The cool night air of Sunlight City brushed against Chu Xuanyan's face as he walked the familiar path toward the riverside. His expression wore its usual mask of calm indifference.
He reached his spot – a flat, smooth rock overlooking the gently flowing Silverstream River, moonlight painting the water in shimmering silver ribbons.
This was his sanctuary, the one place where the weight of his Empty Astral Palace felt slightly less crushing, where the whispers of the world couldn't quite reach him.
He settled onto the cool stone, crossing his legs in a practiced meditation posture. Not that meditation did much for him. Without an Astral Star, drawing the world qi and refining starforce was simply impossible, but the act of it still calmed him. Meditating under the moon had become a habit. a habit from Earth.
He closed his eyes, seeking the inner stillness. The sounds of the night – the gentle lapping of water, the sigh of the wind – washed over him.
He focused on his breathing: in and out, slow and deep. The tension in his shoulders began to ease.
He sank deeper into the rhythm of his breath. The familiar emptiness within his Astral Palace yawned, vast and silent. He'd grown accustomed to it – this internal void where power should reside. It was his constant companion, his defining flaw.
Minutes passed when suddenly something shifted.
It wasn't sound, nor light. It was pressure – a sudden, profound change in the air around him. The gentle night sounds seemed to hush, as if holding their breath. The air grew thick, charged with an ancient, unseen energy.
Chu Xuanyan's eyes snapped open. He stared, unflinching. Then, after a moment of silence, he spoke.
"Again, huh... you never leave me alone, do you?"
Floating silently in the air before him, bathed in moonlight, was a nine-story pagoda — the little pagoda, as he called it.
It hung there, impossibly real yet utterly ethereal. The necklace chain he always wore – that smooth, silver-jade material he'd never identified – was gone. Or rather, it had become part of the manifestation. The locket itself had grown to the size of his palm. Nine distinct tiers shimmered with color – red, blue, cyan, purple, orange, pale blue, black, golden, and white shifting like captured starlight. Its smooth surface lacked carvings or symbols, yet it radiated a gravity that seemed to bend moonlight around it. It emanated an aura of immense age and profound power.
The pagoda shimmered faintly. Then, a faintly amused voice emerged.
"Hey, I missed you, you know."
Xuanyan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why are you here again? I already said no."
"Yeah, yeah, I remember. Several times, actually. Still, I figured maybe tonight you'd have changed your mind. I'm nothing if not persistent."
Xuanyan narrowed his eyes. "And why do you think that?"
The pagoda hummed knowingly. "Because of your current situation, obviously. Your cultivation path is still a dead end. Your genius of a fiancée is going to come soon. And you know as well as I what that could possibly entail. Pressure. Judgment. Expectations you can't fulfill. She will surely break off the engagement."
Xuanyan's brow twitched. This ancient stack of roof tiles... Yet he responded.
"Little pagoda, you really are naive."
"Oh? Naive? Me?" The pagoda sounded genuinely bewildered. This brat really called me naive? Me? The great Heavenly Pagoda?
"You don't know anything about Sister Bai. More than that, you don't know anything about our relationship. She would never cancel our engagement. You don't need to insult her like this," Xuanyan said, his voice tight.
The pagoda's glow dimmed for a beat, then pulsed gently. "I'm not trying to insult her. But you're placing your faith in a memory, in a person you haven't seen for years. You've changed. Maybe she has too. Maybe not in the way you fear — but maybe not in the way you hope, either."
The pagoda continued. "And do you really believe so yourself? That she will not cancel the engagement?" it asked, not unkindly — but not gently, either. "Or are you just saying it because you have to? Because if you admit the alternative... it would hurt too much to bear ?"
Xuanyan didn't respond immediately.
Of course, he did not believe it himself. He was just saying it to the little pagoda. After all, he knew that no matter how close a relationship is, no girl would want to spend the rest of her life with a useless man. This is the truth even on Earth — not to mention here in this cruel world of cultivation where strength reigns supreme.
