Night passed to dawn, and dawn to day. The villagers woke and began their routines. The children rushed around. The shopkeepers set up shop. The workers headed out to the fields.

Hui broke his meditation and stood. Zhang Ming sat on the cot, continuing to meditate, ignoring Hui. Hui cupped his hands to the man in greeting, then froze. His brows furrowed.

Why does this feel familiar?

He walked outside. The villagers bustled around, just the same as ever. He tucked his hands behind his back and wandered down the street. This is a false day. What’s different than—

I already thought that. I know I already thought that.

Right? I’m pretty sure.

No, I’m completely sure! I thought this already. I recognize my own thoughts.

Jie Xinlei ran toward him, raising her hand, the same bright smile on her face. “Xiao Hui!”

Hui watched her come, his expression impassive. He tilted his head half a degree in acknowledgement. “Elder Sister.”

“I’m going to make you my signature chicken today. You can eat it or not, but I’ll make it! Once you smell it, you’ll totally change your mind. I know it!” Jie Xinlei proclaimed, putting her hands on her hips and grinning at him.

He looked at her, then smiled and nodded. “As you wish.”

Putting the conversation on autopilot, Hui thought at full power. I want to ask ‘is this a false day?,’ but my finely honed death-faking skills tell me: no! Absolutely not! Giving myself away so early? No, no, no! This false day, this timeloop, it’s simply too dangerous. I can’t fight it, and I don’t know who or what is triggering it, but the mere fact that I can’t even resist the loop means that whoever, or whatever, is triggering it is infinitely more powerful than me. I can’t fight it! And the fact that I can’t fight it, means that I shouldn’t even think about letting people within the loop know that I’m aware of the loop.

I bet the loop only encompasses the village. Ahhh, unlucky, so unlucky! How terrible that I had to walk into this village by coincidence.

Hmm, but on the other hand, the eye failed to locate me, and it’s not as if the village itself poses an immediate threat to me. For all I know, all the other settlements in the Immortal Realm are even more dangerous than the village!

Plus, if this is a time loop, then that power—I properly identified it last night. It’s the power of time! Thank goodness Chen Wuya had me study it back in that secret realm. Otherwise, I might never have realized what was happening!

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I wonder if that’s how I broke out? Recognizing the power of time means that my memories aren’t completely overwritten, and I realize when I’m looping? Hmm. I should try probing Zhang Ming, see if I can get information out of him without revealing too much about myself. Something to try.

Still beaming, Jie Xinlei ran off. Hui watched her go, melancholy settling over his heart. At least she’s happy, but… to be stuck in a time loop forever, never able to get to know anyone, reliving the same day over and over… ah. No wonder she was so desperate to form a relationship with me as quickly as possible. If days are only ‘real,’ or in other words, not loops, very rarely, then she knew she wouldn’t be able to stay with me and get to know me slowly. She knew the only option was to become romantic immediately, or else she’d never have the chance.

And I denied her that chance.

Hui pressed his lips together, uncomfortable, then sighed. There simply isn’t a good option. I don’t want to add any more wives to the harem, nor would it be fair to add her without Bai Xue and Li Xiang’s consent. On top of that, I’m personally uninterested in her. She’s a nice girl, yes, but I’m simply not interested. It would be equally unfair to pretend to be romantically interested in her for her sake, without any true interest on my side. That’s not love, nor kindness. It's pity. Cruelty.

He looked up. At a guess, the time loop is delineated by the barrier. In that case, if I go to the barrier’s edge, I might be able to comprehend more of the Dao of Time. Ultimately, if I want to break out, I need to comprehend time. By comprehending time, I can escape the barrier and free myself from the time loop.

Right. All I need is to comprehend time. That simple concept that even Chen Wuya indicated was difficult to comprehend. That even Immortals struggle to understand.

Hui sighed. He shook his head. Yeah. Easy.

He wandered off toward the barrier. Tucking himself quietly away in the forest, where the barrier cut through the woods, he sat down and entered the lotus pose. Quietly, he looked around. Okay. No one around. I don’t remember too many people heading into the woods, but hey! Upside of a time loop, I can learn exactly what everyone’s habits are, and avoid them if I need to. If I’m interrupted today, I’ll go find somewhere else to sit, until I’m left alone.

Alright. First, I need to gather some time. As long as I have some power of time within me, I can study it anywhere, at any time, for as long as I like.

He closed his eyes and extended his divine sense around him. The barrier wavered to his side, composed of such dense energy that his divine sense couldn’t penetrate it. The power of time clung to the barrier, faint traces of its power remaining on the barrier’s energy. Hui focused on that energy, calling it to himself. The power resisted his call, strange and nebulous.

His brows furrowed. He reached out and forcibly grabbed it, surrounding the power with his qi. The power of time wavered, then vanished. When he retracted his qi to himself, nothing remained of time.

Hui reached out with life qi, death qi, rot qi, even phoenix fire, but nothing grasped it. Nothing held it. Time refused to be grasped.

Come on! Why can’t I reach it? What’s different with time? I can gather any other kind of qi. Why can’t I grab any time? Hui sent the birds forth, hoping one of them would grasp it. A songbird, a black and a red duck, a phoenix, and even a penguin flew toward the power of time.

They fluttered around it. The songbird plucked at it. The duck flew a lap, then returned to Hui. The phoenix simply flew up and back, totally ignoring the power of time. The penguin wobbled around, barely able to reach the power of time before it fell back to Hui.

No good, huh? Hui put a hand on his chin, thinking hard. What am I doing wrong? Surely there’s a way to grasp time.

He shrugged to himself. Eh, whatever. I’m stuck in a time loop. I’ve got infinite time to figure it out!