ARK SPIRIT

Nearly two days after reaching Foundation Establishment, Hao Nhien finally left his cave dwelling.

He had spent most of that time stabilizing his cultivation, adapting to a state of spiritual power completely different from before, and checking the changes brought by his breakthrough. The liquid spiritual power within his dantian had gradually settled, his meridians had adapted better to the new pressure, and the range of his spiritual awareness had expanded noticeably. As for the Spirit Wings and Tieu Dao Sword, he had only tested them enough to understand their current state, following Old Bai’s advice instead of forcing himself further while his realm was still newly established.

Tomorrow morning, the Tieu Dao Sect would depart for the Western Wastes.

That made this afternoon almost the last stretch of time he could freely deal with personal matters before leaving the sect.

Lam Phong and Tieu Van had completed their registration the day before and had since been busy exchanging for supplies and preparing their artifacts. Quan Nha had also left the sect on the first day to return to the Quan Family. Before going, she had only said that she wanted to meet Elder Linh Van, her uncle, to confirm a few matters related to the journey to the Western Wastes.

Hao Nhien had not asked further. Everyone had something of their own to settle before stepping into a place where even the sect itself could not say for certain what was happening.

As for Tieu Lan, after returning to Medicine Peak to ask Phong Van Tu for permission, she did not come to see him until that afternoon.

When Hao Nhien walked out of the cave dwelling area, she was already waiting beneath a tree not far away. Slanting afternoon light filtered through the branches and fell across her pale robes. A small storage pouch now hung at her waist, but otherwise she carried nothing unusual.

The moment she saw him, Tieu Lan walked over.

“Young Master.”

Hao Nhien glanced at the pouch at her side.

“I take it Senior Phong Van Tu agreed?”

Tieu Lan nodded.

“Master did not want me to go at first. After that, I told him what I had already told Young Master. He thought about it for a long time before agreeing. He also prepared some medicine for me and warned me that once we arrive, I must obey my assignment and never leave the medical area without permission.”

Hearing that, Hao Nhien felt somewhat more at ease. At least Phong Van Tu’s concerns were much the same as his own.

“That is good.”

Tieu Lan looked at him.

“You are still worried, Young Master?”

“Of course.”

Hao Nhien did not hide it.

“But I already said I would not stop you anymore.”

A smile briefly appeared on her face.

Hao Nhien watched her for another moment, then remembered what had occupied his thoughts throughout the past two days.

The Western Wastes were only part of the reason.

There were things he had hidden for far too long. In the past, he had always thought there was no need to speak of them yet, or perhaps he simply had not known where to begin. But after his breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, when memories of Anh Nhien had surfaced again at the moment his state of mind had nearly slipped out of control, he had suddenly realized that he could not keep letting Tieu Lan see only part of who he was.

“Tieu Lan.”

“Yes?”

“Come with me for a while.”

She studied his expression but did not ask why.

“Yes.”

The two left the cave dwelling area and followed the stone path toward the stream near the outer sect.

Hao Nhien had walked this road many times before. By the time they reached the bank, the sun had already sunk low in the west, casting amber light across the water. The stream still ran over the same familiar stones, and the sound of flowing water blending with the evening wind made the place feel far removed from the activity within the sect.

Hao Nhien chose a flat rock and sat down. Tieu Lan settled close beside him.

She looked at him for a moment.

“Does Young Master have something to tell me?”

“Yes.”

Hao Nhien watched the water for a long while before speaking.

“There is something about Anh Nhien that I have never told you.”

Tieu Lan did not ask immediately. Her hands tightened faintly over her knees, but her eyes remained on him.

Seeing that reaction only made Hao Nhien more certain that he could no longer speak in half truths.

“Anh Nhien was not merely someone I once knew.”

He paused briefly, then said it directly.

“She was my wife.”

Tieu Lan froze.

Although she already knew Anh Nhien had been deeply important to him, those two words still clearly caught her off guard.

Hao Nhien did not avoid her gaze.

“At least, in the memories I have, that is the truth.”

Tieu Lan frowned slightly.

“In your memories?”

“Yes.”

Hao Nhien looked down at his own hands.

“After that injury years ago, when I woke up, there were many memories in my mind that had never been there before. They were not fragmented like a dream, nor were they confused images from a fever. They formed an entire lifetime. There were people I remembered clearly, places I had lived, things I had gone through, mistakes I had made, choices I had taken, and emotions that still feel as if they happened only yesterday.”

He had questioned those memories more times than he could count.

