Chapter 660 - Reunion (I) (Patreon)

The base of the first mountain in Nive Heavens Range was a rather peculiar place. It was an intersection of four terrain features(?) that all didn't really blend together, but more so were awkwardly stacked against each other.

To the west was a rather dry stretch of flat land ending in a sheer cliff drop into the vast lake. There were no blades of grass, no boulders jutting out, not much of anything but the brown dirt and the jagged edges of the cliff. To the south was the mountain itself. It wasn't particularly tall or wide, its midsection entirely drowning in a thick canopy of trees, making it difficult to discern where this mountain ended and its neighbor began.

Further to the south and then west were two kinds of forests that looked like a bad painting in a sense. There was no separation between them, there was no blending between them. They just stood side by side, as different as they could be. One was Heavenly Dew Grove itself, an oak temperate forest with leaves that bled colors. It was actually kind of hard to look at it directly as the leaves seemed to glisten under the sunlight. Next to it was its exact opposite--a pine forest that nuzzled the mountain's base and crawled up its side, carving out a small space for itself.

Unlike Heavenly Dew Grove, the trees were just their own ordinary green color at the very least, but in the span of the terrain here, it being ordinary kind of made it extraordinary. Or I'm just blubbering.

I didn't bring out the mountain as this was quite a busy highway area. We've been camping here for just short of a day and have already spotted six flying artifacts and about a hundred or so cultivators just flying about. A good number of them, I imagine, were headed to the same place we were that was just past the mountains, but, at least, nobody bothered us.

The kids dispersed about, with some cultivating, some sparring, and one staring off into the distance of a lake with a forlorn look in his eyes that I recognized immediately. He was a teenage boy having teenage boy struggles, which made it hard to ignore him. But ignore him I will. It didn't look like he had a grasp on what was happening, so until he figures himself out, I'll stay well out of it.

Besides, it's not as though I had no worries of my own. There's a reunion afoot, and I've never been good with those. Not that I had too many in my life back on Earth, but those that I did have... well, they weren't all that fun.

Especially the one about, what was it, three months before I died? I ran into an old friend from college and he kind of sort of forced me into going to a mini-reunion with him. There were about fifteen or so people there, about half of whom I could roughly remember, though it hardly mattered. I was miserable the entire night, within and without, and because they all walked on eggshells with me there, nobody had any fun.

Well, this one's not gonna be that depressing, I imagine, but there's still the whole backdrop of 'we're the only survivors of the literal sect purge where thousands died'. There's no joy in remembering that, and even less with someone who lived through it even more directly than I did. Will we even recognize each other at this point? Shit, will we have anything to talk about at all? Though I don't think I'm that different from back then, I have changed. Will he find my callous approach to life now disappointing, considering the kind of naive and 'innocent' shit I used to spew back then?

Haah.

Part of me, I guess, still doesn't believe this. I've sort of buried him with the rest of the sect, carving out a small space in my heart and mind where they resided. Suddenly being told that he's alive and that he's coming to see me... I don't know. It's like disassociation of sorts, where I'm consciously waiting here, but subconsciously 'know' it's not gonna happen.

I took out a gourd of wine and walked over to the edge, sitting down. One good news--well, among a few--was that the problem of spirit stones has been solved. Our current stash will last the kids awhile, and since we're going to the island where we'll presumably be in position to thieve--I mean liberate--a good chunk of spirit stones, there won't come any more days where the kids are cultivating Qi in the atmosphere that's so thin and toxic it's like looking for fresh air in Delhi or something.

It was on the sixth hour of our arrival, give or take, that a stir of Qi from the south rather than the north alerted me. I looked over and saw a pair of shadows emerge from the mountains and descend toward us, both landing some twenty feet from me. One was Jin Hua, and she didn't stay long, breaking away and joining Lan'er.

The other was a man I... recognized, I think. Parts of him were there, still, though they were barely discernable. His eyes. His posture. And maybe the vague air about him. The rest, though, were all of a new person that I'd never met before.

He stared at me for a good minute before suddenly walking over, spreading out his arms, and bear-hugging me so tightly that I felt my bones creak under the pressure. Before I could utter a sound, I felt his tears trickle onto my back as his kind of massive body (seriously, he was wider AND taller than me) quivered. I smiled faintly and hugged him, too, patting his back as if I was consoling a child and not a grown-ass dude that was like two hundred years old.

"You're really alive," he mumbled some minute into a hug, just barely stopping his crying. "You're alive..."

"And you've become quite a crybaby," I said as he pulled back, still holding my shoulders and keeping me firmly in place as if scared that if he let me go, I'd, you know, go.

"And you still have the same annoying mouth," he said.

"That's just you. Ask any of my kids and they'll tell you the only thing that comes out of my mouth is wisdom."

"Hm. How come I cannot believe a single word in that sentence?"

"I see you've gotten smarter."

"Ah, you bastard," he sighed, finally letting go of me and ruffling his hair in frustration for a moment. "Can't we have had a normal, emotional reunion? Did you have to ruin it?"

"I'm not sure about others, but I'm patently uncomfortable having an old geezer openly weeping on my shoulder," I said. "Now, if you were a heavenly beauty..."

"Tsk. Even trees change in five years, little Qi. How come you're the same?"

"Why would perfection need changing?"

"... haah," he sighed and chuckled, once again hugging me. "It's really you."

"Master, who is that?" the kids slowly converged around us one by one, curious as he old Qin pulled back, looking around at them.

"Oh, just some creepy old man who was awestruck by your Master's handsomeness."

"Have some shame, you bastard," the old man grunted before his gaze mellowed out as he looked at the kids. "You lot... you've really grown up, haven't you?"

"Eh? That voice?" Zhao'er frowned. "Elder... Qin?"

"Ho ho, to think little sword genius remembers me."

"Elder Qin!" the few among the group who knew him rushed over and bowed as he gently patted their heads, laughing all the while.

Alright, old man. Let's see just how in god's name did you survive. O' Dao Sight of the wall, who's the weirdest of them all?

... wow. Good thing nobody can hear my thoughts. Good thing indeed.