“Give me another one!”

With a resounding crash, another pot of wine was thrown to the ground, a scene that had been repeating since the evening.

“B-brother Wei, you are too drunk. Maybe you should head back-“

“Little Hui, I can take care of myself. Just bring me another pot.”

The teenage girl shook like a leaf when the young man’s dead gaze fell on her and swiftly retreated to the back, not wanting to offend the man by not following his orders.

And it was not just her who was feeling uncomfortable. The owners of the tavern, the grandparents of Han Hui, the teenager, were also feeling distinct feelings of wrongness as they saw the young man, who was normally very polite and friendly in the past year that he had spent living in the nearby woods, look so broken. The same feeling propagated through the rest of the tavern patrons who also failed to associate the young man they knew with the one they were seeing now.

As the girl brought back another Pot of strong alcohol, the young man did not waste any time and directly started to empty it. Even if his spirit roots were gone, his body was still that of a cultivator and could handle exponentially higher levels of alcohol compared to a mortal.

As this was going on, the back door opened followed by three people entering the tavern quietly.

“You see? It's as if he does not intend to live till tomorrow. You have to do something, Chief Chen.”

Han Zhiyuan, the husband of Han Xiulan and the grandfather of Han Hui looked at the young man wasting away with the alcohol pot in his hands with sadness just like Chief Chen. They both turned towards the last man in the group at the same time, pleading with him to help.

The last man, Li Qiang, one of the few cultivators in the village, sighed at the look he was getting from the two old men.

“First of all, I don’t even know the kid. Second, why are you two asking me, a stranger to the boy, to talk to him when you know him better than me given that I have been absent from the village for the past three years?”

“Because you are the only cultivator in the village aside from the kid right now and who better to understand a cultivator’s problem than a fellow cultivator?”

Once again, Li Qiang gave a heavy sigh of exhaustion before moving towards the counter where the young man sat.

The moment Li Qiang sat beside the boy, he did not waste any time in speaking.

“Tell those two old men to mind their own business. I don’t need any help. I just want to get wasted today.”

Li Qiang looked with surprise at the boy’s words.

“For someone with crippled cultivation, your senses are very sharp.”

“Of course they are. How else would I survive in the Great Wilderness?”

At this, Li Qiang looked alarmed as he finally started to realize the truth in the old man Han’s words.

This kid definitely had a death wish.

“In that case, you do not mind if I grab a drink, do you?”

“Not my tavern, ask little Hui.”

“..I am not little. You are only three or four years older than me.”

The girl whispered as she handed Li Qiang his usual blend of juice, trying to complain but not daring to raise her voice since she did not know how the boy she called a friend would react given his mental state right now.

With a nod, Li Qiang sent the girl away and slowly started to drink his juice while speaking.

“So, I heard you moved into this place a year ago, where are you from?”

“What’s it to you?”

“This is my home, I need to make sure that you are not a threat to our home.”

“..I am no threat. Hell, given my crippled status, even a Qi Condensation realm oldie like you can easily beat me.”

“Hey! I am not old. I just started cultivating later than others.”

For the first time in the evening, the boy smirked at Li Qiang before slowly relaxing.

“…I am from the North. Don’t ask me where, I don’t want to talk about it. Rest assured, I am just a nobody trying to find my way.”

“…What’s your name? kid.”

“Da Wei.”

“Li Qiang.”

Li Qiang raised his glass to Da Wei who did the same and started drinking at a much slower pace than before.

The two continued talking throughout the night. By daybreak, Da Wei started heading back towards his home, feeling much better than he did the day before, and Li Qiang walked back towards his own home, finding his talk with Da Wei to be very enlightening.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

On that night, an unlikely friendship between two completely different people was forged.

----------------------------------------

“No.”

“You have to. You were the one who provoked them, now, you have to take responsibility.”

“Hell no. I am not going anywhere, especially when I am so close to a breakthrough.”

“Breakthrough? Do you mean forming a Core? Don’t try to fool me. You could have done that at any moment for the past two years. You deliberately held back since you did not find forming a core to be of any use compared to your current situation.”

Da Wei glared at Li Qiang who glared back at his friend.

“..The answer is still no. I am not taking those kids anywhere.”

“Too bad, I have already told them that you promised to take them to Starfall City to try their luck.”

“Why do you want them to enter a sect anyway? You and I both know that nothing good awaits them in a sect. They might as well stay here and advance on their own.”

“That is the height of foolishness. Even if they suffer a bit, they would still have access to a much higher level of resources and Qi-rich locations compared to this frontier village. Don’t you want them to become strong?”

“I would rather they stay unbroken instead of chasing strength and ending up like us.”

Li Qiang fell silent at Da Wei’s rebuke. With a sigh, the older man downed his glass of alcohol before getting up from his seat.

“Fine. I’ll take the children myself. I had thought that with you there, they would be much safer. But, I guess they’ll have to make do with a weakling like me. Who knows? I might be able to sacrifice myself to save them if something bad happens-“

“Enough. Stop trying to guilt trip me. Tell them to gather at the main gate of the village. When is the selection taking place anyway?”

