The walk to the mansion isn't a long one considering how close the building is to the village center. Ken walks down the long paved road from the fence to the front door, passing by all the training equipment that he'd been using for the past three years. The pool, target dummies and running track have become quite worn out considering that almost nothing had been done to maintain them.

Inscriptions flicker as he opens the front door, they're fine tuned to only let Ken and Dongmei through. He peeks inside the main room of the mansion.

'Hellooo~? Seven foot tall cat mommy?' He peeks inside with a smile.

With the Heavens no longer clouding his thoughts, Kenki had gradually returned to his more playful side, reawakening some of his long lost urges and desires from the beyond. One of his more interesting hobbies, watching anime and being a degenerate in general, has undergone a worrying metamorphosis.

According to Dongmei he's been under Heaven's influence ever since the event with the abandoned farm. That's the majority of his life in the new world that he's seen through a misshapen lens.

Much of his personality had been suppressed, only now being allowed to take its natural course and develop into what it should have been in the first place.

Speaking of Dongmei, the main room where she spends the majority of her time is suspiciously silent today. Only the glowing white inscriptions on its charcoal black walls produce any sound, a weak but pleasant hum.

'She didn't leave the village again, did she? She said that she'd tell me her plans for the future somewhere around the time the executions happened.'

"...What are you doing?"

"Gah!" Ken gasps out as he leaps into the air, hitting his head on the ceiling of the room.

Nevertheless, he lands gracefully on the floor. Turning 180 degrees to face Dongmei, he bows "Hello, Master."

He's smacked over the head.

"Do I want to know?"

"...no." Ken replies, his bow still being held.

Dongmei lets out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly." She walks past him, entering the mansion. "I don't know what's worse. Your previous dry, joyless and to the point personality or whatever the hells I have on my hands now. You take nothing seriously."

"Come" she tugs at his arm to follow her, leading him to the table and chairs inside the room. Both of them sitting down, she looks at him with a stoic expression that portrays nothing of her inner thoughts.

"What do you desire most in life?"

'Mofu Mofu' Ken has to actively stop himself from speaking the words out loud, lest Dongmei's opinion of him tanks further. If that is even possible.

A vein pops up on the woman’s forehead, almost as if she can read his thoughts.

'No, no' mentally he shakes his head. 'That's not a life goal. It is an aspiration of mine, one that I will wholeheartedly pursue in the future now that I know it exists, but once I obtain it it will be over… I think.

"..."

'What I desire most in life?'

'My goal was to leave this village even before Dongmei came along and wrecked all my plans. But for what reason…'

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"I have no idea." he finally replies after a minute or two, shrugging. "My desires are to not die and to not be bored, but that's everyone's desire. The way I am right now I might as well just see where the wind blows me and go from there."

"...Not be bored?" An eyebrow is raised.

"Yeah."

"That is a first time I’ve heard someone declare such a desire." She says, also leaning back.

"What were you expecting?"

"How do you think the average disciple reacts after an experience like yours? After your confrontation with the Tower Wolf, especially after passing the Trial of Initiation and undergoing such a drastic personality change. Guess, what do you think that they will desire after?"

Ken shrugs.

"Get stronger and defy the Heavens?" He replies in a monotone voice.

"Something along those lines is usually what most say." She eyes him suspiciously. "It seems like you don't really care about it, you speak like the whole thing is boring beyond compare to you."

'If only you knew, Master.'

"It's not as if I don't want to get stronger but it's hardly the thing I desire most in this world."

He looks off to the side as the intensity in Dongmei's gaze increases. It isn't an intensity fueled by Qi, all of it being just body language. Feeling like he's stepped on some sort of a landmine Ken decides that the best option for now is to stay quiet.

"Moving on." she relents after a while. "What do you know about the Twilight Blossom Sect and the Verdant Blade Sect?"

"Nothing." He replies. "I know that you're part of Twilight Blossom and that the last guardian was part of Verdant Blade, but nothing more than that. There are a couple of myths and legends about Verdant Blade floating around the village, but I don't know how accurate they are."

