The following morning.
On the northern side of Chinston City, the sturdy city gates wrought of cold iron bore deep marks and weathered patina polished by the passing years, standing steadfast to guard the safety and dignity of the land.
Flanking the gates, city-state guards in knightly armor held spears and shields, their resolute gazes fixed into the distance, as if proclaiming with their very posture that this was sacred, inviolable ground.
At this moment, Viscount Laiwen Chinston, lord of the city-state, arrived at the gates in person wearing a deep-blue noble dress suit to see off their guests. Beside him were his beautiful daughter and handsome son-in-law, arm in arm, faint smiles gracing their faces.
Spotting the lord, the guards at the gate snapped to attention with solemn expressions and saluted.
Viscount Laiwen Chinston nodded slightly, gesturing for them to stand at ease.
His gaze was exceedingly gentle and filled with gratitude, yet he refrained from saying much, leaving the farewell to Xiaya.
"Teacher Luoqi, Miss Side, thank you for all your help."
Xiaya bowed deeply to the two standing nearest the city gate, ready to depart. When he lifted his head again, his eyes were brimming with reluctance to part, as if he longed to convince them to stay.
"Xiaya, we'll see each other again in the Imperial Capital Herrom."
Lanqi opened his arms, allowing an emotional Xiaya to step forward and hug him, after which he calmly waved goodbye to his student.
Xiaya was a young man of boundless potential, no lesser than Lanqi's eldest disciple, Zestira, with her innate demon race heritage.
Although their tiers were still quite low at present, they had already set foot on the right track of cultivation. With their natural aptitude, in a few more years they would likely become standouts among the sixth tier.
As for breaking through to the seventh tier, beyond reaching the peak of the sixth tier, one had to gather materials matching their own affinity for class inscription, thereby greatly enhancing the essential base attributes and class passive abilities tailored to their needs.
The same held true for the eighth and ninth tiers.
The affinity of the materials directly affected the difficulty of success, and the higher the quality of the core materials, the steeper the challenge became. Every failure would cause self-inflicted trauma and a regression of mana, preventing any further class inscription attempts for a considerable time.
Generally speaking, anyone with the talent and opportunity to aspire to the seventh tier would do everything possible to obtain materials of the highest possible affinity and quality for that all-important first class inscription. Yet for that very reason, this threshold had trapped countless experts who had languished at the sixth tier for years, barring them from joining the ranks of the world's true apex powerhouses.
Still, for Lanqi, all of that remained too far off.
"Would you like me to guide you a bit farther north?" Xiaya asked with slight concern.
He still remembered that when he first met the pair, it was because they had gotten lost in the snow forest.
"No need, don't worry. The path toward the Northern Border Province is fairly easy to recognize. I've already bought this: *A Snowfield Map Even a Three-Year-Old Can Read*."
Lanqi spoke to Xiaya with a smile as he produced a book.
He knew Xiaya did not want to be apart from Lilith for even a second right now. At times like this, a pair of young lovers who shared each other's hearts ought to spend their time together.
"You..."
Standing to the side, Side couldn't shake the feeling that Lanqi was throwing shade at her in a particularly infuriating way, though she had no proof.
"Pfft."
Xiaya couldn't help chuckling, his eyes holding a trace of regret alongside expectation.
He hoped that the next time he saw these two, they would be together.
"..."
Opposite him, Boss Cat poked its head out from Lanqi's shoulder, squinting its eyes in observation for a long moment until it grasped the meaning behind Xiaya's look.
So Xiaya was a Lan-Side shipper.
Boss Cat was not on board with this in the slightest.
Originally, it had shipped Lan-Talia; after getting to know Hubao, it felt Lan-Hu was pretty sweet to root for too. Only this Lan-Side pairing was downright heretical.
Never mind how calm and harmless Side appeared right now—she was an exceedingly dangerous arch-monster on par with the Bishop of Destruction, Ivanos, and the Decay Cardinal, Farmer. Wiping out everyone in the vicinity would take nothing more than a passing thought for her.
Just because she was a woman didn't mean a villain with such an insurmountable chasm between them in faction, status, and power could simply be treated as female lead number three!
Taking ten thousand steps back, a third female lead who only showed up halfway through the story almost never won in the end anyway!
The more Boss Cat thought about it, the more relieved it felt.
Even if Lanqi had already committed quite a few irreversible deeds in the Northern Continent, as long as he didn't get romantically entangled with Sigrid, there wouldn't be much of a hidden danger.
...
After bidding farewell to their friends in Chinston City, Lanqi and Side stepped through the gateway passage.
At once, the wind across the snowfield swept toward them, carrying the northern chill and a piercing cold.
The distant sky above the snowfield remained an ashen white. The farther forward they traveled, the denser the swirling flurries seemed to become, dancing on the wind as though singing a never-ending song for this boundless white world.
"The favorability points I had such a hard time granting you will probably be deducted down to zero within a few days."
Setting foot once more upon the endless expanse of ice and snow, Side held a palm-sized notebook, having just jotted down the favorability points deducted from Lanqi a moment ago.
Lanqi hesitated for a brief second.
"What is the point of having high favorability with you anyway... If it really gets extremely high, is there any tangible benefit aside from ensuring you bring me along when running away?"
Lanqi knitted his brows, growing increasingly puzzled the more he thought about it, until he finally voiced his question.
"...That's a secret for now," Side replied with utter conviction after pondering for a moment.
"You—you haven't actually thought it through at all, have you?"
Lanqi stared into Side's violet eyes, sensing the hesitation from earlier.
Unable to come up with an answer on the spot, this woman had simply changed her tune.
"Improvising is what gives the best experience! In any case, just focus on grinding favorability; I guarantee you won't lose out."
Side pointed a finger at Lanqi with righteous self-assurance.
"..."
Lanqi couldn't help feeling she was stringing him along with empty promises.
She truly lived up to her reputation as a seasoned, slippery boss.
This inevitably brought to mind another bankrupt female boss he knew. Although prickly in temperament, she was meticulous and methodical in everything she did, leaving zero room for unexpected surprises. In contrast, Sigrid was indeed straightforward, yet impossible to pin down.
One could only conclude that women who couldn't find a spouse had a few personal issues of their own.
Just as Lanqi was walking across the snow, lost in his thoughts—
"By the way, do any of the people you know use mind-reading magic?" Side suddenly spoke up.
"No. Why do you ask?"
Lanqi turned his head, a look of natural confusion on his face.
"That's good. Otherwise, I worry my Holy Son might suddenly end up dead one of these days," Side remarked with a cold scoff.
She was absolutely certain Lanqi had been thinking something profoundly impolite just now. She needed no proof; she could assert it as fact.
She was lenient with Lanqi and wouldn't do anything to him.
If it had been someone with a worse temper, however—especially another woman—that might not have been the case.
Chapter 326