Chapter 26: Forgot

That evening, Lin An found Hua Guanshi.

“Stroke?” Hua Guanshi looked at him, his expression subtle.

“Yes, stroke.”

Lin An’s face was serious.

The index and middle fingers of his right hand twitched slightly, as if mimicking some involuntary tremor.

“Maybe I caught a draft by the sea today, got chilled. It suddenly happened just now. You know, Manager Hua, my cultivation is low—I can’t withstand this sea breeze.”

Hua Guanshi stared at his twitching fingers for a few seconds, then looked at his dead-serious face.

“How long do you need to rest?”

“Five days. Five days should be enough.”

Lin An said it with certainty.

“This has been happening since I was a kid. Every time I have a stroke, it takes five days to recover—not a day more, not a day less.”

Hua Guanshi was silent for a moment.

In the past, he wouldn’t have believed such a flimsy excuse.

But things were different now.

For one, Lin An had saved him.

For another, this “Servant Disciple” had quite a few secrets, and he didn’t really want to dig into them.

“Fine, go back and rest. Get better first.”

“Thank you, Manager Hua.”

Lin An clasped his hands and turned to leave.

Hua Guanshi watched his retreating back and shook his head.

Stroke?

Who did he think he was fooling?

But whatever.

The kid had backing, so why should he meddle?

For five whole days, Lin An didn’t step outside even once.

He stayed in his little cubicle, meditating during the day, sleeping at night, and when he got hungry, he ate the pills Gu Yingge had stuffed into his hands.

He lived like an ascetic monk.

Speaking of meditating, there wasn’t much progress anyway.

After he used up the wisp of Primordial Hunyuan Qi that Lu Mingyue had transferred to him, his cultivation stalled again, like a stagnant pool of water, completely motionless.

But he still insisted on meditating every day.

Not to cultivate—just to build the habit.

What if he suddenly had a breakthrough one day?

In the meantime, he contacted Mu Qinghan a few times through an artifact.

Of course, he still called her Senior Sister Qu.

He figured Mu Qinghan wouldn’t bother to verify it with Qu Hongling.

Qu Hongling hadn’t come looking for him either, which surprised Lin An a little.

With that woman’s personality, shouldn’t she be showing up every day to remind him she existed?

As for Shen Qishuang, there was no way she’d come looking for him.

That girl had a three-minute attention span for everything.

He remembered when they were kids.

Shen Qishuang had suddenly gotten into growing flowers.

She moved several expensive pots from her father’s garden to Lin An’s doorstep, saying she wanted to add some color to his embroidery workshop.

Lin An asked her, “Do you know how to take care of them?”

Shen Qishuang patted her chest and said, “Of course I do!”

Three days later, all the flowers were dead.

Shen Qishuang stood in front of that row of withered pots, silent for a long time, then said something Lin An would never forget.

“These flowers are too delicate. They’re not for me.”

Yeah, it wasn’t her problem—it was the flowers’ problem.

That was Shen Qishuang since childhood.

She’d get an idea out of nowhere, do it for a little while, get bored, and then find a perfectly reasonable excuse to give up.

So the fact that she’d managed to stick with cultivation for so many years actually surprised Lin An a bit.

Maybe she really liked cultivation.

Or maybe she just didn’t want to lose to anyone else.

Late on the fifth night.

Lin An sat on his bed, leaning against the wall, listening to the sound of waves outside the window.

Even though he hadn’t gone out for five days, his mental state had improved considerably.

Mainly because he’d had some real peace and quiet.

He lay down, staring at the ceiling, spacing out.

Tomorrow they’d reach Grey Wastes City.

The Demon Extermination Assembly.

Lu Mingyue said she’d take him to see Ling Cang, the Sect Master of Yuming Sect, to have his body examined.

Qu Hongling probably wouldn’t let him off easy, and Mu Qinghan was bound to pull some stunt.

And then there was Shen Qishuang…

Forget it.

I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

And if it doesn’t cross, I’ll just knock it down.

Lin An rolled over, thinking with a devil-may-care attitude.

The flying ship sailed smoothly through the night.

Tomorrow would be a new day.

…

…

The next morning.

The ship broke through the last patch of morning mist, and Grey Wastes City came into view.

The city was built against the mountain, its city walls made of blue-gray boulders piled high.

Inside, streets crisscrossed in all directions, houses layered one upon another, stretching from the city walls all the way to the foot of the distant mountain.

The most eye-catching sight was the white tower in the center of the city.

Its peak vanished into the clouds, making it impossible to see what was at the top.

The flying ship landed steadily on the platform outside the city.

