The Qi around her moved softly. It wasn’t going to be a difficult or violent kind of breakthrough. But at the same time, it wasn’t as seamless as mine. And while I logically knew she would be fine even if she failed, a thousand thoughts raced through my head.

We’d talked about her breakthrough and her element plenty of times, but now I was beginning to doubt myself.

Why now? Did she have some kind of sudden enlightenment during cultivation?

Had I led her the wrong way?

If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t take this so personally. But Wu Yan was different. She wasn’t one of the brutes I usually dealt with. She was kind and the most human out of all of us. She never went against me, even when maybe she should have.

A gentle wind picked up around her. Even Speedy stopped eating and remained still, sensing something important was happening.

Wu Yan's face began to shift, morphing gently, as if it was about to change into something else, but it soon settled into a look that mirrored mine. She looked like my twin sister… except a bit younger.

Her Qi pulsed gently, and with that, she broke through to Foundation Establishment.

But then, her Qi surged again, like a tidal wave flooding her meridians immediately.

Was she attempting to create her first technique?

I blinked next to her in an instant, placing my hand on her shoulder. She was stable, and her Qi easily resisted mine. She had finished her breakthrough, physically sound… but I worried about the mental toll. Especially with the element she’d chosen.

“You need to rest,” I said. “If you keep straining your body like this, it won’t hold on for long.”

Her body relaxed as she stopped cultivating, lowering the number of spiritual roots she was using to draw in that monstrous amount of Qi.

We needed to get out of here before someone came to investigate who the “new elder” was. If they sensed something off about her… next thing I knew, I’d be fighting half the sect to keep them from dissecting her like some test subject.

“I can hold this face forever,” Wu Yan said with a smile. This time, her expressions were fluid and natural.

She touched her face, tugging at her cheeks, poking her nose, feeling her ears. Where it had once felt like she was wearing a mask, her transformation was now seamless.

But I wasn’t thinking about any of that.

“How do you feel? Is your element influencing you in any way?” I asked.

“No,” she nodded.

I stared at her, speechless. The words were stuck in my throat.

Despite never dwelling too much on it before… I now realized just how risky this was.

Her element might backfire. And we were already beyond the point of no return.

I took a deep breath and calmed my racing thoughts.

Either way, whether things went right or horribly wrong, spending time with those close to you was never a mistake. Also, we needed to leave the sect for a bit and let the dust settle.

I had cast arrays that muddled sensory perceptions. But Core Formation Cultivators could definitely sense through them if they focused.

“Fu Yating, tell Song Song when she comes around that I went on a hunting trip with you. Also, ask her to pass that along to my disciples,” I said. “Actually… forget that. She probably won’t bother. And if she does, she’ll just mess with them out of spite.”

“Sure?” Fu Yating replied, sounding unsure. “Also, what do you mean by ‘hunting trip’?”

“The sect always has an active bounty on monstrous beasts. We’re allowed to hunt and exterminate any we find,” I said.

“This is completely random. What if she thinks I poisoned you and I’m just trying to cover it up? You know how she is,” Fu Yating muttered, clearly not thrilled about being the messenger.

“Just tell her you don’t know or something.”

“You know what? I’m just going to tell her the truth,” she decided.

“Okay, that works too,” I said, giving her a thumbs-up.

I placed my other hand on Wu Yan’s shoulder, wrapped us in a jade barrier, and we blasted off like a rocket.

“Are we going to hunt beasts?” Wu Yan asked, completely relaxed, with no hint of suspicion despite my sudden grab, and stood up nonchalantly.

“Not really,” I admitted. “But these are difficult times, and even elders can’t leave without a proper excuse.”

She nodded, and I immediately regretted my words. I was teaching her some awful lessons.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

By nightfall, after a day of mostly silent travel, we made camp on a snowy hill with a nice view. I’d been lost in thought most of the way, and we’d ended up pretty far from the sect.

As we descended and I dismissed the jade barrier around us, we took in the sight of the snowy hill beneath our feet. Here, the sky was clear and beautiful, with a full moon shining brightly overhead.

I immediately erected a barrier over the entire hill, melted the snow within the enclosed area, and allowed grass and flowers to bloom beneath our feet.

Taking the lead, I lay down on the grass and stared up at the beautiful night sky. Despite the winter cold, it was pretty comfortable inside the array.

“You seem worried,” Wu Yan said, lying down next to me.

When did she become better at reading people?

“It’s nothing. I was just worried you were pushing yourself too hard,” I said. “Anyway, do you know what your first technique will be? Your foundation techniques need to merge into a Core Technique eventually.”

Even with her talent, the wrong foundation technique could hinder her progress and even prevent her from ever breaking through to Core Formation, despite her element.

