Secular morality and rules.
Those seven words had become iron shackles around the feeling Jingliu refused to name. From the day she accepted them, she changed.
She buried every lingering glance. She stopped the small, thoughtless gestures that once betrayed her. She no longer reached for him in secret or drew in the faint trace of his presence left on the air. When she stood before Kanzaki, her posture was flawless, her expression as still and cold as carved jade. Every time the word "Master" left her lips, it carried the precise distance of a subordinate addressing a superior—nothing more.
Kanzaki accepted the change without comment. Whether he was pleased or simply indifferent, she could not tell. He had always been that way.
Not long after, she submitted a transfer request. The reason was sound: the front on the Xianzhou had stabilized, and she wished to reinforce other vessels while continuing to carry out the will of the Hunt. Kanzaki listened in silence, asked no questions, and gave a single, faint nod.
Jingliu left.
She drifted between Zhuming, Fanghu, and Yuque, answering every call to battle. Wherever conflict flared, a cold arc of sword light followed. She grew numb to the killing, sinking deeper into blood and steel, using endless combat to fill the hollow that had opened inside her.
Then the name surfaced.
Hoolay.
The new Warhead of the Borisin. A wolf both cruel and cunning. No one knew when he had risen, nor had his name been known among the hunting packs before. Yet every report that reached the Xianzhou spoke of entire civilizations erased in his wake. Countless Foxians had been taken, bled for medicine, and finally consumed. The atrocity ignited fury across the Alliance. Cloud Knights swore to claim his head.
Jingliu received the news while seated on the broken stone of a dead world, methodically wiping her blade. For the first time in years, something stirred in her empty eyes—a sharp, crimson spark. It was the thrill of a hunter catching the scent of worthy prey, and beneath it, something closer to obsession.
The previous Warhead, Ussa, had fallen to Kanzaki's hand. His name was recorded among the Xianzhou's honored records. If she could take Hoolay's head…
Would she finally stand where Kanzaki stood?
Would he look at her, even once?
"Hoolay…"
Her fingertip traced the edge of the blade. A thin line of blood welled and vanished almost at once. The directionless hunt now had a single, burning purpose.
Hoolay proved as elusive as he was vicious. He refused open battle, feeding false trails that sent Cloud Knight detachments chasing ghosts across the stars. Jingliu did not complain. She cut down every decoy and phantom without mercy. With each kill, her intent grew sharper, her need to close the distance to Kanzaki more consuming.
Star Calendar 6745.
After a long absence, Jingliu returned to the Xianzhou.
Her starskiff settled into its berth. The hatch opened.
At the same moment, a black warship across the dock came to rest. A figure she knew better than her own heartbeat stepped out.
Their eyes met.
Jingliu's breath caught. Years had left no mark on him. Kanzaki stood as straight as ever, his gaze deep and steady. The urge to cross the distance, to throw her arms around him and pour out every silent year, rose like a breaking wave.
Then the old words returned.
Secular morality and rules.
She forced the tide back and offered a perfect, distant salute.
"Master."
Her voice was level, cool, exactly as it should be.
Kanzaki's steps slowed for a fraction of a second. His eyes lingered on her before he answered with a quiet nod.
"Mm."
He turned and walked toward the council hall, Xueyi and Hanya falling in behind him. As they passed, Jingliu caught the scent that had once undone her. Her heart lurched, but she did not look back.
Their leave periods overlapped. Everything proceeded according to regulation—ordinary on the surface. Yet Kanzaki spent his nights in Xueyi's quarters, or Hanya's, often until dawn. Sometimes both sisters entered his room together. Each time, the shadow in Jingliu's eyes deepened.
She was on the edge of breaking when the emergency dispatch arrived from the Sky-Faring Commission.
Mo Tingquan's main force had been ambushed by Hoolay in the Yinghuo Sector. Reinforcements were requested at once. The newly appointed General Zhuiyun issued the order without hesitation: Kanzaki and Jingliu would lead their units together and depart immediately.
At last.
She would fight beside him again.
Hoolay had shown himself.
Jingliu stared at the military order projected on the Jade Sign, both their names side by side. Her fingers trembled once before she stilled them.
The fleet crossed the sea of stars and descended upon the Yinghuo Sector. Wreckage and bodies drifted in orbit. On the surface, the ground was a slaughterhouse—shattered starskiffs, torn Cloud Knight armor, and Borisin corpses strewn across blackened earth.
At the last coordinates Mo Tingquan had transmitted, there was no one.
"They relocated under fire," Kanzaki said, studying the holographic map. After a moment he turned to her. "We split. I take the northern sector. You take the south. Signal the moment you find anything. Do not engage alone."
"Yes."
Jingliu gave no further reply. She turned and led her detachment into the southern ruins.
Her blade moved like winter wind. Every Borisin scout that crossed her path fell headless before they could raise an alarm. Deeper in, she found the remnants of Mo Tingquan's force trapped in a narrow canyon. The surviving Cloud Knights had lost their heavy gear and were pinned by a Borisin pack several times their number. Only Mo Tingquan's lone stand at the narrowest point had kept them from being overrun.
A crimson flare shot skyward.
"Kill."
Jingliu's order was ice. She led the charge, her sword's chill cutting a path through the enemy line.
Kanzaki arrived moments later.
He had already realized the truth the instant the signal rose: Hoolay had escaped. The cunning Warhead had slipped away three standard days earlier, leaving his forces to delay the reinforcements.
Kanzaki reached Jingliu's position just as she finished clearing the immediate threat. One look at the scene before him made his expression darken.