Chapter 70

Yiling Ke looked utterly weary of life.

She was sorry, but she really couldn't cry anymore; the impulsive emotion had already passed.

As Yiling Ke stood upon her sword, Zora remained beside her, watching.

The girl's face was full of confusion and bewilderment, mixed with a hint of dissatisfaction—much like a student who tied for first place only to see the teacher reward the other one.

Yiling Ke kept her eyes fixed straight ahead, but the girl in her peripheral vision continued to stare, her expression shifting from confusion to a burgeoning unhappiness.

"..." Yiling Ke swallowed hard.

Heh... what is going on...

Why do I feel a sense of guilt... It's fake, it must be fake.

Wake up! Yiling Ke, wake up! This is Zora, the girl who skewer people with one strike! Don't you dare interpret her staring as being aggrieved!

A long time passed.

"..."

A drop of sweat slowly slid down Yiling Ke's temple.

Why is she still looking at me?

Yiling Ke stole a quick glance at Turi Qi.

Kind Senior Sister Turi, please save me.

The kind Turi Qi offered her a gentle, tight-lipped smile.

Then she turned her head away.

Yiling Ke: "..."

She looked toward Vane next.

Aren't you Zora's servant? She looks very sad right now; aren't you going to comfort her?

Seeing her look, Vane offered a slight nod and a polite smile.

Then he turned back.

Yiling Ke: "..."

Hah.

In truth, the dynamic of the five-person group was quite peculiar.

Setting aside that master and servant pair, even the simple-minded Song Zhihuai could instinctively seek out the person with the most prestige in the team, which was Zora.

If Turi Qi had previously treated Zora with the inclusive attitude of a senior sister, after the friction of their training and the Great Competition, her attitude had become tinged with a genuine submissiveness.

Was it because Zora possessed startling talent and the greatest strength?

Not entirely; at the beginning, Senior Brother Song had the highest cultivation.

Perhaps it was an inexplicable aura? Zora ignored the world and had a strange personality, yet the other four trusted her character implicitly. Unconsciously, they followed her lead, resulting in the current state of affairs.

At some point, Zora had become the center of the team.

Yiling Ke finally couldn't hold out any longer and turned her head: "I really can't cry right now."

Zora: "Why?"

"..." Yiling Ke tried to negotiate, "How about this? Once this matter is resolved, I'll cry for you!"

"?"

Can this kind of thing be saved for later?

Zora was a bit confused, but seeing how serious Yiling Ke looked, there were no signs of deception.

But shouldn't tears be a spontaneous thing, produced only when the emotions are right?

Since Zora believed she was doing the same thing as Song Zhihuai, Yiling Ke's emotions should be equivalent. If Yiling Ke had cried just now, she surely had to cry for her as well.

"Fine," Zora answered.

She added a reminder: "Don't forget."

Yiling Ke nodded solemnly: "I promise."

Zora stopped flying alongside her and moved one step ahead.

Only then did Vane move to Zora's side.

Zora glanced at him. Since an obedient and smart one had arrived, she asked, "Can crying be saved for later?"

"Of course," Vane said, lowering his head. "It's just that some people can turn it on and off at will, while others cannot."

"What does that mean?"

"There is fake crying, and there is real crying."

"?" Zora looked skeptical. In her meager decade of life experience in her original world, every instance of crying she had seen was real.

Tears of agony for a future fate, tears that couldn't be suppressed due to physical pain, tears upon witnessing death, or the trembling tears of a first-time killer.

Even when her father was restrained by her while she was bleeding, tears flowed down his ugly face as he wailed and begged for mercy.

I never thought it could be faked,

Zora thought.

Then why couldn't she cry?

Even in the arena during the duel with her father, when he charged at her with his blade without hesitation, she didn't know if she would hesitate.

People in the arena didn't have the luxury of self-reflection.

But the result was objective.

Her survival instinct always won.

The blood on her hands was still warm when she returned to her quarters. Her dead mother's body had already been dragged away. Zora dazed in the room for a while before walking out.

The neighbor had changed again—a short person with curly hair. The person called to her: "Hey, kid, come here."

The young Zora paused, then approached.

Curly-hair: "Your parents are dead. Quick, cry a bit. Maybe the idiot guard will soften his heart and give you some convenience. Kids always look more pitiable than adults."

Cry?

Zora’s slightly blank face stared at Curly-hair.

Her eyes were not the least bit wet.

Zora: "I don't want to cry."

