Chapter 44

Ordinary Man, Unordinary Elixirs

Leo felt tired. So, so tired.

There was a consistency he noticed about all the cultivators he met--they were a bit weird. Some more so than others, but, all across the board, they were plain old weird. And this tall, stalwart boy in front of him who crouched slightly so that he would seem shorter than Leo took the crown, the jewels, and the cummerbund, and took them all in a regional--nay, national--sweep.

He'd already noticed that the boy--no, he wasn't a boy, he was in his mid-twenties--was a bit... odd, in a sense. But this was no longer the matter of him being 'odd'. He was just nuts.

"Get up and let's go back," Leo said, feeling tired. So, so tired. "Others might have woken up by now."

He stepped to the side and then followed Leo from the back, two paces evenly no matter how quickly or slowly Leo walked. At some point, Leo noticed a slithering shadow from the side and saw Blackie join them. She appeared by Leo's legs and then jumped up his back, perching herself on top of his shoulder. Having never done that before, Leo was a bit surprised but took it in stride. For his mental health, he had decided to take everything in stride.

By the time they returned to the camp, there were a few more people by sitting by the fire. Besides Yue and Lya, there was the pair of silver-haired women, one young and one a bit older. Only Song, seemingly, was yet to wake up.

"A-ah, hello," both women stood up abruptly as soon as they saw him, bowing, while Leo tossed the log to the side, not wanting to throw it onto the wooden pile and expose parts of his secrets.

"You're awake," he stated. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes, thank you," the older woman said. "For everything."

"Sorry if it wasn't enough," Leo said. "I wasn't expecting too many guests."

"No, no, it was more than enough," the woman said speedily.

"Oh, right. There's still the juice," Leo exclaimed softly, remembering that he always stored extra juice around the huts in case any of the animals wanted to dip in and take a few sips, and even to have in reserves if he ever needed it during the 'exploration'. He walked into one of the huts and took out a couple of waterskins that he'd stitched together from leaves, grass, and boar leather. They weren't pretty, far from it, but they didn't leak the liquid, and that was all that mattered. "Here," he handed both of them to the older woman. "It should help a bit as well. Sit, please," he tossed a nearby piece of firewood onto the flames and sat down.

The atmosphere was quite awkward, though he didn't know why. Even if he tried to present himself as normally as possible, Leo had picked up on the fact that his living here wasn't normal. There were likely stories about this place that painted it in a completely different light, so every time somebody came here and saw him living, they probably built up a rather fascinating tale in their minds to explain it all.

Alas, he now had a new band of folk to entertain, and ensure that his 'image' of an 'expert' did not falter.

**

Nothing was adding up, Xiaoling felt.

There were a thousand questions hanging within her mind, yet she couldn't bring herself to ask any one of them. That sword--the holy-bladed sort that speared the demon into ashes--how did he conjure it? The food that they ate was beyond a simple miracle--it had replenished her desert-dry Qi reserves in just a few minutes, and even strengthened her meridians of all things. Furthermore, her lifespan--the ticking clock that was down to ten days at most--was expanded massively. If she were to never use her Soul Art again, she wagered she could live for another forty years at least.

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Well, that was before she swallowed a mouthful of the sweet liquid he'd given them--it burned through her throat and effectively exploded within her, coating her inner self with such dense and pure Qi she felt she was dreaming. Within minutes, she found her Spirit Roots were changing and burgeoning, almost like a flower.

Originally, she had Mid Heaven Roots, a secret that only her Master was privy to. Had she chosen the 'orthodox' path of cultivation, she would have been just short of those Heavenly Pavilion freaks in terms of talent. Even so, she always prided herself on those Roots, and yet, now, they were evolving. In just a few breaths, they went from Mid to Peak Heaven.

None of it made any sense, she felt.

