"To make it see... easier said than done..."
Gazing up at the colossal eye in the sky, Xu Junzhu felt her very soul tremble.
Its power was nearly on par with the Heavenly Dao—a malevolent counterpart to the natural order.
Turning back toward Winter Lord Ridge, she sensed Luo Luo's presence had completely vanished into the mountain mist.
A darkness akin to the Yellow Springs had engulfed the world.
"Whoosh!"
An old man swayed unsteadily into view, carried by the wind.
"Senior Feng," Xu Junzhu said warily, "hear me out—sacrifice is nothing but a path to death!"
Feng Guanhai waved his hand. "No need to explain. This old man already knows everything you just discussed. Where starlight touches, nothing escapes my sight."
Li Zhaoye scoffed. "It's broad daylight. Where are the stars?"
Feng Guanhai huffed. "Have you no common sense? The sun is a star! A star!"
Xu Junzhu massaged her temples. "...Is this really the time for such arguments?"
Well, at least she wouldn’t have to painstakingly explain the situation to this Daoist master.
"Where’s Daoist Cangyue?" she asked.
"Ran away!" Feng Guanhai sneered. "Probably holed up in some remote mountain forest. Hah! When the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken. Does he really think he can hide forever?"
Li Zhaoye smirked. "Cowards breed cowards."
As they spoke, the colossal eye of the Yellow Springs slowly turned toward them.
"Out with it," Feng Guanhai demanded. "What’s the plan now? This old bag of bones might still have a trick or two left."
Xu Junzhu fixed her gaze on the terrifying eye and spoke gravely. "It has no intelligence—only instinct. Right now, its primary drive is to reclaim the obsession sealed within Li Zhaoye’s body—the Divine Sovereign."
Feng Guanhai nodded. "Protect the boy. Understood."
"This is the world’s last chance," Xu Junzhu said, her frost-laden voice cutting through the air. "If it retrieves its annihilation obsession..."
The consequences would be unthinkable.
Both turned to Li Zhaoye.
He lifted his eyes lethargically, radiating displeasure—no, outright fury.
Muttering under his breath, he jabbed a finger toward the sky. "You think I’m scared of that thing? If I hadn’t wanted to show off my wife’s skills, I’d have torn it apart centuries ago!"
Xu Junzhu sighed. "...Yes, yes, of course."
Her gaze drifted back to Winter Lord Ridge. Luo Luo, the supposedly formidable wife, remained absent—her presence utterly erased.
The world was now drowned in the deathly hues of the Yellow Springs.
Here, spiritual energy stagnated. Every breath carried the chill of decay.
Life itself was rapidly draining away.
"It’s coming!"
Feng Guanhai’s eyes sharpened.
Before the words fully left his mouth, he had already swept his sleeves upward, unleashing a river of stars into the sky.
Above the Yellow Springs, the heavens blazed with constellations—a dazzling barrier isolating the monstrous eye from the world.
Far away, disciples of the Heavy Star Sect rallied, their cheers ringing out.
"Daoist Master! Daoist Master!"
"Ah..." Feng Baiyan trailed after Jiang Ling, his voice pitiful. "You should know—the old man’s already at his limit. He hasn’t dared to fight seriously for years. A move this grand? He’s done for. And now he’ll die without ever hearing you call him ‘Father.’"
Jiang Ling stared blankly at the undulating celestial river. "He’s sacrificing himself... for us?"
BOOM!
The colossal eye shifted, its gaze sweeping over the starry expanse.
In an instant, the luminous stars sickened under the Yellow Springs’ taint, dimming into oblivion.
"...Oh," Jiang Ling murmured. "Turns out his sacrifice won’t save us after all."
As the stars fell, Feng Guanhai’s face paled.
Facing this monstrosity head-on was like opposing the heavens themselves.
If the heavens were malevolent, then humanity truly was less than ants!
"No wonder Wu Xie lost her mind..." he muttered, two teeth slipping loose from his mouth. "She saw this thing. She knew humanity was doomed."
Xu Junzhu stepped forward. "Senior, let me take over!"
"Tch. Don’t underestimate this old man!"
Feng Guanhai grinned, sleeves billowing as spiritual energy surged around him. The scattered stars whirled back into formation before him, coalescing into a massive vortex of light.
"Seize the power of heaven—and wield it as my own! Shatter!"
