As he was walking down the streets of inner-district, Ubel was thinking of the lamps that gave off multi colored lights left and right. Roads were often filled with red colored lights. Usually, he could only guess what the green and blue colored lights he saw was. While there were no shops to be found in blue colored places, green colored places were full of drunkards and tipsy people. It felt pretty frank and strange for immortals to, just like his father, drink and shout and call out and vomit.
They really are not that different...This was one of the first things he learned since he came. These immortals also drunk and ate, sang songs, acted in cute ways to attract the opposite gender, and sometimes tackled with bravery and fought for stupid reasons. These acts, however sincere they seemed, got him bored. When the image of immortals in his mind, standing high and mighty above the clouds with transcendent wings and insolvable minds, started to burn slowly, this feeling occured. Yet, there was an another emotion he felt. Something he didn't feel much in his whole life.
Admiration.
He admired how these people -with great powers and strength which could enable them to crush every normal person, with a inhuman memory that could shame the scholars who wasted their decades for exams, and with prestiges that could grant them lands with a move of a hand- still acted like a normal community and individual. Was this normal? He didn't know. He just couldn't tell how great his respect was towards the creator of the system, which he was sure of its existence, that enabled these people to be loyal towards the personalities they assumed.
‘’Hey! Ubel!’’ A man who was also lost in the crowd like him came closer while parting the way. ‘’What are you thinking again? Since you sell us out at the end of the classes, these thoughts of yours must be considerably important.’’ While talking, the man’s face froze for a moment, then he bowed slightly while saying ‘’Sorry, I may have spoke rudely.’’
‘’Don’t worry,’’ Said Ubel but the man insisted and apologized a second time, ‘’Please don’t say that. If I am apologizing, then I must have done something wrong to do. Who will say it won’t happen again, if you were to let it off with a ‘Don’t worry’?’’
Who can say?...There is so much to think today.
‘’Alright, alright. I forgive you.’’ Said Ubel after scratching his head like he was in a hard situation. Then he continued, ‘’You look energetic today, did something happen?’’ Slightly smiling after stopping bowing down, the man answered with joy.
‘’My lover got back from her mission at the vassal kingdoms. We have just sat and talked a while ago.’’ Ubel slightly laughed, ‘’So one can get this red from a small talk?’’ Though he stopped after the man cut his sentence with a dry cough, as he also didn't want to push much into the topic. ‘’Well, there seems to be many people coming back nowadays. Are there any particular reasons?’’
‘’Oh, yes. There might be more people these two months. People with long mission durations come back around this time.’’
‘’Long durations? Like a month or two?’’ Personally, the missions he saw in the disciple hall with durations of maximum two months and all sorts of working conditions including manual labor were quite boring. So he wondered about the nature of long duration quests. ‘’You know about the quests in disciple hall.’’ Man continued while striking the bull’s eye. ‘’They are the minimum durations for a quest.’’
‘’Minimum?’’ For a duration of such as two months to be considered as minimum seemed frightening to Ubel, albeit slightly impressive.
‘’Minimum. Long duration quests generally range from nine years to thirty years. Of course, it also depends on what work you are given.’’ The numbers told were, literally, horrifying. These numbers could be considered as short for the life spans of immortals, maybe as important as three or four years of a mortal’s education. Likewise, the main purpose of these questions were the same and were not wasted, as they were for to train and strengthen disciples, to make them both a qualified mortal and immortal person.
‘’Haah,’’ Ubel took a deep breath. ‘’Not bad. Do you think of taking on a quest?’’ The man seemingly hesitated in front of the question. Of course, who would want to be parted away from their lover. ‘’Maybe...maybe for the existence of the Sect. How happy I would be to repay to sect, who gave me everything.’’ He didn't expect this answer. ‘’Everything? Isn’t this a bit exxag-no. Sorry.’’
‘’What happened? Don’t mind me, tell what you want.’’
‘’Forget it. I also need to speed up a little bit. I was going to speak something with Senior brother Alim, just got out of my head.’’ Although man looked quite surprised, it might be that he also didn't want to continue anymore, ‘’Alright then.’’ he said. ‘’Then see you later Ubel, take care.’’
‘’You too, friend.’’ After friendly clasping hands, both continued on their ways. While one’s mind was filled with uncontrolled and exaggerated thoughts about the behaviors of the new disciple, other started to produce strange theories about how a person could feel indebted to a lifeless institution that controlled living.
After a while, the lamps in the streets turned off and the inner sect drowned in darkness. Ubel found himself looking at the bright light under his floor, while standing right next to his house as the golden lights of the Star Library lowered and released a strange warmth to the place. A long and slender silhouette was displayed to the curtains outside. Must be my new neighbour.
Ubel decided to go up after looking for some time but the silhouette he gazed must have seen, followed up closely and opened the curtains. ‘’Greetings.’’ Told the woman whose dark long hairs folded into the night sky. ‘’Hello,’’ While answering, Ubel thought if he just stared for too long. The idea of his new neighbour branding him as a pervert started to eat him up.
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‘’I assume you are my new neighbour?’’ Actually, the woman in front of him was pretty gracious. It was clear that she took good care of her skin and hair. She was a person that everyone would look twice while walking down the street, or could only be painted with imagination of the mind even if told about, adding on to her dimples and emerald green eyes. ‘’Well, yes. I think so.’’ As the both felt the situation was awkward to an extent, while Ubel was dealing with the pervert accusation in his mind, woman spoke again.
