Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 203. A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed.

“Fine,” Mustafa agreed after taking a look at Laien and Yin. Whatever Arslan wanted the four of them to talk about so urgently, he would listen and give whatever his son wanted some serious consideration. He had just promised Casimir and Anna great favour and had proceeded to offer his thanks to Azuresky and Emeric, but in his heart, he considered those two boys, Laien and Yin, as those deserving the greatest praise for protecting Arslan and helping him mature. Moreover, he wanted to talk with those two youths sooner rather than later either way, so this was actually a good opportunity. He didn’t want any misunderstandings to get in the way of the friendship he hoped Arslan had developed with those two outstanding kids, so he wouldn’t leave anything up to chance.

As for Laien and Yin, the two of them exchanged a glance before following behind Mustafa and Arslan. They had an idea what Arslan was thinking about and it wasn’t like they hadn’t taken the option into consideration either. They had even chatted about it with Arslan, Raphael, and Mikaela, and they all agreed that Nine Refinements to Immortality wouldn’t save Mustafa. Those techniques all required active use of Qi, spiritual energy, or another kind of innate power in order to work. Yet, even if Mustafa possessed some kind of hidden power, it would be impossible for him to proceed with any of the three Martial Path Refinements without drawing upon Qi from his Qi Origin. With the latter being severely damaged, it would be like opening the dam on a drying lake just to pour a few buckets of water into it and would inevitably lead to nothing else but Mustafa’s earlier death.

“What should we do?” Laien wondered silently. The convenient thing about their Spiritual Link was that they could now directly share their detailed thoughts upon any matter without revealing to others that they had done so. In a case like this one, they were very glad to have this ability. “The five of us promised not to share the knowledge of the Ancient Tomes with anyone. We didn’t even inform Elder Samuel about it despite knowing for pretty much sure that he wouldn’t take it from us by force. He values Mika too much to do that, after all. The problem right now is that Mustafa values Arslan just as much, but he’s got a damaged Qi Origin. On the off-chance that Mustafa gets desperate to ensure Arslan’s safety in the future by getting that tome for Makarash, we’d be screwed,” he mused without bothering to put his thoughts into actual words. As long as he was clearly focused on what he wanted to communicate, then it was simple enough for Yin to understand him perfectly.

“Yeah,” Yin agreed as they passed through the entrance to the building. “If we take the tome out and Mustafa demands to keep it, we will either have to hand it over or we will have to destroy our relationship with him, Arslan, and Makarash. It’s unlikely that we’d be directly harmed by him in any of the scenarios I can think of, but we’d surely no longer by friendly regardless of the outcome,” he thought helplessly, sharing in Laien’s worries. He could tell that Mustafa’s heart was still as steady and clear as the first time they had seen him, but that wasn’t telling him as much as could be thought. For example, Mustafa could have had made up his mind that he was going to accept his soon death and he would do anything in his power to increase Arslan’s safety. On the off-chance that Mustafa decided that the Tome of Transcendence was more important than Arslan’s friendship with him and Laien, the overall situation would quickly crumble in what could turn into a domino effect.

“Eh.” Laien suppressed a sigh after Arslan and Mustafa stopped in the middle of the largest, central room in the building. “Let’s see what happens first. Maybe we’re overthinking it and even if we aren’t, we can only decide what to do once we see how the entire talk plays out,” he suggested. He knew that Yin was losing the clarity of mind by pondering the many possible outcomes and trying to come up with the best countermeasures for them and while he, too, considered it important to be prepared, he felt that to the contrary it would be worse if they lost they cool by thinking too much.

“Yeah,” Yin conceded after half a second of consideration, just as the two of them stopped beside Arslan and Mustafa. “Let’s watch and see,” he supported and went as far as to take a deep breath and close his eyes for a bit, to then breathe out and lift his eyelids. He had to admit that he had gotten too distracted just then, so without a physical stimulus, it would have been hard for him to clear his mind so quickly. He wanted to focus on Arslan’s and Mustafa’s words, reactions, and their emotional states, and to do that he couldn’t afford to be muddle-headed, especially in the case of the latter. Crippled as he may be, Mustafa was still a powerhouse to be reckoned with.

“Well then,” Mustafa spoke up calmly. “What do you want us to talk about?” he asked Arslan. Although he too had a subject he wanted to bring up, he had noticed that Laien and Yin were acting a bit restless despite appearing perfectly fine on the surface. Though, it might be more correct to say that he had a feeling they were restless instead of him having noticed it in any physical way. With how long he had lived and with how much he had had always interacted with people, he had developed a keen intuition for such things. Either way, what he wanted to talk about was better suited for the last and for when those two and Arslan were less on-edge.

