Chapter 2- There Can Be No Beginning Without an End

Noticing just how fired up his would-be student was getting Mingtian decided to pour a bucket of cold water at her while wearing something of a facsimile of a wry smile on his feathered face.

『Hey I’m sorry to rain on your little parade but even at the absolute fastest I estimate ascending to the immortal world will still take at least a century and even then that would be considered a time worthy of legend. As such take this as the first lesson from your master; no matter how anxious you feel some matters cannot be forced this is especially so for cultivation. A weak foundation created from rushing will only come back to harm you in the future.』

Blinking a few times while rubbing her throbbing head Baiyue soon calmed down with her eyes returning to normal before long. She understood deep down in her heart that her Grampa Ming was right rushing in headfirst wouldn’t change anything.

Despite understanding this however it was in the end not so easy to put down such an obsession. Hong Min while proud of his daughter’s newfound resolve knew that it wasn’t right to burden her with the matters of her parents.

『Little Moon you do not have to concern yourself over such things. So much time will have passed already for your mother that whatever her situation, it is long beyond your control. So instead you should take the time to learn from your master and if you happen to see her in the future great but if you don’t that’s fine too. What’s most important is that you stay safe, it’s what Meixing would have wanted as well.』

『Okay Father, I understand.』

Saying as such Baiyue appeared to at least on the surface acquiesce for the time being. In her heart though she had made a solemn vow that regardless of how long it would take she would reunite her family once more, no matter what.

『Well enough of this depressing talk Little Moon you still haven’t told me if this pheasant is scamming us or not why don’t you have a look at the book and tell me what it says.』

Baiyue being of the same mind did as she was told and grabbed the seemingly blank book. When it entered her hands though she could all of a sudden make out three words adorning its cover in beautiful calligraphy.

『… Moon … Holding … Instruction?』

Softly mumbling out the title after some small difficulty she then looked up at her Father on the bed and faced the book towards him in question.

『Father, you can’t see this?』

Baiyue even ran her index finger along where the text should be in case he was simply having trouble seeing at that distance but even after all that Hong Min merely shook his head in doubt.

『No Little Moon, I really can’t see anything. What does it say?』

『The characters are kind of hard but I think it says Moon Holding Instruction.』

『Birdbrain! Complete birdbrain! What Moon Holding Instruction?! It clearly says Moon Grasping Manual! Honestly do you have no sense of style, what were you raised in the countryside or something?』

Looking at her Grampa Ming with unshed tears in her eyes Baiyue made a pitiful face that would soften the heart of even the most bloodthirsty of beasts.

『But … but this is the countryside.』

『Oh, right. Well I’ll help you with your characters later I suppose you are still young anyway.』

Conceding that perhaps he was indeed a little too harsh Mingtian suddenly felt the presence of killing intent in his surroundings. Looking around he figured out the source was coming from the only other person in the room.

『Dare to bully my daughter! See that I don’t climb out of this bed and pluck you!』

"God damn!", Mingtian thought when he turned around and saw the seemingly elegant and cultured Hong Min making the face of a pissed off ogre. Remembering that he really was as weak as a chicken right now the pheasant hightailed himself back to his perch on Baiyue’s head indirectly beseeching her protection.

Picking up the frightened pheasant and holding him to her chest Baiyue wiped her eyes and glared at the sickly man.

『Father! Grampa Ming was just joking, don’t bully him.』

Hong Min was speechless he jumps to her protection only to get told off, what logic is this? Haa~ it indeed appears that daughters will always side with outsiders in the end. Making a sullen face he glared at the pheasant making himself comfortable in his daughter’s bosom.

When he lowered his gaze however he saw the frickin bird throwing him what he could only guess were smug looks though what with the beak and all he couldn’t be certain. In his heart though this little rascal Ming was firmly relegated to the label of no good troublemaker.

Hong Min was already starting to regret leaving his daughter to him and he wasn’t even dead yet, the future indeed looked bleak. Rubbing his head in irritation he decided to return to important matters.

『Very well I suppose you do have some ability; you have my blessing to become my daughter’s master. Nevertheless I still feel that it would be best that if you don’t have any immediate plans for the future, that my Little Moon follows my original instructions and you simply go with her.』

Facing Hong Min from his warm home in Baiyue’s arms Mingtian could indeed see the logic in his words as in his current form he really did not have any means of protecting or providing for a growing child.

