At some point during the battle, Mo SuFang pulled out a red talisman from inside his right sleeve and started chanting below his breath. In the blink of an eye, the talisman multiplied to more than five hundred and all of them hurtled through the air towards Xing Yue.

At the sight of the attack, the gold masked man’s speed increased three-fold and flew straight towards the talismans! They actually braked right in midair, before suddenly rocketing backwards towards SuFang.

The man was not expecting his attack to fly back at him; he retreated but the talismans still slammed against him, exploding on contact.

Present and past Tsi Yi cried out in horror as SuFang plummeted straight down, impacting a huge crater against the ground. Though present-day Tsi Yi knew he had survived to the present, he still couldn’t help worrying about his best friend’s wellbeing.

Xing Yue landed messily, blowing away the cloud of dust that had been summoned with that last attack; Mo SuFang panted in short fast breaths, his spiritual core exhausted and his entire body soaked in sweat as he fought hard just to maintain a kneeling stance.

Despite winning that last round, Xing Yue actually looked worse off than his opponent. Present-day Tsi Yi rationalized that it was probably because the man had already expended a huge amount of physical and spiritual energy in his fights with the sect leaders prior.

Xing Yue’s gold mask had gotten split during the fight with SuFang, revealing that handsome -currently pale and sweaty- menacing face that Tsi Yi knew all too well.

Like SuFang, he needed to stab his blade into the ground just to maintain his upright hunched stance, returning the glare his opponent sent him.

Present-day Tsi Yi watched his past-self run in between the two men -watched him turn his head left and right, trying to figure out who to help first. Just as he finally stepped towards SuFang, Han Xing Yue’s entire being keeled over face first onto the frosty mountainside.

Past Tsi Yi screamed, running without hesitation to the man so that he could flip him over onto his lap and check his vitals. Simultaneously, Mo SuFang collapsed a moment later on the other side of the battlefield.

Present-day Tsi Yi felt…unsettled. He’d just literally seen his past-self be eyewitness to Xing Yue’s terroristic crimes, murdering the sect leaders in cold blood, forcibly selling around a hundred or so females into brothels and then parading them out at a martial sect conference for all to see, before setting fire to the whole Martial Hall.

What was his past-self thinking?

Even if they had been disciple brothers at one point. Even if they had once found solidarity in each other with their shared orphan background. Han Xing Yue had clearly transformed into a monster by now. How could his past-self be so concerned with him?

An awful feeling of dread coiled in Tsi Yi’s chest right then, spiraling and churning in its reluctance to accept his epiphany.

He was criticizing his past-self for being devoted to Han Xing Yue but…did he not feel the same way now for present Han Xing Yue, despite everything he’s put him through?

Wasn’t the present version of himself -whenever he was cold, alone and…lonely inside his bed at Lan Xiu…somehow always thinking about the strong arms that used to wrap around his waist, keeping him warm while he slept?

Didn’t even a part of himself right now still…kind of…wonder what had happened to the man after he collapsed in the forest…

Present-day Tsi Yi slapped himself while still inside this memory.

No. No. NO.

He could not be this way about Han Xing Yue. If not for the years he had him held captive then for the terroristic crimes he’d committed in the past!

How could he possibly feel…anything except loathing for a murderer?!

Present-day Tsi Yi continued shaking his head back and forth to clear his mind, not even noticing as the scenery around him once more melted away, being replaced by the grayed out interior of a small stone cavern. Mo SuFang and Han Xing Yue’s unconscious forms lied on opposite sides of a small fire array set in the middle of the fairly spacious cave.

Once more present-day Tsi Yi materialized next to past Han Xing Yue; the prior immediately shuffling back in disgust and fear, back hitting against the nearby wall of this flashback. It seemed he was incorporeal to everything except the boundaries.

Color seeped in and the scene unfroze.

His past-self rushed in through the night-shaded vine covered entrance of the cave with three canteens swishing heavily across his belt. Both Xing Yue and SuFang seemed to be running a fever, expressions contorted in agony and shivering violently despite the fire and warmth array onto the ground.

