Chapter 75: Of Course the Invincible Power of Creation Is Used When Going Down the Mountain! (Patreon)

After breakfast, everyone went back to their rooms to pack.

Wise returned to his room, dug his phone and power bank out of his bag, thought for a second, and stuffed in a pack of tissues too.

Belle was making a great deal more noise than he was. Through the wall came the racket of drawers being ransacked, tangled with muffled shouts of "Found it!" and "This is coming too!"

He changed into a pair of light sneakers, zipped his jacket halfway, and fussed at his bangs in front of the mirror.

His short silver-grey hair still had that careless mess to it.

Whatever. He'd never expected to slick it back anyway.

Pushing the screen aside, Wise glanced into the side room where Belle slept.

A shoulder bag the size of half a suitcase lay open on the bed, crammed with a power bank, snacks, sunscreen, a Waifei Peninsula food guide, and a stuffed toy that had found its way in at some point.

"Are you going shopping or moving house?"

"Bro, if you don't bring a bigger bag, you won't have anywhere to put what we buy!" Belle shoved the toy down and yanked the zipper shut. "I looked it up. There are tons of limited-edition merch shops in the Waifei Peninsula commercial district, and if I run into something cute—"

"Fine, fine, whatever makes you happy."

"Don't forget, though. The Creation Talismans Big Bro Miguel gave us can hold things."

"Ah! I almost forgot!"

Before long the two of them were out the door, one behind the other, following the flagstone path toward the sect gate.

As they passed the training hall, a few young sect members in grey training clothes were sweeping inside.

One of them looked up, spotted Wise and Belle, and called out first.

"Senior Brother Wise, Junior Sister Belle. Heading down the mountain?"

"Mm. It's a day off," Wise said with a nod.

"Your first time down. Have fun!"

The sect member gave a small smile and bent back to his sweeping.

Belle tilted her head to watch him, then leaned close to Wise's ear and whispered, "Bro, all the senior disciples here are so friendly."

"Isn't that normal?"

"No, I mean…" Belle scratched her cheek. "When we went to Section 6 to see Sister Miyabi, there was always a bit of distance between the full investigators and the interns. But it doesn't feel like that at Yunkui Summit at all."

Wise thought about it. She had a point.

He'd been at Yunkui Summit for over a month now, and what struck him most was how completely this place lacked the old sect divide between "personal disciples" and "outer disciples."

Yixuan had taken Ju Fufu, Ye Shiyuan and the others as her personal disciples, but they all ate and trained together, and nobody's quarters were set apart.

The sect members who had joined earlier greeted them like anyone else. Nobody put on airs, and nobody went out of their way to curry favor.

"It probably comes down to Master Yixuan's style," Wise said. "There aren't many rules here at Yunkui Summit."

"Mm-hmm. Master Yixuan really isn't the stiff, formal kind of Sect Master." Belle hugged her bag to her chest, her N-shaped hair clip flashing in the sunlight. "But even if she looks lazy most of the time, she's actually done a lot, hasn't she?"

"How do you know that?"

"Senior Sister Fufu let it slip once." Belle counted off on her fingers. "Master helped with the reconstruction after the disaster on the Waifei Peninsula. She took Hollow commissions in New Eridu. She was even there for the Battle of New Eridu—"

"Senior Sister Fufu said Master was on her way to that one, actually." Belle's voice dropped a little. "It's just that the domains those three Authority-class Calamities put up were so huge that she got cut off outside and couldn't reach the battlefield in time."

Wise didn't answer.

Unlike Belle, he'd lived through that battlefield himself.

The scale of that fight really had been beyond imagining. Three Authority-class Calamities unfolding their domains at once, the coverage so vast that even Miguel had to break them one at a time.

If Yixuan had truly set out from Yunkui Summit, being walled off by a domain on the way was nothing surprising.

"It's all in the past," Wise said. "Come on. Let's not keep everyone waiting."

They picked up the pace, rounded the last stretch of stone steps, and found the open ground before the sect gate already crowded.

Ju Fufu crouched beside one of the gate pillars tying her shoelaces, tiger tail draped over her leg and swishing back and forth.

Pan Yinhu stood on the other side with a small pack slung over his back.

Ye Shiyuan stood beneath the sect gate, arms folded, half-rim glasses catching the sun, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

Little Guang stood next to him, head down, checking that her hair hadn't come out of place.

You had to admit, those two were perfectly in sync.

Miguel stood furthest out.

He'd changed into an aggressively casual outfit, shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, and had even swapped his shoes for a pair of flip-flops in the local Waifei Peninsula style.