『Yes I was curious what you planned to do with her anyway so let’s hear it.』

『The idea is simple; in a few months’ time the Flowing Wisdom Sect will be opening its doors to recruit new disciples. I want Baiyue to join the selection and hopefully the sect as well. I think it would be safer and more secure than any home in the mortal world as she grows and hardens her wings.』

『Oh~ this is indeed not a bad idea compared to being a vagrant cultivator joining a sect is probably a smarter alternative. How well off is this sect?』

Nodding his head Hong Min continued.

『In the past it was my own sect. While it has been more than a decade since I was last there I can tell you that though the world only sees it as a middle class sect it is presided over by an Earth Immortal Monarch so even high class sects would not be able to carelessly interfere with them.』

Listening in on the conversation Baiyue couldn’t help but interject when she heard something unbelievable.

『Wait Father you’re a cultivator?! Why didn’t you say anything?』

Chuckling at his daughter’s worshipping eyes Hong Min decided to elaborate before his Little Moon’s head exploded.

『I used to be a cultivator but not anymore otherwise I would not be so sick. In fact this so-called sickness I have is merely the aftereffects of having my cultivation crippled. Little Moon understand that the cultivation world is such a place where strength reigns supreme and all the creatures of heaven and earth are treated as straw dogs. I do not mean to brag but your father was pretty strong back in his heyday y’know.』

Snorting Mingtian flew out of Baiyue’s arms and landed on Hong Min’s bed to look him in the eyes with his cold birdlike stare.

『You’re doing it again.』

『Doing what?』

『Wording things in such a way that you cause misunderstandings. What do you suppose little Yue thinks after hearing that story? If I were her, I would think someone bullied my father by beating him half to death and crippling him; but things didn’t really go like that did they? I have lived for a long time and seen many things this story is one I have seen before, admirable but indeed stupid.』

『I suppose you are right I do not want my Little Moon to go around on a wild goose chase caused by some silly idea of revenge.』

Motioning over to Baiyue to approach him Hong Min gently rubbed her head, while doing so he unconsciously tried to straighten her hopeless hair. Not having it in him to look her in the eyes he spoke while continuing his work.

『Little Moon the one who did this to me was none other than myself.』

Jerking her head in shock she tried to look up to see her father but her head was then promptly pushed back down with a quick warning.

『Stay still! Honestly your hair is such a mess, your mother’s hair was perfectly straight and flowed like threads of stardust.』

Making a gagging noise Baiyue did not want to hear her father wax poetry about how beautiful her mother was.

『Little Moon you are still young and I do not wish to speak overmuch about this subject. So yes I will tell you that I was the one who crippled myself but I honestly do not want to revisit the memory. Instead I will tell you this; if you meet my master in the future tell him that he has my permission to explain what happened back then. My only hope is that you will still remember me the same way as you always have; as your kind and gentle father.』

Taking a step back Baiyue grabbed her father’s hand from her head and squeezed it tightly not letting him pull it away.

『I promise.』

Smiling again at his daughter trying her best to be mature Hong Min took his hand back and ruffled Baiyue’s hair. Fixing it was a hopeless task anyway.

『So about joining the sect I feel that you have a pretty good chance of passing on your own but the letter I left in the dresser should allow you to bypass all that and join regardless. The contents are about the fact you are my daughter and that I wish for you to join the sect, it also contains my personal seal and a drop of my blood so as long as it lands in the hands of someone of sufficient authority there should be no problems.』

Mingtian being the nosy guy he was poked his beak into the nearby dresser and found the letter in question. Alas as it was sealed even someone as thick skinned as he decided to leave well enough alone and simply passed it to Baiyue.

While also going through the dresser he found a bag containing several taels of silver as well as what could only be a spatial ring. Picking the ring up in his beak he tossed it to its apparent owner.

『Yo Hong Min, this yours? Got any spirit stones left?』

Picking up the ring from where it landed on the bed the sickly man looked at it for a while trying to remember its contents. It was a fact that he had not opened the thing in more than a decade so his memories regarding it were a little foggy.

