After threatening Jing Zhe, Yu Shui dragged him aside for more scolding. Through their quiet reprimands and silent screaming, Yuan Xia and Deng QiuShi exchanged a wordless expression.

  A minute ter, Yu Shui emerged from behind the pilr. Jing Zhe followed. One smiled as if nothing had occurred, and the other looked petrified.

  For once, Jing Zhe took the lead in apologizing. He dug his toe into the clouds, drawing an arc, before opening his mouth:

  “I’m sorry.” His eyes drifted downwards.

  “Look at them when you talk.” Yu Shui whispered in his ear, the eerie smile never vanishing as he chided.

  Jing Zhe stared up at Yuan Xia. His golden eyes had a piercing quality, and Yuan Xia took a half-step back. He found himself wondering: In the future, how would those eyes mature…?

  “I apologize.” Stressing the important word, Jing Zhe mimicked Yu Shui’s formal tone of speech.

  The Doctor responded with a small gre.

  Stifling her ughter, Deng QiuShi smiled. “I’ll accept this apology for the both of us.”

  Yuan Xia nodded in response. Rather than annoyance, all he felt for the two children could be summed up as ‘pity’. Unlike himself, Jing Zhe and Yu Shui truly were children at the beginning of their lives.

  “So he is mute….” Jing Zhe mumbled. “See, I was right.”

  “That’s not for you to expin.” Yu Shui’s eyes narrowed. “Do you not feel ashamed?”

  “I—” Jing Zhe thought for a moment. Heaven’s Pavilion felt quieter all of a sudden. “I just….”

  A tap on his shoulder brought Jing Zhe back to focus. Yuan Xia had approached him at some point, an understanding expression on his delicate features.

  He pointed around his throat and his eyes, circling them with his fingers, affirming Jing Zhe’s suspicions. The white fog settling on Yuan Xia’s irises brought a fluttery charm, and he sent Jing Zhe a half-smile.

  Jing Zhe’s jaw dropped. Surprised, Yu Shui approached Yuan Xia, curious.

  “You are blind as well, correct?” He suppressed the intrusiveness in his voice, eyeing Yuan Xia with medical interest. “And your name is Yuan Xia. I’ve never heard of this many coincidences in my life.”

  “That’s what I wanted to say.” Jing Zhe regained his spirit, his eyebrows furrowing as he announced. “So that’s why Hua ChunMing escorted you down personally; he wanted to keep an eye on you.”

  Yu Shui couldn’t take it anymore and uncharacteristically stomped on Jing Zhe’s foot. The younger boy screeched in pain.

  “Yuan Xia, is this true?” Deng QiuShi snapped out of her trance, a furious fire entering her eyes. “Do you need me to scold Hua ChunMing for you?”

  Yuan Xia furiously shook his head. In his mind, Hua ChunMing had no enemies. If he remained as powerful as he did 120 years ago, no one in the JiangHu could go against him. Other than the Demon Queen…. But Deng QiuShi’s skills couldn’t compare to her at all.

  Furthermore, Hua ChunMing had left in dejection once he heard Yuan Xia’s name. If he went to find Hua ChunMing now, wouldn’t that just be sending him to his own death? Lost in thought, Yuan Xia dropped his head.

  Releasing Jing Zhe’s foot, Yu Shui frowned. He grabbed Jing Zhe’s arm instead—to which the boy failed to hold back a very-much-apparent blush of surprise.

  “Both of Righteous Leader Hua’s disciples this time have pure Heavenly cultivation roots. Hua ChunMing escorted both of them down.” With a disappointed sigh, Yu Shui pulled Jing Zhe back, not letting him irritate Yuan Xia any longer. “Did you not know?”

  Jing Zhe gave a half-hearted huff, but his breath caught as he followed Yu Shui without a single spoken compint.

  Before the two could banter any longer, the pilrs surrounding them fshed. The Sun’s rays reflected in kaleidoscopic crystals on the marble centre of Heaven’s Pavilion, drawing many cultivators’ attention. A faint drumbeat grew louder from the stage ahead.

  The purple-haired youth turned to Deng QiuShi with anticipation in his eyes.

  “Miss Deng, that’s the cue for the new disciples’ inauguration. Follow us?”

  Deng QiuShi nodded, holding Yuan Xia’s hand to guide him through the crowd. Yuan Xia felt an inkling of uselessness as he followed the woman, but he suppressed it, trodding forwards behind her.

  As soon as they reached the stage, the Elders in orange and blue separated them, with Deng QiuShi entering the line to choose her mentor and Yuan Xia going to the end of the stage to wait with Shuang. Jing Zhe and Yu Shui followed, guiding them to their respective positions.

  A moment ter, rows of older cultivators and new disciples took over the arena.

  The participants all looked stunned when Hua ChunMing himself, after over a hundred years of seclusion, stepped up to give the introductory speech. He radiated an air of maturity, and ended his address with a grand “I hope to get to know each and every one of you well.”

  Yuan Xia winced—that message sounded tailor-written for himself.

  Afterwards, the hundreds of new outer disciples were ushered away to choose their respective Elders within the Sect. Heaven’s Law Sect had become repoputed with new students, and their numbers didn’t dwindle even when other Orthodox Sects came and lured some of them away.

  Yuan Xia came to the stage st, hand-in-hand with Shuang. Hua ChunMing introduced them as the only two inner disciples, earning many jealous and surprised gazes.

  Yuan Xia heard a fair bit of chatter about his resembnce to the te Demon Lord, and when familiar twin disciples confronted him about it by morphing onto the stage from the shadows, the inauguration event had ended immediately.

  Everything happened in a fsh. Before he knew it, Yuan Xia stood at the edge of his bed, back at the inner disciple dorm. Hua ChunMing had dropped him off before leaving without a word… to which Yuan Xia felt conflicted.

  Did Hua ChunMing hate him? They’d had at least a bearable retionship in Yuan Xia’s first life; he thought he could call Hua ChunMing his friend.

  So then, why had he become so terrifying, now that he knew Yuan Xia’s name?

  With a sigh, Yuan Xia reached out to the indigo bed before him. He fumbled, underestimating the distance between his fingers and the deep blue blur. Annoyed, he thrust his hand down—falling straight forward onto the wooden frame.

  Ow.

  Days had passed since his reincarnation. Yet he still couldn’t see.

  Furrowing his brows, he bit his lower lip until it turned a deep shade of crimson. His eyes, obscured in cloud-like fog, glinted with anguish. If anyone else had approached Yuan Xia then, they’d back away without another word.

  But instead of beating his bnkets up, Yuan Xia remained calm, tracing the bed sheet with his fingers for any remaining residue from Hua ChunMing’s tears.

  Someone had repced the tear-dried linings, leaving behind an expanse of fresh cloth.

  At least his sheets were clean. Yuan Xia sat down, pnting his hands on either side of his body to bance himself and avoid swaying. Swinging his legs onto the bed, he didn’t even bother with putting the bnkets over his small body as he drifted into a deep slumber.