“It’s…” Arslan began in a strong tone of voice, but even before he finished saying the first word, his voice first became too high to sound natural, then his words got stuck in his throat. He had prepared many words for this time and made sure to remember them well, but now that he had to say them out loud when Laien and Yin were standing here with him and his father, his mind blanked out. Suddenly, all the reasons he had come up with and all the ways he wanted to persuade his two friends with started sounding extremely shallow and petty, even before he spoke them with his mouth. Of course, there was no way that he didn’t understand that what he wanted to ask of his two friends was unreasonable and all he was doing was clutching onto some dreamed-up hope, but he couldn’t do anything about it! No matter how illogical his hope was, it was still a matter that concerned the life and death of the person he loved the most in this world, of his father!

Yet, the more seconds passed in silence, the less he knew what to say. He felt his heart beating loudly in his chest at an ever-faster pace and he could feel that his face had become red, his breathing rough, the palms of his hands sweaty. He even had to hold back tears least they start flowing down from his eyes, but he couldn’t utter a word no matter how hard he tried. Raphael’s words that the Tome of Transcendence was so incredibly valuable that it could lead to a world-war were its existence to be publicly revealed kept resounding in his mind. His own agreement that they wouldn’t share the knowledge of the tomes kept pestering his thoughts, throwing his mind into even more of disarray. He had practised and read that tome too, so he knew that it was all pointless. He knew it, but…! But if there existed even a one-in-a-million chance that his father could be saved, then he wanted to give it a try no matter what! He wanted to believe that it would all turn all right!

It was his father they were speaking about! Even if the tome was of no help to him, he wouldn’t suddenly turn his back on Laien and Yin and demand anything unreasonable! He would keep the secret for them! He was sure that it would happen like that, even if the tome was of no help! But why then, why if he kept telling himself that it was fine, why was his throat clenched so tight that he could utter not even one word? Just why did none of this make any sense? Why?!

Just as he was about to break down in tears, Arslan felt a warm hand pat the top of his head. Startled, before he could open his eyes and look up from the floor, he half-consciously realized that the hand on his head was a familiar one, but it wasn’t his father’s. Yet, no matter how surprised he was and how much he didn’t expect it to happen when he looked to his side he clearly saw that it was Laien who was patting his head. He also noticed the gentle, somewhat helpless smile that Laien wore on his face, but for some reason which he couldn’t understand, it made him feel just as happy as guilty.

“Let me take a guess,” Laien said with a hint of playfulness, one that would appear once one gave up on thinking about the hard choices too much. “You want us to tell your father about that thing we talked about throughout the night with Mika and Raphael, yes?” he inquired straightforwardly enough for Arslan, but not Mustafa, to easily understand what he was talking about. As a result, he managed to get Arslan to nod in reply, though it didn’t look like he was going to get any coherent words out of this young friend of his anytime soon. Since it was like that, he chose to continue to tousle Arslan’s hair and for the time being, he started a conversation with Mustafa.

“Grand Yimar,” Laien said as he turned his gaze to Mustafa, a somewhat wry half-smirk present on his face.

“Mustafa is fine,” Mustafa said with a laugh and waved his hand dismissingly. “I was planning to talk with you two in private later anyway, but do know that I consider you the main benefactors in the latest events. So, don’t bother with formalities and speak to me casually, though if I remember well, you’ve done that the last time we saw each other anyway,” he pointed out with a smirk. Who in his right mind would believe that this cheeky kid wanted to address him in a formal way once they saw Laien’s smirk from a few seconds ago? That being said, he really didn’t mind and above that, he could see that Laien’s relationship with his son was indeed very close, so he wasn’t about to complain.

“Mm.” Laien nodded happily. He was never fond of being overly stiff and in his experience, many of the top experts had a weak spot for talented youths with some backbone. So far, he had never come out worse-off by acting more or less as he pleased in front of those old powerhouses. “You can probably guess the gist of it anyway, so I’ll explain. We’ve got something we’re sure will be of no help to you in restoring your Qi Origin, but Arslan seems to want to have you try regardless,” he began explaining, then raised his eyebrows in surprise when Mustafa showed him a slightly surprised expression, then a look of understanding before he could even finish the part of the story.

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“Say no more,” Mustafa interjected, glad that Laien caught the hint and he didn’t have to interrupt him. “If you’ve come across a lucky chance, then it’s better for you to keep it to yourselves. I have my suspicions about its high value since Arslan and you guys were acting as you were, so the more so, don’t speak of it to anyone. The more people know of a secret, the less of a secret it is,” he advised, but he couldn’t help frowning a little when the reactions he got from Laien and Yin were different than he expected. The two boys didn’t appear to be relieved and neither did they look conflicted. Rather, he could see in their eyes what appeared to be a glint of careful consideration.

