[RSM] Chapter 127. Reunion with an old friend (Patreon)

Tundra froze when he felt the man's presence. He had not expected to meet Grand Abbot Ungkai so soon, and he was surprised that it was Grand Abbot Ungkai of the Golden Bell that came to that faraway mountain outpost. 

He was a tall, rather oversized man with a taste of good food, a man with a smile on his face that turned into one of solemn thought in the final days of his first life. He was a true titan of society, and Tundra did eventually surpass him to reach the tenth realm, there are days where he still felt he was lacking in some ways. 

"Grand Abbot. It is my honor, and a pleasure to meet someone of your stature." Tundra greeted. This was their first meeting in this life, and he had a million thoughts. In some ways, the Grand Abbot was his teacher. Not in the ways of cultivation, but in those final days, in the ways of life. 

He looked at Tundra, and walked closer. He was slightly taller than Tundra, his belly a little too large from a life of constant enjoyment of various drinks. He recalled the man as one exceedingly fond of various alcoholic brews, even though he was Sect Master of a supposedly religious sect. 

Tundra felt the man sniff around. "Greetings Lord Tundra fox. I have not heard of you beyond a few sentences mentioned in passing, but I smell something familiar on you. Have we met?" 

"No." But Tundra thought about the item the Hermit gave. "But I may have something you find familiar."

Tundra reached into his spatial pocket and took out a dusty urn. 

The Abbot's eyes momentarily looked at the urn, and Tundra thought he saw a turbulent series of emotions in his eyes. 

"A hermit, the hermit of the snow mountain gave me this." 

The Grand Abbot stared at the urn, and then gave a long sigh. "He's alive. That is a good sign. Keep it."

Tundra did. 

"Are you the reason I am summoned here?" 

Tundra blinked briefly, and wondered how the Grand Abbot could help out in the task of folding spatial realms into a pill. But then, a whiff of alcohol from the small gourd stuck on the man's belt made Tundra remember that the Grand Abbot was a man of many talents. The abbot was a master brewer, and frequent dabbler in the ways of creating new types of wines. 

Talents he didn't get to see in his first life, even though the Abbot spoke at length about them. All because they were busy surviving together. 

"I am afraid so. My apologies if this one has troubled you and taken up your time." Tundra apologized. 

"Yes you have. So you must drink with me tonight. And tomorrow night. Every night I am here, you will have to suffer in my presence and drink with me." The Abbot declared, and Tundra found it  hard not to smile. He vaguely remembered the man as wise. Calm. But this too. The days of constant drinking. 

He always had some kind of strange wine, the man loved mixing various spiritual beast's organs into wine and making new variations of them. Though it was not truly alchemical skill, there was sufficient overlap for him to understand why the Emperor chose him. 

"But first, let us meet with Princess Luharl and go through with our task."

***

"Grand Abbot." The abbot's cultivation was at the peak of the ninth realm, and he was always seen as the first amongst the Great Challenger Sects, though there are always a few who dispute the abbot's position. Princess Luharl's personal presence was enough evidence to know how much the royal institution respected the man, since she got off her usual platform to lead him to his seat, and even join them around the small table. 

"Ah. It has been a few decades since I last saw you! You were still a little girl in the 3rd realm then! Time truly just passed by in a blink."

There were five present in the room. The Princess, the Abbot, Grandduke Edrian, the Princess's consort, and Tundra. In terms of ranking, he was most junior, and usually, it would be his duty to serve the wine. The abbot, however, grabbed the rice wine bottle first.

"No no, I made this wine, I added a sea leviathan's gall into it. It's very strong, I caught one off the shores of my temple six years ago and made many many batches of this wine. It is very useful, for many, many things." 

Tundra squirmed slightly at the thought of leviathan-infused wines, and began to internally channel some purifying energies. He could feel the others do the same, and Grandduke Edrian looked rather uncomfortable. 

"Don't worry Edrian." The abbot laughed. "The burning of the wine is not more than a trial of the heart! Come, drink up! We must always share a drink before we begin anything so dangerous and controversial! Drink up, and let us all get on the same page. This wine will help us come to an agreement, as wines often do." 

