"Friends for life"

Firelight danced over the cavern's rough stone walls, stretching the shadows of the two sitting close together.

The firewood occasionally gave a faint crackle, especially clear in the silence of the night.

The weakness on Luo Li's pale cheeks gradually faded. Though her injuries were still serious, at least she was no longer a lamp with its oil exhausted, helpless at anyone's mercy.

Mu Chen was stirring the fire with a slender twig to make it burn more evenly, the flickering light illuminating his handsome profile.

"Why did you save me? And why did you seek me out to work together?"

Luo Li's voice broke the silence, her tone as calm as ever, yet carrying an audible trace of confusion. Her glass-clear eyes reflected the firelight as she quietly watched Mu Chen.

"To you, I should be no different from those other trial participants..."

Mu Chen stopped stirring with the twig and met Luo Li's gaze. "I thought I told you. I like the look of you."

It was exactly the same answer he had given outside the Ancient Hall, so simple it bordered on dismissive.

Yet after saying it, Mu Chen laughed first. His smile was open and unguarded, his brows relaxed, and he even looked rather unapologetic.

"Oh, right," he added after laughing. "You're also very beautiful. That's important!"

"I like being friends with beautiful girls," Mu Chen continued, his gaze resting frankly on her face, without the slightest evasion or sleaziness, only pure admiration and a straightforward statement. "Preferably friends for life!"

A strange silence suddenly settled over the cavern. Even the crackling of the flames seemed to recede.

Luo Li stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words.

Honestly... an answer so blunt it was almost overbearing.

It clearly sounded like the frivolous words of a lecher, yet coming from someone with such clear, candid eyes, it somehow carried an unapologetic sincerity?

She had grown up in the Luo God Clan, accustomed to gazes filled with reverence, greed, covetousness, or indifference.

Because of her talent, her beauty, her status.

Behind those gazes always lay all manner of schemes and motives.

Luo Li had long since grown used to them, responding with an even colder wall of ice.

Before, she had been alone and single-minded, believing that the path of cultivation needed no companions and that human attachments were the greatest nuisance.

The responsibilities of the Luo God Clan and the solitude of cultivation had long since accustomed her to walking alone.

But now, when she had been gravely injured and near death, it was Mu Chen who had swept away the danger, who had sucked out the poisoned blood for her, and who had given her Soul Essence to heal her wounds.

In the eyes of the boy before her, there was admiration, fondness, and a possessiveness she could not quite put into words.

Yet perhaps because he had saved her life, Luo Li found that she did not dislike his gaze. She even felt a little pleased by it!

"Friends... for life?" Luo Li repeated softly, as though confirming what those words meant.

"Are there really friends for life in this world?"

"Of course there are friends for life, just as there are family members for life and lovers for life." Mu Chen tossed the twig into the fire, sending sparks crackling upward.

"Living isn't easy. We have to go through birth, aging, sickness, and death, and witness all the world's unpredictable changes. If, throughout that long life, we don't even have someone to talk to, someone to open our hearts to, someone we care about who cares about us, how lonely would that be?"

"What do we cultivate for? What do we grow stronger for? If, at the end of the road, there's no one beside us and only a boundless emptiness ahead, what's the point of standing on the highest peak?"

Luo Li listened quietly.

She had never heard words like these.

In the Luo God Clan, the elders only told her that responsibility weighed more than mountains, that duty stood higher than the heavens, and that on the path of cultivation, she must sever ties when the time came.

Love was a fetter, and friends could become weaknesses or potential sources of betrayal.

Strength, it seemed, always walked hand in hand with loneliness.

Yet Mu Chen was telling her that strength should not be pursued for the sake of loneliness, and that loneliness itself might not be a necessary price of strength.

"Is that so?" Luo Li asked softly, unconsciously tilting her head.

The gesture made her look a little less cool and distant, and a little more lively, as a girl her age ought to be.

The firelight traced the soft contours of her exquisite profile. Her silver hair spilled over her shoulders like a waterfall, its ends glimmering faintly gold in the light.

She really was beautiful!

"Of course it is." Gazing at that lovely sight, Mu Chen nodded firmly, as though he wanted to nail that conviction into her heart.

Then he slowly held out his hand to Luo Li.

"Luo Li," Mu Chen said, looking into her eyes and speaking each word distinctly, "will you be my friend for life?"

Luo Li's gaze shifted from Mu Chen's face to his outstretched hand.

She remembered how he had looked standing beneath the setting sun when she first met him outside the Safe Land.

She remembered his figure as he descended from the sky and routed her attackers.

She remembered his focused profile as he crouched before her and sucked out her poisoned blood without hesitation.

She remembered his unapologetic smile when he said he liked the look of her.

Luo Li slowly raised her eyes and looked at Mu Chen again.

The boy still held out his hand, neither rushing nor pressuring her, simply waiting quietly.

Friends for life...

She nodded gently and slowly placed her hand in Mu Chen's palm.

Mu Chen clasped her hand and said with a smile, "Then it's a promise. For life."

"I can't promise a lifetime, but here on the Spirit Road, I'll always stay by your side!" Luo Li said earnestly.

"Is that so... Can you tell me why you can't promise a lifetime? Maybe I can solve it in the future. You know, I'm very strong!" Mu Chen clenched his fist.

Luo Li said nothing more and only shook her head. Seeing this, Mu Chen did not press her.

Of course he knew the reason: the burden of the Luo God Clan. But that was all right. In the future, he would resolve everything!

Silence flowed through the air, but rather than awkwardness, it brought a sense of peace.

Mu Chen suddenly turned to look at Luo Li.

Her lashes were long, casting small shadows in the firelight that veiled her glass-clear eyes. Sensing his gaze, she tilted her head again and met his eyes.

"I haven't seen you smile yet." Mu Chen's voice held curiosity and anticipation. "Could you smile for me?"

"You must look beautiful when you smile!"

Luo Li froze for a moment.

Then a smile slowly blossomed, reaching her eyes.

That faint smile suddenly brought her entire cool, exquisite face to vivid, radiant life!

Like moonlight piercing the clouds and spilling its clear radiance over the world, its beauty was pure and without the slightest blemish, enough to dazzle a moment frozen in time.

Mu Chen stared, a little entranced, forgetting to speak.

For the next few days, the two stayed in the cavern.

Luo Li recovered faster than expected.

She already had an excellent foundation and a tenacious will. With the Soul Essence energy Mu Chen provided and his attentive care, her wounds healed quickly, and she recovered completely in just three days.

The days passed one by one.

The two ventured ever deeper into the Spirit Road, and their unspoken understanding swiftly grew and took root through battle after battle, trek after trek, and conversation after conversation beside the campfire...