“Where to now?” Li Xiang asked.

You’re the one who flew off. You don’t know? Hui shook his head, then nodded. In any case, I do have somewhere I want to go, so I won’t complain. “Let’s go check on Bai Xue. From there… well, I like this loop, so I want to go as far as I can during it. If the loop is still going, we can talk from there.”

Li Xiang nodded.

I don’t want to say too much aloud. Not that my mind is particularly safe from powerful cultivators, but saying it aloud is a worse idea than keeping it to myself. When we leave this loop, I’ll have to re-enlighten Li Xiang, after all.

It does seem that the loops are based on my actions. I hate to be so full of myself, but given that the loop hasn’t reset and it’s been a week… I think, unless I do something drastic that the Golden Immortal dislikes or die for real, the loop will continue. It’s nice to be kind-of in control in that way, but on the other hand, ‘something drastic the Golden Immortal dislikes’ is basically my job description right now. Which is frustrating.

Oh, well. Let’s go see Bai Xue. After that, we can worry about everything else. Hui sped up, flying faster toward the place he’d seen the brothel in the last loop.

Hopefully it’s still there. She said they sometimes change locations, and since they aren’t part of the loop, they could be anywhere. I’ll simply have to hope they’re still where I saw them the last two times.

They swooped over the ruins. At that, Hui paused. Li Xiang flew on for a moment, only to pause and draw back to Hui’s side. “What is it?”

“These ruins… I found a small piece of jade from Master here,” Hui muttered. He reached into his robes and showed it to her, the small hints of a carving of a songbird edged with gold.

“Should we go look?” Li Xiang suggested.

Hui looked down. None of the ragged cultivators wandered the ruins today, only the uniformed, serious-looking cultivators. He shrugged. “Might as well. Look for something with traces of Master’s aura. I’ll take the left half, you take the right.” Li Xiang actually knows Master’s aura, after all. I can rely on her for this.

As for sending her to the side closer to the threatening looking cultivators… Li Xiang is far more martially talented than me. This is simply recognizing our talents and handing out tasks according to our talents! I wouldn’t be useful in a fight against those cultivators, but Li Xiang will thrive!

Li Xiang nodded. The two of them split up, flying in opposite directions. They hurtled down toward the ruins and left one another’s range of sight. Hui landed amidst the ruins of an outbuilding’s foundation. A small cloud of dust flew up under his feet.

He looked around. A smile spread across his face. Without having to worry about any other looters, I can now freely wander these ruins! Let’s go see what there is to take!

He strolled the small outbuilding, hands behind his back. His frown deepened. Widening his stride, he pushed out further, leaving the outbuilding and wandering the small yard outside. He went deeper into the ruins, directly walking between the large buildings, hopping from one fallen wall to the next. His brows furrowed, and he crossed his arms instead.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Jumping atop the next wall, Hui looked out at the ruins and shook his head. I would tear up the nails, if anything was nailed down, and steal the bricks, if there were bricks left, but everything is all fragments and trash, stuff so ruined that it doesn’t even have a realm anymore!

Loot everything, even the nails, but what to do when the nails have already been looted?

He put a hand on his chin. Or, more realistically, sent to the garbage realm. Damn, all the good loot was in the garbage realm! Too bad I can’t send it to me.

Oh well, oh well. It’s not as if I need good loot right now. Ah, it isn’t likely that I’ll find something else with Master’s aura, either. I suspect he only sent me that one hint out of desperation… or that it was the only thing he could send me.

What other problems are left to solve? Zhubi, Ying Lin… yeah, I still need to figure out both of those. Ying Lin… Hmm. Heading back to the city. That’s going to be troublesome.

On the other hand, Xi Muchen doesn’t seem that interested in me.

And, well, come to think of it… I don’t need to go back to the city. I just need to get to Ying Lin. She might be in the city, but… she doesn’t have to be, does she?

Well, that’s something to bring up to Bai Xue.

Hui pushed off and flew over to Li Xiang. “I’ve found nothing. Let’s continue to Bai Xue.”

Li Xiang looked up from her palm. She nodded, putting her hand in her robes as she followed Hui. The two of them flew over the mountains.

Come on, brothel! Be there, brothel! I don’t want to have to search for Bai Xue!

They crested the mountains. The trees fell away. Hui swooped his eyes over the valley, searching for the large building.

There it stood. Nestled in a hollow, just in the nook of a stream, up against a small lake. Hui sighed out, relieved. He gestured to Li Xiang. “Let’s go.”

With that, the two of them joined the cultivators flying down toward the beautiful building. A cultivator with a murderous aura and a silver mask flew up beside them, and Hui waved. “Song Wei, hello!”

The cultivator startled. He whipped around toward Hui. “You’re back?”

“Eh… yes?” Hui asked, confused.

Song Wei took his mask off and flew to Hui’s side, taking his hand. “It’s really you.”

“Er, is there a problem?” Hui asked. A sinking sensation welled up within him. How long has it been? How many loops?

That’s, ehm, I didn’t want to bother you, but… you’ve been replaying this loop for almost a thousand years. You act differently with my interference, but you never remember it. Ah—you rarely last long enough to return to Bai Xue’s side. I… didn’t want to tell you.

Oh. That sucks.

Yeah. Oh! But, I now know several thousand things that won’t work to kill the Golden Immortal! And won’t work to enlighten Li Xiang. Actually, that’s only the third time we’ve succeeded, so this is a pretty good run.

Damn. That sucks. Thousands of loops, huh?

Yeah. Do you need a moment?

… No, I think I’m fine. Actually, thinking about it, isn’t this kind of like operating under anesthesia? You know, the kind that just overwrites your memories so you can’t remember it afterward, but technically you’re awake the whole time? I mean, it’s fucked up, right, but I don’t remember it happening, so it didn’t happen. It’s like being told I was asleep for a thousand years. But like, a super productive thousand years of sleeping. And you remember it, right? So we’re good!

That’s me! I knew you could handle it!

If we’ve got nothing, we’ve at least got our mental strength!

Hui beamed at Song Wei. “I understand everything that’s happening, so let’s go ahead and move to Bai Xue, okay? I need her help.”

Song Wei bit his lip. “That is… about that…”

“Is there a problem?” Hui asked, suddenly worried.

Song Wei shook his head. “It’s better if you see for yourself.”

Nervous, Hui nodded. Thousands of loops. That’s an eternity. Bai Xue, please be okay!