“You’re too trusting,” Yin reprimanded in his thoughts. “It’s different to be telling about that tome to Mustafa, it’s not like with Raphael, Mikaela, and Arslan. I admit that so far Mustafa’s reactions suggest he won’t try anything funny, but that might only be because he’s still far underestimating our ‘lucky chance’. But what am I saying, you’ve made up your mind, didn’t you?” he asked rhetorically, his thoughts fairly sour. Laien was too easily influenced by people asking or needing his help. It was good to want to save others, but Laien was taking it too far, again. Yet, it wasn’t like he could complain too much since he too was again failing to stop Laien from doing as he pleased.

“I just weighed the options,” Laien sent the thought in a counterargument. “Compared to what we can gain by being trusting, the risk is minuscule and even if it comes to the worst, we won’t be risking our lives. Yet, if we refuse to share the knowledge of the tome with Mustafa, then our relationship with Arslan will be greatly hurt regardless. It’s better to take the risk this time,” he argued but could find no rebuttal when Yin soon pointed out that he had made this decision after seeing Arslan shaking and almost crying. What could he do about it, he valued his friends too much, perhaps too much for his own good. But, as far as Laien’s opinion went, if one wasn’t willing to go the extra mile for his dearest friends, then how could he expect those friends to do the same for him instead of turning their back in his hour of need?

“Fine, fine,” Yin thought helplessly and exchanged a long look with Laien. Mustafa was likely beginning to get suspicious since Laien had stayed silent for a bit longer than expected, so this glance would serve as enough of an explanation. “Just please, do try not to make it into more of a habit than it already is. I’m getting tired of us sticking our necks into dangerous stuff time and time again,” he pleaded, wishing that they could rest and relax for a few days as they had agreed to. He didn’t mind taking risks in order to grow stronger and in order to stay faithful to their friendships, but at this point, he was too tired to be getting involved in another potentially dangerous business.

“Sorry,” Laien thought helplessly, feeling somewhat ashamed of himself. “And thanks,” he added, to what Yin snorted our loud and secretly rolled his eyes after closing them for a second. This undoubtedly gave Mustafa a few things to ponder about, but he knew that Yin did so intentionally. According to Yin’s musings, since they were already going along with the flow and doing something reckless again, they might as well make sure to benefit from it as much as possible. In the heart of this approach, they would be better able to leverage their offer if one of them played the bad cop or at the very least, the reluctant and fairly dissatisfied cop.

“We’re going to tell you,” Laien began saying with a slightly awkward smile, his eyes lying back upon Mustafa. “But first, please promise us that you won’t request us to share what I’m about to bring out with anyone else and you will also keep it a secret for us,” he said and laughed when Arslan’s eyes went wide and the look on his face became extremely cheerful. Unable to hold himself back, he removed his hand from Arslan’s head and flicked him in the forehead, startling the boy again.

“You’re too much,” Yin cut in with a sigh, right before Mustafa could say anything. “I won’t oppose sharing the secret with Mustafa, but at least try to get some tangible benefits for us out of it, okay? We’re friends with Arslan, not with his father, and there rarely are any free meals in this world,” he pointed out and first gave Laien and Arslan a scolding look, then glared at Mustafa. As for how much acting was in this reaction of his and how much was it fueled by his genuine feelings, only he knew.

“Right,” Mustafa supported with a laugh, caring little to have shown his surprised expression to those three. “What you’re saying is true. You’re revealing a card of yours to me because of my son, too, so I can’t be insincere. Regardless of whether I can make use of that lucky chance we’re talking about, I will allow you to either learn some of my own secrets or provide you directly with items or aid as per your wish. Let’s say that we’ll be even the moment we agree that I provided you twice the value of what you want to show me, will that be fine with you?” he asked and glanced at Laien for a moment before returning his attention to Yin. He was honestly touched by how much those two were willing to do for Arslan, so he thought to use this opportunity to offer them some benefits.

However, just as he was thinking along those lines, he was suddenly overcome with a very bad premonition when he spotted a mix of pity and amusement appear in Laien’s eyes and saw a clear wry smile emerge on Yin’s face. Then, his expression sank further when he saw Arslan looking at him worriedly as if wondering if it was going to be all right. Those kids… this lucky chance of theirs, that secret, it couldn’t possibly be so valuable that he had screwed himself over by accident?

“No take-backs,” Yin said with a devilish smile, one that was so unlike him to show and yet fit him so well that Mustafa found himself at a loss for words for more than one reason.

