After nine lifetimes of reincarnation, I returned to the desolate ancient continent.

"Walk!"

The girl's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a knife, cleanly and decisively slicing through all the chaotic images in Gu Qingxuan's mind.

He almost instinctively lifted his foot to follow.

It wasn't because of judgment or thought, but something ingrained in his bones that made the decision for him in that instant—she said go, so he went.

The two of them went into the alley next to each other, one after the other.

The girl walked quickly, her steps small but her pace extremely steady, as if she knew every alley in the neighborhood by heart. Gu Qingxuan followed behind her, his ears still ringing, the throbbing pain deep in his right eye, as if something was stretching it open, hadn't completely subsided.

He turned his head and glanced back.

The electronic screen at the street corner returned to normal, the phone's GG video continued playing, and pedestrians hurried by as usual.

It was as if nothing had happened.

But Gu Qingxuan knew that the eye he had just seen was real.

That crack was real too.

"Stop looking." The girl didn't turn around; her voice came from ahead. "You're staring at it, and it's staring back at you."

Gu Qingxuan's heart tightened, and he immediately looked away.

They walked through a narrow alley piled high with cardboard boxes, bypassed a hardware store that wasn't open yet, and turned into an old street adorned with vintage lanterns. The girl stopped in front of an iron gate covered with faded Spring Festival couplets, took a key from her pocket, and deftly unlocked it.

"Come in."

Inside the door was a small, old house.

The living room was only a dozen square meters, furnished with an old wooden table, two chairs, and several rows of yellowed thread-bound books stacked on a bookshelf against the wall. On the windowsill sat a white porcelain cup, filled with unknown herbs, and a very faint bitter fragrance wafted in the air.

Clean and quiet, as if separated from the noisy city outside by a layer.

The girl closed the door and turned to look at Gu Qingxuan.

The morning light shone through the worn gauze curtains onto her face. The collar of her white top was slightly folded, and her black hair fell to her shoulders. There was an indescribable coolness between her brows and eyes—not indifference, but like moonlight shining on a deep pool, so quiet that one dared not utter a sound.

Gu Qingxuan stood at the door, his chest still rising and falling slightly.

The two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds.

In the end, Gu Qingxuan spoke first.

"Who are you?"

The girl looked at him but didn't answer immediately.

Her gaze moved from Gu Qingxuan's brow bone to the bottom of his eyes, and then from the bottom of his eyes to the back of his right hand—the spot where dark red lines had just appeared.

Then she lowered her eyes, as if confirming something, or as if enduring something.

"My name is Xia Zhiwei."

Gu Qingxuan was stunned for a moment.

This name.

Even though it was the first time she had heard it, the moment it came out of her mouth, Gu Qingxuan's temple throbbed.

It was as if something deep within his memory had been touched, but before he could grasp it, it sank back down.

"...Xia Zhiwei." He repeated, frowning as he looked at her. "Have we met before?"

"I've met you."

Xia Zhiwei spoke calmly, as if stating a fact she had confirmed countless times before.

"But you don't remember."

Gu Qingxuan's throat tightened.

"When?"

"A long time ago." Xia Zhiwei didn't explain further, but turned and walked to the wooden table. "So long ago that even if you racked your brains, you wouldn't be able to remember."

She pulled a thin booklet from the bookshelf, placed it on the table, and then looked up at him.

"You had a strange dream early this morning."

Gu Qingxuan's heart skipped a beat.

How did you know?

"Because I did it too."

Xia Zhiwei's voice was very soft, but it was like a needle that pierced straight into Gu Qingxuan's mind.

"I dreamt of a collapsing continent, I dreamt of a pair of eyes deep within chaos, I dreamt of my own death."

Gu Qingxuan felt a chill run down his spine.

Not a single word of these statements is wrong.

"You..." his voice was hoarse, "Who exactly are you?"

"Someone who had the same dream as you," Xia Zhiwei said, "or rather, someone who started having this kind of dream even before you."

She paused.

"When did you start having these kinds of dreams?"

Gu Qingxuan remained silent for a few seconds.

"Seven years old."

