"Haha! Senior Brother Liu, it really is you!" Li Xiaoya said excitedly. "That's right! It's me!"
"Haha! Junior Brother Li, is it really you?!" The blue-robed cultivator grew equally excited. He strode up to Li Xiaoya in a few quick steps and reached out to pat his shoulder.
"Hey!" Li Xiaoya darted aside and laughed. "Senior Brother Liu, shouldn't you show your real face first?"
"Oh! I would have forgotten if you hadn't reminded me!" Liu Qingshan paused, withdrew his hand from midair, and brushed it across his face, peeling off something as thin as a cicada's wing. Beneath it was the familiar face Li Xiaoya remembered. He looked a little more mature, but otherwise had hardly changed.
"Haha, you're still as handsome and dashing as ever, Senior Brother Liu!" Li Xiaoya said with a flattering laugh.
"Hehe! You, on the other hand, have grown up so much that I could hardly recognize you! But that glib tongue of yours hasn't changed a bit! Haha!" Liu Qingshan chuckled and patted his shoulder. This time, Li Xiaoya did not dodge and let him do it.
"Oh, right! Senior Brother Liu!" Li Xiaoya suddenly said. "This isn't the place to talk. Let's find somewhere we can catch up properly!"
"All right! Let me deal with this corpse!" With that, Liu Qingshan thrust his palm toward the Daoist's thoroughly charred corpse. With a whoosh, flames burst from it, reducing it to a heap of powder in moments.
"Senior Brother Liu, where have you been all these years?"
By then, Li Xiaoya and Liu Qingshan were sitting on the ground atop a towering cliff, letting the mountain breeze wash over them as they talked.
"All these years, huh!" Liu Qingshan recounted his experiences in full. They were not much different from those of other