Ba Tian laughed at Han Mujie. "Haha, Brother Han, I told you Ancestor isn't an old geezer."
Gu Xuan was at his side in a blink and thumped a knuckle against Ba Tian's head. "Who are you calling an old geezer?"
Ba Tian yelped, clutching his skull. "Ancestor, at least let me finish my sentence...ow! Ow! Ow!" He rubbed the bump, grinning despite himself.
The others burst out laughing. Shui Miao covered her mouth with a sleeve, giggling. "Hehe! We knew they'd been in love for years. At least they're together now."
Yan Ruyu nodded. "Hahaha, did you see Bai Wei's flustered face? Mu Qing, your disciple thought you wouldn't accept it."
Mu Qing, who'd been silent, finally spoke, a little annoyed. "Who said that? I was the one who let that kid from Sword Peak slip into my Wood Peak to deliver gifts to Bai Wei. Do they think they can evade my eyes? Hehe..."
Everyone nodded. Even Han Mujie rubbed his ear and admitted, "I could see Lin Feng was always focused on cultivation, but sometimes he got distracted. I've known about his feelings for Bai Wei for a long time. I accepted it ages ago."
Shi Yan frowned, confused. "But what about that kid, Shen Huai?"
The conversation froze the instant the sect master's name came up. Only a few hours ago they'd learned the truth about Huai's cultivation.
Feng Wuji sneered. "Do you think a being like him wouldn't know about this relationship? Didn't you hear them say they'd each told Huai separately?"
Everyone nodded in unison right, Lin Feng and Bai Wei had both said they'd confessed to Huai beforehand.
Ancestor Gu Xuan said, "I'm sure he knows. And those letters they mentioned today. I think that was his doing." The peak masters nodded again. After a little more discussion, they drifted back to their own courtyards.
After walking Bai Wei back to his peak and seeing him safely to his courtyard, Lin Feng returned to his own. But neither of them slept that night.
Lin Feng lay in his bed, fingers brushing his lips, replaying the scene under the banyan over and over in his mind.
Bai Wei, in his own room, clutched his pillow to his chest, heart still pounding, thinking of that fierce, earnest kiss.
Morning came as usual, light spilling over the sect's roofs, finding two young men bleary-eyed, restless, and smiling despite themselves.
In Huai's courtyard.
Yesterday Wuhe had managed to coax his boyfriend. Huai relented and let him snuggle in the bed. Now Huai was drinking tea in the garden while Wuhe served them both as usual.
Huai smiled, a gentle, knowing smile. "They're here," he said. Wuhe nodded and looked toward the courtyard door.
Two voices called from outside.
"Disciple Lin Feng / Bai Wei requests an audience with the Sect Master."
"Come in," Huai said.
Bai Wei and Lin Feng entered together, bowed to Huai and Wuhe, and said, "Greetings, Sect Master! Greetings, Grand Elder!"
Both men nodded.
Huai said, "Didn't I tell you to talk to me as brothers, like before?"
Lin Feng and Bai Wei sighed. Bai Wei asked directly, "Was it you who sent those letters yesterday, Brother Huai?"
Huai gave them a teasing smile and shook his head, the smirk never leaving his face. "What letters?" Wuhe's mouth twitched too. Of course it was them, Huai had reached Divine Sovereign in all paths, calligraphy among them; copying anyone's handwriting was child's play after seeing theirs so many times, and Wuhe's techniques had delivered the letters. But they weren't about to admit it.
Huai leaned forward, grin still in place. "Did you come here just to ask me about some letters, or...?" His gaze swept over them, scrutinizing.
Bai Wei felt his face heat. He hadn't expected that confessing to his senior brother and the elders would feel harder than confessing to Lin Feng.
Lin Feng squeezed his hand. Wuhe coughed, teasing, "Ahem. Lin Feng, you'll have plenty of time to hold his hand later. Don't you think you should answer the Sect Master's question?"
Lin Feng's ears went red, but he didn't let go. Bai Wei tried to pull his hand back after Wuhe's tease, only to find Lin Feng's grip turning firmer.
Lin Feng took a breath and declared, "Senior Brother! Grand Elder! From last night, we've decided to be together. I want to be with Bai Wei."
Huai turned his mischievous grin on Bai Wei. "Bai Wei? What about you?"
Bai Wei murmured, "I... I also want to be with Lin Feng."
Wuhe burst out laughing. "Hahaha, you two are still children. We were just teasing. Why so tense? Just tell us when do you want to set the wedding?"
At that word both Lin Feng and Bai Wei froze. Their faces, their ears, went scarlet.
Huai chuckled. "Don't worry. You can live together before the wedding. I'm not going to restrict you."
That only made it worse. Lin Feng bowed quickly. "Brother, I just remembered some work. May I take Bai Wei with me?"
Wuhe teased again, "So impatient to live together?"
Lin Feng dropped Bai Wei's hand and waved both hands. "No, no, Grand Elder, you're misunderstanding, I don't want to do anything with him, I just..."
Huai cut in, amused. "Did Wuhe say you were going to do something with Bai Wei?"
Bai Wei wished the ground would open up and swallow him and Lin Feng with him.
Seeing their red faces, Huai stopped teasing. His tone softened. "I wanted to tell you: even though you've reached the Star Realm, you won't have much time to enjoy yourselves. Cherish this moment. The next challenges will come soon."
