2026-02-16 08:10:49
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Chapter 642
I had to admit that it did feel strange to hold so many leaves at once, almost immoral. Wrong, even if the leaves were sanctioned by the source.I glanced at Flee. She watched the spinning sphere with focus.“We’ll sort by thickness,” I murmured at her, already planning. “Thicker for the bombs. Medium ones for my testing. Thin for everything else.”I drew the sphere tighter. The whirling mass condensed to something the size of a barrel, then a bucket, then a fruit, smooth and firm. I felt for the point where compression would begin to damage the inner structure of the leaves and stopped there. The thrum settled into a slow pulse that matched the tree’s own cadence.I set the ball down on the soil mound. It didn’t bounce, even though it really felt like it should. That thought made me smile; what was I treating this essentially sacred artifact as? A football?It sat there and vibrated, not affected by my heretical thoughts at all, the tiny movements from the leaves keeping the layers f
Chapter 641
I looked at Flee beside me as we walked through the tunnel. Her expression was still downcast. The air smelled of wet rock and faint resin from the pitch we used to seal weak points. Far behind us, the sound of water striking stone counted slow seconds, regular and steady. My steps matched the rhythm without trying.Flee kept her hands tucked close to her stomach, her head drooping. Every few breaths she glanced at my shadow and then away again.I reached over and patted her head gently, smoothing the soft hair behind her ears and the small ridge where bone met muscle.She blinked and looked up at me.“Do you know, Flee? I’m really proud of you.”Her eyes widened. “What? What does Master mean?” The tunnel returned her words with a softer echo that faded into the trickle of water.“I mean exactly what I said. You’re the reason I am who I am. You’ve been such an influential part of my journey. You were my first and true junior sister, you know?”She opened her mouth, then closed it agai
Chapter 640
An awkward silence settled for a few seconds, then Elder Yan seemed to finally muster the courage to speak what he’d come here for, “I am sorry. For my arrogance, for my hopeless hubris, for all the mistakes I’ve made.”I blinked. That too, I hadn’t expected to hear. Elder Yan reforming, sure. Elder Yan making up with his granddaughter, sure. But apologizing to me?It was… unimaginable.He still had his pride as a cultivator, didn’t he? And I was someone who had led to the deaths of both of his heirs and corrupted his other heir. Even if he’d moved on, I would have expected him to think we’d inflicted equal damage on each other and let bygones be bygones—not to apologize.“I should have done many things differently,” Elder Yan admitted. “I should have taken a stricter hand with my two heirs. I should have given Yan Yun more freedom and acknowledgment, shown her I was truly proud. I should have stopped trying to marry her away for the sect’s benefit—or, as I deluded myself, for her ben
Chapter 639
I lay sprawled on the ground, staring up into the sky. Moving my body after so long felt so refreshing, to just let go and bash each other with spears. Sweat a bit, you know. And it was nice. At one point, we even let loose a bit of Chi. Not enough to destroy the place, of course, but enough to let off some steam, take it up into the sky, let it rampage around and give the miasma a bit of a break.The training square still held a faint haze from our last exchange, a harmless afterimage of light that faded as the wards redirected stray currents away from the roofs. The flagstones were cool through my robe. My chest rose and fell in a slow, even rhythm as heat eased out through open collar ties, sweat drying to a thin crust at the nape of my neck. The old spear lay a hand’s breadth from my fingers, tip angled toward the practice rings.It had a new chip on the butt end from where I had overstepped and Zhang had clipped it out of my guard. I’d need to sand it smooth later to keep it from
Chapter 638
Elder Yan looked at his granddaughter as he processed the information she’d brought to him. He did not speak right away. His mouth pressed into a flat line, loosened, pressed again.The tea between them let off a faint thread of steam that curled and faded by the time it rose to eye level. He’d brewed it before she arrived, more from habit than expectation, measuring out the leaves with the same neat care he used when he’d written technique manuals for the sect. Now the cups sat untouched.Yan Yun’s posture was composed, but she had drawn her hands into her sleeves the way she did when she had to keep them still. She had not cried in front of him in years, not since she was a child and he had been harsher than he should have been and quicker with correction than comfort. Since their quarrels, she had learned to keep her expression smooth around him, the way she had learned to keep her footwork exact. Today, the smoothness showed strain at the edges.She had rehearsed this conversation
Chapter 637
I made him block high and then low, forced him to shift his weight, to feel the ground under his feet, to hear the sound of the wood and the breath between us.I meant everything I said; this city only lived due to people who knew what to do without waiting to be told, people who stepped into gaps and held them until someone else arrived. Zhang had been that person again and again. He could be that person again.“No.” Zhang shook his head as we continued to duel. “There are still debts I need to repay. Things I need to make up for. And now—now you’re just going to die.” He brought the haft up to catch my next advance hard enough to numb my hands. It was a good choice. He had seen me push the pace and had decided to interrupt it. He stepped in on the contact and shouldered me back. The move was clean and not at all clumsy now. He could fight like this all day when he wasn’t dragging around the weight of so many unspoken words.“You’ve repaid all of it and done plenty more. My healing o
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