The Lost Mind's Quest (MXLT)

01. A Fractured Start

Zhen Lixin stirred in his sleep, his eyes fluttering open. The warm sunlight streamed in through the open windows, the sound of birds softly chirping outside filling the air. He slowly lifted his hand to his forehead, and upon noticing his movements, a stranger spoke up.

"Lixin-xiong, you're awake! How are you feeling?" he asked, leaning in closer to Zhen Lixin with a warm, concerned voice.

Zhen Lixin's hand lowered as he squinted his eyes at the stranger. He was a young man with a certain look of beauty to him, his hair tied up in a half ponytail. He stared at Zhen Lixin with eyes full of curiosity and concern as he sat kneeling on the floor beside his bed.

"Do you want water?" He asked eagerly as he leaned back from Zhen Lixin's face. "Should I go get some?"

Although Zhen Lixin couldn't recognize who this man was, feeling his dry lips, he gave a subtle nod. The man got up hastily and walked out at his hint. Zhen Lixin watched him leave as he tried to sit upright, feeling slightly dizzy.

"Where..." he began to mumble as he looked around the room with his hand rubbing his temples, and froze.

He immediately looked down with wide eyes and saw his slim and long legs, clad in white pants. He lifted his head, his hand tracing his upper body and ending at his neck.

"Who..." he muttered through his dry lips, "...am I?"

"Zhen Lixin, a high ranked Xian of the Ethereal realm," a female voice, sounding emotionless, said from nowhere.

Zhen Lixin swiftly spun his head around, startled, as he searched for the source of the voice. "Who was that?" He asked, his eyes sharply searching around the room.

"I suggest you worry more about finding yourself, my lord," the voice replied in its dead tone.

Realizing the truth in those words, Zhen Lixin fell silent. He figured the source of voice was not a person in the same room as him, but in his head. The words were spoken in a way one would think to themselves, except now, Zhen Lixin wasn't thinking any of the words the voice said. Just then, the person from before came into the room with a cup of water in his hand. As he noticed Zhen Lixin sitting up on the bed, he rushed over.

He handed the cup over to Zhen Lixin carefully as he asked, "Lixin-xiong, do you feel any unease?"

Zhen Lixin stared at him unblinkingly as if trying to recall him, a word not slipping out of his lips. He swallowed hard before taking a sip of the water, and drank it in the second like a dehydrated person. He lowered the cup and handed it over to the person weakly, his eyes fixed on him.

"Who are you-?" He asked in a low voice as he watched the man place the cup on a nearby table.

The man turned around slowly as if shocked, but remained silent, and the voice answered Zhen Lixin instead.

"Shu Ming, another high ranked Xian. Your assistant in quests, and your best friend as he calls himself."

Even though the voice confused Zhen Lixin again, he listened carefully, his gaze set on the man who was now inching towards him.

"Lixin-xiong, you don't remember me?" He asked, almost pleadingly.

"Shit-" Zhen Lixin tensed. "Am I to say no, or yes?"

"I would say no if I were you," the voice said inside his head. Zhen Lixin realized that the voice could hear his thoughts, for he had just been thinking.

He forced a nervous chuckle out without much further thought as he said, "Ah, no, pardon. How can I not?"

Shu Ming's face involuntarily pulled a smile and he sighed in relief. "You worried me there, Lixin-xiong," he said, and sat down on the bed beside Zhen Lixin.