A few short days later, Bai Qingqian had put all the affairs of Mirage Tower in order. For a cultivator, this was not particularly troublesome.
From beginning to end, she never asked again for news of Daoist Guan. She knew asking would be pointless. As Xiangfei Bamboo had said, he might already have fed the fish and turtles.
Several days later, Hou Niao led Bai Qingqian and Xiangfei Bamboo, who had finished their preparations, to a small hill outside the city. "Senior brother, have you arranged to meet others too?"
Hou Niao smiled. "A few friends. You've probably met them before."
Both women were curious, and Xiangfei Bamboo's imagination took an unusual turn. "Daoist Guan's crowd? All those elder and younger sisters?"
Hou Niao chuckled. "Please, how could traveling with those people possibly be enjoyable? Didn't you say they ought to be fed to the fish and turtles?"
As they joked, three figures approached from afar. When the women recognized the Yingtai trio, they were surprised, though it also made sense. Birds of a feather flocked together; there was nothing unusual about people like them coming together.
Greetings and introductions were simple enough. The women had their circle, and the men had their topics. Neither interfered with the other, which suited everyone well.
The six rose into the air without using any flying rafts or vessels. If they were following their whims rather than hurrying somewhere, flying in the flesh felt better. They could savor the natural world while extending their divine sense perception to its farthest reach.
The Yingtai trio had no particularly fixed destination, so they would follow Hou Niao first, then attend to their own affairs. "We'll head south from here and visit a junior of mine at the Taihao Sect, then turn west toward the Binxu