“The highest yet the lowest, as far as the horizon yet right before the eyes... what is this, a riddle game?”
Muttering, Xinyin rubbed at a drumbeat of a headache.
She’d finally reached the treetop’s green crown, and found nothing.
No—just a cryptic hint, a drop of dew on a leaf.
She’d rather swing a blade than untangle threads.
A straight fight felt clean and warm, like fire under cold night.
“Riddle games are fine,” Celia Maya said, voice tea-warm.
“The mind needs to stretch like bamboo in wind.”
“The problem is, our hourglass leaks fast.”
“Maya, do you think you can crack it and find the magic crystal in one hour?”
“That... has some bite.”
She wasn’t built for twisty riddles; Dragon Kin step straight like spears, not threads.
No choice, Celia Maya turned to Wansheng.
“Wansheng, got any thread to pull?”
“Mm. A faint thread, but I’m not sure.”
He nodded and kept sifting thoughts like sand.
“Really?! You know where the magic crystal is?”
At that, Xinyin’s shoulders dropped, breath easing like tide.
“No. I can only hazily point to a place.”
His tone stayed cool, a pond under shade.
“That’s better than no map.”
“Instead of standing here and bleeding time, let’s check your place.”
“Xinyin’s right,” Celia Maya said, eyes bright like dawn.
“Answers hide in footprints, and our time is thin as mist.”
“Makes sense. We can’t keep dragging our feet like wet rope.”
He nodded; thoughts without steps were empty wind.
“Before we leave, tell us your guessed spot.”
“Give us a bottom to our hearts.”
“Yeah, where’s that twisty place?”
Curiosity pricked like citrus on the tongue.
“I’m not confident. I only think it could be there.”
“Time’s tight; let’s walk and talk.”
No teasing, Wansheng went straight.
“Maybe we tangled it too much.”
“The magic crystal might be in Aetus’s hands.”
“Eh? No way!”
For a breath, Xinyin’s mind went blank, snow over tracks.
“In Aetus’s hands... that fits ‘far yet near.’”
“But ‘the highest and the lowest place’—is that a false trail?”
Celia Maya muttered and looked at Wansheng, rain beading on leaves.
She waited for the next line.
“Every hint is true.”
“‘The highest and the lowest place’ might point at something, not a spot.”
“Point at...?”
With that much said, Xinyin caught the thread, incense smoke thin.
“You mean it points to Aetus himself?”
“But it still feels crooked.”
“How do ‘highest’ and ‘lowest’ tie to him?”
“At first glance, it’s foggy.”
“Sit with it, and it circles back to him.”
“To him? Why?”
Their brows knit, bark-lines deep.
“Among all answers I weighed, only he fits.”
“He alone is ‘the highest and the lowest.’”
He paused, then laid it out like stones in a stream.
“In this Azure Forest, Aetus is the strongest peak.”
“Yet among every Law Realm here, he’s the youngest sapling.”
“I see. That does ring true.”
“‘Highest’ is his strength, ‘lowest’ is his age.”
“That matches the pair.”
“And with ‘far yet near’ folded in, odds look good.”
Celia Maya’s voice lifted like wings.
“We shouldn’t stamp ‘final answer’ too fast.”
“Let’s return to the starting point and call Aetus.”
“We’ll ask it clean.”
If a second-stage trial is too easy, it pricks the heart.
Doubt flickered like a moth to flame.
They’d walked this route more than once.
With few obstacles, their return was swift, wind through grass.
In ten minutes, they reached the place they first met Aetus.
Wansheng raised her voice, a bell over water.
When your strength towers over his, words carry across distance.
“Calling me at this hour... looks like you’ve found the magic crystal?”
He spoke around a yawn, sleep still clinging like mist.
“Almost. I think it’s on you, Aetus,” Wansheng said.
Her tone was steady, a blade laid flat.
“Oh? That’s a rare answer.”
“Walk me through it.”
Surprise cleared his eyes, frost melting at dawn.
Wansheng kept it short, reasoning placed like river stones.
“Not bad, not bad.”
“I didn’t expect you to come at it from that angle.”
He clapped, a light patter like rain.
He drew a clear violet-blue gem from his wide sleeve.
Energy thundered inside like a caged storm.
He handed it to Wansheng.
“Congratulations. You passed Azure Forest’s trial.”
“Huh? We passed that easily?”
Xinyin blinked, the world bright as glass.
“You got the right answer.”
“Of course I let you pass.”
“That’s normal, isn’t it?”
He tilted his head, then added, moonlight thin.
“And you missed an important hint.”
“Another hint? What?” Wansheng asked.
Her gaze was steady, lake-calm.
“I told you earlier—this is the simplest trial in the second stage.”
“That counts as a hint?”
“It really is simple...”
Even Celia Maya went a little speechless.
Still, smooth is sweeter than slog, like rice warm in winter.
Thirty minutes remained on the clock.
At Wansheng’s suggestion, they found a quiet nook to rest and eat.
Azure Forest’s air and scenery were too fine to waste.
Shade cooled their brows, and green filled their lungs.