And yet…
He wasn't afraid of her breaking off the engagement.
As for why ?
"I've already decided to call off the engagement myself," Xuanyan said, voice even. "I never asked for any of it. And now, even if she still wants it, I won't accept. I've decided to live my life quietly."
Hearing him, for the first time in a long while, the little pagoda couldn't help but be startled. All of its focus zeroed in on Xuanyan's last sentence, as if he had only said that. It then spoke, anger rising in its voice.
"Live your life quietly? As a mere mortal? Good, very good Chu Xuanyan. Here I am trying to convince you, give you a way to get out of your current predicament — and you want to live your life as a mortal? Do you even realize what that would mean for those close to you, those that still care about you? What your foster mother, that Bai girl, and that Luo girl would think? By doing that, do you even want them to look down on you?"
"I believe they will never do something like this," he said, frowning, his voice firm with conviction.
The thought of them joining the chorus of scorn the world had already thrown his way? It had never crossed his mind. After all, they had never mocked him, never sneered or looked at him with pity. They always cared about his happiness. So even if he told them what he had decided, they would never do something like that.
Sure, they would be a little disappointed — maybe even upset — but what could he do at this point? After all, it's not like he hadn't tried every way that he could find or they could find, with the only exception being this pagoda.
Chu Xuanyan closed his eyes for a moment. His lips pressed into a thin line. He wanted to lash out — and that's what he did.
"Even if that's true," he started slowly, "I'll face it when it comes. And since we are talking about them, then let's also talk about you first."
"Tell me, little pagoda, where were you," he said, his voice dropping to a low, intense whisper, his crystal-blue eyes locked onto the shimmering artifact, "Where were you when the Astral Palace formed within me? When everyone held their breath... and then let it out in a collective sigh of pity and scorn?"
"When they called me a cripple? When the Academy prodded and poked, hoping to find something, anything, and found only... emptiness? Where were you in the years after, when I scoured every book, tried everything, every crackpot theory that I could find in the darkest corners of libraries? When I sat under the moon like a fool, begging the heavens for a miracle that never came?"
His voice gained an edge of bitterness. "You show up now? Three months ago? After years of silence? After years of being the trash? After I'd already... accepted it?" He gestured vaguely at himself, at the world. "You offer salvation now, when the humiliation is a scar, not an open wound? That's not aid. That feels like... mockery. Or desperation."
He paused, the silence stretching. The river seemed quieter than before. And don't think I haven't wondered. maybe it's them who left you. Left some grand legacy for me, their abandoned son." He touched the spot on his chest where the necklace usually rested. "Maybe. Probably. But know this: Parents who abandon their child, who leave him to face this..." He tapped his temple, then his chest where his Astral Palace resided. "...without a word, without a sign... They don't earn my trust. And neither does the artifact they left behind.
The silence stretched between them, heavier than before.
The pagoda gave a soft hum, the tension briefly defused. "Suit yourself, stubborn one. But don't act surprised when the words you spoke tonight come back to bite you. Don't regret it."
Then, as silently as it appeared, the pagoda began to fade. Within seconds, it was gone. Only the cool silver-jade chain remained around his neck, the tiny nine-story pagoda locket cool against his skin once more.
The night sounds rushed back. The air felt lighter, almost brittle after the pagoda's presence. Chu Xuanyan slumped back on the rock, his breath escaping in a long, shaky exhale. Adrenaline still buzzed in his veins. He ran a hand through his hair, feeling the cool sweat at his temples.
Regret? The word echoed. What regret could come from refusing it? More bad luck? As if that hasn't been enough already.
As for something worse? let it come, then. his thoughts filled with disdain.
He looked down at the simple locket resting against his chest. Tomorrow, Bai Lianxin would arrive. Tonight, the pagoda had made its move. The quiet currents of his life were churning into something unpredictable. Chu Xuanyan stared out at the moonlit river, the familiar peace of his sanctuary feeling fragile and thin.