Tundra gulped, a part of him wondered whether the abbot would have trusted him with the same responsibility in his first life. Maybe he would not. They were friendly, and trusted each other enough to watch each other's back. But not to the point where he would willingly put himself through temporary soul possession. 

So, he was first to raise his cup and took a drink. The fires of the leviathan's wine were intense, and it burned. 

"Oh, you need not know what it does for you?" The abbot smiled as Tundra finished it instantly.

He felt the effects of the wine in his soul immediately. His soul felt intoxicated in a way normal wines could not, and he knew then that this was but one of the trials of the Abbot. Such are the ways of cultivators, filled with little tests and examinations.

"If it is you, Ungkai, I believe you have just reasons." Tundra answered.

The leader of the Golden Bell laughed. The abbot then looked around, and asked them all to join in. "Come, come, drink with me. Not every day I get to be drunk with people whom I would love to turn into my friends." 

They did, and the Princess's face turned red. She looked in absolute disgust. "Abbot! What is this foul thing?!"

"Nothing but some fire to warm our souls in this cold mountainous outpost!" The abbot looked happy, and finished a cup of the same thing. He poured himself another, and looked at Tundra. 

"So, Lord Tundra Fox of the Verdant Snow, another one?. Just finish the cup, and I will give you another." 

It felt nostalgic. So nostalgic. He remembered they were huddled around a fire in a blizzard, hiding in a cave somewhere to avoid a group of Zuja abominations. A few of the cultivators in the Abbot's team were injured, and the abbot poured a strange wine as a medicinal cure. 

So he did. He owed the man enough in his first life, to oblige him many cups. He finished the cup, the porcelain cup felt heavier in his hands, and the abbot refilled it. The fires felt like the searing of the heart. His stomach lit up, and he felt himself sweat. 

It began to affect his mind, as wines often do. 

"Oh? Have you had this before?" 

Tundra's vision turned foggy. He saw the man in that cave, the abbot feeding his subordinates the wine. "No." Tundra answered, and felt his own inhibitions slip. "The one I had before was called- I believe you called it the [ Three Turned Livers ]." 

The abbot blinked briefly, but then he tapped Tundra on the shoulder. "Oh? I cannot remember the occasion. Remind me."

The regressor felt like he was there in that cave again. With the abbot's tanned hands on his shoulder, he felt the weight of a man who he wished lived till the end. 

Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was his heart yearning to see an old friend once more. So Tundra spoke, and spoke of his other life. 

"You had your subordinate, Deacon Luther, drink it first. He lost an arm when Zuja's mutant dragonbeast ripped it off, and inflicted him with the dragon's bile poison. I suffered a cut as well, and the bile poison rippled through my wound. You ripped a bottle open and stuffed it both into our mouths, before we could say no. You claimed it would hurt like hell. It hurt a lot more than that."

The abbot laughed. "Deacon Luther, eh. He is but the Great Elder now. But Luther always had it in him. The man had a good heart. He would make a good deacon."

"He was a fool, though. He charged at the dragonbeast knowing he was going to get torn to shreds, just so that you could use the [Three True Bells] in time. The bell crushed the dragonbeast as if it was raw meat sent into the pulveriser. Bloody deserved it too. But Luther is a fool for doing something like that." 

Though this was the second, no, third time in this life that Tundra was subject to some kind of truth-compulsion, or perhaps it was the powerful wine's effects stronger than he could withstand, Tundra felt a lightness in his heart. 

He had always found the abbot a friend,  being able to tell him and revisit all those days in the past life made him feel happy. He wished the abbot considered him a friend too, and maybe he did. 

Princess Luharl, Grandduke Edrian, and Princess Consort all looked at their cups quietly, as their faces turned red, but Tundra only looked at the abbot and remembered all the perils  and moments shared. "It has been more than centuries since I used the Three True Bells, Lord Fox. But I do look forward to the day I have the reason to take it out again."

