Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 658 - 595: Nine Nether

WHOO WHOO—

Under the night sky, the train’s whistle echoed through the deserted station platform.

The master and servant disembarked from the train, carrying their luggage. The sight of the Yizhou sign hanging from the platform’s ceiling filled them with sentiment.

Song Shaoyuan was still in Luzhou, immersed in the painful memories brought by the Dream Eater. Ji Linglang also expressed feeling mentally exhausted and preferred to return directly to Chang’an. Therefore, only the master and servant were making the return trip to Yizhou.

After leaving the station, they rented a horse-drawn carriage and rode back to Yizhou City, marveling at the changes along the way.

The once dusty roads had been replaced with gravel paths, stone slabs, and even cement roads.

On both sides of the official roads built by the government, rows of Talisman Lamps stood. By the light of these lamps, one could vaguely see the continuous workshops built along the riverbank.

"Young Master, look."

Chai Chai pointed ahead, covering her mouth to stifle a giggle.

Li Ang followed her pointing finger and saw, standing by the roadside, a stone statue, a towering thirteen meters in height. It depicted a resolute-looking young man with a medicine box in his left hand and a scalpel in his right.

A lengthy inscription of praise adorned the base of the statue.

"Damn."

Li Ang covered his eyes with his hand, overwhelmed by a sense of inexplicable embarrassment.

He had received a letter from Shade informing him that the people of Yizhou had erected a statue in his honor, but he hadn’t expected it to be so tall and conspicuous. What were they thinking, building a Gundam out here?

"It’s quite lifelike."

Chai Chai rested her arm on the carriage window and chuckled. "Especially the knife in his hand."

Li Ang grumbled, "Lifelike? Not at all. Standing by the road holding a knife like that, anyone unfamiliar would mistake it for a highwayman."

He felt a sudden bout of homesickness and apprehension as the gates of Yizhou City drew closer.

「————」

Deep in the night, the master and servant passed through the deserted streets and arrived at the doorstep of Security Hall.

Li Ang took the keys Chai Chai handed him, unlocked the somewhat rusty lock, and pushed open the door.

The house hadn’t been aired out in several years. The air inside was stuffy, and the floors and tables were covered in a thick layer of dust.

Li Ang took several Dust Removal Talismans from his pocket and used Telekinesis to affix them to various corners of the room.

The dust immediately billowed up, gathering around the Dust Removal Talismans to form large dust balls, clearing the air in the process.

"HUM HUM HUM..." Chai Chai hummed an impromptu tune, cheerfully placing their bags on the table. She first lit the kerosene lamp, then found a broom and dustpan in a corner to sweep up the dust balls. Afterward, she took more Dust Removal Talismans to clean the other rooms.

Li Ang sat in the living room for a while. Four years had passed, yet Security Hall was just as he remembered it.

In the corner of the wooden table were the marks he had made as a child, scratching it with his fingernails while playing.

The herbs hanging from the ceiling beams still emitted a faint, medicinal fragrance—though after four years, they were surely past their expiration.

Li Ang looked around his childhood home with nostalgia. After a while, he opened his travel pack.

Inside the pack were several items: the Talisman Plate he always carried, his Radiant Crossbow, a few books from the Academic Palace, a change of clothes, and a metal toothpick.

This metal toothpick was Dragon Fall. Since piercing the bronze box a few days ago, Dragon Fall had gained a new ability: when infused with Spiritual Power, it could change its size.

At its smallest, it could shrink to the size of a toothpick. At its largest—with Li Ang’s Spiritual Power currently at the Early Stage of the Cloud Patrol Realm and approaching Middle Rank—it could extend to twenty meters in length. The spear’s total mass would increase correspondingly, requiring him to release his Mo Si to fortify his body just to be able to lift it.

He wasn’t sure if this was an awakening of an innate ability or a unique consequence of killing the Dream Eater. He would probably only find the answer upon returning to the Academic Palace.

Considering this new ability is particularly sensitive to the input of Spiritual Power, I’d better not put Dragon Fall in my ear and cosplay as the Monkey King. Otherwise, if I get excited one day and accidentally infuse it with Spiritual Power, causing the spear to suddenly extend—that would be quite a scene... Li Ang mused.

The battle of wits with the Dream Eater in the mental world had yielded more than just this one discovery. Li Ang felt that his Mo Si had undergone a significant evolution, and his control over it had improved once again. Its range, precision, and strength had all increased.

If he had to climb Li Yuan again now, it would certainly go much more smoothly.

"AH!"

A cry of surprise came from upstairs. Li Ang didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the Radiant Crossbow and Dragon Fall and, propelled by Telekinesis, shot upstairs.

"What is it?"

He drifted to a stop outside the bedroom door. Chai Chai stood there, looking at him with tear-filled eyes. In her hands, she held a pink Ru dress that was now clearly too small for her. "My clothes... I can’t fit into them anymore..."

"How could you possibly still fit into them?" Li Ang relaxed the arm holding the Radiant Crossbow and rolled his eyes. "You’re all grown up now."

"It’s such a pity. This dress was sewn for me by the Mistress, and I used to love it so much..." Chai Chai murmured, turning the dress over and over in her hands. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"If you really like it, you can take it back to Chang’an and ask a tailor to make one just like it."

"Mm... no, I want to make it myself." Chai Chai sat on the edge of the bed, placed the dress on her lap, and carefully studied its stitching and seams.

Li Ang walked over. He couldn’t resist ruffling Chai Chai’s wonderfully soft hair. Amid her protesting, playful complaints, he set the Radiant Crossbow on the table and opened the bedroom window to look down.

The courtyard below hadn’t been tended for too long. The flowers and plants had long since withered, and the grapevines had dried into woody stalks. Only a few tenacious green vines still clung to the walls.

The courtyard, which had seemed so vast in his childhood, now looked quite small.

And... the well.

Li Ang turned his gaze toward the well. On top of the brick-and-stone-constructed wellhead, the heavy stone slab he had placed there long ago was still in place.