The tension in Zhu Zhuqing's body gradually eased amid the rocking of the carriage wheels and the sense of security Lin Xia brought her. She was no longer in the constant state of stress and vigilance she had maintained back in the Zhu residence.
Although Lin Xia's eyes were closed, his powerful spiritual power had already spread like an invisible web, covering several hundred meters around the carriage.
Less than half an hour after the carriage left Star Luo City, he clearly sensed two powerful yet concealed auras silently attaching themselves to them like shadows that refused to fall away.
Their presences were hidden extremely well, as though they had merged into the shadows within the air itself. If not for Lin Xia's spiritual power far surpassing ordinary people and Larvitar's Dragon-blood-enhanced sensitivity toward energy fluctuations, normal Soul Masters would never have noticed them.
Two Soul Sages!
And not ordinary Soul Sages at that. These were experts highly skilled in concealment and tracking.
Lin Xia immediately understood.
This had to be Zhu Zhan's doing.
That iron-blooded Family Head ultimately still could not let go of his precious youngest daughter.
After the anger came deeper concern, leaving him with no choice but to ensure her safety in this way.
Sending Soul Sages to secretly protect them instead of making a grand display to forcefully bring her back was already the limit of compromise Zhu Zhan could make between family affection and the rules.
A nearly imperceptible smile curved at the corner of Lin Xia's lips.
He neither exposed it nor reacted in any way, pretending to know nothing at all.
Having Zhu Zhan's people follow them was fine. At the very least, it would save them from a great deal of genuine trouble.
As long as those two "shadows" knew their place and only protected them secretly without interfering in their actions, Lin Xia was perfectly happy to let it happen.
He redirected his focus back to his own plan.
Obtaining a replacement for the gem embedded within the Star Radiance Crown!
The journey truly was not short. At the speed of an ordinary carriage, it would likely take quite some time.
But that suited Lin Xia perfectly.
Far away from the suffocating political vortex and family schemes of Star Luo City, Zhu Zhuqing could temporarily escape those cold calculations and malicious gazes, breathe freely in a relatively unrestricted environment, and see the vast world outside.
"Larvitar?"
Larvitar seemed to sense Lin Xia's thoughts. It raised its little head and let out a brief questioning cry.
"Mm, we'll be there soon."
Lin Xia opened his eyes and rubbed Larvitar's increasingly sturdy head. Then his gentle gaze shifted toward Zhu Zhuqing, who was still staring out the window across from him.
"Zhuqing."
Hearing her name, Zhu Zhuqing turned her head. Her clear eyes looked toward Lin Xia, containing less of the emptiness from before and more focused curiosity.
"We'll pass through a small town ahead. We can rest there for a while and replenish our supplies."
Lin Xia's voice carried a calming strength.
Zhu Zhuqing looked at Lin Xia, then at the intelligent-looking Larvitar beside him, before turning her gaze once more toward the endless greenery and distant mountain silhouettes beyond the carriage window.
She nodded lightly. There was not the slightest trace of fear. Instead, deep within those quiet eyes, something seemed to be slowly awakening alongside the turning carriage wheels.
"Mm."
Her response was soft, yet it carried slightly more vitality than when she had been in the Zhu residence.
"Big Brother Lin Xia."
Her voice was very quiet, as though afraid of disturbing something. It carried the clear tone unique to children, yet also a calmness far beyond her years.
"Why are you treating me so well?"
She paused, her long eyelashes fluttering gently like butterfly wings, casting shadows across her pale little face.
"Even though they've already given up on me."
She spoke those words with remarkable calmness, as though merely stating an unrelated fact.
But beneath that calm tone, Lin Xia could hear deeply suppressed confusion, bewilderment, and a faint longing for this "untimely" warmth, a longing even she herself had not fully realized.
The rules of the family were cold and cruel. Her father tacitly approved her neglect. Her elder sister used pain as tempering. The servants all chased after power and influence.
It was as though the entire world had quietly shut the door on kindness the moment her Netherworld Hell Cat Martial Soul awakened.
Lin Xia's existence had become the only oasis within that wasteland, yet it also filled her with an almost unreal sense of unease.
Lin Xia fell silent.
Larvitar lay beside him, its crimson eyes shifting between Zhu Zhuqing and its master. It seemed to sense the heavy atmosphere brought by that difficult question, letting out soft "Larvitar" sounds from its throat.
Time seemed to stretch for several breaths.
Lin Xia's gaze drifted toward Zhu Zhuqing's pale knuckles clenched tightly together—the wounds she had inflicted upon herself while forcing herself to endure at the Star Soul Hall. Though they had already scabbed over, they resembled silent brands burned into her skin.
He remembered the way she had hidden behind the vase, holding her breath.
He remembered her quiet silhouette sitting in the corner while hugging a book.
And even more vividly, he remembered that tear-stained little face beneath the moonlight, desperately forcing out a shattered smile.
At last, Lin Xia lifted his head. Within his dark golden pupils there was no perfunctory comfort, nor any pitying sigh.
There was only a frank clarity, almost sharp in its honesty.
"Actually…"
He spoke softly, yet his voice pierced through the layers of confusion clouding Zhu Zhuqing's heart.
"I don't really know why either."
That opening caused Zhu Zhuqing to pause slightly in surprise.
Lin Xia did not avoid her gaze as he continued speaking, his tone carrying the straightforward sincerity unique to a young man unburdened by pretension.
"If I really had to give a reason, then it's probably because—"
He paused briefly, as though searching for the most accurate wording, before clearly speaking those three words:
"I just can't stand it."
"I can't stand the way those people act. I can't stand rules that treat people like chess pieces and sacrifices. I can't stand the coldness and trampling they justify in the name of 'fate.'"
Lin Xia's voice remained calm, without any heated condemnation, yet it carried an unquestionable firmness, like an immovable boulder sunk deep beneath the water.
"So, I chose to help you."
He stepped a little closer, shortening the distance between them. His gaze rested upon her upturned little face, trying to dispel the final trace of hesitation lingering within her eyes.
"This isn't some favor, and it's not an investment either. So Zhuqing, you don't need to feel burdened at all. It's like seeing a wildflower by the roadside that's about to be stepped on, then casually helping it upright. That's all."
"Larvitar!"
Larvitar chimed in at just the right moment, as though adding emphasis to its master's words. It rubbed its little head against Zhu Zhuqing's cold hand.
The hard shell covered in the dark crimson luster of dragon blood carried a faint warmth, conveying a clumsy yet genuine comfort.
Zhu Zhuqing did not ask any more questions.
She simply sat there quietly, allowing Larvitar to nuzzle against her hand while only Lin Xia's words—"I just can't stand it"—echoed repeatedly within her mind.
There had been no hypocritical promises, no condescending pity.
Only a frank and openhearted "I just can't stand it," born from his true feelings.
That simple unwillingness to accept things as they were became like a beam of light, instantly piercing through the heavy gloom in her heart, the gloom called "being abandoned."
So not everyone had submitted to those so-called rules of fate.
At the very least, the person before her did not care about such things.
He only cared about what he "couldn't stand."
An extremely faint, yet incomparably clear light quietly flickered to life deep within her eyes, which had once been as lifeless as a frozen abyss.
It was not blind optimism for the future.
Rather, it was a rekindled understanding of "possibility."
The world was not made up solely of the Zhu Family's cold rules and the cruel iron laws of the Star Luo Empire.
There also existed a kind of strength called the determination of "I just can't stand it."
Though that light was faint, it carried the resilience of new life, stubbornly flickering within her pupils.
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