Future, Future

"Brother Xiao Yan looked so handsome today!" Xun Er said with feeling, a candied hawthorn skewer between her teeth.

"Was I not handsome before?"

Xiao Yan's smart-mouthed comeback left the girl silent for a moment.

"You only know how to bully me..."

"I was just joking." Xiao Yan reached out again and ruffled Xun Er's head. Fluffy and warm.

As for Galeo, the guards had long since hauled him away.

He caused trouble every other day. The fact that those mercenaries had not pinned him down at the alley entrance and beaten him senseless was only out of consideration for the Xiao Clan; they did not want to cause a nasty incident.

"Was Xun Er happy today?"

"Of course!"

Xun Er waved the candied hawthorn skewer around, her face full of excitement, her eyes shining brightly. "Brother Xiao Yan, you don't know how cool you looked back then... Look at how badly that bastard was scared. He nearly pissed himself!"

"You." Xiao Yan poked her cheek. "I was asking whether you had fun, whether you enjoyed yourself."

"Mm..."

Xun Er paused, tilting her head slightly in thought.

Then she moved a little closer and, under Xiao Yan's puzzled gaze, reached out to loop her arm around his. "Now I'm enjoying myself."

Xiao Yan: ? This girl really was so strange...

"What does Brother Xiao Yan plan to do in the future?" After walking for a while with her arm around his, Xun Er suddenly asked without preamble.

The future?

Xiao Yan blinked a few times. "That... After I arrange the matters at home, I'll try going out to make my way in the world. The sky is high and the earth is vast. It would truly be a pity not to venture out while I'm still young."

"Is that so?"

Xun Er nodded, not asking how Xiao Yan, who was openly known as a good-for-nothing, planned to protect himself.

Xiao Yan did not make another cheeky remark like, "Why aren't you worried about me?"

At some point, the two of them had already come to understand each other's affairs without needing to say anything.

Everyone had secrets, after all. "Then where will Brother go?" Xun Er looked up at the night sky, where a river of stars stretched across it.

"Wherever is more exciting, I'll go there."

"And afterward, you'll return to the Xiao Clan?"

"Where else?" Xiao Yan found it a little funny. "This is my home... A wanderer returns home one day."

Xun Er's movements stiffened. "Then if you form ties outside, will you still come back?"

"If you hesitate, it only means you aren't strong enough."

Xiao Yan answered seriously, "If it were me, I'd do everything possible to pursue both... But if I really had to choose one..."

At this point, Xiao Yan fell silent for a short while.

"I might lean more toward responsibility? While shouldering that responsibility, I'd do everything I could."

"I see."

Xun Er seemed a little down, but she soon regained a bit of energy. "Forget it, let's not talk about this! Let's change the subject."

"Oh? Then you say it." Xiao Yan let her do as she pleased.

"Mm... Let me think."

Xun Er clasped her hands behind her back and hopped two steps forward, then suddenly stopped and turned around. "Brother Xiao Yan, do you have someone you like?"

"Not for now."

Snap.

Xun Er's smile stiffened slightly, but for some reason, she let out a breath of relief inside.

Although the progress bar was still sitting at a big fat zero, at least she was the only one currently running the process, right?

Sooner or later, victory would fall into her hands.

"Then the person you're looking forward to, what kind of person would she be?" Xun Er had already prepared a little notebook in her heart.

"Fate will decide."

Xiao Yan thought left and right, only to realize that he actually could not even describe the image of an ideal partner.

Or rather, he had never cared much about such things to begin with. "Spending a long time together, accommodating each other, relying on each other, and naturally letting things fall into place. More or less that."

All right, looks like there was no need to take notes.

Xun Er silently closed the little notebook in her heart.

At this rate, did she even need to think about it? She was certain to win, all right? Who could starve to death when the food was already being fed right to their mouth...

"Why is Xun Er asking these things? You're still not at the age where you should be considering major life matters."

Xiao Yan patted her on the head, making Xun Er shake it away. "You can rub it! But if you pat me too much, I'll turn stupid!"

"You actually believe Father's nonsense?"

"Wow~ Uncle Xiao Zhan would probably be very happy to hear that, wouldn't he?"

"...You wretched girl! Stop right there!"

The two chased and horsed around through the streets, weaving through the thinning crowd and turning this way and that.