His past-self had also gathered several different kinds of herbs while he was out, which he now mashed into a thick paste inside a stone mortar and pestle he’d carved out using spiritual energy.

Present-day Tsi Yi recognized the poultice as an antipyretic one, and just as he expected, his past-self fed the finished mixture to the two unconscious patients, bit by bit, using his spiritual energy to guide the food down into their stomachs.

Just like the arrays, the poultice did little effect. The pained expressions on both men’s faces growing worst with every passing moment.

Present-day Tsi Yi understood. Unable to teleport or fly, his past-self probably hadn’t been able to drag the two men too far from Half Moon Summit, whose natural temperature was already glacial even before night fell.

Present-day Tsi Yi watched his past-self trying and failing to enhance the heat array, his spiritual energy exploding inside his palm every time he tried expanding it. He watched his past-self fall into deep despair: wide vivid green eyes growing red and misting over with unshed tears.

Present-day Tsi Yi knew exactly how he was feeling right now; the disappointment…the self-loathing…the hatred for the situation that was all too familiar since he’d first started cultivating: an opportunity arose in which others were depending on him, the rare occasion of actually needing his help, wanting to meet their expectations…yet in the end, falling short.

That was practically the story of his life.

Past Tsi Yi wiped at the corners of his eyes, a resolute look falling across his features that spoke of his refusal to let his friends die.

On first instinct, present-day Tsi Yi didn’t know why his past-self elevated the fire array in the center of the cave, above all of their heads, since technically it put more distance between the two men than before, plus the hot air distributed less efficiently down than it did up.

He was quite taken aback when he saw his past-self undo both of Mo SuFang and Xing Yue’s clothes, until they were left in just their white inner pants. He was even more taken aback when he next saw his past-self undressing his own clothes, before lying in between both men with all of their clothes draped layer upon layer over all three of them.

Past Tsi Yi maneuvered the other two men to lie with their bodies curled up against his so that their heads were all lined up on the same side with Tsi Yi’s slightly lower than the other two, parallel to both of the men’s pectorals as he forced his body into an S shape.

Then he formed a hand sign, chanting quietly below his breath.

Ah.

Okay.

Present-day Tsi Yi understood.

He’d just drawn the taiji symbol with their bodies: Xing Yue on the Yin side, SuFang on the Yang side, and himself as the center dividing line. This array formation would not fail because it’d been drawn using their own bodies with both men’s spiritual cores acting as a stable point. Through this array, past-Tsi Yi controlled the fire array above their heads, using it as a medium to feed his spiritual energy through.

He was actually using his own Qi as fuel for the heat array which could be compared to a furnace, making the entirety of the cavern toasty warm. Xing Yue and SuFang finally stopped shivering.

This array would shatter as soon as his energy ran out (ie when he died) but Tsi Yi did not care about this fact at all.

Since he did not know how to efficiently expel his energy in a way that would help his friends, then it was only fair that he pay reparation for his incompetence in this way.

If he died saving them, then he would have done so for a good cause. If he just died trying but ultimately still failing, he would still have no regrets.

Because…

Because…

Because…

Present-day Tsi Yi shook his head.

Stop.

No.

Don’t go there-

-because he just wanted to prove himself worthy.

Present-day Tsi Yi’s breath caught in his throat as his mind seemed about to split open.

What was this pain?

Why did his chest hurt so bad?

Why could he hardly even breathe?

He did not have any memories of this specific event but he somehow still understood the thoughts of his past-self perfectly...but it felt more than just memories being awakened…it was like-

-Tsi Yi fell to his knees while cradling his agonizing head. The world around him blackened but it wasn’t because the memory was shifting -rather, it was because he could no longer register what was happening around him.

He lost consciousness, incorporeal body falling directly over and into his past-self’s, like a spirit returning to its original host…

…

…

…

Both Tsi Yis were woken up by the simultaneous furious screams of Xing Yue and Mo SuFang:

“WHAT THE FUCKING SHIT!”

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!”

Present-day Tsi Yi recovered faster than his past-self, sitting up quickly to take in the sight before him.

He immediately fell back down laughing.

