Opening his eyes up to the bright light shining from his window, Xue Chang released a breath of turbid air.
A cold shiver traveled down his spine as he struggled to suck in a breath.
"I feel like garbage-"
"Well that's what happens when you strain your consciousness so much." Yong Heng scoffed at Xue Chang's foolishness. The last person who practiced this technique was someone far greater than Xue Chang could ever imagine.
So this kid in front of him who wanted to compete with that person was laughable in his eyes. Yet even Yong Heng was surprised that Xue Chang could even last a week.
Although he hadn't achieved much success yet, at least it showed that mentally he was stronger than one would expect.
Although it made sense as he was someone who had to tear his body apart in order to win battles.
But this impatience was not a good thing. If he went crazy while practicing "Thousand Armed Asura", then it would be a terrible loss for Yong Heng.
He still needed to escape from his prison, and Xue Chang was slowly becoming more suitable to his taste…
Xue Chang sat there for a second in order to recuperate from his weakened consciousness.
Souls, body, cultivation, and conscious. As time passed he was learning more and more about a world he had no clue about before.
Body and cultivation was already something he knew about, but souls were a whole new ball game.
He still understood so little about the soul, yet he had been interacting with them for so long now.
And now the concept of consciousness was added in. Xue Chang could tell he was definitely involved with something that he shouldn't have been, but he was in too deep now.
Just as this thought was swirling through his head, a repulsive scent wafted into his nostrils.
"What is that!?"
Xue Chang coughed out in a panic thinking that it must of been some sort of poisonous gas, but after a few whiffs he realized that it was something different.
Although the stench was a little overwhelming, after taking a second and third whiff he found it a little pleasant.
Stepping out the doorway, Xue Chang found Tian Hai, Lou Lan, and Lou Ning all sitting at the table and eating something.
A closer inspection revealed that they were eating fried fish and rice, but they were dipping the fish into some strange brown liquid.
"Xue Ch-ang. Yur- mout awedy!?"
"Tian Hai swallow first please." Xue Chang giggled at his guard's silly actions as he swallowed his food.
Gasp. "You're out already?" It seemed that Tian Hai was quite surprised by his sudden emergence.
"Yeah, how long have I been secluded?" Xue Chang looked at everyone in front of him curiously. It seemed he had been away for a while.
While he couldn't keep track of time while practicing, he still knew that his training wasn't short.
"It's been a week, are you okay?"
Xue Chang nodded slightly, but his growling stomach interrupted his response, "Maybe not completely, what is that you're eating?"
Lou Lan smiled "So listen to this!"
________
Xue Chang finished his meal quickly and released a satisfied burp.
"Tian Kai is always surprising me with these crazy little things, how does he come up with all this stuff?"
"Well he does have a great relationship with the people after having to clean up after your pranks and messes." Tian Hai chuckled out as he picked up the dishes and placed it within a basin for washing.
Suddenly just then a loud shout came from outside the house.
It was Tian Kai.
The four of them all shot up and rushed outside to see what had happened.
"Tian Kai what's wrong!?" Lou Ning found Tian Kai kneeling on the ground lifelessly with something in his arms.
"W-who? Who!? WHO!? Who ate all the sauce!?"
Lifting up the contents of his arms, the group saw an empty bowl where all of the fish sauce was once stored.
It had been completely emptied and from the looks of the droplets on the edges, it was obvious that it happened recently.
"Don't look at me, I just got out of my room." Xue Chang immediately declared innocence as everyone fought over who the culprit was.
Tian Hai approached his brother casually and gave him a pat in the back, "You can always make more."
But to his surprise Tian Kai just shook his head slowly.
"The fermentation took nearly a year the first time. I didn't even get to try any of it yet!" Tian Kai's dejected wails brought a cold sweat to all who were present.
Looking back at the dining table that had just previously been filled with food, all of them felt a sense of guilt.
This was especially true for Xue Chang, who under the persuasion of Tian Hai, took Tian Kai's portion as 'there was still plenty left for him to try later'.
Clearing his throat loudly, Xue Chang said "Well what's done is done. Right now isn't the best time to start a witch hunt to find the culprit. Whoever the criminal is we will deal with later."
As Xue Chang said this he gave a queer glance toward Tian Hai, who just shrugged his shoulders in turn. Clearly stating that he had no idea who did it.
"Still though, all that effort and I can't even enjoy it myself. Well, I wanted to change a few things in the recipe anyway, guess this is my chance. Xue Chang, let's go!"
"Huh? Where are we going?"
Tian Kai looked at his friend raising one of his brow up, "To the markets of course, we need to purchase new ingredients. I can't be making something out of nothing now can I?"
"Well why do I have to go!"
"What do you mean? To pay for everything of course." Tian Kai crossed his arms together while looking at Xue Chang leeringly.
Tian Kai still didn't forget the cause of his portion of food being taken.
A twitching gaze of annoyance from Xue Chang slowly slid over and landed onto Tian Hai, who whistled toward a random direction and didn't dare to face Xue Chang at that moment.
Within minutes the two of them were already heading out to buy more ingredients from the markets.
And unknown to all of them, a small black puppy was lying there behind a tree. Opening its eyes and seeing Tian Kai and Xue Chang leaving the house, it gave off a small yip and chased after them.