It would be understandable if the man was a loose Immortal, a hermit detached from life. But he wasn't, Xiaoling was certain. While the kids may be fooled by the notion that he was 'just' at the Foundation Establishment, she had an eye keen enough to discern that the man was, beyond shadow of a doubt, just at the Foundation Establishment. In fact, the man likely hadn't even practiced cultivation until just shy of a month ago.

This only made the entire ordeal stranger--why was it that he was able to concoct these things? The elixirs that went beyond simply being 'heavenly'?

Furthermore, even if the man himself was just at Foundation Establishment, it was irrelevant. Though they were hiding in the bushes and in the trees, she'd scouted just over twenty actual Spirits, the named legends all believed existed in the membrane between the worlds. In fact, just the house-cat-looking panther lying on his lap and stealthily eyeing her was enough to obliterate the entire Lower Ashlands from existence. And there were at least twenty of them among those she could see.

As soon as she woke up and left the hut, she felt all those eyes on her, pressure akin to suffocation. She knew, if she so much had a stray thought toward the man, she would die on the spot without ever knowing how.

Why was this novice so beloved? So protected?

The crowd began to disperse soon after, with Lya and Liang retreating into the huts first for some extra rest. Mei didn't dwindle around much further, but not because she wanted to rest but likely because she wanted to cultivate. Just like Xiaoling, she, too, experienced a nirvanic rebirth due to the vegetable stew and the strange liquid. She could practically see the cascade of emotions erupting within the young girl's eyes--she, who always struggled with the reality that she was less talented than her peers, had that knot inside of her removed without any sacrifice. Xiaoling could only imagine the elation she felt.

"I'll go and take a bath, Master," Yue said, standing up. As soon as she did, the panther jumped off from the man's lap and began following the young woman.

"Be careful not to trip."

Now that it was only the two of them, she considered asking some of the heavier questions, but decided against it. They weren't truly alone--there were at least a dozen or so pairs of eyes currently locked onto them like hunting hawks.

"What's your name?" the man broke the silence and asked.

"Ah, pardon my manners. This one's called Shui Xiaoling," she stood up and bowed toward him. "I am an Inner Elder of the Holy Blade Sect, titular Silver Soul Blade."

"... I'm Leo." the man replied simply as she sat down. "Yue told me that you stepped up to protect her."

"It was only right to do so."

"Right or not, I am in your debt. If it is within my power, I will repay you, regardless of what you ask for."

"I meant it," Xiaoling said, smiling faintly. She didn't know why, but the man gave off a similar feeling to her Master--she found herself able to relax, despite not knowing precisely why. "It is a Senior's duty to protect the Juniors. Besides, your Disciple had saved all our lives just outside the forest. Were it not for her kindly intervening, who knows what would become of us."

"Hm," the man nodded, smiling awkwardly. "She told me, apologizing profusely for having had to use the feather. I am merely glad it was enough to save you."

"If... if you don't mind me asking, where... where did you get that feather?"

"Oh, not at all," the man said. "I've helped out a friend here once with an ailment, and he gifted me one of his feathers."

"Oh," Xiaoling exclaimed softly. It was as she suspected--the feather was an actual feather of a Spirit Beast, possibly one of the Fire Spirits. "You seem to have a lot of friends here." she said with a strange smile.

"Ha ha, yes, I am really blessed. But this is nothing," he added with a rather proud grin. "Tomorrow morning, at breakfast, you will see just how much a lot can mean. So, you're from the same Sect as Song and Lya, right?"

"Yes, I am," she nodded.

"I hope you don't take to heart their silence upon my matters. I asked them to do so."

"Not at all," Xiaoling's lips relaxed, and she found her heart calming down at last. She knew, by now, well enough that there was no need for pretense before this man. "They've become our little stars upon return. It was their blessed fate that allowed them to meet you, and now it was ours, too."

"Ah, I don't know whether meeting me should be counted as a blessed fate," though he said it in a somewhat joking matter, Xiaoling heard a trace of truth in that voice, as she'd often hide it in the things she said, too, about her own matters. "You should rest," he added, standing up. "We will talk more tomorrow."