The sealed chamber gradually returned to silence.
Only the faint glow of the formation illuminated the room.
Several minutes had passed since Ling Yue awakened.
Her breathing had finally steadied.
The redness around her eyes remained, but the panic had long since subsided.
She took a slow, steady breath.
Then bowed deeply.
"...Senior."
Lizarius floated quietly before the siblings.
His golden eyes rested calmly upon her.
Ling Yue lowered her head even further.
"...I'm sorry."
A brief silence followed.
"I shouldn't have called you that."
"...I spoke without thinking."
"I apologize."
The small white-scaled lizard regarded her silently for several seconds.
Then he replied simply,
"...I don't care."
Ling Yue blinked.
"...Eh?"
"I do not."
Silence.
Then—
the corner of Ling Yue's mouth twitched upward ever so slightly.
"...Hmph."
She straightened a little.
"Really?"
"I'll just take that as you accepting my apology."
Lizarius neither confirmed nor denied it.
He simply continued hovering where he was.
Ling Yue rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
"...But..."
Her expression grew complicated.
"...You really shouldn't have done that."
The memories resurfaced.
The dream.
The false Ling Wei.
The blood.
The overwhelming grief.
Even knowing now that it had all been an illusion—
the pain lingered.
"I hated that."
She spoke honestly.
Then, after a brief pause, a faint smile appeared on her face.
"...Still..."
"...Thank you."
Ling Wei looked back and forth between the two of them.
He couldn't follow the conversation at all.
*...What exactly happened in there?*
Ling Yue let out a quiet sigh.
"I know you'll probably do something like that again someday."
She lifted her gaze and met the lizard's golden eyes directly.
"But..."
A quiet determination settled across her face.
"Next time..."
"I won't fall for it so easily."
Silence.
Lizarius observed her for a long moment.
Then—
without warning—
he descended.
Ling Wei instinctively stiffened.
"...Senior?"
The lizard ignored him.
He flew directly toward Ling Yue.
She blinked in confusion.
"...Senior?"
A moment later—
Tap.
The small white-scaled lizard landed neatly atop her head.
Ling Yue froze.
"...Eh?"
She crossed her eyes upward.
Naturally—
she couldn't actually see him.
She could only feel the faint weight resting upon her hair.
Lizarius calmly curled his tail around himself.
Adjusted his posture.
Then simply lay down.
Comfortably.
As though he had found a perfectly acceptable place to rest.
Ling Yue remained completely motionless.
"..."
"...Senior?"
"Hm."
"...What are you doing?"
"Resting."
Silence.
"...On my head?"
"Correct."
One of Ling Yue's eyes twitched.
"...Why?"
Lizarius answered as though stating an obvious fact.
"It is elevated."
"It provides a satisfactory field of observation."
"It is also warm."
Ling Yue opened her mouth.
Then slowly closed it again.
She genuinely had no idea how to respond to that.
Finally—
the lizard spoke once more.
"...Ignore me."
She blinked.
"...What?"
"Act as though I am not here."
Ling Yue slowly raised a trembling finger toward the top of her head.
"...You're..."
"...On my head."
"...How am I supposed to ignore that?"
Lizarius considered the question for a brief moment.
"...Adapt."
Ling Yue stared blankly.
Then muttered under her breath,
"...What?"
Another pause.
Then, even more quietly—
"...What the hell..."
She could already feel every tiny adjustment he made.
Every slight movement of his tail.
Every subtle shift in his weight.
Her entire body had become rigid.
She was trembling so badly that even her sleeves quivered.
"...Look at me..."
she whispered to herself.
"I'm literally shaking..."
"...How am I supposed to pretend you're not there?"
Lizarius calmly closed his eyes.
"...Practice."
Ling Yue nearly choked.
"...Practice?!"
"Yes."
"If your concentration is disrupted merely because something is resting upon your head..."
"...then your mental discipline remains insufficient."
Silence.
Ling Yue's shoulders slumped.
"...So this is training too..."
"It is."
She let out a long, defeated sigh.
"...You're unbelievable, Senior."
No answer came.
A few seconds passed.
Then Ling Yue realized why.
The small white-scaled lizard had already closed his eyes completely.
His breathing had become slow.
Steady.
As though he had genuinely fallen asleep.
Ling Yue stood there—
an ancient draconic monster peacefully sleeping atop her head.
"..."
Slowly, she turned toward her brother.
Her expression was utterly helpless.
Ling Wei stared back.
Neither sibling spoke for several long moments.
Finally—
Ling Wei rubbed his forehead.
"..."
