Inside the Heaven-Escaping Shuttle.
After Xu Youxia said that, no one spoke again.
Flickering patches of light swept across the three men's faces, cutting their expressions into fragments that brightened and faded.
The silence stretched on.
At last, Xu Youxia spoke again.
"This idea didn't just come to me now."
"When I came out of seclusion last time, I learned our junior brother had reached the Spirit Transformation Stage."
Xu Youxia looked up at Ji Yuan and forced a smile. "My heart skipped a beat when I heard."
Bai Zhan said nothing. He simply listened.
"Go ahead and laugh at me for saying this."
Xu Youxia drew a deep breath. "In the early years, I really did slack off. I figured I had decent talent, and with Master and our eldest senior sister above me, I always thought that even if the sky fell, it wouldn't land on my head."
"Cultivation? If I took today off, I could always make it up tomorrow. Tomorrow after tomorrow—how many tomorrows could there be?
"Everyone knows that, but when it's your own life, you still can't make yourself stop."
A trace of self-mockery entered his voice.
"Besides, I was the youngest disciple in our lineage back then. It was only natural for the junior brother to have a lower cultivation. Slacking off a little seemed harmless."
"I had senior disciples above me to hold things up, and no juniors below me who needed an example. I was like a spoiled youngest child, living comfortably in the shade of a great tree. I never thought that tree might fall one day."
At that, Xu Youxia gave a sudden laugh.
"Then Master took in our junior brother, and I wasn't the youngest anymore."
He turned toward Ji Yuan, his gaze complicated.
"You might not understand