Chapter 113: When Your System Updates Its Mission Statement
“Inappropriate about what?”
Seraphine crossed her arms, glancing out the window. “Where did Fellow Daoist Yu go?” She asked casually.
Echo stared directly at Seraphine’s face. “She left.”
“Come inside and take your medicine, then meditate to recover.” Seraphine instructed.
“Oh……”
Echo’s hand instinctively pressed to the window frame. With a light movement, she leapt inside through the window.
A wave of damp air rushed in with her, heavy with a scent that wasn’t Seraphine’s—sudden and invasive. The crisp, snow-kissed chill that once filled the room was soaked through by rain, overpowered and pushed aside by a presence that refused to be denied.
Seraphine stepped back without thinking, lips pressing into a faint line.
She was angry at Echo’s obliviousness, yet shy about her undeniable presence, but unwilling to directly tear through the paper window between them.
Every time she couldn’t help but want to express her feelings, she’d think: This stupid thing never considers the possibility that I might mean her. If I confess, how would we interact afterward? What about her mission? Would she immediately abandon her task and leave me?
But Echo was a responsible system—surely she wouldn’t be so decisive. Yet if she started avoiding me afterward, what then?
The more you love someone, the more you care. The more you care, the less you dare speak easily.
Seraphine pretended to glance casually across Echo’s face, then raised her hand to tap Echo’s chest. The rainwater soaking her clothes evaporated in an instant.
The dryness felt comfortable.
Echo smiled and said, “Thank you, Seraphine.”
She was observing Seraphine.
For a system, no possibility could be ignored—everything that comes into being has its reason. For a novel, as long as plot developments follow logic, they can continue.
One character can fall in love with another character.
A woman can fall in love with another woman.
But could a beautiful woman fall in love with a system that came to change her fate?
This was a question that had never occurred to Echo in her long existence, had never appeared before—but once it surfaced in her mind, it became very difficult to erase. She obediently sat at the round table, took out the medicine pill and swallowed it, a thought bubble appearing above her head.
Inside the bubble: a long string of ellipses.
Echo calculated and deduced in a completely blank domain.
Seraphine glanced at Echo, letting out a soft hum as she took out clothes and went behind the screen to bathe. Soon the sound of water began.
In the thought bubble, the long ellipses paused momentarily. A silver dumpling slowly emerged, shyly pressing stick figure hands to its face.
After that day, Seraphine noticed something off about Echo. She would often sit cross-legged on a meditation cushion, deep in thought, an ellipsis practically hovering over her head. One time, Seraphine couldn’t help but ask what she was thinking about.
“If it’s something I don’t want to hear, please keep your mouth shut.” She added as a warning.
Something Seraphine didn’t want to hear?
Every time Echo suggested potential cultivation partners, Seraphine would get upset, refuse to listen, and huff in irritation. So— Echo covered her mouth with a hand, a small guilty bubble floating above her head.
Please let me think it through before speaking to Seraphine.
Seraphine thought: Hah, she’s definitely thinking about those things again. Let me see who you’re trying to matchmakethis time.
Several days passed. Echo’s body fully recovered, and Insight Academy Palace’s enrollment ceremony was held as scheduled.
At the morning, beneath the Dao Saint statue.
Ten masters of Insight Academy Palace and seventy-two disciples stood left and right of the statue, gazing warmly at the newly enrolled students. All Insight Academy Palace disciples wore white robes.
Among today’s five hundred new students, most had also chosen white, looking from a distance like a white cloud fallen to earth.
Seraphine clicked her tongue. “I didn’t hear anything about wearing white today.”
Echo curved her eyes into crescents, telling Seraphine: “It’s fine, I’m not wearing it either.”
Together, we matched!
“Mm.” Seraphine lowered her gaze, looking at Echo’s hands. The person who used to hold hands with her whenever they went out hadn’t touched her at all these past few days. How strange.
Did she get too much water in her brain from that rain? Seraphine felt somewhat irritated, looking forward. She saw XueBufan was also there, head hanging as he stood silently in a corner, looking utterly dejected. Zhao Hangyi went up to chat with him. Xue Bufan managed a difficult smile, getting a consoling pat on the shoulder from Zhao Hangyi.
Hah.
Seraphine sneered, surveying the surroundings. Except for her and Echo, none of these disciples knew what was sealed beneath the Dao Saint statue.
Soon, Venerable Jing flew over, landing before the statue to preside over the enrollment ceremony.
Insight Academy Palace’s enrollment ceremony was quite simple: everyone held incense and bowed to the Heavenly Dao, the earth, and the Dao Saint statue, then took out the jade tokens Venerable Jing had bestowed after they passed the trials.
When bowing to the Dao Saint statue, Seraphine’s mood grew even worse.
There was a demon sealed under this statue, and bowing to it—wouldn’t that just benefit him?
Seraphine was in a foul mood, wishing she could immediately possess immortal power to grind that soul remnant to dust, then tell Echo: Even without marrying anyone, she could ascend to immortality, achieve the Great Dao, and change her fate!
While her mind was occupied by chaotic thoughts, beneath the Dao Saint statue, Venerable Jing presiding over the ceremony said: “This jade token is your proof of entry into the academy, evidence of being Insight Academy Palace disciples. Please personally carve your oath onto the token with spiritual power and seal it with blood.”
“The oath need not be carved immediately, but please, on your path of learning, find your Dao Heart as soon as possible.” Venerable Jing said.
Everyone cupped their jade tokens. One side was already carved with four characters: “Dawn and Dusk Seeking Dao.”
They had seen on the Insight Academy great ship that “Dawn and dusk seeking dao, gentle and lustrous” were the four characters of Ink-Trace Venerable’s Dao Oath.
Disciples from the Eastern Continent had also seen the four characters “Morning diligence, evening discipline” on Lanzhi’s waist.
Echo nodded: A motto.
School required writing a motto.
She asked Seraphine gently: “Seraphine, what do you want to write?”
Seraphine was feeling dissatisfied and said lazily: “Mind your own business.”
Actually, she hadn’t thought of anything yet.
“Haha.” Echo laughed. “Then I’ll write mine first. Please watch, Seraphine.”
Seraphine raised her brows curiously, slowly leaning closer.
She wanted to see what Echo would write.
The other Luanyang Palace members and Autumn Water Pavilion disciples standing together all crowded over, equally curious to see what was in Echo’s palm. Qiu Shuangshuang said proudly: “Worthy of being Master—she’s already found her Dao Heart!”
Echo nodded, using her finger as a brush to quickly carve characters on the token.
Jade shavings rose up, floating and falling with spiritual power. In a moment, four characters were complete on the jade token.
Crooked and uneven.
The several people staring at Echo’s token looked troubled, struggling to decipher and read aloud: “Dawn and dusk seeking dao, immediately ——ascend?”
[Author’s Note]:
Echo: “Not bad at all!”
Work Log…
Main System, I’m very troubled.