"How old are you?"
Lu Wen asked as they sat by a small river that had only begun to flow a few days ago. The river did not come from mountains, nor from rain. It appeared suddenly from cracked stones, flowing silently, reflecting a sky no longer divided between day and night.
Heng Zhen didn't answer immediately. He scooped water with his palms, watching the ripples that never broke.
"I don't know," he finally replied. "Maybe seventy. Maybe seven hundred. Or... maybe time hasn't moved the same since I first sat down."
Lu Wen looked at his face. Heng Zhen looked like a man in his forties — with lines beneath his eyes, some hair turning white, but his eyes... his eyes were too deep for any age. He looked like someone who had lost an entire life, and because of that, had gained something more.
"I thought humans only live up to a century," Lu Wen said softly.
"Humans who keep fighting the world, yes," Heng Zhen said. "But since I stopped walking, my body no longer ages the same way. I'm not extending my life. I'm just... stopping adding burden to it."
He gazed into the distance, at the forest beyond the valley. Birds flew slowly, neither in flocks nor alone. Not in a hurry.
"Yuanqi doesn't extend life like medicine. It doesn't reject death, only makes life not rush toward it."
Lu Wen nodded quietly. "So... will I live long too?"
"That depends," Heng Zhen said. "If you live to extend your life, you'll age as usual. But if your life becomes a reflection of the world, and the world doesn't rush to age... maybe your body will forget how."
Night fell, but the valley remained calm. Neither dark nor bright.
Under the timeless sky, age lost its meaning.
And for the first time in his life, Lu Wen stopped counting the days to come. He simply sat, listening to the flowing water, and felt... present.