Hearts Turn Homeward

"Those two households will be here soon?" Kang Dahou asked when he saw his grandson.

"Soon. They're twenty li away, so I came back ahead to report." The young rider dismounted for a brief rest and answered respectfully.

"Hmph. Back then, they relied on the Li Household's Immortal Master and his powerful arts, while the elder Immortal Master Pei had slightly better aptitude than your twenty-sixth granduncle. Their noses were practically pointed at the heavens." Kang Dahou's voice was full of resentment as he spoke.

He turned to look at his sweat-soaked grandson and thought with an aching heart, When something happened to the old sect master, if the Li and Pei households hadn't taken all the messenger birds with spirit beast bloodlines when they left, leaving Chongming City in such a sorry state, how could my grandson have been worked so hard?

Much as he thought that, he still understood the bigger picture.

The Pei Household now had two Immortal Masters again, so he couldn't let things turn ugly. He set about making arrangements at a frantic pace, then led a group of his aides out of the city to welcome them.

Not long after they arrived, they saw a long caravan of migrating families approaching.

"Fifteen years. Things remain, but the people have changed," the Li Household patriarch, dressed as a scholar, said with a sigh as he looked at Chongming City's walls, far more dilapidated than they had been back then.

"Brother Li, are you feeling timid so close to home?" The Pei Household patriarch was an armored giant over two meters tall, his hair streaked with gray. In terms of seniority, though, he was of the same generation as Pei Que's grandchildren.

"Hardly. I just never expected that after fighting the man surnamed He all my life, the city lord's seat would end up in the hands of the Kang Household. Now we have to live under someone else's roof again." The Li Household patriarch sighed.

The Pei Household patriarch pretended not to hear. The Li Household really couldn't tell the big king from the little king. They didn't have a single immortal left in the sect, yet they still dared speak like that.

If Pei Yi hadn't still cherished the old bond with his master, it was anyone's guess whether the Li Household could have migrated back with them.

The Pei Household was different. They still had two Immortal Masters holding down the fort, and the younger Immortal Master Pei had even become the sect master's disciple. Life wouldn't be hard for them back in Chongming City.

Perhaps one day the city lord's seat might even belong to the Pei Household.

Forget it. He'd better have less to do with the Li Household in the future. Judging by their head's behavior alone, they hardly looked like a household that could prosper.

Once the great caravan came within a li of the city, the heads of the three households exchanged a round of insincere greetings and reminiscences, but there was no need to dwell on that.

After settling the two households' people, they invited the leading figures of the Kang, Yuan, Jiang, Han, Duan, and Jin households to a banquet at the city lord's residence.

Though it was called a banquet, no one dared drink wine or eat meat. Wu Meng had already sent word that the immortals would summon the patriarchs of each household to speak that evening, and no one dared bring a body full of turbid Qi.

At the banquet, the Pei and Li patriarchs had to endure a few barbed remarks from the heads of these formerly minor households. No matter how much they hated the sight of Kang Dahou's petty, triumphant face, the two could only swallow their anger.

After hastily eating at the banquet, the Li and Pei patriarchs were in no mood to remain angry. They hurriedly took their leave and returned to their quarters to bathe and change.

They were travel-worn and dusty from their long journey. Without cleaning themselves up, they truly dared not pay their respects to the immortals of the various households.

At the second quarter of the hour of the dog, Wu Meng slowly drove a flatbed cart pulled by an old donkey up to the city lord's residence. Though young, he was willing to work.

After receiving Kang Dabao's instructions on the mountain, he went straight down, without even stopping first to see to the relatives who had arrived with the Li and Pei households.

The patriarchs of the eight households looked at one another.

Seeing their surprise, Wu Meng said crisply, "Patriarchs, please get on quickly. This is the sect master's immortal donkey. We shouldn't keep Brother Donkey waiting."

Hearing that, the eight patriarchs suppressed their thoughts and climbed aboard one after another, their faces troubled.

The old donkey moved at a good pace, and though it crossed Cold Crow Mountain's treacherous paths as if they were level ground, the evening wind through the woods was no pleasure. The pampered patriarchs on the cart were chilled into sniffling great streams of snot, one after another. Even Eleventh Brother Kang Dahou was no exception.

After a little less than half an hour, Wu Meng used a command talisman to open the Lesser Cloud and Mist Formation. Only then did the eight patriarchs follow the donkey cart into the Chongming Sect's little courtyard, where it was spring all year round.

The Kang, Pei, and Li patriarchs had seen the world and knew the mountain had always been like this.

The other patriarchs thought they had come to the wrong place. Wasn't the place where immortals lived supposed to be a heavenly palace full of celestial maidens?

What was this? It wasn't even as good as my home. At least the donkey at my home had a shed!

"Quiet. All of you, follow me." Wu Meng led them into the little courtyard with short steps. The Immortal Masters of the various households were feasting together, and the atmosphere among them was much more harmonious than it had been among the patriarchs.

"Kang Dahou, Li, pay our respects to the Immortal Masters." They all fell to their knees together.

"Eleventh Brother." Kang Dabao no longer looked pleased. He set down his wine cup. "Do your job as city lord properly. If you can't, someone else will take your place."

Those were harsh words indeed. Kang Dahou was so frightened that he hurriedly kowtowed again and again. Pei Yi didn't sit idle either, calling the Pei and Li patriarchs over to give them a warning.

