Dave immediately jumped on his carpet and made for his point of origin. Reaching Li’s house only took him half an hour. He settled his carpet in the space before the door and flicked his carpet into his storage ring. The air was swelteringly hot. It had been clean and crisp spring weather just moments before, with a brisk wind kissing the tips of the grass on the plain. The change had happened abruptly as if he had hit a wall of dry, hot air. It was unsettling.
He knocked on the door to the little cabin and someone opened it from the inside. Li said, “Oh it is Dai Fu, good to see you are still alive.” Dave answered, “Glad to be back Li, how is it going?” Li answered, “Oh, you know another odd weather phenomenon, similar to when you first showed up, but this time it is swelteringly hot. I already called Xun Ma here so he could look at it.”
“That sounded like a good idea, what has he found until now?” Dave asked Li. “He has been scouring the plain and scattered forest around the anomaly for the last few days, but he has yet to find what causes it,” Li said while scratching his head. “Maybe it’s another person or animal that was dragged here,” Dave said with slight confidence in his statement. “Xun thought the same thing, which is why he has been checking every little bit of ground in the central area of the anomaly,” Li said with confidence in his voice. They talked a bit about the war between cultivators, but Li wasn’t interested since it wouldn’t affect him either way. At least initially, but then Dave reminded him of the tithe that an orthodox sect like the Deep Verdant, would claim. Then he was suddenly happy about the Lone Mountain’s victory.
Dave headed out towards the approximate center of the anomaly after he followed the periphery of its edge for a bit, to easier pinpoint the center.
He found Xun sitting near the approximate center. Xun was sitting cross-legged as if he was cultivating, his eyes were moving around below his closed eyelids. The surrounding heat had only increased and there was very little moisture in the air. There was a strong updraft pulling bits of detritus up from the ground.
Dave called out to Xun, “Hello my friend how is going? Have you found anything yet?”, Xun was shocked out of his apparent cultivation and opened his eyes, “Is that you Dai Fu? It has been so long since we last met.”
Dave descended onto the ground, landing near Xun. Xun had changed since he had last seen him. He had lost the beard and he looked like a younger version of his old self. It was so pronounced that Dave for a moment thought he was looking at Xun’s son. His face had also changed in subtle ways, making it look softer, but not so much that he started looking androgynous.
“Did you cultivate in the volcano?”, Dave asked, after noticing the drastic changes to Xun’s body. Xun followed his line of sight and said, “I did until I reached core formation, but regardless of the temperature in the crater it left a deep-seated cold in my dantian, something the elders had already warned us about. This place helps with the biting cold near my heart.”
Dave asked, “Have you found what’s causing this anomaly, or have you just been enjoying this sunny warmth?”, Xun got an offended expression on his face and replied, “I tracked this phenomenon to a singular squirrel. It seems to be a monstrous beast in the core formation realm. I remembered your wolf, so I have been trying to befriend it by collecting nuts and sharing them with it. The squirrel's domain has been shrinking every day. I am uncertain why, but it might have something to do with it arriving as a core formation beast, instead of as body-strengthening cultivators as you did.”, Dave thought about it for a moment, and then he said, “We should try to capture the squirrel, then you’ll have an easier time befriending it in captivity. We can also examine it closely to figure out why its domain is shrinking.” Xun scoffed and said, “Easy for you to say. It may just be a squirrel, but it is still solidly in the core formation realm. I had no chance of capturing it unharmed.”, Dave waited for Xun to finish, then he said, “I’m in the wandering immortal realm. If you lure the squirrel out, I can capture it without harm.”
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Xun put a hand into the folds of his robe and withdrew a handful of nuts. Hovering on his sword he flew to the middle of a thick tree and dangled a nut in front of a hole in the tree. Before Dave could react, the acorn had vanished. Dave hurried next to Xun on his carpet and his senses sharpened as he flicked the mental switch to enter battle. A little nose appeared in the hole, sniffed around, and went for the nut. Dave’s hand came down like a guillotine and caught the squirrel mid-jump. It seemed to be a pine squirrel and it reminded Dave of the rowing band of squirrels that had ransacked his house so long ago, back on earth. The little guy clawed at him in protest and he could feel the air-currents that were brought on by the squirrel's movements. It was honestly terrifying how quickly the squirrel was moving, he would have had trouble even seeing them, had he not been two realms above the squirrel.
Dave forced his spiritual sense into the squirrel's body and examined it for damage. When he was satisfied that the squirrel was unharmed he dived deeper into the squirrel’s spiritual body. Something he could only do because he was in the wandering immortal realm and the squirrel had an active domain. This squirrel’s spiritual body had a core, but its meridians were unfinished. Some of the thinner pathways had already connected to the outside, but most of them were radiating out from its core and had yet to finish growing to its skin. This was in the complete opposite direction of how he and Lydia had their meridians grow. Maybe it had something to do with the core creating a higher pressure on the inside and hence eating the meridians out of the spiritual body in the opposite direction of what was normal. It would also explain why the squirrel’s domain was shrinking, as the squirrel gained more and more control over its qi on the outside of its body.
After Dave examined the squirrel, he said, “We should return to the sect and find you a suitable cage for it. So you can befriend it before it reaches the nascent soul realm.” In Dave’s mind, there was no doubt about the fact that this squirrel had come from Earth and a similar location to him, as it was a pine squirrel, a type of squirrel that was native to the area where he had lived. It lifted his spirit because this squirrel confirmed that there was a lasting connection between Earth and this world in some way or form. To return to Earth he simply had to figure out how to travel the other way in this connection and he had all the time in the world once he reached immortality.
“While the squirrel’s domain is hardly unpleasant, especially for people afflicted with yin energy. Would it still be wise to return to the sect with a squirrel radiating heat? Should we not wait out here until it can control its domain?” Xun asked him while Dave was holding the squirrel. “You have no way to contain it and I have to return to Lydia soon. The sect will just have to endure a little heat. Maybe it’ll save them some firewood.”, Dave said mercilessly. They went to say goodbye to Li and flew back towards the sect.
Dave had to hold the squirrel in a way that did not harm it and in the process he had to switch hands. The squirrel took this as an opportunity to escape for a brief moment and shred the upper part of his robe. He got it back under control and returned to a stable flight path to the sect. “Hey, now that you are a wandering immortal you should get yourself a better flying artifact than that old carpet. The sect should still have some in-store and after how much you helped them with creating a cultivation holy land, they should be happy to assist you in finding one that suits you.”, Xun said while eyeing the squirrel. Dave thought about it for a moment and said, “I like this carpet a lot, but you’re probably right about me needing a faster artifact.”, Dave interrupted himself and asked, “By the way, what are you going to name this little guy?”
“I figured Zhi would be a good name since its heat is healing to me.”, Xun said while examining the scattered clouds above them.
They reached the sect and flew straight to the artisan's district. A woodworker offered them a fair price for a spacious ironwood cage, it was not originally intended for squirrels, but at least it was at a nice size. Dave said goodbye to Xun who headed to the Ma clan home and headed home to Lydia himself. It had been an illuminating day, he was now certain that he could return to Earth, it was just a matter of time.