Jiayuan Community was less than two kilometers from Linjiang City No. 3 Middle School. It was where the brother and sister rented a home.
Their old house had long since been sold, and most of the money had gone toward treating his sister's illness.
To make it easier to get to school and take his sister to the hospital, Gu An had moved here.
It was a cozy little home, with two bedrooms and a living room.
On the balcony facing him, a girl sat in a wheelchair. Sunlight fell on her dark hair, giving it a faint halo.
The girl's name was Gu Xi. She was Gu An's younger sister, and she was sixteen.
To be precise, she was his sister despite having no blood relation to him.
When he was five, snow was falling heavily.
A married couple came to the orphanage, accompanied by a little girl whose face was slightly pale.
The moment the girl saw Gu An, she said with great certainty, "Mom, Dad, Xiao Xi wants him to be her big brother."
The girl ran over to Gu An in little steps and took his hand.
"Brother, can I be your little sister?"
It wasn't that no one had wanted to adopt Gu An before, but he had refused them all.
That time alone, looking at the girl's slightly pale little face, so full of anticipation, Gu An nodded without thinking.
From then on, he became that family's adopted son and gained a sister two years younger than him.
The girl was exceedingly beautiful, but she unfortunately suffered from an illness called Congenital Vitality Deficiency.
It was an extremely rare congenital defect in one's life force.
Those afflicted were born with an insufficient foundation of life, making their bodies far weaker than those of ordinary people. As they grew older, they often developed all sorts of unpredictable symptoms.
Although Gu Xi could walk short distances, she couldn't stay active for long and usually had to rely on a wheelchair.
Over the years, even with the use of many precious medicines, they had only barely managed to maintain her condition and had never been able to cure it.
Three years ago, a sudden car accident had claimed their parents' lives, leaving behind two children who had yet to come of age.
After that, Gu An attended school while caring for his sister.
Every time, Gu Xi would sit on the balcony and wait for him to come back.
From that spot, she could see him returning home each day.
Hearing the door open, the girl turned around.
Her brows were like distant mountains, slender and slightly arched, just like a cold crescent moon in a winter night, lending her an air of distance.
When she saw Gu An, the girl's cool eyes brightened slightly. She used the wheelchair for support as she stood, hurried over to him, and tucked her whole body into his embrace.
"Brother..."
"Careful, don't fall," Gu An said helplessly.
He hurriedly set what he was carrying aside, gently wrapped his arms around the girl, and raised a hand to ruffle her hair.
The girl smiled sweetly. "I'm not that fragile."
Gu An took her hand and led her farther inside.
"I bought plenty of groceries today. What would you like to eat, Xiao Xi?"
"As long as Brother makes it, I like everything."
"Then you'll have to eat a little more today."
Gu An had learned to cook from his adoptive mother.
She had been a very gentle woman. Not only had she taught him to cook, but she had also personally helped him catch up on the schoolwork he had missed while at the orphanage.
Sadly, beautiful things always seemed destined to shatter.
At the dining table, steam rose from the fish soup.
Gu Xi held a small bowl in both hands and sipped the soup.
The girl ate very slowly, and she didn't usually have much of an appetite.
After eating a little less than half a bowl of rice, she put down her chopsticks and quietly pushed the bowl in front of her a little farther away.
As soon as she looked up, she met Gu An's gaze.
The girl blinked and picked up her chopsticks again as though nothing had happened.
"Can't eat any more?"
"A little."
"Have two more bites."
Gu Xi looked down at the rice left in her bowl and tried to bargain with him. "Dear Brother, can I have just one bite?"
"No."
"Brother doesn't know how to be considerate at all," the girl murmured softly.
Even so, she obediently picked up a tiny mouthful of rice with her chopsticks and ate it.
Right after that, she ate the second bite even faster.
Once she was done, she immediately put down her chopsticks and looked up at Gu An.
"All done."
Gu An knew exactly what she meant and played along. "Impressive."
As he spoke, he picked up a piece of fish he had already deboned and put it in her bowl.
"A reward for you."
Gu Xi stared at the piece of fish for a while, then silently picked it up and put it back in Gu An's bowl.