"I was five years old," Xia Zhiwei said. "The first time I had this dream, I thought it was just a normal nightmare. Later I realized something was wrong—normal nightmares aren't always the same, and you don't always feel like you've actually died every time you wake up."

Gu Qingxuan's breath hitched.

Because every word she uttered sounded like a description of her own experience.

"How many times did you do it?" he asked.

"Many times," Xia Zhiwei said, without giving a specific number, "so many that I can remember every detail of my dreams."

She looked into Gu Qingxuan's eyes.

"Including you."

Gu Qingxuan was stunned.

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen you in my dreams," Xia Zhiwei said, "more than once."

Her tone remained calm, but Gu Qingxuan sensed something deeply hidden beneath that calmness—like a stone submerged in water, its surface showing no ripples, yet its weight remained constant.

"What were you like in your dream?" Gu Qingxuan heard his own voice tighten.

Xia Zhiwei did not answer immediately.

She turned and walked to the window, lifted a corner of the gauze curtain, and looked out at the street.

The morning light fell on her profile, outlining a very faint contour.

Standing in the center of the collapsing world, his hands covered in blood, as if he had just survived an endless war.

She spoke very softly, yet her voice sounded as if she were holding shards of ice.

"Then he was struck dead by a hand that reached out from the chaos."

Gu Qingxuan felt as if his heart was being squeezed.

He had seen this scene before.

It wasn't that he saw others in a dream, but that he himself was the one standing in the center of a collapsing world.

"So..." his voice was a little hoarse, "you came to find me because we had the same dream?"

"It's not just because of that."

Xia Zhiwei lowered the gauze curtain and turned around.

"Also because you have a certain aura about you."

Gu Qingxuan was stunned for a moment.

"breath?"

"It's very faint, but I can sense it," Xia Zhiwei said. "I can sense it from a great distance."

She walked back to the table and gently tapped the thin booklet with her finger.

"It's like..." she hesitated, choosing her words carefully, "like something buried inside you, dormant for a long time, but recently starting to stir."

Gu Qingxuan's heart tightened.

He subconsciously thought of the bloodstain in the mirror that morning, and the fleeting dark red lines on the back of his hand. But he didn't say it aloud.

He himself didn't know what it was and didn't want to reveal more in front of someone he had just met.

"Do you ever feel like you're different from other people?" Xia Zhiwei continued.

Gu Qingxuan remained silent.

"Other people have nightmares and forget them when they wake up. But your dreams, every single one, feel like you've experienced a real death."

He remained silent, but his pupils contracted slightly.

"Others cry out in pain when they get injured. You feel pain too, but your body recovers much faster than a normal person."

Xia Zhiwei's voice was flat, as if she were stating a fact she had observed long ago.

"The injured area doesn't hurt much the next day, right?"

Gu Qingxuan's breath hitched.

He never told anyone about this.

In third grade, he fell from the iron railing on the school rooftop and fractured his left forearm. The doctor said he would need a cast for at least a month, but it was removed in just two weeks, and the bone healed twice as fast as expected.

How did you know?

"Because I've been watching you."

Xia Zhiwei spoke these words in a calm tone, yet they made Gu Qingxuan's heart tighten.

"From when?"

"From the first time you appeared in my dream."

She paused.

"It took me many years to find you in real life."

The room fell silent.

Sunlight slid in inch by inch through the gaps in the gauze curtains, illuminating the thin booklet on the table. The yellowed cover of the booklet revealed fine lines in the light.

Gu Qingxuan listened to his own heartbeat, one beat, two beats, three beats.

He should be afraid.

A normal person would panic, run away, and think the girl in front of them is a stalker if they heard something like, "I've been watching you all this time" or "I've spent years looking for you."

But he didn't.

It's not because they're brave.

Rather, it was because from the moment she said, "I've seen you in my dreams," a string that had been pressing down on his heart was plucked. He was all too familiar with the frequency of that string's vibration—the frequency of dreams, the dull echo that lingered in his chest after each awakening from the brink of death.

"You found me," Gu Qingxuan slowly began, "but why?"

Xia Zhiwei looked at him and remained silent for a few seconds.

"To confirm one thing."

"What is it?"

"To confirm if you are the person I'm looking for."

