Lin Zhiyue dreamed for seven consecutive nights.
Every night, the moment she closed her eyes, she would plunge into that grayish-white void.
The speed at which the pages turned fluctuated, but with every page flipped, the blade-wielding young man in the image would kill one more person.
At first, she could still keep count, but by the fourth day, she had completely lost track.
He simply stood there, blood dripping incessantly from the edge of his blade. The ground around him was soaked with blood, drying only to be drenched again.
His face remained perpetually calm, devoid of any unnecessary expression, but something in his eyes seemed to sink layer by layer, plunging into an unfathomable depth.
She felt she could probably guess who the man was.
When she woke up on the morning of the eighth day, her headache had subsided into a customary dull throb.
Disregarding everything else, she tucked the wordless book into her robes, pushed open her door, and headed straight for the main peak. Yuetuan chased after her for a few steps before stopping. Crouching by the doorway, he watched her retreating back, his ears flattened slightly as he chose not to follow.
Qi Yan was in the courtyard, flipping through a scroll of old records. Hearing her footsteps, he looked up and saw her. His gaze paused briefly on her slightly pale lips before shifting to the book in her hand.
Before he could ask what was wrong, Lin Zhiyue had already walked over to the stone table and placed the book before him. Her voice was slightly hoarse from seven consecutive nights of poor sleep. “Master, do you recognize this book?”
Qi Yan looked down at the book. The moment his eyes landed on the cover, his pupils contracted sharply.
He seemed frozen by some invisible force, sitting motionless on the stone stool as he stared at the book, his fingers hovering an inch above the cover without touching it.
Lin Zhiyue saw his knuckles turn slightly white before slowly relaxing, as if he had repeatedly verified something before finally accepting the reality.
He remained silent for a long time. Just as Lin Zhiyue began to think he wouldn't answer, he spoke, his voice half a tone deeper than usual. “This book seals my past memories.”
He looked up at Lin Zhiyue. Something was churning in the depths of his dark eyes, yet his tone remained steady. “I sealed this book in the Library for many years, and to outsiders, it is nothing more than a blank book. How did you manage to bring it out?”
Lin Zhiyue stood by the stone table, her fingers still clutching the book. “I... I was just curious for a moment.” She certainly couldn't tell him it was a system quest...
She gently pushed the book toward Qi Yan. “Master, this book... I'm returning it to you...” Though she was still somewhat curious about those memories.
Qi Yan was silent for a moment. Finally, his fingers descended, gently touching the cover.
He did not open it, only looking up to meet her eyes. “Is your lack of energy these past few days because of this?”
Lin Zhiyue nodded. She suddenly understood why Qi Yan didn't keep this book by his side.
His memories were too heavy. If he were constantly exposed to them, what would be the difference between sealing them and not? Poor her, a mere outsider, had only been exposed to it for a few days, yet she had already been tormented to the point of gaining a couple of white hairs.
It was all the fault of this stupid system!
Leaving the book on the stone table, she turned and walked out of the courtyard.
When she reached the gate, she looked back. Qi Yan was still sitting on the stone stool with the book beside his hand. Sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead, casting a dappled pattern of fine light across his shoulders and the book's cover.
By the time Lin Zhiyue returned to her courtyard, the system's light screen popped up: 【Quest "Unravel the secret of the blank book" Completed. Reward: Premium Draw Ticket ×10 has been issued.】 She glanced at her panel; adding the two she had saved up previously, she now had a total of twelve Premium Draw Tickets in her hand.
Sitting at her desk, she set Yuetuan aside. After a moment's thought, she retrieved the moon-white, gold-threaded phoenix-embroidered dress of the Jinyao Fairy set from her space and put it on.
The moment the full set was equipped, the hem of the Moonlight Flowing Fairy Dress spread out on the floor in a soft, silvery-white halo. The gold-threaded phoenixes shimmered with subtle, delicate points of light in the shadows, enveloping her as if she were sitting right in the center of a lunar halo.
Rubbing her hands together, she tapped open the Dusk Rose card pool, stacked her twelve tickets, and slammed them down.
The light screen exploded into a dark red vortex, waves of light surging one after another.
The first pull yielded the Rose Earrings, the second the Rose Bracelet, the third was the Hat, and the fourth was the Shawl.
As consecutive spheres of light bloomed on the screen, the fifth item was the Stockings, the sixth was finally the Main Dress, and the seventh was the Parasol.
With all twelve tickets exhausted, she had managed to gather seven out of the ten regular pieces of the Dusk Rose set in one go. She was only missing the necklace, shoes, and petticoat, and she had yet to trigger the hidden Gilded Cloud Waves hair.
Sitting in her chair, she looked at the 7/10 progress on the interface, then glanced down at the Jinyao Fairy set she was wearing. Curving her lips, she silently thought to herself, The koi-fish constitution really is useful.
The system's light screen popped up with a line of text in the corner, its tone carrying a hint of helplessness: 【The host's action of using the koi-fish constitution to increase draw rates falls within the permitted scope of the system rules. While it is somewhat of a loophole, it does not violate the rules.】
Lin Zhiyue chuckled. She put away the newly drawn pieces of the Dusk Rose set, unequipped the Jinyao Fairy set, and changed back into her everyday clothes.
Yuetuan was crouching at the corner of the desk, licking his paws. She scooped up the little furball and stroked his fur, taking the opportunity to release Honghong to stretch its legs. She calculated in her mind that she only needed three more pieces to complete the set, wondering what kind of skill would unlock once it was complete.
Just as Lin Zhiyue calmed down from her excitement over the card draw and was about to pack away the Dusk Rose pieces, the system's light screen popped up again. This time, a completely unfamiliar interface appeared. Floating right in the center of the screen was a dark red crystal, labeled with a line of text: 【Story Quest: Qi Yan · Sealed Memories. Content: Unmanifested portions of Venerable Yanchen's sealed memories. Price: 2,000 points】
Lin Zhiyue stared at the text for a long while, her mind automatically doing the math. Her current total points stood at a little over 2,200. If she bought this Story Quest, she would only have 200 points left.
Her finger hovered over the interface, hesitating for a moment before she decisively pulled it back and pushed the light screen aside.
“I'm not buying it,” she said.
The system popped up a question mark: 【Is the host certain about not purchasing? This Story Quest is a limited-time listing, and once it expires—】
“I said I'm not buying it,” Lin Zhiyue interrupted, her tone not harsh but very firm. “Those are memories my master sealed away; he doesn't want anyone to see them. My witnessing the fragments in that book was already an accident. To buy some Story Quest to spy on the rest of his memories—what would that make me? I am his disciple, not his enemy.”
The system fell silent for a moment as the dark red crystal on the light screen rotated slowly.
Lin Zhiyue packed away the books on her desk, her tone softening but her resolve remaining unchanged. “I am indeed curious, and it is tempting. Two thousand points in exchange for a secret. But I cannot do it. If he wants me to know, he will tell me himself. What he doesn't wish to say is not for me to pry into. Remove the Story Quest.”
The light screen flickered twice, and a small line of text appeared on the interface of the dark red crystal: 【Story Quest "Qi Yan · Sealed Memories" has been removed from the shop.】
With that, the light screen went quiet, reverting to the daily quest panel.
Sitting down at her desk, she opened the jade slip for the Thousand Mountains Cold Prism Sword Art, pulling her attention back to her cultivation.
Rate on N.U.