"A reward for Brother."
Gu An smiled and didn't put it back in her bowl.
After dinner, he took the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen, while Gu Xi followed behind, wheeling herself along.
Gu An took her daily medicine out of the cabinet, poured a glass of warm water, and handed both to her.
The girl looked at the pills of different colors in her palm, her delicate brows slowly knitting together.
"Can I skip them today?"
"No."
"One less pill?"
"No, not that either."
Gu Xi pressed her lips together and reluctantly took the glass of water, swallowing the pills one by one.
"Brother is so mean," the girl muttered.
As though he had been prepared for this, Gu An took a piece of candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and held it to her lips.
Gu Xi glanced at him, then opened her mouth and took the candy.
"I'm not a child anymore."
"Mm." Gu An nodded. "Big kids can have candy too."
The girl fell silent, but the sweetness in her mouth still made her eyes quietly curve into a smile.
After dinner, Gu An took Gu Xi for a short walk near the community, pushing her wheelchair as usual.
Autumn had arrived in Linjiang, and the weather was growing cooler.
On the park's footpath, the evening breeze swept up a few withered yellow leaves, sending them gently swirling beneath the streetlights.
The girl sat quietly in her wheelchair, wearing a cute white furry fox windproof hat, with a light blanket over her knees.
She only had to tilt her head slightly to see the boy's face behind her.
That was her dear brother.
"Oh, right, Brother."
"Hm?" Gu An lowered his head slightly, looking at the girl's profile.
"How did today's creation ceremony go?"
"Uh... it went fairly smoothly."
The mention of it brought to Gu An's mind, without his realizing it, the wager he had made with Lorina that day.
The girl, who had been by his side for so long, naturally noticed that moment's hesitation.
Gu Xi said, "Brother isn't lying to Xiao Xi?"
Gu An smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. I just had some new ideas at the last minute and made a few changes."
"Big changes?"
"...Pretty big."
Gu Xi looked up at him and saw that he seemed about to say something but held back. She didn't press him, only saying earnestly, "Brother must have his own reasons for what he wants to do."
Gu An felt warmth in his heart, but he said with a smile, "You trust me that much? Aren't you afraid I'll make a mess of the world?"
"Then we'll find another way."
The girl answered naturally, as though she didn't think it was anything worth worrying about.
Gu An smiled and tucked the blanket securely around her knees.
She still didn't know that he had borrowed the money for the creation origin he bought today.
Nor did she know that ten days from now, there would be a wager to decide who would get the high-end origin.
But he had never intended to let her worry about any of these things.
After they returned home, Gu Xi washed up and rested. Gu An tidied the kitchen before closing his bedroom door.
On the desk lay the Low-Martial World Construction Plan, filled with his calculations. The corners of its pages had grown worn from being turned so often.
He gently closed it, then opened his resource account.
[Ordinary creation origin × 1 unit.]
He had indeed borrowed the money, and the debt he owed was real.
But Gu An had no regrets.
Shi Chen's birth had already proven that his mythological creation path was far more incredible than he had originally imagined.
His consciousness sank inward, and the vast chaos unfolded before him once more.
Gu An looked toward the Innate Dao Domain where the phantom image of the Hollow-Hearted Willow had once appeared.
"Now that I have the origin..."
He cast the pure origin into the boundless expanse.
[The myriad Daos of chaos have manifested and begun to evolve.]
The myriad Daos, long dormant, seemed to receive nourishment at the same instant.
The Dao marks of fire and water lit up one after the other, and countless strands of innate patterns extended into the depths of chaos.
But most of the innate Dao marks merely absorbed the essence flowing toward them. Their auras grew slightly more substantial before falling silent once again.
In the enormous chaos, innate creations that had truly crossed the threshold of gestation were still few and far between.
And in the Dao domain where it had once been impossible even to tell near from far, a sudden change occurred.
Along the River of Time, at some unknowably distant point, Shi Chen slowly opened his eyes, clad in gray-white Daoist robes.
The next instant, a stretch of the river that had been rushing toward the future vanished into thin air before Him.
He raised His head and looked toward the void that did not belong to time.
"Who... has cut away a stretch of My years?"