By the time the group returned to the Academy, it was almost curfew.
After parting at the dormitory building, Xuanxi and Xige went straight upstairs, pushed open the door of Room 404, and placed the two jade pendants side by side on the desk.
One was carved with a yang pattern, the other with a yin pattern. Put together, they formed a perfect Azure Dragon totem. She reached out, her fingertips lightly touching the gap between the two pieces of jade.
She aligned the two pieces of jade and pressed down gently.
With a click, there was no sound, no light, nothing happened. Xuanxi was stunned. She pressed again in disbelief, but still nothing happened. She picked up the two jade pendants and examined them closely.
The edges were perfectly aligned, the patterns continuous—they had clearly merged into one. So why did it feel like something was missing?
“It must be missing a third piece.”
Hildegrifa’s voice came from beside her. She had somehow moved around the screen and was now standing behind Xuanxi, her silver-white hair falling over her shoulders.
She wore a light-colored nightgown, and a faint fragrance emanated from her.
“There’s a piece between the yin and yang sides that locks them together.”
“Third piece?”
Hildegrifa reached out, her fingertip pointing at the joint between the two jade pendants. Xuanxi followed her finger and saw an extremely thin gap there, thinner than a hair, invisible without close inspection.
On either side of the gap, there was a small indentation on each piece of jade, as if something had once been embedded there.
Xige lowered her head and leaned in closer to the jade to take a better look. Her silver-white hair slipped from her shoulders and fell beside Xuanxi’s face. Several strands lightly brushed against Xuanxi’s ear before landing on her shoulder.
The strands carried Xige’s unique cool fragrance, wafting into Xuanxi’s nostrils one by one. Her hair was still slightly damp from her bath, feeling a little cool and a little ticklish against the skin.
The ticklishness made Xuanxi unconsciously shrink her neck, and her heartbeat quickened by half a beat.
Xuanxi’s face began to heat up, starting from the base of her neck, rising all the way to her earlobes, and spreading to her cheeks.
She could feel her ears burning hot enough to fry an egg, but Hildegrifa was still looking down, focused on the two jade pendants, completely unaware of her reaction.
“There’s an indentation here.” Xige’s fingertip lightly tapped the edge of that indentation. “It means something was once embedded here, locking the two pieces of jade together.”
Xuanxi didn’t take in any of that. Her entire attention was captured by the strand of silver-white hair hanging before her.
She saw the ends of Xige’s hair curl slightly, glittering like individual silver threads under the desk lamp. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but felt the urge was absurd.
“Three pieces together: yin, yang, and this lock in the middle.” Hildegrifa continued her analysis. She straightened up, turned her head to look at Xuanxi, about to ask if she understood, then paused in her movement.
Amethyst eyes met a face as red as a boiled shrimp. Amber-gold eyes darted away: one glance at the jade pendant, one at the tabletop, one at the ceiling—anywhere but at her.
Hildegrifa was silent for a moment, her amethyst eyes blinking. Then she raised her right hand, fingers together, and brought a precise chop down on the top of Xuanxi’s head. The force was light, but carried an educational intent.
Smack
“Ugh, that hurts!” Xuanxi covered the top of her head, her voice muffled.
“What are you thinking about?” Hildegrifa’s tone was as calm as usual.
“It’s nothing, nothing—”
“Then why is your face so red?” Xige’s tone betrayed no emotion, but her eyes gave her away. The amethyst pupils trembled slightly, as if she was struggling to hold back laughter.
“It’s, it’s the desk lamp! The desk lamp is warm yellow!” Xuanxi’s voice cracked.
Hildegrifa looked at her, at that clearly lying face. This time she didn’t speak. She just reached out and pried open Xuanxi’s fingers, one by one, from where they were gripping her hair.
“Listen carefully.” Her voice softened a little. “The third piece is very important. Without it, yin and yang are just two fragments pieced together, not complete.”
Xuanxi bit her lip and nodded, forcing her attention back to the jade pendant. “Then where is it?” Her voice hadn’t fully returned to normal.
Hildegrifa looked at her profile. Though she was still red all over, her eyes had cleared. “I don’t know. It might be in Echo Valley, among the belongings your mother left behind, or it might have been lost with time.”
Xuanxi took a deep breath, suppressing her embarrassment. “Okay, I’ll remember.”
Hildegrifa looked at her, the desk lamp’s light reflecting in her amethyst eyes. She reached out and straightened the crooked jade pendant on Xuanxi’s collar. Her fingertips brushed past Xuanxi’s collarbone, cool.