A faint hum resonated as the vortex—now tainted by the Yellow Springs—vanished without a trace.
Xu Junzhu blinked.
Had he just... dispelled his own spell?
Then she realized—the absence wasn’t just the starlight. The Yellow Springs’ corruption had also disappeared, leaving behind a yawning abyss.
SCREEE—
The surrounding winds howled as they were sucked into the black void, the sound grating like nails on stone.
With a final sweep of his sleeves, Feng Guanhai hurled the trembling abyss toward the colossal eye.
The moment the attack left his hands, his body plummeted in the opposite direction.
"Senior Feng!"
His gray robes fluttered like the wings of a dying moth.
Li Zhaoye flicked a sealing thread to catch him, lowering the old man gently beneath a gnarled tree.
His hair had fallen out midair. His lips sagged, skin mottled with age spots.
"What’s borrowed from heaven... must be returned."
Feng Guanhai’s gaze drifted into the distance.
"Ah’E... I drove you away back then because I didn’t want you to see me like this—no longer the dashing youth you loved..."
The black void twisted light and warped space as it advanced.
Xu Junzhu pressed her lips into a thin line, frost gathering in her brows.
How long could Daoist Feng Guanhai’s final strike hold the creature at bay?
"What will it take... to make it see?"
Clearly, starlight hadn’t worked. The eye had brushed it aside like dust.
Just as the light-devouring abyss collided with the monstrosity, Xu Junzhu noticed Li Zhaoye’s distraction.
The crimson scars in his eyes had nearly ruptured. Dark, blood-like resentment swirled in his gaze, thick as tears.
The flesh sought its obsession—but the obsession yearned just as fiercely to return.
She couldn’t fathom the agony of that tearing, yet he still played the arrogant fool.
Hold on a little longer, Senior Brother.
But for how long? Xu Junzhu had no answer.
BOOOOM—
A shockwave of unfathomable force erupted between heaven and earth.
The creature’s voiceless shriek—a hollow, freezing wail—was the very sound of hell’s lament.
Daoist Feng Guanhai’s attack had wounded it!
Slowly, the colossal eye turned toward the void.
Xu Junzhu held her breath. "Is it finally... seeing?"
CRACK!
The abyss exploded—gone in an instant.
Its power was absolute. A single glance dictated existence or oblivion.
Feng Guanhai’s all-out strike had bought them mere moments.
Xu Junzhu exhaled, her aura settling into icy focus.
Spiritual energy churned around her, a blizzard gathering at her command.
"Senior Brother... I’m going in. Stay alive."
Frost spread across the sky. The wind crystallized into snow as Xu Junzhu stepped onto the storm—ascending toward the eye.
The frostlight briefly illuminated this deathly yellow-hued world.
Master Lingxue disliked flashy techniques, and Xu Junzhu, having inherited her teachings, wielded swordplay that appeared deceptively plain.
Ice condensed, a single sword strike unleashed.
The air was instantly torn apart as a sky-rending trail of frost, like the tail of a meteor, suddenly blazed across vision.
The gaze of the colossal Eye of the Yellow Springs upon Li Zhaoye was interrupted once more.
Li Zhaoye resonated fiercely with it.
From its perspective, the entire world was shrouded in chaotic miasma—where living beings gathered, the air thickened with greed, depravity, and malice.
Obsession screamed wildly within him.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
His blood boiled, his spirit wavered, his mind splintered as if shredded into a thousand fragments—the agony was no less than blades scraping bone.
"Clang!"
That brilliant streak of frost crossed the heavens and struck the Eye of the Yellow Springs.
It did no harm.
Xu Junzhu laughed bitterly.
She had given everything, yet this was all she could achieve.
Forcing herself to borrow the power of heaven and earth for the first time had drained her completely—even burning her soul was beyond her now.
As she fell, despair filled her gaze as the colossal eye fixed once more upon Li Zhaoye.
It was over.
Everything was ending.
It would reclaim its obsession and annihilate this world.
In the depths of despair, a flicker of wildfire caught the corner of her eye.
"Hm?"
A spark. A glimmer. Defiantly shining in this hellish realm.
Winter Monarch Ridge.
"Such a tiny flame… it’s too late… nothing in this world can stop it now…"
Then—a clear, resonant sword cry.
"Shiiiing—!"
