So we held a small tea gathering, steam curling like morning mist over a still pond.

When it comes to food, nothing beats Servant’s cooking; I’d missed it like winter misses spring greens.

All FrostyLily Dream’s fault, that little fiend; the thought pricked me, and I shot her an icy needle of a glare.

“Huh, huh?! Sis, why’re you looking at me like I stole the moon? What did I do?” FrostyLily Dream blinked, cheeks puffed with fruit cake like soft clouds.

“It’s fine. Right—Yumigawa Senki, Elyar, you two look like you’ve got words stuck in your throats.”

From the first pour to now, they’d held back and swallowed, like fishbones snagged mid-swallow. It tugged at me.

“As Miss Xinuo says, we do have something to ask.”

Yumigawa Senki drew a breath like someone about to dive, then finally broke the surface.

“A question? Don’t worry about stepping on toes. Say it straight.”

Why so solemn, like thunder behind thin clouds? It made me curious.

“We… we want to ask—” They inhaled together, ripples meeting on a quiet lake. “About the Primordial Source.”

“Oh? How do you even know about the Primordial Source?”

That landed off-beat, like a lone bell at dusk. I hadn’t expected it. I’d decide whether to answer after I heard them out.

“Here’s what happened…”

At my prompt, Yumigawa Senki laid it all out, bead by bead on a string.

“…that’s it. We want to know if Miss Xinuo and Miss FrostyLily Dream have fully mastered the Primordial Source. And why almost no one in the world knows of it. Is someone hiding it?”

Her three questions came in one breath, like arrows released from the same bowstring.

“I’d also like to know why knowledge of the Primordial Source isn’t spread.”

“Same here! I’m super curious, nya!”

“Seconded.”

Their eyes gathered on me like stars clustering before dawn—Yumigawa Senki, Elyar, Hill, and even my little sister.

“Sis, what do we do? Spill it or not?”

FrostyLily Dream kept nibbling, unconcerned, crumbs like snow on her lip. “Honestly, I think it’s fine. It’s not some world-shaking secret.”

“You say that because you don’t get how deep human greed runs.”

I cut her a look, let the thought sit like a stone in water, then chose to answer. Letting them understand the Primordial Source might be good—if they kept it sealed behind their teeth.

“I’ll tell you. But promise me one thing—don’t speak of the Primordial Source to anyone else.”

“No problem!!”

Their agreement came in chorus, crisp as bamboo knocking in wind.

I nodded, satisfied, then answered Yumigawa Senki’s three arrows one by one.

“First, yes. FrostyLily Dream and I fully command the Primordial Source—because we were born from shards of the Primordial Source itself.

Second, the reason so few know is simple. I forbade those who know from spreading it.

Third, that repeats the second.”

“Eh?!! Miss Xinuo forbade it?!”

My answer hit like a pebble skipping farther than expected; surprise splashed from Yumigawa Senki.

“Why would Xinuo forbid news of the Primordial Source from spreading? I can’t piece it together.”

“Yeah, why would Master forbid it?”

“Big Sister Xinuo must have a heavy reason.”

Questions came again, a small rain turning steady.

“The reason’s simple—there’s no need. The Primordial Source is a realm only beings born from its shards can reach, like me and FrostyLily Dream. Otherwise, no one can touch it.

If that were all, I’d let it flow. But the Primordial Source is the world’s bedrock, real and scattered, hidden in secluded places like roots under mountain stone.

If word spread, human greed would surge like a flood. Even if they couldn’t reach the Origin Realm, they’d scour the earth for those sites. If they actually found them, they’d harvest at scale.

That would shake the world’s foundation like pulling keystones from an arch.

So I cut the rumor at the root and set the public summit of cultivation at the Rule tier—the highest ordinary beings can reach.”

“What about the old ancestor? Didn’t he brush the edge of the Primordial Source?”

Yumigawa Senki couldn’t hold it in, her voice a quick drumbeat.

“That ancestor was an exception, a rare spark. In all these years, his comprehension was the finest I’ve seen.

Even so, he only brushed the skin of the Primordial Source, like fingertips on frost. That’s the reality—ordinary beings, no matter the race, cannot reach the Origin Realm.”

“Um, but if the Primordial Source has actual sites, they must be extremely hidden, right? And you care so much. Mere humans couldn’t find them.”

Eastern Moon Aixue’s brow held a lingering cloud.

“No. Desire’s power is bottomless, like the sea at night. Even I can’t stop desire from sprouting.

Think of it—the human race’s history is shorter than gods, demons, dragons, and elves. Their bodies and talents don’t outshine them.

Yet they climbed to stand equal, even to steer the age. Why? What sits at the core?”

“Could it be… desire?” Faya answered first, a spark catching tinder.

“Exactly. Humans lack many things, but in desire they’re unmatched.

That’s how they grew into the fifth great race in this world—most numerous like swarming stars, and strongest overall like a river that carves stone.”

Human desire—its terror makes the heart clench, like hearing ice crack underfoot.

In ten or twenty thousand years, they caught up to, even surpassed, races with histories over a million years.

“I get it now. Just as Miss Xinuo said, it’s better to forbid the spread of the Primordial Source.”

Yumigawa Senki’s face lit with realization, like dawn rolling over hills.

“Indeed. I understand Xinuo’s hard choice.”

“Are humans really that scary? They look so small and squishy, nya.”

Hill always tangles on odd branches. It’s adorable.

“Little Hill, humans are amazing! Just look at the Mizumi Clan.”

My little sister seized the chance to brag, sails full in a favorable wind.

“Oooh! The Mizumi Clan is strong!”

Hill dropped the knot instantly—simple as sunshine.

“Gotta cut in! Sis, I forgot to report something. It’s serious.”

FrostyLily Dream’s tone snapped taut, like a bowstring.

“Hm?”

Her face turned grave, night clouds rolling in. I hoped she wasn’t about to drop bad news again.

“It’s about the Worldgate. Not long after you fell asleep eight hundred years ago, its seal began to weaken.

At first it was tiny, like hairline cracks in glaze, so I didn’t worry. But in recent years, the seal’s down by over thirty percent. If this keeps up…”

She stopped there, and the unspoken hung like a blade.

“No way…”

I sent my Sword Intent to its utmost edge, a keen wind sweeping the horizon of the Worldgate.

What I felt matched her words—the seal was steadily thinning.

“So it can’t be avoided after all… FrostyLily Dream, come with me to the Worldgate.”

“With pleasure.”

We vanished with a soft whoosh, like lantern light snuffed by wind.

“What happened? Why did Miss Xinuo and FrostyLily Dream leave so fast?”

“No idea. Maybe something serious just broke the surface.”

Our sudden absence pressed on the room like low thunder, leaving the others in a hush of unease.