the young girl to blink in surprise and direct a reproachful glare towards the little raven.
She didn’t want to think about how cruelly the little raven had treated the small fox, but…
Clang!
The discordant clash of steel upon steel dragged An Fei’s thoughts back to reality, and the young girl paused in her steps to glance towards her front.
As the invisible diagram nestled in her chest prompted the sea of traversing people to ignore and avoid her presence completely, the young girl, little raven, and the small fox was about to obtain a clearer view of the disturbance.