The Qingnü Wushuang Sword, fallen beside her, erupted with a light that rivaled the heavens.
A figure of crystalline ice flashed past—gone in an instant.
As if alive, the sword surged forward, trailing wings of frost like a comet, and crashed into the Eye of the Yellow Springs.
Iceflames blazed along its edge, cutting through the wind, its tip sheathed in an ethereal frost barrier. The blade split the sky, singing a cold, clear note.
A sword spirit!
It had birthed a sword spirit!
"Sword spirit!" Tears welled in Xu Junzhu’s eyes. "Master… it must be Master!"
"Clang!"
The Qingnü Wushuang spun midair, its frostflame tail lengthening. In its wake, the air crystallized into jagged ice and snowflakes, reflecting a merciless gleam.
"BOOM!"
It struck with the force of ten thousand glaciers!
In an instant, frost encased the Eye of the Yellow Springs like a cataract.
The world held its breath.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Whose heartbeat echoed between heaven and earth?
Had they won? Were they saved?
"Crack."
The first shatter of ice.
Then—a cascade.
"Craaack—SHATTER!"
The frost layer collapsed like powdered snow.
Against the monstrosity of the Yellow Springs, the newborn sword spirit was still too small, too weak.
"MASTER!!!"
Amid the falling snow, the sword plummeted, its glow dim and feeble.
"Whoooosh—HUMMMM—"
The Eye of the Yellow Springs turned slowly.
Now, nothing stood between it and Li Zhaoye.
Li Zhaoye swayed on his feet, glaring skyward with a sneer.
"Come!"
Malice and bloodlust seeped from his eyes like tears, rising in tendrils toward the heavens.
At the moment their gazes locked—
A deafening explosion rocked the world!
The source—fire!
Blazing flames surged like a phoenix, a tidal wave of fury, scorching the sky, incinerating the firmament!
The inferno seared into Li Zhaoye’s vision.
A fire meant to end the world.
The miasma dripping from his eyes recoiled slightly under the heat. The howling in his mind stilled for a breath.
Between heaven and earth stood a mountain—engulfed in roaring flames.
After a long pause, Li Zhaoye’s lips twitched. "Setting an entire spirit mountain ablaze just like that… what waste!"
His tone was mocking, yet brimming with pride.
From the earth’s veins to the summit—
The mountains had become torches, lighting the hellish Yellow Springs.
Who said a firefly’s glow could never rival the sun?
Here and now, this wildfire was the brightest, most dazzling existence in all creation.
Breathtaking.
Even the vast, unfathomable Eye of the Yellow Springs could not ignore this conflagration tearing through the heavens.
It looked.
A crushing weight of death descended.
The burning mountain was Luo Luo herself.
Her body and soul had become the flames—scattered as embers, gathered as a blade of fire, pointed at the Yellow Springs.
"HUMMMM—BOOM!"
She grew vast. In her fiery vision, the world seemed small.
A beast of flame, facing the abomination across the void.
It saw her!
Its gaze scattered the firestorm, sending charred remnants raining down like dark petals.
Luo Luo laughed through the pain.
"BOOM!"
The flames roared higher, surging defiantly skyward.
The Eye of the Yellow Springs mirrored the inferno, warped and seething in its pupil.
Fire lashed out—a sudden, vicious strike into its gaze.
"BOOOM!"
Her assault could not truly harm it.
The flames were instantly crushed, reduced to falling cinders.
Yet she had its full attention.
The wildfire raged across the peaks, a declaration of war written in fire and steel.
"Come on!"
"See how strong I am!"
"BOOM!"
Again and again, she hurled herself at it, a blazing dance of defiance.
Flame and abyss clashed.
Shattered, then reborn. Shattered, reborn.
"Just warming up!"
"Again!"
The mountain of fire grew fiercer with every defeat—unyielding, inextinguishable.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
With each collision, three faint glows pulsed within the Eye of the Yellow Springs.
Luo Luo could no longer tell where the fire ended and she began. Her soul burned with exhilaration.
Never had she felt so boundless, so free.
From the depths to the sky—
She was infinite.
"Let me show you—this world has its own power!"
"This world has its guardians too!"
"Look closely—is this a sword before you, or mere maggots?!"
"BOOOOOOM—!!!"
For a fleeting moment, it seemed to hesitate, staring at her as if perplexed.