His gaze shifted from his sister...
to the tiny sleeping lizard...
then back to his sister once again.
His expression became increasingly conflicted.
*...What in the world is going on right now?*
The heavy formation gradually dispersed as the siblings stepped out into the quiet corridor.
The entrance sealed itself behind them.
Rumble...
Silence returned.
Ling Wei walked beside his younger sister, his thoughts in complete disarray.
From time to time—
his eyes drifted toward the top of Ling Yue's head.
To anyone else—
there was nothing there.
Only empty air.
But Ling Wei knew better.
The small white-scaled lizard was still resting there.
Invisible.
His presence concealed so completely that not even the slightest fluctuation escaped.
Only Ling Wei's occasional glance betrayed the fact that someone else accompanied them.
For several minutes—
neither sibling spoke.
Eventually—
Ling Wei broke the silence.
"...Yue."
"Hm?"
He hesitated.
Then finally asked,
"...What exactly happened in there?"
Ling Yue blinked.
Then suddenly remembered.
"...Oh."
She scratched her cheek awkwardly.
"That's right..."
"I never told you."
She instinctively glanced upward.
The invisible passenger resting atop her head offered no response.
Taking his silence as permission—
she began explaining.
She spoke about the dream.
The endless white world.
The strange city that resembled the ruins of an entirely different civilization.
The distorted flow of time.
How months had passed inside while only hours passed in reality.
She described the relentless training.
The endless battles against spirit beasts.
The sword art Lizarius had reconstructed specifically for her.
How he slowed every movement until she could understand each detail.
How he restricted her spiritual energy to match what she possessed in reality.
Then—
her expression became noticeably more complicated.
Quietly, she recounted the final trial.
The illusion.
The battle against the false Ling Wei.
The moment she realized it wasn't real.
And...
The moment she believed she had killed him.
Ling Wei listened without interrupting even once.
His expression gradually transformed.
First—
surprise.
Then—
confusion.
Then—
disbelief.
Finally—
complete bewilderment.
"...And after that..."
Ling Yue finished quietly,
"...I woke up."
Silence.
The corridor suddenly felt unnaturally quiet.
Ling Wei stopped walking.
"...Wait."
He raised one hand.
"...Let me make sure I understood this correctly."
"You trained..."
"...for nearly four months."
"Inside a dream."
"Created by Senior."
"Yes."
"You fought hundreds..."
He paused.
"...No."
"...Thousands of spirit beasts."
"I stopped counting."
"He created an entirely new sword technique."
"Mm-hm."
"You actually learned it."
"I did."
"He recreated..."
Ling Wei hesitated.
"...Me."
Ling Yue's smile faded slightly.
"...Yes."
"...Then intentionally traumatized you just to observe your reaction?"
Ling Yue rubbed the back of her neck.
"...That's..."
"...more or less what happened."
Ling Wei stared at her.
For one long...
Uninterrupted...
Moment.
"...You've got to be kidding me."
Ling Yue laughed helplessly.
"Sorry, Big Brother."
She spread her hands.
"But everything I told you is true."
Silence.
Ling Wei resumed walking.
His mind desperately struggled to organize everything he had just heard.
*Dream manipulation...*
*Accelerated time...*
*Months of training...*
*Creating cultivation techniques...*
*Psychological testing...*
*Observing the soul...*
Each revelation sounded more impossible than the last.
Finally—
he glanced upward once more.
Toward the seemingly empty space resting above Ling Yue's head.
*Just...*
*What kind of existence have we encountered...?*
At that exact moment—
a calm voice spoke directly above Ling Yue.
Without the slightest warning.
"You omitted several details."
Both siblings jumped.
Ling Yue nearly yelped.
"...Senior!"
The invisible lizard hadn't been sleeping at all.
Lizarius continued calmly,
"The dream lasted one hundred and twenty-three days."
"A little over four months."
"You defeated three thousand, four hundred and eighty-one simulated opponents."
"You achieved an approximate success rate of eighty-six percent after your spiritual energy restrictions were implemented."
"You required fourteen days to comprehend the revised sword technique."
"You mastered its basic execution after an additional twenty-one days."
A brief pause.
"You exaggerated."
Ling Yue puffed out her cheeks.
"...Who remembers numbers like that?"
"I do."
She looked upward indignantly.
"...You're impossible."
Lizarius answered without emotion.
"That assessment has been made previously."
Ling Wei watched the exchange in stunned silence.
One person was complaining to an invisible ancient monster resting comfortably on her head.
The other was calmly correcting her statistics with perfect accuracy.
Neither of them seemed to find the conversation unusual anymore.
