Though he was currently most likely a prisoner, Wuxian felt a sense of danger looming over him. It was uncommon for one to be captured alive, only to be taken away to be executed later on. If his assumption was correct, he was being taken away to be sold off as a slave or a labourer. In this scenario, the only way he could end up in mortal danger was if he ‘misbehaved’ or acted out of line, prompting punishment from the guards.

Of course, this was all just an assumption. Perhaps he’d misjudged the situation completely, that there were no guards at all and he wasn’t imprisoned. But being forcibly whisked away like this, belongings confiscated, it was hard to associate these actions with any goodwill or positive intent.

But one of the cornerstones of being a person was irrationality. In this scenario where logic told him that while he wasn’t safe, death was unlikely, he still felt uncertain, and as a result, time passed all the more slowly.

‘In the end, the best course of action would be to make the most of what I have. I might as well begin consolidating my realm after the breakthrough to Qi Condensation. Only, who would have thought that I’d be celebrating my successful advancement like this.’

Wearing a cynical grin, Wuxian shook his head slightly, closing his eyes and focusing his attention on his spirit body.

Only to find that there was nothing there.

Feeling blood begin rising to his head, panic began spreading through him. You could take away Wuxian’s money and his worldly possessions no problem, but his cultivation, which he had spent several months working hard to achieve…

Whenever things went wrong, Wuxian would cultivate. He had long since formed a mental dependence on this activity- it was the cornerstone of his sense of security in this world where one single misstep would end up in his immediate visit to the Yellow Springs.

The sudden discovery that he had lost his cultivation out of the blue, combined with the previous shocks he’d received along the way coalesced and burst out all at once. With a spike in blood pressure, Wuxian fainted.

But he was quickly awakened to the sound of hushed activity around him. Though he sat within a covered carriage, the rear end was fully exposed to the sun which coincidentally happened to be rising from that direction.

Eyelids fluttering, Wuxian groggily roused from his sleep. Spending a moment in confusion, he began to recall the circumstances surrounding his current situation. Fortunately, the shock from losing his cultivation had worn off somewhat- though he still felt like a hand was gripping his heart and squeezing it violently.

‘It’s fine. I’ve lived twenty years as a mortal and not even a quarter of a year as a cultivator, I can manage.’

Silently bolstering his spirits, Wuxian clenched his fists, habitually taking in deep breaths of air to calm himself down.

“I say, how exactly does this army business work anyway?” Came a youthful and lively voice from his left.

“What do you mean, third brother?” The person to Wuxian’s right asked, a hint of tiredness pervading his words, as if he was fed up of putting up with the other person’s endless childish questions. “What do you mean by ‘army business’? Do you mean the details of the war? Who our general is? How enlistment works? How large the army is?”

The person on Wuxian’s left slapped their leg, exclaiming out loud.

“Yes, that!”

Almost subconsciously, Wuxian couldn’t help but speak.

“What do you mean, ‘that’?” He asked in a dull manner.

As he spoke, he turned to look at the person on his left. The night before, everybody’s face had been obscured by darkness, but since the sun had risen and the ambient light level was high enough, he was able to see the people around him clearly.

“Uh, the uh… all of it.” Xiao Chong replied with a sheepish grin.

The person to Wuxian’s right burst out laughing. Without having to look, Wuxian already knew that it was Mian Ji.

“Hey! What’s so funny?” Xiao Chong asked, clearly embarrassed.

“It’s just basic knowledge you melon head.” Mian Ji replied, grinning.

As the two bantered, Wuxian sat as still as a statue. Possibilities floated around his head, but the absurdity of the situation prevented him from grasping onto any of them, stopping him from being able to sew together any complex line of thought.

With a great deal of effort, he arrived to a conclusion.

‘I must be dreaming, right?’

Instinctively touching his chin in contemplation he frowned.

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‘Otherwise, what else could it be? While after being saved by master and leaving the chamber I somehow travelled thousands of years into the future, there’s no way I’d suddenly return back to the week of my conscription, right? It doesn’t make any sense. If I were to return back to the time of Liang, it should have been around the time where I laid out an ambush at the gorge, whence I initially travelled into the future, no?’

He shook his head.

‘Then again, the circumstances of my time travel were so random and out of the blue in the first place. To expect there to be some modicum of logic or regularity might be a fool’s errand. Well, speculation aside, the best thing to do would be to test things out. If this is a dream, everything should be created from my memory and imagination. That means there should be a limit to how much agency I have and what I can do.’

With a new mission, Wuxian suddenly didn’t feel as insecure as before. In the event that this was all a dream, well, it’d all be over once he woke up. In the event that he had gone back in time… then he’d get a chance to restart his life with knowledge of not only some of the future, but also of cultivation.

Perhaps this time he could unlock the power of immortality without having to give up his life and friends as a result!

“Big brother?”

Wuxian was brought back to the moment by the concerned voices of Xiao Chong and Mian Ji.

“Yes? What’s the problem?” He responded, slightly dazed.

Directing a strange look at him, Xiao Chong furrowed his brows comically.

“I say, what’s going on with you? Are your nerves getting to you?” He teased.

