Again, if you read Chapter 10 when it was still called "10. Possibilities", I urge you to go back and read the last few lines. There's an explanation at the top of the page of that. 

“What the actual fuck?” Wu Jianzhu yelled, clutching at Lei Chonglin’s bleeding arm. “Guess all those rumours about you being crazy were true after all.” At least he nor anybody else wasn’t attacking her. Yet. She’d have to keep an eye out.

Ai Mingxia stepped backwards, bumping into the tall figure of Si Ma Zhilian. The brown-haired girl fixed her with a blank but almost judgemental stare. Ai Mingxia felt the adrenaline wash away, but still gripped the knife tightly, not wanting to be left defenseless in case somebody decided to attack her. Even if she couldn’t win, the pain might buy her a few seconds time. “Er…” Shit. She'd fucked up.

“Just because he’s brothers with Lei Yongrei doesn’t mean you should take it out on him,” Guo Qiuyue scolded. “Lei Chonglin’s done nothing wrong.” 

“And it wasn’t as though it would’ve been effective. There’s healing water right here,” Luo Yanmei pointed out sardonically. “Still, I agree, what the fuck? Explain yourself. And put the damn knife away!”

Ai Mingxia tucked the knife back into her sash reluctantly, the blood staining the light blue. She couldn’t really argue: she couldn’t fend off five people with higher cultivation than her and assumedly weapons using a possibly faulty spear and two knives in such an enclosed area with how weak she was currently. There was a reason she hadn’t just attacked Si Ma Zhilian already, and the odds were even more stacked against her in this situation. She couldn’t even escape: the brown-haired girl was standing behind her, blocking the entrance.

“Really — it’s okay — I get it—” Lei Chonglin really was too accommodating even as his face scrunched up in pain and his words were punctuated by heavy gasps. Even if it wasn’t fatal, the wound was deep and large, a bloody gash desecrating the otherwise unmarred flesh of his arm, a seeming endless stream of blood pouring out: if his cultivation was any lower, he would be on the verge of fainting already. His pain tolerance was really good; Ai Mingxia was surprised he was still coherent. Fuck. She wished she’d thought it through. And what if once he was back to full health he decided to take revenge?

“It’s really not. She stabbed you!” Wu Jianzhu looked at him in disbelief before sighing and glaring daggers at Ai Mingxia. At least he wasn’t throwing real ones yet. “Sit down, let’s heal you. It might take a while for such a big wound, but it’ll be fine.” A sharp pang of regret seared through her as well as the cold worry. Shit.

Ai Mingxia swallowed, throat feeling dry. “Um.” She’d have to play her cards properly: hopefully she could come out of this unscathed. Should she come clean about the hallucinations? She wasn’t sure they’d believe her, but they already thought she was crazy. It was revealing her weaknesses, but there wasn’t really any other way to explain her stabbing Lei Chonglin. “I see things that don’t exist. Blood. Swords. Shadows. I saw Lei Chonglin with his sword bloodied and your heads were cut off. He turned towards me, and I panicked. I was aiming for the heart, but I managed to change direction at the last second.” Even Ai Mingxia could tell she didn’t sound particularly convincing.

“So you really are crazy,” Wu Jianzhu remarked, gently enveloping Lei Chonglin’s bleeding arm in the cool water. At least he seemed to believe her. The taller boy made a pained face, but said nothing. 

Luo Yanmei was more skeptical. “I get that there’s a shit ton of rumours flying around, but can we really believe her? Again, she stabbed him, and hell, maybe she started the rumours to get away with shit like this? She didn’t even apologise!” 

“It’s fine, really — The stab didn’t really hurt — It was mostly the taking it out — ”

“Just because you say it’s fine doesn’t mean that it is. She fucking stabbed your arm,” Luo Yanmei cut in. 

“I — I’m really sorry, Lei Chonglin. I didn’t mean to, promise. What can I do to make it up to you?” She winced: even to her, her words sounded weak and ingenuine.

“It’s fine, really —” 

“It’s not. I stabbed you.” She sighed. At first she had only offered to make it up to him to appease them and try not to have vengeance pushed upon her, but… “I’m not really sure what I can do, but just ask and I’ll try my best to fulfill it.”

“It’s alright, it happens all the time —” 

“No it doesn’t,” Wu Jianzhu hissed, still pouring water over the woozy-faced Lei Chonglin’s arm, motions gentle despite his tone. He turned to Ai Mingxia again, glaring. “How about you give him everything you own?” Ai Mingxia knew she’d said she’d do anything to make it up to him, but she vaguely felt like her mistake was instantly being monopolized. 

“She doesn’t have much to give,” Si Ma Zhilian interjected out of the blue. “She wasn’t born lucky.” Was Si Ma Zhilian trying to garner sympathy for her? Or was she just stating a fact? Or was this another attempt at getting her to owe her?

An unrecognizable look passed over Luo Yanmei’s face for a split second. She crossed her arms. Good. Would take more time to get her weapons out, then. “Maybe she could become his bodyguard, then?” Ai Mingxia wasn’t sure what she was thinking, considering she had just stabbed him.

Guo Qiuyue, who hadn’t spoken much until this point, spoke up. “She does have a fast reaction speed, even if it was a hallucination, and she has enough control to change course even with her momentum, albeit not as well as she could have. And she moved far quicker than the rest of us did.” 

If Ai Mingxia had been in her original body, she probably could’ve aimed elsewhere instantly and ended up standing. Well. If she had been her original body, she wouldn’t have to worry about being ganged up on. Ah. Now that she thought about it, she realised she could’ve used her wind cultivation to push herself in a different direction… She always forgot. This situation could’ve been easily avoided.

