"I never really thought about how life would be if I didn't go through with the whole," she said gesturing to her moon robes, "Clan life thing. I would probably be lost without that."

"I can assure you that you can be kind on your own. You can be happy by yourself. In fact you don't need a family to be happy, if the thought of being tied down or held hostage by your children is your first thought? Perhaps it's not for you."

People can say things, but peer pressure is a real bitch. It hurts people. People like my friend Moon Lee. Traditions like this one, where she felt pressured not only to marry, but to have children, like a breeding mare? Yeah I was not a fan.

My dad had a saying, 'Tradition is peer pressure from dead people.'

"I've never thought about it that way. When there is so little of an option... you just do what the clan tells you to do."

The fact that so many older members of the clan had reached a level where they could live to be near two hundred years old meant that there was loads of pressure, both physical and mental. The mental load of having your great grandmother around and she wanted littles was a lot to bear. I got enough grief from my dad for not showing up enough and the man lived in Las Vegas.

"I needed to find my own way to immortality anyway, this just helps me narrow my focus. You know that since I have been talking to you, I have nearly advanced to the peak of the third realm? I was stagnant for so long."

Individuation, the changing oneself to reflect ones inner desires, meant that one would separate oneself from their clan and develop on their own. She was talking about going off script for the first time in her life. She was still being paraded around as a potential match for other clans as an unmarried woman. The only reason that she hadn't been all but forced into a wedding was her passion and talent for training the clans juniors.

"Stagnant, meaning?"

"Do you know the story of the spirit of the earth? It's why we are so impure."

"I don't, actually."

She smiled.

"A long time ago Daorus was just a ball of mud. Only spirits like ours existed. There were many powerful spirits and for a time, they lived in harmony and peace. The spirit of the earth and the spirit of the beasts were unsettled though, for although there were many spirits, they were all pure of thought and action. The spirit of the earth, it's plants, animals and seas saw the spirit of the beasts and was jealous. So the spirits spoke and drew up a contract. The spirit of the earth would be able to mold it's own species to talk with, a fully formed human as it's base, in return the earth would be covered in impurities that the spirits could absorb and live within. As they grew, humans would be able to cultivate and become purer, more like the spirits and spirit beasts. And the spirits and spirit beasts would be able to turn their impurities into their own power."

She paused as I considered her words.

"I had no impurities. This is why my cultivation is so advanced."

"It is true. The less you work, the more the impurities of our world sink into you."

"You say our world, as if...?"

"Any elder can tell."

They knew. The elders knew. Did the red fang know?

"Does this mean that?"

"Red fang probably knows. It might explain why they have been looking for you so much. Every so often, higher realm cultivators will summon someone like you, though I know now as much as you do. It's not spoken of much and as the highest Moon clan elder is of the fifth realm, he would consider it a folly to go after."

"That's... Something."

I hadn't really stopped to question why I had been brought here but some higher realm cultivators bringing in people from outside fit the bill right. That didn't explain why I had appeared so far on the outskirts of the town. It was another thing that I was going to add to the list.

"I had assumed that it was a Sect that had called you in. Random"

___

I spent a week like that. Training and going through it with the ladies. We trained together in the afternoons. Egiya was stuck trying to access the first realm, and Xueyie had bottle necked at the peak of the first realm, close to the second. She had been that way for months.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Moon Fei kept up his end of the bargain as a good training dummy for Xueyie. At the end of the week, he was rejuvenated and ready to go. She was slowly getting a grasp on healing, under the tutelage of Moon Lee.

Moon Lee on the other hand, took to my training with a fervor that can only be called lukewarm. I know under the surface she was boiling with determination because she told me, but outwardly she was as calm and passive as the moon. Especially when I got thrown across the room by one of her many cousins. Especially when the cousin in question was of a lower realm than me. By the end of the week I felt like I had consolidated my training efforts and would be able to hide my qi more effectively. I even fooled Moon Lee, up until I was close enough for her to smell me.

We held little meetings every third day, passing notes by way of Egiya when something would happen that we needed the group to know. With her central location, she was well poised to receive dead drops from everyone. They would just drop off some paperwork, ostensibly to have it transferred or transcribed, and then separately note the location of the real note in case they were compromised. It was always somewhere within a block of her shop.

It wasn't until the end of the week that I started to think that my little Moon Spirit would be anything more than an educated nuisance. Min had been a constant attachment. Though she stayed with me, she often had little to add except for snarky remarks. Honestly I thought a Moon Spirit would be a bit more worldly, but who knows. Egiya was working through her plan of care when Min interjected.

"She says that she wants independence and to follow her own path, but it sounds like she doesn't even know what that looks like."

"Min! Be quiet. She's in a vulnerable state right now," I replied.

Egiya was stretches out in from of me. She had finally agreed to using the couch the way I had described it.

"I'm just saying that you can show her."

"Show her? What do you mean?" Egiya said.

"It's part of his path. He can give you his vision, or bring you into yours."

The incredulous look on her face was one I hadn't seen since I had told Courtney that 'No, mom and dad both agree that you can't have the whole two point bag of gummy bears that you ordered off the internet, and yes digestive explosions are a real thing.'. Safe to say that she either had no context or she thought I was going to bring her into some strange fantasy world.

"I didn't know that I could do that. Min maybe you could help us, if Egiya is willing?"

"What does the honored moon spirit mean, vision?"

"Just what you think-"

"-a group hallucination?" I prodded.

"-well, that is putting words on it that I wouldn't have but yes. Pbbt."

I didn't want to put the horse before the cart or anything but I was beginning to think that Min might have.

"How would that work, even?"

"Well, the two of you assume the meditation position, give me a lot of your trust and then, wham bam, I'll present you with it."

I locked eyes with my newest friend. The girl that had trusted me. I shrugged. This may of may not be good for us.

"Only one way to find out," she said, dropping into a lotus pose on the ground.

I grumbled, finding myself in front of her. Before long we were meditating and I was doing the thing of examining my thoughts as a prompt came to me.

___

'Enter Dream world' Y/N?

___

I of course, clicked yes. It was probably an affectation of Min, more than anything else, but I accepted it.

In a flash we were back in Los Angeles. The world was a ton more brutalist, with every building concrete instead of the expected bricks or what have you. Grass grew around the buildings as if nature was re-claiming the world.

People still milled about, but they all looked unfocused. Next to me, I saw what could only be the ideal image of Egiya, as envisioned by herself. It was as if she had gotten the plastic surgery equivalent of permanent makeup.

"You're looking very young," she remarked.

"It's... I feel like this is how I look at myself. Otherwise how would we know that we are in a dream?"

"The standard ways, I guess?"

An elephant floated above us, ears flapping as it flew past I 5, the bane of my existence.

"That might do it. Don't see that often."

"I literally saw a dragon when I was summoned to your world, so..."

"Point made. So what do we do here?"

"I cultivate moon aura, you work through your issues where no one can hear you scream. I thought that we could start by dreaming up how it would look for you to reach the peak of the first realm and then advance."

"With pleasure," she said.

Min conjured up a large beast for her to fight and then they were off, exchanging blows as if they were in the middle of a super saiyan fight. The troll bore down on her with large club like arms.

"Min?" I called into the air.

"Yes?" she said, deliberately appearing in the form of Rachel, my younger daughter. The same size too.

"Could you have done this the whole time?"

"Yes, but you never asked."

"Are there other interesting things that you can do, similar to this dream world?"

Min hemmed and hawed.

"Min?"

In front of us, Egiya punched a beast through the overpass that I'd always hated. Their movements cause ripples to crack the base of the highway underneath. The troll smiled back at her.