A few minutes later Chen Yu also woke up.

"I think I have reached the first stage, however I am unsure of which element I possess."

"Same for me" I happily replied. "Either something mystic or poisonous maybe. Or maybe an unknown new type, if I had to believe the spirits words."

"A spirit...? Hmm." She pondered, "I have not heard something like that in my vision. I only experienced climbing a cold mountain to find hot lava boiling within and being drawn to it. Not sure if that corresponds to fire, ice, or earth."

"Mine was enshouded in a dark sky, seeing a mystifying scenery, honestly I'm not quite sure how to describe the strange beauty of it."

She nodded to herself before saying. "Now that that has been done, what would our next step be?"

As I answered I directed my gaze to the outside: "I would've liked to try storytelling, however it seems it is already midnight."

Chen wanted to step our of bed but I grabbed her arm before she could do so.

"Would you like to go stargazing with me?" I softly whispered.

She gave a restrained smile and said "With pleasure, your highness."

We both picked up a chair and placed it on of the porch in front of the doorstep. There was a calm, cool breeze flowing. I leaned back relaxedly.

My dear servant who was always a bit uptight also seemed to slump in a bit, I suppose the experience was a bit taxing on the both of us.

"How beatiful..." She remarked absentmindedly.

"Tonight the stars are in full view. Hey, look, over there there is a shooting star." I pointed somewhat excitedly at the star, tracing it's trajectory to make sure she would follow.

We both gazed absentmindedly for a while, immersing ourselves in the scenery.

However, quickly I was reminded that it was only the calm before the storm.

Off in the distance, as I sister and I locked eyes she hurriedly and excitingly ran over with a smiling, dopey look.

"Heyyy~~ How usual for dear sister to be awake~ Couldn't sleep?"

My mood quickly went a few notches down as I tried to carefully reply as to not set off any fireworks. The facade cannot conceal the fact that she will always interpret malice if the slightest hint of disagreement is present.

"Yes, we were just trying to calm our excitement. I would ask for you to join, though as we were already planning to return to our respective chambers, we will have to postpone it to a later date." Before I could speak Chen had already backed me up, Nice going.

I was giving her a mental thumbs up as my sister began pouting. "Muu~ Sisteeerr~ Tomorrow I will definitely join!" It seemed she could find no excuse to pester us for material to report to Fan Xhu. No bullying today sis. I need to stay in the clear.

although Chen Yu seemed apologetic for cutting our time short, I reassured her that she did nothing wrong, and it was the best possible decision.

I laid on my bed thinking about all the things I could finally do. But with the excitement also came an empty feeling. Regret. Finally taking off the blindfold of love I could only feel a gaping hole where once my heart fluttered. Somewhere deep inside I wanted to reconcile with both Fan Xhu and Xian Ling. But my pragmatic thinking said that that ship has long sailed. All my past foolish mistake left a permanent imprint. Even if it was taken advantage of by my sister, I was the one who decided to behave that way. 

Knowing that overthinking these matters at this point is pointless, I decided just to go to sleep. However as a thought flashed in my mind I quickly noted it down before turning over.

I will ask Chen to procure a certain plant that might make it easier to get into the next steps of the first phase.