"Shizun...Are you listening?" Wang Zhixin asked as he watched Han Jingyi stare off into space.

Han Jingyi turned back to face him with a confused expression after a few minutes. It had been an entire week since the incident with the intruder, and he still wasn't feeling very well. Part of him wanted to writhe in pain, and the other part of him wanted to curse because of all of the time he had wasted being bedridden.

While he was sentient and could move separately from the author's wishes, the negative energy that had been placed on him was not. Every time he attempted to get moving again, the author would rekindle the negative energy again, causing him immense pain.

'So this is why the negative energy was weak...You want to torture me.'

"Yingjie is going to the LuoHua sect to get medicine for you." Wang Zhixin said, repeating what Han Jingyi hadn't heard him say.

"Oh..." Han Jingyi murmured. He only said that, but in his head, he was cursing the author once again.

'You're trying to pretend I died already!'

The author was probably using the time where Yingjie was traveling to and from LuoHua as an excuse to have him collect his harem. Most of his harem in the original story was acquired when he was down in the dumps and trying to grieve the loss of his master, so Han Jingyi could only imagine what was going to happen to him while Yingjie was away.

"A-Xin, the sect leader put more people on patrol right?"

"Yes, Shizun, Fan MeiLing will be taking Yingjie's spot until he returns," Zhixin explained. He and Zhao Yingjie had been guarding inside and outside Han Jingyi's room until today.

Han Jingyi nodded a little. The author probably messed up there. Since he sent Yingjie to collect his harem elsewhere he left the 'first harem member' to bond with Wang Zhixin.

Fan Meiling was a female disciple in the sect she was the same age as Yingjie and Zhixin and she was close to both of them but she would ultimately become a part of Yingjie's Harem. Most readers disagreed with this since she had more chemistry with Wang Zhixin, but Zhixin's 1st wife was revealed to be Han Xinyi, Han Jingyi's sister, the readers were relieved that Meiling wasn't a part of Zhixin's harem. Meiling was known for being a very jealous girl, and this was even when she was one of Yingjie's most favored wives. One could only imagine what would happen if she was a part of Zhixin's harem. After all, Zhixin's harem was only a Harem in the name; the only woman he loved was Han Xinyi the rest of them were more like allies.

Han Jingyi was still not sure if he really wanted to let Wang Zhixin end up with his sister this time, and he wasn't sure it would happen even if he didn't interfere.

"Was my family informed of my recent injuries?" Han Jingyi asked, thinking about his sister reminded him of how worried she might be.

"No, the sect leader doesn't want the word to spread." Wang Zhixin replied.

"...Alright..." Han Jingyi mumbled. He stared at Wang Zhixin, who just stared back until Han Jingyi looked away.

Han Jingyi found him a little bit odd. Even now that he remembered the contents of the original novel, he found it a little hard to believe that he would grow up to be someone dominated by his emotions. He knew that his disciples liked him but he was a bit shocked that Wang Zhixin would break over something like his death.

Jingyi found it a bit ironic that he felt like this. In his first life, he was incredibly upset about Han Jingyi's death and even more upset that other people didn't realize how unnecessary it was for him to die, but now after living through Han Jingyi's life he was wondering why characters reacted so strongly to his death. Perhaps it was the influence of the original Han Jingyi's humble and gentle personality but he felt like he could very easily give up and allow himself to pass on if he really wanted to.

---

"Shizun...Are you still feeling really sick?" Fan Meiling asked as she sat on the floor right beside Han Jingyi's bed. She and Wang Zhixin would switch positions at midnight and noon every day, one of them was on guard outside the bedroom and the other was on guard inside. It was almost midnight so she was going to switch out soon but she noticed that Han Jingyi was still awake and decided to have a little chat with him.

"No, I'm doing better." Han Jingyi murmured, he was lying, just the stress of not knowing what situation the author would cook up to try and kill him was making him get worse.

"...Shizun, you seriously can't die, okay? Shishu will probably beat Yingjie and Zhixin up if you do!"

She was talking about Xia Qianfan.

"Is that really the only reason why you don't want me to die?.... Silly girl." Han Jingyi almost laughed but he decided not to, he would start coughing if he did and that would only make Meiling worried.

"That's obviously not the only reason! I'm just saying...If you care about your disciples, don't die." Meiling shifted into a casual tone as she spoke but Han Jingyi couldn't be bothered to correct her.

Wang Zhixin soon came to switch with her, and only then was Han Jingyi able to fall asleep.

--

"Are you well enough to be doing that?" Xia Qianfan asked, watching as Han Jingyi attempted to cultivate.

Han Jingyi quickly shushed him. He had used some of his power to make Fan Meiling fall asleep so he could try to cultivate after Xia Qianfan walked in.

“These disciples of ours are too overprotective.” Han Jingyi murmured.

He could feel how his energy was failing to circulate through his body but the area of his body that was being attacked by his former injuries and the added negative energy became clearer to him.

“The medicine A-Jie will bring is not going to help.” He murmured after a while. He already knew this was the case since the author was purposefully changing his condition constantly. But as he looked at his condition in detail he realized just how bad he was doing.

“…” Xia Qianfan stared at him in silence, “Are you…?”

“Dying? Not quite.” Han Jingyi murmured and stopped cultivating. He slowly laid himself down to rest properly once again.

“I’m slowly losing my powers though, and I’m sure my senses are going to be next.” Han Jingyi could predict how the story would play out from now on. The author had decided not to kill him, they decided instead to phase him out of the story by making him incapable to cultivate and use power.

“You’re going to have to get ready to take my place.” Han Jingyi sighed.

“…Don’t start planning everything out…” Xia Qianfan murmured and left with a disgruntled expression.

Han Jingyi looked at him with a raised eyebrow and sighed, deciding to try and get some sleep.

…

Wang Zhixin was conflicted. He didn’t know why Xia Qianfan allowed him to hear all that.

He stood outside Han Jingyi’s door and stared at his feet. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just allow Han Jingyi’s power to fizzle out like that. He couldn’t just change his master.