"My lady?"
The two girls felt the atmosphere shift the moment they crossed the threshold. The air inside was dim and close, faint shadows pressing in from all sides as their eyes struggled to find their footing in the dark.
"..."
Bai Fanxian still didn't answer. She led the way deeper into the tower without looking back. Hui'er, steadier of the two, took a breath and followed, not forgetting to take her younger sister's hand.
"...If there came a day when I was deep in closed-door cultivation, or in a state where I couldn't sense anything outside — and enemies beyond your strength found their way here — what would you do?"
She half expected blank faces.
But it was the opposite.
"...I'd fight them. And hold this place until my lady came back."
No hesitation. Hui'er hadn't needed a single second.
"Same! Months or years. As long as my lady is here, we'll be here." Tang Yeye nodded hard, her expression serious.
Bai Fanxian might have thought little of it. But for these two, she had forgotten what she meant to them — that she was the one who had pulled them out of the worst moments of their lives.
Hui'er had nearly died for nothing, beside a trash can. Tang Yeye had spent years bedridden. Walking on their own. Eating like other children. Dreaming about tomorrow. All of it had once been out of reach. Neither of them had words for how deep it went.
They remembered clearly who had changed that, who had handed them this new life. If the moment came, both would throw themselves into harm's way without a second thought if it meant their lady survived.
"..."
"...My lady?" Tang Yeye reached out and tugged at the white robe ahead. It worked.
"...You're all such foolish children."
She turned her head, said it, and kept walking.
At that, Hui'er and Tang Yeye both felt that the "foolish children" Bai Fanxian referred to didn't only mean the two of them...
.
.
.
*THUD!*
The moment Bai Fanxian stepped into the next room, gravity far heavier than anything outside slammed down without warning. Tang Yeye and Hui'er's eyes went wide. Both circulated their qi without thinking, legs trembling just to stay standing.
"My... my lady?"
Tang Yeye looked up at her lady. Bai Fanxian stood at the center of the room as if she were in a garden, unhurried, the crushing gravity apparently beneath her notice.
"The Training Tower's first floor. Gravity Heaven."
The moment she finished speaking, the pressure doubled. This time Tang Yeye couldn't hold on — she went to her knees, gritting her teeth, and looked up at her older sister with open admiration.
Because Hui'er was still standing!
Fierce yang qi surged around her. Hot enough to blister.
*SNAP!*
Then Bai Fanxian did something neither of them expected. One casual snap of her fingers — and Hui'er's qi scattered in an instant. Her eyes went wide with shock. But when she looked up and met her lady's gaze, she understood.
No qi.
Her eyes went still and calm, and with them, something else settled around her — a strange stillness, the kind that made the air itself seem to stop. First Stage Supreme State. She let the force move through her rather than against it, her body a channel, passing the weight out through her feet without obstruction.
She fought her way upright. Finally, Hui'er stood straight again.
"For someone training in Supreme Fist Art like you, there's no better place than this," Bai Fanxian murmured. But before the words had even settled, the gravity reversed. Tremendous pull yanked to the right — Hui'er had no time. She flew sideways and slammed into the wall.
Fortunately, her lady hadn't blocked her qi entirely. Beyond that first dispersal, she could still circulate it to recover as normal.
She peeled herself off the wall. Everything she knew from regular training was useless here. If she tried the same weight transfer as before, she'd end up straight back in it.
Tang Yeye, who had squeezed her eyes shut because she couldn't resist the force, opened them in confusion — only to find herself wrapped in Bai Fanxian's qi, the gravity no longer touching her.
"What about me?"
Scared as she was, she still wanted to train alongside her older sister. Tang Yeye squirmed in midair, hoping her lady would set her down.
"...Not yet."
"This place isn't suitable for you."
*THUD!*
Mid-conversation, the gravity shifted again, pulling in the other direction. Hui'er, just finding her footing, had no time to adjust. She flew past Bai Fanxian and hit the opposite wall.
"..."
Her brow knotted. But she held her state, for a long time. Little by little, her body grew accustomed to the force pressing against her — until at last she could brace both hands against the wall and push herself free.
"Sister Hui'er..."
Tang Yeye's expression was so pitiful it softened her. Bai Fanxian glanced over at Hui'er, still crawling along the opposite wall, and spoke more gently.
"Perhaps I should reduce the pressure a little..."
"My lady!"
But before she could finish, Hui'er called out from across the room, still struggling.
"I don't know what's been happening with my lady lately..."
She spoke slowly, word by word, each one an effort. But in her heart, Hui'er had known for the past two days that something was weighing on her lady — especially when Bai Fanxian sat alone on the balcony, those sorrowful eyes giving her away. It had been enough to worry her.
"And I don't think I can help my lady with any of it either..."
She said it plainly.
"But if getting stronger means we can take even a little of that weight off your shoulders... even if we have to train ten times as hard..."
*BOOM!*
But right as she finished the sentence — the gravity shifted again, without warning — Hui'er flew past Tang Yeye and slammed into the far wall, sprawled on the floor with stars spinning around her head.
Bai Fanxian watched the girl who had been building to something dramatic, only to be launched across the room, and laughed.
That only happened in novels — where a speech like that could make power burst forth and carry someone to the next stage in the blink of an eye.
She walked to where Hui'er lay. The girl shook her head, looking left and right in confusion. A thin smile appeared at the corner of Bai Fanxian's mouth.
The words hadn't given Hui'er a breakthrough. But they had made Bai Fanxian feel better instead.
These past two days, she had let herself get pulled too far into the past.
"Do you want to keep going?"
She flicked a high-grade recovery pill into Hui'er's mouth. The girl swallowed, felt her strength flood back, and clenched her fist.
"Please!"
*BOOM!*
The gravity shifted again. Tang Yeye watched her sister shoot across the room like a comet — for the third time now — and swallowed hard, quietly grateful she wasn't eligible for this yet.
"Then let's go..."
Bai Fanxian raised a finger. Tang Yeye, still cocooned in qi with her feet off the ground, drifted out of the Gravity Heaven room without a say in the matter. Huang Zihuan was already standing quietly outside.
"I had considered reducing the difficulty."
She said it calmly.
"But since you said that — I think I'll make it a little harder instead."
At the next door, a loud creak rang out as if something inside was shifting and rearranging itself. The old butler chuckled and gave Tang Yeye a look of such sympathy that the hair on her arms stood up.
She screamed internally.
It wasn't me — Sister Hui'er was the one who said it!