There wasn't any movement in the immediate vicinity. Even the persistent, rhythmic Buddhist chanting that had saturated the city air had vanished, leaving a silence so absolute it felt physical. Song Jing reacted a beat late to the change, his eyes wide as he turned to look at the heavy, wooden temple entrance.
"Should we go in?" he asked, his voice echoing slightly against the stone threshold. "That person might be inside, hiding in the shadows."
Hearing that, Song Wanníng lifted her head and glanced at him with a piercing, analytical gaze. Under her serious scrutiny, Song Jing's face heated up a little, the color rising to the tips of his ears. He looked away, clearing his throat, and ended up walking into the temple on his own to hide his embarrassment. She watched the stiff line of his shoulders for a moment before following behind him, her boots clicking softly as she stepped through the temple gates.
Inside the main hall, a towering Buddha statue stood on the central altar, but there was nothing benevolent or peaceful about the figure. Instead of a golden, compassionate smile, the black stone was carved into a grimace of suppressed rage.
The Buddha's brows and eyes were filled with a vicious, predatory intent that seemed to track their every move across the floor. It wasn't a golden body at all; its entire form was pitch black, a matte surface that seemed to suck in what little light remained in the room. Paired with that naturally oppressive stare, the statue made one's skin crawl just looking at it.
She avoided meeting its gaze directly, sensing a psychic pressure emanating from the stone, and swept her eyes around the cavernous hall. When she didn't find anything immediately wrong with the offerings or the tapestries, she headed up the creaking stairs to the second floor. He stayed in front the whole time, his pace hurried, as if he were trying to prove something, as if this was his way of showing he could protect her from any lurking danger.
In the end, they searched every corner of the temple, from the bell tower to the inner sanctum, and still found nothing but dust and the smell of cold incense. He looked frustrated, his grip tightening on his bow as he turned to her. "Looks like that guy ran off while we were fighting those monks," he said. "Should we check somewhere else in the city? There are plenty of other districts." He looked at her expectantly, the tips of his ears turning even redder than before.
She didn't answer him. She only glanced once more at the black statue looming in the hall below before turning and walking out into the courtyard.
"Hey," he called out, hurrying after her with long strides. "Why aren't you saying anything? Are we done here? Are you upset because we lost the trail?"
"It's fine," he continued, stepping in front of her to catch her eye. "We have still got plenty of time to deal with those invaders. We can find them together." He looked at her, his lips parting as if he clearly wanted to say more, but he didn't know where to start or how to voice his thoughts.
Seeing how hesitant he was, she could roughly guess what was on his mind. Her expression stayed cold, her aura distant and unyielding. "No need," she said. "I have other things to handle. You can chase that person yourself."
"What? We aren't going together?" He hadn't expected her to leave at all. He had been planning to stick with Song Wanníng the whole time they were in Fanyin City.
She didn't explain her reasoning to him. "I'm leaving. We will meet again someday, if fate allows it." With that, she didn't bother reacting to his protest at all. She kicked off the ground and flew straight down the mountain, her robes billowing in the wind.
Song Jing's face darkened with disappointment as he watched her. He tried once more to shout after her, trying to convince her to stay, but all she left him was a carefree retreating figure that soon vanished into the blue horizon. When she disappeared completely, a heavy sense of loss crept into his expression.
"What, she is already gone and you still can't let her go?" Inside his sea of consciousness, a voice suddenly spoke, sounding dry and amused. If Song Wanníng had seen the speaker, she would have recognized him immediately; he was the white-haired man they had been searching for.
"Of course. I have never seen a woman like her in my life," Song Jing replied internally, his gaze still fixed on the point where she had vanished. "How could I bear to let that go?" Affection flickered in his eyes, softening his features. From the very start, back at the lake, he had been stunned by her looks. As they spent more time together, he had been drawn in even deeper by her strength. Especially when she fought, she was sharp, decisive, and beautiful, the goddess of his dreams made flesh.
In his previous life, back in that other world, he would not have dared approach someone like that. But this life was different. He was a genius of the Immortal Realm now, a peak Dixian with power at his fingertips. He felt he was more than worthy of Song Wanníng. By now, he had already fallen for her and wanted to start a relationship with her that would last for eternity. Just thinking about the possibility made Song Jing's neck flush red.
