A man dressed in white with long blond hair stood in the middle of a field. His face was filled with confusion as he tried to make sense of the situation.
How odd.
The moment he sensed the aura of a High Spirit Beast, he immediately followed it.
But he hadn't expected to find it in a place like this.
The mountains in this area were filled with spiritual essence that Spiritual Forms couldn't accommodate, making it impossible for spirit beasts of any tier to survive here. Regardless of how powerful a beast's cultivation was, the mountains would reject it.
Then another wave of spiritual essence surged from the same beast.
Seeing no point in continuing to speculate, he leaped from one tree to another until he reached the source.
To his surprise, three children were surrounding a Dreamweaver Moth.
One was a mage.
One had awakened his soul core but had yet to choose a path.
And the other...
Interesting.
A child whose path was the same as his.
Such a young age, too.
His gaze shifted back to the wailing beast.
Its breakthrough had been forcefully interrupted, leaving it to suffer a violent backlash.
However, what truly caught his attention was the black mass clinging to its body.
It didn't belong to the Dreamweaver Moth.
His eyes narrowed.
He slowly raised his right hand.
Countless chains burst from the ground and wrapped themselves around the Dreamweaver Moth, instantly subduing it.
Lily sat down on the ground.
Her gaze shifted from the Dreamweaver Moth to the man who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"I told you to be careful! How did you even manage to trip in a situation like that?!"
She could still hear the lizard's nonstop scolding.
She decided to ignore him.
"Good thing I came," the man said with a smile. "Otherwise, you children would've been doomed."
He walked toward the groaning Dreamweaver Moth and gently stroked its back.
The Dreamweaver Moth looked at him.
It no longer had the strength to resist.
"Don't worry," the man said softly. "I'll help you. I won't harm you."
Perhaps reassured by his presence, the Dreamweaver Moth finally gave in to exhaustion and lost consciousness.
"Who are you?"
Lu Jingxuan asked as he landed on the ground.
Neither he nor Bai Yichen lowered their guard.
This man had subdued a High Spirit Beast with ease.
He couldn't possibly be an ordinary person.
"No need to worry," the man replied. "I'm a wandering summoner. I came here for this beast."
He snapped his fingers.
The chains—and the Dreamweaver Moth—vanished without a trace.
Then, he walked toward Lily.
"Oi!"
Bai Yichen frowned. He immediately stepped in front of Lily, intending to shield her from the man.
However, the effects of the potion suddenly wore off.
The exhaustion he had been suppressing crashed over him all at once.
Thud.
He collapsed to the ground.
"Yichen!"
Lu Jingxuan hurried forward.
But the effects of his potion had also faded.
His body could no longer withstand the strain.
He dropped to one knee.
"You kids need to relax," the man said with a click of his tongue. "If I wanted to do something, do you really think you'd have time to retaliate or escape?"
"..."
Lily remained silent.
Arrogant... but true.
"Anyway," the man continued, "you look like someone I know."
He stopped in front of Lily and studied her appearance.
No.
This girl didn't merely resemble someone he knew.
She was almost an exact replica.
He let out a quiet sigh before taking a flute from his pouch and handing it to Lily.
"This is a Soul Flute. The next time you encounter a beast like that, use it to calm it."
"I don't know how to play an instrument."
The man laughed.
"Neither do I," he admitted. "Just blow into it. Whatever sound comes out will calm the beast."
Lily accepted the gift, tucked it into her pouch, and asked, "We have some sleeping beauties back at home. Is there a way to wake them up?"
The original plan had been to shatter the Dreamweaver Moth's core and kill it.
But the beast was still alive and this man hid it.
"The Dreamweaver Moth releases toxins from time to time," the man explained. "Now that it will no longer be near your home, there won't be another source of those toxins. After a few hours, the spiritual essence of the surrounding mountains will gradually purify them. They'll wake up once that happens."
Only then did Lily relax.
The man's gaze shifted toward the lizard perched on Lily's shoulder.
He raised an eyebrow.
The lizard returned his gaze.
And the two stared at each other for a brief moment.
Then, without another word, the man turned around and left.
True to Lily's expectations, the side effects of the potions left Bai Yichen bedridden.
She heard that he would scream constantly from the pain and would sometimes even pretend to be dead.
Lu Jingxuan didn't suffer the same side effects, but he was still exhausted and spent the next few days resting at home.
Those two she could understand.
But her...
Why was she so exhausted that she couldn't even get out of bed?
Her entire body felt drained.
She didn't have the slightest bit of energy.
"I did nothing, yet I ended up like this," Lily muttered as she blankly stared at the ceiling. "It doesn't make sense."
The lizard, who had been enjoying a meal on the bedside table, paused mid-bite.
To save Lily, he had drawn upon far more power than he should have.
Only then had he been able to unleash enough strength to intercept the dark mass.
The price, however, had been Lily's spiritual essence that he had drawn directly from her soul core through their bond.
She had yet to begin cultivating. Yet because of her unique soul core, he had still managed to borrow enough spiritual essence to withstand the attack.
It had saved her life.
But it had also completely drained her.
Lord Pei thought the same as Lily.
According to the story, Lily shouldn't have been so weak that she couldn't even leave her room. If she hadn't looked so pale and ghastly, he would have thought she was pretending to be sick again.
Another possibility crossed his mind, but...
"Lily, are you hiding something from me again?"
As a reward for his daughter's bravery, he had taken care of her ever since she fell ill, and gave everything she demanded.
He was also the one who cooked for her and fed her.
Whenever she grew bored, he would tell her stories about Lu Jingxuan and Bai Yichen's suffering to amuse her.
At the moment, he was feeding her a bowl of congee.
"Like what?" Lily asked, confused.
Lord Pei looked at her for a long moment.
"Like... have you already chosen a path?"
"..." Did Lu Jingxuan feed Father some lies? To avoid any misunderstanding, she replied, "I am not rushing like Jingxuan."
Sighing, Lord Pei let the matter drop. Instead, he said, "You took care of the clans. You did well."
Lily nodded in agreement.
"But next time, can you not sleep again? We were lucky that beast was already suffering, and someone saved us in the end."
Otherwise, there would have been no helping it.
All of them would have died.
Lord Pei frowned.
The toxins of a High Spirit Beast might have affected them, but with their cultivation, they shouldn't have remained unconscious until the beast was gone.
On top of that, the fact that a High Spirit Beast had managed to enter the Sacred Lands of the Clans made him and the other clan heads suspect that the incident had been deliberate.
They had already been investigating the matter for several days.
Yet they hadn't found anyone—or anything—that could have caused it.
"I am going to the Council Hall," Lord Pei said. "If you need anything, tell Butler Chen. And don't do anything reckless again. Focus on resting."
"..."
Lily remained silent.
It wasn't like she could move around and do whatever she wanted in her current condition.
With that, Lord Pei left the room.
Only Lily and the lizard remained.
"Lizard—"
"Silas."
Lily shifted her eyes to look at him.
"My name is Silas," he said. "And I am not a lizard."
Hearing his correction, Lily returned her gaze to the ceiling.
"Well, anyway. Thanks for your help, Silas."
Silas harrumphed arrogantly.
"You should."
What had happened recently felt strange.
The beast that had killed her in her previous life had appeared in this life as well...
But at a different time.
In her previous life, the Dreamweaver Moth had appeared when she was a toddler.
If that beast was destined to awaken and enter this land...
Why had it appeared at a different time?
Was it because she had returned to the past?
Was fate trying to end her life?
Lily pursed her lips.
Thinking about it only made her head ache.
And it didn't help at all.
It only left her with even more unanswered questions.