Curly-hair had originally wanted her to fake it, but looking at the child across the iron bars whose eyes lacked any malice, Curly-hair suddenly lost heart.

"You really... don't you know how to make expressions? Can't you cry? If you can't act pitiable, you're missing out on an easy path."

Zora continued to watch silently.

Finally, Curly-hair only said: "Forget it."

A child without emotions.

That was his judgment.

In this place, she was an outlier.

Over time, he truly came to believe she had no feelings, no sadness, and was heartless. In his view, a person like her couldn't evoke compassion in others.

Finishing her recollection, Zora thought of Curly-hair's strange words and said, "Can tears evoke compassion in others?"

Vane looked at her, deliberating for a long time before speaking: "Not necessarily."

He paused: "A person who has feelings for you doesn't need tears to soften their heart. For a person who is heartless toward you, no amount of tears will be of any use."

Zora nodded, seemingly understanding yet not quite. She didn't dwell on that topic, but asked curiously instead: "Fake crying? Can you do it?"

"..."

Zora stared at him: "Cry."

Vane’s lashes flickered as he pursed his lips. He wanted to avoid her gaze but found he couldn't. After a long while, he said dryly, "...Apologies, I cannot do it right now."

Zora stated: "You can't."

She looked away.

But fake crying is still crying, and it still involves tears,

Zora thought.

In Zora's mind, the precious thing was the tears themselves, not the attached emotions. Because she couldn't cry and didn't understand feelings, her focus naturally shifted to the physical manifestation.

Vane sensed her attitude. He opened his mouth slightly but said nothing more.

Tao County was dry with sparse vegetation. The swirling wind and sand often made one's eyes blurry.

"What's going on? The commoners haven't been moved as Senior Brother Song said," Yiling Ke said, hovering in the air outside Tao County, looking in surprise at the ordinary citizens living in peace.

Vane scanned the area. The arrays were intact and hadn't been sabotaged. He suggested: "The situation is abnormal. We should enter the city to investigate, leaving one person outside. However, we'll need to disguise our identities, just in case."

He spoke in a tone of offering a suggestion, then looked at Zora.

Zora thought for a moment, then nodded and made the decision: "We'll do that."

Once she spoke, the other two had no objections.

Since the area was surrounded by arrays, the four landed. Turi Qi remained outside the city while the other three headed for the city gate.

"Who goes there?" a soldier asked.

Since they were disguising themselves, they naturally shed their spiritual tools, put their weapons into storage bags, and changed into more plain clothing. As for their appearances, they had talismans on their backs that could briefly change their looks.

They only planned to use fake faces and identities to enter the city; they didn't intend to use them indefinitely. After all, sometimes exposing one's identity can become a new breakthrough point.

Zora didn't speak.

Vane, dressed as a bodyguard, smiled: "Our lady is here to visit relatives."

Yiling Ke put on a sorrowful expression and began fabricating a story starting from Zora's birth: "Yes, our lady hasn't seen her relatives in a long time. When she was first born..."

"When she was one month old..."

"When she was a year old..."

The soldier waved them off casually: "Fine, fine, go in."

Yiling Ke choked: "?"

I hadn't even finished!

She had even prepared a tragic background introduction for "Lady Zora" from birth to the present!

Entering the city, Vane pondered the ease of their passage, unobtrusively observing his surroundings. On the surface, he looked every bit the genuine bodyguard, staying at Zora's side and following one step behind her, maintaining the perfect distance.

Yiling Ke was still internally perfecting the story of Zora's "counter-attack against the odds."

Zora released the insect Turi Qi had given her, which could detect Song Zhihuai's whereabouts.

She didn't know how big Tao County was. Since the insect had a limited range, she decided to walk around.

It flew by her side.

There was no reaction.

Zora walked to another location.

Still no reaction.

...

After walking through several places without luck, Vane continued to follow her, observing the environment. He seemed to have some suspicions, continuing to examine the passing crowds with a normal expression.

Since there was only one insect, Yiling Ke went ahead to another part of the city to investigate traces of arrays.

After a long while, the insect still hadn't reacted.

Zora stopped and grew suspicious.

Is the insect broken?

She cupped the insect in her palm and shook it like a dice, then let it go.

Then she walked to another place.

The insect still followed her, showing no intention of leading the way; its flight path had simply become wobbly and erratic, as if it were drunk.

Vane, who had finished another observation of the surroundings and looked back at Zora: "..."