Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 677 - 608: Restart

Thunder rumbled across the sky, clouds heavily pregnant with rain, as if the entire ocean were being emptied upside down.

"Dear guests, please head back, our inn has no vacancies left!"

"I am a steward from the Yu Long Trading Company. Please, could you accommodate us?"

"Perhaps the innkeeper has heard of the Dingshan Hermit? My master, along with his family, is returning home in glory, and we would appreciate it if you could spare three upper rooms."

"I am from the Flying Company..."

"I belong to the Zhang Family of Runzhou..."

The cacophony of voices reached Li Ang’s ears as he blinked and looked around.

「Luzhou, Yuelai Inn.」

Memories surged like a tide—two Illusion Realms, photographs, the wedding, the farewell...

"Risheng?"

Beside him, Song Shaoyuan patted his shoulder and said, "If there’s no room, let’s stay at the Luzhou Hospital for the night. Any place to rest will do."

"Brother Song, could you wait for me a bit? I need to step out for a moment."

Li Ang offered an apologetic smile, turned, and walked out of the inn’s lobby into the courtyard.

The air was moist and cold. He moved along the path beneath the eaves, still dry from the rain, with the steady drizzle drumming against the roof tiles beside him. He had arrived.

Li Ang stopped, released his Telekinesis, floated up, opened the room’s window, and entered.

This was the room reserved by Jin Wusuan. At this very moment, the once top merchant of Yu Country lay on the bed, breathless.

The disease known as cancer had permanently seized his life. His body was emaciated and his face gaunt, his eyes hollow and lost, yet a genuine smile graced his face.

It was as if he had returned to the childhood memories of the village on the outskirts of Lingnan, back to those faces now blurred in his memory.

The stern yet taciturn father, the gentle mother, the heavily accented teacher from the Northern Land, and the playmates with whom he used to herd cattle, fish, steal melons, and skip classes...

He had died, passed away in a beautiful dream.

In a corner of the room, on a cabinet, sat the bronze box in its primal state.

Li Ang slowed his steps as he passed by Jin Wusuan’s bed, walked to the cabinet, and picked up the bronze box.

It felt solid and cold to the touch. As he lifted it, it seemed as if he could see the tawny beast’s eyes within, right through the bronze walls.

"Eldest Son, Eldest Son? It’s time for your medicine."

Outside in the corridor came the voice of Manager Jin, along with the tapping of footsteps.

Li Ang lifted the bronze box, floated out of the room, and landed in a man-high bush in the courtyard.

The task was not yet complete. Just one final step remained.

He placed the box on the ground, knelt on one knee, and opened its lid.

Inside the box was nothing but a primordial black void and a pair of dim, beastly eyes.

...

After a moment of thought, Li Ang reached out his hand, and Mo Si surged from his palm.

Sensing the change in the environment, the beast’s eyes suddenly opened wide, staring intently at Li Ang and the Mo Si in his hand.

After a long silence, SWISH— Like a cotton candy machine spinning sugar, with Li Ang having released the constraints, the tawny beast’s eyes rapidly drew in the Mo Si.

It gradually disengaged from the bronze box and slowly ascended, surrounded by a circle of all-consuming darkness and Mo Si threads.

These two elements twisted together and spun rapidly, transforming chaos into order.

Centering around the beastly eyes, a new body was constructed.

Long hair, facial features, torso, limbs...

The new body quickly took shape, its skin and hair gradually changing color.

The cold, indifferent brownish-yellow light in her eyes, a light that seemed to overlook all beings, also dimmed over time, eventually returning to a normal eye color.

A soft thud.

A young girl named Chai Cuiqiao, dressed in a long dress, landed on the ground. She looked around and asked Li Ang in confusion, "Young Master, what are we doing here?"

...

Li Ang did not answer. He remained kneeling on one knee, just staring blankly at the girl in the rain.

The heavy rain poured down, the scene seemingly frozen in time.

"Young Master?"

Chai Chai tilted her head in confusion, her rain-soaked bangs clinging to her fair forehead. "It’s raining here. Shall we go find Brother Song and the others?"

"...Who... are you really?"

After a long silence, Li Ang slowly stood up, his voice as hoarse as a broken gong. "Are you the Dream Eater, or Chai Cuiqiao?"

"Huh? Dream Eater?"

Chai Chai grew even more puzzled. She gently placed her hand on Li Ang’s forehead to check his temperature. "Young Master, what are you talking about? I don’t understand. What Dream Eater? Don’t tell me you have a fever?"

SNAP.

Li Ang grasped Chai Chai’s wrist. Mo Si extended from his palm, gently piercing her skin and burrowing into her bloodstream, checking everything.

Blood vessels, muscles, bones, nerves.

He could not detect even a trace of Mo Si; even more detailed observation revealed each living, moving cell.

Even an Ink Silk Clone could only mimic human appearance, not the entirety of their inner workings.

Undoubtedly, the person standing before him was alive.

The rain intensified. From upstairs came the heart-wrenching cries of Manager Jin—clearly, he had discovered Jin Wusuan’s body.

"What’s happening upstairs?"

Chai Chai, completely unaware of what had transpired, scratched her head with her left hand and let out a sharp hiss of pain.

The pain came from Li Ang retracting the Mo Si.

No methods could detect any abnormalities. Not even those tawny eyes, characteristic of the Dream Eater, had left any trace.

"Young Master?"

Chai Chai looked anxious but didn’t pull away from Li Ang’s grip. She timidly asked, "Did something happen? Why does everything feel... strange?"

"Nothing."

Li Ang finally released her hand and stepped forward to embrace his little maid, his voice laden with exhaustion. "I’ve returned."

A baffled Chai Chai raised her hands, then hesitantly patted Li Ang’s back. "Ah? W-welcome back."

The two embraced in the pouring rain. Chai Chai, after a moment’s hesitation, activated her Qi Sea, releasing Telekinesis to form an umbrella-shaped barrier above their heads, shielding them from the rain.

She didn’t know what Li Ang had experienced or why he had seemed so fierce just moments ago, but she could feel that this person—caught between boyhood and manhood, the one closest to her in this life—needed her comfort now.

"It’s okay now; everything’s okay."

Chai Chai held Li Ang’s head, gently patting his back. She spoke in the softest voice, just as she had back then after the funeral, inside the Yizhou Security Hall, "It’s all over now."