“Two days from now.”

“..And you told me about this just now. Seriously, how petty can you be?”

“I don’t know, can you handle a few dozen children forcing you to spend an entire day using a Root Stone to find their Spirit Root quantity and affinity?”

“…So this really is revenge for that, huh.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Despite his words, Li Qiang’s lips quirked in a smirk as Da Wei continued to glare at him even as the older man left the tavern.

----------------------------------------

“HISSSS”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that little Xing.”

Little Xing, my black cat that I rescued from the forest two weeks ago, continued hissing at Han Hui, refusing to let go of me even when Little Hui tried to pull on the cat.

I always heard horror stories of how cats are very untrusting and might take a long time to get used to their owner from my friend. But, I guess he was just unlucky.

I thought so because ever since she first woke up after healing, she never spent a single moment away from me aside from going into the forest for excretion. She was very loving, spending all of her time either lying on my shoulder or on my stomach when I was sleeping.

In fact, I think she is very lazy.

Unfortunately, I can’t take her with me for this trip since it could end up going very badly given my luck. It would already be bad enough that I needed to look after six teenagers and two children, I cannot hope to look after my cat as well in such a situation. That is why, I had no choice but to leave her with Little Hui at the only tavern and Inn of the village.

“Meow~”

Little Xing meowed pitifully at me after Little Hui finally managed to get her off of my shoulder, her big eyes staring at me pleadingly.

I scratched behind her ears, knowing that she liked it, causing her to purr in happiness.

“Be good, alright? I’ll be back in a few days at most.”

Once again, she tried to escape from Little Hui’s arms, but the teenager held on tight, finally causing the cat to give up and hang limply in her arms.

Waving goodbye to the teenager, I headed towards the main gate of the village.

I really regret having the children ask Old Li to have their Spirit Roots checked. A single moment of careless fun has now cost me everything.

“Don’t be so dramatic. This might be a good chance to see if we can find any good things to get from the City. Given its status as the main hub for Cultivators in the East, it is sure to contain some good things that would help us greatly.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“Yes. You won’t believe the kind of things I used to find in unassuming stalls manned by mortals back in my day.”

Oh, I would believe you alright. That’s just how a main character’s luck works if the stories I used to read back home are to be believed.

Even a simple pebble picked up by a main character might turn out to be some otherworldly peerless artifact.

On the flip side, these blessings oftentimes are accompanied by disasters as well. This is the main reason for my worry about this expedition that Li Qiang threw at me.

I am pretty sure that if the children are caught up in the shenanigans caused by my fate as a main character, they have absolutely zero chance of surviving.

“Which sects do you think will arrive to choose disciples this time?”

“As you know, during this time, I spent most of my time hiding away in a remote corner in the Outer Sect, so I don’t have complete information. But, from what I remember hearing from my fellow disciples, The Alchemy Guild and the Formations Guild along with the Royal Family’s forces were the ones with the biggest number of recruits, followed by our own sect. Aside from us, there was also the Endless Woods Sect which took in a handful of disciples, and the Supreme Spear Sect took in a single disciple. Aside from these, I heard that the Volcanic Dragon Sect and the Hidden Serpent Sect also participated but did not recruit any disciples.”

“That is kind of surprising. It makes sense for the Formations Guild which does not have any restriction on elemental affinity just like our own sect and the Royal Family to get a lot of disciples. But how did the Alchemy guild get such a high number? Don’t they usually recruit primarily Wood nature Spirit Root holders exclusively?”

“..This is something that will come to light soon enough, but most of those disciples ended up becoming living cauldrons for refining Master level Pills for many of the sects. It is because many of the major sects were involved in this secret that the Alchemy Guild was never punished for their actions.”

“….Shit! I knew we should not have left the safety of the village! Now, I’ve got to warn the kids not to accept any offer made by the Alchemy Guild.”

“That should be easy enough. The kids respect you a great deal even with your crippled status. If you insist on them not going to the Alchemy Guild, they would definitely not go there.”

“That is true.”

Soon enough, I arrived at the main entrance of the village where a carriage was already ready to take us to the city with the children already sitting inside the carriage.

Guess I should educate these children about the various dangers of the world that are going to join soon enough.

“Don’t overdo it. Like it or not, Li Qiang is right in that these children would only be wasting their potential if they stayed in this village. They might suffer a little bit, but they will undoubtedly get stronger from the experience.”

“You mean they will end up broken like you?”

His silence was telling enough. But, he is right.

I don’t have the authority nor the will to dictate the children’s lives for them. What I can do, is give them the information that they need to decide and accept the choices that they make from here on out.

Seriously, is this how it feels to be a parent or a guardian?

“Shut up. You are not old enough to talk like that.”

“Says the Thousand-year-old Demon that has never even got the chance to get laid.”

“FUCK YOU!!”

“No thanks.”