Tundra laughed, as the memories of the man's face emerged, his bright, radiant smile when the Three True Bells finally crushed the Zuja's beast. "I know. I remember the joy on your face when you felt the resonance of the Three Bells. Alas, it became a crutch of sorts. We kept using it until it broke." 

"It broke?" The Abbot leaned over and refilled the wine. Tundra lost count of how many he drank. "How?"

"You used it on one of the avatars when we fought in the ruins of the Goldenclaw. The spiritual weight of the bell slammed on the mutant woman, but wasn't enough to kill her. So you turned the bell into a hammer and slammed it into her face. The monster actually tried to bite through the bell, and the bell cracked. You were really desperate." 

"Well, now we know that the Three True Bells are not made of unbreakable steel after all." The abbot laughed heartily, and Grand Abbot Ungkai's cup clinked, as he downed a cup too. Tundra lost count how many cups he had. "How did you meet my old friend? The one that gave you the urn."

"You sent me." Tundra sat, and looked at the cup. "You were dying, and told me that I should drag your corpse to his front door and demand that he do something."

Ungkai stared blankly in disbelief, and his jaw slackened. Then he laughed. And he laughed some more. Grandduke Edrian's face looked pale. "I think that is beyond what a dreamworld should be able to do, Lord Fox. Are you sure what you had was a dreamworld?"

"Dreamworld or not, it is exactly what I would do." Ungkai laughed. "Did he do something? Or am I not worth his damned time?"

"He did. But it was still too late for us all." 

Ungkai beamed, as if truly, truly pleased with himself. "I knew he still cared. That old fool. He claims to hide away as if the world would forget him. Some of us are foolish, but he is stubborn and foolish! But at least, I know he still did not lose his love for his disciples."

Ah. So Ungkai was one of his disciples.

"And so, did he send you back?" Ungkai stared and asked. 

"He sent me back?" The regressor froze, as his mind tried to wrap itself around the question. "I do not know for certain." 

"That is like him." Ungkai finished. "Maybe it is not him. But no matter, dreamworld or a vision of the future, we deal with the now. Now, let us get down to the real things of why we are all here. Do you mean any harm, Lord Fox?" 

"No. Never." 

"Good. Then my real interrogation. Why are you doing this?" The abbot's question was now more direct, but Tundra had to admit that he spent a lot of time with the abbot in the last days of his first life that he honestly felt like he was in the presence of an old friend. So he didn't care. 

His friend deserved the truth. 

"A strong Emperor deters these things, as they appear to be ancient enemies. The power of the Golden Dragon might be our best chance to suppress these bug parasites from destroying the world. A strong Emperor can fight them, unite the conflicting sects, and put a stop to their plans." 

"Are they?" The Abbot turned to Grandduke Edrian and the Princess.

The Princess shook her head. "Father did not elaborate. But, the Golden Dragon seems to recognize these things."

"Now, now. Is that really all?" The Abbot refilled the Princess's cup. Princess Luharl looked awkward. "The Crown asks for my assistance, surely, I deserve the truth."

Princess Luharl finished the cup, and felt her cultivation churn. She wore a mask that covered most of her face, and her aura twisted the room around her. "No. There is none. The Golden Dragon does not speak of it."

"Then why did you keep our dear friend here? What does the pill do?" The Abbot's attention now turned to the Princess. Tundra knew enough that the abbot must have read whatever briefing, but he was the type that liked to hear things from the horse's mouth.

"It makes us live longer. It turns spatial space into lifespan, and the Emperor fears for the creatures out there. The longer he has left, the more he has to offer to the Golden Dragon if a conflict comes around." 

The Abbot looked at Tundra. "How and where did you learn to make this?"

"Nowhere. I sensed the Princess's innate spatial strength, and the way her soul seems to twist space in Luharlia, and thought a spatial focused pill would be most appropriate. I had not known it was so intertwined with their life." 

"Good." The Abbot looked at the Princess, and refilled the cups of the Princess. The effects of the leviathan's wine was strong enough even for the Golden Dragon. "What are your plans for Lord Fox and me after this?"