“Go to sleep.” Xige turned and walked back to her own bed, stepping around the screen. She lay down on the other side.
Xuanxi stood at the desk, touching her neck. The skin there still retained the temperature of Xige’s fingertips.
She curled the corners of her mouth, pulled the two jade pendants out from her collar, glanced at them under the light, then turned off the desk lamp and lay down on the bed.
It was late at night.
Xuanxi was lying in bed, but she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. So she pulled the two jade pendants out from her collar and held them up in the moonlight to examine.
She felt the temperature of the jade pendants begin to rise, growing warm. The warmth seeped out from the jade surfaces, through her fingertips, spreading up her arms.
Xuanxi was startled and wanted to let go, but her fingers seemed glued to the jade and wouldn’t release. The Azure Dragon totem on the jade surfaces began to glow. Golden light rose from the jade, tracing arcs through the darkness.
Then the light surged into her body.
A warm and heavy force surged into her chest, spreading through her blood vessels to every limb and joint. Xuanxi was forced to lie still, unable to move.
Her body was being cleansed by this force. She could feel the power flowing inside her, passing through every meridian, every joint, every inch of skin.
She closed her eyes, and images appeared in her mind: a palace built entirely of jade, constructed along the mountain, layer upon layer, stretching from the foot to the peak.
Four dragon pillars stood before the hall, engraved with coiled dragons. Inside the hall stood a woman, with the same ink-green hair and amber-gold eyes, with multiple heavenly fate marks below her right eye. It was her own mother!
“Ying’er.” She looked at Xuanxi and reached out a hand. “Time to come home.”
Xuanxi tried to grab that hand, but her fingers only passed through her mother’s palm, catching nothing. The image then dissipated, replaced by darkness. In the darkness, there was a voice, not coming from outside, but from inside her body.
“An Azure Dragon direct lineage is born with heavenly fate marks. The marks are proof of bloodline and a protective lock. Now that four marks have opened, the bloodline has awakened.”
“From now on, each time a mark opens, the bloodline will advance one stage. On the day when all nine marks are fully open, the Dragon Emperor will return to his throne.”
Xuanxi’s eyes snapped open.
She looked down at her hands—now she could move her fingers without any issue. She touched the jade pendant beneath her collar; it was still there, warm with her own body heat.
She sat up, found a mirror, and saw her fourth heavenly fate mark. The mark was thinner and paler than the first three, a dark gold color, coiled below the corner of her eye like a newly awakened baby dragon.
“What happened to you?”
“How do you know?”
“Your aura changed. I could feel it even through the screen.”
“The power of the jade entered my body, and the fourth mark appeared.”
After a long pause, “Then… is there anything abnormal?”
“Nothing abnormal.”
“Mm, that’s good.”
“Xige.”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.”
“Go to sleep. We have to get up early tomorrow.”
Xuanxi curled the corners of her mouth, put the mirror beside her pillow, turned over, and faced the screen.
Under the moonlight, there was a blurry shadow on the screen—the other person lying on her side, facing her direction. In the same posture as her.
The next morning, when Xuanxi woke up, she found the two jade pendants hanging quietly around her neck, no longer glowing or hot, as if nothing had happened.
But she knew what had occurred. She could feel an additional power inside her—not elemental force, not qi, but something more like the bloodline power that Xige’s father had demonstrated.
She walked to the mirror, turned her face sideways, and looked at the area below her right eye. Four heavenly fate marks glowed faintly in the morning light. The fourth was paler than the first three, but it was there.
Morning, Library.
Valeris arrived earlier than the agreed time. She sat at a long table in the corner, with that thick notebook spread open in front of her. She held a pen in her hand and was drawing something on the paper.
Xuanxi and the others walked over and sat down across from her. “You’re really early.”
“You’re the one who’s late.” Valeris looked up, her ice-blue eyes glancing at her. “And it’s not the first time.”
Xuanxi opened her mouth, glanced at the clock on the wall. 10:01. “…Mm, I had something come up, so I’m late. Sorry.”
Valeris didn’t say anything else. She just pushed the notebook over to her and flipped to a certain page.
It had a topographic map of Echo Valley, three layers: entrance, passage, valley floor. Each node was marked.
“Echo Valley’s terrain is divided into three layers.” Valeris’s finger moved across the map.
“The outer layer is forest, the middle is the valley, the inner is a cave. Seven nodes are distributed across these three areas. The Academy hasn’t released the exact locations, but according to senior records, the nodes are arranged along a depth line.”
“What’s a depth line?” Elsa’s voice came from behind. She was carrying a tray with five cups of tea. Reginald followed behind her, holding a stack of maps.
