Volume 1

54 The Heart in Chaos

“Cut it out, Li Shen,” Nie Zun interjected, “There’s no way we’ll be able to find them. Besides, I’m worried about Jie Pa and Song Lu. We should go back. We can’t just keep Huan Qing out of sight, out of mind either—we’ll need to get him out of the airflow.”

What Nie Zun said was true, but I was still reluctant to leave matters as they were. Stuck in a dilemma, I looked towards Jiao S.

“Nie Zun is right.” Jiao S conceded, unexpectedly calm. “We should head back first. Under such circumstances, not only should we return to Jie Pa, we’ll also need to get back to our respective districts soon. We can’t even be sure if our districts are in jeopardy as it is, rushing in blindly will only get us killed.”

Retreat back to the Western District? That’s right. I wonder how Old Man Fan and the others are doing… but what about Laurel? And Yu Liang…?

I clenched my teeth. Just imagining the countless sorts of peril the Western District could be in had me nodding my head in agreement. Retreat was the only option.

***

They weren’t under any sort of attack during the time we were gone. Everything was as per normal when we got to the academy’s...