Chapter 42

A warm little bundle of a toddler snuggled closer.

She even patted her own small shoulder, signaling for her eldest senior brother to lean on her. She looked quite reliable... and very earnest.

The tiny child was offering her wholehearted sincerity to him.

Chu Xingyun was not someone who often indulged in melancholy.

Yet turning his head to catch this sight, he froze slightly, his gaze then softening.

A child caring for him in this manner.

Willing, even, to offer her shoulder, willing to perk up her fluffy little ears and say to him,

"Listen." She was willing to listen to him, to make herself his support.

This was a rare and novel sensation.

Having borne the expectations of the entire imperial clan since his youth, and grown up to be the prodigy anticipated by his sect, Chu Xingyun had lived amidst the expectations of others, always striving to do better.

In the eyes of others, he was a flawless cultivator.

Never disappointing the hopes of his elders and peers, he had grown into a dependable powerhouse who lived up to public expectations. Standing at the forefront, he made himself an existence to be looked up to and trusted.

Rarely was there a moment when anyone thought he might also need support and a listening ear, or believed he was no different from her.

He was dazed for a moment, his thoughts drifting inexplicably to the past.

He remembered when Ao Yong, patriarch of the Azure Dragon clan, had mentioned that a princess of the Crimson Dragon clan had been rescued by him and his friends, and had fallen in love at first sight with his friend.

His friend had found that rather baffling.

After all, Chu Xingyun was clearly the better one.

Yet the Crimson Dragon princess had simply said indifferently, "He is too arrogant. It is not that others fail to notice him, but rather that his eyes hold no room for anyone else."

At the time, they had all thought those words were merely the bias of a lover's eyes.

Yet now, as Chu Xingyun reached out to scoop the tiny toddler into his arms, he thought with a trace of helpless amusement that he truly had held himself in high regard, using a seemingly flawless facade to push everyone away and never showing weakness.

That indeed was a form of arrogance.

Right now, however, he rather wanted to experience what it felt like to be a little