The elderly women, Relic’s master, Pascal Isa, woke up confused and dazed. She looked to her surrounding and saw that she was inside a wooden hut. It was fairly empty consisting of only one bed and an exquisite table.

As her gaze wandered around, it was then that the smell hit her, the scent of the wine pervaded her nose and she remembered she was about to be set on fire. Her body shivered at the thought when suddenly she heard the footsteps of another person.

Relic came in and seeing his master awake, a smile crept up on his face.

“Master, do you still remember this disciple?”

Relic did not look very different than he did from the past. His adventures bore fruit and he once again walked the path of the immortal. Thus, his face remained relatively the same, though his body was a bit more sturdy compared to the past.

However, Pascal looked very confused.

“M-Master? I don’t k-know who y-you are.”

Relic frowned.

“I d-don’t have m-much, p-please d-don’t kill m-me.” Her arm stretched to reveal several coins in her hand.

Apparently, she thought Relic was planning to kill her himself. Her life was full of misery and despair, who would ever help a person like her?

Relic hesitated for a moment before reaching his hands towards the coin.

“I will accept these, and in return, I will take care of you from now on.”

He picked up Pascal with both his hands and headed outside. The hut was located on top a hill over seeing a town. Next to the hut was a small bathhouse which housed a heated bath. Flowers floated on top of the bath and the smell coming from this bath gave off a heavenly scent.

Any cultivator from a decent sect would recognize that this was a medicinal bath. However, medicinal baths were reserved only for those with outstanding talent. To use such a bath for a mortal would be like throwing money into a volcano.

Yet, Relic did not care. He carried her towards the bath and began to take off her clothes.

His movements were natural and his hands were steady. The worn out articles of clothing were removed to reveal a broken down body. Her spine was bent unnaturally, scars were found all over her body. Large splotches covered large portions of her body and everything else was either wrinkled or deformed. Yet the sight did not cause Relic to waiver even a little.

“Master, let me help you in.”

He once more carried her and slowly dropped her into the bath. The entire time she made no sound. Every movement Relic made was another possibility for him to hurt her, so she kept to herself. Yet, contrary to her belief, nothing had happened nor could she feel any malice from him.

Warmth immediately penetrated into her skin. The sensation of the bath seemed to trigger a familiar sensation, one she had experienced before. However, she was unable to remember any of her past memories. Her despaired life is all she had ever known and could remember.

The bath made her relax and forget her worries about Relic. Right now was the most comfortable feeling she had experienced in her entire life. It was like sitting on clouds of fluff. Her pain was gone, and she was not thinking about anything. She was at peace.

With a sponge in his hand, Relic began to gently clean the filth off Pascal’s body. He started with the hands, then the face, and eventually, the rest of the body. No area was left unwashed and Pascal felt as if her old skin had been removed.  Serenity pervaded her mind as she became entranced in this new feeling.

When she awoke from her trance Relic was gone, but a fresh gown was placed near the bath. The water was still warm but had turned brown and murky.

Pascal decided to get out and dressed herself in those clothes beside her. Walking out, she noticed Relic was mediating.

He opened his eyes upon sensing Pascal coming out and turned to her with a smile. Her outlook was a lot better and she could probably blend in as just a regular albeit older grandma.

She wanted to thank Relic but was unsure if she should speak first of after.

It was Relic who took the initiative. “Master, let’s go eat.”

He took her hand and guided her back to the hut where upon her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Inside was a banquet of food. There was roasted pig, roasted duck, steamed fish, and many other sorts of delicacy.

Her stomach growled but she did not move. She didn’t dare to.

Seeing this, he guided her down to a seat at the exquisite table. He filled a bowl with rice and handed it to her before giving himself a bowl and sitting right beside her.

“Master, please eat.”

Pascal began to shake. Was it really true? Was there really a person who cared for her?

Her stomach continued to growl. No longer caring, she stuffed several pieces of meat and several spoonful of rice into her mouth. 

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Her body instantly shivered with excitement and she even went absentminded for a few moments. Years of eating rotten food from people’s left overs had trained her to not taste anything. She ate to survive, but despite her years of tasting nothing, it could not mask the taste of the meat.

Tears began to fall as she continued to eat, not even noticing the smile of Ba Liu’s face.

Eventually, she ate slower as her belly began to feel the sensation of being full. It was something she had not experienced in a long time and it was a gratifying sensation.

“T-Thank You” she turned to Relic and said. She then began the process of a kowtow but Relic stopped her before that happened.

“You have already paid me with your money and I have accepted it. In exchange I promised to take care of you from now on so there is no need for thanks. I do not want to see you do this again!” Surprisingly, Relic had a somewhat angry tone.

Not daring to reject, Pascal nodded her head in agreement.

His face again had a smile on his face. “I think it is time to go to bed.”

He waved his arms and all the dishes vanished in an instant

He guided her once more to the bed she awoke from, which now had freshly cleaned sheets. However, she carried a worried face. “Y-you want m-me t-to sleep h-here? W-what about y-you?” Looking around, there really was only one bed and one table. She thought maybe he was one of those people who liked to sleep outside

“Obviously I will be sleeping in this bed with you.”

