Master Su.

"I will teach you how to use Qi gradually, but you must remember one thing: Qi is like poison to most people, so I hope you can use it with moderation."

Seeing the girl nod as if she understood, Su Qing'an continued:

"You have already memorized all the musical notes of the Sword Heart Technique. In your spare time, you can silently recite them to hone your sword heart."

With this opening remark, Su Qing'an began to explain the various essentials of the Void Sword Qi in detail, just like a teacher.

Time passed slowly as the boy patiently and earnestly taught him, meticulously explaining every detail that could be broken down, and instructing him on many important points that he himself had never fully understood before.

Finally, Su Qing'an frankly admitted...

He said that Fu Hua's talent was much, much better than his own, and that she might surpass him in a short time. He added that he must use these powers to protect himself when that time came.

It was as if this was the only real reason the boy taught her this martial art.

When he said these words, there was no regret or envy in his dark eyes, which were as clear and bright as an ancient spring. There was only pure and bright expectation that appeared after the comfort had dissipated.

Su Qing'an wasn't without envy for the conveniences he had never had; after all, he wasn't a saint without desires.

The boy also missed the freedom and relaxation he felt when Rin was transformed into Stigmata imprinted on his back.

A body that cannot be easily Honkai Energy by Honkai energy, and the right to wield this power at will—these are things he can only obtain by paying a bloody price.

But when these seemingly unattainable innate advantages were bestowed upon a girl, he felt she possessed far too little.

Fu Hua was somewhat stunned. She looked into those eyes, seemingly bewildered by the complex yet clear emotions within them.

That's strange.

Why can I tell what he's thinking?

The girl seemed to understand Su Qing'an's heart as if she had heard a chord with him.

This feeling is so strange.

The other person's feelings were indescribable, like a young branch at the bottom of an abyss, chilled by the morning mist, struggling to sprout tender buds.

But in just a short while, the fierce wind swept through and tore them all down, leaving them scattered like trash among the dusty rock layers, forgotten by all.

Then this scene repeats itself endlessly, over and over again.

It's like an endless cycle.

Someone else told her she should be sad.

Fu Hua felt a pang of sadness, as if the thing that the branch had tried so hard to bloom was about to be given to her, but it had failed to do so.

But in the end, it neither broke nor gave up.

These emotions vanished instantly, as if in a dream.

She was already used to experiencing too many inexplicable things today, so the girl didn't dwell on these emotions for long. Perhaps more than what past and secrets Su Qing'an was hiding in her heart, 15-year-old Fu Hua cared more about that gaze.

She had never been looked at like that before, with such certainty, with such easy conviction that she believed she could achieve something.

This left her momentarily at a loss for what to do.

Compared to her father's silent and profound expectations, Su Qing'an's expectations seemed so straightforward and fervent.

Her long eyelashes fluttered, her pure eyes held a hint of evasion, and her cherry-blossom lips moved slightly, as if trying to speak.

This hesitant, unspoken stance suggests indecisiveness.

Su Qing'an didn't notice her unusual behavior; he was pondering how long it would take Fu Hua to fully restore the power of the Void Sword Qi.

During their previous interactions, he vaguely understood that the other party's sword heart had shattered. Su Qing'an still didn't know the reason why it had shattered. He only knew that it was likely related to the reason why Fu Hua's physical condition was so poor.

Given the other party's ambiguous memory, Su Qing'an naturally couldn't ask too many questions about such a sensitive topic.

Besides, these are all things of the past. Logically, even if he understood the whole truth, he would be powerless to change the past, which has already become history.

However, assuming the factors for restarting have been considered, perhaps it would be a better choice for Su Qing'an to know more about her past.

The existence of a reboot is something the boy has been trying to ignore and avoid.

These are all things of the past. In short, Fu Hua's combat power has always been ridiculously strong. Even without using the Void Sword Qi, she can kill Emperor-class Honkai Beast simply by relying on the Cun Inch Heart Fist.

In Su Qing'an's imagination, the immortal beings' physical bodies and their Honkai Energy also played a part.

