Each star’s light coalesced into a little glowing mote, coalesced further with a focused burst of his qi into tiny, intricate links of impure starsteel. He definitely didn’t have the equipment or time to refine it further, and it was mostly decorative, so it’d have to do— but still, it almost pained him to leave one of his favorite metals as the least version of itself.

The moonlight… that, he did something a bit more involved with. His domain twisted in on itself, intricately tying itself into little knots and carrying the moonlight with it. His cultivation was yang based, but between his qi control— clumsy as it was compared to what he could do in the Celestial Realm— and his domain, which was far less limited, he could call on the conceptual mirror of yin and yang and manipulate it with incredible deftness. Like ice, like glass… like a sage’s tear or the echo of the vast void that almost stung with nostalgic memory of his sister, he smoothed it out into a translucent, snowy little teardrop of condensed moonlight and hope. Only second step, but still— it was probably one of the most exotic natural treasures on Aurelia.

Then, because he could, of course, he slapped a formation on the chain, the hair-thin lines of it snaking and weaving through the metal and blending beautifully into the whole. Snapping his veils back in place, he slipped the chit into his pocket. “Interesting. I’ll look into getting one.” Then, after a few seconds, just before the silence began to grow awkward, he held out his hand. “I got something for you, too.”

“You needn’t—” her eyes widened as he opened his hand, a gasp escaping her as she fell silent. Speechless. “It’s…” almost reverently, she picked up the necklace, watching the way it glittered subtly in the auditorium light. “One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Where did you get it?”

“I enhanced it with some formations.” Which was technically true, even if not quite the whole truth. “Also, I inscribed a life-saving formation on it, just in case— any one blow beyond your means to survive will be blocked. It’ll be destroyed if that function has to activate, but… you know. Life saving treasure and all that.”

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“That is a nice treasure. I can feel the aura of it.” He tensed for a second— he’d tried to make it not

obvious he’d given his boss a necklace made of starsteel, but if Zhihu could sense it— “it was made by the hand of someone utterly, magnificently confident that their defense would work against anything. Which— admirable, if a bit self deluded.” Ah, just normal aura shenanigans. He fought down a sigh of relief. “Any chance I could commission you to make a thing or two?”

“No.”

Zhihu just nodded, all cultivator-y like, and stepped back. “Very well. I felt something around here… but, I should have known…” she shook her head and flashed him a wry look, and then disappeared.

Lexi slipped the necklace over her head, fiddling with the pendant a little and watching the strange ways it caught the light. “That was weird.” She hadn’t even seen the half of it. Zhihu was… he wasn’t even going to think about whatever she was up to, at the moment. Plus, when Lexi next stepped out under the moonlight, she would see the real reason why moonstone was so cool. “Anyways. I’ll cover for you if you want to get to Janus’s house before the end of the night.”

Mingtian gave her a grateful nod, stretching a little and making for the door. “Thanks.”

Then, he stepped out into the silence of a school at night, and strode into the dark.