“Eh... did the host just vanish like that...”
Inside the isolated pocket-space.
With its master, the System watched the cold glass screen where Xiaoxiao Ji left the classroom alone; its voice drifted like fog, baffled: “Do we go find the next candidate...?”
“Hm? No rush. Xiaoxiao Ji’s plane plot hasn’t ended. Why sprint into the next step?” The master’s gaze stayed hooked to the screen like a fish to a line. “Little One, calling someone dead before the proof settles is dangerous.”
The camera on the screen shifted like a wind changing direction.
...
Yes.
Xiaoxiao had heard that in places soaked in heavy yin and deep resentment, you meet powerful ghosts; like a moth chasing moonlight, she believed the female ghost who had made a vow with her hadn’t died.
She gathered scraps of rumor like fallen leaves, asked around for every haunted corner under the sky, then burned her part-time wages like oil, running to those whispering places.
Right.
In her heart, maybe Ling Jiang had to leave for other storms; she had to find her and pull her back like a kite string.
She kept at it for five full years, seasons spinning like a prayer wheel.
From graduating high school, to entering university, to graduating again—footsteps beating like rain.
The whole world knew of a timid girl who chased a departed beloved, roaming every rumored haunted site like a lone lantern in wind.
But reality is cold glass, not a fairy tale; five years of running, and her moonlit silhouette still hid beyond the horizon.
Another Qingming came. Xiaoxiao stood before the gravestone she had piled for Nana Toki; her face was clouded like the storm above. She was twenty-two, the spring of girlhood, yet her cheeks lacked the dawn light that age should carry.
“I really want to see you... Sister Ling Jiang.”
She stroked the frayed yellow Talisman like a withered leaf, murmuring, eyes dim as dusk: “Maybe... I’ll never see you again, right? Or you don’t want to see me?”
“Then how do you think you walked out of those haunted nests alive?”
The voice rose soft behind her like a night breeze. Xiaoxiao snapped around, and a familiar shape stood like a lighthouse in fog.
“Are you brain-dead? A mortal waltzing into lairs packed with fierce ghosts. If my life weren’t iron-hard and my skills sharp, you’d have gotten me killed.”
Nana Toki held a Yin Jade, cracked like a dried riverbed, her face helpless, a sigh hanging like smoke: “Fine. You searched for me for years. I’ll forgive you.”
Xiaoxiao’s left cheek felt cold as a winter window; she pressed Nana’s hand to it, voice trembling like a plucked string. “You’re back... Sister Ling Jiang...”
Truth was, Nana Toki hadn’t left Xiaoxiao’s side at all these years.
Five years ago at Longvine Academy, in a life-or-death clash with Red-Clothed Ling Jiang, she left herself a hand: while stripping the Yin Jade to unleash power, she split off a fragment of lingering will and stored it with the jade, like sealing starlight in stone.
She got lucky and survived the aftermath.
All these years, she cultivated that shred of soul like tending a single ember, hoping to leave the jade soon and step back into daylight.
After one year, strength fully restored and feet poised to return, she ran headlong into Xiaoxiao scouring the world for her; the sight struck her heart like a bell.
Before she ever met that idiot Nesting Phoenix, the only ones who would search the world for her were the underworld’s two Black-and-White wardens, chains clinking like rain.
So this heartless rascal decided to savor being wanted—let Xiaoxiao look for her for five whole years, taste lingering sweetness like a candy on the tongue.
Watching in the isolated space, the System froze like a statue. Was this host even human?
Thankfully, Nana never told Xiaoxiao the truth; if she learned she’d been playing hide-and-seek for five years, tears would fall like a summer storm.
Nana stayed long in this plane; with the Yin Jade, she could live as long as mountain pine. She was the first, and the last, to walk Xiaoxiao to the end of her days.
“Ling Jiang, do you think we’ll meet in our next life?” At the edge of farewell, Xiaoxiao gripped Nana’s hand like a lifeline, asking with a steady gaze.
