So It Really Was Possible

After writing ten thousand words, Chu Ge's adrenaline rush wore off, and he realized he was absolutely starving.

Qiu Wuji hadn't cooked that evening. After pinning him down for a massage, she had disappeared, and he had been writing ever since.

Thinking back to what Qiu Wuji had said about unrest in his internal organs, Chu Ge decided he still needed to keep regular hours and stick to running and other exercise. Otherwise, he would fall into the trap she had warned him about: "It came too easily." If he squandered it recklessly, he would lose it all before long.

The next time she came over, he wanted her to see a vibrant, energetic Chu Ge.

With those thoughts in mind, he opened the door to go out for food, only for the door opposite his to open at precisely the same moment. A girl dressed in black stepped out. When she saw Chu Ge leaving too, her first instinct was to retreat.

But seeing that Chu Ge was alone, she hesitated briefly before finally coming out.

Chu Ge didn't look at her. He pressed the elevator button and waited quietly. The girl stood quietly to one side as well. Even once the elevator started down, they stood inside in silence, neither saying a word the entire time.

"Ding!" The elevator reached the first floor.

As the doors opened, the girl suddenly spoke. "I'm looking for a new place... I'll move out in the next few days. Sorry."

With that, she hurried away.

Chu Ge slowly walked out of the elevator and headed in the opposite direction.

It seemed the girl knew exactly what had happened... In theory, she shouldn't have been able to see through Qiu Wuji's invisibility. Perhaps seeing him there had been enough for her to piece everything together.

Still, that was fine. She was reasonable.

Chu Ge realized he really wasn't frightened by encountering "someone with lethal supernatural powers." Maybe it was because they had been neighbors for so long that she counted as an acquaintance? Or perhaps, after a she-dragon had held a sword to his neck, there wasn't much left that could faze him...

Besides, he was cultivating now himself... As Chu Ge quietly ate his beef noodles, he seemed able to feel every tiny step as energy broke down and flowed into his body, as though he had detached from himself to look down upon the universe within.

The Qi Refining Stage.

At present, Chu Ge still couldn't replace sleep with meditation. After eating, he went home, showered, and sat cross-legged on his bed, circulating his qi through the meridians Qiu Wuji had taught him for thirty-six full cycles. He couldn't tell whether his cultivation had improved, but one benefit was that it focused and calmed his mind remarkably well. The stray thoughts that usually filled his head before bed were all but gone, and he fell sound asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

Whatever else it did, it was a first-rate cure for insomnia...

He woke early the next morning, just as the sky began to brighten. After a night of deep sleep, he felt wonderfully refreshed. Chu Ge completed another thirty-six cycles of cultivation, then went running, did push-ups and squats, washed, and ate breakfast. By the time he finished the entire routine, it was only a little after eight.

He sat down at his computer brimming with energy and started writing. Even his thoughts felt much more nimble and clear. Chu Ge could have wept.

If I'd always been this full of energy, I'd have gotten promoted at work years ago.

Another ten thousand words today!

As Chu Ge threw himself into his work, the Featured Recommendation arrived on schedule.

Chu Ge hadn't checked his author dashboard in a long time, but today he couldn't resist refreshing it over and over.

These bookmarks are growing at a terrifying rate... Every refresh adds dozens more. It's gained over a thousand in less than an hour. So this is the big Featured Recommendation us flops have spent so long dreaming of?

How many of those bookmarks would turn into paid subscriptions remained unknown. New readers had to read the free chapters before deciding whether to continue, after all. It had only been an hour, too soon for any effect to show in subscriptions.

But even with an ordinary conversion rate, a substantial increase in his results was guaranteed.

Come to think of it, he hadn't looked at his subscription figures in ages either. Checking them now, he found they were actually slightly higher than before he had started losing readers. That meant quite a few new readers had already arrived before the Featured Recommendation, making up for the losses—was it related to that strange influx of traffic a while back?

Seen that way, the later storyline he had written by the seat of his pants after Qiu Wuji changed her fate didn't seem to have failed. His numbers had already been creeping up before the Featured Recommendation. Would they take off afterward?

He had expected the figures he hadn't checked in so long to be a miserable sight, desperately awaiting the Featured Recommendation to save them. Instead, it was the exact opposite. Chu Ge couldn't shake the feeling that his luck was turning.

Did my heroine's arrival bring good luck into my life? Chu Ge took a deep breath, closed the dashboard, and returned his full attention to writing.