‘’I’ll withdraw first, good night to you. It would be better to talk in a convenient time, I assume, with a pot of tea and cakes?’’
‘’Of course! Good night, miss.’’ After responding to her, the woman closed the windows then curtains. As for Ubel, he quickly climbed the stairs of his house and after entering, threw himself on the bed. I don’t think it was her beauty...I just dreamed like a fool on the street. Well, I might need to stop thinking outside.
Feeling the sweet drowsiness that fell on him after two hours of questioning himself, Ubel took his little consciousness on a six hour trip to the dreamland.
*********
Time passed fast. Really, really fast. Since he had no activities other than participating the Combat Master Quan’s courses, traveling the streets has became his second most favorite thing to do. Although he wasn’t sure if it was because he had a strong memory from before, or it just improved because he turned into an immortal, but he could instantly recognize people he saw before or could remember them after staring for some time. To observe the people whom he met and didn't meet everyday and to clear the blurry, somewhat apparent immortal profile in his head while understanding how they acted in certain different situations was what made it so enjoyable to travel in the streets.
The normal people profile in his head was, obviously, derived from his father and grandmother so it was surely hard to understand the authenticity of his knowledge. For sure, there were mortals on the mountain. People working in disciple hall, cleaners, cooks, animal caretakers and so on were all normal people. Though it was another matter altogether why mortals took up these jobs and not immortals, the important point was that these normal people led very different lives from those in the central continent or under the rule of vassal kingdoms.
Even from the geographical effects, there was a huge canyon between the standard of life. At least, from the handful of books he read and things he heard from people that came outside the sect, led him to such an answer. It was more interesting to see the way these thoughts would lead rather than questioning the integrity of the knowledge he had. It was both easy and hard to find a book in the star library, which he thought of going when he had time but rarely have done so.
So to think and question with the knowledge he had in hand was the most natural and easiest way.
Staff of the markets who shouted and screamed while shoving up the goods they held like throwing them off to the pedestrians in front of them, with great enthusiasm and joy, while creating chaos upon chaos was as merry as ever. When the skies darkened and the clocks showed late, this slowly burning fire of excitement left it's place to the light of tranquility. After feeling bored of the air inside for a bit, instead of going towards his home, Ubel changed his route towards the outer sect. While the inner sect was mostly merry and joyful in daytime, the nights of the outer sect had the same volumes of peace and silence.
Footsteps, for a reason he couldn’t solve for months and was pretty shy to ask about, couldn’t be heard. It was like sound waves, he learned from Master Quan that sound was formed of waves and had some different properties, were swallowed by a thing underground to never come back again. Whatever that was that swallowed them, it must be pretty extraordinary.
He wanted to rest today. He thought too much, as much as to have a headache.
Ubel thought himself addicted to thinking like being addicted to a drug. Day and night, in lessons and in home, in outside and in streets he couldn’t stop himself from thinking. Even if the topics themselves were random or stupid, to think about something, remarking on them, then questioning himself about these thoughts were fun. And the headache was nothing worth compared to the fun he felt. It was a pretty profitable exchange. But everything had an end as well.
After walking till the time for the moon to hit the sky arrived, he found himself on the cliff he talked with elder Snow. After his exchange with him 2 months ago, which made his face grimaced when he remembered, It was much more easier to meditate in here. The feeling of sudden success and eagerness once he felt, albeit still slightly existent, were not as powerful as in the past. So, it was easier and better to slither away from thoughts and get rid of his headache now.
The thing that flowed inside him that he could feel with a way he didn't know how, Qi, was one of the topics he thought about frequently. How was it created? Who found it? How people realized to use it this way? Which genius was it to establish the sect of sects and pass down heritages? Whereas he never looked at a proper resource about these topics. It could be a very pleasant subject to investigate about. But the real question was, how far could he go back on the history about it? He didn't think it would be sweet to meet with a dead end in his investigations or got himself devoured by the Doubt Dragons*. So he didn't approached this matter.
After a few hours passed without any notice, a movement awoke Ubel from his silence. Often, the flowing of Qi would be interpreted as a river. Whether be it fast or not, just a transparent and clear river that flowed in the riverbeds called meridians. It was the second most affected thing by the concept of time after the sentient beings, and the whole growing and evolving process of the Qi river inside a body reminded one of the life. Sometimes, there would be moments where Ubel thought that this flowing energy inside him had a sort of structure parallel to the universe’s beings.
After patiently sitting down and gathering his attention, Ubel attempted to calm down the roaring river of Qi inside him. From inside, he felt a power that made the every little part of his body dance, which proceeded to invade the parts mentioned while releasing a sweet warmth. Taking a deep breath and releasing it, Ubel saw a piece of dark grey breath of air merge with the starry night sky from the corner of his eyes. While squeezing and releasing his fist and muscles, Ubel felt a newfound level of power from the surging force inside his body. He had reached the peak Qi Creation.
Yet, this time he breached the obstacle in front of him with the vicious, unstoppable and corroding waters of Time river, rather than the magical words of Death River Qi manual. For he was discovering the worth of this Time being slowly. The one that found answers to the questions that bugged his heads for a few seconds, or some days was once more this time, he guessed. So to whichever god that created time, he didn't even know if there were any gods, all he could feel was gratefulness for his/her efforts.
Ubel stood up as the toddler lights of the rising sun brightened the top of Cindersnow. He thought his story was too unimportant compared to the people living in the huge entity right at his back, which made him look more insignificant.
At least, that was for now.