Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Lianxi told herself repeatedly that she was not counting the hours. She simply happened to notice, at the end of each day, exactly how many remained. On the morning of the third day, she finished her meridian cleansing earlier than usual, packed her qiankun bag twice, and set off for the cave far sooner than she needed to.
She had assumed she would be the first to arrive.
She was wrong.
Xuan was sitting cross-legged on a flat rock at the mouth of the cave, his chin propped on one hand, gazing off into the trees. The moment he spotted her, he sprang to his feet, and his whole face lit up like the sun breaking through clouds.
"Sister Xi! You came!"
Before she could respond, he had crossed the distance between them and was looking her over, as if to make sure she was real.
"I said I would consider it," Lianxi replied primly. "I considered it very seriously."
"And you decided to come."
"…Yes."
He laughed, delighted.
Lianxi tilted her head, studying him. His robe was slightly damp with dew, and there were faint shadows beneath his eyes. "Brother Xuan, how long have you been waiting?"
He coughed and glanced away. "Not long."
"Your robe is soaked with morning dew, and there are ashes from a fire behind that rock." She pointed. "You slept here last night."
"I thought you might come early," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't want you to arrive and find no one here."
Lianxi stared at him. She wasn't sure why, but something warm spread through her chest, and for a moment she didn't know what to say. So she did what she always did when she didn't know what to say. She reached for his wrist.
"Hold still. I need to check your meridians."
He held out his arm obediently, looking amused.
After a moment, she nodded. "They've recovered well. You may use your qi again. Lightly." She fixed him with a stern look. "Lightly, Brother Xuan."
"Understood, Physician Xi." He grinned. Then he reached into his sleeve and produced a small paper bundle. "I brought you something."
Lianxi unwrapped it carefully. Inside lay a skewer of bright red fruits, each one coated in a glossy shell of hardened sugar that glittered in the morning light.
She examined it with great seriousness. "Hawthorn. It aids digestion and improves blood circulation. It's also useful for treating food stagnation." She frowned slightly. "But the sugar coating serves no medicinal purpose."
"It's not medicine, Sister Xi. It's a snack. You eat it because it tastes good."
"Oh." She looked at the skewer with fresh interest. Then, cautiously, she took a small bite.
The sugar shell cracked between her teeth. Sweetness burst across her tongue, followed by the bright, tart flavor of the fruit.
Her eyes went wide.
Xuan watched her face with immense satisfaction. "Well?"
Lianxi took a second bite. Then a third. By the time she remembered to answer, half the skewer was gone. "It's very good," she said solemnly. "I'll need to study it further."
He burst out laughing.
✦ ✦ ✦
"So," Xuan said once she had finished every last piece and carefully wiped her fingers clean, "what are we going to do today?"
Lianxi blinked. She hadn't thought that far. She had only thought about coming.
"You know this forest well, don't you?" he pressed. "Show me something. Somewhere you like."
She thought about it. There were many places she liked in the Balzamia Forest, but most of them were close to home, and those were forbidden. Others lay too near the danger zones. But there was one place.
"All right," she said. "Follow me. But you have to stay close, and you can't wander off, and if I say stop, you must stop immediately."
"Yes, Physician Xi."
"And stop calling me that."
"Yes, Sister Xi."
She led him north, through dense thickets and over moss-covered stones, along narrow trails that only she seemed to see. Xuan followed without complaint, though he looked around with open curiosity. More than once, Lianxi stopped abruptly and pulled him back by the sleeve, just before he stepped on a creeping vine that would have wrapped around his ankle, or brushed past a pale blue mushroom that released a numbing spore.
"This forest really does want to kill everyone," he remarked after the fourth time.
"Only people who don't pay attention," Lianxi said.
After nearly an hour, the sound of rushing water reached them. Lianxi pushed aside a curtain of hanging vines and stepped through, and Xuan followed.
He stopped in his tracks.
Before them lay a hidden valley, cradled between high cliffs of pale stone. A waterfall poured down from the heights in a shimmering white veil, crashing into a deep emerald pool below. Mist rose from the water, catching the sunlight and scattering it into small rainbows that floated in the air. And all around the pool, covering the valley floor like a blanket of fallen stars, grew thousands of delicate silver-white flowers.
"Starlight Lilies," Lianxi said softly. "They only bloom where the spiritual qi is very pure. At night, they glow."
Xuan said nothing for a long moment. Then he turned to look at her. "It's beautiful."
"It is." She nodded, pleased. "The petals can also be refined into a pill that calms the mind and heals minor internal injuries. It's very practical."
He smiled. "Of course it is."
They spent the next hour exploring the valley. Xuan practiced his sword forms on a flat rock beside the pool, while Lianxi sat nearby and pointed out flaws in his footwork. He was astonished that she could spot them, and even more astonished when she was right. In return, he showed her a movement technique that let him skim lightly across the surface of the water. She tried it, fell in with a great splash, and surfaced sputtering while he laughed so hard he had to sit down.
