The first light of dawn glimmered along the edge of Azure Cloud Cliff.
The gates of the Azure Cloud Sect loomed faintly through the morning mist. Lin Mo tightened the bundle on his back and looked over his shoulder at the place where he had spent the past three years.
The blue stone slabs before the gates still bore traces of water from his sweeping and washing that morning, shimmering in the rising sun.
Morning bells rang in the distance, signaling the Inner Sect Disciples' morning lessons. They had nothing to do with a Servant Disciple like him.
"At last, I can go home."
He murmured to himself, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the worn fabric of his cuff.
This was the only reasonably presentable outfit he owned at the sect. Though washed pale, it was still better than the patched odd-job uniform he wore every day.
The mountain path wound ahead, but Lin Mo's steps had grown much lighter.
Three years. He had finally secured this leave to visit his family, after pleading with the steward several times and spending thirteen low-grade spirit stones.
At the thought of those familiar faces, the corners of his mouth lifted of their own accord.
But that smile soon faded.
How was I supposed to explain to my parents that after three years of cultivation at the sect, I had achieved nothing and was still a Servant Disciple of the lowest rank?
The mountain journey stretched for dozens of li.
Before the sun sank behind the western hills, Lin Mo finally spotted the old locust tree at the village entrance in the distance. Over those three years, it had withered considerably; its dead branches and decaying leaves could no longer produce blossoms.
"The person remained the same, the dream remained the same; the world before him had changed, and the universe within his sleeves had turned upside down."
Lin Mo felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity.
Quite a few people seemed to be gathered beneath the tree, and he could faintly hear gongs and drums.
Lin Mo paused in surprise, then quickened his pace.
"Ah, young Mo is back!"
Someone shouted, and the gongs and drums immediately grew louder. Before Lin Mo could react, a crowd of villagers surrounded him, filling his ears with warm inquiries about his well-being.
"Look, our village's immortal disciple has come home!"
Leaning on his walking stick, the village chief stroked his beard and smiled. He tottered forward and looked Lin Mo up and down. "Such an extraordinary bearing already! You really are different from ordinary folk like us."
An immortal disciple...
Lin Mo opened his mouth, but did not know what to say.
Behind the crowd, he saw his parents standing on tiptoe to look his way. After three years apart, his father's temples had turned gray, and his mother's back had grown a little more stooped.
The proud smiles on their faces sent a pang through Lin Mo's heart.
"Father, Mother, your unfilial son has come home to see you."
He squeezed through the crowd, knelt before them, and knocked his forehead against the ground twice with resounding thuds.
His mother's trembling hand stroked his face as tears tumbled down her cheeks.
"All that matters is that you're home, that you're home." His father's voice was choked, too. "Get up. Let your father have a good look at you."
Lin’s Father shakily helped Lin Mo to his feet. Seeing how much more handsome his son had become, how much taller and straighter he stood, his eyes filled with even greater pride.
After generations of hardship, the Lin family had finally produced a "Chosen One."
His son had gone up the mountain to join a sect, seeking immortality and the Dao. How could he not feel proud?
Just then, a clear voice rang out behind him. "Brother!"
His heart stirred, and he immediately turned to meet a pair of bright eyes.
Lin Xiaohe, his younger sister.
After three years apart, she had blossomed into a graceful young woman, yet the light in her eyes remained as pure as it had been in childhood.
She had specially put on a newly made pale-green ruqun that day, with a tiny wildflower tucked into her hair.
"Xiao He."
Lively by nature, Lin Xiaohe could hardly contain her excitement at her brother's return after three years. She ran up and clung to Lin Mo, refusing to let go as she chattered endlessly. Most of it was village trivia, yet these were the very things that had haunted his dreams and kept him awake at night within the sect's gates.
"Young Mo, how have you been doing in the sect?"
"I heard the Azure Cloud Sect is the strongest immortal sect for hundreds of li around! Can those cultivators... really shove mountains aside and overturn seas, fly through the heavens and burrow through the earth?"
A villager squeezed through the crowd and asked curiously.
Lin Mo's smile froze. He remembered how, just yesterday, he had still been emptying chamber pots for the inner and Outer Sect Disciples, who mockingly called him the "chamber-pot boy."
Their grating mockery seemed to ring in his ears again. "With your worthless five-element spiritual root, you're destined to empty chamber pots your whole life!"
As for shoving mountains aside and overturning seas, flying through the heavens and burrowing through the earth, he knew there were senior disciples and elders in the sect who had learned advanced cultivation techniques and could indeed accomplish such feats.
But he had never seen them himself.
As an odd-job disciple, he had yet to enter the qi refining realm and had no spiritual energy in his body. All he practiced were mundane techniques, useful only for strengthening his body so he could perform hard labor more effectively.
"Young Mo, tell us about life in the immortal sect!"
The villagers crowded around, all talking at once.
Lin Mo took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the bitterness in his heart, and began inventing lovely stories.
He said he was learning the Sword-Controlling Art, though he had yet to master it; that his senior brothers in the sect took good care of him and often guided his cultivation; that he could already sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and would soon formally embark on the path of immortal cultivation...
With every lie, his heart sank a little further.
But looking at his parents' proud eyes, Xiao He's admiring gaze, and the villagers' envious faces, Lin Mo... could only keep weaving that beautiful lie.
Only when night fell did the villagers listening to his stories in the Lin family's earthen courtyard begin to leave, and the bustling Locust Grass Village gradually quieted.
Lin Mo lay on his childhood bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. The villagers' words still seemed to echo in his ears.
"Young Mo must be highly valued in the Azure Cloud Sect, right?"
"When you become an immortal, don't forget our village!"
"Young Mo has done so well for himself. It really makes you envious..."
He rose quietly and pushed open the door.
Moonlight spilled like water across the courtyard. Hearing steady snores from his parents' room, he breathed a sigh of relief and slipped toward the mountain behind the village.
The vegetation on the mountain was much as before, only far denser than he remembered.
Lin Mo followed the familiar trail upward and, before he knew it, arrived at a cave where he had often played as a child. This had been his and Xiao He's secret hideout, where they played hide-and-seek, gathered wild fruit, and watched the stars.
He remembered how Xiao He had once fallen here. He had carried her down the mountain on his back, and she had giggled against him, saying that if her brother ever fell, she would carry him just like that, too.
Moonlight filtered through the treetops, casting dappled shadows on the ground and across a little face, revealing a pair of shining eyes.
"Xiao He, what are you doing here so late instead of sleeping?"
Seeing that Lin Mo had spotted her, Lin Xiaohe gave a toothy chuckle and walked over. She sat before him, hesitating to speak.
"Brother, you haven't been happy up on the mountain at all, have you?"
For as long as Lin Xiaohe could remember, her brother had looked after her, and she knew Lin Mo intimately. Even after three years apart, she could tell from his eyes that his days on the mountain might not have been as wonderful as he claimed.
Lin Mo did not want to tell her about the sordid affairs within the sect. He merely stroked her little head gently.
"Everyone says cultivating immortality is wonderful, but they don't know that cultivators crush and undermine one another even more viciously than people in mortal dynasties..."
"Come on, come on. Let's go home and sleep!"
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