Re-birth: The Beginning after the End-Chapter 198: GOLDY & STORMY

As the group resumed their journey, Li Hua noticed how the previously casual conversations among disciples had fallen to whispers, each cultivator now careful to use only titles or position-based references when addressing others.

Mo Xing leaned closer, his breath warm against her ear. "What should I call you in this place?" he asked, golden eyes gleaming with that familiar mischief. "Since it seems we must abandon our usual names."

Li Hua rolled her eyes, though the gesture lacked its usual sharpness. "You've never once called me by my actual name anyway," she pointed out.

"I have." Mo Xing's response came swiftly, his eyebrows quirking upward with subtle challenge.

"When—" But before Li Hua could finish her question, fragments of memory washed over her—images of dissolution, of her essence unraveling like silk threads in water.

"LI HUA!" Mo Xing's voice had shattered the air like thunder breaking across a silent sky, the raw desperation in those two syllables unlike anything she had ever heard from him.

Something in her expression must have changed, for Mo Xing's smile widened with satisfaction. "Ah, did you just recall something?" The playfulness in his tone barely masked a deeper current beneath.

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"Fine." She rolled her eyes, but there was a softness in her expression that betrayed her. "Call me whatever you want. You clearly intend to anyway."

Mo Xing's smile deepened, the golden flecks in his eyes catching what little sunlight filtered through the ancient canopy. For a moment, he simply studied her face as if committing every detail to memory.

"And what will you call me?" His voice carried that hint of playfulness that seemed reserved solely for her.

She studied him for a moment, taking in the impossible grace with which he moved through the ancient forest—as if the very trees bent slightly to accommodate his passage. "Goldy," she decided finally. "Since that's what everyone notices first about you anyway."

He laughed out loud, the sound rich and unreserved—a rare break in his usually controlled demeanor. "Very fitting," he nodded, golden eyes gleaming with amusement. "Then I guess I'll call you...Stormy."

His gaze softened as he studied her face. "It suits you—unpredictable, powerful, capable of both nurturing rain and devastating lightning." His voice dropped to that intimate tone he seemed to reserve just for her. "Beautiful even in your fury."

Li Hua felt warmth creeping up her neck despite her best efforts to remain unaffected. She turned away, focusing her attention on the path ahead where Elder Fu was guiding the group deeper into the Whispering Forest.

"We should catch up with the others," she said, deliberately changing the subject.

Mo Xing fell into step beside her, his movements so fluid they barely disturbed the air around him. "Of course, Stormy," he agreed, the nickname already settling between them like a private secret.

Night had already claimed the forest when, after hours of traversing increasingly treacherous root paths, the group finally approached a spacious clearing. In the darkness, most disciples relied on illumination talismans and artifacts that cast cool white light against the forest's oppressive shadows.

Only the most aptitude for light among them—Li Hua, Sun Wei, and Liu Fei—conjured their own light directly from spiritual essence. Li Hua's warm yellow orb hovered steadily above her palm, while Sun Wei's miniature lightning sphere crackled with barely contained energy, and Liu Fei's golden flame-like illumination danced and twisted as if alive. These manifestations of their elemental affinities not only provided visibility but subtly revealed their cultivation strengths to those observant enough to notice the differences.

The clearing itself seemed to push back against the oppressive darkness. Unlike the dense forest that surrounded it, this perfectly circular space was carpeted with luminous moss that pulsed with a ghostly blue-white glow. The light revealed stone formations ringing the perimeter, their surfaces etched with weathered symbols that matched patterns found in the sect archives.

Elder Fu raised his hand, bringing the weary procession to a halt. "We'll make camp here," he announced, his voice carrying easily across the clearing despite the exhaustion evident in his posture. "This is one of the sanctuary spaces—the forest doesn't encroach here, nor do its more dangerous residents." He gestured toward the stone formations. "Get yourselves situated. I'll establish the protective formations and prepare a fire."

The disciples visibly relaxed at his words, many immediately dropped to sit on the glowing moss. Traveling through the Forbidden Zone at night had drained even the elite disciples, their faces drawn with the effort of maintaining vigilance for so many hours.

Despite their evident exhaustion, several senior disciples moved to assist Elder Fu with practiced efficiency. They retrieved intricately embroidered formation flags and yellowed talisman papers from their storage rings, the symbols glowing faintly as they were placed at precise intervals along the clearing's perimeter. Within moments, a subtle web of protective energy began to form, shimmering just at the edge of perception.

Li Hua settled onto the luminous moss, allowing herself a moment to truly study the disciples gathered in the clearing. The blue-white glow from beneath cast everyone in ethereal light, highlighting the status markers each cultivator wore upon their robes.

Besides the three elite disciples—Sun Wei, Liu Fei, and Zhao Jun—with their gleaming gold insignias that caught and refracted the ghostly light, the party consisted of a carefully selected cross-section of the sect's hierarchy.

Mei Lin, Yang Mei and two other male disciples wore the jade-green emblems that marked them as senior inner disciples. Three other cultivators completed their number—junior disciples who, like Li Hua and Mo Xing, wore crimson jewels that pulsed with the eager energy of those recently accepted into the sect.

They were two young men who frequently exchanged nervous glances at their surroundings, and a slender female disciple whose careful observations and meticulous note-taking in a small jade-bound journal suggested scholarly inclinations.

At the center of it all stood Elder Fu, the white jade medallion at his chest marking him as one of the sect's elite instructors. Unlike the elaborate insignias favored by other teachers, his was a simple disc etched with a single character: "Balance." The weathered lines of his face deepened as he focused on establishing the protective array, his centuries of cultivation evident in how effortlessly he manipulated the spiritual currents around them.