Right after that person spoke, another familiar voice appeared. "Ah Yu, shut up!"

  Tang Doudou's heart leapt as she turned to look over. She made eye contact with a pair of beautiful eyes that shone like the gentle sun as the person nodded towards her.

  It was Lan Jia!

  And he recognized her!

  Lan Jia only gave her a brief smile before turning towards the confused crowd to say, "Everyone, please don't stay around for too long. Demonic bugs often come out from the black smoke to seek food, so it's safest on the Sacred Tree."

  "Saint Envoy is just too kind-hearted. We should let these people have a good look at how strong those demonic bugs are so that they would learn to behave!" The black-robed person called Ah Yu seemed to be Lan Jia's subordinate, but the way he spoke was quite casual.

  Tang Doudou couldn't help but look at him curiously. She saw that his almond eyes were quite round and black, so he was probably pretty young.

  Ah Yu didn't pay any attention to her gaze. Or it should be said that he felt it beneath himself to pay attention to her.

  That temper of his could compare with Jun Xin's.

  When the people around heard that they would be attacked by demonic bugs, they all started walking towards the iron chains.

  These iron chains were large and thick, so they didn't seem like regular iron chains at all and were more like swaying suspension bridges. The only difference was that there were no side rails.

  In addition, rust and moss covered the surface of the iron chains. Luckily, most of the people here knew martial arts so it wasn't a problem for them. There were about seven iron chains here. After the black-robed people started walking on them, they looked like ants as they moved upwards.

  Mu Ye also moved forward to walk up the chains. Tang Doudou wanted to tell him to wait, but someone bumped into her.

  "Humph, slow-poke!" It was Ah Yu. After he knocked Tang Doudou aside, he followed after Mu Ye and caused Tang Doudou and Mu Ye to be completely separated.

  Tang Doudou didn't know what to do. She knew qinggong, but when she looked at the black fog beneath her, her calves would tremble uncontrollably. She probably wouldn't even have a bone left intact after falling from this height!

  "Lady." Just as she was feeling troubled, Lan Jia came over.

  Tang Doudou didn't know how he managed to recognize her, but ever since finding out that he knew Baili Yu, she didn't feel as wary of him. When she saw him head over, she greeted, "Saint Envoy Lan Jia."

  "Are you scared?" Lan Jia's voice was like a spring breeze; it was abnormally pleasant to hear.

  "Ahem, a little." Tang Doudou glanced towards Mu Ye who had already walked a distance away and felt that it was a bit strange. Mu Ye didn't notice that she wasn't behind him?

  "If Lady doesn't mind, Lan Jia can bring you over." Lan Jia followed her gaze and glanced towards Mu Ye for a brief instant before retrieving his gaze.

  In this situation, she had no choice but to trouble Lan Jia.

  "Then I'll have to trouble Saint Envoy Lan Jia."

  "Lady is being too polite." As Lan Jia spoke, he pulled the white hair tie off his hair and wrapped one end around one of his fingers several times before handed the other end to Tang Doudou. "In a little while, no matter what you see, you shouldn't let go of the hair tie."

  When he said this, Tang Doudou immediately understood. So it turned out that it wasn't that Mu Ye didn't notice that she wasn't behind him, but rather that he was currently also stuck in a difficult situation.

  Lan Jia then walked with her onto the iron chain.

  The moment she stepped on, her vision went white.

  When she opened her eyes again, she discovered that the scene in front of her had changed. It was as if the fog was parting to reveal a scene.

  When Tang Doudou got a clearer view, she gasped sharply and almost ran forward in excitement.

  "I…… I actually came back!"

  It was the familiar streets, the familiar skyscrapers and sea of cars…… the bustling markets, the streets filled with people and small vendors. Wasn't this the city she had lived in for twenty years?

  Tang Doudou looked at everything in front of her in amazement. Could it be that everything that happened before was just a dream?

  What martial arts Alliance Head, what Baili Yu, what Mu Ye, Jun Xin, Lan Jia…… And the Seven Great Saint Tribes, Cloud City, all of that was just a dream?

  Tang Doudou lifted her hands to rub her eyes. She wanted to see if this was just a trick of the eyes or if everything before had really been just a dream.

  Then she saw the hair tie tied around her hand.

  "Lan Jia?" She looked over, following the line of the hair tie, but couldn't see Lan Jia. The hair tie just trailed on the ground into the distance. Its end couldn't be made out.

  Tang Doudou instantly realized that this was probably an illusion!

  Lan Jia had told her not to let go of the hair tie no matter what she saw. It was a good thing she hadn't rushed forward earlier, otherwise she probably would have fallen off the iron chains!

  Although she knew that everything in front of her was an illusion, it was scarily real. The pedestrians and surroundings looked so real. As Tang Doudou looked around, she started crying. What did it matter if it seemed real? She still wouldn't be able to go back.

  "That's not right. This illusion is based on my memories, so doesn't that mean……" Tang Doudou abruptly turned to look ahead and quickened her steps.

  She soon arrived at the entrance of the neighborhood she lived in. Her tears flooded out as she stood there, gazing at the place. A lot of elderly were practicing taichi in the quaint exercise park.

  Grandpa also liked to practice taichi here after eating lunch.

  As Tang Doudou reminisced, she started walking forward.

  __________

  Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Edited by ed.L

  [Chiyomira's Corner]

  Enjoy~