Chapter 2

A boy and a girl stood under the falling snow in front of a run-down smithy. The boy indifferently examined the fading words of a wooden sign. The shop was closed today.

Excellent.

"...When a young prodigy ends up a failure, how do you think people around them react?" The boy inquired.

"Um? T-They pity the prodigy?" The girl replied in confusion.

"No," He snorted, knocking on the door. "They laugh."

A heavy set of footsteps approached from inside the smithy. The door was wrenched open by a heavily scarred man who was scowling. He still had leftover soot on his cheek.

"Didn't you read the sign?! Shop's closed toda--!" He froze.

The boy's eyes briefly curved in amusement.

"Hello, Uncle Gui Zhen." Bai Xue greeted, contempt heavy in his gaze.

---

The boy sat with his chin in his palm, thumb rubbing at the lid of the teacup languidly. As if this was his own home and not another's.

Arrogant.

Gui Zhen thought at once, looking at the leisure youth. He placed a teapot on the table and observed as the young maid picked it up.

A hazy figure overlapped the youth's, their shoulders broader, larger. But the face, the pale brown eyes, they were the same.

[Junior brother Zhen!]

Gui Zhen closed his eyes. Breathed in.

"What do you want?" He asked.

Bai Xue watched as Ming An poured the steaming liquid into the cup, dark lashes brushing against his cheekbones.

He turned to meet Gui Zhen's cautious gaze with a smirk.

"I want you to trigger my qi refining stage." Bai Xue said.

Gui Zhen stood up in alarm, looking into Bai Xue's flat gaze.

"You're joking." He said incredulously.

"Gui Zhen. I never joke." Bai Xue calmly replied, sipping at his tea.

"You—! I'm still your elder!" He yelled.

"… Of course." Bai Xue replied, regarding him for a moment before beckoning at his maid.

Gui Zhen bristled at his dismissive tone.

He scoffed, placing a hand on the table as he prepared to stand, "No, I can't help a male ger 'trigger' his qi refining stage. I'll have to ask you to leave."

"You can't or you won't?" Bai Xue snorted.

Gui Zhen stilled, snapping his head up to look at Bai Xue.

"The guilt must be eating you up inside, no?" He mused, rotating the freshly filled teacup in his hand.

"Watching idly as your dear senior brother and sister's child became prey to a group of white-eyed wolves? It would destroy anyone." Gui Zhen let out a harsh breath, fists clenching.

"That's why you're doing what you are now, isn't it? You're repenting. Playing the slum's genius blacksmith after being exiled from the capital. You probably hope that it's enough for your seniors to forgive you." Bai Xue drank from the cup, sneering. "It's a coward's life."

Gui Zhen shot up, a fire in his eyes.

A sharp click resounded in the room. Bai Xue had set his teacup on the table, a resentful expression on his face.

"A coward's life," He repeated. "But an understandable one."

Gui Zhen furrowed his brows as Bai Xue shifted out of his slouch, pulling his long hair over his shoulder frustratedly.

"Revolving as it is to say, we are far more similar than I like to think." Bai Xue frowned.

"I mean, look at me! A proud son of the Bai Estate, reduced to begging for help from a fallen cultivator." He laughed. "Pathetic, no?"

Gui Zhen stared at the poised youth in front of him and suddenly thought, no.

No, he didn't seem pathetic at all.

Trapped in that monster's den of a mansion, that overbearing presence of his hadn't reduced in the slightest.

Even dressed in fraying robes with dark circles under his eyes, he looked like nobility more than ever.

Gui Zhen opened his mouth and closed it. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

"Fine."

---

Bai Xue sat with his legs curled underneath him and his palms flat on his knees. Gui Zhen kneeled behind him and placed his hands on his lower back.

"I will inject some of my spiritual energy into you to give you a jumpstart, but I need you to feel for your core and not flounder." Gui Zhen ordered.

Bai Xue nodded.

He honestly had no idea what he was talking about, but Bai Aijuan would never admit something like that. So Bai Xue sat there with his eyes closed and waited.

…

Bai Xue's face twitched. He'd been kneeling long enough that he contemplated quickly rubbing at his cheek when Ming An wasn't looking. His face was beginning to hurt after smirking so often.

Inward monologue still ongoing, Bai Xue was entirely unprepared for when Gui Zhen finally sent a bolt of spiritual energy into his body.

Instantly, a wave of revulsion overcame Bai Xue. All of his limbs locked solidly into place.

The sensation was unbearable.

So much so, that Bai Xue couldn't even scream.

Every vein in his body felt as if it was being continuously prodded by a needle.

There was an existence that wasn't meant to be in his body.

During all of this, Gui Zhen watched him with flat, inquisitive eyes. Not immediately sending his spiritual energy into Bai Xue was some parts test and preparation.

He wanted Bai Xue to mentally prepare himself for the uncomfortable invasion of another's spiritual energy and he also wanted to observe his reaction to being delayed.

Bai Xue's reactions to both surprised him.

Not only did he not look frustrated at Gui Zhen for not proceeding immediately, but he also didn't lash out at him when he injected his spiritual energy.