“That’s a bit cruel,” Laien admitted with a quiet sigh, but contrary to his words, a playful smirk was present on his lips. “Here you go,” he said and brought out the Tome of Martial and Spiritual Transcendence. All the while watching the anxious look on Mustafa’s face, he handed the book over and offered a few brief words of advice. “No need to open it yet, you just have to focus your awareness on the tome and perceive the Intent that was inscribed into it by the creator.”

Having heard Laien’s suggestion, Mustafa did as Laien told him to despite feeling more worried by the second. Still, since he had meditated upon the mysteries of some ancient artifacts he had found all around Arkaria, he was able to easily enter the meditative-like state. However, once the information about what appeared to be called Seven Refinements to Immortality flooded his mind, the calm state he had forced himself into to perceive the tome shattered in an instant. The very same moment he finished perceiving the Intent, his eyes snapped open and he proceeded to give Laien, Yin, and his son a disbelieving look. He had no idea where Laien and Yin managed to obtain this Tome, but its value for a ruler of a country or a leader of an organization was immeasurable!

It now made perfect sense why those three acted the way they did and why they were so hesitant to bring this thing out. If the contents of this Tome were to be spread to a country or an organization, the overall strength of their elites would directly rise by a level. Then, thanks to the Refinements themselves, many experts would be able to overcome their bottlenecks and advance their cultivations a level further than it should have been possible. This would raise the country’s strength by yet another full step! For something that could be deemed an auxiliary technique to be capable of improving a practitioner’s strength so drastically, he had never heard of anything so miraculous!

“Dear Heavens,” Mustafa muttered in a daze and shook his head. “If I didn’t believe that Arslan would come to absolutely hate me if I did so, I would have had to seriously consider if I should renege on my promise. To think you would be willing to bring out something so ridiculous to show me, I really am glad that Arslan was able to make two such great friends,” he said rather absent-mindedly, speaking whatever came to his mind. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted by the possibility of using this tome to uplift Makarash above all of its enemies and competitors, but he wasn’t the kind of a person who would put flat benefits above his family’s feelings.

Technically speaking, Arslan’s future would be far more stable if he seized this tome from Laien and Yin and used it to empower Makarash for the decades, centuries, and millennia to come. Of course, it wasn’t as if he was undervaluing the importance of Arslan’s friendship with Laien and Yin and he was quite supportive towards the idea of the three-way-alliance, too, but he had been taught by experience that trusting outside powers was always less reliable than relying on one’s own resources. After all, there was no guarantee that your friends and allies wouldn’t be in a pinch too and would have the ability to go and rescue you when needed. Had he been a more pragmatic person, then he perhaps would have had disregarded Arslan’s opinion and done what he thought to be for the best.

“Father.” While Mustafa lost himself in his own musings, Arslan spoke to him anxiously. “Can it help?” Arslan asked with nervous expectation. He was possibly even more stressed than when he had been trying to bring up the entire matter a moment ago, but it was a different kind of nervousness. His chest didn’t feel heavy and he was no longer about to cry, but instead he was unnaturally lightheaded and had trouble focusing his thoughts at all. The fact that in such a state he had managed to utter those four words to Mustafa could be considered a small miracle.

Arslan’s question abruptly brought Mustafa back into reality and caused his expression to shift thrice within less than two seconds. Surprise, elation, then worry all flashed on Mustafa’s face before he wore his usual calm and amiable expression. Having collected himself, he took half a step towards Arslan and kneeled on one knee in front of him, levelling the height from which they could look at each other. “Laien was right, it won’t help me repair my Qi Origin,” he said calmly, but his lips remained slightly curved as it wasn’t all he had to say. “On the other hand, you guys couldn’t have known that I can use Qi Path Refinement to prolong my life. If it goes as I suspect, I should have roughly ten years instead of five or six before my strength starts deteriorating. Overall, I should be able to live for about twenty years if nothing forces me to use my Qi.”

“Really?” Laien and Arslan asked at the same time, both of their voices carrying joy and shock, though in different proportions. For Arslan, the news that his father would be able to live longer was already great even if his father’s Qi Origin couldn’t be repaired. As for Laien, he couldn’t understand how Mustafa intended to use Qi Path Refinement to prolong his life. This aspect of the Six Refinements relied on circulating Qi throughout your body and thus uplifting it to a higher level, but this was a process which involved active use of Qi Origin as one of the pathways and as a source of more and more of Qi! Even if Mustafa managed to cut off Qi Origin from the process, the moment he tried to refine his Qi without drawing upon more of it, he would find himself with no means of stopping his Qi Origin from deteriorating while the refinement was going on. It was suicide!