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“I still do not understand why I remembered so much after that incident. Sometimes I think those memories may simply have been buried somewhere deep inside me for a very long time. At other times, I wonder whether they truly belonged to a life I once lived. I have no way to prove it.”

Hao Nhien paused before continuing.

“But whenever I remember them, they have never felt false.”

His voice was quiet, but firm.

“Because Anh Nhien was too real within them.”

Tieu Lan lowered her eyes.

Hao Nhien made no attempt to soften what came next.

“She was the person I loved. Later, we became husband and wife.”

He looked toward the stream as buried memories gradually surfaced.

“We did not come together because of anything extraordinary. We simply shared many ordinary days, until one day I realized she had become someone I could no longer imagine living without.”

Anh Nhien had stayed beside him through some of the worst periods of his life. When he failed, she never forced him to stand back up immediately. When he did not want to speak, she never pressed him for an explanation. Once, when he had sat alone for a long time and wanted to see no one, she had simply placed a cup of warm water into his hands and sat down beside him.

“If you are tired, rest for a while. I’m still here.”

Hao Nhien still remembered those words, not because they were remarkable, but because at that moment, what he needed most was someone who did not demand that he be strong.

He told Tieu Lan a few other small things. Ordinary meals. Arguments over matters hardly worth remembering, followed by one of them eventually giving in first. Evenings when he returned exhausted and said nothing, yet Anh Nhien still noticed.

The more he spoke, the more clearly Hao Nhien recognized something he had once tried not to think about.

There were moments when the way Anh Nhien cared for him reminded him of Tieu Lan now.

It was not that their personalities were alike, nor that one could ever replace the other. It was simply that the warmth behind that care felt similar.

Tieu Lan also kept medicine where he could reach it easily, remembered the things he often forgot, and knew when to ask questions and when simply to remain nearby. Perhaps that was why looking at her sometimes stirred memories of Anh Nhien without him even realizing it.

He no longer wanted to hide that either.

“There are times when the way you care for me reminds me of her.”

Tieu Lan’s hand tightened slightly.

Hao Nhien noticed, but continued.

“Not because the two of you are the same, and certainly not because I want you to become her replacement. I simply do not want to keep hiding why I sometimes react the way I do.”

Tieu Lan remained quiet.

Hao Nhien gave her time before continuing with the part of those memories he least wanted to revisit.

“After that, something happened to the world in those memories.”

His voice grew lower.

“I do not know whether what appeared that day should be called a person, a creature, or something else entirely. I only know that it was so powerful that, at the time, I could not even understand what I was facing.”

Tieu Lan raised her head.

Hao Nhien looked toward the surface of the stream, now colored by sunset.

“I remember everything around us suddenly becoming abnormal. Time seemed to stop. Ordinary people could not resist at all, and the being behind that event possessed power far beyond anything I had ever known.”

He paused.

“Then it took Anh Nhien away.”

Tieu Lan drew in a small breath.

Hao Nhien still remembered that feeling far too clearly. He had tried to hold on to her, but a distance that seemed no more than a final step had become something he could not cross.

“I could not keep her.”

The words left his mouth more softly than he expected, but the weight behind them tightened around his chest.

Tieu Lan did not interrupt.

After a stretch of silence, Hao Nhien continued.

“I remember loving her. I remember living with her. And I remember very clearly what it felt like to be powerless while she was taken from me. So until something gives me reason to believe otherwise, I will continue to treat those memories as real.”

He looked at Tieu Lan.

“Anh Nhien is real. And if she still exists somewhere, I will find her.”

Tieu Lan remained silent for a long time before asking,

“So that is why Young Master has always wanted to become stronger?”

Hao Nhien nodded.

“That is one of the most important reasons.”

He looked toward the horizon, where the last light was sinking behind distant mountains.

“The thing that took her was so powerful that, in those memories, I had no ability to resist at all. Even now, despite reaching Foundation Establishment, I still cannot understand power capable of affecting time and space at that level.”

Qi Condensation was already behind him, while Foundation Establishment had only just begun. Ahead still lay Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and realms he did not yet truly understand.

Hao Nhien had no idea how far he would need to go before he could reach an answer.

But the length of the road was not a reason to stop.

“Perhaps one day I will discover that those memories belonged only to a life that ended long ago. Or perhaps Anh Nhien is still somewhere I simply do not yet have the strength to reach.”

He looked back at Tieu Lan.

