“Young Master, why are we leaving in such a hurry?”
On the border of Yunmeng Prefecture, high in the sky above a large-scale long-distance teleportation array that connected to the Nine Provinces, Jiang Keke looked at Yun Heng with confusion.
However, Yun Heng only stared at the young girl playing with a potted plant on the airship, remaining silent.
After a long while, Yun Heng let out a breath and finally answered Jiang Keke’s question. “As you know, I ran away from home because of an engagement. So, unless it is absolutely necessary, I don’t want to meet Su Zhenxue.”
‘I’m sorry, Zhen Xue,’ Yun Heng whispered an apology in his heart. He truly did not want to tell anyone about those past events, so he could only use her as a shield.
“Ah? … Oh.”
Jiang Keke instinctively wanted to press further. She had been standing very close to Yun Heng earlier and could tell that the Young Master had probably been thinking it wouldn’t be a big deal to see Su Zhenxue.
Therefore, she felt this likely wasn’t his true answer. But seeing him pick up an ancient book with no intention of saying more, she tactfully dropped the subject.
The airship had already reached the docking point of the massive teleportation array and was slowly descending.
“Speaking of which, Young Master, shouldn’t we give her a name?”
Jiang Keke waited until Yun Heng looked away from his book before speaking softly.
“A name?”
Yun Heng was stunned.
He had actually forgotten about that.
The pressure from Xuan Sun had been so great that from yesterday until now, Yun Heng had mostly been thinking about how to deal with the future.
When a person faces a problem, the brain first extracts relevant experiences, facts, rules, or patterns from memory. It is like solving a math problem; a person often prioritizes the formulas, theorems, and solutions stored in their “memory.”
The same applied to Yun Heng now.
When he began to think about how to name a flood dragon girl, the first thing that surfaced in his mind was the time Ling Yao had asked him what she should be called.
***
Year 6452 of the human race’s Profound Heavens Era, which was year -11451 of the demon race’s Demon Immortal Calendar.
In the mountain forests roughly 200 miles from the capital of the Kingdom of Zhao, Yun Heng, dressed in clean green robes, crouched by a stream.
He was carefully treating the wound of a small deer that had been injured by a hunting trap.
His movements were gentle and focused. Sunlight leaped across his shoulders through the gaps in the leaves.
It was a summer afternoon. Jiang Keke was resting under the shade of a tree, exhausted from carrying the luggage.
On a rock in the stream, neither too close nor too far from the two, sat a girl who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old.
Her clothes were old and ill-fitting, though they would have fit the sleeping person nearby.
The girl didn’t look at Yun Heng or the deer. She simply kept a stern face, gazing at the lush forest on the opposite bank.
However, the corners of her eyes would occasionally sweep toward Yun Heng before quickly pulling back, her fingers unconsciously picking at the moss.
The deer twitched slightly from the pain, and Yun Heng comforted it softly. “It will be over soon. Just bear with it.”
His voice carried the clear resonance unique to a youth, yet it also possessed a gentle patience that surpassed his years.
The girl’s ears twitched. Finally unable to hold back, she spoke in a stiff, indifferent tone, “Human, why are you so kind to everyone?”
Yun Heng did not look up, continuing his work. “When encountering those in need of help, if it is within my power, I lend a hand. Isn’t that normal?”
“Hmph, stupid.”
The girl let out a cold snort. “You’re a human, so you can’t see it. But I can. Even if you save this deer, it will die of old age before long anyway.”
“Birth, aging, sickness, and death are its tribulations. Doing good and accumulating merit is my Way. There is no causal relationship between the two. It is simply my wish, and simply its encounter.”
After finishing with the deer, Yun Heng gently patted its back. The creature stumbled to its feet, nuzzled Yun Heng’s hand, and then turned to disappear into the forest.
“Not very old, yet you have a lecture for everything.”
The girl curled her lip, but she felt those words made a lot of sense and secretly memorized them.
