"Whoosh..."
Lin Qingyue gently blew a breath, and the silver-thread charcoal ignited in the small clay stove.
The deep blue flames leapt up, without a trace of smoke.
The furnace body soon turned glowing red.
She steadily placed the iron kettle on it, the mountain spring water inside filled only seven-tenths.
The entire process was composed and unhurried, with its own rhythm in every movement.
In this Ash World where time stood still, this sudden spark of mortal warmth was exceptionally striking.
Before the water had even boiled, she had already begun arranging the tea set.
Warming the cup, scalding the bowl, and then placing the tea.
The porcelain jar named "Cloud-Mist Immortal Sprout" was opened, and the tea scoop took out a few tender green leaves, curled like hooks and covered in white fuzz.
The moment the tea leaves entered the bowl, a wisp of crisp fragrance broke free.
It was no ordinary fragrance, but the first breeze from the highest mountain peak, the first inch of dawn's light.
The woman in red, who had her back to her, felt her shoulders, stiffened for ten thousand ages, tremble slightly.
Soon, the water in the iron kettle reached a rolling boil.
A long plume of white steam poured from the kettle's spout.
The water boiled.
Lin Qingyue lifted the kettle, rinsing the tea and then brewing it, her movements as fluid as flowing water.
The curled tea leaves unfurled freely in the boiling water, their vibrant vitality awakening in the heat.
A more intense tea fragrance, riding on the steam, soared into the sky within this deathly silent Ash World.
This tea fragrance, brimming with the force of life, stood in stark contrast to the decayed aura of death in this place.
It was a single drop of emerald life, falling into a thick pool of black ink.
Amidst the boundless silence, it forcibly rippled outward, creating a circle of its own.
A small, tranquil oasis.
The statue-like Avatar of the Vermilion Bird, her shoulders beneath the crimson palace robes, moved again.
Lin Qingyue poured away the first rinse of tea and refilled the pot.
The amber-colored tea liquor poured into the azure celadon tasting cup, clear and bright, reflecting the gray-white world.
A rich and refreshing tea aroma finally bloomed fully in this deathly silent world.
This fragrance seemed to possess a will of its own.
It dispersed the surrounding aura of death and cleansed the scorched air.
It even pierced through the barriers of the illusion.
-
Lin Xiyue had successfully countered and was suppressing the black shadow when her spirit suddenly soared.
She smelled a fragrance.
A familiar yet refreshing scent.
It was the same aroma that always made her exhaustion vanish whenever her sister brewed tea for her in their dormitory after training.
This familiar sensation from reality solidified her resolve to protect into something tangible.
The Holy Light within her, which had been on the verge of running dry, was reignited by this conviction, transforming into a rushing torrent of golden lava!
Across from her, the shadow formed from malicious words visibly hesitated.
Its form began to blur and distort, like a glitching signal.
Lin Xiyue seized the moment it "stalled," a sharp glint flashing in her eyes.
A perfect chance!
She compressed and condensed all her Holy Light, no longer letting it rage and vent, but shaping it into a blinding pillar of light!
It was the first ray of dawn.
The pillar of light precisely pierced through the flickering shadow!
There was no explosion.
Only the sizzling sound of ice and snow melting.
The shadow was rapidly purified by the Holy Light, and a transparent void continuously expanded in its chest!
The shadow's scream stopped abruptly.
Its already precarious form grew even more ethereal under the searing Holy Light, on the verge of dissipating at any moment.
-
Inside the Ice Crystal Cage, a momentary haze crossed Su Wan's eyes.
That scent...
She smelled it.
The serene aroma of tea, ignoring her parents' judgmental glares and bypassing the sturdy walls of the Ice Crystal Cage, gently wafted into her nostrils.
This scent was infused with Lin Qingyue's unique, carefree disregard for any rules.
The kind of freedom that Su Wan had always mouthed off about as being "flamboyant," yet secretly longed for with all her heart.
Her newly rediscovered true self gained another spark of vitality.
She lifted her head, looking at the two majestic faces outside the cage.
This time, she saw through the illusion.
Their outlines were fading, turning transparent.
The cracks on the Ice Crystal Cage spread wildly like a spider's web.
"Su Wan!"
"Su Wan!"
The reprimanding voices sounded ridiculous and distorted, like a damaged cassette tape.
The ice-blue Magic Power condensed at her fingertips was no longer a faint spark.
Her long-suppressed pride and power had all returned!
They were even more condensed and sharper than ever before!
"The path I choose, the strength I define..."
"No matter how much it defies tradition, as long as I am strong enough, I will be the glory of the Family!"
-
In the endless darkness.
Xia Lian was gasping for breath.
A wisp of fresh tea aroma drifted in without warning.
At first, she thought it was a hallucination born of fatigue.
But the scent was so real.
She snapped her head up, her nose twitching like a lost fawn in the forest that had found its way home.
In this darkness filled only with despair and fear, this wisp of tea aroma was the sole lighthouse on a pitch-black sea.
It silently proclaimed: You are not fighting alone.
The blood-scented wind and roars chasing her were suddenly choked by an invisible hand, their strength abruptly waning.
The darkness that oppressed her also revealed a bewildered retreat.
"Prey..."
Xia Lian whispered softly.
The remaining fear and hesitation in her eyes were completely burned away.
In their place was the calm and sharpness of a top hunter locking onto its target.
The bowstring quivered, and arrows pierced the air.
Each arrow, entwined with that wisp of tea aroma that dispelled inner demons, shot deep into the darkness.
-
The Ash World.
Lin Qingyue lifted a cup of clear tea on a saucer and gently pushed it toward the woman in red.
Steam curled from the cup, shifting shapes in the air and softly brushing against her ornate skirt.
Lin Qingyue finally spoke.
"You look exhausted."
Her voice was soft, yet it effortlessly tore through the eternal silence of this place.
"If you don't mind, have a cup of tea."
She paused, then added,
"Even if one is rushing toward death, one must still catch one's breath, must they not?"
There was no pity in her tone, no probing, no consolation.
It was as calm as an invitation extended to an old friend not seen for a long time, as ordinary as could be.
The woman in red finally responded.
She slowly turned around.
It was a face that would be desecrated by the mere word "beautiful."
Its features were the most perfect creation of the laws of heaven and earth.
But this face, which should have contained the sun, moon, and stars, was covered in a layer of dead ash that would never melt over ages.
Her skin was jade without a trace of blood, her lips were burnt-out embers.
Those eyes, which should have sparkled with vitality and reflected the birth and death of the universe, now held only two empty, gray nebulae filled with eternal stillness.
Neither sorrow, nor joy, nor anger, nor grief.
They reflected neither the sky, nor the person before her.
Endless time had long since crushed all her emotions into dust, leaving only a numb wreck.
She looked at Lin Qingyue, then at the cup of hot tea.
Within those lifeless pupils, a ripple, nearly impossible to capture, spread.
She opened her mouth, and a dry sound like grinding rocks issued from her throat, as if she had long forgotten how to speak.
After a long while.
A single syllable, caked in the dust of ages, was finally squeezed out with great difficulty.
"Tea?"
Her gaze shifted away from Lin Qingyue, staring hollowly at the white steam rising from the cup, as if trying to recall the meaning of the word.
After another long while.
She spoke again, her voice devoid of any emotion.
"...What use is it?"
Without waiting for an answer, her gaze passed over the tea table, sweeping across the boundless ash she had personally created.
Deep within those lifeless eyes, a wisp of sorrow, enough to freeze the soul, finally surged.
"Even the right to die has long been stripped from me."