# 211
Chapter 211 – Reality
“Baili Pangpang, calm down.” Instructor Han Li steadied him and spoke helplessly:
“After we left Jin-Nan Mountain, the cleanup crew went in. With earth-type Forbidden Ruins they turned the whole underground ruin inside out.
They found the buried corpses of two River Realm Believers and Instructor Hong’s used Coat of Arms, but in the very core of the cave they only found large chunks of charred residue.
DNA checks showed part of it came from the Sea Realm powerhouse of the Believers, Ma Yitian, and part of it… from Shen Qingzhu.”
Baili Pangpang opened his mouth, face paling. “But you didn’t find his body, right? So—”
“That chamber was full of fire and magma; no corpse could survive.” Han Li shook his head.
Baili Pangpang’s brows knotted. Head lowered, he racked his brains, then suddenly looked up again.
“No—if, just if, before the flames burned him up, he sucked all the air out and killed the fire, he might’ve lived!”
“Baili Pangpang!” Han Li grabbed his shoulders, eyes wide, enunciating every word: “The Reversal Jade isn’t a miracle pill; it can only keep a dying man breathing. It can do nothing for the dead!
Even if he did survive by starving the fire, why didn’t the cleanup crew find his body? Two kilometres underground—could a dying man crawl back to the surface?”
At that, Baili Pangpang’s lips trembled. He tried to argue, but no words came.
Instructor Han was right; it made no sense…
“Shen Qingzhu’s death hurts more than just you! You think we instructors feel good watching our soldiers die in front of us?!” Han Li’s eyes were red; he pointed outside the tent and shouted,
“But this isn’t some fantasy Mary-Sue story, some invincible face-slapping pulp! You can’t reject or ignore reality just because you don’t like it!
This is the Night Watch! This is the army! Sacrifice happens every second!
I’ll bet that of you rookies leaving camp tomorrow, fewer than a third will still be alive in ten years! That’s not my curse—it’s the bloody reality before us!
But at the very least… we send the fallen off with honour! Instead of cowering like we can’t even face reality!”
His voice echoed through the ward. Baili Pangpang hung his head, lost, saying nothing.
Lin Qiye stepped forward and patted his shoulder, then turned to Han Li. “Instructor, leave him to me.”
Han Li calmed himself, nodded, and spoke as gently as he could: “Rest well. The oath-taking is tomorrow morning… After that, you’ll be leaving.”
He sighed and walked out.
Lin Qiye sat on a nearby chair; his body still couldn’t stand for long. He studied the dazed Baili Pangpang and asked softly,
“So… can you tell me what happened back then?”
Baili Pangpang scratched his head, dejected. “What happened… I’m not sure. I got knocked out. Later Instructor Hong told me that—”
After hearing the retelling, Lin Qiye fell silent.
Snatching the instructor’s Coat of Arms, killing Ma Yitian alone, then falling into the flames… At first glance it seemed unexpected, yet thinking about it, it was exactly the sort of thing Shen Qingzhu would do.
That Shen Qingzhu… really just gone?
For some reason it felt unreal to Lin Qiye.
Just then Baili Pangpang seemed to remember something. “Qiye, Instructor Hong and I agreed to keep quiet about you turning into a woman. We’d better get our stories straight, or—”
“Hold on.” Lin Qiye’s expression was odd. “‘I turn into a woman’—what kind of wording is that?”
“But you did change: hair longer, skin smoother, paler, even your Adam’s apple—”
“…Let’s just talk about getting our stories straight.”
Lin Qiye was exasperated. The change had only been a temporary side-effect of housing Nyx’s soul; he hadn’t actually become female—just a slightly feminine appearance. Biologically he was still male.
But Baili Pangpang made it sound as if he’d turned into some kind of freak.
He couldn’t explain it clearly, so he let it slide.
Clatter—!
Outside the ward, Cao Yuan, carrying a fruit basket, dropped it, eyes bulging.
“What? Qiye can turn into a girl?!”
Lin Qiye pressed a hand to his forehead…
…
Late night.
The training camp was far from any city, so the sky was still clear; stars glittered overhead, vast and magnificent.
On the infirmary roof, three figures sat around a small campfire; the aroma of grilled meat drifted up.
Baili Pangpang bit his skewer, uncertain. “Are we really not going to get punished for this?”
“So what if we are? It’s the last night. Running laps till dawn sounds nostalgic.” Cao Yuan shrugged.
“…Easy for you to say—we’re still patients! One night of laps would kill us!” Baili Pangpang grimaced.
“Patients just get scolded, no laps.” Cao Yuan turned to Lin Qiye, serious. “Qiye, seriously, won’t you change into a girl, just to satisfy my curiosity?”
“Get lost.”
“…Okay.”
Baili Pangpang finished his skewer, gazed at the star-filled sky, and sighed.
“Back when I was a useless rich kid in Guang-Shen, I met a few Night Watch members. Thought they looked cool, so I asked Dad to let me join for fun.
But I never understood what being a Night Watchman really meant.”
Lin Qiye glanced at him. “And now?”
“Now…” Baili Pangpang paused, then said quietly, “I think… I’m starting to get it.”