Xue Lan had a very peaceful sleep. It had been years since he had slept so well. But during the night he had a strange dream.

His dream seemed to be a memory. He watched from the outside as "Xue Lan" and Huang Bingwen talked outside a building. Xue Lan didn't recognize the building that they were outside of, and came to the conclusion that it was an old memory of "Xue Lan's".

"Xue Lan, come to Guangshan with me."

This was the scene in the novel where Huang Bingwen convinced Xue Lan to come back home with him instead of going back to Qingying! Which means this building is the home of the Shixing Huan sect.

"Huang Bingwen, what about my home? I can't just leave."

"Your father has other sons. Please, Xue Lan, I don't think I can go back without you."

Now that Xue Lan is watching this scene play out in front of him, it seems different than what he imagined. Here Huang Bingwen sounds desperate to get "Xue Lan" to come to Guangshan. When Xue Lan had Imagined it, it sounded more casual, not so emotional.

Xue Lan watched as "Xue Lan" turned his eyes to look at Huang Bingwen. He closed his eyes and gave a huge sigh. A smile appeared onto his face.

"I can't say no to you."

Huang Bingwen and "Xue Lan" embraced each other. Xue Lan now knew that their relationship was much closer than what he previously thought. But before he could put any more thought into it, he woke up.

When Xue Lan opened his eyes, he saw not Huang Bingwen, but the wall. Xue Lan shot up. He hadn't noticed him getting up and had no idea where he could be. He quickly jumped up and ran out of the little shed. He twisted his head left and right, and saw that Huang Bingwen had just gone over to the little creek nearby.

"Huang Bingwen, how long have you been up?"

Huang Bingwen continued to do what he was doing and said, "Just about an hour or so."

"Why didn't you wake me up."

"You looked like you needed it."

Xue Lan blushed, embarrassed. He quickly tried to change the subject.

"What are you doing?"

"I wanted to grab some water to take with us."

"Oh. that's smart. I didn't even think about that."

Xue Lan helped Huang Bingwen collect the water and made their way back to the shed. They collected their things and started the way to Qintou. They still had to pass through 2 more towns they would make it to Qintou. Xue Lan didn't like the idea of more walking. Back before he died, he never liked walking around, only doing it when he had too. He never went on walks just for the sake of going on walks. He much preferred staying home or getting a taxi. They had already walked quite a bit yesterday, and Xue Lan was very sore. Unlike in other Cultivation stories, this one never used swords for travel! It was never explained why, and he couldn't help but curse the author a bit for this oversight.

"Huang Bingwen, how long till we reach the next town?"

Huang Bingwen thought for a moment before saying, "If we keep walking without stopping, we should make it there by nightfall."

Xue Lan Internally groaned. No way in hell was he going to walk without stopping. But he had no choice. So he continued to drag his feet along the path next to Huang Bingwen.

"Huang Bingwen, how are you holding up?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I'm fine. Right now I need to focus on catching my father's killer. I can grieve later."

Xue Lan looked at Huang Bingwen worried. It wasn't healthy to not grieve and bottle up his emotions like this. If he does, he could blow up and the damage would be serious. In the original novel, Huang Bingwen blew up when he finally saw his father's killer and due to his recklessness, got Xue Lan killed. Xue Lan had to make sure Huang Bingwen's state of mind wouldn't get to that point.

"HOPE!"

[Yes, Xue Lan?]

"Is there anything else you can do other than answer questions and stuff?"

[I can give you helpful tips and can also answer questions about the past that you may not know about.]

"I don't remember Huang Bingwen and Xue La sharing a mat in the original novel. Why are we now?"

[Though, yes, this world is based on the novel, there are slight changes that have affected the current state of events.]

"What kind of differences?"

[For example, Huang Bingwen had grown even fonder of Xue Lan in this world than in the novel, causing an even closer relationship between you two.]

"Closer relationship?"

HOPE didn't answer Xue Lan. He guessed that he had to figure that one out on his own. Xue Lan sighed heavily. This is a lot to take in a short period of time. His brain was officially overloaded. He wasn't sure if he could take anymore. But right as he thought that he and Huang Bingwen heard the sound of swords clashing. They both began to run towards the sound. It sounded to be just up ahead of them. As they got closer, they saw a group of figures standing back to back surrounded by fierce corpses.

Huang Bingwen and Xue Lan quickly Unsheathed their swords and called out to the people in the middle.

"What's going on?"

The oldest one turned to look over in Huang Bingwen and Xue Lan's direction. The moment his eyes landed on them, the look on his face turned into a relieved one.

"Young master Huang Bingwen, Young master Xue Lan, thank goddess your here. We seemed to bite more than we could chew." He laughed nervously.

