The old man sat in front of Lord Zhou sipping his cup of tea. It had been a long time since he had sat with the Lord like this.

“This makes us nostalgic. You used to sit here just like this when we were younger, teaching us. We still don’t know why you kept refusing to work under us all those years. Was it something we did? Or perhaps our father?”

The old man put down his cup of tea, looking at the lord. “Neither, my lord. It was this old man’s choice to settle into a quieter role. We had paid our debt to your father, he had grown into this splendid man. We felt content that you could handle things without us.”

Lord Zhou did not reply, looking down at his own cup of tea, now growing cold. “Perhaps you’re right. He could have managed, and we did, for many years. But now…” the lord trailed off, drinking his tea, before looking up at the old man. "Sheng Ming, if we are right about this…”

“Despite what we hope, you're most likely correct in your assumptions. And if my grandson- no, if that demon has truly reappeared, then perhaps the future that Tian Feng had warned us about, is closer than we had anticipated,” the old man said.

“Do you think he killed the elder from the Alchemy Hall?” Lord Zhou asked.

“Most likely, though this old man cannot say for sure. But if he did, they would use that against us as well,” the old man replied.

Lord Zhou frowned, a single crack running in his teacup. Lord looked down in surprise at losing control of his strength, before he set the cup of tea down. “Every step we seem to take is accompanied by two more setbacks.”

“Such are the ways of the heavens, trials and tribulations marked the Path of all the cultivators, even more so with burdens as great as you hold,” the old man said.

Standing up from his seat, the lord walked to a cabinet, opening it before he took out a bottle. “We had been saving this for a special occasion. But this seems as fitting as any,” lord said, walking closer. He then poured the contents into their cups.

The old man looked down at the glistening liquor in his cup, shimmering with Qi. “Let us have a drink.”

“Lord Zhou—“

“We are not a Lord right now, Sheng Ming,” he said, raising his cup.

The old man looked at him in surprise, before nodding his head in acceptance. “As you say.”

The lord smiled, raising his cup, as the two men drank. “It has been a while since we sat together like this. You barely come to visit us anymore.”

“You have responsibilities, and so do we,” the old man replied.

"That is true. But we still missed this,” Lord Zhou said, taking another sip. “What made you pick Lu Jie as a disciple?”

Old man frowned, thinking over it. “Perhaps it was pity. This old man had not had a disciple in a long time, and the boy… he had a burning curiosity. It reminded us of Yuan.”

The Lord nodded. “They are indeed similar in a strange way. When Sheng Yuan had been here, he had seemed no different from any other cultivator. Just peculiar. It is hard to think that he could even be a demon. It goes against everything we have seen with them. He was smart, calculating, and powerful. A far cry from the savagery and mindless slaughter those demons display. Even the ones who used to be cultivators that got consumed by demonic presences. It was almost like… he was in control of whatever it is that turns those demons mad,” Lord said looking up.

“Do you think… We might have been mistaken? About those demons? After learning the truth of the heavens… it is difficult to say what is right and what is wrong anymore.”

“We don’t know. Ultimately, none of us can judge. But if there is one thing this old man knows, it is that those demons cannot be allowed to exist. In this, I will not waver,” the old man said.

The Lord sighed, taking one last sip from his drink. “Perhaps so, perhaps we will end up finding a different way. Ultimately, it will come down to Lu Jie.”

The old man nodded. “The boy must be taught. We have been neglecting things too much. It is time for us to return to our previous Path once more, and to guide him to stand against the enemies he has made.”

“What do you intend to do? About Yan Shen? He has grown, since the last time we fought him, now… we fear only the Divinities can rival him,” Lord Zhou asked.

The old man looked down into his cup, seeing his reflection within it. More and more wrinkles covered his face with each passing year, he had lived too long, seen too much. “We had hoped, in some corner of our heart, that he had survived. That our Yuan would return to us one day. This old man had allowed himself to be weak, but not anymore. We will do what we should have done ages ago,” the old man said, as he set his cup of tea down.

“It is a painful path, and we dare not ask it of you. You have already done a lot for us, and for our people. You do not have to further suffer through this. We will find a way to deal with the Yang Shen,” Lord Zhou said.

“No, this time it is not for you, my lord. It’s something this old man must finish. We had raised him in our arms. It is our responsibility to see things to the end.”

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“We had dreaded the arrival of this day for a while now,” Lord Zhou said.

The old man smiled wryly. “The heavens can be cruel indeed.”

***

I walked through the sect, trying to think over everything that I needed to do. The work was never-ending, all the more so after I had become Elder of the Sect. More and more responsibilities had been on my shoulders. Now, with managing all the new cultivators, running the Qi crystal workshop, and ensuring the production was maintained, to working on funding the research for better weapons to be able to fight back against the demonic beasts, who for some reason, were still gone without a trace. It was as if they had never even been there.

A thousand thoughts went through my head as I made my way across the sect's premises. Qiao Ying had been working on allocating and documenting the resources the sect had, which for some reason, had either not been documented at all, or the documents that had existed had been destroyed or removed.

