In the waiting days, Chen Xia wrote a diary again, he also wrote in Blue Sky Sword Sea, but it disappeared along with Blue Sky Sword Sea.
Autumn, the thirteenth day.
"It's exceptionally cold today, I can't feel it, but the flowers are dead."
"Qiu Yi said these flowers are not cold resistant, it's normal for them to die in this almost winter weather."
"I think she makes sense, because humans are the same."
The fifteenth day.
"We played chess all afternoon, won't play anymore in the future."
"Damn."
"Didn't win a single game."
The twenty-seventh day.
"Refined some elixirs for the cultivators in Little Cinnabar Hall, charged thirty spirit stones, it's better than nothing I guess, didn't put in much effort anyway."
"Qiu Yi was next to me telling me to charge more, saying my refining fee is too low."
"Is it low, it's just moving my hands."
"Shouldn't gains and rewards be equal?"
Early winter, the first day.
"It's finally winter, carefully counting, I've stayed in Qing Province for quite some time, my body has recovered now, it's about time to prepare to find a way out."
"When to leave, I don't have a plan for now."
"Hmm..."
"Wait for a heavy snow day."
Chen Xia's appearance didn't cause big changes to Qing Province's structure, at most Little Cinnabar Hall became one of the eight major powers.
The beast tribes and human tribes were still confronting each other.
Chen Xia didn't want to manage these things, he felt conflicts between races would just repeat after millions of years.
For example, that martial emperor in Qing Province before, who cut off the path of cultivation, and made the world only have humans, but spiritual energy revived afterwards, and it became the current situation of coexisting humans and beasts right.
He had lived for too many years, and been to weird places like Blue Sky Sword Sea where all races gathered, and became sworn brothers with Chi Yu and Big Yellow Dog, so he didn't care too much about race divisions.
Because, this was not actually a conflict between races.
It was just a conflict between the strong and the weak.
The strong oppressing and exploiting the weak, it has never changed across all worlds.
He could not change it either.
Qiu Yi now often came to play chess with him, Chen Xia felt it boring and was unwilling at first.
But he played a game afterwards out of boredom, and found he could contend evenly with Qiu Yi, both sides winning and losing.
"Are you letting me win?" Chen Xia asked doubtfully.
Qiu Yi stared at the chessboard with her cold brows, seemingly seriously considering the next move. She asked seriously,
"Why can't it be you got stronger?"
"That makes sense too." Chen Xia smiled.
The gaming experience was back.
He and Qiu Yi regained interest in playing chess, playing two games everyday, split wins and losses, it was a good way to kill time.
Until Chen Xia raised his magic power to 500, changes finally happened.
The <i>Art of Destiny</i> from Great Profound Capital he got unfolded new transformations, the dense words seemed to indicate a new technique was going to appear.
Last time Chen Xia got an enhanced avatar, he didn't know what mystic art he would get this time.
Although the words spread out, they weren't clear, he couldn't make out what it was. He could only see the last line of annotated words, Chen Xia read it out.
"Past and Future Method."
He was slightly stunned, then gave his own sharp critique.
"It's not past and future tense, I don't really approve."
He was just joking.
Chen Xia earnestly studied this so-called Past and Future Method, and tried hard to record the unclear small words through spiritual sense.
"Past events cannot be pursued, future events cannot be sought, sever the past with the present, sever the present with the future..."
After studying for a long time, he frowned slightly and summed it up.
It was probably just shaking his future self, just not clear how many years into the future.
If he could shake his self from hundreds of thousands of years later, wouldn't he be invincible immediately?
At the end of these unclear small words, there was another name, Chen Xia focused his spiritual sense to look, and could barely make out two words.
Xian Ma.
It was probably the creator of this mystic art. Chen Xia didn't think too much and continued studying the so-called Past and Future Method.
Chen Xia was already familiar with the Dao of time, along with his magic power and comprehension, he picked up this time-related mystic art very quickly.
But he still couldn't summon his future self or strike his past self in a short time.
To achieve the effects described in the small words, he first had to search in the long river of time with extremely profound comprehension of the Dao of time, then combine it with the Past and Future Method to find.
Only then was it possible to achieve the effects of the mystic art.
So it was actually very difficult to master this technique.
But Chen Xia had built up such a good foundation in comprehending time, so it wasn't too hard for him to learn.
Qiu Yi sat to the side, seeing Chen Xia fall asleep halfway through a chess game. She looked with her cold gaze, seeing Chen Xia had no reaction.
She secretly took away her own cannon piece, so the next time Chen Xia played, it would be simpler.
The winter in Qing Province came extremely fast.
It had just entered early winter, and the first snow came right after.
Today, Chen Xia unusually gave some pointers on mystic arts to Qiu Yi, and talked about some things regarding his hometown.
"I'm from a remote town, I was a patrol officer back then, like the guards now."
"Just as unprofessional?" Qiu Yi asked with a smile.
"Patrol officer work can't be called unprofessional." Chen Xia strictly refuted, and started explaining the three major principles of patrol officers to Qiu Yi, which were the following three points.
...
"Collect protection fees on time, make problematic merchants shut up, retreat fully when danger comes."
After hearing this, Qiu Yi was somewhat stunned, and asked puzzled, "This is what you call the same as guards?"
"More or less." Chen Xia replied with a chuckle.
It really wasn't that different for him.
Qiu Yi didn't dwell on it too much either, Chen Xia was just this weird, not like anyone else she had met in Qing Province.
She sat on the chair, her cold face looking at the small snow outside, raised her pretty face, and breathed out hot air. She said softly,
"Such pure white snow."
Chen Xia nodded, "It'd be even better with heavier snow."
Qiu Yi blinked her eyelashes covered in some snowflakes, her emerald eyes flashing, and asked,
"Why?"
"After heavy snow, it means the new year right, people always say the new year brings new outlooks." Chen Xia replied with a laugh, but he didn't say the real reason.
Qiu Yi didn't reply anymore either, lowered her emerald eyes, the snowflakes on her eyelashes fell, not clear where they went, she didn't go looking for them.
Later the heavy snow day really came.
Everything was white between heaven and earth.
Qiu Yi dressed in pure white winter clothes hurried out, but the familiar figure was already gone from the chair by the door.
In the hazy snow, a youth in blue walked by Surging Sea, covered in snow, about to step into the sea.
"Wait!" A shout rang out.
Qiu Yi's somewhat staggering figure appeared in the snowstorm.
Chen Xia turned his head, the heavy snow behind him grew thicker, piling on his shoulders, patting his back, as if rushing him to hurry on his way. He asked,
"What is it?"
"Can we meet again in the future?!" Qiu Yi asked in the heavy snow.
Chen Xia turned around, stretched out a hand, pointed at the green Surging Sea, and said softly,
"Ask the sea."
Hearing this, Qiu Yi looked over, the waves pushed in but still couldn't reach the shore.
She came back to her senses.
The heavy snow and wind slapped her face, blowing her hair loose.
But Chen Xia's figure was already gone from her emerald eyes, as if covered by the heavy snow, or as if he had never appeared at all.
Qiu Yi's breathing quickened, she hurriedly ran to the edge of Surging Sea, stepped into the sea water, looked over the entire sea, blankly stunned for a while. Then she lowered her eyes, and used a trembling voice to softly say,
"Ta...take... take care."