『Yes I think I should still have a few thousand high class spirit stones left.』

Whistling like the bird he was Mingtian voiced his approval.

『Not bad, as expected of a Three Transformations Reverend. The thing is I wasn’t lying earlier when I told Little Yue that I could give you another chance at life but finding out you have all these high class spirit stones just increased the likelihood of success.』

Hong Min would definitely not say no to a second chance but he knew the problem with the bird’s words as soon as they left his beak.

『If this method of yours requires the spirit stones, then it’s no good afterall. I have no cultivation base to open the ring and considering the fact even my daughter was able to catch you I can only assume that whatever circumstances you have they have led to you being powerless as well.』

『In this guess you are not wrong not a drop of qi can currently flow through my body but that does not mean it is impossible. If you are willing to take a gamble with me then we can make this work.』

Looking wearily towards the bird Hong Min questioned the specifics.

『What sort of gamble are we talking about here?』

『The kind that can kill you. What I’m proposing is that I set up a formation that will steal some of your blood essence in order to convert it into qi. This qi will then be funnelled into your spatial ring to open it for just a moment and dump all its content.』

Glaring at Mingtian, Hong Min spoke his mind.

『This is an unorthodox technique of a devil cultivator to steal strength from mortals to further their own personal cultivation. Why do you know a technique like this!? If you are a devil cultivator then no matter what as someone from the orthodox path I must go against my word and forbid you from teaching Baiyue.』

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Despite how furious Hong Min seemed at this moment Mingtian was even more so and gave a glare that could leave an Immortal Emperor shaking in their robe.

『Listen well Hong Min! I will take the place of your teacher on this day and tell you why you are a fool! It is this exact attitude that led to your current pitiful appearance, there are no good or bad techniques. To know the dao is to know the laws of the heaven and earth but the world is cruel and not everything is made of rainbows and sunshine. If I can use this technique to save your daughter the pain of losing her father forever, then is it not a “good” technique?』

『Quibbling!』

Baiyue having seen enough of their fighting got in the middle to say her own thoughts.

『Father and Grampa Ming please stop! I don’t get what you’re talking about but father if there’s even a small chance please don’t give up. Didn’t you want to see me grown up, to be there when I got married, to hold your grandchildren in your arms!』

Seeing his Little Moon practically begging him Hong Min took a deep breath through his nose and calmed down.

『If … if I do this my already depleted life span will shorten even more. As I am now I don’t know if I will last three days but going through with this I feel I will be lucky to last the night.』

『Grampa Ming is that true?!』

Solemnly nodding his head Mingtian confirmed Hong Min’s words.

『Yes, in fact if things go badly he might even die on the spot, but … 』

Instead of continuing the pheasant suddenly started coughing uncontrollably seemingly having something stuck in his throat. Seeing this Baiyue shouted in surprise.

『Grampa Ming!』

Holding up a talon as if to say, “just a second” Mingtian kept on coughing. This continued a while until he eventually regurgitated what looked to be a intricately carved ring made of black jade straight onto the ground.

『Gross! Grampa Ming if you swallow rings like that of course you will choke.』

『You brat! Do you think I swallowed it cause I wanted to; it was the only way to smuggle my universe ring past that annoying geezer.』

Looking at the pheasant with eyes of pity Baiyue guessed at what happened to Mingtian.

『Grampa Ming did you get robbed? Is that why you swallowed your ring? And it was by another grampa as well, turns out you old people can be so scary; who knew.』

『No I didn’t get robbed! How many people do you know get turned into pheasants after getting robbed?!』

Tilting her head in question Baiyue continued her interrogation.

『If you did not get robbed, then what happened?』

『I do not want to talk about it.』

Of course there was no way Mingtian could admit to the fact that after going to kill someone he got beat up instead and turned into a little bird as a joke. If he were to reveal such as thing where would his face be as Baiyue’s master?

Naturally Mingtian thus decided to move past the subject as casually as possible. Going over to the puddle of sick on the ground the pheasant scooped up the ring from inside with his talons and flapped on over to his disciple's side.

Rubbing the ring on Baiyue’s dress to clean it he then held it up to the light to show it off.