In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, they had lectured the patriarchs of those three households and paid no attention at all to the others.

Then Kang Dabao waved a hand. "Wu Meng, take them back."

The eight patriarchs felt as if they had been granted a great pardon. They were drenched in sweat when they withdrew, and having to brave the wind again on the way down the mountain would be no pleasant experience.

Wu Meng brought over several bowls of ginger soup and said, "A gift from the sect master. He asks whether, after you drink it, relations between you will still be as stiff as ginger."

The patriarchs' faces stiffened. Their expressions varied, and a jumble of feelings filled their hearts.

"They're far too petty. I can only hope we can pick someone decent from among the younger generation." Kang Dabao kept shaking his head. His clansman Kang Dahou was too narrow-minded and didn't seem fit to take charge.

His fellow disciples burst out laughing after hearing him and paid it no mind. However big mortals' affairs were, what did they amount to?

Even if all the heads of those households died off, it wouldn't be as frightening as when Jiang Qing came in pretending to be sick.

He had certainly gone to great lengths to escape a scolding!

Unfortunately, he lacked experience, and Kang Dabao saw through him almost at once. If Pei Yi hadn't happened to return and plead for him, he would surely have taken a severe beating this time.

Sect Leader Kang Da was rather different from all the previous masters of the Chongming Sect.

Because the sect was short of people, Kang Dabao had become the first sect master of Double Brightness to serve concurrently as elder of the punishment hall. Whether he was competent was hard to say, but when he was truly angry, he hit his two junior brothers with a vicious hand, as if they were wild sons.

Even with Pei Yi pleading for him, Jiang Qing still didn't feel safe. Afraid that Kang Dabao might remember it one day and give him another beating, he secretly sent a spirit talisman to summon Yuan Jin back as well, so he could put in a good word for him.

"A trifling matter, haha. Senior Brother, don't think too much about it. Drink, drink! Hey, Senior Brother Pei, how did your cup get empty? Don't dodge, don't dodge. Phoenix Blood Brew costs two Spirit Stones for just five jin. It'd be a terrible waste not to drink it. Come, come, fill it up." Among the fellow disciples, Yuan Jin was fond of his drink. None of them spoke of worldly affairs or Daoist arts; they simply drank happily to celebrate the four of them being reunited.

Under Yuan Jin's lead, the mood at the banquet soon grew lively again. Eventually, they sent the women and younger family members away from the table.

As the drinking carried them away, Yuan Jin tossed his bound hair, left his seat, and went barefoot.

Paying no heed to his barrel-shaped figure, he began to whirl and dance in the open space in the room, singing as he danced: "Green, green the grass beside the river, unending my thoughts of one far away. Too far away to dwell upon, yet in my dreams I saw him yesterday."

Kang Dabao slapped his thigh, Pei Yi drummed on the table, and Jiang Qing tapped his sword as they sang along: "Too far away to dwell upon, yet in my dreams I saw him yesterday."

Yuan Jin laughed and went on singing at the top of his voice: "I dreamed that he was by my side, then woke to find him in another land. In distant lands, in separate counties, we toss and turn, unable to meet."

He sang a perfectly good poem of a woman longing in her chamber with such fervor that it sounded like a battle song. The other three found nothing strange in it and sang softly together: "In distant lands, in separate counties, we toss and turn, unable to meet."

Kang Dabao undid his own bound hair, picked up a bowl, and waved his chopsticks as he sang loudly: "The withered mulberry knows the wind from heaven; the waters of the sea know heaven's cold. Each one who enters seeks to charm; who will speak a word for me?"

Drumming on the table was no longer enough for Pei Yi. He flung back his long sleeves and stood on the table, stamping his feet as he sang along: "Each one who enters seeks to charm; who will speak a word for me?"

Everyone joined in again: "Each one who enters seeks to charm; who will speak a word for me?"

When Yuan Jin grew tired of dancing, he pulled Jiang Qing in, and the two spun around the room. Kang Dabao and Pei Yi clasped hands and sang together: "A guest came from a distant land and gave me two carp. I called my boy to cook the carp, and found within a letter a foot long."

Yuan Jin and Jiang Qing came to pull Kang Dabao into their whirling dance. Startled, he hurried to a corner of the bed and waved them away, so they pulled Pei Yi along instead. The three of them filled the open space as they danced, shoulders brushing and heels bumping, none of them minding in the least.

They went on singing loudly: "I knelt to read the letter; what did it have to say? First it told me to eat well, then said he thought of me always. First it told me to eat well, then said he thought of me always. First it told me to eat well, then said he thought of me always."

In the end, Kang Dabao failed to escape. His three junior brothers caught him, and all of them sang and danced wildly around the room together. What a pleasure it was.

I saw some readers asking what the point of these two chapters was.

Actually, before I posted them, I had already thought that quite a few of you might feel the plot would be unaffected even if these two chapters were cut.

But honestly, I really wasn't padding. If I wanted to pad, I could have written more fight scenes. They're easy to write, and you guys like reading them.

These two chapters were much harder to write, and they'll connect with the plot later on.

I guess I, Old Bai, didn't make the transitions well, so they spoiled the reading experience somewhat. Please forgive me. I'll work on improving and avoid this kind of thing in the future. I promise in Chairman Mao's name.

I hope readers with time to spare will keep following, vote, and comment. Throwing some coins at me would be good too. Those of you who are busy, please stay on the last page of each daily update for twenty seconds. Thank you, everyone.