"..."

Hanbi slowly turned toward him. It seemed like she had a lot she wanted to say, but in the end, she simply nodded at him.

"I see..." Xuan sighed. "I figured something was off after the fifth note. It’s like the song completely went off track. Though I’m confused how no one else noticed it."

"That’s because it’s my song," Hanbi said with an exhausted look. "I created it when I was only twelve. People praised the song and called me a genius because it became the staple of the Serene Blossom Valley, but..." 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"You hate it?" Xuan figured.

And of course, almost as if he had read her thoughts, she agreed right away.

"I hate it. It’s a flawed song that I wrote when I had no knowledge of music. It’s unfinished. It’s crude... It’s not meant to be played in front of people."

"So why don’t you say anything?" Xuan mused. "It’s your song after all. If you don’t want them to play it, then just tell them."

Hanbi shook her head with a conflicted expression. "It’s not that simple. My father is the one I wrote this song for after his brother passed away. It means too much to him."

Xuan immediately understood what she was hinting at. However, as it stood, this song served a different purpose than the one Hanbi likely intended.

This song reached its peak at the fifth note, but from then on, it was a spiral downwards.

And because of that...

"Why don’t you finish the song then?" Xuan asked, meeting her gaze. "I’m not a music expert, but the intent is to make people move on, isn’t that right? Right now, the song teases the memory, and right as you think the memory would continue, you cut it off."

He exhaled a cold breath. "It’s an addictive feeling, and that’s what makes this song so popular. It’s also why your father likes it because it helps remember those you lost... But this kind of feeling isn’t always the best. Trust me, I’d know."

Hanbi lowered her head. "I already finished the song."

"You did?" Xuan’s eyes widened. "Then...?"

"What if my father starts to hate me?" Hanbi mumbled. "What if he doesn’t want to move on? What if... What if he just wants to remember instead?"

"Then it’s your job as his daughter to change that. Holding onto something like this for a long time is unhealthy," Xuan replied, and scooted closer to her.

"When I was younger and my parents had just died, I looked everywhere for a fix. I couldn’t forget them, and that’s what led to me making terrible decisions."

He had thrown himself into mafia deals, underground boxing, anything reckless that gave him the illusion of fixing the hole his parents left behind.

But as expected, by holding onto those illusions, all he did was dig the hole deeper.

It seemed like Hanbi understood what he meant. After pondering over it for a few moments, she finally stood up, a determined look on her face.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up those memories for you," she said sincerely. "After I go back to my sect, I will host a festival and play that song... But only if you show up."

"Me?" Xuan raised a brow, pointing at himself. "What do I have to do with all of this exactly?"

"You’re the first person to ever point out the flaw in my song. You’re also the first person to ever talk back to me... And I want to use this festival as an apology for bringing back that buried memory."

"An apology?" Xuan repeated. "There’s no need for that. Plus, I’m not really sure if I’ll be around by then. This world seems interesting and all, but after hearing about the Lower Heavens and other worlds, I can’t help but want to explore them instead."

After all, most of the people in his world were currently low-level Spirit Warriors. There was a minority that had reached the Spirit Master realm already, but they obviously got recruited by sects from the higher worlds.

So in the end, there were more benefits elsewhere, at least that’s how he thought about it.

I want to travel with Yuelan, so I’ll have to ask her about that as well.

Anyhow...

"If you attend, then I will give you a ticket to the Lower Heavens," Hanbi stated, stepping closer toward him. "I don’t want to force you, but it would mean a lot to me if you showed up... If you don’t want to, then it’s fine. I’ll still host the festival regardless."

"..."

Xuan sighed inwardly and nodded at her. "I’ll think about it."

A faint smile appeared on her face. "Good. Now then, can you go make me some food?"

"I’m not a servant, go make the food yourself," Xuan shot back with a scoff.

Hanbi clenched her fists tightly, lowering her gaze again.

"I... I never learned to cook."

"Wow..."

He wasn’t that surprised, but he was a little confused.

"What about the treatment? Only an hour passed or so."

"It’s already done," Hanbi replied flatly. "I can only do that treatment once per day, otherwise your body might break down."

"So you’re telling me that out of the 24 hours per day, there won’t be anything to do for eleven hours?" Xuan muttered.

Hanbi shrugged, and with a faint smile, made her way to the makeshift kitchen. Since he didn’t want her to burn it down, Xuan followed along.

While he wasn’t expecting much with rations that would only last them four days, the sight in front of him was simply pathetic.

There were two sacks on the ground. When he opened one, he found bread.

He dug deeper into the sack and soon realized that bread was the only ration they had in both sacks.

"Well... shit." Xuan facepalmed, turning to Hanbi, who stared at the sacks with a blank look. "Guess we won’t need to do a lot of cooking."

Picking up a single piece of bread, he held one out in front of Hanbi.

Her brows twitched in displeasure, but even so, she grabbed the bread. Just as she was about to begin eating, she halted, raising her brow at him.

"Aren’t you going to eat?"