“I do not know which answer is true. But until I find out for myself, I will not dismiss her as a dream, and I will not assume she is dead.”

Tieu Lan said nothing.

Evening light fell across her face. Hao Nhien knew what he had told her was not easy to hear, but this was the truth he wanted her to know.

Anh Nhien had been his wife in memories he believed were real. He still wanted to find her.

At the same time, what was growing between him and Tieu Lan was real as well.

Hao Nhien himself did not yet know how he would face all of those truths if the day ever came when they converged.

Tieu Lan remained silent for a long while.

The evening breeze moved a few strands of hair beside her cheek. Hao Nhien saw her lower her gaze to her hands.

After some time, she finally asked,

“Have you remembered all of this for a long time, Young Master?”

“Yes.”

Another quiet moment passed.

“I did not know Young Master had been carrying something like this.”

Hao Nhien paused.

She raised her head.

“Before, I thought you simply wanted to become stronger. Now I know you are also trying to find someone very important.”

Hao Nhien said nothing.

Tieu Lan reached over and took his hand.

“Then find her.”

He looked at her.

“If we need to become stronger to find Sister Anh Nhien, then we will become stronger together. Wherever Young Master can go, I will try to follow. If there is somewhere I still cannot reach…”

She paused briefly.

“Then I will make sure I can follow next time.”

Hao Nhien watched her for a long moment.

Tieu Lan tightened her grip on his hand.

“I do not know how to say much.”

Her voice remained soft.

“I only want to get through it with Young Master.”

The words were simple, yet they quieted many things within Hao Nhien.

Only then did he realize that perhaps he had never fully understood how deeply Tieu Lan cared for him.

She had never asked him to forget Anh Nhien, nor demanded an answer about the future. For a long time now, what Tieu Lan did had always been simple. She stayed beside him, cared for him when he was injured, prepared the things he tended to forget, and waited whenever he had to leave.

Even after learning that another person still stood at the end of the road he intended to walk, her first response was still to walk that road with him.

A heaviness settled in Hao Nhien’s chest.

Perhaps he had spent too long thinking only about the burdens he carried. The memories of Anh Nhien, the need to uncover the truth, the pressure to become stronger, and the existence of an enemy he still could not comprehend had kept his eyes fixed too far ahead.

Somewhere along the way, he had begun to treat Tieu Lan’s constant presence beside him as something natural.

But her care had never been something he had the right to take for granted.

Hao Nhien tightened his hand around hers.

“Tieu Lan.”

“Yes?”

He looked at her for a moment.

“I’m sorry.”

Tieu Lan seemed surprised.

“Young Master?”

“Perhaps I never fully understood your feelings.”

She remained quiet.

Hao Nhien continued.

“I always thought I needed to protect you, worry about you, and decide what would be best for you. Only now do I realize that sometimes I was so focused on keeping you away from danger that I forgot to ask what you truly wanted.”

He shook his head.

“The memories of Anh Nhien, and the need to find her, kept me looking too far down the road ahead. Perhaps because of that, there were times when I failed to see clearly the person who had always been right beside me.”

Tieu Lan pressed her lips together.

Hao Nhien did not avoid her eyes.

“You have treated me very well. Better than I have ever truly repaid.”

He paused.

“I know you do not need some grand promise from me. But there is one thing I can promise.”

Tieu Lan looked at him.

“I will try to stay alive.”

She shook her head at once.

“Not try.”

Hao Nhien paused.

The words were so familiar that a wry smile appeared before he could stop it.

“All right.”

He tightened his grip on her hand.

“I will survive.”

Tieu Lan continued looking at him.

Hao Nhien spoke more slowly.

“Not only because I still need to find Anh Nhien.”

He paused for a breath.

“But because I know you are waiting for me to come back.”

Tieu Lan’s eyes gradually reddened.

She did not cry. She only nodded.

“Yes.”

Hao Nhien drew her closer. Tieu Lan rested against his shoulder, her hand still holding his.

After a while, he said,

“So if I do something stupid again in the future, remember to pull me back.”

Tieu Lan answered as naturally as ever.

“I always do.”

Hao Nhien was silent for a moment before laughing softly.

“Right. I’m the one who never listens.”

Tieu Lan gave a small nod.

“Yes.”

Neither of them spoke again.

Far away, the evening bell of the sect rang through the mountains. The last traces of sunset were almost gone, leaving only a thin red band along the horizon while the stream before them slowly darkened.

Their final day of preparation was coming to an end.

Tomorrow morning, they would leave for the Western Wastes.