16 A Welcome Surprise

The three silhouettes cast a moonlight shadow as they stood before the stairs leading up to the center of the platform—elevated above the crystal-clear water—through a bridge. The platform had a circular area in the center and constituted of nine bridges leading to nine different sides from the central part, with each bridge having a different color and design.

The entire platform stood elevated about half a meter above the surface of the lake. Truth be told, there was no need for the stairs to get up on the bridge. The only reason the stairs were even designed is to contribute to the style of the overall scene.

Asura looked at the center of the platform which stood out the most. The central part was a tea house made of pure white material with resplendent golden stars on its surface. The tea house had a base shape of a nonagon, each of its sides connecting to one of the bridges. At each contact point with the bridge, there was a thin transparent film of light corresponding to the pattern and color of the Qilin carved in that bridge.

The trio currently stood before the first bridge they stumbled upon after following the path from the forest down to the lake. The destination to which they were headed stood on the opposite side of the elevated platform.

Asura's eyes were jittering around as he greedily took in the scenery that left him breathless.

A faint "Woah..." filled with amazement escaped from the thin opening formed on Xia's lips. The girl had obviously never seen such a scene before, judging from the fact that she was clutching her thin cloth, while subconsciously increasing the grip strength in the hand connected with Asura's hand.

Asura and Nayi both slightly turned their heads and glanced towards Xia, as this was the first reaction she showed out of her own will since coming here.

Asura felt a genuine joy seeping into his heart when he saw Xia finally showing emotions unrelated to himself. Looking at her with eyes full of content—he thought, "She's finally beginning to relax, huh? That's good! She may be able to open up even more in the future—no, she definitely will!"

Nayi had thoughts of her own while looking at Xia. "This girl can actually react to something? Well I'll be... There's definitely something strange about her past. I have to find out when I have the chance!".

Nayi looked at the stars in the sky and then towards the violet-colored bridge adorned by streaks of lightning in front of her. "Sister, what did you see in the vision? These two are definitely the two you told me to find, so what is up with them? How could they be the key to rebuilding the Celestial Qilin family? I have no choice other than to trust you, sister. I will believe your judgement but I will still have to see for myself as to what kind of beings they will grow up to be."

By the time Nayi snapped out of her thoughts, Asura and Xia had returned to admiring the beautiful scene occupying their vision. Each of the two paused at every bridge for a while, absorbing every detail and analyzing the aura surrounding the bridges before continuing onto the next one.

After analyzing each of the nine bridges, Asura glanced at a white-gold tea house with his brows furrowed. "This one feels familiar. How could that be? Unless...", he recalled the scene of the falling stars populating this land. The fire from the nine stars had merged with Xia's soul, but there were ten stars that fell into this land. The last of the stars—the white star—wasn't among those nine colors, so then why was it familiar?

Subconsciously, Asura turned towards Nayi, during which his pupils kept contracting until they reached the extreme. "No way! She... she's the last one! Our master is the last of the fallen stars?!"

Nayi had noticed the fiery gaze coming from the side and met Asura's eyes. Whenever this small kid with long white hair and vivid green eyes came into her field of vision, Nayi's heart sped up for a beat or two. This was out of her control, so she just accepted it as a fact and moved on. However, this time, the situation differed. This time, her heart slowed down dangerously.

Nayi's eyes rapidly narrowed, as if responding to a threat in front of her. However, the threat here was none other than her little disciple. As her eyebrows neared each other, Nayi's ice-cold, emotionless voice resounded - "What?"

Asura snapped out of his focused state, only then realising how serious his face had been just a moment ago. He scratched the back of his head instinctively as he replied, "Eh, well. I just thought of something and was pondering about the possibilities. Sorry for staring so intently at you, master!"

Nayi looked at his apologetic expression and sighed, following it up with a giggle afterwards. "What is it you're thinking about? Maybe I can help you."

Asura looked at hear meaningfully and then glanced at the white tea house on the platform. Nayi followed his gaze and then realized what the kid meant. She couldn't hold back from taking another good look at this little guy. "What a scary intuition!"

Asura's gaze paused on the white-gold tea house and then once again returned to the pair of golden orbs surrounded by long black eyelashes and eyebrows, sharply contrasting against the silver hair and black clothes. Nayi glanced at him with a resigned look and sighed. "That's right. The aura you feel there—it's mine."