Most new disciples lunged at the cultivator assisting them or immediately bawled out of pain.

But he simply sat there, still as a mountain.

Gui Zhen kept his eyes closed in focus, a tiny smile finding itself on his lips. Maybe this ger would shock him after all.

Meanwhile, in Bai Xue's head:

Somebody kill him now...!

Why would sects put newly trained disciples through this? This was just pointless torture!

He thought since Mo Lian had glossed over it in the novel that it would be an easy experience. He had misjudged you, Mo Lian!

Bai Xue squeezed his eyes in slight discomfort. Gui Zhen took that as a cue and pushed more of his energy into him.

Slightly curling in on himself in pain, Bai Xue silently swore he would kill Gui Zhen once this was over.

"Focus." Gui Zhen muttered.

Bai Xue's brows furrowed, trying to focus past the pain assaulting his body. He let out a huff of air in discomfort. Right. He had to make his body absorb the spiritual energy in the surrounding air.

...How did Mo Lian access his spiritual energy again? Quickly flipping through the pages in his mind, Bai Xue remembered.

[Concentrating intently, Mo Lian curled his nails into his fists and strained to establish a connection.

His eyes weren't open, but a burst of stars suddenly appeared behind his eyelids. It was the energy Master Fei told him about! He roamed cautiously as he looked for a point to connect to, but no matter which star he touched, not a single one opened.

Then as soon as Mo Lian mistakenly bumped into a star by his shoulder, a bright explosion clouded his vision, and a powerful rush of energy invaded his veins.

He shot up from his floor mat with a gasp and blinked the spots out his eyes.

In that single moment, it felt like his soul had connected with the energy of the world before being cut.

"Wow… so this is what spiritual energy feels like." Mo Lian laughed, amazed.]

He didn't explain fucking anything...! That stupid protagonist halo of his was working overtime.

Well, whatever. It wasn't as if he didn't have other wuxia novels to draw from.

From what he could remember, most of them said to peer into yourself and isolate the world around you. Anyone could do that, and he knew he certainly could.

Bai Xue breathed in through his nose and began to detach himself from the heat of Gui Zhen's palms on his back, the tickling sensation of Ming An's gaze stuck to his face. He had to withdraw from it all.

Focus on only himself.

He sat motionlessly and concentrated on that tiny pulling sensation that was emanating from his chest cavity. It was like he was jumping in the middle of space with zero gravity, grabbing at the air wildly before he just barely clenched onto that feeling.

When he opened his eyes, it was to pure darkness.

A heavy sigh directly spilled from Bai Xue's mouth.

He thought it might come to something like this.

Bai Xue felt around slowly in the darkness, the scowl on his face deepening. He pushed against a solid surface from each direction, all unmoving. He was blocked in.

No sight. No spiritual energy. And no contact to the outside world.

...He was locked in a soul cage.

A phenomenon that only occurred in HFE when the characters were preventing Qi deviation or stopping ... a demonic possession.

Right. He almost forgot.

He had stolen someone else's body.

"Damn." Bai Xue cursed.

Of course, as said he had guessed that there was a chance of this happening. And he also knew the method to fix it.

[Senior sister Ren, this method is potentially life-threatening… are you sure you want to use it on Lord Mo?

It's either that or the stupid fool dies. Use it.]

Bai Xue dug his teeth into his bottom lip.

Towards the middle of HFE, the trauma and pain Mo Lian had been suppressing caught up to his body and mind. He fell into qi deviation and just like Bai Xue- his spiritual body unconsciously put him in a soul cage.

There was only one way to unlock a soul cage.

Relive your most traumatic memories according to your spiritual element.

Elements were integral to the process, as they were the main factor in your spiritual body recognizing your inner soul and your central characteristic.

Two qualities that determined whether or not you were worthy of being awakened.

As a fire spiritual root, Mo Lian's characteristic was passion. The burning emotion that invoked itself at his life's lowest moments.

[The day his only friend died silently in the alleyways; a nine-year-old boy watched as those immortal figures crossed past him without a single glance in his direction.

A pair of small, dirty hands curled into fists in that dark and deserted alley.

"I'm going to be stronger than them," He had thought. "I'm going to be better than all of them."

A small fire was lit that day, full of potential.]

At the time, Bai Xue thought that chapter was brilliant. So brilliant, that he immediately memorized the corresponding characteristics of the elements to try and figure out his.

He treated it like a game.

But Bai Xue knew what type of person he was. So, the moment he read the description of the elements, he already knew his. He just didn't want to acknowledge it.

It was ice, and ice was loneliness.

Ice was standing in the middle of a snowstorm and inherently knowing that no one was going to come and search for you.

And he didn't remember how he died.

But he knew he died alone. He didn't know how to be anything else.

Bai Xue let out a bitter laugh.

He had tried so hard to forget those things in his last life, so why the fuck would he want to remember them now?

He breathed out and pressed his forehead against the wall.

But he had to remember. He had to remember because Bai Aijuan was him. He was as much as Bai Xue had said in that seven hour call to a girl whose name he didn't even know.