Fu Hua is currently just an ordinary human with exceptional talent. To reach a level that Su Qing'an can trust, she would need to surpass his sword heart level.

[Sword God]

In the young man's mind, as long as she regained this level, he would no longer be her match.

My current long-term goal is to stay by Fu Hua's side and protect her.

Until she comprehended the [Sword God].

"Master."

The girl's voice, which had become somewhat soft and sweet for some reason, reached Su Qing'an's ears, shattering his wandering thoughts.

After Su Qing'an clearly heard what the other person said, he felt a moment of confusion, and at the same time, a slight restlessness arose within him.

Damn it, I knew something was wrong.

But Su Qing'an's first reaction was to want her to say it a few more times.

"Hua... you can just call me by my name." But the guilt and strangeness in the boy's heart overwhelmed everything, leading him to make a serious choice.

The girl, who had finally mustered the courage to utter those two words, replied somewhat sullenly:

"Oh."

In Fu Hua's family rules, learning martial arts is a very serious matter. For example, although her father runs a martial arts school, he has not fully entrusted the martial arts of his own style to any student.

Even Fu Hua herself wouldn't be taught any techniques until she reached the level that satisfied men.

Since providing accommodation is not equivalent to the value of the Void Sword Qi, the idea of a pure transaction is also impossible. Therefore, after being taught such a martial art that should obviously be a top secret in Fu Hua's common sense, she naturally had to call the other party her master.

Even though she hesitated when she said it because of that strange sense of shame and oddity, she still didn't feel that it was an inappropriate way to address her.

The usually honest girl even felt a little ashamed of the hesitation that had arisen in her heart.

Su Qing'an had a headache. It was rare for him to feel so helpless. Teaching Fu Hua the Void Sword Qi was an inevitable choice in his eyes, but establishing a master-disciple relationship that was originally reversed was a completely new path that he had never thought of.

Moreover, even back then, Su Qing'an had never called Fu Hua" Master." If you think about it carefully, he had completely taken advantage of the situation, which made him feel quite conflicted.

For the boy who had experienced the previous timeline, if Fu Hua developed feelings for him because of this, it would be like she was being manipulated, which was hard for him to accept.

In some ways, Su Qing'an is quite old-fashioned.

He spoke earnestly to the little girl:

"Hua, your master is not me, but the Immortal Chi Yuan."

Su Qing'an wasn't lying in a certain sense, but his true reasons were completely unconvincing.

The girl blinked her big, confused eyes. "Who is the Immortal Chi Yuan? What does this have to do with you teaching me the Void Sword Qi?"

Faced with that adorable expression, Su Qing'an found it difficult to continue his charade; even in front of Young Hua, he wasn't good at lying to her.

So the boy looked away and said quietly:

"... You'll understand later."

The girl protested softly, muttering:

"That's not even a valid reason."

Su Qing'an pretended not to hear. He suddenly recalled the time when the entire St. Freya school called him "Little Su," and he felt that this title was much better than "Master." So he sighed:

"Anyway... you can call me whatever you want, my full name Su Qing'an is fine, or you can call me Little Su, it doesn't matter, just not this."

Xiao Su?

Looking at the boy with a somewhat aloof demeanor, the girl found the nickname somewhat amusing. Her beautifully shaped eyebrows and eyes were filled with laughter, and her moist lips forced a slight upturn as she said:

"I understand, Su Qing'an."

Fu Hua, being somewhat honest and adhering to some ancient etiquette, did not choose to make Mind's Eye jokes.

Seeing that she seemed to have taken his words to heart, Su Qing'an breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he looked at the girl's drowsy and listless appearance and frowned inwardly.

"Your previous experience was only enough to reach the minimum threshold for forging a sword heart, so it's inevitable that your spirit will be a little weak."

"This won't happen again in a few days. You should rest now. You can practice the Sword Heart Technique tomorrow."

The way Su Qing'an said this was exactly like an overindulgent parent telling their child to do their homework tomorrow and go slack off for now.

The little girl rubbed her eyes. After hearing what Su Qing'an said, she genuinely felt that she was not feeling well. Previously, the excitement of mastering the sword heart and the curiosity of having just come into contact with mysterious power had suppressed her fatigue.

