Chapter 856: The Weight of Helplessness (Patreon)

This week of rest had given me plenty to be pleased about, whether it be my thriving inner world or seeing the progress my masters had made, but there was still one visit that hadn’t gone as well as I’d hoped.

After Elder Chen Yong had disappeared, I had nothing to do, so I had decided to pay a visit to Wei Lin, who had been moved to the recovery pavilions behind the Medicine Hall a few weeks ago.

The karma technique keeping his corruption asleep no longer needed a Civilisation Realm expert watching over it, which meant he didn’t need to be kept hidden in the Sect Master’s quarters.

When I entered the room, the first thing I noticed was the sleeping figure in the centre of the room. Wei Lin’s skin had faded to a dull grey, and his cheeks had sunk in since the last time I’d seen him. On his neck, I could see thin lines of red and blue moving slowly under the skin. They crept up towards his jaw, then stopped, because golden threads were wrapped around his wrists and chest, pulsing every few breaths and pushing the colours back down.

Seeing the guy who had called me his sworn brother in front of his entire family like this made my chest tighten. And it only got worse when I remembered that the last time he was conscious, he had been driven to his knees in the celebration party, begging me to save him.

I couldn’t save him then, and I couldn’t save him now, which was difficult for me to accept. However, the reality of the situation was that saving him wasn’t only on my shoulders, like Azure had reminded me many times before, it was a group responsibility. And seeing the room full of those who cared about Wei Lin confirmed that for me.

On his right side, Lin Mei sat on a stool, holding his right hand in both of hers, and her jade pendant, the one linked to his, hung from her wrist.

At the foot of the bed sat his mother, Wei Ting, she was smoothing a blanket that was already smooth, and by the window, there was the older brother, Wei Guang, who was staring into the distance with a helpless look in his eyes.

At the back of the room, leaning against the wall with his hands folded was someone I recognised and hadn’t expected to see here, Chen Wu. This was the young cultivator I had once blown into a crater to win my Wind Essence. And in the chair closest to the pillow sat Wei Ye, his head low and his hand tightly holding his son’s left hand as he whispered something that even my enhanced hearing couldn’t pick up.

From what I’d heard from Lin Mei, ever since the Wei Family had heard the news, they had made sure that there was always someone from the household there to sit by Wei Lin’s side. And it seemed that today was one of those days where nobody wanted to leave.

When the sound of the door clicking shut ran throughout the room, everyone turned to look at me, even Wei Guang turned away from the window. All of their eyes were full of hope and fear of what I might be coming with.

“Did you find the tree?” Lin Mei asked, her voice hoarse.

Not being able to say the words, I just shook my head and looked away.

Everyone’s heads seemed to lower at the news, or more accurately, the lack thereof. Seeing the despair on their faces made me want to punch something, preferably the Otherworldly Being that was causing problems all over the multiverse.

“I’m sure something will turn up sooner or later.”

They all looked at me with red eyes, waiting for me to explain how I could be so certain, and I wanted to tell them, I really did, but I knew how it would sound.

For most people, karma was a word used to explain luck after something had already happened. Mortal grandmothers burned incense to keep it on their side, while cultivators blamed it whenever a breakthrough failed. It was only karmic cultivators who understood how real it was and how overpowered it could be.

So, what was I supposed to say? Don’t worry guys, I just saved a world, so the Heavens owe me one? They would think the stress had finally gotten to me, and honestly, I would think the same if I were in their shoes.

“Nephew, you do not need to make promises,” Wei Ting said, walking over to me and taking my hands in hers. “We already know that you are doing everything you can for him. That is enough. You are a good friend to my boy, better than he deserves.”

“Madam Wei…” I began, looking at the loose strands of hair hung around her face and the dark rings under her eyes that told me she hadn’t slept properly for who knows how long.

“Auntie,” she corrected, and despite everything, she smiled. “How many times do I need to tell you children?”

“Auntie Wei.”

