After breakfast — perhaps from exhaustion, perhaps because she was simply a heavy sleeper by nature — Xiaoxi, once she had eaten her fill, went back to bed, took hold of a pillow and went on sleeping. And beside her, keeping her company, was a Guoguo who had been put through it all night and was now sleeping like the dead.

Do all little girls like sleeping this much? She’s only just woken up… Ye Tianxie looked at the two of them, one big and one small, lying almost against each other, and thought it quietly to himself.

He telephoned an order for a great many clothes suitable for Xiaoxi along with everyday necessities, and before long someone had delivered them. Then he spent a long while wondering whether or not to get Xiaoxi a game device — after all, a large part of every day now went into the World of Fate for him, and the same was true of Feifei; he could hardly leave Xiaoxi at home on her own. And on top of that, she could not see.

After thinking it over a little, Ye Tianxie decided not to wake her for the moment and to settle the question of a game device once she was up. Then he lay down beside Xiaoxi and went into the game world together with Su Feifei.

And at the moment his consciousness sank and shifted into that other world, the soundly sleeping Guoguo vanished into the Hour of Fate along with it, as she always did. Xiaoxi, in the quiet, chose that moment to sit up in bed. She shifted across, crawled carefully to Ye Tianxie’s side, and after “looking” at him for a while with those closed eyes, bent gently down and bit lightly at his face, murmuring in a voice that carried, “Brother…”

Her small hand waved and beckoned, and something extraordinary happened at once — the clothes Ye Tianxie had put on her lifted away from her one piece at a time like fluttering butterflies, outerwear first, then what was underneath, then her shoes and socks, until there was nothing left on her at all. And every garment that flew off her went up onto the head of the bed and stacked itself there in a neat pile… neater than any hand could have folded it.

Xiaoxi raised her face, held still for a few seconds, then fixed her attention in one particular direction and beckoned again with that small hand…

Out on the balcony, the purple dress Su Feifei had hung there to dry was snatched up as though by a gale, passed through the window and flew into Ye Tianxie’s room — and as it came, the sodden dress turned uncannily dry and perfectly ordered, and then, from the innermost layer outward, put itself neatly back onto Xiaoxi.

The clothes that were hers to begin with were on her again, and all that purple lent her a touch of hazy mystery. Standing on the bed, her soft lips moved slightly, and her body began at once to thin as though turning to mist… thinner, and thinner, until it had vanished from where it stood…

Vanished without a trace.

Only, this uncanny scene, of a kind that belongs in myth, was not seen by Ye Tianxie, and was not seen by Su Feifei… It was seen by no one at all.

The World of Fate.

He put out a call to Zuo Pojun and Murong Qiushui, and found them both offline. After a moment’s hesitation Ye Tianxie turned to Su Feifei anyway. “Feifei, come and do a quest with me.”

“Eh? What quest…” Su Feifei was excited for about half a second before she asked, carefully, “It isn’t a very hard one, is it… I’m afraid I’d hold you back.”

“It’s a very hard one,” Ye Tianxie said. “Going in alone would be difficult for me. I need a shield and a healer, and both of them have to be strong, so…”

“I’ll go, I’ll go!” Su Feifei shouted, excited in an instant, and then said with a small flourish of pride, “Hmph! Big Brother Zuo and Qiushui said so themselves only yesterday — I, Su Feifei, am now the… no, am definitely the strongest, strongest Priest there is.”

She lifted her wrist and gave the Seven-Colored Bracelet a shake, and it threw off its colored light.

Watching that smile which seemed permanently fixed to Su Feifei’s face, and the happiness in her expression as she leaned against Ye Tianxie like a child, Shattered Star-Heart felt a deep envy rise from somewhere far down inside her… When will my sister and I ever be able to live like that, without a care?

If… if I could have a boyfriend as capable as that, and as kind and considerate…

The thought surfaced out of nowhere and threw her into a panic she could not account for; she hurriedly pushed it back down and buried it. She sat quietly across from them, listening to them talk.

Under normal conditions, a hundred level-25 monsters at once would not have troubled him in the least — a thousand, and he would have had no option but to run. But in the near-hopeless conditions of the Ice-Bone Severed Road, a handful of Snow Wolves had been enough to force him out. And farther in there would certainly be more savage beasts. So he needed a Priest who could push the healing higher still, and one or more Guardians who could hold the monsters and run them around… With Zuo Pojun unavailable, Ye Tianxie was naturally not about to go looking for some other “shield.” He would not have been Xietian if he had.

Without a Guardian, Ye Tianxie ran through the odds on the various things that might happen and decided to go anyway. He took Su Feifei’s hand. “All right, my Great Priest Su — you’re the strongest Priest there is, satisfied? Let’s go now.”

“You’re to call me Feifei, or I won’t cook for you when we get back,” she protested in a small voice. It was the first time he had taken her hand of his own accord, and Su Feifei was secretly delighted, with even a small edge of nerves in it. Neither of them had brought up the promise he had made her the night before, and Su Feifei had been anxious about it, halfway between hope and dread. That one natural gesture of his filled her heart at once with a leaping warmth.