Seeing Wise and Belle arrive, Miguel lifted his sunglasses half an inch, revealing the amber eyes beneath. "Yo~ you made it?"

Ju Fufu looked up and her tiger ears sprang straight. "Come on, come on, we were only waiting for you two!"

"Senior Sister Fufu, your shoelace still isn't tied."

"Huh? Oh!"

She looked down. The lace on her left shoe was indeed hanging loose, and she dropped back into a crouch to redo it.

Pan Yinhu sighed beside her. "Senior Sister, do you not check before you leave the house?"

"I did check! I checked the right foot!"

"…And the left?"

"The left one came undone by itself. Not my fault."

Wise's mouth twitched. Flawless logic. Truly.

Ye Shiyuan pushed up his glasses and straightened off the gate pillar.

He swept a look over the group, confirmed everyone was present, and spoke. "Everybody ready?"

"Ready, ready!" Ju Fufu bounced upright, tiger tail slapping the air. "Let's go, let's go!"

The whole noisy crowd streamed out through the sect gate and started down the stone stairway.

The mountain road at Yunkui Summit wasn't especially steep, but it wound constantly, the steps were uneven, and moss grew over some of them, so you had to watch your footing.

Tall pines and firs rose on either side, their branches weaving a half-transparent dome overhead. Sunlight leaked through the gaps and scattered dappled spots across the ground.

Belle led the way, her bag bouncing on her shoulder, her steps quick and light.

Ju Fufu kept pace beside her, the two girls already arguing over which street to hit first once they got down.

Pan Yinhu walked in the middle, leafing through a small notebook as he worked out the budget with Ye Shiyuan.

Ye Shiyuan answered now and then, but mostly he just listened.

Little Guang walked beside Wise, her droopy ears swaying gently behind her head.

She didn't say much, but the smile never left her face, and she looked at everything as if it were brand new.

Wise noticed that every so often she would raise her head toward the foot of the mountain, give her ears a little shake, and keep walking.

"Looking forward to it, Little Guang?"

"Mm." She nodded, her voice light. "It's been a long time since I've been down."

"How long?"

She thought about it, ears flattening once before perking back up. "Three years and change."

Wise didn't press.

He knew why she'd been kept on the mountain, and he knew what those three years meant to her.

Some things didn't need saying. Walking beside her was enough.

Belle reached a bend, stopped, and looked down.

The stone steps snaked away below, turning through several curves before disappearing into the trees. There was no end in sight.

She turned back around with disappointment written all over her face.

"—How much longer do we have to walk?"

Ju Fufu jogged up from behind and craned her neck for a look. "About three hours? Depends on your pace. Two if we move fast."

"Three hours?!" Belle's expression collapsed. "It'll be almost noon by the time we get down there! And then it's another half hour to walk back, so the time we actually get to spend down there is—"

"That's just how it always is." Ju Fufu scratched a tiger ear. "You get used to it. There's no direct transport from the sect gate to the Waifei Peninsula city district. Master can go back and forth quickly with the Azure Empyrean Bird, but the rest of us walk."

"The Azure Empyrean Bird?"

"Never heard of it? That's Master's battle companion!"

Little Guang, catching the conversation between Belle and Ju Fufu, wore a slightly awkward look. She could ride her sword down the mountain with her sword case, but it couldn't carry this many people.

"Haah…" Belle let out a sigh, and her steps slowed noticeably.

Ju Fufu patted her shoulder. "It's fine, it's fine. Going down is fast and going up is the slow part, so we'll just take it easy on the way back."

"I guess~"

Belle was halfway through the words when something struck her and her eyes lit up.

She whirled around toward Miguel, who was walking at the very back.

"Big Bro Miguel!"

Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Use that invincible Power of Creation of yours and think of something!" Belle pressed her palms together, as earnest as a girl making a wish. "If we walk the whole way, half the day is gone before we even reach the bottom! Our vacation is going to be wasted on the road!"

Ju Fufu's tiger ears shot bolt upright. "?! Wait, does Brother Miguel actually have a way?"

Miguel looked around at all their faces.

It was obvious enough. Every one of them had been counting on this trip.

He laughed. Not loudly, but it carried clearly along the mountain path.

"Not a problem."

Miguel waved a hand casually at his side.

Belle, expecting something dramatic, took an instinctive half step back.

Then she saw it.

Pale blue light welled up around them, flowing like water, spreading out through the air.

The glow wasn't harsh on the eyes. It was more like a pool of warm liquid jade, rippling faintly in the sun, washing every face around it in a clear, gentle blue.