"I’m not really hungry. I can probably go three days without eating and not lose my physical abilities."

Hearing that, she slowly put away the bread.

But Xuan immediately clocked what she was doing.

"This is not a competition," Xuan said plainly. "I’m not here to see who can starve longer. You’re hungry, so eat."

Hanbi grumbled. "I’m not hungry anymore."

"Yes, you are. Eat up," Xuan insisted.

After an intense staredown, Hanbi finally took a reluctant bite out of the bread.

It was rock-solid, and after chewing on it for just a few seconds, she spit it out on the ground, a disgusted look appearing on her face.

"This is the worst bread I’ve ever tasted... Do people really eat this?"

Xuan rolled his eyes, pointing around at the cave walls. "I’m sure if you look hard enough, you might find a worm or two. Plus, this bread isn’t meant to be tasty. It’s just supposed to fill us up enough so we don’t die."

"But—"

"Give me that." Xuan abruptly yanked the bread from her grasp and walked over to the makeshift kitchen stove.

It sure as shit wasn’t connected to anything, but upon closer look, he saw something blue swirling around. Even with his Qi sealed, he knew that this was Spiritual Qi.

Powering stuff with Qi, huh? That seems pretty fun, Xuan thought, took out a pan from the cupboard, and turned the stove on, letting the pan heat up.

Hanbi approached, watching him from the side eagerly.

But he didn’t do anything too special.

Xuan simply picked up a knife and cut the bread into tiny pieces. Then, after the pan heated up enough, he tossed the chopped-up bread into the pan and began cooking it.

After just three minutes, the bread was brown and sizzling, so he turned off the stove and, with a knife, stabbed through one of the tiny bread pieces.

Then, he carefully pointed the knife toward Hanbi, who, with a slightly startled look, took the bread off the tip and put it inside her mouth.

The bread crunched inside her mouth, and even if her frown was still there, she actually swallowed.

"This is probably the second worst thing I’ve eaten," Hanbi said matter of factly.

Xuan puffed out his chest proudly. "Well, that’s a step up, isn’t it? Go ahead and finish the rest."

Putting the knife aside, he turned around, prepared to do some warm-ups before Foyan arrived.

Before he could do that, he heard a cough from behind him, and as he turned his head slightly, he spotted Hanbi staring at him with an unreadable expression, holding out the bread-ended knife toward him just as he had done.

"You expect me to eat this disgusting bread all by myself?" Hanbi pouted slightly. "If you don’t eat it, then I won’t eat it either."

"You’re like a child throwing a tantrum..." Xuan sighed.

Then, to her surprise, he leaned forward and bit the bread off the tip of the knife, all while maintaining eye contact with her.

He ate the small piece of bread, and after he was done, he teasingly opened his mouth.

"See? Now you can eat in peace. I’m going to do some warm-ups now, so if you don’t mind," Xuan trailed off with a mischievous look.

All the while, Hanbi stood rooted in place, shocked at what he just did.

But even so, Xuan acted as if he didn’t know anything and walked off to the training grounds and began doing his usual routine.

After all, he was sure that whatever Foyan had planned was going to be gruesome.

.

.

.

(Eleven hours later...)

Sweat poured down Xuan’s body like a waterfall. He wasn’t exhausted by any means, just very goddamn hot.

Beside him, Hanbi was also doing push-ups, but she had begun to struggle nearly an hour ago. And now, after trying her best to remain in a planking position, she fell into her own pool of sweat, her brows furrowing in irritation.

"What is up with your stamina?" Hanbi asked, barely sitting up. "I’m using Qi to boost my physical abilities, but I still get tired. Your hands aren’t even shaking."

Xuan smirked. "I guess I’m just a little better at push-ups, aren’t I?"

Right as she was about to retort his words, the two heard steps coming from the distance.

Upon turning toward the steps, Xuan spotted Foyan lazily walking toward them with a wooden sword in hand.

"I see the two of you are getting along. Though I’m a little too lazy to train both of you at once. Mind stepping out, Xue Hanbi?"

Xue Hanbi shook her head. "I don’t want to sit around doing nothing for the next twelve hours."

That’s what we’ve been doing though? Xuan chuckled inwardly.

"Tsk... Suit yourself. But just know that since there are two of you here, I won’t hold back. You’ll be doing the training as a pair," Foyan said sternly, narrowing his eyes. "Also, I have my own training methods, so don’t you dare go whining to the other Head Monks. You got that?"

"Yes."

"Sure." Xuan nodded. "What’s with the sword, by the way? I’ve never seen a monk use a sword before."

"It’s a hobby." Foyan smirked. "Let’s just say, after a few circumstances on the battlefield, I grew interested in the sword. I don’t have any sword techniques yet, but thwacking you with it is more than enough."

"Right..." Xuan trailed off. "You mentioned your own training methods, so what are they exactly?"

Hearing that, Foyan’s smirk widened even further as he suddenly pulled out two green vials from his pocket, holding them out in front of Xuan and Hanbi.

"This right here is poison, and I want you both to drink it."