As children, he and SuFang had often shared a bed together; when this arrangement had first occurred, Tsi Yi had become knowledgeable to an embarrassing habit of the prior. SuFang was a restless sleeper and in addition, liked hugging things in his sleep, often turning and shifting while he held them, all the while staying completely unconscious.

Tsi Yi had tried bringing up this unfortunate habit of his in conversation on multiple occasions but SuFang’s rather dense mentality…made it near impossible for him to understand subtle advisement…and with Tsi Yi particularly bad in directly stating any sort of complaint…he’d ended up never telling the boy about this bad habit.

It wasn’t really that hard to endure and wasn’t a particularly that bad a habit anyway -he’d rationalized.

It’s not like SuFang’s nightly embraces (…) ever really hurt him, feeling just like what he imagined a rambunctious papa bear’s embraces felt like to his cub.

But it seemed that last night he’d found another cub to cradle; somehow switching with Tsi Yi to land in the middle before wrapping his arms and legs wrapping around Xing Yue like an octopus for likely the entire night. Then sometime before morning, SuFang had inverted their positions so that Xing Yue lied completely on top of him.

Present-day Tsi Yi stifled his violent chuckles despite knowing no one could see or hear him; his past-self, who had gotten pushed to the wall, was still rubbing the sleep away from his eyes. He glanced confusedly at the sight of Xing Yue and SuFang disentangling their bare limbs from each other.

“GET OFF OF ME ALREADY!”

“YOU WERE THE ONE HOLDING ME!”

“EXACTLY WHO WAS ON TOP OF WHO?!”

“NEVER EVER ASK ME THAT AGAIN!”

With flaming cheeks, their gazes kept uncontrollably shifting again and again to each other’s lips…no way, had they actually woken up kissing each other?!

Unseen by everyone, present-day Tsi Yi was about to die of laughter.

Past Tsi Yi, who had finally regained all his awareness, had drawn the same conclusion; bowing his head, he overtly hid a snicker.

A blade suddenly sliced horizontally through the air, passing straight through present-day Tsi Yi’s esophagus, aimed precisely towards his past self’s throat -only to be stopped by a blue flamed shield that divided the entire cave in half.

Mo SuFang rolled into the shield and stood in front of past Tsi Yi’s half knelt form, stance ready for combat. Xing Yue stood up too, blade propped to strike again.

None of them had even put on their clothes yet!

All of their upper halves were bare and illuminated perfectly by the sun’s rays that shone in through the entrance and roof of the cave.

Present-day Tsi Yi’s eyes mirrored his past-self’s: taking in SuFang and Xing Yue’s perfectly lean, muscular -yet not bulky- physiques that paired perfectly with their stunning beautiful faces to give them an ethereal godlike appearance under the picturesque light of dawn.

Present-day Tsi Yi had never seen so much of SuFang’s adult self in the buff before.

His best friend was…actually really quite attractive. How come he’d never noticed until now? It wasn’t like SuFang had ever had a lack of female admirers either…but Tsi Yi had always placed it as being the result of the man’s perseverance and martial success…

Present-day Tsi Yi shook his head; what was he thinking? SuFang was his best friend. How could he possibly be having these kinds of thoughts about the man?

While shaking his head, he inevitably caught sight of his past-self’s red blushing form, the man’s gaze trained down on the ground.

Present-day Tsi Yi understood. Outwardly, it looked his past-self was aroused by their physiques (and maybe he was just a little, ahem) but mostly he was flushed in self-loathing, mentally comparing their fine bodies to his own skinny husk of a self.

He knew because he was feeling the same insecurity right now.

One look at his past-self’s red state and Xing Yue’s face suddenly contorted in complete fury. Without warning, his sword suddenly slammed forward once more into SuFang’s spiritual shield-

White light filled Tsi Yi’s vision, completely blinding him. When it dissipated, he found himself back inside the dark charred version of the Martial Hall-

-or not.

He was initially fooled because the interior was just as dimly lit as the burnt hall but after his eyes adjusted, Tsi Yi recognized the distinct shapes of bedroom furniture. Additionally, he was lying on a rather soft mattress.
___________

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