The Duke stood at the door for a moment, letting out a long sigh only after Hogg’s figure had vanished at the end of the street. He turned back and clapped his hands, his face flushed with a hint of post-dinner wine and irrepressible excitement.
“Setis, come with me to the study. We’re going to outline the framework for your speech tonight.”
“Now?” Setis’s expression visibly crumbled. “Father, it’s late. Let’s do it tomorrow—”
“The ceremony is next month. It’s always better to get the draft out of the way early.” The Duke had already started walking toward the stairs. Seeing Setis still standing there, he beckoned her again. “What are you dazing off for? We can’t delay this.”
Setis glanced at Li Yuan, her lips twitching as if she had questions left unasked and a reluctance she couldn't quite voice. It was as if her feet were rooted to the spot; she lingered for a few seconds before another urge from the Duke dragged her away, following her father up the stairs.
The Duchess folded her fan, walked over to Li Yuan, and smiled. “It has been a long day. Get some rest.”
“You as well, Madam. Goodnight.”
The Duchess nodded and helped the still-dazed Reinhardt upstairs. Li Yuan was the last to leave the parlor, returning to his guest room and gently closing the door.
He sat by the bed and placed a paper bag on the nightstand. Inside were several old books he had scavenged today from a grocery store in the Outer City that hadn't been blown apart. He leaned against the headboard, opened one of them, and began to read slowly by the light of the desk lamp.
The night grew deep and quiet, and the Duke's estate sank into a peaceful silence. The last magic lamp in the hallway was dimmed by a servant, and the pendulum in the downstairs parlor struck twelve.
In truth, he had noticed it during dinner—when Hogg was handing back the teacup, there was an extremely faint ripple of mana at his fingertips. Had Li Yuan’s Divine Sense not been fully active, it would have been impossible to catch. That mana was like a thread of silk, tapping lightly on the back of his hand and leaving behind a brief message.
【One o'clock midnight - Martial Arts Arena - Old Hall】
The message itself held no malice, and the residual mana was so faint that even a fellow Heroic Spirit rank expert would have found it difficult to detect. Hogg clearly did not want anyone to know about this meeting.
Li Yuan lay on the bed for a while longer. Only after the clock tower in the distance struck one did he sit up. Once he was dressed, his figure vanished soundlessly from the guest room.
In the next second, he was standing in the center of the old hall of the Royal Magic and Martial Arts Academy's martial arts arena.
This was a building slated for demolition. It had been heavily damaged during the attack, with several skylights torn into the roof. Moonlight poured through the holes, casting irregular silver patches on the cracked stone floor. Rubble and dried water stains were scattered across the stands, and the air held a faint scent of dust mixed with the smell of old timber soaked by rain.
Hogg was already waiting there.
He stood in the center of the arena stage, his staff still tucked in his sleeve and his hands behind his back. The moonlight fell on his deep grey robe, making the silver patterns on the hem shimmer faintly.
Sensing the slight ripple in the air behind him, he turned and gave Li Yuan a slight nod.
“Forgive me for requesting a meeting at such an hour.”
Li Yuan returned the gesture and asked gently, “If the Royal Preceptor had business, you could have simply sent word through Setis. Why go to the trouble of visiting the Duke's estate in person?”
“Going there was indeed not solely to see you.” Hogg’s gaze was exceptionally calm in the moonlight. “It was His Majesty’s personal suggestion that Setis deliver the speech as the student representative. My discussion with the Duke today was official business. As for asking you out—” He paused. “That was a secondary, private matter.”
Li Yuan did not press him, simply waiting quietly for him to continue.
Hogg was silent for a few seconds. When he spoke again, his tone lacked the polished social distance of the daytime, replaced by a more direct sincerity. “There is a question I have wanted to ask you in person—what is the reason you are staying at the Duke's estate?”
Li Yuan tilted his head slightly.
