Even though the sky had turned dark, it wasn't actually all that late. Additionally, the layout of the Clear Dew Courtyard in the Autumn Reed Inn was quite exquisite, and Li Huai didn't feel like sleeping anyway, so while Chen Ping'an was busy engraving the jade hairpins, Li Huai pulled out the wooden box that had been gifted to him by the mountain lord of Go Table Mountain before setting it down onto the table. 

He then placed his wooden doll and the four clay figures given to him by Wei Jin of Wind Snow Temple into the box, along with the copy of "Severed Water Cliff" that had been purchased in Red Candle Town.

Even with all of those items transferred into the delicate yellow ebony box, there was still some space left over. The wooden box was displaying a red hue, and according to Wei Bo of Go Table Mountain, the box had gradually turned from yellow to red during the countless years in which it had been buried in the soil. 

Not only had the wood not rotten in this process, it had developed a unique fragrance. Li Huai leaned in close to the wooden box to take a careful whiff, and sure enough, the fragrance was still there, and it hadn't faded in the slightest compared with when he had last smelled it at the Pillow Relay Station.

Ever since leaving the small town to travel to Mountain Cliff Academy, Li Huai had been forced to endure plenty of hardships, but he had reaped some rewards along the trip...