Just like with the green-clad woman and her own knife lancing through her stomach.

“Am I the only one with sense here? She stabbed him! Don’t think that’s very good bodyguard material,” Wu Jianzhu argued. Sitting next to him, Lei Chonglin was staring in awe at the blurry image of the tendrils of his skin slowly tying themselves back together underneath the film of the water. Was that what it had looked like when Si Ma Zhilian had healed her stomach?

“Hm. I see your point,” Guo Qiuyue conceded professionally. “Liu Xiuying, what arts do you learn?”

Ai Mingxia blinked. Ordinarily, she’d lie since she was unwilling to reveal such information, but she supposed he’d find out eventually sooner or later. And if her lie was caught out, it wouldn’t bode well. “Engrailed Soul and Spring Gale Breath.”

“Lei Chonglin, what about you?” Guo Qiuyue asked, turning to him.

It seemed to take a few seconds for the question to register for the fascinated lanky-limbed boy who was still staring at his healing arm, but he replied readily. “Engrailed Soul and Earthen Flow, why?” 

“Hm. Would you be willing to learn Spring Gale Breath under Liu Xiuying’s tutelage, then?” Disciples were only given one parchment for learning an art aside from Engrailed Soul when they first began, there being five choices. Of course they had become monopolized. Just like before. Other art parchments could be obtained with a variety of different ways, but getting them from others tended to be the most easily accessible way for people who had the money to afford it.

“What if she stabs him again during their tutoring sessions?” Wu Jianzhu questioned ardently. Ai Mingxia praised his skepticism despite herself.

“Then I shall supervise them,” Si Ma Zhilian said, her voice carrying a sense of levity. “I already practice Spring Gale Breath, amongst others, so there will not be a difference.” 

Being alone with somebody who may or may not be out to torture her and somebody whom she had stabbed? Another death wish. She doubted Lei Chonglin had it in him to seek vengeance in that way, especially since Si Ma Zhilian would be there and he thought they were friends, and Si Ma Zhilian might not do anything because he’d be there, but she couldn’t completely rule out the possiblity of them ganging up on her. As well as that, teaching him a new art would only increase the ways he could attack her, and since Si Ma Zhilian would be there, she couldn’t just teach it to him incorrectly. But refusing might only stoke their collective anger. “Okay. I’ll try my best.” 

“So it’s decided, then.” Guo Qiuyue said genially as ever. “I am glad that is settled. Lei Chonglin, how are you feeling?”

“Like nothing even happened.” The wound had nearly closed in on itself already. “This water… it’s really fascinating.” Ai Mingxia noted he didn’t refuse to getting to learn a new art in exchange for an easily healed wound. It seemed even accommodation didn’t go so far. Ai Mingxia didn't blame him; it was the smart thing to do, and she had stabbed him for no reason.

Wu Jianzhu snorted. “I think she’s getting off a bit too easy, but alright.” She disagreed. The exchange was strangely businesslike, which was probably why he felt that why. Still, it seemed she had successfully gotten through it unscathed, so she wasn’t complaining.

Luo Yanmei elbowed him. “She’s teaching him a whole-ass art as an apology. I agree that’s it a bit… weird? But I think she’s sorry enough, no?”

Wu Jianzhu grumbled some indecipherable under his breath for a few seconds. “Well, you guys go first. Me and Lei Qiu will go back soon as he’s finished healing.” 

“Let’s go home then,” Luo Yanmei said, uncrossing her arms. Si Ma Zhilian stepped gently to the side, letting her through. “Wouldn’t want to miss lessons.” 

Home… 

Luo Yanmei and Guo Qiuyue walked in the front, chatting happily to each other. Their words were indecipherable, but their tones were light and airy, and something about it made the waves, the want, in Ai Mingxia’s heart awaken again despite herself. It didn't matter, but...

She sighed and looked up. The sky showed no signs of darkening. Blues upon blues; it was so blank, empty azure drapes, with only clouds to disguise its sparseness. 

A never-ending advance. And eternity? The sea mingling with and adoring the sun in a piscine embrace. Ai Mingxia could almost hear Qi Niao’s words being whispered into her ear, her ever-cold breath brushing against her skin.

And living between these two lovers eats me away, because the sunlight washes softly on my face, but it was never meant for me. Ai Mingxia’s words from so long ago came unsolicited to her mind. She sighed. She’d called Yue Ning Peak home before too. But without the people she had once loved … She felt nothing for it now.

And eternity. How strange, how foolish, they had been back then. Children playing at being wise. What could they know about eternity back then? What did they know now?

…

Si Ma Zhilian was equally silent next to her, looking deep in thought. Ai Mingxia sighed again. Her breath seemed to hang wispy in the  air. Despite herself, there was a brief flicker of feeling in her chest. Her lips felt dry, the knives weighing heavy in her robes, and all the blood she'd washed clean suddenly caressing her again in a sickening embrace.

The sun shone above, bright and blazing, but it was tempered by the cool air. Much of Ai Mingxia's long, long life had always been either at a high or a low, rarely settling in between. Whenever it was blazing hot she had longed for respite; when it was freezing she had craved the sun. And all the while she knew better than to want. Yue Ning Peak had always been different, ever temperate, ever calm. Despite how little time she'd spent there, it had been the one place she'd ever really called home, if not for an eternity.

It didn’t matter. Not her loneliness, not her guilt, not the past sunken into her skin, not anything else.

All she needed was to survive.

Perhaps I should add the comedy tag? Also, I've gotten irrationally attached to Lei Chonglin. I adore him dearly.