He awoke to a furious knocking on the door to the building they had been granted for their diplomatic visit. It was morning outside and there was rain falling from the sky. A youthful face greeted Dave at the door, the young boy said: “The sect master is ready to receive you now.”
Dave gathered the other remaining members of his team. He found Mo sleeping on the floor next to the table in the room with the hearth and scholar-guy was sleeping in a bedroom, with the last burly guy cultivating next to his bed. He woke them both and then he left them to figure out how to wake burly-san without disrupting his cultivation session. Meanwhile Dave drank a cold cup of tea to get the taste of sleep out of his mouth.
The others all fell in behind Dave as they walked out the door.
This young boy who had come to get them walked them across bridge after bridge, until they arrived back at the landing platform they had departed yesterday. A large bearded man was waiting for them and the elderly negotiator they had met with yesterday was bound and gagged, being held by a group of cultivators behind the bearded man. Seeing this, Dave prepared himself for a fight. “Look what the cat dragged in! Lone Mountain weaklings, here to beg for mercy.” The bearded man shouted, he continued shouting at the top of his voice: “They were found collaborating with this traitor. A former negotiator that went rouge. They negotiated a ceasefire with him, not knowing that he has no authority to enact such a measure.”
“We already freed your prisoners, you better uphold your end of the bargain.” The scholarly dude from Dave's side shouted back. “Let me show you how we treat cowardly traitors here in the Deep Verdant.” The bearded guy grabbed the old man and lifted his fist.
Dave decided that they needed the negotiator alive and moved. Splinters flew through the air as his feet left behind craters in the carefully crafted wood. He grabbed the shoulder of the bearded man who was about to execute the old negotiator and proceeded to pummel him like a sandbag. Doing it while holding him in place, so he would not fly off and regain his wits. When the bearded guy looked sufficiently beaten up, he paused and waited for a moment. “Impossible, we should both be at the initial stages of nascent soul, how are you so much stronger?” The bearded man got out through a split lip. Dave proceeded with his beating, while the other cultivators were too afraid to step in. “You got us to release your prisoners and then you tried to go back on the deal by killing the 'traitorous' negotiator. What the fuck were you thinking? Did you drop your brain in a blender? Nobody would have been willing to negotiate with you in the future. All so you could continue a war over an unimportant hamlet at the ass-end of nowhere.” Dave said while slapping the shit out of beardface. “Dai Fu, I think you should stop. I think he learned his lesson.” Mo said from behind Dave. Dave grabbed the elderly negotiator and jumped back to his group at the edge of the platform. The bearded man dropped in a heap. Then the other cultivators swarmed him and fed him various medicinal treasures. “Sect master stay with us. Don't die.” One of them said.
“That was their sect master. Such a complete dumbfuck and he's the sect leader. These are our neighbors?” Dave said exasperated. They waited a few moments until the sect leader of the Deep Verdant regained consciousness. Dave walked over to him, the disciples, or rather, elders surrounding him bristled and prepared to defend him. “What do you think my realm is?” Dave asked the dumbass on the ground. “Wandering immortal. Only someone an entire realm above me can do what you just did.” The sect leader instantly replied. “As long as I watch over the Lone Mountain sect you will not be able to attack them. At least not without losing everyone who is attacking. I recommend that you rethink the validity of these peace-negotiations and stop pursuing this pointless war.” Dave said, then he grabbed the old negotiator and slung him over his shoulder, then he continued: “I'll also be taking this old man, since you appear to undervalue him and he has supposedly proclaimed his allegiance to the Lone Mountain already. At least that's what claiming him a traitor implied to me.” Dave turned around, spread his arms and called out: “Come my companions, there is nothing more to see here, we should leave and let them decide the validity of the peace for themselves.”
They left on their flying swords and Dave on his carpet. Heading back to the sect, they crossed over Favored Tree and decided to survey the damage to the village. A few houses had been destroyed by fire and others had been damaged by punches. This damage likely stemmed from when the flanking force arrived in the village and had to root out the few remaining cultivators. It was unsettling to look at this damage that had not been there just a few days ago and to think about how much damage cultivators would be able to wreak upon a world filled with mortals. It oddly reminded him of Earth, where a single press of a button could set in motion a chain of events that would wipe out most humans on the planet. The difference between here and Earth, was that the thermonuclear warheads were human-shaped and could be reasoned with. Sometimes.
They continued their journey back to the sect. Dave was still carrying the old man he had slung over his shoulder back in the Deep Verdant. Dave got an idea about what he could do for him. “What is your name?” He asked the old man. “This one's name is Yao Gang, benefactor.” He answered, while some of his words were being stolen by the wind whipping past.
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“Do you wish to serve as my servant, until you can prove yourself to the Lone Mountain sect?” Dave asked him.
“I would be honoured, benefactor. You have saved me from an unjust death at the hands of a failed leader.” Yao Gang replied, after he had taken a moment to think it over.
