Minamoto Mai Zuo was not particularly surprised to learn that Fu Hua was a cultivator. He had only known before that Fu Hua was very powerful; he knew little else about her.
"Then does Mr. Minamoto know what lies beyond a cultivator's path of cultivation?"
"What...?"
He did not know much about cultivators from the Central Plains. Broadly speaking, they were like Onmyoji—a group of people who understood how to observe the stars, read faces, determine directions, foretell disasters, draw talismans, chant spells, perform illusions, and subdue demons. Even the Onmyoji had originated in the Central Plains before later becoming widespread throughout Japan.
"Immortals!"
Fu Hua looked at Hikari's father with her beautiful eyes. Her cherry lips parted as she slowly spoke those two words.
"Immortals?"
Yet Minamoto Mai Zuo still did not quite understand. He seemed to have vaguely heard of immortals before, but he did not know the details. After all, to him... immortals were far too distant.
"Their skin is like ice and snow, graceful as maidens. They eat not of the five grains, breathe wind and drink dew, ride the clouds, command wind dragons, and wander beyond the four seas! Those who neither age nor die are called immortals."
Fu Hua did not mind Minamoto Mai Zuo's confusion and simply continued explaining.
"Ageless and immortal... aren't those gods? Miss Fu Hua, are you one of these so-called immortals?"
Minamoto Mai Zuo's tone was clearly skeptical. By Fu Hua's description... these so-called immortals sounded exactly like the gods of legend.
Yet during his interactions with Fu Hua, he had not sensed even the slightest of the lofty, untouchable bearing that a god ought to possess. So... no matter how he looked at it, it was difficult to regard the woman before him as a divine being.
But