Xue Lan was slammed onto the ground, his hands held behind his back.

A deep voice sounded, "Sit him up."

Xue Lan was grabbed by his shoulders and forced to sit upon his knees. He was finally able to see his surroundings. He was in what looked like a room at an inn. The walls were wooden, as was the ceiling. The windows were closed, so the only light in the room came from the few candles lit. There was a bed to the left of Xue Lan, and a table in front of him. Sitting at the table was a man, maybe in his early thirties. He was wearing a light red robe with a Juhua* embroidered in gold on the front. The man was drinking tea leisurely, not paying one bit of attention to Xue Lan. Xue Lan couldn't help but feel pissed off by this. He has the audacity to drag him from the streets into his room, just to ignore him, sipping his tea like nothing in the world matters!

The man finally put his cup of tea down, and slowly said, "Young Master Xue Lan, it's been a while. Have you been well?"

Xue Lan was taken back. This man knew him. Xue Lan's mind raced as he scanned his memory, seeing if he could remember who this could be from the descriptions of characters from the original novel. Then it hit him This is the leader of the Shixing Huan sect, Dai Huan! Xue Lan and Huang Bingwen studied under the sect when they first met.

Xue Lan spoke, "Sect leader Huan, what is this? Why have you taken me?"

Dai Huan smirked, "I didn't know it was you. I was just told that someone was asking around a little too much and told my men to receive them. If I had known it was a young master, I would have told my men to be a little more gentle."

Xue Lan stared in disbelief. Dai Huan only smiled at him, going back to sipping his tea.

Xue Lan hesitated before speaking, "Do you know of what happened at Guangshan?"

Xue Lan didn't want to give too much information. Huang Bingwen hasn't announced the news that Huang Chao had died yet. If Dai Huan knew already, then that would put him at the very top of Xue Lan's "Most suspicious" list.

Dai Huan blinked, "I haven't heard anything. Did something big happen?"

Xue Lan sighed a bit, but not for long. He knew Dai Huan was a smart man, and would likely know what Xue Lan was trying to say when he asked the question.

"Sect Leader Huang was murdered by a cursed ghost, likely sent by someone from another sect."

Dai Huan's eyes widened, seeming shocked, "Sect leader Huang is dead. That surely is shocking. Why haven't I heard about this yet?"

"We haven't announced it yet."

Xue Lan didn't want to give too much away, just in case Dai Huan was a person of interest. He didn't want Dai Huan to know that Huang Bingwen and he were looking for the man that killed Huang Chao.

"We were asking around for you because we wanted to get your support for when Huang Bingwen announces that he will be taking over as Sect leader."

Lying came naturally to Xue Lan. Though it wasn't necessarily a lie. When Huang Bingwen did take over as sect leader, the elders could try and say Huang Bingwen wasn't fit to be a leader and try to put someone else from the Huang clan on the seat, like Huang Yuan. The elders of The Guangshan Huang sect never liked Huang Bingwen, especially after he brought Xue Lan back with him. They found the action a tad bit inappropriate.

Dai Huan put his cup down, "Of course, Sect Leader Huang Bngwen has my support, as a previous student of mine. But I do have to ask, how did you know it was me that was staying here?"

Xue Lan cursed himself. He didn't think about the fact that no one knew who it was exactly it was at the inn.

"Honestly, we didn't. We were hoping it was a sect leader that we could win over."

Xue Lan could tell Dai Huan didn't believe him, but he let it go. But at that moment a figure busted their way through the window.

The men in the room immediately jumped up and pulled out their swords. The figure stood and show their face. It was Huang Bingwen! Xue Lan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. He knew that Huang Bingwen would eventually find him and get him out of the situation he was in. Dai Huan's eyes contracted a bit at the sight of Huang Bingwen before quickly relaxing. Xue Lan noticed this and made a mental note to talk to Huang Bingwen about this.

Dai Huan cleared his throat before he spoke, "Young Master Huang Bingwen, what a pleasant surprise. Though considering who we have, I really shouldn't be surprised. You two are never too far from each other."

"Sect Leader Huan, what is the meaning of this? Why would you take Xue Lan?"

"Now let's all calm down. I didn't know it was the Young Master until my men brought him here. For security reasons, I didn't want people diving too deep into who exactly it was staying here at this inn. So I told my men to bring me anyone that seemed to be asking too many questions. How was I to know that they would bring back Xue Lan?"

Huang Bingwen stiffened as he looked at Xue Lan kneeling on the ground with his hair in disarray. He couldn't bear looking at him in this sate another second.

"Sect Leader, I would like to request you let Xue Lan go before we continue this conversation."

Huang Bingwen's voice was laced with anger. Dai Huan knew better than to anger a now fellow sect leader. Dai Huan waved his hand and his men let go of Xue Lan. Without wasting a second he jumped over to Huang Bingwen's side. Without saying anything, Huang Bingwen handed Xue Lan his hair tie back. Xue Lan took it slowly. He didn't think Huang Bingwen would take the time to pick it up. He decided that he could put his hair up later, the situation at hand being more important.

"Now that Xue Lan has been released, we have no reason to be hostile to each other. please come and have a cup of tea."

As Dai Huan said this, everyone moved to put their swords away. Seeing Huang Bingwen about to move, Xue Lan grabbed his wrist and gave it a slight squeeze, hoping that he would get his hint. Huang Bingwen only needed to take one look at Xue Lan's face to know that it was serious.

