I woke up next to a sleeping Xie Wen who had her arms wrapped around my chest and her chin pressed against my shoulders. I could feel her every breath with my neck and looking at her lips made things worse- I smiled and pushed the thought back down. Mornings can be hard, and sometimes, that temptation gets to you. 'I don't want to break her trust that way,'

After last night, I think I got to know why I feel irreparably attached to Xie Wen- It's because even if she hid it well, she was clearly hurting and the real Xie Wen hid behind what I assume is a mask that always agrees and supports whoever helps her. I only really ever saw the real her last night, how she sounded happy and defenseless, she laughed, smiled, and joined in on the little jokes that we made along the way. 'She also didn't mind making a mistake in front of me,'

Xie Wen, for the lack of a better term- was an answering machine whenever I got curious and every time, I think she answered to the best of her ability and then some. I didn't get suspicious about it because well, she's a native of this world and she should have answers but I never really bothered to ask if her answers are correct (they are, after seriously thinking about it) or where they even come from.

I like to think that it's because Xie Wen had access to cultivation books and also because I just asked easy to answer questions that to most people, are probably common sense but both of those are wrong- For the first, Xie Wen is poor, so she has no resources, came from a village outside, which meant that she didn't have a noticeable background to even know about any of those and for the part where she's joined a Sect, well, she's an outer disciple until the end of that Sect.

'Right, the Sect.' I forgot they lost actually. I wonder what's going on outside?

Continuing on though, for the second; The things that I mainly ask Xie Wen feel pretty common yes, but that's only because I'm a reader of XianXia novels and I base my understanding of everything off of that. Including the people, which I treat as if they're also novel readers because I forget that they simply don't know much about... well, anything.

And, more often than not, I actually forget that I'm dealing with unknowledgeable people when it comes to cultivation and Xie Wen being able to answer most of them with ease and actual clarity is downright amazing.

The way I see it, Xie Wen either overheard the inner disciples talking during her time as a harvester or, the most likely reason; because she's smart enough to come to her own conclusions as to what everything I ask means and she answers based off of her own understanding and assumptions.

Does that make her a cultivation prodigy? No, not really. But does that make her smart? The answer is a hard yes.

The girl I've been thinking about shifted and her arm that's over my torso fell before wrapping around my hand. And not wanting to disturb Xie Wen, I stared at the ceiling, not really thinking, but just staring. My mind is empty, and I don't feel like doing anything.

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Something- an itch grows in my chest and I stared at Xie Wen. She felt warm. My hand went up and I moved stray hair out of her face, letting me see it clearly. 'Guess I can only do that for now.'

Am I liking her? Pretty much. It's not really a bad thing.

Actually, have I ever asked her age? What a weird thing to think about. And then there's my body, am I young? I thought about that moral dilemma for a while, 'What if Yu Song is just a clone and my actual knowledge is used as a basis for him so that he knows something about the world? It wouldn't really be me because I'm not experiencing it, Yu Song is but... It's my knowledge- would that affect Yu Song's decision making? Would he even feel the way I do? Will he think- "Oh! It must be pretty awkward for me to have this knowledge. I wonder who the original is?" - and feel guilty? Will he even try to remember me-'

Things like that occupied my mind until Xie Wen stirred awake and I got cut off my thinking about it any further, "Yu Song?" she said before sitting up and moving away from me. I watched her look around, her eyes wandering across the room before stopping at me. I thought I saw tears form at the bottom for a second there.

"Guess it wasn't a dream," I snorted but smiled, "Good morning." she said with a bow.

"Morning, Xie Wen." I stood up after her. "So, what do you want to do now? The Sect is gone and taken over by the invaders-"

"It is?"

I nodded. Right. 'It's one of her little observational moments again.' - but she had a point, how did the System know that the Sect got taken over? Questions for another time that I'll bury until I get a better grasp at everything and can answer for myself more confidently.

"I think so yeah," I replied vaguely, "Everything out there is made of snow and I don't think I hear fighting anymore." Come to think of it, I didn't hear anything back when I was making my way to this place. 'They must've moved to the actual Sect, then.' I told myself.

"So the Sect is gone..." Xie Wen muttered, "Where will we go?" she looked at me uncertainly.

I shrugged, "Outside? There's a whole world out there,"

"It's dangerous." She replied, "Sects' are safe because there are groups of powerful cultivators inside of it but outside? There are Spirit Beasts, roaming Cultivators, and bandits waiting for us out there. It's not safe."

"Hey, if it isn't then villages wouldn't last long," she frowned, "you get what I mean." I said defensively, even crossing my arms across my chest, "If it's so dangerous, then people wouldn't live outside of Sects and only cities can exist because of the Cultivators inside of them."

"You-" Xie Wen sighed, "you need to understand that villages are different from people like us- we're strong, which means that we'll attract others like us."

So they want to?.. what? Just fight us? That sounds stupid. And what are the chances of us encountering things like that every day anyways? We'll probably have more free time in between all of those encounter compared to the actual fighting. "Then what do you want to do?"

"Find a secluded space, one that's preferably full of rich Qi, and then cultivate there." She held my hand and looked me in the eye, "together."

She sounded sensible and I... think I'm on board but I also want to start exploring the world- I asked myself if that's more important than my life and an answer that says "No." echoed inside my head.

Welp, guess I'll follow Xie Wen's advice then, "Fair enough. Let's go."

"What? Right now?" Xie Wen asked, befuddled. She stood there, staring at me dumbly as I made my way to the door.

I turned back and nodded, "Yeah. It's dangerous here, too." It's only been a day since the Sect got taken over but powerful Cultivators can travel pretty fast and I don't wanna risk getting found by them.

Xie Wen bit her lip but eventually nodded, "Okay."