Ling Wei slowly covered his face with one hand.
*...I'm beginning to think I'm the only normal person left here.*
The siblings continued walking through the estate.
The quiet corridor gradually opened into the central courtyard.
Above them, the evening sky stretched endlessly, painted in deep crimson and fading shades of orange along the horizon.
A cool breeze drifted gently through the Ling Clan grounds.
One by one, servants moved about the estate, lighting spirit lanterns as dusk slowly settled over Lotus City.
Ling Wei and Ling Yue passed through the courtyard gate.
Their pace remained slow and unhurried.
After a while—
Ling Wei finally broke the silence.
"...So."
"Where are we going?"
Ling Yue glanced at him.
"Hm?"
"The Golden Lotus Pavilion."
She answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Senior wanted us to look for a few things."
Almost instinctively, her eyes lifted toward the seemingly empty space above her head.
"So I thought we'd start there."
Ling Wei nodded slowly.
"...Alright."
Silence returned.
As they followed the familiar stone paths winding through the clan estate, Ling Wei found himself stealing another glance toward his younger sister.
She was...
Different.
Not simply stronger.
Not merely more skilled.
Different.
Earlier that day, merely standing before Lizarius had been enough to make her tremble uncontrollably.
Every word she spoke had been cautious.
Every movement had been stiff.
Every breath had carried unmistakable fear.
Now...
She spoke about him naturally.
She questioned him.
Argued with him.
Even complained to him without thinking.
The fear was still there.
Ling Wei could sense it.
But now it existed alongside something else.
Familiarity.
His expression gradually became more complicated.
*She's changed...*
*Far more than I expected.*
His thoughts drifted back to the dream she had described.
Nearly four months together.
Training.
Conversations.
Experiments.
Lessons.
To him, only a single afternoon had passed.
To Ling Yue...
It had been an entire season.
An entire chapter of her life.
She hadn't simply met Lizarius.
She had spent months under his guidance.
Months learning from him.
Months struggling against the impossible standards he imposed.
It was only natural that their relationship had changed.
Yet...
Ling Wei couldn't help the uneasiness growing inside him.
*She's gotten close to that monster...*
The realization made his chest feel strangely heavy.
*...And I'm afraid for her.*
Not because he believed Lizarius would necessarily harm her.
In fact, everything the mysterious creature had done so far had ultimately benefited her.
But that wasn't what troubled him.
Ling Wei simply couldn't understand him.
Lizarius was unlike anything he had ever encountered.
He could teach with unimaginable patience.
Protect without hesitation.
Conduct terrifying experiments.
Traumatize someone.
Then calmly explain his reasoning as though discussing the weather.
Nothing about him resembled either a human or a beast.
His thoughts...
His values...
Even his emotions...
They all seemed to operate according to an entirely different logic.
Yet—
Ling Yue no longer seemed bothered by any of it.
If anything...
She had begun adapting to him.
"..."
Ling Wei silently let out a slow breath.
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted.
A figure stepped into the stone path ahead.
"So it really was the two of you."
Both siblings came to a stop.
Ling Yue looked up.
"...Cousin?"
Standing several meters away was Ling Yufei.
Her robes were as immaculate as ever.
A faint, refined smile rested upon her face.
Her hands were folded as he regarded the two siblings.
Her gaze swept over Ling Wei before lingering briefly on Ling Yue.
"I've been looking for you."
Ling Wei's expression remained calm.
"...Is there something you need?"
Ling Yufei chuckled softly.
"Do I need a reason to greet my own cousins?"
Ling Yue offered a polite, if somewhat forced, smile.
"...Of course not."
An awkward silence settled between them.
Neither side spoke immediately.
From atop Ling Yue's head—
completely hidden from sight—
Lizarius slowly opened one golden eye.
He didn't move.
He didn't make a sound.
He simply observed the newcomer.
Another human.
Another mind.
Another collection of habits, emotions, and intentions waiting to be understood.
Without anyone noticing—
the countless colored threads surrounding Ling Yufei gradually came into view once more.
They intertwined around him like an invisible web.
Some shone brightly.
Others had already begun to dim.
Each represented a possibility.
A choice.
A connection.
Lizarius watched them silently.
Analyzing.
Observing.
Learning.
His expression remained as calm and unreadable as ever.
For him—
this chance encounter was simply another opportunity to gather information.
For the three humans standing beneath the evening sky—
it was merely an ordinary meeting between cousins.
None of them realized...
That the ancient being resting invisibly above Ling Yue's head had already begun examining the unseen threads that shaped Ling Yufei's fate.