People along the way stepped aside, watching their youthful backs and sighing over the days gone by.

Or rather, more than that, they felt regret.

Most of the people active in the market were mercenaries. How could they ever have had such carefree youthful days? All they had was fighting or toil, day after day, and only after returning covered in dust and grime could they look at the happy lives of those young masters and misses.

The few good memories they had might only be of some day when a warm, lively young beauty joined the group and brightened the mood.

"Brother Xiao Yan."

Once they were tired from running, the two simply sat down openly on the steps.

Xun Er panted lightly. "If your life from now on was all just drifting with the current, doing what others wanted you to do, what would you do?"

"Follow my heart."

Xiao Yan pinched his Naring. "My heart tells me: if it's because of responsibility, then do it to the best of my ability and don't run away. If it's because of my own feelings, then pursue it as much as I can and do everything in my power not to leave regrets in my life. If it's because someone else is forcing me, then he can just wait and see!

"Even if I have to risk this life of mine, I'll still knock a few of his teeth loose!

"And I've always treated these as truths to live by."

"That sounds just like the big talk little kids spout!" Xun Er suddenly laughed, more freely than she ever had before.

"I'm not that old to begin with, am I?"

Xiao Yan rubbed his nose. "I'm only fifteen this year. I'm still young."

Though that was if he did not count his past life.

"Heh..."

Xun Er shook her head. At that moment, it was as if she had completely set down her burdens. Unlike her usual self, she was casual and unrestrained, without that feeling of being tied hand and foot. "Thank you, truly... You really have always taken care of me like an older brother."

"You're not going to thank my dad?"

Xiao Yan put on a shocked expression. "Hey, hey... he talks every day about taking you in as his daughter! If he weren't afraid your father wouldn't agree, he would've made you the youngest of the family long ago."

The emotions Xun Er had been building up suddenly jammed for a moment, and she gave him an annoyed roll of her eyes. "Of course I have to thank Uncle Xiao Zhan too! I just hadn't gotten to him yet!"

Truly, it was like having a real family.

Xun Er bent her legs and hugged her knees, watching Xiao Yan continue deliberately acting silly over there.

Only by setting aside all those messy things from the Ancient Clan could she truly feel what "home" was like.

Mm, Ling Ying was innocent.

Although he was like an old nanny, always nagging and earning himself several harsh scoldings, Xun Er still thanked him from the bottom of her heart.

Because of all sorts of reasons, their positions had solidified into master and servant, but the care Ling Ying had poured into her far surpassed that of Gu Yuan, her actual father.

When she came to the Xiao Clan... she had only been four then, right? Xun Er touched her own palm. That hand that had once held hers, that feeling, that warmth, had long since been drowned in past memories.

She could no longer find that feeling.

"Xun Er, let's go home." Xiao Yan stood up and patted off his backside.

He reached out his hand to her.

Ehehe... I guess this counts as having made a shady deal with someone (). If you readers aren't satisfied, I won't do this kind of thing again in the future ().

Next up is—

A new book by someone in my group who carried a gun with me: "Cultivation: I Have a Portable Blessed Grotto-Heaven."

It's basically a traditional grotto-heaven story where you grow spiritual herbs, catch spirit pets, and gain cultivation~

Step by step by step by step, walking all the way to the top! (I want to become an immortal!!) The synopsis is as follows: The immortal path is difficult, more difficult than climbing to the heavens.

Wealth, techniques, land, and companions—none can be lacking.

Only those with great divine abilities, great perseverance, and great fortune can glimpse that single thread of the Great Dao.

Fortunately, Li Zhong possessed a portable blessed grotto-heaven, containing the laws of heaven and earth within it, along with fortune and rare treasures.

With fortune upon him, from then on, hundred-year spirit herbs were weeds he could see everywhere, while only thousand-year spirit herbs were worthy of notice, and he could even nurture exotic beasts and strange insects.

Refine treasure pills, cultivate divine abilities, condense a dharma body, ride the clouds and mist, enter the azure heavens with a single thought, and roam freely through the world!

From then on, he would tread across green mountains while men grew old; amid the boundless mortal world, he would be an immortal! Li Zhong rose step by step from humble beginnings, and hundreds and thousands of years later, throughout the vast cultivation world, legends belonging to Li Zhong had unknowingly spread everywhere.