“Better.” She squeezed my hands. “I am proud of you,” she went on, looking me up and down. “I still remember when you first came to our home with my son and that little boy with the rock. You were so small, sitting at my table, trying to eat your soup quietly while my husband questioned you. And now look at you. You are already an elder. Oh, how time flies.”

That…that wasn’t true.

The physical changes weren’t much; all my cultivation had done was give me a more noble presence by refining my features. I had very much been a young man during the visit to their home, and I was still a young man now. I definitely hadn’t been a kid, but I didn’t argue because I understood that like all aunties, she meant well, and that was what mattered.

“Congratulations on becoming an elder,” Wei Guang bowed his head. “Father saw potential in you from the very first night.”

My memories of the first night were actually quite different. From what I remembered, Wei Ye had heard the words ‘tailor’s son’ and dismissed me in favour of bargaining over Rocky. In fact, it was only after slamming Chen Wu into a crater did the patriarch start making me offers, very aggressive offers at that.

Still, I wasn’t going to correct the heir of the Wei family over something as small as this, so I simply nodded with a polite smile.

As for the patriarch himself, Wei Ye didn’t react at all to my cultivation breakthrough, his eyes stayed fixed on his son. This only reinforced what I already suspected of the man. Wei Ye might be many things in the business world, but he was a man who put his family above everything else.

“Elder Ke,” Chen Wu greeted me, pushing himself off the wall to walk over to me. “To see that you’ve become an elder so quickly, I have to say I’m honoured that I had the opportunity to spar with you.”

As he bowed, I noticed a patch of old scar tissue on his forearm, and I was fairly sure it belonged to my Explosive Seeds.

“I got lucky,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “If things were a little different, you would have won.” What I actually meant was that without my trip to the Two Suns World, there was no way in hell I was reaching a stalemate, never mind dominating the duel. “And congratulations on your own breakthrough, I can see that you’ve broken to the sixth stage of Qi Condensation.”

“Thank you, Elder.” Chen Wu gave me a small smile. “But it is nothing compared to the Stellar Realm.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it again because he wasn’t wrong given that there were in fact a few more minor stages and an entire Elemental Realm between us. It was still difficult to believe that only a year ago, I had been worried about how I would win in the duel. Yet now, a mere blast of spiritual aura could bring a hundred Chen Wus to the floor.

However, while cultivation realm did matter, I wasn’t one of those people that judged someone’s worth by their realm. Not to mention, Chen Wu didn’t have the same advantages that I did, he didn’t have a Genesis Seed that let him world walk and spend months in a different realm only for a few hours to pass in this one. No, everything he earned had cost him years of sweat, blood, and struggle. There were no shortcuts, and that deserved respect.

Before I could find the words to tell him that, something at the edge of my vision made me stop.

Wei Ye’s eyes had narrowed.

I had seen that look once before, at family game night, when a guard burst in to report that the Sun family had hired a Stellar Realm expert to wipe out the Wei family. Wei Ye had walked out and then that same night, he was brought back so close to death that only my Blue Sun energy could save him. It was only a few days later that Wei Guang casually mentioned that the Sun family’s expert had vanished overnight.

I hadn’t needed Azure to explain what had happened then, and I didn’t need him now. That look meant Wei Ye had made up his mind to take a big risk.

“Uncle,” I said carefully. “Please be careful. Something will come up. We just need to be patient.”

“Thank you for your concern, Ke Yin,” Wei Ye said, looking into my eyes for the first time. The gaze of steel almost made me flinch. “But when you reach my age and see what I have seen, you learn that opportunities rarely come to those who sit and wait. You have to make your own.”

I didn’t say anything. What could I say?

Wei Ye was a father, and this was his son lying on that bed. The man deserved to make his own choices. All I could hope was that whatever he was planning, he wouldn’t do something he would regret.

I had heard plenty of stories about the lengths people would go to for the ones they loved, and they were just stories from Earth where everyone was ordinary. 

Wei Ye was far from that, and as my eyes dropped to the white pendant on his chest, I remembered what he had told me the day I left his home, that some paths, once they were walked, they could never be fully abandoned.

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