As the light receded, Lin Yue's fingertips, before her conscious thought, hooked around Xia Zichen's belt—the same spot she'd subconsciously grasped when he'd rescued her from the downed starship three months earlier. His Star-Embroidered Sword had been sheathed in his spatial ring, but his free hand had moved faster than she could to protect the back of her neck, dodging the protruding edges of the "Trial Stones of Tacit Understanding." The black cat crouched in their folded arms, swishing its tail. Two "memory scales" fell from its fur: one reflected the lines of his muscles tensing as he shielded her from the radiation, the other the trembling rhythm of her fingertips as she bandaged him.
The gravity of the "Unconscious Tacit Understanding Zone" was as thick as honey, creating shimmering ripples with every step. Lin Yue's wind pocket suddenly buzzed, releasing the fragments of his sword tassels she had secretly collected—those tassels he had disdained because they were "broken and affected his swing." Now, within her wind runes, they formed a dynamic star map, marking the critical point of exhaustion during each battle. Xia Zichen's Adam's apple twitched slightly, and he saw that the silver ornament pinned in her hair was forged from the tip of his broken sword three years ago.
The Trial Stones suddenly unleashed a "reaction time lag" beam. Lin Yue's wind barrier deployed 0.3 seconds before the beam reached her skin, while Xia Zichen's light blade simultaneously sliced through the beam's path. Their movements intertwined in mid-air, forming a perfect Möbius strip. Even the black cat pricked up its ears in surprise: "Meow! This is a symbiotic reaction where 'the body is faster than the mind!'" The shattered beams landed on their wristbands, revealing their subconscious habits: his muscle memory stored every arc of her evasive attack, her wind rhythm engraved with the 360 variations of his sword's movements.
The deepest Trial Stone suddenly split, revealing the inner "Trust Weightless Trap." Lin Yue released the power of the wind at the moment of falling, allowing her body to plummet toward the ever-collapsed bottom. Xia Zichen's pupils reflected her falling form, and star patterns lit up on his skin faster than a nerve impulse. As the bottom of the trap closed, he used the sword tassel weaving technique to weave a web of light through the void, catching her with a force precise to the microgram, exactly the feeling she loved: being supported but not constrained.
"Your muscles have memorized my weight." Lin Yue's fingertips traced the muscles of his forearm, tensed from his sudden stop. A new star pattern appeared there, shaped like the outline of her wind pocket. Xia Zichen looked down at her and noticed that the specks of light on her eyelashes had automatically aligned themselves to the path of his gaze whenever he looked at her. The black cat used its paw to brush away the "logically questionable" moss on the trap wall, revealing a dense mass of incisions beneath—all the physical habits they had unconsciously adapted to each other: his sword grip accommodated her height, her wind barrier covered his blind spot.
At the center of the Trial Stones rose the "Instinct Resonance Platform," upon which hovered twelve "Habit Puzzle Pieces" engraved with symbols. Lin Yue reached out to touch the stone inscribed with "Caffeine," triggering a reflex—her fingertips automatically conjured up his usual throat lozenge wrapper, while Xia Zichen's palm simultaneously radiated the warmth of coffee stains, a habit he'd developed when staying up late to refine her equipment. When all twelve puzzle pieces were embedded, the platform erupted in a rainbow mist, reflecting silhouettes of their battles in various parallel universes: in the pirate universe, he used his sword to steady her swaying mast; in the poet universe, she used the wind to lift the pages of his poetry, each movement as precise as if rehearsed a thousand times.
"So we've practiced this countless times." Xia Zichen's voice was sweet and misty. He saw himself in reality, subconsciously brushing the light spot off her shoulder with his thumb, a movement identical to the one used in the pirate universe to brush the sea salt off her shoulders. Lin Yue's Wind Pocket automatically unfolded into a cloak, shielding him from the "wind of doubt" coming from behind. His Star-Embroidered Sword was unsheathed the moment she raised her hand, the arc of its light just covering her blind spot.
The black cat suddenly leaped atop the resonance platform and swung a string of "trust dice" with its tail: "Meow! Time to try 'no-words collaboration' mode!" As the dice landed, they shattered into twelve bolts of command light, each shooting off in twelve different directions across the trial area. Lin Yue and Xia Zichen didn't even have time to exchange glances before their bodies reacted—her wind rhythm weaving a trap on the left, his sword force slicing a path on the right. As the final bolt of light shattered under their intertwined energy fields, the gravity of the entire tacit understanding zone suddenly became as light as down.
Lao Zhang's pocket watch emerged from the mist, the words on the inside of the cover growing: "Language is the outer shell of thought, but your bodies have already written a love letter." Lin Yue then noticed that their clasped fingers were tapping against each other's palms at a specific rhythm—the secret sword language he had just taught her, now combining to form "Don't be afraid, I'm here." Xia Zichen discovered that the rhythm of her wind pocket was perfectly synchronized with his heartbeat.
At the end of the unconscious tacit understanding zone, two doors appeared, labeled "Battle Instinct" and "Emotional Instinct." Lin Yue looked at the fragment of the star pattern on her wristband and suddenly realized that the muscle memory she had once considered "interference" was actually a guardian program he had engraved into her body. Xia Zichen stroked the newly wrapped wind whisper knot on the hilt of his sword and realized that the lavender scent that passed through his nose every time he swung the sword had long become a calming agent in his battle.
The black cat used its claws to push open the door to "emotional instinct." What floated out from behind the door wasn't a trial, but countless glimmering fragments of daily life: when he tied her shoelaces, the bow always tilted to the left; when she adjusted the tightness of his sword hilt, she always gave it an extra half turn. As these fragments fell upon them, the "courage candy" he had secretly stuffed fell out of Lin Yue's wind pocket, and from his scabbard rolled out the "peace charm" she had embroidered for him—its stitching was riddled with errors, yet it was his most cherished battle wreck.
"So instincts are built up." Lin Yue looked up at him and noticed the redness on the tip of his ear spreading down his cheek, yet he stubbornly held her gaze. Xia Zichen suddenly reached out and gently pinched her earlobe, a gesture that simultaneously reminded them of the touch of him removing her hairpin three days ago when she'd been working through the night organizing wind data. This unforced intimacy was more thrilling than any unspoken battle rapport.
Lao Zhang's pocket watch ticked towards midnight, and the inside of the case revealed one last time: "Even the fastest light in the universe takes time to arrive, but your instincts have long transcended all time differences." Lin Yue felt the warmth of his palm, listened to their overlapping heartbeats, and suddenly realized that true tacit understanding is never the result of deliberate training, but rather an instinct forged over time through countless "subconscious thoughts."
The wind blew again, carrying with it the warmth characteristic of the "Emotional Instinct" zone. Xia Zichen's fingertips slid through the tips of her hair, no longer a protective gesture in battle, but a gentle caress between lovers. Lin Yue closed her eyes, allowing the rhythm of her own wind to blend completely with the ripples of his star patterns—in this silent, unspoken space, their bodies understood love better than any language could.
(End of Chapter 43)
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