Like a sage contemplating a breeze, a cloud, a tree, a flower.
This flame had bared its fangs at it.
Instinctively, it could not comprehend—why defend this world festering with greed, corruption, and writhing vermin?
Its instinctive fury was terrifying.
Luo Luo shuddered under the intensified pressure.
Centuries of bloody sacrifices at the Divine Palace had fed it endless malice.
Even a wisp of its unconscious killing intent was lethal.
'No good… it’s too strong!'
In the blink of an eye, the aura of the Yellow Springs descended, and Luo Luo’s flames, as if meeting damp cotton, instantly receded from midair.
"Sizzle..."
The spiritual snow-capped peak, once ablaze like a golden crown, was now extinguished across a vast stretch.
Luo Luo’s fiery aura diminished layer by layer, and the world was once again on the verge of being shrouded in the shadow of death.
She was in pain and exhaustion, her body feeling as though it bore the weight of a mountain.
"Surrender...? Absolutely impossible!"
Back then, even when Li Zhaoye’s meridians were shattered and his soul torn apart, he still clawed his way back from hell.
She wouldn’t lose to him!
What he could do, she could do too!
Suppressing her trembling, Luo Luo struggled, inch by inch, to raise her fiery aura, standing firm against the deathly presence of the Yellow Springs.
If she had to die, she would die in the most defiant way possible.
"Boom... Boom... Boom..."
The flames of her incarnation burned fiercely upward, her frail body supporting the very heavens.
Her consciousness grew hazy, her mind slipping into delirium.
Between wakefulness and oblivion, she once again sensed the elusive, omnipresent fluctuations of the world.
Was this... the "momentum"?
In her daze, she seemed to perceive even more.
She heard the sound of a flower blooming, smelled the shape of the wind, felt the vigorous surge of a sprouting seed, and saw... saw countless people, trembling and gritting their teeth, yet still gripping their weapons tightly to protect those they cared for.
Countless cultivators threw themselves into the fray, fearless as moths to a flame, soaring into the sky.
She saw faint glimmers of light flickering across the land, now shrouded in the deathly hue of the Yellow Springs.
In that fleeting yet eternal moment, Luo Luo seemed to see her parents smiling and waving at her, saw the countless heroes who had fallen on the battlefield against demons since ancient times, saw the unyielding struggle of life after life—even if they were mere maggots or ants.
Those who wished to protect the world were never just one or two.
Starlit radiance converged toward Luo Luo from all directions, layers of collective will pouring into her like wind fueling a fire. In an instant, the flames blazed across the sky!
With a deafening roar, the inferno ignited the air, the rivers, even space and time itself.
To act in accordance with the momentum—this was the way of heaven!
Through the fiery vision, Luo Luo fixed her gaze upon the all-encompassing deathly hue of the Yellow Springs.
"O Sage, it’s time for dusk."
After a moment of absolute silence, the heavens and earth suddenly erupted in a blaze of twilight.
The autumn waters merged with the endless sky.
One sword.
Countless strands of blazing flame coalesced into a single sword.
This sword was the finest of the finest—so magnificent that words could not do it justice.
It had cleaved through Nascent Souls, through Unity cultivators.
Now, the fiery light flashed past, vanishing into the depths of the colossal Yellow Springs eye.
"——BOOM!!!"
Three ancient breaths, the faint soul-force and collective will of the Sage, along with this sword and the wishes of all living beings, surged into the Yellow Springs monstrosity.
The flames illuminated heaven and earth, like lightning, like thunder.
No one, above or below, could bear to look directly at the brilliance of this sword.
"BOOM—"
The entire world trembled under its might.
In the aftermath, Luo Luo, her spiritual power utterly spent, materialized midair and collapsed into Li Zhaoye’s arms.
Struggling to open her eyes, she saw her own pale reflection in his blood-streaked dark gaze.
"Did I succeed?"
Her voice was hoarse.
Li Zhaoye gave a quiet hum, landing on the ground. He pulled out a wicker chair, settled her into it, and draped a blanket over her.
Nearby, Xu Junzhu and Feng Guanhai, barely clinging to life: "..."
Just look at this blatant favoritism.
Once the blanket was secured, he looked up at the sky.
The deathly aura of the Yellow Springs had been forcibly torn open by Luo Luo, and the light of the setting sun spilled through the gap—slanting down like a streak of blood.