She climbed out, dripping wet, and glared at him. "Brother Xuan, I told you to use your qi lightly."
"I did!"
"Laughing that hard strains the meridians."
This only made him laugh harder.
✦ ✦ ✦
It happened near the base of the waterfall.
Xuan had wandered a little way along the cliff, drawn by a cluster of Starlight Lilies growing in a crevice. Lianxi was following behind him, scolding him for leaving her sight, when she felt it: a faint tremor beneath her feet.
She stopped. "Brother Xuan. Don't move."
He froze. "What is it?"
The ground beneath them let out a deep, groaning crack.
"The rock is hollow—"
She never finished the sentence. The stone gave way beneath them all at once, and with a thunderous roar, the ground swallowed them whole.
Darkness. Rushing wind. The roar of falling rock.
Lianxi felt a hand seize hers in the blackness and pull her close. Then there was a burst of qi around them both, slowing their fall just enough, before they plunged into ice-cold water.
She surfaced gasping. The current was strong, dragging them along. Xuan's hand was still wrapped tightly around hers.
"Sister Xi! Are you hurt?"
"No!" she coughed. "Swim that way. There's a ledge!"
They struggled against the current and hauled themselves onto a shelf of wet stone, soaked and breathing hard.
Slowly, Lianxi sat up and looked around.
They were in an enormous underground cavern. Far above, a thin shaft of daylight fell through the hole they had come through. But the cavern did not need it. Clusters of crystals jutted from the walls and ceiling, each one glowing with a soft blue light, casting the entire space in an eerie, shimmering glow. An underground river cut through the middle of it, roaring away into the darkness.
"Where are we?" Xuan asked quietly.
"I don't know." Lianxi's voice was small. "I've never been here." Then her expression grew troubled. "Master told me to stay away from unknown places."
Xuan considered this. "But we didn't enter an unknown place. We fell into one. Falling doesn't count."
Lianxi looked at him. Then she thought about it very carefully.
"…That's a very reasonable argument," she said finally, impressed.
"I learned from the best," he said with a grin.
Before she could ask what he meant, she felt it. A presence, heavy and cold, pressing down on the air.
The hairs on the back of her neck rose.
Slowly, she turned her head.
From the shadows deep within the cavern, a pair of predatory yellow eyes fixed on them.
The beast slipped out of the darkness, muscles rippling beneath fur as black and glossy as polished steel. It was enormous, larger than a horse, and each silent step made its claws scrape against the stone. Its lips peeled back to reveal fangs like ivory blades, and its demonic aura crashed down over the cavern like a curse.
"Ironhide Panther," Lianxi breathed. "Tier 5."
Xuan was on his feet in an instant, sword drawn, stepping in front of her. "Stay behind me."
"Brother Xuan, your meridians—"
"Later."
The panther lunged.
It moved with terrifying speed. Xuan met it head-on, his sword flashing, and the clash rang through the cavern like a bell. The blade struck the beast's side squarely, and it bounced off with a shower of sparks. It hadn't even left a scratch.
"Its hide is harder than steel!" he gasped, twisting away as the claws raked past him.
Lianxi's hands were already moving. She flicked three needles at the panther's neck. They struck and fell uselessly to the ground. Her heart sank.
The beast whirled toward her with a snarl. Xuan threw himself between them, taking the blow on his sword, and was sent skidding backward across the stone.
"Sister Xi, run! Get to the river—"
"No!"
Focus.
Lianxi forced her racing heart to slow. She pushed her fear aside and let her mind sink into that deep, still place Master Gao had taught her to find. The roar of the river faded. The world slowed.
And she watched.
The panther was powerful, but its movements were wrong. Each time it lunged, its right foreleg hesitated for the barest fraction of a moment. Each time it landed, a tremor of pain rippled across its shoulder. Its breathing was ragged, its eyes glazed with more than just fury.
Then she saw it. High on its right shoulder, half-hidden in its fur, was a jagged dark shard lodged deep in the flesh. The fur around it was matted and wet, and the skin beneath looked swollen and dark.
"Brother Xuan!" she shouted. "It's injured! There's something stuck in its right shoulder. That's why it's so angry. It's in pain!"
Xuan dodged another swipe and glanced at the shoulder. "I see it!"
"The skin around the wound isn't protected. It's the only place my needles can pierce. If I can put it to sleep, I can remove it. But I need it to stay still for one breath."
He looked at her, and understanding flashed across his face. Then he grinned, a fierce, bright grin. "One breath. Leave it to me."
He charged.
Heedless of his still-healing meridians, Xuan poured his qi into his sword. The blade flared with a pale silver light. He didn't aim for the beast's hide this time. He aimed for the ground beneath its feet. The stone shattered in a burst of force, and the panther stumbled, its injured leg buckling beneath it.
Xuan leapt onto a jutting rock above it and brought his sword down flat against the back of its skull with a resounding crack.
The panther staggered, dazed.
One breath.
Lianxi's hand moved.