Bai Wei and Lin Feng sobered and nodded. Huai poured them tea they could actually tolerate. After a warm talk, they left the courtyard to inform their other elders.
At the same time, a luxurious spaceship cut through the dark toward the blue star. Inside, a beautiful girl sat by the viewport, eyes fixed on the planet's blue curve. She came from one of the Red Lotus Galaxy's famed fourth-tier forces, the Medicine Gatherer Pavilion, and she was the pavilion master's sole daughter.
Her name was Yao Lingxi.
From childhood she'd contracted a strange wasting disease that stole her youth and locked her body in the shape of a child. By age she should have been twenty-six or twenty seven, but anyone looking at the eight-year-old girl in fine robes would never guess it.
Yao Lingxi stared at the blue star. Her parents had tried everything renowned physicians, pill masters, secret remedies but nothing could undo what the illness had done. After learning that the Divine Physician hailed from the Red Lotus Galaxy, she had scoured every planet in her reach. The Galaxy Sovereigns had scrubbed all information about Huai, leaving only rumors behind.
An attendant approached and bowed. "Young Miss! We're near a lower-level planet now, called Blue Star. Shall we enter, or skip it?"
She shook her head. "We don't know where that person is. We need to search every nook of our galaxy."
The attendant nodded. As the ship slipped into Blue Star's near space, alarms flared, red lights washing the cabin, warning tones echoing through the hull.
The crew, the protectors, even Lingxi herself went alert. They'd never seen the ship's threat array light up like this.
"We're surrounded," a controller said, voice tight.
"They're broadcasting a submission sigil," another added. "If we don't comply, they'll destroy us."
Everyone swallowed hard. The ship projected the submission signal.
The hatch hissed open and a hundred military figures filed in, modified weapons trained on the crew. The commander in charge swept the cabin with his gaze and frowned when he saw Lingxi.
"What are you doing here, near this remote planet?" he asked, confused.
Lingxi produced a token from her pouch. The commander's expression shifted as he recognized it. "We can't allow you to enter this planet," he said flatly.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Little girl, don't ask questions that could bring annihilation to your whole force," the commander replied.
Lingxi shivered; the crew did too.
The commander sighed. "We can't make the decision. We need to contact Goddess Nexus for approval."
Lingxi nodded. The commander opened a channel. The answer came back almost instantly: "Any force at the fourth tier may enter Blue Star without hindrance. Forces above the fourth tier may not."
The commander lowered his weapon a fraction. "You may proceed," he said, still watching Lingxi closely. "But remember Blue Star is not what it seems."
The ship angled toward the beautiful blue planet. But as it drew close, it shuddered and halted. Red lights flared again; the sensorium crumbled into static.
Lingxi frowned. "What? What happened? Did those military forces attack again?"
"No, Young Miss," a controller said, voice tight. "It's the planet. The whole world is wrapped in a defensive formation. If we force entry, the ship will be ground to dust."
Yao Lingxi snapped, "What nonsense. Even our home formation can't do that." Then she remembered the commander's last words, and her expression changed.
She pushed to the viewport to see for herself. Above the blue curve, a formation hung like a net of stars layered, interlocking, ancient and new at once. Her blood ran cold.
She was from one of the galaxy's most powerful fourth-tier forces. She hadn't known any power in this backwater region could field something this advanced.
Just as she thought she'd have to turn back, a figure appeared above the planet posted there by Shen Huai. After Huai took the position of Planet Master, he'd laid a formation around the entire world and stationed an elder outside it.
The elder looked toward the ship and cast his voice across the void. A sword was strapped to his back, his white beard drifting in the absence of wind. "Who are you? State your name and purpose! Or leave this instant!"
Yao Lingxi felt her limbs go numb. The pressure rolling off him was suffocating. He looked to be around eighty, long white beard, sword at his back and why was someone like this guarding a planet from the outside?
She guessed his realm at a glance; Star Sovereign. Her father might be a shade weaker. A cultivator of this level ought to be an elder of a fourth-tier sect, not a gatekeeper for a remote world.
She drew a breath to steady herself, straightened her small shoulders, and answered, "I am Yao Lingxi of the Medicine Gatherer Pavilion. I seek the Divine Physician. I mean no harm to Blue Star."
The elder's eyes narrowed. "What did you just say? You want to see His Highness?"
Yao Lingxi froze. She hadn't expected this gatekeeper to know the Divine Physician at all. Her whole body shivered. She'd hunted for him across the galaxy and found nothing ,who would've thought a backwater planet held his trail?
She stepped out of the ship with her protectors useless against this elder, but protocol was protocol and kowtowed in the void. "Please, Senior! Tell us where we can find the Divine Physician. I... I have an illness that keeps taking my life. I need his help, or I won't last many more years."
The elder shook his head. "I do know him. He is my master, the leader of my sect, the Eternal Sect. Whether he will treat you is not for me to decide."
Hope flared in Lingxi's chest. She kowtowed again, forehead to nothingness. "Please, Elder, have mercy. Tell me where to find him."
Then a gentle voice rose from the depths of Blue Star. "Let her pass the barrier."
The old man bowed toward the planet, then turned back to the ship, where the crew were still staring, startled by the voice that had come from the world below.
"You're fortunate, young girl," the elder said. "My master says your ship may pass. Go. Enter the barrier."
Yao Lingxi stood, bowed again to the old man, and returned to her ship. The vessel slid forward; the formation above Blue Star flared, parted like a curtain of light, and let them through into the atmosphere.