The collective will to protect all living things had been deeply embedded into its very bones.
At last, it saw—saw this world, saw its people, saw their resolve and their guardianship.
Li Zhaoye reached out and ruffled Luo Luo’s hair. "It no longer harbors the obsession to destroy the world."
The two scars in his eyes had faded almost to nothing.
Luo Luo’s eyes gleamed faintly.
She gazed upward, watching as the Yellow Springs monstrosity trembled violently, shaking the very earth.
At its edges, flashes of metallic light flickered intermittently before vanishing.
Its tremors grew increasingly intense.
Luo Luo observed carefully. "Is it... trying to revert to the Sealed Divine Palace?"
Li Zhaoye nodded. "Yes. But it’s no longer possible. It’s about to collapse."
After enduring the erosion of sinister energies for countless years, it had long been on the brink of destruction.
"What?!" Feng Guanhai, half-dead just moments ago, sprang up in alarm. "Forget the Yellow Springs death-aura that kills on contact—just its sheer size alone means its fall would be like a meteor striking the earth! If this thing explodes, how is that any different from the world’s destruction?!"
Li Zhaoye answered plainly, "It isn’t."
Feng Guanhai: "..."
Luo Luo froze. "Then what do we do?"
Li Zhaoye pressed a hand to her head and leaned down. "I’ll seize control of it and detonate it within the passageway. That will end the threat for good."
Luo Luo stared at him blankly, her mind buzzing.
Her lips moved soundlessly, once, twice, unable to form words.
What did he just say? Her thoughts were sluggish, struggling to process it.
"Only I can do this." Li Zhaoye ruffled her hair roughly. "Luo the Slowpoke, while I’m gone, work hard to become the strongest in the world. Otherwise, you won’t stand a chance when I return."
"Li Zhaoye..."
"Time to go!"
He turned and strode away, leaving her with an utterly arrogant, utterly heartless back.
A flicker—and he was gone.
When he reappeared, his tall figure was already stepping into the abyssal maw.
"You still owe me one thing..."
Luo Luo watched his retreating figure, and after a long pause, mouthed three silent words: "Come back alive."
"BOOM!"
The first shockwave descended from the sky, shearing the mountaintops flat.
From the void came muffled roars and screams, vanishing as quickly as they arose.
Xu Junzhu, leaning heavily on his sword, staggered to his feet and gripped the armrest of Luo Luo’s chair.
"Senior Brother... He used the power of the Malevolent Heavenly Dao to destroy the Netherworld, along with those demons."
Luo Luo pressed her lips together and nodded. "Sounds like something Li Zhaoye would do."
"That’s not the point!" Feng Guanhai nearly jumped out of his skin. "Who cares about the demons? If he doesn’t haul that thing away fast, the entire world is doomed!"
Luo Luo said earnestly, "Trust him to handle it."
Li Zhaoye had never let anyone down before.
She wasn’t worried at all.
"He’ll take it away, into the passageway, and use the collapse of the Sage’s physical form to destroy the passage itself. After this, the two worlds will never influence each other again, and demons will vanish forever." She smiled as she spoke. "The beautiful world people have dreamed of for millennia—it’s finally coming!"
Seeing her like this, Xu Junzhu’s heart ached unbearably.
Above, the Yellow Springs monstrosity gradually contracted. The aura of death, terror, and annihilation was forcibly drawn away by Li Zhaoye, funneled back into the passageway connecting the two worlds.
From beginning to end, that enormous eye remained listlessly lowered, never once glancing at the ground.
Then, in an instant, the sky erupted with stars as the colossal entity of the underworld completely vanished from this world.
A long, long silence followed.
"Boom!"
Months later, at the Tai Xuan Sect.
The disciples finally seized the chance to corner Xu Junzhu, bombarding him with questions.
"So, the Sage was actually from another world? He came here intending to destroy us, but our little junior sister's sword subdued him, making him realize this was a place he couldn't afford to provoke—so the crisis was averted?"
"Senior Brother destroyed the passage—but how is he supposed to come back himself?"
"Sect Leader, Sect Leader, don’t walk away! We haven’t seen our little junior sister in ages—she’s been in seclusion and won’t come out. Has her injury healed or not?"
Xu Junzhu sighed. "Bring a few chickens tonight, and we’ll go see her."
"Alright!"
At last, they saw Luo Luo again.
