"Drink more warm water… I will remember."
Jingliu nodded solemnly.
"Uh—"
Bailu blinked. The teasing advice she'd thrown out so casually was being received with such seriousness that she ended up flustered instead. She scratched her head and hurriedly continued:
"T-Then also make sure you to keep warm! Your body's cold by nature, so if you don't take care—"
She rambled on and on, words tumbling over one another. And Jingliu listened, nodding with equal seriousness.
As for the drink more warm water?
That wasn't a joke. Bailu did prescribe it. For someone with Jingliu's cold-dominant constitution, it truly helped.
After finishing her instructions, Bailu looked around with cautious eyes, then very stealthily grabbed Daichi's wrist.
"Come on! Those old geezers aren't around right now! Let's go out and play!"
Daichi didn't resist; he let the enthusiastic dragon girl pull him along.
The other alchemists in the clinic simply turned and busied themselves with their paperwork.
They saw nothing. They knew nothing.
If the chief physician asked later—they would all be struck with sudden, collective amnesia.
Jingliu paused only a moment at this absurdly practiced routine… then followed.
The moment Bailu stepped out of the clinic, her mood visibly soared. She hopped, spun, pointed excitedly at every little thing.
Leaving that place was like slipping out of a cage, a brief escape into freedom.
—————————————————
"Why dragon physician doesn't seem to live very happily in the Exalting Sanctum area?" Jingliu asked quietly as they arrived at the Central Starskiff Haven, watching Bailu run excitedly from stall to stall.
Bailu birth had taken place just before Danfeng banishment—long before Jingliu succumbed to mara-struck madness.
So she had always known of Bailu's existence… yet had never visited her.
She had not been able to.
Not back then.
"She's not treated badly." Daichi replied.
"Just… not freely."
He explained how Bailu's status and role kept her confined to the Exalting Sanctum area and the Vidyadhara inner district. How her attempts to sneak out had been constant, chaotic—and how her first taste of actual freedom only made her crave it more.
"Not even freedom is allowed?"
Jingliu's eyes narrowed.
Cold pressure, sharp and killing, rose unmistakably around her.
She was angry.
For Bailu to be the heir of the Vidyadhara lineage—and yet be denied even the right to walk where she wished?
And this elders dared to confine her?
And Jing Yuan, the so-called General of the Luofu allowed this to stand?
Far away in the Strategist Hall, Jing Yuan paused over paperwork and shivered.
…Why was it suddenly so cold?
"Don't... don't get worked up, Master—!" Daichi quickly seized her wrist, grounding her before the atmosphere could freeze over entirely.
"Hmph…"
She snorted coldly, looking at Bailu back to relieve the anger in her heart.
[But Jingliu, why do you care so much about Bailu?]
X's tone carried genuine curiosity.
From his perspective, they had just met.
"Because I wish for that child to live well," Jingliu answered softly.
"As for the reason…"
She glanced between Daichi and X weighing, then chose to speak.
"It is an old story. One you will learn sooner or later."
Her voice was calm now. The cleansing of mara-struck corruption had opened old doors—allowed her to look at the past without drowning in it.
"You once mentioned Cloud Knights' Five Chivalrous Heroes" she said.
"Once, we caused a great calamity within the Luofu."
[The five heroes… you was one of them, wasn't it?]
"Yes. I was one of them." She lowered her gaze.
"But the one who sparked the disaster was… someone else."
Her voice thinned, like moonlight drifting across water.
"Two fools. Two people who could not accept the passing of someone dear. In the Scalegorge Waterscape… they used her remains as a foundation to force the rebirth of a dragon."
"But instead, they created a monstrous dragon"
Daichi and X both stilled.
"That abomination nearly destroyed the Scalegorge Waterscape. And I… found an opening. I severed its reverse scale and ended it."
[The one who died… was someone important to you?]
"…Yes."
A faint ache flickered behind Jingliu quiet tone.
"She fell in battle defending the Xianzhou. A Cloud Knight's death in battle should be an honor. But those two… refused to let her go, and their obsession birthed disaster."
[Then… Bailu is the…]
X already knew the answer.
"Yes."
Jingliu watched the little dragon girl happily weaving between market stalls, tail swaying with each step.
"Bailu is that dragon reborn."
The method—some Vidyadhara secret rite Jingliu did not know. Only that the abomination became her.
[I see…]
X's voice carried a solemn understanding.
He had witnessed similar things in the vast galaxies.
Broken hearts trying to resurrect the dead.
People creating monsters out of grief.
Pain that could not move forward.
Not only Jingliu and her companions had slain theirs.
He had slain his alone as well.
Just then—
"Daichi! Big Sister! What are you two talking about?"
Bailu reappeared arms full of skewer candy fruits, her cheeks slightly puffed.
She blinked at the heavy atmosphere, decided it was weird then promptly shoved one skewer into each of their hands.
"Here! It's really good!"
"Thank you," Jingliu replied.
She bit into one.
The glaze cracked delicately; sweet juice bloomed across her tongue, warm and soft.
Something eased within her.
Jingliu looked at Bailu…
... and smiled faintly—clear, gentle, and utterly sincere.
"It is delicious."