Dongmei nods " Then I should first explain to you how new members are inducted into Twilight Blossom. The methods are varied, made to apply for many different types of situations, you've already experienced one of them after all."

"Wait. I'm part of the Twilight Blossom sect?"

"No” The reply is instant, cutting him off “Not truly at least, In the case that a cultivator of the sect takes on a disciple, and they happen to pass the trial of initiation, that disciple will be classified as an unaffiliated cultivator of the sect. That is what you are right now." She points to Kenki with a heavy finger, her expression suddenly shifting from serious to one filled with resignation.

"What would have happened, normally, is that you would have helped me gather some intelligence on Verdant Sword and earned some goodwill. That would have allowed me to send you to one of the better sect branches where you can be properly led down the path of a cultivator. Taught by those who actually know what would and wouldn't trigger a tribulation from the Heavens."

"That would have been if she didn't get involved" she whispers out her last sentence so quietly that Kenki, even with his enhanced hearing, can't make anything out.

'Normally?'

"What makes me any different?"

"Hah hah hah hah!" A booming laugh resounds throughout the mansion, shaking the entirety of the building down to its foundations as if an earthquake is passing through. Ken feels his heartbeat speed up at the sudden development.

Dongmei is startled just as much as Kenki if her reaction is anything to go by, her eyes roam off of the young boy and unto something behind him. Immediately she stands up, pushing out the chair behind her, and bows.

"That is a very good question!" Ken whips around when he hears a voice coming from behind…

…only to meet two blood red cat-like eyes. Inches from him.

He shrinks at the sight. A Lyraxi woman with the exact same black hair as Dongmei's is looking at him with a devilish smile on her face. Her hair is messy and her locks are strewn all around the place, like she's never brushed her hair once in her life. The torn clothes as well as the soot and mud on her skin building up a wild and dangerous look. There's a burn on her left ankle, though calling it a burn is gross understatement. It looks like her skin had been peeled off from her body, leaving behind black and red flesh like that of a zombie. It should be recent.

Ken feels his heart stop when she grabs him under the armpits. She lifts him up in the air, the same way one would lift their cat or dog, until they're both at the same eye level.

"It's because in our sect, you are the very first human to advance to the realm of initiation. And not for lack of trying. I rushed here the moment I heard that someone had managed to do it."

"Eh?" Dongmei questioningly looks at their guest,

"Maybe it's because you had no idea what you were doing that you succeeded? I still don't understand what possessed you to take on a human disciple." She sends out an inquisitive glance at Dongmei before turning back to Kenki. She lets go of him, instead suspending the boy in some sort of a force field, slowly spinning him around like and studying him. The smile that she had greeted him with is gone, instead replaced with something more neutral.

"Um…" Ken decides to speak out after what must have been ten or fifteen minutes of just rotating. The shock of meeting this new cultivator had completely worn off by then, to be replaced with boredom. She's still examining him, her hand cupped under her chin. From time to time he feels some sort of phantom sensation tugging at the inside of his body, in his muscles, organs or his dantian. He guesses that she's using her Qi for the inspection.

"I'm feeling a bit left out of the loop here?" He says, uncertainty radiating off of him "What do you mean when you say that I'm the first human to advance?"

"..."

Silence.

Neither Dongmei nor the woman examining him reply, instead opting to ignore him. Though, fortunately, he's let down shortly after.

*sigh*

"I have absolutely no idea what makes you any different from the others" she moves past him, disappointment evident in her voice, but not before giving Kenki a head pat "You are very cute though, I'll give you that" Walking over to the table she decides to sit down on one of the chairs in a vulgar manner, arm resting on the table and legs spread out. The chair is entirely too small for her and it creaks under her weight. Somehow, she's even larger than Dongmei, standing at what must have been nine whole feet. Ken's beginning to think that it is a feature of their race - the older and more powerful the larger that they become. But that's a question to be answered at a different time.

Dongmei still hasn't moved a muscle, continuing to maintain her bow.

“Your name was Kenki, wasn’t it?”

The boy nods.

“Then, Kenki, I will be perfectly honest with you. The Twilight Blossom sect doesn’t have what it takes to take care of a human.”