However, just as she was silently repeating them in her heart, she suddenly felt the light grow dim. Yun Heng had walked over.
“Speaking of which, Xiao Jiu, is the injury you got from falling off the tree while trying to act cool yesterday healed yet? Keke told me you bled quite a bit.”
He grabbed the girl’s arm, his face full of the concern an elder shows for a junior.
“It’s been healed for ages!”
The moment Yun Heng was about to lift her sleeve, the girl acted as if her tail had been stepped on. She abruptly hid her arm behind her back and jumped ten paces away.
A suspicious flush rose to her face, though whether it was from anger or something else was unclear. “We of the demon race have incredible recovery speed! You don’t need to worry!”
Despite her words, she remembered everything. When she was unconscious with a high fever, Yun Heng had stayed by her side all night.
When her wound was infected and festering, Yun Heng had frowned as he cleaned and applied medicine bit by bit.
When she was so hungry she was dizzy but too proud to say anything, Yun Heng “just happened” to hunt too much prey and shared the “leftovers” with her… She remembered it all.
Having lived with Yun Heng for one month, the girl knew very well how good this human was.
However, as a proud flood dragon, she felt that being looked after by a human like this was a bit… shameful.
Especially since this human didn’t look much older than herself, yet he always acted with such ease, as if he knew everything. it gave her an inexplicable sense of frustration.
“Anyway, Xiao Jiu, if you feel unwell, remember to tell me. In two days, we’re going to the Kingdom of Zhao capital to watch the Military Drill. If you miss it, you’ll have to wait ten years.”
Yun Heng shook his head helplessly and turned to find a spot with good sunlight to read his book.
The stream gurgled, and the atmosphere returned to tranquility.
The girl kicked at pebbles with her toes, but she didn’t use any force, as if she were afraid that the sound of the stones splashing into the stream would disturb someone.
Finally, after an unknown amount of hesitation, the girl decided to just go for it. She approached Yun Heng with her hands on her hips. “Hey, human.”
“Hmm?”
“…I can’t keep calling you ‘hey’ or ‘human’ forever, can I?”
As she spoke, the girl’s voice suddenly grew much smaller.
She had forgotten that she actually knew Yun Heng’s name.
But there was no helping it; since she had started, she had to keep going!
“And…”
She still didn’t look at Yun Heng, her eyes fixed on her toes as she felt the awkwardness of the situation.
Her entire body felt restless. “…And you shouldn’t always call me ‘Xiao Jiu.’ That… that’s only for very close elders to call me.”
Immediately after saying it, the girl regretted it.
She buried her head even lower, wishing she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
“Isn’t Xiao Jiu quite nice? It’s very cute.”
“Wha—what’s cute about it!!”
The girl’s tail was stepped on again. She snapped her head up to glare at him, only to find Yun Heng looking at her with a smile, his eyes full of deep mischief.
The girl hurriedly took half a step back, pursing her lips. She wanted to just give up, but then thought it would be a loss. She might as well grit her teeth and get this over with.
“It has no presence at all! I am a flood dragon! Even if I’m a bit down on my luck now, one day I will become the strongest flood dragon!”
“Yes, yes, Lady Flood Dragon.”
Yun Heng followed her lead, his smile becoming even more pronounced. “Then how would Lady Flood Dragon like me to address her? Or… do you want a new name?”
The girl felt elated being called “Lady Flood Dragon” twice, but she was quickly drawn in by the second half of his sentence.
A new name… A name that belonged to her current self, belonging to the time after she met him?
This thought caused a slight stir in her heart.
The girl coughed twice, trying to make her expression look serious and picky. “This name, first of all, it has to be worthy of me. Secondly, it has to be resounding, it has to have presence, it has to…”
Then, she got stuck.
The girl didn’t actually know what a good name was; she just instinctively felt it needed some symbolic meaning.
The atmosphere fell silent for a moment.
