"How… what…" Duan Ke didn't know what to say and was at a loss for words.

Jing Luo though, didn't mind that and flew towards her. Duan Ke didn't move and let him embrace her, her expression still frozen the same.

"Don't worry, I really am here." Jing Luo spoke calmly in her ears.

In that moment, Duan Ke's eyes started tearing up and low sobs could also be heard.

~squeeze~

She wrapped her arms around Jing Luo as well and hugged him as hard as she could. She didn't want it all to be a dream. She didn't want him to be gone anymore and she would do anything to keep that from happening.

Lin Mu and Little Shrubby watched the tearful reunion from the distance silently. 

'I'll give them some time.' Lin Mu thought as he looked behind Duan Ke.

When she had disabled the barrier that was hiding her, she had also revealed the rest of the area that was hidden along with her. Lin Mu could now see the rest of the area of the War Castle.

The one that they had seen before was actually an illusion to make it look like there was no one there and no activity was present either.

But now, Lin Mu could see components of formation arrays as well as spirit tools lying around haphazardly. There were raw materials and a lot of other things here too, including beast pelts and ores.

It was certainly not as clean and pristine looking as it did from the outside.

Five minutes passed like this, when Lin Mu decided that it was time to intervene.

~cough~

"Are you two okay?" Lin Mu asked lightly.

"Uh…" Jing Luo and Duan Ke finally separated.

Duan Ke's face was particularly red, and the embarrassment was apparent. Jing Luo though, was fine and a wide smile was present on his face.

"You have certainly grown since the last time I saw you." Jing Luo said with a chuckle.

~Pat~pat~

He lightly patted her head, to which Duan Ke quickly reacted.

~smack~

"Hey! I'm no longer a child." Duan Ke said.

"You will still be a child to me. We are after all, fifty years apart, haha!" Jing Luo laughed.

Hearing this, Lin Mu was surprised. 

"You are… fifty one years old?" Lin Mu said to Duan Ke upon hearing this.

He had known Jing Luo's age already and it was at about 101 years old. It was very young when compared to most cultivators of his cultivation base who would be around seven to eight hundred years old.

Deducting fifty years from that age gave Lin Mu the age of Duan Ke. Which was surprising to him, considering how young she looked.

'Doesn't the aging only stop when one reaches Nascent soul realm?' Lin Mu was a bit confused.

"Female cultivators are just like mortal women and will try to do their best to keep up their looks… at least the majority of them. Thus even if they are not at the Nascent soul realm, they would still look younger.

Cultivation still does slow down aging for them." Xukong chimed in.

He had been silent for a rather long time and had only woken up upon sensing a strong attack coming towards Lin Mu. While he was confident of Lin Mu being fine, he still paused his cultivation for that just in case.

'I see…' Lin Mu replied, keeping it in mind.

But Duan Ke didn't take Lin Mu's words kindly, and an irritated expression appeared on her face.

~humph~ 

She turned away, not wanting to look at Lin Mu's face. 

"The excitement faded away so soon?" Jing Luo joked. "I thought you'd be a lot more happy seeing him." He added.

"Cousin!" Duan Ke was even more embarrassed at hearing his words. 

"What? I approve of him. If you want to, he has the go ahead." Jing Luo said brazenly, confusing Lin Mu and making Duan Ke blush even more.

"Uhh… what?" Lin Mu said in confusion.

"He's a child!" Duan Ke said in response to Jing Luo.

"Ahahha! It won't matter in a few centuries." Jing Luo continued.

Lin Mu tilted his head in confusion while Duan Ke felt her face burning.

~step~step~step~

While this was happening, Little Shrubby had taken the liberty of getting down from Lin Mu's shoulder and walking towards Duan Ke.

The small form of Little Shrubby looked up at the red face of Duan Ke and tilted his head too.

~mew~

He let out a cry, pulling Duan Ke's attention. But Lin Mu heard the actual meaning of it.

"This woman is better than that man. She's red like me too!" Little Shrubby said.

~chuckle~

Lin Mu couldn't hold back and chuckled, too. Jing Luo who heard it, felt irked and knew that something must have been said behind his back.

"What did the cat say?" Jing Luo narrowed his eyes.

"Just that Little Shrubby likes her more than you." Lin Mu answered.

Duan Ke looked at the small cat and lowered herself to pick him up. Little Shrubby let her do it as well. 

~pet~

She lightly stroked Little Shrubby's head and spoke, "this beast is smart."

"Hey!!!" Jing Luo protested.

~mew~ 

Little Shrubby didn't care for any words and simply enjoyed behind stroked.

Duan Ke felt a little better seeing her cousin being embarrassed now and a slight smile appeared on her face too.

"So this cute beast is named Little Shrubby?" Duan Ke asked.

"Yeah, he is." Lin Mu answered.

"He's not so cute and not so little… you'll see." Jing Luo snarked.

~smack~

Jing Luo was smacked on the shoulder by Duan Ke again.

~Poof~

And then a small fireball lit his beard on fire.

"YOU!!!" Jing Luo was infuriated by the actions of both.

"Come on now, you two." Lin Mu stopped them, before they went into one of their squabbles.

Jing Luo stopped while Duan Ke glared at him, and Little Shrubby simply stuck out his tongue.

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