‘’Guess.’’

‘’...guess?’’

Legs crossed on the stool, a wooden cup of wine in his hand, Li Ao raised a brow at the stoic Silvy.

‘’You just guessed?’’

The lion man didn’t even look at him.

‘’Is it some kind of seventh sense? Eighth sense?’’

‘’He uses his head, shepherd.’’

The half-dragon, staggering, ran her fingers through the flowing mane. ‘’Don’t you, kitty kitty?’’

‘’Meow!’’

Silvy snarled, bit at her hand, then cast a blank look at Li Ao.

‘’...ehehehehe—’’

‘’I will eat your intestines.’’

‘’...’’’

Li Ao looked away to other seniors mingling and eating. He himself had brought some spiritual cheese from his family’s cellar. He was proud of it, too—almost a hundred years old, each of them!

Then these people pulled out a thousand-year-old ginseng cakes or ten thousand-year-old peach wines...

It had to be a lie, a scam!

Still, the Universe was wide and far, indeed.

Enjoying these delicacies, then talking with his fellow agents Li Ao spent a good while getting to know each of them. Some gave him tips about anything that came to mind, some ignored him, and some(Kertl) used him to relieve (himself)themselves of some frustrating encounters in a few missions.

Li Ao made a one word summary of their characters, but these observations he kept to himself.

After a few hours, dead-drunk and bloated, Li Ao left with a promise to contact at a later time.

Once home he slept like a log, forgot the list and his promise, and set on thinking about what to do.

It took him a short moment to take the path to the family forge. He had his blueprint and materials at hand, and in thought of what to expect from his long overdue return took a slope down the estate.

The forge itself was, although connected by leaves-cast shadows and gates to the estate, much lower and farther than the pagodas they resided.

It was a square where Li, Wei, and Zhang families shared, and also acted as a marketplace for people to come and go.

Unaware of the milling crowd inspecting him, gaze lowered, Li Ao went down a mass of red pines sloping to a private forge.

Its walls of red stone, looking glued with black lines between their rough edges, the huge building housed twenty forgers sponsored by Li family to manufacture high-quality tools.

Li Yun mingled with a few of the fellows at the entrance. After laughing at his blackened face, Li Ao overtook a private room from one and began working on his flying sword.

He spent four days in there, beating metal and moulding shapes, then another three to inscribe formations. He failed a few times, cracked most of the swords as they took shape.

Some formations he couldn’t inscribe. One tremble of his hands made it all turn to waste. Sometimes he drew too hasty and they broke, and others he simply couldn’t finish without falling from exhaustion.

He spent a few thousand coins at each try, and every thrown out batch made him incensed. After the third, he realized it wouldn’t do.

After the fourth fail, he got out to talk with the other forgers.

To him it seemed that the closer he got to returning, the heavier his shoulders sank. When he sat on a stool, heat overcome his face, waiting for the bent metal to cool—for any action was better left for nature to do than use Qi, he found himself thinking of what to say.

Every moment his mind spent relieved, words and phrases escaped out of him as a mumble. What would he say to his master, to Zhu Qiu, or anyone else?

Faces flashed past his mind at each strike. Sentences came and went, but indeed he found satisfaction in none. This uncertain and unnerving wait made his moves even more careless, and he poured more effort in correcting them.

On the fourteenth day, his grandpa visited.

The man, old as always, sat on his stool while Li Ao waited on feet.

Today’s attempt felt better than most, and this Li Ao understood alerted his grandpa to something.

‘’That is a good sword.’’

Li Ao nodded. Overhead hung a solid thick blade, deep scarlet, tinted orange and flashing blue at the edges. The space around it warped as if his eyes suffered from illness and sparkled.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

But within that beauty was a heaviness. The thing was impossible for most Qi Condensation cultivators to lift. If he dropped it on the ground, and he did, it would make a meter wide dent in the earth.

From its hilt to the tip were two visible parallel lines—formations—both used to steady his balance, and within the blade itself were a few dozen more for various uses. To reduce air pressure, to accelerate and decelerate, to brake in the air, to flip, to turn, to dive, to whatever else...

A ton of them, in essence.

‘’You are going out.’’

Of course, owing to his cultivation, the man could sense the changes around him. More experienced ones could attribute it to Li Bo being a parent.

