Gu Xue had lost consciousness. Right now, she was being held in Gu Chaun's arms.
Gu Chaun ran straight to his room. After gently placing Gu Xue on the bed, he finally let out a deep breath of relief.
If he hadn't arrived when he did, saving her would've been extremely difficult. There were two reasons for that. First, Gu Xue was young and beautiful, with an excellent cultivation base. Second, the amount of Qi stored inside her body was immense — her potential was enough to surpass even the Nascent Soul Realm. That kind of talent would draw many people's attention. Even if Gu Chaun had paid her debt, there was no guarantee they would have let her go.
Over the past few days, Gu Chaun had faced death multiple times. He was constantly cultivating, refining his techniques, and pushing his body to its limits. Both mentally and physically, he was stretched to the edge. If he continued like that, he might've died. That's why he planned to rest and use the beast cores he had collected to break through into the Core Formation Realm.
But while he was returning, the node he placed on Gu Xue started flashing with warnings.
He had set it up to monitor her condition — if her body temperature or heartbeat changed drastically, it would send him alerts. Normally, he wouldn't care if one or two signals went off. But this time, all five were triggered.
He rushed to the location sent by the node and saw Gu Xue being overwhelmed in battle. When he realized she was close to losing, his expression hardened. If she lost, she wouldn't be able to pay the losing fee, and that meant disaster.
At first, he waited — planning to step in only if things got worse. But the moment he heard the law being invoked, he knew he had to act fast. Otherwise, even paying her debt might not be enough to save her.
He jumped in, using his new technique — one inspired by Gu Xue's own Frozen Wind Blade, but reworked to catch enemies off guard. It was a dangerous move, something that would only work if the opponent wasn't prepared or lacked an active defense technique.
He used it perfectly, rescued her, and left.
After all that, Gu Chaun finally felt the exhaustion hit him. He removed his bloodstained clothes and went to take a bath. The warm water running down his skin was the first comfort he'd felt in days.
When he returned, refreshed, he saw that Gu Xue had already woken up. She was sitting on the bed, head lowered, silent.
"Why are you keeping your head down?" he asked.
Her shoulders trembled. She didn't look up.
"I-I'm sorry…" she whispered.
After waking up, Gu Xue had realized she was in her own room. Hearing the sound of water earlier, she guessed Gu Chaun must have saved her and even paid her debt.
But when she looked around and noticed the beast cores still neatly placed nearby, her eyes widened in disbelief. The debt was a hundred thousand Qi stones — there was no way he could have paid that so quickly. Unless… he had earned that much himself in just five days.
Then she saw his clothes — soaked, dark red with blood. The sight terrified her. What kind of training left him like that? He was supposed to be working on his physical strength and cultivation, not getting torn apart.
She took a deep breath and focused. The scent of blood in the air was familiar — it was that of a spirit beast.
No two-star beast could have injured him like that. She had seen him easily destroy those before. That meant… he must have fought a three-star beast.
Her chest tightened at the thought. Spirit beasts might not be intelligent, but their strength matched that of cultivators. Fighting one a whole realm higher was nearly suicidal.
Now she understood how Gu Chaun had gathered something worth a hundred thousand Qi stones — he had killed those beasts and sold their cores.
She also understood why he did it — to increase his cultivation. But instead of using those cores for himself, he had used them to pay her debt.
A heavy guilt sank in her heart. She remembered how she used to think she was superior — that her talent made her worth more. She never considered herself a burden. In fact, she thought Gu Chaun should be grateful to have her around.
That was before she learned about his life.
After spending time with him, she realized how wrong she had been. The more she learned about Earth, the more she understood — even without Qi, those people had achieved things beyond imagination. Their creativity and progress came from pure thought and willpower.
Gu Chaun didn't have any special talent. The only thing he had was his mind. And he used it to push himself harder than anyone else. He did the work, he earned the reward — but in the end, that reward was spent on her.
Her thoughts were a mess. She didn't even know how to face him now.
Back to the present.
"Why?" he asked.
She lifted her head slightly, her voice trembling.
"To pay my debt… you used all the beast cores you collected. I'm really sorry. I promise I'll help you collect more."
He paused for a moment, then smiled gently.
"Only because of that? I'd already forgotten. I'm just glad I made it in time. As for beast cores, it's fine — we can always gather more."
She looked up completely now. That smile — there was no anger, no regret, no frustration. Just warmth.