"Lord Fox must share his notes and recipes for this pill, and we will send enough hidden protectors to ensure he is safe, but without attracting the attention of the monsters hidden in the dark. We do not dare to have plans for the Abbot." It was the Consort who answered, the effects of the wine stronger than the Princess. She still managed to resist some of the leviathan wine's effects, and hesitated. "Our Emperor is concerned that such a powerful discovery is lost forever."

"Good, good." The abbot looked at Tundra. "You have become a very important man."

"Only the formula and recipe is. Once someone else replicates it, my value diminishes." Tundra admitted. 

With every new pill, the inventor has a lot of inherent knowledge and tweaks to make a pill work. But once the recipe is out there, eventually other talented alchemists will eventually figure out the quirks of the process, and would often create improvements. 

"True, but as the pioneer, or perhaps, the first who rediscovered this great method, you have insights to the pill that others do not. It would take centuries before someone ever attempts the same thing." Grandduke Edrian said as he rubbed his glowing red face. The wine was harsh on him, and his eyes looked red. Tundra could feel his energies racing, his heart pumping blood furiously throughout his veins. "But I have heard enough. Here, a different wine. This time, this one is all for the taste and experience."

The abbot placed a beautiful carved stone gourd on the table, and poured the new wine for each of them.

Tundra took a cup, and instantly felt his mind clear. Light. 

He remembered the warm, dim lights of the taverns, and his sworn brothers, Severian, Jon and Jashen gathered together. They were so young then. Their worries were few. Their sect was small.

But he missed that day. The days when he and his brothers could hit the taverns of the cities, drink their night away and be merry. 

"Come, come. The miserable part of our drinking session is over." The abbot said, his face clearly red as well. "Now, we drink for joy."

They all drank as well. 

"It has been a long while since I last drank and everyone around me was red and drunk!" Tundra admitted, the words were not filtered in his mind. 

He briefly saw his own friends. He saw the abbot's dead body, a gigantic insectoid horn pierced through his soul and flesh. He felt sorrow. He could see him there on the floor, the entire mountain fortress covered in the blood and excrements of the fallen. 

The foul stench of those who died but he couldn't bury because using too much of his spiritual energies would lure the Zuja. 

So many dead people in his first life, and he didn't even have the time to mourn their deaths properly. 

It was then, for reasons unknown to even himself, the weight of centuries and eons of sorrow came all at once, and Tundra broke. 

He felt the yearnings for all the things he lost. He felt the call of all the moments with friends and family that he missed. He looked out of the small window, into the distance, but nowhere in particular. His mind was overwhelmed by the past.

Though the leviathan-infused wine had already begun to fade, Tundra spoke words that he only shared with Celestia and Jon

"In the end, it was just a few of us. Me. Ember Talons. Patriarch Whitedragon, Edwin Grayhall, and Master Eshen. So few of us stood at the end, those final days against the creature. 13th realm, or more, I know not for certain. A creature of the beyond. The world's defenses torn to shreds, as monsters pierced through reality and leaked into ours. They turned my wife into one of the avatars of the insects, and turned Ember Talon's own master into another avatar too. We died then, and in the end, I woke up here in this life, 10,000 years in the past. Maybe it is some kind of dreamworld. Maybe it is not." 

Abbot Ungkai squeezed Tundra's shoulder gently. "Many often call these experiences dreamworlds, but the pain, misery, and memories are very real, and they are real to you. A toast, then, to those who died in your world."

The abbot did not offer a cup. Instead, he handed Tundra the whole urn of wine. He too, reached for another. 

The two urns clinked briefly, and he drank as if he had thousands of foul memories to wash down. 

Tundra remembered nothing after that.

[ Notes : Alright, as I wrote this, i felt like I should add some flashbacks during the earlier part of book 3 to show Tundra and the Grand Abbot Ungkai's interactions in his first life. The abbot is a drunk wise man that's sort of the guy who made Tundra realize how he fked up, and I thought I should expand on this. Ah, such is the life of writing serials. :S.

I'll probably add them progressively over the next few weeks once I write them. Thanks for your understanding ]