‘’Once I get the hilt and handguard.’’

‘’I have a few.’’

‘’It might not suit.’’

Nodding, Li Bo rose and put his hands beside his back.

‘’Take care. Greet your master for me.’’

‘’I will.’’

‘’Why are you so nervous?’’

His brow raised, the old man slapped his shoulder.

‘’Are you afraid of getting beaten or what? Just go~’’

Saying his piece, he vanished.

Li Ao only sighed in response. Spending another day writing talismans, he assembled the blade, sharpened the edges on a whetstone, then returned to his room.

He packed up water and food, as he didn’t know where he would land, and stocked up some clothes for later use. He had ten rings on him for different uses, two bags of holding strapped to his shoulders, and five spatial pouches tied to his metallic belt full of spirit stones.

‘’Is it enough?’’ he thought, then found it lacking and drew a hundred more talismans.

Once sure, he opened up Fast Travel.

*Available Realms: Six-Fold Immortal Domain (4000UC), Four Mountains Realm (0UC)*

‘’...its indeed higher.’’

Kertl said so himself.

The fast travel took many factors into account when deciding on the price. Apart from distance, the chief element was the value of existence.

As he grew stronger and made his personage essential to the world, value of his existence would rise in the system. While the former applied solely to fighter-type agents, later was the universal law that truly decided his worth.

Memories, as such, were the prime counter for his worth.

He clicked on Six-Fold Immortal Domain.

*Core Memories in Existence: 76911*

*Soul Memories in Existence: 2*

Li Ao blinked.

*Core Memories in Existence: 76911*

‘’What happened?’’

It couldn’t be due to him.

He did not interact with that many people. Even if he did, there was no way he could leave that many Core Memories to those people.

Core Memories were markers of a person’s being. A core memory took a deeper hold than any other moment in one’s life. It decided their personality, their experience, and had a chance to last an entire lifetime. Aspects of it could be mistaken, but never forgotten.

That being the case, that meant his name was the reason for this effect.

His name could only be related to a few people.

‘’What happened?’’

Again, he couldn’t think of anything.

Scratching his cheeks, unsettled, Li Ao pressed on the blinking confirm button.

A pressure bore on him, then he vanished.

*********

He woke up to a desolate field devoid of green. Land was dry brown, cracked, and at some places deep ravines ran through them. Up above were dark clouds hiding the Sun, and other than those two Li Ao found nothing of note.

His head snapped left and right in search of anything.

‘’...good thing I came prepared!’’

Smiling to himself, he took out Bubbles and his new flying sword.

He called the latter Meteorite for very obvious reasons. It was 4-th grade Earth Quality, and he could re-forge it when he acquired a higher skill ceiling.

The former inspected her new companion with curious wobbles. Bubbles stood as a drop of water in his hand, tiny and precious. At some point, she had mastered a skill to transform her height and mass.

Even she didn’t know how it came to her. Li Ao could guess how.

‘’Bubbles!’’

‘’Yia!’’

A faint purring echoed out of her vibrating body.

‘’You hung out with those kittens again?’’

Li Ao tapped on her head.

‘’You should talk like me.’’

‘’Yia!’’

She bubbled, but kept purring.

‘’...okay! Show me where your siblings are.’’

He thrust her majestic form into the sky and waited for a response. Bubbles trembled, sizzled into a pond, then formed back.

‘’Only mama!’’

‘’What did you say?’’

‘’Only mama!’’

‘’Only mama?’’

‘’Only mama!’’

‘’You can’t sense others?’’

‘’Only mama!’’

That was troublesome.

‘’Those two...where are they?’’

Taking a deep breath, Li Ao put Bubbles in a sewn pocket on his robe. Two arms popped out of her and hung on the edge, where she peeked out to the horizon.

One of them stretched left towards south.

‘’Mama is vibrating! Mama waiting!’’

Her excitement made his face flush as well.

‘’Okay then—’’’

Hopping onto Meteorite, Li Ao poured his Qi in. The parallel lines on the blade flashed blue and red and enveloped his ankles. As if bound, he felt a weight connecting the parts down his thighs to the blade.

With another thought, the formations within the blade lit up. A deep orange light exploded out of his position and boomed across the landscape. The dry ground cracked further.

‘’—Let’s go!’’