"I'm sorry Sect Leader Huan, but we must be on our way. But thank you for the offer."

Huang Bingwen grabbed Xue Lan's wrist and dragged him out of the room through the door. No-one stopped them.

Only when Xue Lan and Huang Bingwen were outside the inn and well away from it, in a small ally way, did Huang Bingwen let go of Xue Lan's wrist. But Xue Lan wasn't free for long before he was pulled into a tight embrace and pushed up against the wall. Xue Lan was about to shout in protest, but then he felt Huang Bingwen start to shake.

"You can't do that to me. I already lost my father, I can't lose you too."

Xue Lan's eyes widened. Shaking slightly, Xue Lan returned the embrace. Xue Lan turned his head to nuzzle in Huang Bingwen's neck.

"You won't lose me."

Xue Lan almost couldn't breathe with how tight the embrace had become, but he didn't want to make Huang Bingwen feel as if Xue Lan didn't want to hug him. After what seemed to be an hour, Huang Bingwen sighed and finally loosened his grip and moved his head to face Xue Lan's. they both stared into each other's eyes, not wanting to look away. Huang Bingwen's eyes were slightly dilated, his eyelids half-closed. Xue Lan wanted to look away, embarrassed by how close they were and how intimately they were staring at each other. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, as if in a trance. Luckily, Huang Bingwen pulled back first.

"We should set off. We spend a lot of time in town. We need to get to the next one."

Xue Lan could only nod, but then suddenly remembered the events from before Huang Bingwen busted in, "Wait, I need to tell you something."

Huang Bingwen stopped in his tracks and turned back to face Xue Lan.

"Sect Leader Huan was acting strange. He seemed too on edge with us asking questions. He said he didn't know anything about Sect Leader Huang's death, but I feel like he was lying. I didn't tell him anything besides the fact that Sect Leader Huang died. He had asked me why we were asking around and I told him it was to gain support for when you officially take over."

Huang Bingwen nodded, "Let's keep him in mind then. Though, I'm not sure what his motive would be. He and my father got along well enough."

Deep in thought, he continued, "They never had any big disputes and Dai Huan did send that letter, seeming to want to help with the issues in the north." He shook his head, "I'm not sure what to think of this. For now, let us continue to Qintou."

Xue Lan could only nod and follow after Huang Bingwen. But before they got far, Xue Lan realizes he hadn't put his hair back up in its tie. He tried to do it as they walked, but found it too difficult. Huang Bingwen noticed his struggle and gave a soft chuckle. He gently took the hair tie from Xue Lan and pulled him to the side to tie it for him, lightly combing his fingers through Xue Lan's hair to get some of the knots out. After a bit of fiddling, Xue Lan's hair was good as new and up out of his face.

Xue Lan bounced a bit away from Huang Bingwen, "I can finally see! Thank you, Huang Bingwen."

Huang Bingwen gave him a slight nod and they continued to make their way out of town. But before they made it very far, Xue Lan's nose detected the amazing smell of the one thing he could not resist. Food. The smell was that of sweetmeat being grilled.

"Huang Bingwen, let's get some food before leaving town."

Now walking with skewered meat, they, at last, made it out of the town. It only took them most of the day, so they, unfortunately, will be making it to the next stop late like last time. Xue Lan lightly bounces next to Huang Bingwen as they walked, his black robes bouncing up with him. Food always made him happy, and sometimes, if the food was good enough, he would seemingly turn back into a small child on Christmas, all giddy. Xue Lan felt more comfortable in his new body the more he uses it. Though the original Xue Lan never acted like this, he felt that the system would make up for any out of character moments for him, making it seem like nothing was wrong. Huang Bingwen didn't speak up, so Xue Lan decided that this was the case.

Just as Xue Lan was thinking of the system, it decided to speak for the first time in what seemed like ages.

[System would like to update, Proceed?]

A small widow popped into Xue Lan's head, showing the options yes or no.

"System Update? What the hell, why is it asking me this."

Xue Lan focused and the green "yes" option was chosen.

[Thank you for using the HOPE system. The update will begin to download. Estimated time, 24 hours.]

24 hours! Xue Lan's old shitty laptop updated faster than that! How heavy could this update be? The HOPE system doesn't really have any features besides tech support and transferring the soul. Maybe they were adding more features? Xue Lan's curiosity spiked at the idea of more features. Maybe the system could give him items that he would need or maybe a level-up system to up his skills without ever even having to practice them. That could defiantly come in handy in the future. But for now, he could only follow Huang Bingwen on the trail.

But one thing kept poking him in the back of his mind. Xue Lan never thought to question the flaws in the book while reading, but now that he was experiencing it first hand, there were things he realizes that he wishes were present. For example, riding swords for travel. Many cultivation novels had their characters ride their sword as a mode of transportation. It speeds things along and these stories could skip the boring travel and focus more on the action. But in "The Grand Cultivator of Unusual Means", sword flying was nonexistent. The author chose to write all the details of the travel, down to the texture of the dirt they walked in. The author, referred by Xue Lan as Qi Dike, wrote this story with the utmost care for detail but didn't think about how physically exhausting walking hundreds of li's would be. Xue Lan couldn't help but curse Qi Dike for this oversight as his muscles screamed in pain.