The hull shuddered once, then fell completely silent.

Lin An pressed his face against the window to look outside.

The landing platform was huge, capable of docking over a dozen ships at once.

Several ships were already parked there, each flying different-colored banners.

A group of people stood at the edge of the platform, wearing various styles of clothing—clearly here to receive them.

The ones at the front wore silk brocade robes.

Judging by their attire, they were probably officials from Grey Wastes City.

Behind them, attendants held pennants with the words “Welcome Heaven Origin Sect.”

“The reputation of the number one Righteous Path sect sure is useful,” Lin An muttered under his breath.

The ship’s gangplank was lowered.

Footsteps echoed from the corridor—messy, chaotic, mixed with the chatter and laughter of disciples.

The noise went from bustling to sparse, and finally to silence.

Almost everyone had left.

Lin An sat on his bed, caught in a dilemma.

Should he get off or not?

Had Shen Qishuang left yet?

If she hadn’t, what would he do if he ran into her the moment he stepped off?

The worst part was that he had no way to contact anyone outside.

Ask Mu Qinghan?

Just imagining that scene made him feel incredibly awkward.

Leaning against the wall, he let out a long sigh.

This was the downside of staying inside for so long: he had absolutely no way to reach the outside world, and no idea where to go.

At that moment, he suddenly missed Qu Hongling a little.

Sure, that woman wasn’t a good person, but at least for now, she was the only one he could barely trust.

At the very least, she didn’t want to kill him.

Probably.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor again—the last batch of disciples leaving.

If he stayed here any longer, and they started counting heads downstairs and found him missing, it would draw even more attention.

Lin An gritted his teeth and stood up.

He dug a piece of gray cloth out from under his mattress.

He couldn’t afford to worry about appearances now.

He folded it in half, wrapped it around his face, and tied it at the back of his head.

Only his eyes were left exposed.

It was ugly, but at least it was better than being recognized.

He walked to the door and pulled it open.

To his surprise, someone was standing right outside.

A long red dress, hair flowing over her shoulders, a veil covering her face, revealing only a pair of smiling eyes.

Lin An jumped back in fright, almost yelping.

“Shh…”

Qu Hongling raised a finger to her lips, looking at him with a grin.

Lin An pressed a hand to his pounding heart and lowered his voice: “How long have you been standing here?”

“A while,” Qu Hongling said airily.

“Aren’t you afraid someone might see you?”

“So what if they do? What’s the problem?”

Lin An opened his mouth and realized he had no comeback.

Qu Hongling looked him up and down, her gaze landing on the gray cloth over his face. The corners of her eyes crinkled.

“My lord, what kind of outfit is that?”

“A face cover.”

“You’re covering your face with a rag?”

“It’s not a rag. It’s a cloth.”

“Oh, a cloth.”

Qu Hongling nodded, her tone so earnest it sounded fake.

“Well, it’s quite… distinctive. And it has some dust on it.”

Lin An didn’t want to argue with her.

“Did Shen Qishuang leave?”

Qu Hongling blinked.

“Yeah, she left as soon as she got off the ship. There’s a Canglong Academy reception point in the city. She was in a hurry to report, so she rushed off.”

Lin An felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders.

“Then why didn’t you leave?”

“Me?”

Qu Hongling pointed at herself.

“I was waiting for you, of course. You’re new here and don’t know your way around. What if you got lost?”

“I’m a grown adult. How could I get lost?”

“You never know.”

Qu Hongling tilted her head, grinning wider.

“Some people look all grown up but have guts smaller than a child’s. Too scared to leave their room for five days, and when they finally get off the ship, they have to cover their face. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

Lin An stared at her expressionlessly, feeling like something was off, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No, no, I swear I’m not.”

Qu Hongling raised her right hand, three fingers pointing to the sky.

“I just think our Holy Son is being… cautious, yes, cautious. That’s a compliment.”

Lin An stared at her for a moment, then pulled the gray cloth off his face and stuffed it into his sleeve.

“Let’s go.”

“Not wearing it anymore?”

“No point. She’s gone anyway.”

“What if you run into someone else? Like my Senior Sister?”

Lin An stopped mid-step and turned to look back at her.

Qu Hongling blinked with an innocent expression.

“If I run into her, even less to worry about. With so many people around, what can she do?”

“Mm, true.”

Lin An walked ahead, Qu Hongling half a step behind, staying close beside him.

Neither of them realized it, but the way they interacted didn’t feel like a superior and a subordinate at all—it was more like friends.

And that was exactly what Lin An found so strange.

For a moment, he forgot.

And for a moment, so did she.