『This is my universe ring. Different from a spatial ring made with a fixed size, a universe ring grows bigger the more you nurture it with qi. The downside however is that the bigger you make it the more qi is needed to open it. I have kept this ring by my side for a very long time and as such it is equally large; this means that to open it with an external energy source is prohibitively expensive. The high class spirit stones in Hong Min’s spatial ring will be used in another array to hold open my universe ring long enough for me to fish out a pair of soul protection amulets. It is by using these amulets that I will be able to help your father Little Yue, are there any questions?』

『Did you just put vomit on my dress?』

『None? Good, Excellent.』

『Hey!』

A warm smile spread on Hong Min’s face seeing the lively attitude of his daughter. Unfortunately as the ongoing talks were most relevant to him the doting father soon decided to interrupt the bickering pair.

『The dress was already torn so please calm down my Little Moon you were going to need a new one anyway. As for Grampa Ming I am curious what does a soul protection amulet do specifically?』

『Ah yes I forget you guys don’t have them here. Basically soul protection amulets are artifacts forged in pairs that have the effect of sheltering the soul in the event of the person wearing it suddenly dying. As you should be aware Hong Min once you reach the Nascent Soul realm the soul becomes capable of leaving the body after death, this does not guarantee that the soul will not be immediately captured and destroyed however. Soul protection amulets were created with this in mind effectively when the one wearing it dies the soul is preserved and transmitted to the opposite paired amulet. This is so that once the necessary materials are gathered a new body may be created and the soul deposited inside effectively allowing for rebirth.』

『Sounds fairly valuable where did you get such a thing?』

『They’re worn by your typical rich young masters as well as the supreme elders in certain sects and families. I am of course talking about in the immortal realm, the materials and expertise required to craft these things just aren’t possible down here in the three thousand worlds. Seeing as how Little Yue’s goal is the immortal world anyway, this works out rather conveniently. As the materials and cultivation base required to reconstruct a body for you are only possible there as well.』

『Do you not just have any kind of elixir that can heal me?』

『Not really as Little Yue told you earlier I’m from the phoenix clan my people have an extremely powerful innate regeneration ability. I seriously just don’t carry anything like that; besides no doubt you were fed a few healing items from your sect before you left after crippling yourself. But in the end you are still suffering are you not, this is because crippling one’s cultivation causes an extremely comprehensive damage throughout the body and while one may not die immediately the higher ones level before such an act the more severe the consequences. No, for you to make a full recovery it would be better to scrap the body completely and start over. In fact doing so may even allow for you to reach even greater heights then before as you will have gained much invaluable experience in your time living as a mortal that you otherwise would never have had if you continued your life as a cultivator uninterrupted.』

Rubbing his chin in thought Hong Min begrudgingly agreed with Mingtian’s logic.

『Hmm, I suppose what you say makes sense. Very well we’ll gamble, a few extra days or thousands of more years together; an all or nothing bet.』

『Perfect let’s do this.』

Not wasting anymore time Mingtian flew outside the house into the walled off courtyard to begin. With a simple stick he found on the ground he quickly started drawing extremely precise patterns and lines in the dirt.

Following her Grampa Ming’s trail Baiyue came upon the scene and decided to watch in silence as he worked. The various shapes forming under the pheasants efforts began to come into focus the more he continued.

As the minutes passed she stared on after a while Baiyue felt she was starting to get a feel for the way the various symbols and alignments followed some form of inscrutable logic. This feeling of every little piece coming into place gave her a strange sense of satisfaction she couldn’t quite describe.

Regardless as she watched her Grampa Ming work, Mingtian too kept an eye on Baiyue from the corner of his sight. It did not escape the vision of a master like him the natural aptitude the girl showed in formation arrays.

Deciding in the back of his mind that he would show her a few simple arrays whenever he had the chance Mingtian eventually finalised the last of his drawings. Stepping back from his work he looked at his pupil with a proud gleam in his eye.

『So what do you think?』

『Mn, very neat.』

『While not the most impressive of answers you are not wrong either. For any formation from the simplest to most complex, one of the most important aspects is that every line or stroke be perfectly exact with no margin for error.』

『What happens if it’s messy?』

Chuckling darkly Mingtian answered his curious student’s query.

『If you are lucky, nothing.』

『If unlucky?』

『An explosion would be getting off easy. As for the worst case even I am unsure, literally anything could happen.』

Gulping in nervousness Baiyue spoke her thoughts.

