Chapter 75

  Tiny Parts of the Whole (II)

  I stayed at the cliffside for a long while, trying to calm down.

  Freakin' scary!

  So, so scary!

  Even Long Tao hasn't yet mastered it, and this dude did it in literally five minutes! How the hell does that make any sense? Oh God, why did I give it to him?! I opened up a can of worms that can't be closed anymore...

  Haah.

  Yet another sigh escapes me as I stand up. Look, I've gotten pretty good at it, you know? Pretending that everything is fine while I'm falling apart inside. So, I'll just do that. Compartmentalize the knowledge that a servant has mastered a mid-Sky Tier art in the span of five minutes.

  Poof.

  What mastery? What minutes?

  On my way back I did chance upon him again, actually, but due to my amazing compartmentalization skills, he didn't realize anything was wrong. I think. I hope.

  He merely bowed and went back to doing... something, while I rounded the corner and entered the house, where a guest was waiting for me: Elder Qin. There was a chess table already present, pieces aligned, and he seemed rather eager to play.

  "Elder Lu,"

  "Elder Qin," I nodded back at him. Ever since I went into the Antechamber, he'd grown... looser around me, you could say. Maybe something about that little adventure confirmed he at least had nothing to fear? Who knows... "Wait a moment. I'll make us some tea."

  "Very well. Where is your disciple that usually makes it?"

  "Ah, she broke through, so I gave her some stones to go down the mountain and buy us all a nice dinner for a treat."

  "Oh? She broke through to the second stage? That's quite impressive!"

  "... yeah, second stage," I stumbled and cringed a bit, though thankfully I was in the other room. "Quite impressive indeed."

  "What about Xi Zhao?"

  "I sent him down with her."

  "The other kid? Long Tao, I think?"

  "He's... around," I didn't really even know if he was around. Ever since he got that cloaking art, he'd become a bit of a... ghost. "You seem awfully interested in their happenings. Everything alright?"

  "You've promised a victory, after all. I need to make sure."

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  "Ah. Fair," I cursed inwardly as the water began to boil while I finely cut the tea leaves. "Any news about Xi Zhao's family?"

  "Oh, yes. That is why I came today, mostly," he said. "There is something untoward happening in the Sunlight Town."

  "Untoward? Untoward how?" I leaned back and glanced at him as he stroked his beard. Tsk, they sure loved doing it.

  "I first sent a pair of servants from my peak," he said. "Just the first stage ilk, but with a lot of worldly experience. However, I hadn't gotten anything back from them in over four days. Considering I sent them down with the Spirit Horses, that journey should have taken two days, tops, and they had with them our Spirit Parchments. But they never sent anything back."

  "Oh."

  "I then sent one of my Inner Disciples to just observe and return immediately," the old man said as I poured in the boiling water into the two cups. "He'd gotten back just this morning, and, according to him, the entire town is shrouded in some kind of a miasma. He even felt threatened by it slightly, despite being at the peak of the Foundation Establishment."

  "A miasma? What could that mean?" I asked worriedly. I knew it! As soon as Xi Zhao became a protagonist, I just knew things about him wouldn't be ordinary any longer.

  "Ah, any number of things, really," he said. "It could be a natural Qi Storm, a demonic cultivator, or a phenomenon due to an artifact appearing there. Without examining it up close, we have no way of knowing."

  "..." hm? No, no--I have a bad feeling about this!

  "I was thinking," he played the first move as I set down the two cups. "You and your disciples could accompany me. It would be a good experience for them, and even you would get to broaden your horizons a bit."

  I fell silent for a moment, stiffening; okay, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Honestly, I thought he'd tell me to go down there and figure it out myself. But if he's offering to come, I probably won't be in any danger.

  But another worry cropped up--that this wasn't really about the town. After all, this had nothing to do with him; no, even less than nothing. He could have just tasked any other lesser Elder to go out (as they were still unaware of the trap by the Fire Sun Sect), and yet he chose to go down there himself... alongside me.

  This was a trial, you could say--he was likely going to break my ears off talking about all the paths and where they lead, just in case we eventually have to bolt.

  I felt my throat and heart squeeze a bit as he looked at me confusedly for a moment before cracking a smile.

  "I understand that you haven't left the mountains since coming here and that you'd be scared, but don't worry--I won't let anything happen to your disciples, I promise."

  "... no, no, I know," I said, swallowing back a knot and playing a move as well. "Thank you. Maybe I should let you win one, at last."

  "Ho ho, I would bend you over my knee and give you a beating of a lifetime if you did," he said with a chuckle, playing a move as well as taking a sip of the tea.

  I cracked a smile and shook my head silently, taking a sip as well. It was a bit sweeter than usual, as was the sudden silence that hung between the two of us.

  I don't get it, and perhaps I never will—this kindness. Why me? Why my disciples? He had a whole mountain-load of his own, some that had been with him for decades, and friendships with other Elders dating possibly even centuries, so why was he so fixated on helping me out? Giving me a way out in case the entire house of cards starts to collapse?

  The question went back all the way to the first time I met him, when I went to beg for some resources, and instead of being laughed at and kicked out... he gave them to me. Not even loaned, just gave. That was where it all started.

  Perhaps, all this time, he was looking for someone, and he merely settled upon me after 'testing me'. Something tells me he isn't entirely unaware of his own potential, but as for why he would bind himself to this place and then slowly instill in me the idea of running away...

  ... hmm. Elder Qin, Elder Qin, there are secrets about you that even the system cannot discern, aren't there?

  I gathered as much, in general--the system gave me a glimpse into who these people are factually, but humans could not be succinctly summed up in a few lines.

  Alas, trying to understand is pointless; I've no doubt that he will tell me sooner or later, likely giving me another potential for a heart attack. As though I didn't have enough of those already...