Ji Hualiu was a talent in her own right, and was only a bit behind Xuan Lang in terms of cultivation. It was easy to see why she was the first to notice anything. Xuan Lang let out the tiniest of smiles and withdrew his sword, Bishan, and stepped back from the group, flowing straight into a set of movements Bai Nian would be known for. It was beautiful, and a shiver ran down Shen Jing’s spine whenever Xuan Lang slipped into a fajin¹In taijiquan, fajin refers to a sudden release of energy obtained by the coordinated movement of the entire body and by transferring qi from the dantian. move as his qi pressed down upon them.

His hair wasn’t even out of place when he was done.

“Mm. Foundation Establishment now.”

“Whoa!” He Jiangshan said, eyes wide. “Da-shixiong really is the best!”

It had to be said, most of the better cultivators broke past the Qi Condensation stage in their early to mid 20’s. Of course, a prodigy like Bai Nian broke it an even earlier age. But still, 19 was far from unimpressive— especially given that Ji Hualiu was still in the late-stage Qi Condensation, and when he left last year, he was, too.

That meant he went into peak-stage and had a breakthrough in less than a year.

“I had help,” Xuan Lang said, shaking his head. “We found an area with abundant qi. Shizun was there to guide me, as well.”

“Speaking of which, did Shizun say when he’s coming back?” Ji Hualiu asked. “Did he have something else to do?”

Xuan Lang shrugged. “I think so. We split up a month ago because he took another route, but he didn’t explain much to me other than that he wanted to meet up with an old acquaintance before returning. He did ask me to pass it on to you all that he will be back several days after I arrive, though.”

Shen Jing blinked. Split up that early? He did remember that Bai Nian went to drop off Qianguang to a famed blacksmith with the metals they got, but later chapters went over the route Xuan Lang took to return, and a month ago meant they were still pretty far in the middle of nowhere. The wilderness of a dangerous mountain range extending approximately hundreds of kilometers kind of nowhere. Why would he split up there? Xuan Lang would have to make the final stretch out of that region alone, wasn’t that too dangerous?

Ji Hualiu sighed. “Then I’ll let Father know.”

Sect Master Ji Qiaofeng had always favored Bai Nian. Though Bai Nian was not a disciple in Mount Song Sect and was raised by an unknown shifu, when he joined Ji Qiaofeng immediately made him the rank of Elder, despite the man being no older than forty. Furthermore, he even allowed him to not take in disciples quite yet. Silver Forest Peak was reserved for him; the moment the previous Peak Lord retired Bai Nian was conferred the title, and allowed to pick an entire new batch of disciples. It was the sort of blatant favoritism that made the famously cold Bai Nian awkward, but he’d never voiced his feelings to anyone bar Xuan Lang.

Everyone had always expected Xuan Lang to marry his daughter, and had found the protagonist a suitable match for her. As such, he would often show that favoritism, too, coupled with parental scolding whenever the topic wandered to cultivation partners.

“Da-Shixiong, did you not bring anything back from your trip?” He Jiangshan asked, eyes sparkling. “Show us, pretty please?”

In the story, He Jiangshan ended up showing an aptitude for mechanics and creativity. The problem was that he wasn’t that quick on his feet, meaning that he would be defenseless for a good moment during battles that required immediate action— but that was why he and Fang Xiaoxiao were a wonder-duo. She would cover for him as he gathered his bearings and get down to work. This rather surprising talent of his started out with his curiosity towards exotic items Xuan Lang and Bai Nian brought back. As such, he often hounded them for anything weird or interesting from their travels.

“Let’s sit down first,” Xuan Lang conceded. The group all moved, then, to where they could sit down on the raised wooden floor. When they glanced back, though, they realized that one of them was missing.

Shen Jing gave a hesitant smile, taking a step back. “I think I’ll… Please excuse me.”

“You’ll what…?”

But he already disappeared.

Fang Xiaoxiao, “???”

“Wow. When I said Xiao-shidi could do qinggong through just his small stature, I was mostly joking. But turns out he— ouch! Da-shixiong, sorry!”