『It sounds hard.』

『It can be, though I would not say it is necessarily more difficult than other paths. The dao of formation arrays is simply one dao out of countless others but I have always found it very useful for a variety of situations. Do you have an interest in arrays?』

At that question Baiyue paused for a moment before giving her honest answer.

『Yes, I think they’re very pretty.』

Chuckling at the childish answer he in the end could only concede the fact that it was as good a reason as any to learn.

『Very well it’s decided, when you reach the Qi Gathering realm I will begin formally instructing you in the dao of formations arrays.』

『Yay~』

In her excitement Baiyue scooped up Mingtian from the ground hugging him fiercely much to the pheasant’s dismay.

『Alright, alright enough of that; calm down. The arrays are finished go and retrieve your father for me he needs to be here for this to work afterall.』

In the centre of the courtyard Baiyue could make out two distinct patterns which she could only guess were the arrays in question. Having already looked enough the girl with a quick salute quickly ran back inside the house to help her father get out of bed and before long the pair of parent and child stood in front of the orchestrator of this whole event.

『Hong Min if you are ready I need you to stand alone in the centre of the lefthand formation, be careful not to disturb any of the lines in place as you enter as they are in the end no more than scratches in the dirt afterall. Little Yue you place your father’s spatial ring in the centre of the right hand formation same logic applies don’t disturb the lines.』

With silent nods of confirmation both did as instructed. At first nothing happened causing Baiyue to think for a second that perhaps her Grampa Ming made a mistake somewhere.

After a minute or so of waiting however, all of a sudden she heard her father begin screaming in pain with a subtle red mist pouring from his body. Seeing this she went to rush over in a panic but was quickly stopped by Mingtian’s shout.

『Wait! This is what’s supposed to happen, don’t move until I say so. When enough energy is extracted from your father’s blood essence his ring will begin to shine; only when that happens should you run over and stamp out as many lines as you can. Doing that much should be enough to stop an array as simple as this one.』

『But … but he’s in pain!』

Saying as such she shouted at Mingtian over the sound of her father’s screams. In the end though the bird was unfazed by her begging.

『No pain no gain. Your father knew what he was getting into and agreed anyway. Instead of averting your eyes look closely this is what it means to pursue the dao. To accept any challenge, any adversity and endure regardless to achieve your goal.』

Looking out towards her father Baiyue gritted her teeth but did not move from her spot. Almost as if to answer her faith in him Hong Min’s screams began to soften to merely a few painful grunts showing a strong display of willpower.

This continued on for three more slow and agonizing minutes until finally the ring began to shine as her Grampa Ming said it would. Without even asking for permission she ran off to her father’s side and stamped out the lines as quickly as possible.

Looking significantly paler than before Hong Min collapsed towards the ground but was luckily caught by his daughter before impact. Of course the difference in size was nigh insurmountable so Hong Min merely buried Baiyue with his large body but nonetheless it was enough to soften the blow considerably.

『Father are you okay?!』

Smiling weakly Hong Min looked at his Little Moon to reassure her.

『Of course, who do you think your father is? This much alone barely tickles.』

Despite Baiyue’s young age she was still very sensitive to the emotions of other’s by nature and she immediately saw through her father’s bravado. Even so she still chose to smile and act like she was ignorant if it meant he would be even a little bit more comfortable.

『Yes Father is the strongest, when I grow up I hope I will be as strong as you.』

Hong Min Laughed along with her words despite any pain he was feeling.

『If you think I am strong you should see your mother when she fights. I’m afraid even my master would be nothing but a helpless child in front of her.』

Rolling her eyes at her father once more singing her mother’s praises Baiyue looked to her Grampa Ming to see if all their efforts were worth it.

『Grampa Ming did it work?』

Waddling over to the ring lying in the rightmost formation Mingtian picked it up and lo and behold with a flash of light a mountain of junk suddenly appeared in the courtyard.

『It did it worked, looks like we’re rich Little Yue.』

Perusing the various artifacts and books sitting haphazardly amongst the dirt Mingtian spotted a few decent items here and there that would be suitable for his disciple but such things could wait afterall right now what he needed was spirit stones and a lot of them at that.

