The scattered search squads straggled back after about an hour, like sparrows returning to twilight eaves.

Many teams led shackled bandits, their faces the color of packed earth, trophies hauled from a muddy river.

Rally, shackle, march home—the whole move like a single brushstroke.

Near the half-moon hour, everyone reached Northfort, slipped past the cold watch, and locked the captives inside the Sanctuary’s stone belly.

Of all the factions that set out, the Sanctuary moved like winter steel, first to cleanse its ward and circle home.

Back in the Sanctuary, Cerqin just wanted sleep like a rock under frost; she’d hit the guild square tomorrow.

She didn’t expect Spring Tide to be waiting, quiet as surf pooling in a moonlit cove.

“Mm… are you done already?”

Cerqin asked on reflex, body easing back a half step, leaning against the Silver Luan behind her like a reed against a windbreak.

A sinking sense of ‘tonight’s a storm’ rose like dark tide.

“Pretty much… I’m wiped, like a lamp at dawn. I want to unwind tonight.”

“I’m wiped too, bones soft as rain-soaked rope… how about we just sleep?”

“What do you think?” she asked, eyes gleaming like tide foam.

“Mm…”

Spring Tide looked eager, but Cerqin thought there was room to wrestle the night back.

“I already had Baili file a report, but telling you direct hits faster, like an arrow.”

“We pinned down part of the Demon Race’s moves—shadow prints in snow.”

“Oh?”

Spring Tide’s focus snapped over like a hawk to prey.

Silver Luan, still by the door, nudged Cerqin into the side room, closed the door like folding a fan, and took the lead.

“Cerqin’s right. We hooked a big fish this time.”

“What happened?” Spring Tide frowned, lines gathering like ripples.

The two took turns, sketching the bandit purge and the scarred woman’s intel like ink on rice paper.

“A princess of the White Steed Kingdom, and the royal guard general…”

On the neighbor kingdom wiped off the map, Spring Tide knew more than both, and her judgment mirrored Silver Luan’s like twin lakes.

The Demon Race may be foretelling their future—birth of a Demon King, war outcomes—like reading storms in tea.

This is heavy intel, to be shared with the high-rank cultivators searching the northern wastes, like sending fire down beacon towers.

“Tch…” Spring Tide sat up from the bed, face helpless as rain on stone; a morning report would come, but earlier prep never hurts.

“You two…” Her gaze pinned them like needles.

Silver Luan, under that stare, turned her head aside like a cat feigning innocence.

Getting Cerqin alone for a night was too sweet to pass; she’d mapped Spring Tide’s temper already, like a sailor mapping currents.

With a key lead like this, Spring Tide wouldn’t have the mind for play.

Cerqin was happy too; taking turns is easier than facing the wave together.

“Speaking of which, is little Aileaf done over there?”

As the words fell, the door sighed, and a small figure slipped in like a sparrow at dawn.

All three turned their gaze, straight as arrows; Aileaf’s tired, excited face held a wisp of puzzlement.

“What’s wrong?”

Aileaf had just wrapped an experiment; she’d only come to try her luck, like tossing a pebble into a pond.

She didn’t expect the door to sit unlatched; a push and it opened like a shell.

The usual fog wasn’t in the room.

“We just mentioned you, and here you are. Finished?”

“Pretty much. Didn’t expect it to succeed this fast. The raw solution hits like bottled thunder, about ten times the old dose, and stamina cost is almost the same.”

Talking potions lit Aileaf up like a lamp under fresh oil.

“Most important, there’s room to refine. If we fix the rapid stamina drain, it’ll be a hit.”

Big sales means the diluted version; the raw brew would floor almost anyone, even many high-rank cultivators, like a wave knocking sandcastles.

“You haven’t run a proper test yet, right?”

Cerqin asked, then saw Aileaf staring straight at her like a measuring rod.

“Uh… don’t tell me you want me to test it.”

“Mm… it’s too strong. Besides you two, I can’t hand the raw brew to anyone else.”

Aileaf’s gaze danced between Cerqin and Silver Luan like fireflies.

Spring Tide spoke with a faint sigh, like wind slipping off eaves.

“You three play slow… I’ll go handle real work.”

“Mm…”

Cerqin scratched her head, wanting to say something, then didn’t, like a fish slipping the net.

“I can’t use this potion anyway…”

Aileaf muttered, but at the door Spring Tide still bent, pinched Aileaf’s cheek, pouted, and left like a gust through silk.

The room fell quiet, a pool under cloud.

The Holy Maiden’s mood, unlike her usual calm, made Cerqin a little afraid, like a deer hearing twigs snap.

“Looks like you’d better pray for tomorrow…”

Cerqin shot Silver Luan a glare sharp as a needle.

“Hey, is that on me? If I could, I’d do nothing tonight and just rest, like curling into a cocoon.”

“You didn’t ask me…”

“So I want rest today.”

“Heh-heh, nope~” she purred like a cat.

Aileaf watched their banter, a little dazed, then suddenly understood Spring Tide’s feeling, like being left outside in drizzle.

She wanted to test the drug, but she couldn’t join; that stung like nettles.

“Does Spring Tide have something urgent?”

“Mm…”

Cerqin explained again, like rewinding a scroll.

On bloodline abilities, knowledge and research, Aileaf was the one with steady hands, like a surgeon.

“Low-cost future sight is extremely rare—no less rare than a god-tier bloodline.”

“But at Third Rank, the time and scope are narrow.”

“Mm, she’ll likely hit Fourth Rank soon…”

“She’s probably being held here now. I want to meet her and ask a few things, like a scholar seeking a riddle.”

“Mm… let Spring Tide arrange it tomorrow.”

The captured bandits should’ve been handed straight to Northfort’s Sanctuary, but the leader and fallen princess were special.

For now they were held by the Holy Maiden’s knight-guards, like falcons on tethers.

Aileaf nodded, then her expression turned coy, like a cat kneading cushions.

“I do want to test the new potion soon…”

Cerqin glanced at her, hoping the night might soften into rest like ash settling.

But even without testing, Silver Luan’s hand had already started wandering, quick as ivy, and wouldn’t spare her.

As expected, Aileaf’s next words made Cerqin want to cry like rain.

“But I’ve been busy so long, I want a reward, so—”

Aileaf’s breath shifted, sweet turning sharp like plum into wine.

“Silver Luan—count me in. I’m first!”

“Hey, wait, wait!”

Silver Luan’s dragon tail looped Cerqin’s waist in a blink, and a light flick sent her onto the bed like a tossed willow.

One tall, one small, they pounced like hungry tigers; even braced, Cerqin couldn’t resist the tide.

“Lift your leg~”

Cerqin’s leg rose against her will; Aileaf’s bloodline sang like strings, pulling joints like puppets.

As her side lifted high, the skirt spilled open, and the view flashed like moon on river.

“You never dress properly!”

Silver Luan pressed to Cerqin’s back, gently nibbling her ear like a fox; Cerqin’s breath came rough as bellows.

Silver Luan’s ability had a side effect—sudden desire flaring like dry grass.

In pure trigger, it rivaled Aileaf’s brew, only without the stamina trade to stack sensations.

The fierce push made Cerqin’s awareness tremble like a taut string.

Aileaf picked the moment; her straight jab landed, and Cerqin’s spirit floated toward the clouds like a released kite.

Their play ran till dawn; Cerqin’s passive ability flared, so even after, all three were bright as morning sparrows.

“Feels like sleep keeps drifting farther from me…”

She lay on the bed, watching the gray light leak through the window like mist, eyes wandering far.