“If you simply need a place to stay,” Hogg continued, his phrasing maintaining the respect due to a powerful expert, “I can provide much better accommodations. There are many empty rooms in the Magic Tower, and a separate courtyard could be arranged at the palace. Compared to there, it would surely be more convenient.”
Hearing this, Li Yuan’s expression turned somewhat helpless. He lowered his eyes in thought, as if organizing his words, before finally sighing.
“It is not that complicated. Miss Setis offered a warm invitation. I did refuse her clearly, but that young lady—” He paused, seemingly searching for the right words. “—I really couldn't win against her persistence.”
After hearing this, Hogg’s expression became a bit subtle. He stared at Li Yuan for several seconds, his brow slowly furrowing into an uncertain arch. Then, in an extremely cautious tone, he asked, “Do you... have feelings for her?”
“I do not.”
Li Yuan’s answer was crisp and immediate.
After denying it, he felt something wasn't quite right and fell into thought with a frown. After a moment of silence, he spoke again, his pace slightly slower than usual. “If I must say, it is perhaps that she makes me feel as though I have a younger sister. I once had a nominal disciple whose personality was similar to hers. Looking at her sometimes reminds me of that child.”
His expression remained gentle and indifferent, but there was a trace of softness in the corners of his eyes that others would find hard to detect.
Hogg watched his expression, silent for a few breaths, before nodding slightly as if confirming something. He did not pursue the topic further. Instead, he took a deep breath and stepped forward.
“Since that matter is cleared up, I have one more thing.”
Li Yuan looked up.
“Please, fight me.”
When these words came from Hogg’s mouth, his tone was calm, as if he were merely requesting a perfectly ordinary magic lesson.
But the moment he finished speaking, the aura around him changed abruptly. A long-suppressed light swirled in his grey-blue eyes, his shoulders and back straightened, and his heels ground lightly against the stone slabs, as if every inch of muscle was preparing for the coming battle.
Li Yuan did not answer immediately as he looked at him. Over the past hundred-plus years, he had seen too many similar gazes—those who had stood at the peak of a certain realm for too long would always show this expression when they touched upon the faint outline of something higher. It wasn't about being bellicose, nor was it to prove anything; it was a pure, almost primal hunger.
They wanted to know how much further they had to go, and how high the heavens truly were.
“What is it you wish to see?” Li Yuan asked.
“I want to know the extent of the gap between myself and a god.” Hogg’s voice wasn't loud, but every word carried weight. “The power you used at the academy that day clearly far exceeded the limits of what a human can achieve. I can sense that it wasn't your full power, yet I cannot even imagine what fraction of your strength it was. I have been stuck at the Heroic Spirit rank for many years. If I can know the gap, perhaps I can find the direction to keep moving forward.”
Li Yuan looked at the unshielded sincerity in his eyes. After a brief moment of thought, he nodded.
“Very well.”
He raised his right hand, his fingertips tracing several casual arcs in the air. Pale gold spirit light overflowed from his fingers, scattering in all directions like fireflies blown by the wind, merging silently into the walls and ceiling of the hall.
A faint shimmer of light flashed across the interior of the building before vanishing. Moonlight still shone through the holes, but everything around them lost its original sound, as if this space had been forcibly and completely severed from the world.
Feeling the barrier silently cover the entire space, Hogg pursed his lips and drew his staff from his sleeve. Four-element mana patterns lit up simultaneously on the staff’s body: crimson, ice-blue, violet-purple, and silver-white. As the lights flowed and cycled, the surrounding air began to vibrate violently, and the rubble on the ground danced under the mana fluctuations.
“Are you ready?” Li Yuan stood a few steps away from him, his hands at his sides, his posture relaxed.
Hogg gripped his staff tight. Mana surged and roared through his meridians as the four elemental lights converged into a brilliant point at the tip of the staff. He took a deep breath, intending to focus all his spirit and mana into this one strike, and then—
“Begin,” Li Yuan said softly.
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