Arrow. Arrow. Arrow... 

... Arrow... 

Picking up arrow after arrow off the ground, Lin Songmei let out a long sigh, bending over once more to pick up yet another arrow off the ground. 

Is this what housewives felt like?

Filling up a quiver and switching it for another empty one, Songmei continued to pick up the reusable arrows while Yan Mingqing worked on breaking the crystal shell that they had... generously gifted to the crab. 

“I’m doneeee~” Songmei cheered, stretching her arms to the sky after picking up the last arrow. “How are things going over there, Mingqing?” 

“I’m... fine!” Mingqing grunted, smacking the crab again and causing a large crack on its shell, “Just a... few more pieces.” 

Jogging over to help, Songmei watched as Mingqing brought her sheathed sword down onto the crab, cracking another piece of the crystalline encasing off. “I... hmm...” 

Songmei paused, standing still beside Mingqing as she brought her sword down again. There... There wasn't much that she could do... It wasn’t as if she could smack it with her hand or anything, and her dagger for sure wasn’t going to do much.

“I’ll just let you handle it,” Songmei murmured, seeing that there weren’t many pieces left, a couple more strikes would do it in. 

--------

Finished with the crab, its corpse now stored in Mingqing’s spatial storage ring, Songmei and Mingqing left the area, following the map on the terminal to return to the beaten path. From the trodden path, they could then easily return to the city. 

The magic of... civilization! 

Roads! 

Who would’ve thought that roads could be so miraculous. 

“We’re not too far from the path,” Mingqing informed, closing the map to walk beside Songmei. “We are pretty far from the city though, so it’ll be a pretty long walk back.” 

“I... see...” Songmei lamented, tired and worn from all the walking and fighting. “I wish they had shuttles here...” 

“Me too,” Mingqing sighed, pulling out a small snack bar from her spatial storage ring. “You want a bite? I was just going to snack until we got back to the city. Even if it's going to be almost 3 pm by the time we get back, we can eat a small lunch around then.” 

“Ahh, okay. That sounds good,” Songmei smiled, leaning over and pushing her hair back to take a bite from Mingqing’s chocolate flavored snack bar. “We can choose from Food Reviewer Cai Yufei’s hand curated list!” 

Snorting and suppressing a laugh, Mingqing raised an eyebrow, sarcasm dripping in her voice as she teased. “We can’t make fun of Food Reviewer Cai! Don’t you know how much time he spent going through every food review in the city? Time really... well-spent.” 

Their banter continuing, the two made their way back to the path, weaving through the trees, stepping over roots, and referring back to their map to not lose their way. 

The crunch of the dry, worn dirt path under their shoes once more, Songmei and Mingqing high-fived, following the long path that stretched out in front of them. 

“Walking in a straight line... I can do that,” Songmei murmured, her voice dripping with lethargy as she held hands with Mingqing, moving forward down the path. “There are a few people in front of us by the way, Mingqing.” 

“I know,” Mingqing gave a nod, her usual energetic voice also quite worn after all hunting, running, and meandering through the forest they had done. “The path is... straight, Songmei. How am I not going to see them...” 

“Perhaps you’re experiencing a sudden bout of blindness, I don’t know...” Shrugged Songmei, squeezing Mingqing’s hand in her own. “Someone’s walking over to us and waving though...” 

Honestly, at this point, Songmei didn’t want to talk to anyone... 

However, at this point, she was fine with anything, as long as it wasn’t another person coming to hit on her or Mingqing. 

As the person came closer though, Songmei’s eyes widened. She recognized him. 

Han Youhong. 

He was one of the two direct disciples taken in by the top sect of the Eastern Continent, the Pavilion of Extinguishing Shadows! 

Well, the situation in the Eastern Continent was... unique. There were actually two hegemonic sects, however, the two sects had decided to fuse into one, each retaining their autonomy to a certain extent, but forming one upper echelon. 

The two sects that combined? 

The Pavilion of Radiant Light and the Pavilion of Extinguishing Shadows. 

Although in official terms the two sects were the same, they functioned more like two independent sects; you'd enter the sect, officially titled the Pavilion of Radiant Shadows, then get sorted into either the Radiant Light side or the Extinguishing Shadows side. 

From there it was pretty much two separate sects... 

The Radiant Light side was a very Yang-focused sect, many times their cultivating arts were related to the sun or other sources of Yang. 

On the other hand, the Extinguishing Shadows side was a very Yin-focused sect, cultivating in arts related to the moon or other sources of Yin. 

By combining, the sects managed to become a complete entity that actually surpassed the two sects individually. 

A sort of 2 + 2 = 5 situation... 

Even having read about it, Songmei was still confused, but it worked out? And... she didn’t live on the Eastern Continent, so it didn’t affect her too much. 

Now, however, Han Youhong, newest direct disciple of the Pavilion of Extinguishing Shadows was uhh... approaching her and Mingqing?

With black hair that wasn’t too long, it was long enough to cover his eyes if he put his hair in front of his face, and piercing red eyes, one would think that Han Youhong would be scary. 

The constant stream of jelly entering his mouth kinda... dissipated the image though. 

Bored, with his two chain blades slung on his back, Han Youhong gave a casual wave to Songmei and Mingqing. “What’s up, Starlighters?” 

Squish. 

There went another Lychee Jelly... 

“Nothing... much?” Mingqing answered, her face cold as the frozen tundra. 

“Well, I was alone, just walking back to town after hunting, so I thought I’d come say hi,” Han Youhong shrugged, nodding towards his two chainblades that had just been cleaned of blood. “Care if I join you? Eating jelly alone on a path is much more depressing than eating jelly when walking with others.” 

“Sure...?” Agreed Songmei with a cautious murmur. “I mean... feel free? I don’t see why not...” 

“Cool beans,” Han Youhong answered, pulling out another pack of jelly from his spatial storage ring, “Don’t mind me then. I’ll just be eating my jelly.” 

Squish... 

... 

Squish... 

Songmei was already mourning for all the jelly in Han Youhong’s spatial storage ring... 

Esiyx

Feeling betterrrr ishhh yayayayayyyy wohooo
whipped out a chapter in like 45 min which was fancyyy pantsss
also slept 10.5 hours last night so life was gooddd
ofc was still tired at school but... that's lfie...

Thanks for reading though~!!
take care reader friends~ <3