The last day.
In the afternoon.
The tranquil atmosphere inside the room seemed ignited by the sunlight, becoming noisy in the hazy light and rising and falling in the overlapping shadows.
Wu Yingxue was about to leave. Having fully recovered from her injuries, she was ready to uncover the truth.
Thus, she was packing her belongings.
Though she called it packing, there wasn’t much to take.
Her possessions were few, after all, her fall into Xu Xi’s house had been an accident.
“Is that all?”
After a while of bustling around, the young girl wrapped her spear in a disguise to make it less conspicuous. She stood still, looking at the empty room, feeling a sudden sense of disorientation.
The cicadas’ cries were nearing their end.
The scorching sunlight carved out shadows.
The 16-year-old girl stood in the room she had lived in for nearly two months.
Suddenly, she felt a strong sense of having traveled through time.
Her past 16 years had been seen as extraordinary by others, a luxury that ordinary people could only dream of. But after living in Qingniu Town for two months, Wu Yingxue felt as though that life had passed long ago.
It didn’t feel like two months, but rather a year, or even longer.
“Strangely, I feel a bit reluctant to leave…”
The girl murmured to herself, then closed the doors and windows. When she opened them again, her outfit had changed.
Her original red and white robes were too eye-catching. If she wore them back, she was certain that her whereabouts would soon be discovered by the authorities.
Therefore, she had asked Xu Xi to find her some clothes.
For her disguise.
“Now, all that’s left is to wait for the right time,” Wu Yingxue, now in her new outfit, glanced sideways at the blazing sun outside the window.
Wu Yingxue planned to leave at night. The dark and shadowy environment would be more conducive to her movements, greatly reducing the likelihood of being seen by the townsfolk.
It would also conceal the fact that she had come from Xu Xi’s house.
However, there was still a fair amount of time before the sun set and the night fully enveloped the sky.
What could she do to pass this boring time?
The girl didn’t know.
Carrying her spear and a small bundle, she pushed open the wooden door of the room one last time and stepped over the old, time-worn threshold with light steps.
“Huff—!”
“Huff—!”
Outside the door was the open training area in the courtyard.
Xu Xi was still standing there, as usual, under the scorching sun, unaffected by the heat or cold, the clear or cloudy skies, practicing his stances and punches day after day.
Sweat dripped, and the force of his punches was fierce.
Each punch, each surge of energy, made the air tremble and distort, like the vigorous beating of a heart.
“Master’s boxing skills have become even more profound…”
Wu Yingxue thought to herself.
A look of confusion flashed across her young face.
During this time, she had been learning from Xu Xi, but for some reason, the gap between them seemed to be widening.
It was an inexplicable growth, neither scientific nor martial.
It was as if Xu Xi were the protagonist of a novel.
Once he started training, his martial prowess would skyrocket.
“How could something like that be possible?” Wu Yingxue chuckled at her own thoughts.
She temporarily set down her spear and bundle and sat on the threshold of the room. The blazing sunlight was just blocked by the eaves, providing a shady spot for the girl.
The young princess, unsure of how to pass the time, made the same choice she had during her recovery.
She watched Xu Xi’s training.
The green bricks and red tiles, the upturned eaves, and the dark green unnamed plants crawling up the walls created an incredibly peaceful atmosphere during the transition from summer to autumn.
The 16-year-old girl sat there, quietly watching Xu Xi punch, gazing at the dark, distant mountains.
It was an indescribable sense of emptiness.
She completely lost track of time.
After a long while, when the scorching sunlight began to wane and the sky was no longer as bright, the girl finally couldn’t hold back her curiosity.
If she didn’t ask now, she might not get another chance after leaving Qingniu Town.
“Master, don’t you ever get tired from practicing like this every day? I’ve never seen you take a break or relax.”
Faced with Wu Yingxue’s question, Xu Xi paused slightly, glanced at the setting sun, and slowly retracted his stance.
His answer was straightforward: “Of course I get tired.”
“Huh?”
The bluntness of his reply seemed to catch the girl off guard, and her face showed a look of surprise.
She had expected that a hardworking and dedicated martial artist like Xu Xi would give a classic answer like “no pain, no gain” or “perseverance is everything.”
However, Xu Xi’s response shattered Wu Yingxue’s expectations.
He stood there, adjusting his surging energy, his breath resonating with his heart, gradually completing a cycle of energy circulation, and replied to the girl:
“If a person doesn’t eat, they’ll get hungry.”
“If a person doesn’t drink, they’ll get thirsty.”
“If a person doesn’t wear clothes, they’ll get cold.”
“Similarly, if I practice boxing every day, I’ll get tired, and I’ll feel the strain and torment.”
“No one is perfect. There’s no such thing as a person without flaws or mistakes, someone who never feels hardship or fatigue. Such a person doesn’t exist, at least not me.”
He finished his training.
Calmed himself.
Took a deep breath.
After regulating his energy, Xu Xi turned to look at Wu Yingxue sitting on the threshold.
He never thought of himself as a saint, nor did he feel the need to boast about anything.
From the beginning to the end, Xu Xi considered himself an ordinary person, just one with a bit more luck, able to rely on the support of his sister, disciples, and teachers.
But Xu Xi’s demeanor and words.
Left Wu Yingxue in a long silence.
The last rays of the setting sun faded, and the sun slowly sank below the distant horizon. The boundary between sky and earth rippled with golden light, mirroring the bitter waves in the girl’s heart.
She felt that, compared to Xu Xi, her previous way of thinking had been too naive and simplistic.
It was something she couldn’t bear to look back on.
She had grown up in the royal palace. The Prince of Dingyuan had named her Yingxue, hoping that she would be as gentle and beautiful as soft snow.
But things often don’t go as planned.
The girl’s personality was the opposite of her name—fiery and passionate. From a young age, she disliked needlework and instead loved martial arts and tales of chivalry, dreaming of becoming a heroine or a female general who would protect the nation and its people.
The peaceful life in the capital.
The privileges of being a princess.
A carefree upbringing.
Under the influence of these factors, Wu Yingxue’s understanding of the world was shallow, divided simply into humans and demons.
She believed the Great Qian Empire was good, protecting all humans.
She believed demons were evil, with the Ten Thousand Mountains threatening people’s lives.
She dreamed of becoming the heroine from her stories, wielding a sword to cut through the Ten Thousand Mountains and save the people from suffering.
But all of this…
“Was a narrow and ignorant way of thinking.”
After the sunset, the moon rose.
The bright moonlight spilled over the earth. Wu Yingxue stood up from the threshold, once again shouldering her spear and picking up her bundle.
“If it weren’t for this attack, if it weren’t for your teachings, perhaps I would never have discovered the truth.”
“Thank you.”