When they reached the sect everything seemed clear, with no commotion anywhere. So they headed for the sect leader's back yard, or at least Dave did, the others just followed him. He told Yao “Wait here, I'll be right back,” and knocked on the sect leader's office door. The sect leader opened the door and the entire group except Yao hurried inside.
They told the sect leader that the Deep Verdant had tried to back on their peace-negotiation and had been willing to sacrifice their negotiator to make that happen. Explaining that the Deep Verdant had essentially gambled that the forces they got back would be enough to deal with what they would have thought to be a nascent soul realm cultivator. Their sect leader itself may have also tried to hold his own against Dave to ensure a kill against him. No one was certain what the exact plan of the sect leader had been, since they were uncertain about how much knowledge the enemy had access to. If they had even known who Dave was and that they had invited him inside their sect, or if his attack on the sect leader of the Deep Verdant had come completely out of left field for them, like lightning from a clear blue sky.
After briefing the sect leader, they all dispersed. Dave went home after he collected the baby-carrier from the tailor. Yao Gang had followed him the entire time and he was looking questioningly at the contraption of straps. Arriving at his home he opened the door and was left gaping at the chaos that had been wrought on the inside of his house. Lydia had in his absence busted out of the crib, crawled around and bumped everything down on the ground. “Oh, I did not know that you were married my lord. Where is your wife?” Yao asked when he saw Lydia. “I have no wife Yao, this is my beast companion Lydia.” Dave said, sighing. “What are you talking about my lord, this is clearly a baby. A monstrous beast would never leave themselves so vulnerable by transforming into a baby.” Yao said while walking towards Lydia and trying to pick her up. Lydia swiftly dodged him on all fours and hid under the table. “Something went wrong during her nascent soul tribulation and now she's stuck as a baby. Growing up at normal speed, seemingly.” Dave reiterated.
Lydia had even gotten into the tea-leaves and seemingly crushed them into a fine powder, they spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up after her rampage. “So, what is your realm Yao?” Dave asked him while picking up some bronze utensils. “I have been stuck at the top of foundation establishment for the last 200 years.” Yao said while bending over and dusting off a feather-duster, that had been dropped into the soot of the hearth. “Was that why the sect leader of the Deep Verdant so readily sacrificed you?” Dave asked him. “Most likely, but he was also eyeing my great granddaughter and as his chief negotiator it would have introduced faults into our relationship had he pursued her openly with me in his cabinet.” Yao stated with a frown. “Oh, so he would've tried to get rid of you regardless of how the negotiations turned out. I figured he also did it because they ended so favourably for us.” Dave said with an equally large frown. “No, based on what we knew at the time, you had won the war in an overwhelming victory, you could have pressed for an even larger tithe and nobody would have complained. The likely reason why you did not do so, is because you are a righteous sect. Righteous sects try to prevent animosity between themselves and orthodox sects, so they are willing to help righteous sects whenever they come under attack. Of course in this case that is unlikely to happen any more.” Yao said in a single breath.
Dave went out to purchase an additional hammock and discovered that the idea of a backpack had made its way from the tailor to the leatherworker, who had set up a stall in the square selling them for a few silver. He headed to a general store where he got a hammock for a few coppers.
The next morning he put on his harness, grabbed Lydia, Told Yao to watch the house and headed for Shadowfall. Xun Ma, the man who had first helped him cultivate had not heard from him since before the harvest festival, where he had promised to show up, which he then had not. He wanted to re-establish contact and thank him for his priceless help.
When he found the boarding house from the air, he headed down and called for Hong Ma, a different cultivator in the Ma clan who might know where Xun was at. “Yes, what is it?” A sleepy voice came from a little dingy room in the boarding house's rows of rooms. “Hong, can you come out here so I can talk to you?” Dave asked him loudly, but politely. “Sure, I will be right out there with you.” It came back from inside. A man came outside with sleep still in his step, he looked unlike what Dave remembered him as. He had no beard and his face had turned far more androgynous. “What happened to you, you look completely different.” Dave exclaimed. “Funny story actually. Back at our sect we have this big volcano where we can cultivate, but nobody can do it for very long since it is all fire-qi and earth-qi. When I returned to the sect a while ago, everyone was cultivating in the volcano since the fire-qi had been balanced out with ice qi by some monster who was cultivating somewhere near the front, right by the lava lake. They told us there would be changes, but not that they would be so massive. At least I no longer have to shave.” Hong re-told his story. It was odd for Dave to hear that people had used his caldera-nap without even understanding what was happening. “Do you know where Xun is at right now?” Dave finally asked him the question he had come all the way there to ask. “Xun headed out for an emergency call from a lone farmhouse out there. Come here so I can show you my map.” Hong said and gestured for Dave to come closer, as he pulled out a folded map from his pocket.
His finger landed straight at the point where Dave had entered this world, half a year ago.