It was not a surprise to me to realize that the cultivators that had been in power were petty and would not have wanted to leave anything behind. But having to deal with it myself was still exhausting. Thankfully, a few had remained and helped carry and sort things properly, and get a good hold of the inventory that we had available to us.

It should not have come as a surprise, but running something like the sect the size of the Cloudy Peak Sect had required a lot of management and bookkeeping. And when half of your personnel vanished in a day, the task just got a little bit more difficult.

Trying not to worry too much about the problems, I continued my stroll, taking a glance at the changes happening within the sect itself. One of the things that made me the happiest was having free and full access to the library. Despite all the complaints that I made, obtaining the sect was a massive boon in every way, especially now that I could access the spirit herb garden within the sect.

The hoard of Qi crystals that they had been stockpiling, likely a bunch from Taizhou as well, would also help create a bunch of Drugnades, and fund the factories for Qi crystals. Many of the buildings were now being repurposed, as I was planning to shift my lab from Taizhou over to the sect premises.

I would likely keep people in both locations. The sect acting as the main laboratory grounds, and the building inside Taizhou being the secondary lab for research purposes that were more relevant to the location, such as the spirit anchor I'd created for cash and the demonic beasts.

As I strolled through the sect, some shouts caught my attention. Stepping forward with a pulse of Qi, I moved towards the sound, coming from somewhere, moving silently so as not to draw attention. And I found myself looking at the young new cultivators who had joined the sect, training together in formations.

Standing in neatly arranged rows, about fifty of them together, they slowly moved their bodies, channeling their Chi in unison through the various forms. A man stood before them, demonstrating numerous forms for the children to mimic.

Their movements were mesmerizing—no, that's not quite the right word. They were somewhat clumsy, lacking the finesse and control of a seasoned cultivator. Yet, there was a unity in their clumsiness—a harmony that permeated the Chi they manipulated, inhaling and exhaling as one, each breath moving in harmony. This unity, this flow of Chi that enveloped them captivated me, making something in my soul shiver.

I could feel the roots from the tree within my soul reaching out to them. Their Chi was intertwined with mine, and mine with theirs. Still, the full meaning eluded me.

I didn’t know what breaking the chains of the heavens truly meant, what these roots symbolized as they intertwined with me, but what I did know was that they had become part of something I bore, a weight on my shoulders that, rather than crushing me under the burden, gave me the push to keep moving, giving me strength to fight and to protect them.

I'd always struggled to ask for help, and I knew it wasn't just me who struggled in doing so. But watching these children move through forms, transitioning seamlessly, and embracing new concepts, I realized how connected we were. How we were all part of the same world, part of something greater than any one of us could ever be.

The realization relieved me somehow. It told me that I no longer had to face challenges alone, that I wasn't the sole bearer of this burden. Even if I failed, someone else would continue what I had begun.

After all, from the start, my goal wasn't to revolutionize the world, but to ignite the spark of change, to be the catalyst of the flames lighting the potential that I saw in this world, of what could be done, and what was possible.

Whether I'd live to see that happen? I didn’t know. Lives of cultivators were long, yet also, surprisingly short. Conflict was the norm in our world, and no matter how long my natural lifespan may become, if someone killed me, none of it would matter. Yet… somehow that didn’t matter to me right now. In this moment, feeling the Chi moving in sync with mine, the souls harmonizing briefly, I knew I was no longer alone on my path, and I hadn't been for a long time now.

As I watched the kids practice their forms, something poked at the edge of my senses. I’d grown sensitive to Chi, having felt its ties to me, and a part of that sense told me that there was something different in this group.

I scanned the crowd, searching for what I felt, until suddenly I found the thing I was looking for. One girl in the center stood out.

Approaching closer I let my presence be felt as the kids stopped their practice, looking at me with wide eyes and bowed.

Besides them stood a cultivator from the Cloudy Peak Sect, one whose name I didn’t know but had chosen to remain when I took over. As I walked up he bowed to me lightly in respect and I returned an acknowledging nod.

“Please continue, don’t mind me,” I said, before turning to the children. I let my senses spread out, searching for the one whose core had shifted. Scanning the crowd, I quickly spotted her.

Walking into their formation the kids moved aside to let me through. The girl looked around in surprise, stepping aside to let me pass as well but when I stopped right in front of her, she froze, fear taking over her face as she wondered if she’d done something wrong.

Looking up fearfully, she stammered but I stopped her words, placing my hand on her shoulder to confirm my suspicions.

I looked down at the girl, trying to assess her a little, while she continued to sink further and further in fear.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“M-Mo Lin,” she said, almost biting her tongue in the process.

“Mo Lin, have you felt something different about your Chi?” I asked the girl.

She looked up at me, then shook her head. I glanced behind the girl, noting her hiding something up her sleeve. Despite what she said, there was no doubting what I felt.

She had unlocked a new kind of Chi, akin to Zhang's and Yan Yun's, but without my intervention.

Smiling as warmly as I could, I said. "Come with me."