She was still the same, smiling and good-natured as ever.
While the others slaughtered and roasted the chickens, she sat to the side, hugging her sword, blinking now and then.
Stealing glances at her expression, they found no trace of sorrow.
As dusk deepened, the aroma of roasting chicken filled the air.
They cracked open the clay, peeled back the lotus leaves, and steaming fragrance burst forth.
Luo Luo reached out to grab a piece.
"Hey—" Zhao Yu started, "Little Junior Sister, don’t be too—"
Luo Luo lifted her eyes. "I’m not too sad, really. I haven’t been thinking much about Li Zhaoye. I’ve been busy training—I’m going to be the best in the world."
Zhao Yu: "..."
He pressed his thick lips together.
He had only meant to warn her not to grab too eagerly—the chicken was scalding hot.
"Then you’d better train hard, Little Junior Sister! Train like mad!" Senior Brother Buyang chimed in. "Otherwise, when Senior Brother returns, you might still not be the best—how embarrassing would that be?"
Luo Luo nodded seriously. "Exactly."
She really hadn’t been thinking much about Li Zhaoye.
She’d even put away the corpse puppet—proof enough that she wasn’t missing him.
Truthfully, his absence wasn’t a big deal. After embodying an entire volcano, she was on the verge of enlightenment, nearing the threshold of the Unity Realm.
She had things to do. She wasn’t thinking about him.
By the time Luo Luo finished eating, hugging her sword and a blanket as she ambled back to her pavilion, Zhao Yu couldn’t help but yank Xu Junlan aside. "Hey, do you think Senior Brother might never come back?"
Xu Junlan smacked him across the forehead with a greasy hand. "Shut up!"
After a few steps, she turned back with a warning. "If Luo Luo hears even a whisper of this, I’ll slap you dead!"
Zhao Yu pouted. "Fine..."
As the roasted chicken feast ended and they stepped out of the courtyard, a great shower of meteors streaked across the sky.
At its center, one blazed like fire, illuminating half the heavens.
"Wow... what a beautiful meteor shower!"
Xu Junlan turned around, cupping her hands to shout toward the pavilion: "Hey, stupid Luo Luo—come—look—at—the—meteors!"
Luo Luo: "..."
She muttered a curse under her breath ("Spider Orchid") before slowly crawling out of bed and pulling open the window.
A meteor flashed past the window frame, its tail blazing like a giant broom.
"Ah, Li Zhaoye never got to see such a..."
She caught herself, pressing her lips together.
After a moment’s thought, she quietly retrieved the corpse puppet from her qiankun bag and placed it beside her.
Side by side, girl and puppet sat on the windowsill, watching the meteors in perfect harmony.
That night, she dreamed nothing.
Since Li Zhaoye left, Luo Luo hadn’t dreamed of him once. Her cultivation was too advanced now, and she’d mastered dream arts—dreams could no longer deceive her.
By the time she woke, it was already noon. She hadn’t lost sleep; she’d slept soundly.
Her gaze drifted to the windowsill... Huh?
Where was the corpse puppet?
Luo Luo got up and stepped down from the bed.
Still half-asleep, she descended the stairs, scanning the area—no one was around.
A pure white pear petal drifted past her.
Spring had arrived.
She lifted her eyes. The sunlight was warm.
There, on a pear blossom branch, lay a familiar figure.
"Who put the corpse puppet in the tree? And hugging Changtian, no less."
She tilted her head up, her gaze settling on his profile—and froze.
The way Li Zhaoye basked in the sun always made her want to look at him a little longer, just a little more.
Lost in thought, she suddenly saw his lashes flicker.
Luo Luo: "?!"
His eyes snapped open—he turned his head, locking eyes with her, catching her red-handed.
Luo Luo’s pupils shrank, her entire body stiffening.
Then—
The young sword prodigy leaped down from the pear tree, clutching his sword, his expression cocky as he grinned at her. "Hey hey hey, it’s been so long—you missed me to death, didn’t you?"
Luo Luo, caught staring, was utterly dumbstruck.
Before she could recover, he laughed loudly. "What a coincidence—I missed you to death too!"
That guy was always so full of vigor. When he laughed like this, even the sunlight seemed brighter.
Her eyes and heart felt pierced.
Pear blossoms fluttered around them.
An old dream had come true.
[End of Main Story]
