*TING!*
The tear hit the ground. Instead of the soft sound of liquid, Tang Tianjie heard something closer to crystal shattering.
"...Weiying."
Her voice came out hoarse. Bai Fanxian stepped toward the young woman hovering before her, translucent as a projection, her image threaded with faint ripples at the edges, the whole thing slightly unstable.
An Weiying was this woman's name.
She was one of the very few people the Alchemy Empress had ever called a companion.
People had always followed Bai Fanxian everywhere, but none of them stood on equal footing with her. Some were disciples. Some were followers. In this era and the last, true companionship had been vanishingly rare for her.
It required an equality that went both ways. Most people, the moment they looked at her, would see the Alchemy Empress and unconsciously place her somewhere above.
With An Weiying, it had never been like that. From the moment they met, she had simply walked up and made herself Bai Fanxian's friend. She was the first who had dared to tease her, showing up with those strange inventions and that mischievous grin of hers. Bai Fanxian had eventually retaliated by shoving several experimental pills into her mouth, and they had quarreled so fiercely they nearly killed each other more than once.
They had known each other for years. Grown up together, in a sense. Each had reached heights few could imagine in their own field. If Bai Fanxian stood at the pinnacle of alchemy, An Weiying stood at the pinnacle of invention.
No one knew that behind those heights, the two of them had traded opinions, resources, and served as each other's first test subject.
Bai Fanxian had passed Grade 7 and 8 pills to her companion without a second thought. An Weiying, for her part, had given some of her finest work in return, including the the workshop and the alchemy cauldron, the likes of which Bai Fanxian would never find again.
Not just in craftsmanship. In meaning as well.
It had pushed both of them to keep growing. In cultivation, An Weiying trailed Bai Fanxian by perhaps one step. But in pure combat power, she might have already pulled ahead, given the sheer number of weapons among her inventions.
"...Lady Bai, may I ask who this is?"
Tang Tianjie was the only witness. He didn't dare speculate. Whoever this was, she clearly meant something to their lady. In all the time he had known her, he had never seen Bai Fanxian cry, or come anywhere close to it.
"..."
His voice pulled her back. She looked at her companion's form again, steadying herself, and found what she already feared.
"Just a recording, or..."
Anyone could have seen it. But perhaps Bai Fanxian wanted to believe otherwise, that somewhere, this friend of hers might still be alive.
"You think I'm just a recording, right, my friend?"
An Weiying's voice cut through before she could finish. It had that brightness to it, that aliveness. Unmistakably hers. Bai Fanxian went still.
Had she found a way to preserve part of herself across ten thousand years?
"You're right. I'm really just a recording."
An Weiying stuck out her tongue and winked. Tang Tianjie stared. As for Bai Fanxian, she was quiet for a long moment, and then let out a slow breath. The sadness that had been gnawing at her emotions dispersed like fog.
*...That's just like you.*
"..."
Bai Fanxian watched her, something aching in her chest. It felt like being pulled back ten thousand years, to when An Weiying would barge into the workshop uninvited and complain about everything within earshot, disrupting her focus so thoroughly that the cauldron exploded more than once.
Her composure was returning. And with it came a question: how had An Weiying known it would be her?
"That pendant can only be activated by your unique qi signature. So the person I'm talking to has to be you. Or maybe your descendant... though I still can't imagine who would become your husband."
Without that disclaimer, after ten thousand years, Bai Fanxian might have thought her friend was playing another trick on her.
"I guessed what you were thinking, right?"
An Weiying lifted her chin slightly, pleased with herself. She let out a soft laugh, like a child who'd won a game. Then she tilted her head and held Bai Fanxian's gaze.
"..."
"...You weren't crying because you missed me, were you?"
The question landed like a stone. The next one was worse.
"Because if you've come to see me in this form, that means the real me probably isn't around anymore... my friend."
A sad smile crossed An Weiying's face. Even that small thing was enough to show just how lonely she had been. It lasted only a moment before she pulled herself away from it.
"You know what? Those kids were worried sick."
Something warm came into her expression when she said it. "Those kids" meant the disciples of Bai Fanxian's palace, much like the followers she had now. Each of those girls had their own way of thinking, their own character.
But what they shared was this: no matter who they were, the only person they would ever fully open themselves to was their Empress.
"Just the first year you wouldn't come out, they started getting anxious. Some of them came begging me to open your workshop... which was impossible, right?"
She sighed. She had built that workshop herself — and yet as long as Bai Fanxian was inside it, not even the creator could force it open. Short of someone more powerful than her forcing the door.
"Since the room was still running, that could only mean you were still alive. So we weren't completely without hope. But with no one to endure my complaints, it was downright unbearable. You truly owe me for that, you know."
She said it lightly. Then her face changed.
"...About ten years after you disappeared, this world changed."
"I could feel the life force thinning. Resources that had always been there started vanishing. Legendary cultivators began to fall. Before long, no one in the younger generation could break through to the levels we had once reached..."
Bai Fanxian knew at once what had caused it — the Eternal Myriad Heavens, still working through her even now.
"And then, around that time, demonic beasts appeared. Ones that used a power none of us recognized."
Her eye twitched. She glanced at Huang Zihuan, who had been standing quietly at her side throughout, and who had some knowledge of this period. The old man stroked his chin, uncertain.
"...That sounds like what's happening now, doesn't it?"
The beasts that ran on magic — could they trace back to ten thousand years ago?
"Their power wasn't qi. Cultivators in this region fought back and took heavy losses. And then... people appeared who wielded the same power."
Bai Fanxian had been listening in silence. That last part stopped her.
"Forty, fifty at most. But each one was as strong as a Transcendent-level cultivator. No one knew what they wanted. What was clear was that they saw cultivators as the enemy."
"They swept through. Many died. Your disciples fought back with everything they had. Both sides paid for it."
"Your palace disappeared without a trace. Your followers gave their lives without hesitation. By the time I got there, it was already over."
Something clenched in Bai Fanxian's chest. She had slept through all of it, with no idea what had happened outside while she was gone. An Weiying's eyes had grown wet.
"...I'm sorry I couldn't protect your home. Or the people you loved. When you come out, perhaps you'll understand everything yourself."
An Weiying's head snapped to the right. Her eyes fixed on something unseen.
"...Looks like I'm out of time."
Her eyes were blazing now. Filled with something fierce and furious. Raw energy surged around her — and even through the recording, even knowing it was just an image, Tang Tianjie felt the pressure of it. The hair on his arms stood up.
This had to be at least the level of the Dragon Queen.
Through those blazing eyes, Bai Fanxian caught a shadow — a silhouette, distant and unstable, there for only a moment. She couldn't make out the face. But whoever it was, they were the source of An Weiying's fury.
And before the image dissolved, An Weiying turned to meet her gaze for one final, fleeting moment. A wistful smile graced her lips.
"I really want to see you again... my dear friend."