The light spread from beneath Miguel's feet and ran forward along the stone steps like a thin sheet of water, passing over one ankle after another.

Ju Fufu watched it stream across the tops of her feet, tiger ears twitching. "Whoa… that's beautiful."

Pan Yinhu reached out a broad bear paw and touched the light. His thick palm came away wrapped in pale blue, and he stared for a couple of seconds. "This… this is Mr. Miguel's Power of Creation?"

Ye Shiyuan didn't move, but the hand pushing up his glasses stopped in midair, the blue glow mirrored in his crimson eyes.

Little Guang crouched down and reached out to touch the light on the ground.

The instant her fingertips met it, warmth ran from her fingers into her palm and on up to her wrist.

Her mouth curved without her meaning it to.

Belle was already bouncing on her toes. "Big Bro Miguel, you're so cool!"

"All right, all right. Everyone stand steady, and try not to fall over in a second here," Miguel said.

Belle snapped upright.

Miguel scanned the group once more and confirmed that everybody was inside the reach of the Power of Creation.

"Then off we go."

"Should we close our eyes?"

"No need." Then he changed his mind. "Actually, never mind. Open works too."

"So which is it?!" Ju Fufu was getting frantic.

"Your call."

The words had barely left him when the pale blue light flared.

Then every body in the group turned transparent at once.

The stone steps underfoot were gone. The pines overhead were gone. Everything around them dissolved into one flowing sweep of blue.

The whole thing took less than three seconds.

The blue light scattered.

Ju Fufu's footing lurched out from under her and she pitched forward, completely out of control.

Belle's hand shot out, caught her by the back of the collar, and hauled the orange cat bodily back upright.

Then everyone's feet were on solid ground again.

A flagstone road.

Buildings of every height crowded both sides.

There were shop signs along the street, pedestrians coming and going, vehicles rolling past in the distance.

The air carried the smell of food.

The entrance to the Waifei Peninsula city district.

Ju Fufu was the first to come back to herself.

She looked down at the road under her feet, then up at the buildings around her. Her tiger ears went from flat to fully upright in about one second.

"We're here already?"

"Yep." Miguel stood at the roadside and gave a soft laugh. "Now everybody has plenty of time to take this holiday nice and slow."

"Yesss—!" Ju Fufu's voice climbed an octave. "That was way too fast!"

"Looks like from now on, if we want to get down the mountain, Brother Miguel's the one to ask."

Pan Yinhu looked down at the pavement, then up at the sky, got his bearings, and nodded heavily. "This really is the entrance to the Waifei Peninsula commercial district. I never imagined Mr. Miguel's ability was this incredible."

Belle was already hopping in place, her bag jumping on her shoulder. "Big Bro Miguel! Thank goodness you warned me. I'd almost forgotten what you have to watch out for when you open a teleport!"

"That's exactly why I reminded you just now. You've got a quick head on you, girl. Otherwise your Senior Sister would have gone down face-first."

Little Guang stood where she was.

She looked out at the streets and the passersby in a kind of daze, sunlight and shop-sign lights reflected in her ruby eyes.

Three years.

She was finally standing at the foot of the mountain again.

"Little Guang?" Wise called from beside her.

She turned her head, mouth curved, eyes a little red, but smiling wide.

"I'm fine," she said. "It's just… I'm really happy."

Wise looked at her for two seconds, said nothing more, and simply stepped aside to give her the best view of the street.

Ju Fufu couldn't hold back another moment and draped her Tiger Claw over Belle's shoulder. "Come on, come on! Food first! I know this one place that's amazing—"

"In that case, Senior Sister, you take the juniors on ahead. I'm going to go meet the supplier I arranged with over at the ingredient market first."

Pan Yinhu pushed his sunglasses up.

"Huh? Junior Brother Yinhu isn't coming?" Ju Fufu looked genuinely put out. "I was hoping to see whether you could recreate their flavors."

"I'll be along soon. I'll be along soon."

"That's a promise."

"Absolutely."

Left with no choice, Ju Fufu gave in, swung her tiger tail in a circle, and turned to Ye Shiyuan. "Then Junior Brother Ye comes with us!"

Ye Shiyuan pushed up his glasses and nodded. "Sure, I'll go with everyone," he said. "I'll head over and meet up with Yinhu afterward."

"That works too."

"See you in a bit, then."

Pan Yinhu parted from the group and set off for the spot he'd arranged.

The rest of them walked on.

And their holiday on the Waifei Peninsula began.