"Accept me," Bai Xue demanded, clenching his hands into fists. "Because if you don't, I don't know what I'm going to do."

Gui Zhen furrowed his brows, lifting his palms from Bai Aijuan's back. Something was wrong.

Before he could completely remove them, a sudden spike of energy registered in Bai Aijuan's body. His eyes snapped open in shock.

Bai Xue wasn't any better on his end.

[Stark white walls and a bony white hand gripping his. All while that toneless beep continuously rang in his ear.

A silver locket laying pristine and unblemished by the pile of ash surrounding it.

And a hand.

A hand that crawled along his spine, coming around to circle his neck.

As his head bent forward, he felt the acid building in his throat.

Heavy breathing touched the side of his face, "A-Xue can be good for his māmā, right?"

Bai Xue could already hear the leer in his voice.]

Bai Xue knees gave out under him before he even crashed into the wall. A massive wave of turbulent energy was raging inside his body and prevented him from standing back up. He sat there trembling as a tremendous amount of pain flashed behind his eyelids.

"Fuck...!" He grunted. "This is too much!"

Suddenly, a long and exasperated sigh reverberated in the soul cage.

Tensing immediately, Bai Xue managed to open his eyes despite the intense pain and glared at the source of the sound. Then he froze as he looked directly into his own contemptuous gaze.

Bai Aijuan.

The boy stood in front of him dressed in pure white robes with an almost angelic glow surrounding him.

Bai Aijuan lifted a single, pristine finger to his forehead and parted his lips to say—

[Imbecile.]

…This little shit-!

Bai Xue didn't get long to process the sudden insult. The moment after Bai Aijuan pressed that finger to his forehead, a blazing energy tore throughout his body.

It created chaos in his blood, sweeping over his veins before it finally arrived in the middle of his chest.

Then it disappeared.

Bai Xue, still reeling from the pain of his blood boiling in his own body, furrowed his brows in bewilderment. Just where-?

Without warning, a biting, frigid energy engulfed all of his senses.

A gasp punched out of his lips, misty white air following.

Ming An flinched and reached for Bai Xue's hand but a piercing glare from Gui Zhen stopped her. She leaned back, shifting anxiously as she stared at her young master.

Bai Xue felt like he was currently experiencing hell on earth. Frost bit at him from every corner, whether it be inside or outside.

The blood in his veins now moved sluggishly, blanketed by the force of the element.

A small seed of panic slowly began to grow in Bai Xue's chest. Was he going to die? Again?

He hadn't even got to live this time.

[Relax.]

He stiffened.

[Accept it.]

A blank static covered Bai Xue's mind and an almost instinctual feeling made his body relax to allow the frost to invade his veins.

There was no need to fear death.

Not from the winter.

A gradual layer of spiritual energy inserted itself inside his body. Slowly, Bai Xue's surroundings turned brighter and brighter until they almost exploded with light. He watched in awe as it gradually dimmed to reveal a single layer of ice-blue wisps, swirling in the center of body.

A soft exhale pulled itself from Bai Xue's mouth as he relaxed his shoulders.

Unbeknownst to him, a pale mist covered the entire room, enveloping both Ming An and Gui Zhen.

The two stared at him in equal amazement.

Bai Xue rolled his neck, feeling for the differences in his body.

The first notable change was his lowered temperature. He suspected that it was permanent rather than temporary.

The second was the clean, energized sensation he felt. It was like every nerve in his body had received a new layer of healing. That was probably the effect of all his veins being boiled and then blanketed by the ice...

And the third, accompanying the bitter cold residing in his chest, was a deep sense of relief.

Like something had rightfully settled.

Slowly blinking his eyes open, Bai Xue looked in front of him in a daze. He turned to the stunned face of Gui Zhen and huffed.

"Well?" Gui Zhen blinked and shook his head.

"…Congratulations, you've successfully become a cultivator." He said holding out a hand.

Ming An twitched, her eyes widening in delight.

Bai Xue glanced at his hand in disgust and stood up. Since his purpose was served, he saw no need to continue being cordial.

"Would you like to be paid in ingots or cultivation materials?" He asked indifferently, shaking out his sleeves.

As to how he would gather these ingots and materials? That was for future Bai Xue to figure out!

"Neither." Gui Zhen dropped his hand with a chuckle.

"Hm." Bai Xue blinked, nonchalant. Then he immediately turned to leave through the room's door. "Ming An."

The maid stood in shock, looking at Gui Zhen awkwardly. Then she bowed, grabbed her master's coat, and hurried after him.

Gui Zhen watched the two leave.

The guilt he felt was still heavy.

[A smaller, less frigid Bai Aijuan appeared in his mind eye, the boy smiling up at him, "Uncle Zhen!"]

Extremely heavy.

But he felt more satisfied than he ever had in the past nine years. That straight, prideful back and his frigid gaze… yes, the ice element suited him just fine.

"Senior brother, senior sister." Gui Zhen murmured.

"I don't need you to forgive me, but I want you to know that your A-Xue is doing well." A disbelieving smile crawled onto his lips.

"He's doing very well."