“It’s pushing from the outside in.” Reginald answered for Valeris. “One node at the entrance, three along the passage, two in the depths, one at the valley floor.”
Elsa distributed the tea to everyone, then sat down beside Xuanxi. “So we have to clear all of them?”
“No need to clear them. Just go to the deepest point.” Valeris closed the notebook. “The Academy only requires us to reach each anomaly zone and collect samples.”
“What about encountering monsters?”
“Then we’ll have to fight.” Hildegrifa sat at the other end of the long table, her silver-white hair shimmering coldly in the morning light, fiddling with a pen in her hand.
Valeris nodded, then unfolded a large map and pinned down the four corners with thumbtacks. The map had the seven nodes marked in different colors, along with terrain features and known danger zones.
“First node, energy disorder zone.” Valeris pointed at the outermost red dot on the map. “The Academy requires us to collect samples from the anomaly zone.”
“The sample for this node is fragments of the energy disorder core. In there, our elemental output will go out of control, and qi perception may also be disrupted. Xuanxi, how will your water attribute be affected there?”
Xuanxi thought for a moment. “My power system is based on qi, not elements. The energy disorder should have less of an effect on me than on you.”
“Then you’ll be responsible for collecting samples.” Valeris made a note in her notebook, then moved her finger to the second red dot.
“Second node, the habitat of the lake swamp dragon python. Although the Academy says the monsters here have been cleared, as far as I know, their intel is outdated.”
“That’s enough time for a high-level monster to reclaim the territory. Therefore, this is the best place for us to hunt. A high-level monster fits the assessment requirements.”
“So we’re hunting here?” Elsa asked.
“Mm.” Valeris nodded. “When we get there, you walk at the back. Your fire will be suppressed by the lakeside; don’t stand on the front line.”
Elsa nodded.
“Third node, Stone Forest.” Valeris moved her finger to the third red dot.
“The Academy didn’t give details, only said ‘abnormal energy fluctuations exist.’ But my mother’s notes mentioned that there is a stone forest in Echo Valley, and the stone pillars may be engraved with Eastern Dragon Clan runes. Xuanxi, if we encounter runes there, you’ll be responsible for recording them.”
Xuanxi nodded.
“Fourth node, Echo Illusion.” Valeris moved her finger to the fourth red dot.
“It’s said that the energy field here records sound and replays it under certain conditions. The incident where senior students went missing in Echo Valley was related to the Echo Illusion—they heard sounds they shouldn’t have and saw sights they shouldn’t have.” She paused.
“So we’ll just complete the task here and not go deep.”
Xuanxi tapped her finger lightly on the table.
“Fifth node, Monster Nest.” Valeris moved her finger to the second-to-last red dot.
“There are also high-level monsters here. If we don’t complete the hunting task at the second node, this can be one of the backup locations. As for the others—” She closed the notebook. “What the Academy didn’t mention, we won’t do.”
The long table fell silent. Elsa took a sip of tea, while Reginald stared at the route marked on the map. Hildegrifa sat beside Xuanxi, her silver-white hair hanging at the side of her face, her amethyst eyes fixed on the deepest point on the map.
“That’s it?” Elsa asked.
“That’s it.” Valeris folded the map. “There are only two assessment requirements: hunt one high-level monster and collect samples from anomaly zones. Completing any two nodes is sufficient. For the others, if we encounter them and want to do them, we can. If not, no pressure.”
“What about the Eastern Dragon Clan carvings?” Xuanxi asked.
“Record them if we encounter them.” Valeris hugged the notebook to her chest. “If not, don’t bother. The Academy doesn’t require it, and recording them won’t earn extra points. It’s your own matter; you decide.”
Xuanxi touched the two jade pendants under her collar. She thought about the dream of her mother and those carvings. These were not just assessment content; they were important clues that might reveal her origins.
“Okay,” she said.
Elsa raised her teacup. “Then we set out tomorrow! Hunt monsters, collect samples, complete the mission! Let’s aim for first place in Class A!”
Reginald raised his teacup. “To first place in Class A!”
Xuanxi and the others also raised their teacups. The five cups clinked together, producing a crisp sound. The sunlight in the library corner was particularly bright at that moment.
In the distance, someone was flipping through a book, someone was whispering, someone was organizing the shelves. No one noticed this five-person team in the corner.
When the sun rose tomorrow, they would enter Echo Valley, facing the energy disorder zone, the lake swamp dragon python, the stone forest, the illusion, and a series of challenges. Perhaps they would even encounter familiar faces in the depths of the valley.