Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lonemoon didn’t open the door with a spell, but turned directly into a light smoke, and then entered from the window. He looked around, but didn’t see Little Ying. Only that in the middle of the pillow on the bed, there was a big hump which was shivering and shaking. From time to time a repressed sob came from it.
Lonemoon felt a pain in his heart. Suddenly he had an urge to get out and give Chef a really bad beating. Bastard! What did you say to my little princess just now! His hands tightened beside his body, as he suppressed the urge to rush right over and carry her up to comfort her.
He stepped forward and said in a soft voice, “Why is Little Ying crying? Did someone bully you?”
The cotton lump on the bed stiffened, and the sound of sobbing stopped immediately, but she didn’t reply.
“What are you sad for, can you tell Daddy?” He continued. “Is it Mommy? How about Daddy help you beat him!”
“No… no!” A crying voice rebutted from inside the quilt. “Not mommy…”
“Who is it then?”
“…” She fell silent again.
“Can’t tell Daddy?”
The inside remained silent. After a long while, an even lower voice came, “Little Ying… can’t… tell.”
Lonemoon’s face fell. He thought about it and said, “If you can’t tell Daddy, how about telling cute little bunny?” With that said, he produced a bit of Divine Perception, and made another transfiguration spell, this time not to Shen Jing, but a snowy white little bunny, and he put it at the head of the bed. “Then Daddy will go out first. You have a chat with Bunny.”
With that said, he turned and opened the door, walking out.
The room fell silent instantly.
After a long while, that cotton lump moved, and the quilt was lifted slightly on the side, showing a little face covered in tears. A pair of eyes, still moist, looked at the rabbit at the head of the bed. After a long while of hesitation, she reached out and took the bunny into the quilt.
She stroked the head of the bunny very carefully. The more she stroked it, the more moist were her eyes. The teardrops which had just stopped started falling again. At the same time, she bit her lower lip, as though struggling to not cry out loud. She cried so hard that she started to hiccup. After a long while, she started talking to the bunny amidst the hiccups.
“Bunny, bunny, is Little Ying a… bad kid?”
“Bunny, bunny, Little Ying misses Sister so much, wants to go home so much.”
“But… but Little Ying can’t go back. Little Ying must not go back.”
“If Little Ying goes back, Sister… will… get hurt again!”
“It’s all Little Ying’s fault.. If not to protect Little Ying, Sister will not…”
“Little Ying is okay by myself. Little Ying has Daddy and Mommy now, must be okay…”
“Little Missy is not going back! No! Little Ying is very brave! Little Ying is very strong! Little Ying… doesn’t want Sister any more!”
She struggled to keep back her tears. She clenched her little fists tight, and with every sentence her voice grew deeper, as if she was cheering herself on. It was so mature that it was heartbreaking. It was as though… she was forcing herself to grow.
Outside…
Lonemoon, “…”
Yi Qing: “…”
What on earth… did a three-year-old Shen Ying go through? Such that she’d force herself to protect her family in such a way of forcing herself to leave.
No wonder… that unlike the last time, she accepted Chef and him so readily, before they even explained who they actually were. No wonder she didn’t mention Shen Jing even once over these few days. No wonder that she was so well-behaved and understanding, unlike other kids. It seemed that she knew from the start she was no longer in THAT world.
So it didn’t matter at all who they were. What was important was that she felt she had successfully kept Shen Jing away from danger. This was the only thing the three-year-old felt that she could do for her beloved sister, even if it meant leaving her!
——————
“Master…” Yi Qing felt a stabbing pain in the bottom of his heart, and a stifling, suppressing sensation. He turned to enter.
Lonemoon couldn’t help but turn to push the door as well. For heaven’s sake! What immense good luck Shen Jing had such that she could get a sister like Little Ying!
Just as the two was about to push the door open, they suddenly felt the whole earth trembling, and a series of rumbling sounded around them. The immortal peak not far from them started cracking like it was underneath some great weight. Even the palaces upon it turned into ashes instantly. The Protective Mountain Array was directly activated, covering the whole sky palace.
An extremely creepy but somehow familiar aura swept in their direction.
Lonemoon and Yi Qing were both stunned, and their eyes widened abruptly together. This aura was from… an intruder!
Indeed, in the next instant, with a very loud rumble, a crack appeared in the sky, and a blue realm gate suddenly opened up. A crystalline ice peak taller than all the floating peaks of Invincible Heavenly Palace penetrated the realm gate.
As compared to the slow speed in which it moved last time, the iceberg appeared very rapidly this time. Lonemoon and Yi Qing didn’t even have a chance to seal the realm gate, when the iceberg was already in front of their eyes.
The two hearts sank together. What happened? They had apparently sealed that mushroom world out of the plane completely, yet why did these intruders still appear! Unless… they didn’t come from that small world!
“Elder Lonemoon! Elder Yi Qing!” Yi Qing suddenly rushed in hurriedly. She came directly on a sword, a voice transmission stone in her hand. She said hurriedly without even saluting, “Voice transmission came from Emperors of all continents, saying that icebergs exactly like this one appeared in their sky palaces, and asked sect master to come out of closed-door cultivation to help!”
“Shit!” Lonemoon had to curse. These intruders were leading a full-on attack this time? They were actually in all continents’ sky palaces! Where the hell did they come from?
“They should have come along the River of Forgetfulness.” Yi Qing suddenly spoke.
“What?” Lonemoon was shocked. Yi Qing gestured for him to look at his sea of consciousness, and Lonemoon hurried to shut his eyes and look. On the originally golden plane tree in the sea of consciousness, white lines suddenly appeared, which spread across the whole tree and even onto every twig and leave. Those were… the original positions of the River of Forgetfulness! All of it turned white at the moment.
“Little Shortie!” Lonemoon suddenly remembered. “Holy shit! They took control of Little Shortie!”
He should have thought about it long ago! Little Shortie went to mushroom world with him, and with himself controlled, how could she be fine? But they were in a rush to seal that small world, and with Shen Ying’s accident, they didn’t think about her for a while.
No! It wasn’t that they didn’t think about her, but that they subconsciously ignored her.
“They must have done something during the last intrusion.” Yi Qing thought about this as well. That was why, all of them subconsciously ignored this matter, giving them time to move.