After she finished speaking, she took something out of her pocket and placed it on the table.

It was a round jade pendant.

The jade is warm and lustrous, milky white in color, with a fish carved in the center—not an ordinary fish, but a carp with fine scales and a gracefully extended tail.

To be precise, it is a white carp.

Gu Qingxuan stared at the jade pendant, his pupils suddenly dilating.

Because he had seen this carp before.

In my dream.

Above that collapsed sky, the moonlight filled the heavens, and a white carp hung quietly in the high sky.

He even remembered the light emanating from that white carp; it was cold, gentle, and so quiet that it made him want to cry.

"This..." Gu Qingxuan's voice was a little hoarse, "Where are you from?"

"It came from me."

When Xia Zhiwei said this, her tone was as calm as if she were talking about what she had for breakfast that day.

"When I was five years old, I had that dream for the first time, and when I woke up, I found it under my pillow."

She paused.

"Later I realized that it had been waiting for me to remember what it was."

Gu Qingxuan's throat tightened.

"What is it?"

"A token," Xia Zhiwei said, "and also proof."

"Prove what?"

"To prove this isn't our first meeting."

She looked up at Gu Qingxuan, her gaze as calm as the autumn moon reflected in a still pool of water.

Gu Qingxuan's heart was beating faster and faster.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

Xia Zhiwei did not answer immediately.

She reached out and picked up the white carp jade pendant, placing it in her palm.

Gu Qingxuan saw a faint white light appear on her palm, like moonlight condensing into a thin layer of frost. The white light flowed along her fingers, enveloping the entire jade pendant, making the outline of the white carp clearer in the light, and its scales seemed to come alive.

He was stunned.

"You are……"

"Cultivation." Xia Zhiwei looked up at him. "Or rather, spiritual practice."

The white light only lasted for two or three seconds before dissipating, but it was enough for Gu Qingxuan to realize one thing:

Some things in this world are real.

The continent in my dream was real, the collapsing sky was real, and those indifferent eyes were real—and the girl in front of me, who looked no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, could produce light from her palms that didn't belong to modern science.

"The spiritual energy on Earth is very thin," Xia Zhiwei said, putting away the jade pendant, her tone returning to calm, "but that doesn't mean cultivation is completely impossible. It's just that those lacking aptitude can't even get close to the basics."

She looked at Gu Qingxuan.

"Your qualifications are sufficient."

Gu Qingxuan remained silent for a few seconds.

How did you know?

"Because of the aura you possess," Xia Zhiwei said. "People with that kind of aura are born with the ability to sense spiritual energy. You just haven't known how to use it."

Xia Zhiwei pushed the thin booklet on the table in front of him.

"This is an introductory exercise manual. It's very basic, but enough for you to use first."

Gu Qingxuan looked down.

There was no printed text on the cover; it was all handwritten. The handwriting was neat and beautiful, with each stroke done with utmost care.

The first line reads—

The Introductory Chapter of the Qi-Inducing Technique

"You want to teach me cultivation?" Gu Qingxuan looked up at her.

"It's not just about teaching you cultivation."

Xia Zhiwei's voice suddenly turned somber.

"I'll also teach you how to survive."

Gu Qingxuan's heart tightened.

"What do you mean?"

"The crack and the eye on the big screen just now weren't illusions," Xia Zhiwei said. "Something is looking for you."

Looking for me?

"It might not have been targeting you from the start." Xia Zhiwei looked at him, her tone slowing as if carefully choosing each word. "But after you met me today, many things changed. Now, even if it wasn't originally looking for you, you're already involved."

She paused.

"Moreover, those who have their eyes on me might not let go of those who stand beside me."

The sounds of children laughing and playing can be heard from outside the window, and in the distance, the electronic female voice announcing bus stops can be heard.

Everything was just like that ordinary morning.

But Gu Qingxuan knew that from the moment he saw that splash of blood in the mirror—

His world has silently developed a crack.

On the other side of the crack, something was approaching him.

"Then what should I do?" Gu Qingxuan asked.

Xia Zhiwei looked at him and remained silent for a few seconds.

"Starting today, don't stay alone in places where no one is around."

Her tone was very serious.