“N-no, y-you can’t. I’m f-f-filthy!”

This man, who she didn’t even know the name off, had treated her so well. She couldn’t even remember the last time someone had treated her even remotely this well. So, she couldn’t bear the idea of such a young and handsome man sharing the same bed as her.

However, she was unexpectedly carried in both his arms and gently dropped onto the bed. He too, leapt into bed and they were both soon under the same blanket.

Despite her age, her heart pounded slightly from the brazen action of this young man.

The lights went out and only silence remained in the room.

Not bearing to look at the young man’s face while in bed, she turned to her side to face away from him. However, suddenly two hands wrapped around her!

Her heart suddenly pounded even greater and her face flushed slightly red. Did this young man have a special preference for old ladies, she thought. Suddenly, she felt a warm feeling around her abdominal area. It calmed her body and mind and she soon drifted off into deep sleep.

On Relic’s side, he was in deep concentration. Using his divine sense, he was able to see the state of his master’s dantian. It was broken, shattered by an external force. In fact, it was in a similar state that he had been in when his master destroyed his dantian.

Her dantian was shattered years ago and it would be impossible for him to guess when. However, his mind was not disturbed.

 His divine sense suddenly protruded outward in the shape of tentacle like feelers. They touched upon the broken pieces of her shattered dantian and attempted to piece it back together. Doing so required immense concentration and many would be hard pressed to do such a thing as it required accurate precision to do so. A single mistake would cause a backlash to the person performing this and so not many would choose to perform such an act

The feelers would connect matching pieces together and then he would send some of his Qi to fuse them together. The process was lengthy and by the time he fused 4 pieces together it was already morning. There were still over 10,000 pieces of the dantian and it will take years for Relic to completely restore Pascal’s dantian.

Sensing the morning sun, he retracted his feelers and Pascal slowly woke up. She awoke energized and, in a sense, happy. She felt born anew and her past now seemed very distant. However, she suddenly realized there were two hands wrapped around her. She turned to see Relic’s handsome face staring at her with a smile.

“Good morning.”

“G-good Morning” She said with a slightly red face.

The two walked out of the hut as Relic had suggested they go get breakfast in the town. His hand held hers and they slowly tread down the hill. As they reached the entrance of the town, Relic suddenly felt a tug from Pascal.

“Master, what is wrong?”

“Y-you don’t n-need t-to hold m-my hand, P-people w-will see.”  Her insecurities flared back up and she again thought it was not right for such a handsome young man to walk with a broken old lady like her.

“If you don’t want to enter this town, then we can go to another. But if you are asking me to let go of your hand then you better forget it!” Relic obviously understood what his master was feeling. His understanding of people had increased greatly from his travels, and the hesitation from his master is because of how she had been treated for years.

He tugged her along, and although there was a slight resistance coming from her, she still went along with him.

They entered a fairly popular restaurant within the town and ordered the deluxe breakfast edition. They ate silently but Relic sensed a slight tension in the air. In order to relieve it he began to recount his adventures over the past 60 years to his master. Although she already old and didn’t have many years left of life left in her, she took interest in his story as they were exciting and novel to her.

His recount of his adventures attracted surrounding customers who overheard the story and also began to grow excited with every passing word. Soon there was a crowd around their table listening in. Pascal was a bit anxious with the surrounding people but Relic ignored everyone and was only looking at her.

“I’ll continue the story tomorrow…” He wrapped up the story and called for the check.

Many of the surrounding people, especially the children moaned in displeasure. They all asked their parents if they could come back tomorrow. This restaurant was in no way a cheap place to eat and they only ate here every so often as a treat. However, everyone listening to the stories was so affected that there weren’t many who declined.

Relic helped Pascal up and held her hands as they made their way to the exit. The people seeing this all thought this was a very sweet scene.

 “That is how a grandchild should treat their grandparents!” is what many of the elderly thought before shooting a glance at their grandchildren. Many of the children felt their hairs stand at the fierce glares.

The two walked around, hand in hand, around town. Although she was slow, he always matched her pace and everything felt natural. Few words were exchanged between the two but there were no air of anxiety anymore between them.

Finally, they returned to their hut just as the sun was about to fall. They sat down on the hill looking at the sun set.

“W-why do y-you t-treat m-me so well?” The question she had been burning to ask since yesterday finally escaped her mouth.

Relic thought for a moment and then opened his mouth. “You may not remember, but you were once someone who saved my life. Back then, I was weak and had nothing but you still took me in. Those years, even though I was useless, you still treated me with the love and care of any loving parent.”

He then looked into her dull eyes and clasped her hands “Master, I came late, but I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure every new day will be a life worth living!”

His determination echoed into her soul. His words were like a thunder storm in her mind. Her memory could not stretch back to her earlier days but she felt like he was telling the truth. She unconsciously nodded and any lingering doubts were let go. Her heart unbuckled and she began to feel more than she had ever felt

The day ended with dinner. They slept in the same bed, under the same cover, and with Relic wrapping his hands around her. She felt warm and easily drifted to sleep. His determination set on fixing the shattered dantian of his master.