The final part of today's ten thousand words involved a rather special scene. Chu Ge didn't want his results to distract him too much, because he was writing about Qiu Wuji and Yan Qianlie attempting to resonate with the Heavenly Dao Pact to seal a wager.

In prose, this amounted to: "A sound like muffled thunder seemed to come from the heavens. Gilded words faintly appeared, and the pact was sealed..." As for how Qiu Wuji communicated with the "Heavenly Dao," there was no detailed process. It was merely a deus ex machina written into the setting by the author, not an actual exchange with the Heavenly Dao.

But what if that "will of heaven" was Chu Ge himself, and Qiu Wuji knew it perfectly well? What form would this scene take in her eyes, in her "process of communication"?

In a sense, was this putting Chu Ge himself into the book?

Could he descend into it?

A little nervous, Chu Ge typed this line: "Qiu Wuji seemed to sense the heavens watching her, as though something resonated and echoed within her heart."

He waited a moment. Nothing happened.

Chu Ge gritted his teeth and simply made it more explicit: "To her, the 'Heavenly Dao' was no longer an unfathomable, unseen mystery, but something that truly existed and could respond."

He had the strange impression that something had shattered. The screen before him gradually blurred, shifted, and stretched. Blue skies, white clouds, and towering mountains faintly appeared before his eyes.

Qiu Wuji stood atop a mountain with her hands behind her back, gazing at the sky. Before her stood a fierce, burly man, his entire body wreathed in flames, like a demonic god.

Yan Qianlie, who burned the heavens and destroyed the earth, one of this world's strongest demon lords.

"What pact of resonance with the Heavenly Dao? Have you lost your mind, Qiu Wuji?" Yan Qianlie roared with laughter. "What do we cultivate for? Freedom from all restraint! To break beyond this world, roam the Outer Realms, and trample the Myriad Heavens! And you're telling me you want to communicate with the Heavenly Dao so it can bind us both? Hahahaha! What the hell kind of immortal cultivation is that?"

"Every world has its own rules," Qiu Wuji said evenly. "That is the Heavenly Dao. You and I have cultivated according to it all this time. Until we step beyond this world, we should at least respect it. Every method you use is, in truth, within the Heavenly Dao as well. Did you think you created them in defiance of heaven?"

"Haha, so this is what you call following the Dao, is it? What a joke! With that mindset, when will you ever tear these heavens apart?" Yan Qianlie laughed. "I won't debate the Dao with you. If you want Water Follows the Heavens, then go ahead!"

"If you know our paths differ and we have nothing to discuss, why waste words?" Qiu Wuji asked coldly.

"What I'm laughing at," Yan Qianlie said, "is that this so-called Heavenly Dao pact is essentially no different from an oath. But at our level of cultivation, oaths can no longer bind us. What Heavenly Dao could meddle in my affairs? You can communicate until you're blue in the face, and it won't do a thing. Understand? Look, you've been at it all this time. Has anything answered?"

Qiu Wuji gazed at the sky and said calmly, "A summer insect knows nothing of ice. Just wait."

Inside, she cursed. Chu Ge, what are you doing? Don't tell me you haven't written this scene yet, so starting early doesn't count? It should count even if I start early. You put it in your outline!

Hurry up and write, you bastard! He's laughing at me!

Come to think of it, how is this resonance with the Heavenly Dao supposed to work? This isn't some unfathomable thing. It's clearly just you, isn't it? Are you going to jump in yourself?

Just as she thought that, she felt the heavens watching her.

She looked back, but there was nothing there.

Before her, however, Yan Qianlie's laughter began to die away, uncertainty flickering in his eyes.

At the same moment, both felt an immense, imposing presence descend upon their soul seas. Vast and serene, it was like the passage of time: clearly present, yet impossible to grasp or reverse.

A resonance seemed to sound in the depths of their souls: "The wager between Qiu Wuji and Yan Qianlie is hereby sealed."

A sound like muffled thunder seemed to come from the heavens. Gilded words faintly appeared, and the pact was sealed.

Yan Qianlie's expression turned utterly grave. He truly felt a restraint within his heart. If he broke the agreement afterward, there might genuinely be consequences...

This was actually fucking real?

Yet Qiu Wuji didn't take the opportunity to mock him.

Within her soul sea, Chu Ge's smiling face appeared with perfect clarity, winking at her mischievously.

The corners of Qiu Wuji's lips curved into a smile as she answered silently, So it really was possible... to see you here.

(End of chapter)