"Heh heh heh." Inside his sea of consciousness, the white-haired man chuckled softly. "You're really naive. You two are natural enemies, born of different worlds. You're destined to share no fate together. This is nothing more than wishful thinking on your part."
Those words made Song Jing's expression sink into a scowl. "Hmph, that's not a problem at all. Fate is what we make of it."
"Besides, who says we have to be enemies?" he continued, his thoughts turning sharp. "As long as I stand on her side, we're the best teammates there are. I don't have to follow the master's orders." He snorted, a dark glint flashing through his eyes.
"What do you mean by that?" The white-haired man raised an eyebrow, catching the rebellious implication in his host's tone.
"I mean exactly what I said," Song Jing replied. A cold smile tugged at his lips. "Since I'm in this world, I'm one of its people now. If I'm not Song Wanníng's best ally, then what am I? Who decided I have to be controlled by my original world? Just because it claims it's my master doesn't make it so. I never agreed to that arrangement."
From the moment his consciousness had awakened in this body, he had never intended to be any kind of invader. "I didn't come here to destroy anything," he thought. "I'm here to join this world." From the instant he arrived, he had fallen in love with this realm overflowing with spiritual energy and vibrant life. It was nothing like that ruined, desolate place he had come from. Now the voices from the Mùsù star system wanted him to act as an insider, kill Song Wanníng first, then join some grand world-destroying plan. To him, that was complete nonsense.
A war to end the world wasn't some simple thing, and he wasn't willing to throw his own life away for a cause that gave him nothing in return. Now that he had even found the love of his life, he wanted that war even less. All he wanted was to live happily with her like an immortal couple and have a few kids someday in a quiet valley. He had even thought up their names already during his long meditations.
The white-haired man listened to these domestic fantasies, a cold, calculating light surfacing in his eyes. Song Jing didn't notice at all and kept muttering to himself, lost in his own world. "I wonder what Song Wanníng likes. I should find out and cater to her tastes. And should I change my image a bit? I feel like she isn't that interested in me as I'm now."
-
"Sister, are we just leaving like this? That guy is obviously an invader," Xiao Jin said, his voice buzzing with agitation inside her mind. He was completely baffled by her decision. Even he could tell there was something wrong with Song Jing, so there was no way his master hadn't noticed the signs. Could it be that because he liked her, she was going easy on him?
"He will follow us again," Song Wanníng replied. Her tone was calm, but she sounded certain of her prediction. That he liked her was obvious, even to her. So he probably wouldn't part ways with her just like that. There might even be some staged chance encounters or "accidents" later as he tried to win her over.
The reason she chose to leave was because she found him strange and unsettling. He felt fractured to her, like a mirror that had been poorly glued back together. Sometimes, it was like a terrifying, ancient gaze was fixed on her from behind his eyes. Other times, when she looked again, everything seemed normal and he was just a smitten cultivator. She wanted to see just what kind of secret he was hiding before she made her move.
-
"Tsk, that guy has really got some nerve," Xiao Jin snorted angrily. "Someone like Sister, who is practically an exiled immortal, isn't someone he has any right to fantasize about."
She smiled faintly at the spirit's protectiveness and said meaningfully, "I was worried I wouldn't be able to find all the invaders before. Now it seems I don't need to worry about that anymore."
The Mùsù star system had awakened their consciousness and sent them straight at her. She didn't even need to search through the vast Immortal Realm; they would show themselves one by one, drawn to her like moths to a flame. It saved a lot of trouble and time.
"If the Mùsù star system finds out, won't it be furious?" Xiao Jin sounded delighted by the irony. "Thanks to its own plan, we don't need to run around like headless flies checking everywhere."
She gave a cold tug at her lips. "You think it would be angry? No. It doesn't care about these invaders at all. They were abandoned pieces from the start, meant to be spent." A cold light flashed in her eyes as the realization fully formed. At first, she had thought the Heavenly Dao of the Mùsù star system needed these invaders to compete and win. But as one invader after another rushed in only to die, she realized she had been wrong about their value to their masters.