Morning light seeped through the cracks of the wooden shutters, painting thin golden lines across the quiet inn room. The air slled faintly of herbs and dried blood.
Xiao Fang stirred. His body ached as if crushed beneath a mountain, his breath shallow but steady. He felt the warmth of Qi flowing gently across his wounds — soft, deliberate, careful.
"You’re awake," Xun Wei’s voice broke the silence.
She sat at his bedside, sleeves rolled up, hands glowing with faint green light as she channeled restorative Qi into the deeper cuts that hadn’t yet closed. Her hair was still damp from the rain, clinging to her cheeks, but her focus didn’t waver.
Xiao Fang’s vision cleared slowly, the events of the previous night bleeding back into his mind — lightning, screams, and the face of a man he had thrown down from the clouds.
His throat was dry. "Where... are the other two?"
"Xiao Hei and Li Xiang?" Xun Wei said without looking up. "They went shopping for new clothes. The ones we picked out for you didn’t survive the fight."
Xiao Fang exhaled softly. "I see."
"She’s been asking questions, you know," Xun Wei continued, her tone calm but thoughtful. "Questions neither Xiao Hei nor I can really answer — like who those Heavenly Fate disciples were, and why they ca after us in the first place."
Xiao Fang stayed quiet, his gaze fixed on the ceiling.
"...And she’s been asking about you, too," Xun Wei added after a pause. "She said she saw you do things she couldn’t explain."
Xiao Fang’s expression didn’t change.
"What are you going to tell her?" she asked finally.
"I don’t know," he said simply. "I’ll cross that bridge when I get there."
His eye drifted toward Xun Wei’s hands, the faint glow of green Qi flickering between her palms as she worked over his wounds.
"You’ve learned a healing technique?" he asked, his tone calm but curious.
"A little," she admitted with a small, almost shy smile. "You know I’ve always preferred pill refinent. But before I could study higher-grade healing elixirs, my master insisted I learn the basics of dical Qi control first. I want to be useful to you, so in the future, I’ll co to your aid and heal you the best I can."
Her smile faded as her hands paused over his wounds. "Clearly... I still have a long way to go."
Xiao Fang looked at her for a mont before replying quietly, "Even so, it’s helping."
Xun Wei gave him a doubtful look. "You don’t have to flatter ."
"I’m not," he said simply. "I like the way your hands feel on ."
Her expression changed subtly. She looked away, trying to hide the faint color rising in her cheeks.
"Then... I suppose I’ll keep going," she murmured shyly.
The room fell silent again, broken only by the sound of Xun Wei’s steady breathing and the faint hum of Qi as her hands glided carefully across his wounds.
After a mont, she spoke softly, "How are your legs? Can you move them yet?"
Xiao Fang drew a slow breath, bracing himself as he pushed against the bed to sit up. The fra creaked under his weight. The instant he tried to move his legs, a sharp wave of pain surged through him like fire. His muscles locked, his jaw clenched, and his hands gripped the sheets tightly.
No matter how hard he tried — his legs didn’t move.
The muscles refused to respond — torn beyond what even his golden core could nd overnight. It felt as though his lower body belonged to soone else entirely.
He frowned, leaning back on his elbows with a grim expression. "Tch... still useless."
Xun Wei finally looked up, her eyes calm but stern. "Whatever technique you used to end up like this," she said softly, "I hope you never use it again — not until you truly learn how to control it."
Xiao Fang gave a faint nod. "You’re right."
He let himself fall back onto the pillow, staring up at the wooden ceiling above him.
"I was desperate," he murmured.
Xun Wei sighed, the tension in her shoulders easing slightly. After a mont of silence, she climbed up onto the bed beside him, lying down on her side. The two of them stared at the ceiling in quiet exhaustion.
For a long mont, there was nothing but the faint crackle of the fireplace and the slow rhythm of their breathing.
"I still can’t believe it," Xun Wei said finally. "I watched you defeat a Heavenly Realm cultivator as if he were nothing."
Her voice trembled between admiration and disbelief. "Heavenly Realm... a level I’ve only ever dread of — struck down by you in a single breath."
Xiao Fang wanted to laugh at her awe, but even a small chuckle made his ribs ache. "I got lucky," he admitted quietly.
In truth, if they had attacked him together, he would’ve had no choice but to flee. As the silence settled between them, his mind wandered — replaying every move, every exchange, every fragnt of what he’d learned about the Heavenly Fate Sect from that battle. Their thods, their precision, their ability to cancel out his techniques and manipulate "fate" itself... it all gnawed at him.
Xun Wei glanced over, noticing the distant look in his eyes. Her tone softened. "What are you thinking about?"
Xiao Fang didn’t respond right away. His gaze drifted toward the ceiling, and for a mont, his thoughts weren’t in that room — but sowhere far away, hearing a voice that still echoed in his mind.
’More will co for you.’
’Whatever you do, never learn the Heavenly Fate thod.’
Those words had sounded like paranoia before. Now, he understood.
What he’d faced yesterday was only a glimpse of what the Heavenly Fate Sect could do — and that was just two of them. Fighting them in the air had been hard enough; on land, where their Divination arts thrived, he might not have stood a chance.
And the next ti... it might not be two. It could be four. Or six. Or more.
He needed a plan.
"I was thinking about the fight," Xiao Fang said quietly. "I couldn’t use my Illusory techniques against them."
Xun Wei looked puzzled. "You couldn’t use them?"
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