Lian continued.
"I didn't know anything about cultivation back then. I just… stayed alive however I could."
"I ate what I found."
"Drank what I found."
"And tried not to die while my injuries healed."
He gave a faint shrug afterward.
"Eventually, I started feeling different."
His voice lowered slightly.
"Stronger. Clearer."
"Like my body was changing on its own."
A brief pause.
"After that… I started cultivating there."
Lian's fingers tightened slightly against his lap.
Then he slowly exhaled again, as though the next part was harder to explain.
"…I honestly don't know how long I stayed there."
Wa Shi's gaze never moved.
Wa Mie remained completely silent now.
Lian continued quietly.
"At first, I thought it had only been a few hours."
A faint, awkward laugh escaped him.
"But every time I stopped cultivating… I still felt completely full of energy."
His eyes lowered toward his hands.
"As if no time had passed at all."
Then he looked up again.
"It felt like the cave didn't follow normal time."
Wa Shi's eyes narrowed another fraction.
Lian continued.
"So I kept cultivating."
"I already knew the basic cultivation method you taught me."
He glanced briefly toward Wa Shi.
"…So I just followed that."
Wa Shi gave a slow, nearly imperceptible nod.
He remembered.
Lian continued.
"At some point, I stopped counting entirely."
His voice sounded more genuine here.
"I thought maybe a day had passed at most…"
"But every time I opened my eyes, I felt different again."
Wa Mie's expression shifted slightly.
Not disbelief anymore.
Just confusion.
Lian scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"I think I completely lost track of time."
A brief pause followed before he added more carefully,
"There was no sunlight inside the cave. No way to measure anything."
"Only that strange spiritual energy everywhere."
He hesitated briefly again.
"I also never felt sleepy while I was inside."
His brows furrowed slightly.
"That's probably why I thought only a few hours had passed."
Silence settled over the room again.
Then Lian exhaled softly.
"…Eventually, I realized I couldn't just stay there forever."
Wa Shi's voice came low and calm.
"Why?"
Lian looked up.
"Because I could feel my body reaching a limit."
His expression gradually became more serious.
"The spiritual energy in that place was extremely dense… but also unstable."
"If I remained still for too long, it started feeling like I would lose control over it."
Wa Shi's gaze sharpened slightly again.
Lian continued.
"So I decided to search for an exit."
He paused briefly.
"This is where things became strange."
Wa Mie unconsciously leaned forward again.
Lian lowered his voice slightly.
"I started following the flow of spiritual energy inside the cave."
"It felt like all of it was moving in one direction."
"Like something was pulling it."
His brows furrowed faintly as he remembered it.
"So I followed that flow."
A brief pause.
"And then…"
He stopped speaking.
Wa Shi's voice immediately followed.
"And then what?"
Lian's eyes flicked upward.
"…I stepped forward."
"I remember the air suddenly shifting."
"Like something cracked open."
One of his hands moved slightly without him realizing it.
"And then suddenly…"
His voice lowered.
"…I wasn't inside the cave anymore."
Silence filled the room instantly.
Wa Mie blinked.
"…What?"
Lian nodded slowly.
"I appeared back in the forest."
Wa Shi's expression finally shifted slightly.
Not shock.
But deeper interest.
Lian quickly continued before either of them interrupted.
"Right near the area where I originally got lost."
He hesitated slightly.
"I think… the cave itself wasn't normal."
A brief pause.
"…Or maybe it sent me back out after I reached some kind of limit."
He exhaled softly.
"I don't really know."
"I just know that when I finally came out…"
His eyes lifted slightly.
"…I was already like this."
Silence stretched across the room again.
This time—
even heavier than before.
Wa Shi slowly leaned back.
His gaze remained fixed on Lian for a very long time.
Then finally—
he spoke.
"…So you accidentally stumbled into a sealed spiritual environment."
Lian hesitated.
"…Maybe."
Wa Shi's fingers tapped lightly against the table once again.
Slow.
Measured.
Then he said quietly,
"And survived inside it long enough to reach First Stage Spirit Refining."
Lian scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"…Yeah."
"I honestly only realized I'd reached Spirit Refining after you confirmed it."
Wa Mie finally broke her silence.
"That sounds impossible…"
Lian gave a small helpless shrug.
"…I agree."
Wa Shi's eyes narrowed slightly again.
But this time—
not because of Lian's story.
Because of what the story implied.
Because in Wa Shi's experience—
places like that cave did not appear randomly.
And the people who returned from such places…
rarely returned normal.
Wa Mie stared at Lian for several long moments.
Then she slowly leaned back and exhaled, as though her mind had finally given up trying to force logic into the situation.
"…That sounds like something from a story."
Lian blinked once.
"Yeah."
"I agree."
Wa Mie immediately pointed at him.
"Exactly! That's what I mean!"
"Hidden caves, glowing pools, strange spiritual energy, time moving differently—people only find things like that in books!"
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"And even then, most of them die."
Lian slowly raised a hand.
"…I didn't."
"Exactly!" she repeated louder.
Wa Shi still did not interrupt.
He simply watched Lian silently, fingers resting lightly against the wooden table.
Wa Mie continued speaking, now fully animated.
"You disappear for three entire months, everyone thinks you're dead, and then suddenly you come back as a cultivator?"
She shook her head vigorously.
"…That's not normal luck."
Lian scratched the side of his face awkwardly.
"Is that… bad?"
"It's weird," Wa Mie corrected immediately.
Wa Shi finally spoke again.
"It is fortunate."
Both of them turned toward him.
The old village head's gaze remained fixed on Lian.
"Most who enter unknown spiritual environments never return."
A brief pause followed.
"They either die there…"
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"…or return changed in unstable ways."
Lian stayed silent.
Wa Shi continued calmly.
"You returned intact."
Then after another brief pause—
"…and stable."
Wa Mie glanced back and forth between the two of them.
"So he's just lucky?"
Wa Shi did not answer immediately.
Instead, his gaze lingered on Lian once more, as though weighing something deeper beneath the surface.
"…Luck is part of it."
Then he added slowly,
"But luck alone does not explain everything."
Lian immediately felt a faint pressure settle in his chest again.
Wa Shi continued, his voice calm yet thoughtful.
"To survive within a sealed spiritual environment long enough to reach Spirit Refining without proper guidance…"
He tapped the table once.
"…requires either extraordinary fortune."
Another soft tap followed.
"…or something within that environment guiding you."
Wa Mie blinked.
"Like a treasure spirit or something?"
Wa Shi neither confirmed nor denied it.
Instead—
he looked directly at Lian.
"Did you feel anything…"
A brief pause.
"…watching you?"