"What can find you once will find you a second time. Next time, it won't just be looking at you through a screen."

Gu Qingxuan's throat was dry.

"And what about you?"

"Me?" Xia Zhiwei was slightly taken aback.

"You just said that whatever's after you won't let go of anyone standing next to you," Gu Qingxuan looked at her. "Then aren't you in even more danger?"

Xia Zhiwei was stunned for a moment, then the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

It was very faint and short, like a snowflake falling on warm water, melting before you could even see it clearly.

"I started preparing a little earlier than you."

She spoke softly, yet it made Gu Qingxuan's heart skip a beat.

It doesn't hurt.

It was something deeper than pain. It was like someone had struck him deep in his soul, and the dull thud traveled through his veins and throughout his body.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I've been preparing for this for a long time."

Xia Zhiwei put the white carp jade pendant back into her pocket, then looked up at him.

"And you, you're just getting started."

She paused.

"So don't go out unnecessarily for the next few days."

Gu Qingxuan was stunned.

"What do you mean?"

"It means, don't go off to remote places by yourself, and don't touch things you don't understand," Xia Zhiwei said. "Come to my place after school tomorrow, and I'll teach you the basics first. As for when and how we'll meet after that, we'll see."

She looked into Gu Qingxuan's eyes.

"Are you willing?"

Gu Qingxuan remained silent for a few seconds.

Reason told him that everything the girl said was absurd—what dreams, what cultivation, what pursuit, it sounded like the beginning of some third-rate online novel.

But his intuition told him that what she said was true.

Because his right eye lit up with a blood-red color that didn't belong to this world this morning.

Because he had the same dream of death nine times.

Because the moment he saw the girl, he felt an inexplicable, almost irrational sense of familiarity.

"good."

He heard himself say it.

"I'll come tomorrow."

Xia Zhiwei looked at him, a very faint ripple flashing in her eyes.

Like a stone that has been submerged at the bottom of the water for a long time, it has finally been retrieved.

"From now on," she said, "at least don't gamble with your life."

Gu Qingxuan nodded.

"The first thing," Xia Zhiwei said, "is to take this manual back with you and start trying to guide your Qi into your body tonight, following the methods described in it."

"The second thing," she paused, "is to come find me here after school tomorrow. Try to walk in crowded places, and don't walk alone at night."

"The third thing."

She looked into Gu Qingxuan's eyes.

"If you have that dream again, or feel anything unusual in your body, tell me immediately."

Gu Qingxuan nodded.

"There's one more thing," Xia Zhiwei said. "If any of the screens, mirrors, or glass on the street show anything strange like what happened today, contact me immediately."

She took her phone out of her pocket and handed it to Gu Qingxuan.

"Add me your contact information."

Gu Qingxuan took the phone and entered his number.

An avatar popped up on the screen—a white carp, swimming quietly in deep blue water.

He froze for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Xia Zhiwei asked.

"It's nothing," Gu Qingxuan said, handing the phone back to her. "I just felt that this profile picture... looked familiar."

Xia Zhiwei glanced at the screen but didn't say anything.

But her finger lingered on the screen for a second, then gently tightened.

"Then you should go back now," she said. "Remember what I said."

Gu Qingxuan nodded, picked up the book "Qi-Inducing Technique" on the table, and turned to walk towards the door.

He stopped abruptly as his hand touched the doorknob.

Xia Zhiwei.

"Um?"

"You said it took you many years to find me." Gu Qingxuan didn't turn around. "Then, besides teaching me cultivation and ensuring my survival... was there any other reason you sought me out?"

The room was silent for a few seconds.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the sheer curtains, casting a small, warm patch of light on the floor.

"have."

Xia Zhiwei's voice was very soft, so soft that it sounded like she was talking to herself.

"But I can't tell you yet."

Gu Qingxuan remained silent for a while, then pushed open the door and walked out.

The door closed gently behind me.

Xia Zhiwei stood there, looking at the closed door, her fingers unconsciously reaching for the white carp jade pendant in her pocket.

The jade pendant is warm and smooth, like a small piece of solidified moonlight.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"This time," she said softly, "at least don't let me drag you down with you again."