 

___

 

<I don’t know man, looks pretty bad to me. You sure you don’t want counseling? It’s free and all, you just need to talk with them for an hour every week or two, if you want they’ll even give you meds. Or homework. If you’re into that sort of thing.>

Scrubbing the dishes within an inch of their lives, Shen Jing shook his head. “No, it’s still manageable, I’ll tell you when I need it, Wu-jie.”

<Okie dokie then.>

It was going to be lunchtime, and Shen Jing had gone to wash up the things from the late morning feast in record time. He had a lot of experience in cleaning the house, after all, given his upbringing, and when he left, he didn’t notice the baffled looks of the helpers from the town at the foot of the mountain.

“Wu-jie, can you help me get the schedule of the people living here, as well as the general plot? I don’t want to miss anything.”

<No problem. I’ve got the schedule right now, if you want, but give me a couple of hours to turn the text into bullet-points of events. Do you want the upcoming stuff first?>

“Upcoming stuff?”

Shen Jing had gone further into the surrounding forests and found himself a nice spot overlooking a cliff. A pine tree had broken through the rocks and grew on the cliffside. When Shen Jing peered to look at the base of the mountains, he could see a wispy river weaving its way between the peaks, appearing and ebbing with the rolling mists.

Letting out a long, controlled exhale, Shen Jing closed his eyes and felt the movements and techniques Assistant 51C had inserted into his mind— the Silver Forest Peak’s basic moves.

Having grown up in an often empty house and having a lot of alone time, Shen Jing was actually familiar with meditation— it helped calm him down, and was especially helpful for his anxiety. But qigong… He’d never done that. So he let Assistant 51C help him with that, familiarizing his new body with it, then took over to feel the movements and internalize them more.

It was kind of weird, now that he thought about it. Assistant 51C actually implanting memories into his brain…

<Isn’t it? Pretty cool, in concept. I can see why it’s creepy in retrospect, though. Or in introspect…? That’s not how you use the word introspect. But yeah, it’s kind of creepy, but it’s a shortcut. You don’t need to worry too much about the cultivation stuff if you don’t feel like it. Gets kinda boring, no?>

Her words, just like his thoughts, flowed through untouched.

Assistant 51C, <......> Hurt. I’m hurt.

Clouds covered the sky into a flat white, the breeze carded their gentle fingers through Shen Jing's hair. Feeling the faint, imperceptible movement within him, he let his mind sink back into that space, like the susurrus of water drowning out everything when he held his breath underwater.

Time melted.

<Hey, you there? It’s gonna be lunchtime soon, so if you don’t wanna…>

Assistant 51C's voice was soft, almost uncharacteristically so. Taking a deep breath, Shen Jing resurfaced, opening his eyes. At first, the brightness— what had been a white sheet felt more like a mirror blinding him. But his eyes readjusted, after several moments. Rubbing his eyes, he also shook the haze out of his head.

“Shen Jing.”

Shen Jing whipped around, hand to his heart, taking a stuttered leap back. Shoot, that— terrified him more than it should’ve. Standing atop his sword with eyebrows furrowed was Xuan Lang, hovering just centimeters above the ground; it was with a graceful step that he got off his sword, and Bishan flew back into its sheath. “You really cannot continue being this easily startled. It will cause problems later.”

Oh no. This was like… the first morning he interacted with the protagonist, and yet it's the third time he… well, Xuan Lang made a good point, except that Shen Jing also couldn't… just change like that.

His cheeks burned. Shen Jing wanted to die. “I understand, Da-shixiong.”

Shame and embarrassment wasn’t an emotion just felt by the face. It spread to the brain, too, the sensation akin to a white noise, to the hum of a CPU overworked for too long. His ears felt like it buzzed, hovering just below the point of tinnitus. The tightness in his chest. The all-encompassing dread— it really was overwhelming, and just—

A palm gently lied on the back of his neck. A quiet murmur. “Why do you always panic around me?”

Shen Jing wanted to cry.

<Whoa whoa okay, kiddo, do you need a time-out? You’re sounding like you’re gonna have a bit of a meltdown, I’ll get you out of there, yeah?>

But then Shen Jing took in a deep breath, held it in, and let it out. Though his hands were still trembling, the rest of his body had— not stopped, but lessened, its stress response. Another deep breath and he could force himself to walk again, head firmly lowered. His limbs felt cold, his hands not quite made of flesh and skin, but if he didn’t think about it, he wouldn’t end up in tears. Yeah, just think about something else… This story, for one.