She had been a hard materialist before she met Nana; after meeting her, she planted faith like a seed, hoping for a next life.
“We will.” Nana answered softly, a smile lifting like a crescent moon.
Her smile was always beautiful, a clean river under sun.
But Xiaoxiao had no strength left to answer. At the last moment, leaving her beautiful side to her beloved, Nana lowered her head and brushed a kiss at the corner of her lips like a falling petal. “I’ll come find you. Be good and wait for me.”
...
...
...
[ Ding! Plane settlement begins... ]
[ Settling plane... ]
[ Side Mission One: Complete! ]
[ Side Mission Two: Complete! ]
[ Optional Side Mission: Complete! ]
[ Hidden Mission: Complete! ]
[ Current Karma: -100000000000 ]
[ Current Items: Queen of Time’s Sorrow; Soul Worm ]
[ Current Points: 165 ]
Back in the isolated space, Nana Toki watched numbers stream like rain on glass; her face barely rippled.
Yes.
When she chose a five-year game of hide-and-seek, she’d already guessed the System would chop her karma like a butcher.
As expected, back to the starting line.
Damn!
It hardly mattered; the debt pile was already a mountain, a few more stones wouldn’t tilt it.
She had decided to walk farther down the road of letting herself fly, wind in her sleeves.
System: “...”
This host had no shame, like a stray cat on a roof.
“But what’s this Soul Worm?” Nana picked up a small vial, glass clear as ice; inside lay a motionless bug she’d never seen, curled like a seed.
“Ah... that’s the reward for your Optional Side Mission. It can store a soul after death, but first the Soul Worm must drink one drop of the person’s blood.”
“Hmm, sounds pretty useless.”
Like that hourglass we own—sand falling like spent time.
System: “...”
“If you’ve got nothing else, we’ll transmit you to the next plane.” The System’s tone clicked like a clock. “We’re very busy.”
“Actually, I do. I wanted to ask about the last plane’s worldview. I still don’t get how Teacher Bai went crazy.”
“Then, transmission begins in 3... 2... 1...”
“Damn it, you sneaky—”
Me!
Before the words could land, Nana was flung out like a pebble across water.
...
“Hey! Qiao Wan, wake up, wake up!”
“Qiao Wan! Qiao Wan!”
Nana swam up through a sea of shoves; noise buzzed like hornets. Even after her eyes opened, the world spun like a top.
“Wh—what happened?” End of the world? Yelling this loud, someone’s going to complain like thunder to the property office!
“You finally woke up. Qiao Wan, quick! Come to the company. We can’t delay.” The woman lunged and hooked her arm like a hawk; Nana’s head swam, and she stopped after a few steps, breath ragged.
“Did something happen? Why the rush?” No plane plot had synced; confusion pooled like mist.
Around them, a clutch of girls watched like it was street theater, eyes bright as lanterns.
“You still ask what happened! Qiao Wan, the TV drama female lead that was yours—someone snatched it!”
“Hah...”
Her locked-in TV female lead got grabbed? So this plane’s the urban entertainment circle, lights and knives?
Nana blinked at the woman—likely her agent—eyes clear as rain, then said, “Let me catch my breath, okay?”
She hadn’t received the plane’s script; to these things, she knew nothing, pockets empty like a monk’s bowl.
Don’t make it hard for me.
“You still want to catch your breath! If you hesitate, that spot’s gone!” The agent’s face was iron with worry, sighs clanking like chains. “How long? If we’re late and lose it, what then!”
“Ten minutes.” Nana thought, choosing a cautious number. “Relax, sis. Even if we shoulder a rocket launcher and fly over, we might not pull it back.”
Agent: “...”
Was Qiao Wan too shocked? Why was she talking like a ghost stepping from fog?
“No. Three minutes. I’m heading down to start the car. Get downstairs fast. This drama decides your future. Stop being so carefree!”
She left like a gust through a door.
Only Nana remained, facing a ring of girls whose eyes were round as coins.
Nana: “...”
I answered you seriously, heart steady as a stone!
How is any of this my fault!
