Homecoming

Liu Xiaowen had not returned home in three years.

The road to immortality was full of hardships. His master said he must quiet his heart and sever distracting thoughts. Only with a heart as still as a tranquil lake, untouched by wind or waves, could he be a true immortal cultivator.

His master was the sect leader, always either cultivating in seclusion or fighting magical duels. He rarely saw him.

Uncle-Master Wang was rather stern and old-fashioned. Every time he saw Liu Xiaowen, he tested his cultivation, which made him a little afraid.

Aunt-Master Wen really was like an immortal maiden from a storybook. Whenever she saw him, she pressed pills into his hands as though giving sweets to a child.

If asked whom he felt closest to, Liu Xiaowen would touch the [Fire Tiger Fang] at his waist and remember a figure busy beside that bronze furnace.

Senior Brother Qiyun always smiled, but for some reason, his face turned cold whenever he saw Uncle-Master Wang. Wasn't that his father?

Liu Xiaowen had lost his parents when he was little and did not understand all the twists and turns involved. He only thought of Liu Shengshui. Even after a beating from his grandfather, he was always cheerful.

White Ridge lay along the road between Green Luo and Longbright, not particularly far away. With Liu Xiaowen's Middle Fetal Breath cultivation, he could reach it on foot in little time.

It was noon. The village entrance looked just as it always had, with its great bluestone stele standing there.

When he was little, Liu Shengshui had brought him here to learn the characters on it one by one. He had been terribly lazy, wanting only to play, and had read them out in a wild jumble, earning himself plenty of beatings.

The roads were muddy, the thatched cottages low, and weeds grew everywhere.

Liu Xiaowen had never thought much about White Ridge before. Only after seeing Green Luo's immortal halls, golden towers, and jade pavilions did returning to the village suddenly stir a faint ache within him. He could not quite say what it was.

A yellow dog wandered around the village entrance, where several children were playing with it. Most of the village children wore coarse hemp clothes, two clear streams of snot running from their noses as they sniffled incessantly. Suddenly spotting a young Daoist standing outside the village, they all began to shout.

"An immortal's here! An immortal's here!"

Liu Xiaowen had changed greatly over these three years. His spirit was full and vigorous, and nourished by the mountain's spiritual medicines, he had grown as tall as a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old village boy. The Great Red Abbey's black Daoist robe he wore was extraordinary too, its fiery clouds flowing as though alive, making him look all the more like an immortal.

The villagers came flocking over, bowing again and again. Assuming an immortal had come to select disciples once more, they hurried to fetch their children.

The crowd packed so tightly around Liu Xiaowen that not even water could trickle through. He strained to find someone familiar among them, but could not.

"Why are you all crowding around? If you annoy the immortal master, forget about sending your children up the mountain to cultivate!"

A shout stopped the bustling crowd. A wealthy gentleman in a brocade robe pushed through them and approached, looking somewhat displeased.

"You mud-legged peasants! An immortal arrives, and none of you thinks to tell me? My family ought to have first pick when disciples are chosen."

Liu Fanhe swaggered forward, his back straight, showing off his prosperous belly.

Xu Xuan had instructed him to look after Liu Shengshui's family and rewarded him with several Origin-Nourishing Foundation-Stabilizing pills. Recently, he had taken another concubine. With fortune smiling on him and red candles warming his bed curtains, life could hardly have been sweeter.

Liu Fanhe approached, expecting Xu Xuan himself, only to find a young Daoist with an unfamiliar face, though he wore the robes of the Great Red Abbey.

"May I ask what brings this young Daoist master to our White Ridge? It isn't time to collect rent yet."

Liu Fanhe ventured the question, never expecting the young Daoist before him to break into a smile and say in a clear voice:

"Uncle Liu, don't you recognize Xiao Wen anymore?"

A bright gleam suddenly appeared in Liu Fanhe's eyes. The young Daoist before him gradually merged with his memory of Liu Shengshui's grandson. He paused, then asked tentatively:

"Xiao Wen, you've come back?"

Liu Xiaowen nodded. The Liu clansmen around him soon burst into cheers and escorted him into the village. Liu Fanhe dismissed everyone else and accompanied him home alone.

Little had changed outside the door: bluestone paving, an earthen house with wooden beams, and a yellow ox sleeping peacefully in the pen beside it. An old man sat on a stool, chopping dry fodder.

"Xiao Wen, don't take this the wrong way. I asked your grandfather to move into my house, but he refused. I offered him money and grain, and he wouldn't take them either. I found someone to look after him, but he insisted on doing the work himself. I couldn't persuade him-"

Liu Fanhe explained his difficulties beside his ear, but Liu Xiaowen soon shut out his voice. He stared blankly at the old man before him, his lips moving several times without producing a word.

Liu Shengshui finally noticed the visitors outside his house. Liu Fanhe-had the younger man brought more things again? Who was that Daoist beside him, and why had he come here?

The old man strained to open his dim, yellowed eyes. Then, as though he had finally seen something clearly, he rose shakily to his feet. The chopping knife fell onto the stone paving with a crisp clatter.

"Wen'er?"

The voice was so terribly aged that Liu Xiaowen could hardly bear to hear it. He hurried forward, supporting Liu Shengshui, and answered softly:

"Grandpa, I'm home."

The old man suddenly laughed. That desolate yet relieved laughter rasped across Liu Xiaowen's heart like iron grit.

"It's good you're back. Grandpa will cook for you."