“All right, all right… my dear Feifei.” Ye Tianxie laughed lightly and scratched once at the palm of her hand with a finger. As he said my dear Feifei, he distinctly saw a clear pale pink spread across her face.

“Chenxin, I’ll leave things here to you. Don’t wear yourself out — if you’re bored, go out and enjoy yourself, or spend more time with your family.” Ye Tianxie said goodbye to Shattered Star-Heart and walked out holding Su Feifei’s hand.

Shattered Star-Heart watched until Ye Tianxie’s back was out of sight, then covered her mouth with her hand, holding down the urge to cry. Ye Tianxie had become the person in this world she was most grateful to; for someone who had tasted so much coldness and indifference, a casual word of concern from him always struck hard at that one string down at the bottom of her heart…

Watching him go, she discovered all at once how unwilling she was to see him leave… and hazily, she found herself wishing that the one walking out hand in hand with him were her.

That feeling — surely it would be a very happy one.

North of the City of Stars: Wuhua Temple.

What gave Ye Tianxie a headache was that while the man facing him this time was again a monk, he was neither Master Wuhua nor Master Whoremonger nor Master Little Bird, but yet another stranger.

“Greetings, Master.” Ye Tianxie made his usual greeting.

“Greetings to both benefactors. Have the two of you come to undertake a trial?” The monk looked up at Ye Tianxie and Su Feifei and spoke mildly. This was another old monk who looked seventy or eighty at least… the monks of Wuhua Temple all seemed to be old monks. 【Author’s note: Why should that be, I wonder?】

“That’s right… and I haven’t yet asked the Master’s dharma name?” Ye Tianxie said politely.

“Amitabha. The benefactor is too courteous. This old monk’s dharma name is Bald Donkey,” the old monk said mildly.

Ye Tianxie: “……”

Su Feifei: “……”

“Master… Bald Donkey, if you would trouble yourself to teleport the two of us to the entrance of the Ice-Severed Wolf Den.” Getting that profound dharma name out took considerable effort, and Ye Tianxie distinctly felt Su Feifei’s hand trembling in his… plainly from the strain of holding in her laughter.

“A moment, benefactors.” Monk Bald Donkey did not agree at once, but said, eyes half closed and his whole face grave and solemn, “Hear this old monk out. Because so many have come to undertake the trials these past two days, the burden of teleportation has grown too heavy, and Master Wuhua, Master Blossom, Master Smallpox, Master Sunflower, Master Whoremonger, Master Wencher, Master Little Bird, Master Big Bird and Master Old Bird have collapsed from exhaustion one after another. Our temple has therefore resolved that, from today, every person receiving a trial teleport must first render up thirty gold coins as a spirit-taxing, body-wearying teleportation fee… Amitabha!”

“…Thirty gold a head. Isn’t that rather expensive?” The corner of Ye Tianxie’s mouth twitched, and he said it with displeasure.

“Amitabha. Benefactor, have some self-respect. The price is plainly marked and we cheat neither the aged nor the young; should any of it prove false, may heaven strike me down. Benefactor, hand over the money… ahem, benefactor, kindly render up the spirit-taxing, body-wearying teleportation fee.” Monk Bald Donkey drew the words out and said it sternly.

With a shrug, Ye Tianxie had no choice but to render up sixty gold in spirit-taxing, body-wearying teleportation fees, at which Monk Bald Donkey’s face broke into smiles and he sent them to the entrance of the Ice-Severed Wolf Den with a teleport talisman.

The map changed, and cold that cut to the bone came sweeping over them. Ye Tianxie, who was prepared for it, was all right; Su Feifei, though she had heard him describe the cold of this place before they came, still shuddered, her body stiffening at once.

“Cold?” Ye Tianxie asked, looking down at her.

“Mm… very cold.” Su Feifei hugged her arms across herself and said it shivering.

A snow-white coat settled over Su Feifei’s shoulders. The Snow-Fleece Coat cut off mild cold entirely, and the environment at the entrance to the Ice-Severed Wolf Den was precisely the sort of mild cold a human being could just about endure. So the moment the Snow-Fleece Coat went on, that knifing cold slowly faded, and the color came back into Su Feifei’s face at speed.

“Thank you, Tianxie.” Su Feifei pulled the white coat tight around herself and said it with her whole face happy. “Are… are you cold?”

Ye Tianxie smiled slightly and produced a second Snow-Fleece Coat, which he draped over himself — and just then, that childish voice sounded in both their ears…

“Yaa! Big brother, so it is you. Yaya thought she’d got the wrong person… Huh? Why have you come here? You went into the Ice-Severed Wolf Den yesterday, so you can’t go in again for three days!”

There was still no one at the entrance to the Ice-Severed Wolf Den. Plainly, once the few groups who had gone in the day before had told everyone about the horrifying conditions inside and how they had been wiped out to the last man, very few people dared come here at all… and fewer still would be willing to wait for any length of time in an environment like this.

Yaya was sitting on the same snowman as the day before, her small head cocked to one side, her two little legs swinging back and forth in turn.

(End of Chapter 199)