A single needle flew across the cavern, glinting blue in the crystal light. It slid into the swollen flesh beside the wound with perfect precision, carrying a dose of her strongest sleeping draught.
The panther took two unsteady steps. Its yellow eyes dimmed. Then, with a deep, rumbling sigh, it slowly sank onto its side and went still.
Silence filled the cavern, broken only by the rush of the river.
Xuan let out a long, shaky breath and dropped down from the rock. "Is it…?"
"Asleep," Lianxi said. She was already hurrying toward the beast.
"Sister Xi, wait, what are you doing?"
"Removing the shard." She knelt beside the enormous panther without a trace of hesitation and began examining the wound. "It's been poisoned. The shard is from a cursed arrowhead. Someone must have hunted it a long time ago, and it escaped. The wound has been festering for months." She shook her head, her expression soft with pity. "It must have been in terrible pain all this time."
Xuan stared at her. "It just tried to kill us."
"Because it was hurting," Lianxi said simply. "It wasn't its fault."
She worked carefully, her small hands steady. She drew the shard out bit by bit, cleaned the wound, drew out the poison with her needles, and packed it with a paste made from crushed Starlight Lily petals she had gathered earlier. Xuan knelt beside her in silence, holding the crystal lamp she had taken from her bag so she could see, and passing her whatever she asked for.
When she finally sat back, her forehead was damp with sweat.
"There," she said. "It should heal now."
Xuan looked from the sleeping beast to the girl beside it, and for a long moment, he said nothing at all.
✦ ✦ ✦
The panther woke not long after.
Xuan tensed, his hand on his sword. But the beast only lifted its head, blinked its great yellow eyes slowly, and looked at them. The fury was gone from its gaze. It turned and licked its healed shoulder, then looked back at Lianxi.
Then, slowly, it rose, padded to her, and lowered its huge head until its nose nearly touched her hands.
Lianxi held very still. Then, carefully, she reached out and touched its muzzle.
The panther let out a low, rumbling sound, like distant thunder. Then it turned and walked toward the far end of the cavern. It paused and looked back at them.
"I think," Lianxi said slowly, "it wants us to follow."
They followed.
The panther led them through a winding tunnel lined with glowing crystals, climbing steadily upward, until the roar of the river gave way to a different roar, louder and closer. Then the tunnel opened, and they stepped out onto a wide stone ledge behind a curtain of falling water.
They were behind the waterfall.
Sunlight streamed through the water in sheets of gold, and the mist glittered around them like scattered jewels. The panther stood at the edge of the ledge, looking out at the valley below. Then it turned back to Lianxi one last time, gave that low, rumbling sound again, and bounded away along a hidden path in the cliff, vanishing into the rocks.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Xuan started to laugh. It was breathless, disbelieving laughter, the kind that came from having been very frightened and very alive all at once.
"We fell into a hole," he said. "Nearly drowned. Fought a Tier 5 beast. And you healed it." He shook his head, still laughing. "Sister Xi, you're the most incredible person I've ever met."
Lianxi's cheeks warmed. She didn't know what to say to that, so she said the first thing that came to mind. "You used far too much qi. I told you lightly."
"I know."
"Your meridians will ache for days."
"I know."
"You'll need to rest for at least—"
"Sister Xi." He was smiling at her. "It was worth it."
She fell quiet.
They sat down together on the edge of the ledge, their legs dangling over the drop, watching the waterfall. As the afternoon wore on, the light grew golden, then amber, and the Starlight Lilies below began to glow, one by one, until the valley shimmered like a sea of stars.
"Can I ask you something?" Xuan said quietly.
Lianxi nodded.
"Where do you live?"
"That's a secret."
"Who taught you medicine?"
"That's a secret, too."
He sighed dramatically. "Is everything about you a secret?"
Lianxi thought about it seriously. "No," she said at last. "I like candied hawthorn now. That isn't a secret."
Xuan looked at her. Then he laughed softly. "Then I'll bring you some every time."
She hesitated. Then, in a small voice, she said something she had never said to anyone.
"Brother Xuan… I've never had a friend before."
He was quiet for a moment. Then he turned toward her, his dark grey eyes serious in the glowing light.
"Now you do," he said. "And you'll always have one. No matter what."
Lianxi didn't answer. She only nodded, staring out at the glowing valley. But something in her chest felt full and warm and a little bit like it might burst.
✦ ✦ ✦
When the first stars appeared, they finally climbed down from the waterfall and made their way back through the forest to the cave.
"Same time in three days?" Xuan asked.
"I'll consider it," Lianxi said.
He narrowed his eyes. "Sister Xi."
"…Yes," she said quickly. "I'll come."
His smile was so bright it seemed to light up the darkness around them.
"Jingyi is going to be worried to death since I disappearing all day," he said cheerfully. "But I don't care. See you soon, Sister Xi!"
He waved and ran off into the trees, turning back twice more to wave again.
Lianxi stood at the mouth of the cave for a long time after he was gone.
Then she turned and headed home, walking slowly beneath the stars, a faint smile on her face the whole way.