Liu Shengshui went to work at the stove. Meanwhile, Liu Fanhe had his people set down some money and grain, then took his leave.

Once inside, Liu Xiaowen first offered a stick of incense to his parents. Its drifting smoke reminded him of the incense in the Founders' Hall. He seemed, faintly, to understand what his master had been thinking back then.

In the inner room, the place where Liu Xiaowen slept was just as it had always been. The bedding was spread smooth, without a trace of dust.

He took off his Daoist robe and changed into the coarse hemp clothes at home. When his master had dressed him in that robe back then, he had been filled with joy and tossed his cloth garments aside. Now, wearing the same sort of clothes again, he instead felt light all over, with an indescribable sense of ease.

"Grandpa, I'll help you tend the fire."

Liu Xiaowen happily ran off to split firewood, as though he had never gone to Green Luo at all, as though it had only been a dream.

A little later, grandfather and grandson finished their meal and went out among the fields to talk about the crops. Before they knew it, afternoon had arrived.

Liu Xiaowen sat on the yellow earth, breathing in the smell of soil as he gazed at the distant mountains. Everbright Mountain stood towering and majestic several dozen li away.

Suddenly, he sensed something wrong. The jade pendant at his waist was faintly heating up and pointing toward Longbright, giving him a fright.

"Is this... an attack?"

Liu Xiaowen sprang to his feet and stared straight toward Longbright.

"Leaving again? If you've got something to do, hurry along. Don't let it hold you up."

Liu Shengshui looked at his grandson, noticing something was amiss.

Liu Xiaowen took one last look at his grandfather's face, sun-darkened to a reddish black, like a shriveled sweet potato.

There was no time to say more. He only said, "Take care of yourself."

Then he fetched his Daoist robe and magical sword and rushed toward Green Luo. With Longbright under attack, his Middle Fetal Breath cultivation would likely be of little help. Better to return to Green Luo first and consult his master and senior brother.

By the time Xu Xuan returned to Green Luo, the sky had gone completely dark.

Wang Xiwei had said he needed to repair the gaps in Longbright's formation and told Xu Xuan to take Wen Si'an back to their mountain first.

The moon shone bright among scattered stars. Xu Xuan and Wen Si'an rode the same cloud, silent the whole way.

His junior sister sat ahead of him, meditating to regulate her breath. At the rear of the cloud, Xu Xuan watched her somewhat thin figure. He wanted to say something, but kept his mouth shut.

Why has she grown more and more withdrawn?

Ever since Wen Fufeng passed away, this junior sister of his had neither cried nor smiled. She had moved straight to Everbright Mountain, working day and night over those spiritual medicines. Who knew how long it had been since they had last seen each other?

Once, they had talked about everything. Now, there was an unfamiliar distance between them.

"Black Wind Valley was probably only testing us this time."

The woman ahead finally turned around and spoke without warning. Under the moonlight, her unadorned face looked colder and more remote still, like a ghostly maiden in an abandoned temple-or Chang'e in her lunar palace.

"As long as the Chen Household stands, they won't dare make any major moves."

Xu Xuan answered with a note of reassurance, then explained the plans he had discussed with the Liu Household. He had already consulted Wang Xiwei about this, and now wanted his junior sister's opinion as well.

"We can't take everything Liu Qiuqi says on faith. We're based in Green Peaks and maintain an arm's-length relationship with the Great Scenery Plains. We should still seek instructions from that elder of the Chen Household."

Wen Si'an's voice was quiet and distant, with a hint of weariness.

They discussed matters a little longer before returning to the True Abode Hall.

The lamps outside were already lit, shining on the green pines and casting long shadows.

Liu Xiaowen and Wang Qiyun were waiting outside the hall. Seeing their elders return, they hurried forward to greet them.

There was no technique available to them for transmitting voices across a thousand li. Most communication within the sect relied on this [Mother-and-Son Jade]. Xu Xuan carried the mother jade, while the son jade was fashioned into pendants worn by the disciples.

When Xu Xuan activated the mother jade with his magical power, the son jade would respond. But the greater the distance, the slower the response. It was less convenient than having a Qi Refining cultivator ride the wind to deliver a message directly.

Wen Si'an went to the pill room to take medicine and treat her injuries. Xu Xuan instructed the two disciples not to leave the formation over the coming days, lest Black Wind Valley attack again.

Green Luo and White Stone were both protected by foundation establishment formations, the [Fire-Crossing Long-Qi Formation]. Longbright's formation, however, had been smashed by the Lotus Temple. It had since been replaced with only a lower-grade Qi Refining [Golden Light Formation], barely capable of stopping cultivators below the third level of Qi Refining and unable to hold off Xie Miao.

As for Xie Shu, he occupied Eastern Secret and had coveted the Great Red Abbey's mountain seat for a long time.

He had kept quiet over the years. While Chongyangzi was alive, he had willingly bowed low and played the subordinate. But once Xu Xuan's master passed away, he had savagely torn rich flesh from the Great Red Abbey.

Xu Xuan gulped down a mouthful of strong liquor and gazed toward Green Luo's peaks. He could wait no longer. Once he delivered the birthday gifts to the Chen Household, he would return and seek the [Life Foundation], then take some pills and climb to the Sixth Layer of Qi Refining in one push. Even if it left his foundations unstable and harmed his future Dao Path, he had no other choice.

"Time waits for no one. Master, what would you decide?"

Xu Xuan closed his eyes. The mountain's night wind howled, lifting his Daoist robe, its Red Cloud billowing like fire.

(End of chapter)