Travis and Li Dong finally made their way back. As soon as he stepped into his room, Travis relaxed. He lit a blunt and inhaled as quickly as humanly possible. 

“What’s that?” Li Dong asked. 

Travis froze. He had been in such a rush to relax that he had forgotten about his surroundings. Li Dong was still in his room. Travis wracked his brains for an excuse, but the weed had him so high he couldn’t think quickly. 

Li Dong walked across the room. He picked up the Sky Divine Grass and twirled it between his finger and thumb. 

“Wang Tao, bro… Has your head gone numb? You should know that the Sky Divine Grass is as worthless as it is rare. If you spent money on it then…” Li Dong looked Travis in the eye with pity written on his face. 

Travis was shocked, but then realised something. 

‘These guys have no concept of getting high. Do they not have drugs in this world?’ Travis didn’t dare to think that what he thought was true. 

“Hey Li Dong, sit down for a second.” Travis said solemnly.

Li Dong sat cross-legged on the ground and looked up at Travis. 

“Are there any drugs in this world?”

“Drugs?”

“Things that have an effect on your mind or your body that make you feel good. They could be bad for you and some people get addicted to them.” Travis replied. 

Li Dong thought for a second.

“Wine, and soju. As cultivators we should not influence our bodies outside of cultivation. Everything else muddles the mind.”

“So, there are no drugs…” Li Dong slid to the floor and looked at his remaining stash of Sky Divine Grass. From his memories, Sky Divine Grass was as rare as a diamond or gold mine. There was no way he would find more. If someone even found one, they wouldn’t bother to sell it. 

The current stash he had was enough for a few years, and he couldn’t go back to the catacombs because of the Sphinx, so what he had was the last of it. 

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Travis put his head in his hands. 

“Hmmm… but there was that one case of the Lion Gate Sect.” Li Dong recalled. 

Travis’ ears perked. 

“It turns out that their disciples weren’t soul searched. They say a mysterious cultivator infiltrated their sect and made them depend on an evil substance. Some said that he would grind the bones of the Passion Lizard and mix it with the blood essence of a Black Dream Tiger to make a foul, demonic plague that took the minds of the cultivators.”

Travis gaped. “So what happened to the sect?” 

Li Dong stared at Travis. “You don’t remember?”

Travis scoffed. “Of course I remember. I’m just trying to get engaged in the story.” 

“Well… they were destroyed to the bone. No sect can stand without its disciples, regardless of how strong it may be.” Li Dong shook his head. “A glorious sect; there one day, gone the next.”  

Travis gulped. He wasn’t scared, but he was excited. This news meant that there were drugs in the world, and the substantial stash of weed he had wasn’t the only drugs he could get in this world. 

“Li Dong, how did that cultivator make the evil substance. I mean, to destroy a sect… that’s a lot of power.” Travis hurriedly elaborated when he felt Li Dong’s gaze on him.

Li Dong sneered at Travis. “Wang bro, you’d best give up on that idea. You should know that alchemists are mighty and it is exceedingly rare for one to appear. Even our sect only has one disciple out of hundreds of thousands with the necessary aptitude.” Li Dong snorted. 

“Hey, who says I couldn’t be an alchemist? I haven’t been tested yet.” Travis rebutted. 

“Wang Tao, the world doesn’t work like that. You must manage your expectations. If you get to a state where every success is a surprise, then your mind state is optimal. What are the odds that you, of all the people in this sect, in this world, are capable of being an alchemist? Even being able to cultivate is a blessing.” Li Dong wagged his finger and lectured. 

“What, so you have no confidence in yourself?” Travis replied. Something about Li Dong’s defeatist attitude ground Travis’ gears.

‘What are the odds of someone dying and jumping through space and time to another world?’

Li Dong stared at Wang Tao and stayed silent. 

The silence in the room seemed to smother all things left unsaid. 

Rain battered the roof of the small hut Wang Tao lived in. The thrums of the drops hitting seemed musical to Travis’ stoned mind. 

After a while, Li Dong was the first to break the ice.  

“We may have made a mistake today.” 

“Oh, why?” Travis replied. 

“Zhao Yu and the Silver Wolf Gang will keep coming for us. Many people stronger than us have crumbled to their might.” Li Dong said. 

“Ah, it doesn’t matter. If they try to violate us I’m coming with the nine.” Travis grinned at Li Dong. 

“What did you say?” Li Dong had a face full of question marks. 

“Don’t worry man, they’re dead if they try and step up.” 

Travis remembered Li Dong and Wang Tao’s relationship in the past. Li Dong really had gone through hell with Wang Tao, and Travis knew he could be trusted. A warm tingle sparked through Travis remembered his old friends from the old world. 

“You asked how I got so strong right?” Travis interrupted. 

“Y-yeah.” Li Dong stammered. 

“The truth is, I don’t know. But, what I do know is that the only significant change I’ve had in my life is the plant I’ve been smoking.” 

‘Oh, and the fact that I died and was reborn in another universe.’  Travis thought to himself. 

Li Dong picked up the Sky Divine Grass and twirled it between his willowy fingers. He stared at it deeply, running his shrewd gaze along every inch of the plant. 

“There’s no way the Sky Divine Grass had anything to do with your strength. It’s useless.” Li Dong concurred. 

“Just try it.” Grimacing as though a quart of blood had been pulled from him in a millisecond, Travis handed the blunt to Li Dong. “Put your lips to it and suck.” 

’N-no homo.’

Li Dong tentatively inhaled. Immediately, he started coughing, coughing so much he passed out, with a blissful look on his face and drool running down his chubby cheeks.