The girl began to regret it again.
‘Is this request too difficult? Does it make me seem too willful? Will… Yun Heng hate me?’
One second, two seconds…
Just as a minute was about to pass and the girl was ready to say, ‘Never mind, it’s not really necessary, it’s just a title anyway,’ Yun Heng spoke.
“Surpassing all living things, the radiance of the breaking dawn.”
He said, “How about ‘Ling Yao’? It carries the aspiration to tower over the clouds, yet does not lose the warm brilliance of jade. I think it suits you very well.”
The girl looked at Yun Heng as he met her gaze, momentarily dazed.
Ling Yao.
Surpassing… Radiance…
So cool!
And, he was the one who gave it to her.
“It’s passable, I guess.”
The girl’s heart leaped with joy, but she refused to let it show. She merely lifted her chin slightly, pretending to reluctantly accept it. “I’ll take it.”
The sunlight made her slightly reddened ears look almost transparent. She quickly ran off, continuing to “concentrate” on the distant mountains and forests.
However, she couldn’t hide the smile that curled her lips once her back was turned.
The stream swirled between the pebbles. The sound of water gurgled, mixing with the occasional bird song from the forest.
Sunlight cut through the treetops, casting flecks of gold that flickered with the flow of the water.
At that time, the mountains were green, the water was alive, and the wind was lazy.
The afternoon was as plump as a ripening berry, its juices soaked with the carefree sweetness of those who did not yet know what fate had in store.
Even though Yun Heng still liked to call her “Xiao Jiu” later on, every time he smiled and called her “Ling Yao,” she would give a grumpy response and then secretly curl the corners of her eyes.
***
Liuli Valley, Yunmeng Prefecture.
Ling Yao stood before the entrance of a cave dwelling, reaching out to touch the cold patterns on the stone wall.
She could smell a faint hint of his scent in the air.
But she didn’t go in.
Or rather, she didn’t dare go in.
Shizi stood behind Ling Yao, her face full of worry.
She could feel that Ling Yao’s current state was extremely unstable.
No matter who dared to act out in front of her right now, even if their cultivation was far higher than hers, they would surely be killed.
“The person we’re looking for isn’t here. Let’s go.”
Ling Yao took a deep breath, turned around, and walked quickly out of Liuli Valley.
Just as Shizi was about to say something, she noticed something sparkling flash past her eyes.
‘Wait, were those… tears?’
‘As I thought, time reversal is far from as simple as I imagined. It must also involve the Law of Causality that only he understands best.’
‘In this long torrent of time, the “evil fruit” of my past life has become the “calamity cause” of this one.’
‘This is the punishment “Causality” has dealt me for reversing time.’
‘That is why he didn’t choose to save me in this life, but saved that damned monster instead.’
‘And because of me, the people chasing him this time are even stronger than in the previous life.’
‘So he has to run, running with everything he has. Otherwise, he won’t be able to help the “people he encounters” through their “tribulations.”‘
‘Only this can explain everything.’
Ling Yao walked very fast, so fast that even Shizi, who was in the Golden Core Stage, couldn’t keep up with her.
It wasn’t until she passed an unknown number of corners that Ling Yao slowed down, leaning against a stone wall as she slowly sat down.
Behind her was a faint bloodstain rubbed out by the jagged edges of the stone; before her was the Clear Spring of the Encircled Continent, a specialty of Yunmeng Prefecture.
The stream still flowed, remembering no names, carrying no parting sorrows, just gurgling along.
Ling Yao wiped her face and sniffled.
‘But it doesn’t matter.’
‘I am the strongest demon immortal; I can help him.’
‘In this world, only I can help him.’
‘As long as I become strong enough at the fastest possible speed and kill everyone who poses a threat to him, he will definitely notice me again.”
“Then we can slowly get to know each other again, slowly understand each other again, until… we fall in love again.’
‘So.’
‘It’s fine.’
‘It’s fine…’