Asura's brows then relaxed as Xia turned to look at them with curiosity. The boy nodded with a reassuring expression. "As expected - you're the tenth star that fell that night!"

At those words, Nayi's pupils instantly shrunk as a stifling aura appeared in the air, making both Asura and Xia unable to breathe. Nayi's hand had turned into a white claw, ready to strike at any moment as she stared into Asura's eyes as if searching for ill intent, but to her disappointment she had found none. The only things she saw in the green eyes were bewilderment and curiosity.

This time, it was her turn to realize how snappy and inappropriate her reaction was, which made her blush as soon as she retracted her aura and a claw. Only after closing her eyes for a second did her pupils relax. "You brat... where did you learn that? You almost made me go against my sister's wishes."

Asura scratched his cheek with a weird expression on his face. "Um... when we crossed the border back there, Xia and I saw a vision of some sort, as if we were in an illusory world. This area was a land of desolation and many stars were falling from the sky, out of which ten of them fell here and later formed the blood-red boundary that is currently guarding this land. We saw nine different stars turn into the shape of Qilins but only the last one didn't turn. When I recalled the white claw you used back then and the matching aura coming from the tea house to the one of that white star..."

Despite stopping here, Nayi didn't need to hear the rest to understand the situation. She sighed with relief as she lowered her hand on Asura's head and slid it through his white hair, ultimately stopping when she held the boy's cheek affectionately. "Don't go telling that story to others, okay? If you want your master and you two to have a peaceful life, that is."

Asura's lamenting sigh carried the stale air in his lungs. "Worry not, master. I'm curious—not dumb. You can rest easy with Xia and me knowing this secret—right, Xia?"

Xia nodded her head two times in a row as she spoke in short bursts. "Um! Rest easy! Secret stays secret!"

Nayi looked at eager red eyes and then at the confident green ones before finally letting out a sigh of resignation.

If someone witnessed this scene and was tasked to name it, they would probably give it a name: "The Night of Myriad Sighs and Transformations," considering how chaotic the flow of events was.

Nayi looked deep into the green abyss once again and asked, "Hey—disciple, can you modify your vow from before?"

Asura's brows furrowed while he recalled which vow she was referring to. "The one about protecting you and Xia?"

Nayi confirmed with a nod. "Yes, that one. You see - you two aren't the only ones I have to bring here. There will be two more members of Starseeker family, so what do you say?"

"Who are they? Do you know them?"

Nayi looked at the stars, letting a bit of silence linger before answering. "They are the runaway Phoenix Prince and Princess from one of the faraway lands. The Purple Phoenix Empire had recently gone through a mutiny and they are children of my patron - the fallen Emperor of Purple Phoenix Empire."

Asura's brows twitched at the word 'fallen'. "So that would mean... they are orphans now?"

Nayi looked at the little kid who could understand the situation even better than many of the adults she had met throughout her lifetime and sighed with emotion. "That's right. They have lost their parents, but the good thing is nobody knew about their existence other than their father - the Purple Phoenix Emperor, their mysterious mother and me. They had always lived as orphans, believing that their parents abandoned them at birth. This time when I go to fetch them, they will learn the truth."

Asura thought about it a bit and then added, "Are you sure you should tell them that now? How old are they?"

Nayi's shoulders drooped, showing how big of a dilemma she was in. "They are around your age - six years old. I also thought it would be wise to keep this information from them until they grow up, but that guy sent me a letter telling me to explain the situation to them. What a troublesome patron I got tangled with, sigh..."

Asura asked while turning around, "What are their names?"

"The girl is called Xingyue, meaning the Moon among the Stars. The boy's name is Astaroth. As for their family name, it shall be Starseeker from now on!" - Nayi's voice came from behind.

Asura gently caressed Xia on the head and then pulled out his hand from her grip. He then turned towards Nayi before putting his hand over his heart and took a deep breath.

"I, Starseeker Asura, wish to add another condition to the oath. Besides swearing to protect Starseeker Xia and Starseeker Nayi, I shall also take it upon myself to protect our new family members—Starseeker Xingyue and Starseeker Astaroth. If I fail to uphold my promise, may the duration of previous punishment double!"

With those words, the branding in his Soul World changed as its aura slightly intensified before slowly receding.

Nayi let out a breath of relief and then patted Asura on his head. "It seems my sister wasn't wrong about you. What a relief."