After a few solid minutes of sorting through the pile Mingtian was able to separate several tens of dozens of high class spirit stones into their own little mound to the side. Bringing out his trusty drawing stick again the pheasant wasted no time beginning on a new array.

As Baiyue sat with her father watching on from the side she noted the slight similarities and differences between this formation and the previous ones. From what she heard earlier the main purposes were somewhat alike as the earlier one existed to siphon blood essence and convert it into qi to be forcefully funnelled into the spatial ring to pop it open.

This formation was supposed to do something like siphon qi from the spirit stones and then consistently power the universe ring so that Grampa Ming could take out a few specific items before it closed again. She supposed that explained the similar broad shapes but the different symbols and lines amongst its inner layers.

Like before Mingtian kept half of his focus on Baiyue as he drew and he was shocked to find that this little birdbrained disciple of his was seriously a good egg when it came to arrays at least. The contrast between her usual self and when she was sitting there unconsciously trying to break his formation was a little unnerving if he were to be honest.

Like a sugar addled child bouncing off the walls suddenly going very still. When he thought back on it wasn’t it the same when he was writing the formations in the Moon Grasping Manual.

Back then he thought that she was merely patiently waiting by the side but was she actually carefully studying his every line and stroke as he worked? At what point was he thinking too much, even he was unsure at this stage afterall the formations within the book were infinitely more complex than what he was doing now.

"Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter." Mingtian decided to stop thinking about it as he was finally done with the last of his drawing. Placing his universe ring onto the middle talon of his right claw he activated the array with a flash of light.

Not even a moment passed before the light dimmed and the pheasant stood before the parent and child pair with a set of elaborate white jade necklaces in the appearance of a semi-circle respectively.

『Here these are the soul protection amulets I spoke of make sure you keep them with you at all times. When activated the amulet will vanish and fuse with the other pair making a complete circle, that shape indicates the amulet is currently storing a soul. On another note the material they are forged from is extremely sturdy, one must be at least an Immortal Emperor to even attempt destroying them so don’t be too concerned about it breaking on you.』

Tearing up in happiness Baiyue scooped Mingtian again into her arms.

『Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!』

Crawling his way from the little girl’s chest the pheasant had what could only be described as a resigned look upon his face.

『Don’t thank me. Tomorrow will be hard, harder than you can imagine. But I believe you will be okay; I will also be there for you.』

Before she could ask what her Grampa Ming meant her father distracted her by putting the new accessory around her neck.

『It looks very good on you. In fact it looks like a white moon just like your name.』

Smiling she put the other necklace around her father while nodding her head in approval.

『Mn, as expected Father is very handsome it looks good on you as well; hehe~』

Happy to wear the matching amulets with her father Baiyue temporarily forgot their original morbid purpose. As for Mingtian he did not wish to intrude on the precious time between father and daughter, so with the excuse of setting up another formation to hide the rest of the spatial rings content he stayed out of the way.

After a full day of telling stories and playing together the sun set upon the peaceful village at the foot of the Dragontail Mountains with Hong Min and Baiyue getting ready for bed. While Baiyue considered herself a grownup who didn’t need to sleep with her father anymore she happily did so when the request came from the other party.

Softly smiling Hong Min gently adjusted his daughters blankets so that she would be warm and comfortable as he entered the other side of the bed.

『Sleep well my Little Moon, I hope you have pleasant dreams.』

Yawning Baiyue rolled over to face her father with drooping eyelids.

『Sleep well Father, tell me more stories later okay; you didn’t get to the story of how you met Mama.』

Ruffling his daughter’s ever messy hair he then held out his pinkie finger. Seeing this the sleepy little girl brought out her own and a promise was made.

『I’ll tell you the story when I wake up, deal?』

『Deal.』

『Goodnight Little Moon.』

『Goodnight Father.』

And just like so the pair went to sleep, little fingers still locked in promise. And just like that the morning came, a head of messy grey hair crawled from her blankets rubbing her eyes of any debris.

After a yawn and a stretch Baiyue shook her father to wake him up, as she did so she noticed he was not wearing his necklace like he said he would.

『Geez Father, Grampa Ming said to wear the necklaces at all times. See mine is right he…』

Holding up the amulet from around her neck almost as if to show it off; Baiyue died a little inside.

… The circle was full.