Ignoring him, Wuxian turned to face Mian Ji.

“How old am I?”

“Uh… twenty.”

“Where am I from?”

“Xi county… in Liang country.”

Annoyed at being ignored, Xiao Chong grabbed Wuxian by the shoulder, shaking him roughly. Unfortunately for the former, Wuxian was significantly stronger and sturdier than him, so Xiao Chong’s shaking didn’t do much.

Suddenly, Wuxian’s eyes lit up.

“Pain!” He exclaimed.

Blinking twice, Mian Ji shuffled away slightly. “Excuse me?”

“Pain. Ah, if one believes themselves to be dreaming, isn’t it customary to use pain to wake themselves up?” Wuxian explained, a slightly manic expression on his face.

This time, it was Xiao Chong who took the initiative to create some distance between himself and Wuxian.

“Old second, I think big brother has gone crazy.”

“Mn, I concur. It must be the pressure from being conscripted.” Mian Ji replied, nodding in a sagely manner.

Unfazed, Wuxian slapped himself in the face. He felt a numb stinging sensation- clearly, the hit had been registered. Still, he felt that he hadn’t been thorough enough, deciding to slap himself a few more times until both sides of his face bore red hand prints.

Eventually, it took the combined efforts of both Mian Ji and Xiao Chong to wrestle Wuxian’s arms and pin them down, preventing this strange self-destructive bout from continuing any further.

As they did so, a strange feeling of relief and happiness washed over Wuxian, causing tears to begin streaming down his face. The two younger brothers seemed to understand that some people had more trouble dealing with stress than others- crying and going slightly crazy was an acceptable reaction to being forced to fight at war.

“There there, let it out.” Mian Ji cooed as Xiao Chong patted Wuxian’s back reassuringly.

After several minutes, Wuxian finally calmed down. Everything felt so real, and his two brothers’ reactions seemed to solidify things for him.

“I have so much to tell you two.” He gushed, smiling from ear to ear.

Xiao Chong and Mian Ji sent each other concerned looks, unanimously deciding to let Wuxian vent everything out.

“I don’t know how to say it all without looking crazy… though I suppose I already do.” He chuckled self-deprecatingly.

“You can say that again.” Mian Ji replied.

“Aih, where to begin…” Wuxian muttered, once again feeling overwhelmed by everything that was happening.

“We’re here all week.” Xiao Chong joked.

Wuxian cleared his throat, reorganising his scattered and hectic thoughts at the same time. Slowly, he began threading together a series of words, stringing them into sentences and finally decided on what to say.

“I’m not crazy and I’m being entirely serious when I say this, so don’t laugh.”

“Mhmn, we’re all ears.” Mian Ji replied, though he wore an expression which seemed to say otherwise.

“Believe it or not, I somehow travelled a long time into the future. After we were conscripted into the army and completed the army examinations, we were deployed to raid the lands of Qin by the border. Do you remember the little trading post that my father used to visit? Well, on the gorge next to that, we set up an ambush, only to be ambushed by Han forces instead. Luckily, I sent you two away to the trading post undercover, but I got into a fight with one of the Han soldiers and fell off the top of the gorge! I should have died from a fall from that height, but I actually woke up in a strange chamber. You won’t be able to guess what I saw in there.”

“…Yeah?”

“Yes.” Wuxian confirmed. “It’s true.”

Scratching his head, Xiao Chong involuntarily raised his eyebrows.

“You’re saying that you travelled through time… you moved into the future, where things haven’t happened yet, and then came back?” He asked.

“Hearing you say it like that does make it seem quite silly.” Wuxian admitted. “But I’m not joking, that really is what happened.”

Xiao Chong’s eyes narrowed. His gaze shifted between Wuxian’s eager look and Mian Ji’s concerned frown, emanating a sense of distrust.

“You two aren’t pranking me, are you? I’m warning you, I’m not as easy to fool as I used to be.”

Wuxian’s enthusiasm quickly turned to exasperation.

“I have a few ways to prove what I’m saying is true.” He claimed.

“Go on.” Mian Ji said.

“In a few days, we’ll meet an old man who used to be an official in the emperor’s court called ‘sir Lv’. Xiao Chong will be slandering court officials carelessly by the campfire, thus catching sir Lv’s attention, but instead of getting angry and punishing us, he will recite a poem and try to educate us.”

Mian Ji wore a thoughtful expression, ruminating over Wuxian’s words. Xiao Chong, on the other hand, seemed to take direct offence at them.

“Hey, why is it me who’s always causing trouble? I think it’s quite obvious that I respect the officials of the court from the bottom of my heart!”

Mian Ji shook his head.

“No, if big brother said only one word of truth, then that would be it. Slandering someone behind their back only to have the subject of your insults standing directly behind you is very much something you’d do.”

Wuxian quickly shut down their budding argument before it had the chance to bloom. Knowing them, he knew that the moment they started properly, it would be difficult to pry their locked horns apart.

“Anyway, mark my words. Once we meet sir Lv, you’ll know that I’m telling the truth about everything!” He exclaimed, holding them both by the shoulders.