Although the novelty hasn't worn off yet, it can't stop the drowsiness from creeping in.

The girl nodded obediently, hummed in agreement, and walked into the room as the boy watched her go.

Immediately, the sound of the mechanism twisting several times clearly reached Su Qing'an's ears, making her feel a little amused.

We've only known each other for a short time, so there's nothing we can do about it.

The boy ignored the girl's little actions and went into the guest room after turning off the living room lights.

His previous sleep was far too short compared to the exhaustion of not sleeping for three days; he was actually very tired.

My first day in this city was spent with a good night's sleep.

Fu Hua leaned against the door, and after hearing the faint sound of the door opening and closing in the direction of the guest room, she walked to the desk and took out her diary from the cabinet.

Locking the room wasn't meant to deter Su Qing'an from coming over in the middle of the night to do anything strange.

This is a little habit the girl has before writing in her diary.

Without needing to communicate, as soon as Fu Hua's father heard the door lock, he would tacitly choose not to disturb her for a period of time.

This can be considered a silent communication between father and daughter. Although it's unknown whether such communication would seem strange to outsiders, Fu Hua doesn't dislike this method.

Well, in a sense, the excessive tacit understanding between them also exacerbated her weakness in communication.

Actually, the diaries I wrote about in the past were mostly mundane things, nothing worth mentioning.

It doesn't contain much about the troubles of adolescence; instead, it's like a series of meaningless, purely narrative essays, simply recounting the events of a day.

Of course, it's not hard to tell from between the lines whether the little girl is in a good mood or not.

[Date]

Practicing martial arts, eating, going to school.

Expanding on the content in the above format is enough to encompass most of it. To determine her specific mood, you need to see how many details she added.

The first event in Fu Hua's diary was taking in a stray kitten and raising it at her father's martial arts school. The second event was chasing away several junior high school boys who liked to rob elementary school students on the street.

The little girl's entertainment activities also revolved around overly simple activities like watching TV and stargazing.

If someone were to see her diary, they would find it utterly boring and probably wouldn't even bother to turn to the page about finding the cat before simply throwing it away.

In fact, even Fu Hua, who has a long-standing habit of keeping a diary, felt that this matter seemed more formalistic than practical.

After going to Canghai City, she stopped writing in her diary.

Given Fu Hua's personality, keeping a diary in a boarding school with many students would be a very difficult task in itself.

Besides, the matter itself was no longer of much significance; there was no room for her diary in the luggage she had prepared for her trip to Canghai City.

But today is different.

Suppressing her drowsiness, the girl began to write the first sentence.

On [Date], I met Master Su.

Clearly, although Fu Hua outwardly refrained from calling Su Qing'an that, she was secretly finding it amusing, and even combined the two titles that Su Qing'an found subtly amusing.

If a young person saw these four words, their feelings would certainly be very complex.

The diary entries that followed were filled with complex and changing psychological descriptions, and the emotions that had twisted and turned along the way were written down as unprecedentedly long passages.

After describing several events, the diary ends with a final, ambiguous sentence.

[Master Su seems to know me. I also feel like I know him...]

The unspoken thoughts remained hidden in her heart. With these lingering feelings, the girl changed into a plain sky-blue nightgown and curled up in bed.

She clutched the corner of the blanket with her little hand, rubbed her head against the soft pillow, and her smooth gray hair, like silk, spread out beside the pillow, making one want to reach out and touch it.

The nightlight on the bedside table, which hadn't been turned off, emitted an orange-red glow, vaguely outlining her delicately sculpted profile. She quietly opened her eyes, her blue pupils shimmering as if light had fallen into them.

I was already very sleepy.

But a relentless storm continued to swirl in my mind, the events of today echoing over and over again, completely drowning out the uncertainty about the future and the unease of going to Canghai City.

But she eventually got sleepy.

Recalling the boy's face, the girl closed her eyes. As her hazy consciousness gradually faded, her lips moved as she murmured:

"Master Su, he's actually quite handsome."