The young man was apart of the Guangshan Huang sect, wearing the white robes of the sect. His name was Huang Yong, the oldest of the students. He was apart of the direct line of the Huang's, not just a student that was taken in.

Huang Bingwen shouted, "How could you have gotten into this mess, A-Yong?"

Huang Yong dodged a corpse that swung at him as he said, "I'm sorry Young master. We were passing through the area when an old lady came up to us and said that there were corpses that have been in the area. We thought we could handle them, but there's no end."

As he finished, he swung his sword and beheaded the corpse closest to him. Huang Bingwen and Xue Lan wasted no time and jumped in to help the younger ones. Huang Bingwen charged his blade with spiritual energy and sliced through 4 of them, making room for Xue Lan to jump in and cut through the remaining ones. Xue Lan was surprised at how easy they were, but then quickly realized that it was easy for him because his cultivation was much higher than the younger disciples. Xue Lan and Huang Bingwen had thought everything was over when suddenly another wave of corpses rushed through the woods into the path. This time it was much more than just 7, but from Xue Lan could tell, around 15. He and Huang Bingwen again charged their swords and began cutting down the corpses. But for everyone they defeated, another 2 would follow. There seemed to be no end in sight. The others tried to help as well, but they were all quickly overwhelmed.

Xue Lan panted and continued to fight as he shouted, "Huang Bingwen, where the hell are all of these coming from? There is no way this is just a random infestation."

Huang Bingwen sends out a huge blast of energy, "I'm not sure, but at this rate, we won't be able to fight back for much longer."

Xue Lan killed another and tried to see where the next few came from. Maybe that way, he could go start to the source. He saw the next corpses come from the right side of the path and quickly ran that way. As he went through the dense trees, he tore down more and more fierce corpses. He eventually found the source. A huge cemetery sat in the middle of the forest, and all of the graves were dug up. By digging up the graves, someone distributed the corpses and caused them to become resentful. They came t where the most movement and busy heat was, the path.

Xue Lan knew that if he cast a calming circle, he may be able to calm the corpses and stop the onslaught. He ran to the middle of the cemetery and slammed his sword in the ground. He recited the incantation as he sent energy into the blade of the sword. A bright intricate circle surrounded the whole forest. The corpses, one by one, slowly began to collapse. Xue Lan let out a huge sigh of relief.

Xue Lan ran back to the path to see everyone cutting down the last few corpses. Everyone looked at each other before sighing.

"Thank god it's over! I couldn't keep going!"

"Thank you young master Xue Lan! You stopped them!"

Huang Bingwen walked over to Xue Lan, "What was the cause?"

"There was an entire cemetery that was dug up. The corpses that became resentful made their way to the path where the most living things were."

Huang Bingwen nodded, "That makes sense. Do you think it was grave robbers?"

"No. I think someone knew the children would be in the area and knew that we would come to save them."

Huang Bingwen looked at Xue Lan for a long moment. Seeing that he was serious, Huang Bingwen put much thought into it.

"It would seem so. For now, we need to get the children somewhere they can rest, as well as us. We all need it after that fight"

Xue Lan nodded in agreement and called out, "Young ones, let's make our way to the next town and get some rooms at an inn. We all should rest!"

Everyone exclaimed in excitement and began to make their way to the town. I was late at night before they finally made it. The copses had put a huge dent in their time, making it hours later than what they thought they would. They walked into the closest inn and reserved many rooms for all of them. Huang Bingwen and Xue Lan only got one room. It seemed that they would be sharing a bed again. Xue Lan and Huang Bingwen's room was downstairs with the younger one's rooms downstairs.

"Young Masters, I brought dinner for you."

Xue Lan had requested for dinner to be delivered to their room, allowing them to rest. Xue Lan when to the door and took the food from the innkeeper and set it down on the table that sat in the middle of the room. Xue Lan was starving and ordered a large array of dishes, ranging from small bowls of sliced bamboo to huge bowls of noodles and big plates of meat.

Huang Bingwen looked over from the book he had grabbed before they entered the room, "That must have taken a lot out of you to eat that much. You never eat much food."

"It did take a lot out of me! Not only did we spend hours fighting corpses, but I also had to cast a huge circle. I feel like I could eat a whole cow at the moment."

Huang Bingwen only chuckled a little before going back to reading his book.

"Huang Bingwen, come join me. You have to be at least a little hungry as well!"

Huang Bingwen put down his book and joined Xue Lan at the table. They both dug in, with Huang Bingwen leaving the bigger dishes for Xue Lan. Xue Lan couldn't help but be thankful, for he truly did feel starved. He thought since he was in a new body, his hunger levels would be different, but it seemed that his original appetite didn't transfer over.

Finishing their meal, Xue Lan felt extremely tired. He crawled over to the bed and laid down. He could sleep for a hundred years!