A small sigh, then Xuan Lang followed, needing only a few steps to fall in line with him as they headed back to the compound.

With the distance and lack of follow-up comments, Shen Jing found himself calming down a bit. The apprehension came back when he started hearing all the chattering in the house, but he forced himself to ignore the coiling knot in his stomach, tensing his shoulders— he’d eaten in cafeterias before, had gone through that ordeal without a panic attack, he could do this… Cafeterias were both the worst and okay-ish; if he could find a corner he was often all right, but when he couldn’t, he would be setting university record for how fast someone could eat a bowl of rice. Sometimes a classmate would ask him if he was trying to outpace “that starving dumbass genius” from IT. Sometimes that made Shen Jing wonder if he could skip lunch out of a deep sense of shame.

But no. Here lunch felt more like a classroom than cafeteria— perhaps it was the number of people, perhaps it was the fact that they were just sort of… looking at each other. All twenty four of them. Shen Jing thought he'd be more terrified, but most of the outer disciples were young and busy among themselves, while he was sitting on the edge next to Fang Xiaoxiao— they sat next to each other in the order of seniority, which was. A boon.

Fang Xiaoxiao and He Jiangshan were whispering to each other, of course, but at least Shen Jing didn't get dragged in.

<How exactly did you survive like this? That's really tough.>

"Survive like…?"

<Like do you just block it out for years or? Anyway, here check the schedule, as well as the first two chapters again. The protagonist is going to be pretty idle for the next few days, 'til Shizun comes home. We can use the time to go over the plot and see improvement areas and draft out a plan.>

The schedule was— okay, Shen Jing understood now why Assistant 51C had been trying to get him to check out the journal. It had several display formats, like notebook or online encyclopedia, and it had a robust search system. He had most of the named cast, too, in profiles; the rest said that data extraction was in progress. But most relevant was the calendar menu, where he could check what anyone is doing at any given time— provided, of course, the novel talked about it. And the most important person had his schedule pretty well laid out, given the fact well… he was the POV character too.

Though the novel timeskipped to a few days later, it did mention that Xuan Lang did his daily routines upon returning. And his daily routine was described around 10 chapters later, so his schedule was neatly penned out by the hour on the calendar, just like that.

<Don't you love it? I'm not even a writer by profession but man I love this system. You can even go back and sift through the items in the novel once they finish importing the data.>

“It’s beautiful,” Shen Jing admitted. More beautiful than his biochem notes. He bought a pastel blue highlighter for that, to make it tidier and more comprehensible at first glance.

<Okay, lunch over soon, go pay attention before you get teased again.>

"Thank you, Wu-jie!" Q__Q He really couldn't handle another teasing today, his heart was getting sore from all the stress.

And sure enough, not long after Shen Jing finished his food and sipped some tea to wash it down, everyone started getting to their feet, tray in hand. Organized, they left one by one, leaving only the direct disciples lingering inside, still chatting. 

"Xiao-shidi, do you want to come with us to town?” He Jiangshan asked, slinging his arm around Shen Jing’s shoulders. “It’s okay because Da-shixiong will be coming with us.”

"Who said I'm going down to town?" Xuan Lang asked, voice dry. "I just passed it by. I'm going to my room."

"Da-shixiong should rest up," Shen Jing said, nodding. 

He Jiangshan pouted. “But what about you?”

Err… Shen Jing scratched his cheek. “Sorry Third Shixiong, I think… I think I’ll go meditate this afternoon… Shizun…”

“Shizun won’t mind, I betchu,” He Jiangshan said, poking Shen Jing’s other cheek. “He—”

“Would,” Xuan Lang finished.

“You might want to just settle with Xiaoxiao before your town visit pass gets revoked,” Ji Hualiu said from the other end of the room, voice dry. He Jiangshan and Fang Xiaoxiao exchanged a look and booked it.

<Cultivator teens are pretty fast.> Assistant 51C sounded impressed.

Before Xuan Lang and Ji Hualiu turned away from the door He Jiangshan and Fang Xiaoxiao left through, Shen Jing, too, booked it.

<......> But clearly her family’s host was faster when he’s running away from social interactions.