Wait, could she change her techniques? Maybe. But there would probably be too many drawbacks to even try.

Wu Yan stared at me like a hawk, as if trying to read my thoughts. Having the female version of my own face staring back at me was a bit strange… but also kind of fascinating.

“What do you think my first technique should be?” she asked.

“I’m not even going to entertain that thought,” I said, shaking my head. “Your road is one that’s never been walked before. You must carve out your own path, trust your instincts, and make informed decisions based on research and discoveries. And you have to tread this road carefully.”

“Well,” she nodded, hesitating slightly, clearly anticipating my reaction. “I was thinking of creating a technique to work with my element… Something that could even help you by changing your talent and improving it.”

Relief washed over me, and I thanked my past self for being like an overbearing parent and stopping her from creating her technique earlier…

Still, temptation reared its ugly head.

If Wu Yan made a technique like that, she could even give me a hundred spirit root branches, a perfect cultivation talent.

With that, I’d have a shot at competing with monsters like Song Song, who reached Core Formation just a couple years after entering Foundation Establishment, and with zero drawbacks.

At the rate I was going, I’d be lucky to reach Core Formation in my forties. As for Nascent Soul? I’d run out of time and die before I ever got there. Even with the improvements I’d copied from Jiang Yeming, it might not be enough.

I could run out of time before even reaching the peak of Core Formation.

It was so damn tempting...

But despite my internal turmoil, I gave her the most confident smile I’d ever mustered.

“That is stupid,” I snorted. “Don’t you know me at all? I don’t mind taking the slow road. I’m a patient guy. I like it slow, because it gives me time to study. Even if I had perfect talent, I’d still take things slow.”

“I–” she began to say, but I cut her off.

“Never even think about wasting a technique on something silly,” I told her, staring into her eyes with a calm but firm glare. “You’re better than that. You know you are. Cultivation is an individualistic endeavor. Remember that.”

Wu Yan stared at me for a bit without saying anything. Something she had been doing more and more lately. A smile slowly spread across her face; it was a natural expression. Honest.

It looked like she’d finally managed to connect the right nerves and muscles to become more expressive after breaking through to Foundation Establishment.

Then tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, and she started crying… with a smile still stuck to her face.

Ah, shit. Did I come off as too insensitive?

“What’s wrong?” I asked, softening my voice.

“I’m just… so happy,” Wu Yan said, wiping her tears away, but more kept falling. “Thank you for saving me.”

“Oh.” I breathed out a sigh of relief and patted her back gently. “I thought something was wrong.”

“Also, thank you for not giving up on me. Even after learning that I’m the closest thing to a monster out there.”

I shrugged. “Wouldn’t have you any other way.”

“Thank you for taking me on your journey around the continent." Wu Yan was still trying to wipe her tears, and her sleeves had become dripping wet.

“Think nothing of it,” I said. “It was actually fun having a companion I could teach something to.”

“Also, thank you for guiding me through cultivation," she said, half-crying.

I raised a questioning brow at that. “It would’ve been a tragedy if someone like you never discovered cultivation.”

I stayed quiet after saying that, thinking about everything I’d taught her so far.

“The only worry I have about you,” I confessed, “is that somewhere down the road, one of my lessons might be wrong and lead you down the wrong path.”

“Even if they do in the future,” she said with a smile, “it won’t matter. Even if I die… know that I lived a happy life.”

“Thank you for caring about me when no one else did,” she added. “Even if no one else in the world cares, or ever will, as long as I know there’s one person out there. You. Who does. Then I’ll always be happy.”

I felt my eyes getting wet at that, so I lay down on the grass and placed my forearm over my eyes.

Now I was getting emotional. Was this what it felt like to have children?

Having someone be so thankful for saving them felt weird. Trying to be good in this world had been an uphill battle, and often it got me in bad situations. There were times when saving someone meant nothing, since they died a bit later, like the girl I saved from Ye An.

No matter what. Even if Wu Yan ended up turning into a monster, I was the kind of selfish guy who would never regret saving her.

If my new life ended with me achieving nothing… if I left the world worse than I found it… I’d always be proud that I saved Wu Yan.

She lay down on the grass, staring at the sky. I took my arm off my face and got a good look at the stars again.

It was beautiful.

Looking over, I saw Wu Yan, the stars reflected in her eyes as she stared upward with childlike wonder.

“I–” she was about to say something more.

But I stopped her.

“You don’t have to thank me anymore.”

When it came to talent… Wu Yan was a monster among geniuses. Now she just had to work hard, and if her element performed well, then there was no quantifiable way to measure her aptitude.

Her element was… Change.