Xu Long was a little confused about the big smile and the shake of the head he received in reply to his answer, but ultimately it was unimportant. His mother motioned him to hand over his arm with the bracelet so he stretched it across the table. She pressed her finger just to the left of the center point of his bracelet and a second later retracted her hand.
“Alright, channel a similar amount of qi that you need to activate your blindfold into the small branching node just off to the left of the topmost node.”
As Xu Long cycled his qi through the bracelet he felt a small offshoot where his mother said it would be, honestly if she had not mentioned it there was a chance that he would have missed it, his qi seemed to naturally flow past it like it wasn’t there. Regardless he retracted his qi from the bracelet and then separated a tiny portion and sent it in, heading right for the branch and activated the node. He didn’t feel anything in response, but assumed it was working judging by the look on his mothers face.
The way she was looking at him was rather odd, he thought she looked a little sad. She must have picked up on the face she was making by noticing Xu Long’s confusion, as she shook herself out of it almost instantly.
“Sorry Long’er, it is just even more apparent how much you take after your father when you have the same color eyes as him.” As she was explaining her actions she materialized a mirror in her hand and showed Xu Long his current visage.
He was mildly shocked when he saw the light brown, possibly hazel eyes staring back at him, even though he knew that his eye color had changed, not being able to feel his bracelet at work and yet see the results was a little disconcerting. When he voiced his thoughts to his mother, she smiled at him.
“Long’er, you have to understand, despite you having stepped onto the path of cultivation, ultimately you are not far removed from your mortal self. I am sure that your blindfold training has ‘opened your eyes’, as it were, to just what your senses are missing. As you cultivate and move further down your path you will find that that is just a fraction of what there is to see.
“As an aside, you still need to work on your qi control Long’er, the amount of qi that the activation of this eye color changing function and your blindfold can be a lot smaller than you are currently using.”
Seeing the brief flashes of that same look of sadness in his mother’s eyes on occasion as she was talking, Xu Long sent another tiny portion of qi into the node to disable the technique and asked more questions to keep her mind off his father.
“Do I need to bind my sword as well?”
His mother shook her head in reply. “There are no formations of any kind on your sword Long’er, it is just a sword, a sword so ridiculously well made with no doubt ridiculous materials that most cultivators would be hard pressed to believe that it is just a sword if they knew, but such are the requirements of a Sword Immortal’s sword.”
Xu Long smiled and looked down at the sword on his waist, then back at his mother. “So is there anything else I need to know?”
“Don’t ever use your bracelet in front of anybody. This piece of equipment, while designed by me, is based on the work of others and are thus not unheard of, however, to most cultivators such items are an extravagance beyond reason and will only ever be seen in the hands of scions of the most wealthy clans, and theirs will likely not be anywhere as good as yours. In short, an unknown young man with no large clan backing him wearing that kind of equipment is a sure fire way to attract a lot of unwanted attention.”
Seeing the serious look on his face and his nod in acknowledgement, she smiled at him and then looked at the small spirit fox perched on her shoulder still staring intently at the tea cup full of the undiluted goodness that she has fallen in love with, yet would almost certainly kill her instantly.
“Now little girl, I believe it is your turn.”
She picked up Xu Xing with one hand and passed her over to Xu Long, who took the small spirit fox into his hand and rested it palm up on the table.
Xu Xing for the first time since her and Xu Li had sat down at the table to watch Xu Long and Wu Zhong spar, tore her attention away from the stellar tea to look around to figure out what was going on, when she noticed that Xu Long was holding her she relaxed immediately and then looked at her teacher/tea supplier in front of her.
Xu Long also watched as his mother smiled at the little fox and then produced what appeared to be a plain onyx black band of some unidentified material, she then proceeded to place her finger on the collar. A scene that had become quite familiar to Xu Long ensued, the collar lit up with a dizzying array of silver glowing formation runes.
His mother then looked up at him. “Long’er, your sword please.”
He nodded his head and unsheathed his sword and placed the point of the sword within reach of Xu Xing. The little fox hesitated when she saw the deadly sharp object right next to her.
“Come Xiao Xing, you have seen Long’er do this before, it is time to be brave.”
The little fox turned to look back at the loving smile on Xu Long’s face before she turned her head back to the sword point and lifted her paw to gently touch the tip. She flinched very cutely as she drew blood from her paw.
“Alright Xiao Xing, just like we practiced, move your qi to your paw and then touch it right here.” Xu Li instructed as she brought the band closer to the little fox.
Xu Xing had a look of concentration on her little fox face as she brought her qi to her paw and then placed it on the section of the band indicated. As soon as she made contact the formation started to pulse and Xu Long watched as his mother quickly placed the band over Xu Xing’s head and held it with both hands at neck height as the band slowly shrunk itself into a perfectly fitting collar over the next few moments.
Watching this Xu Long had to ask. “Is that collar going to adjust to her growth?”
His mother smiled at him. “Of course Long’er, I made it, just like your bracelet will adjust itself should you have any more growing to do.”
Xu Long smiled at his mother’s usual matter of fact boasting, then he looked down at Xu Xing and had to do a double take when he saw two regular ice blue eyes staring back at him rather than a visage of the night sky. It was a little odd that he had gotten so used to her having the starry sky for eyes that her having regular spirit fox eyes was disconcerting.
His thoughts were interrupted when his mother started talking to him.
“I have already explained it to Xiao Xing but I should explain her collar to you as well Long’er. It’s functions are relatively simple, there is the obvious veil that disguises her eyes, this is set up so that for the first 20 years it is non adjustable, this has the benefit of avoiding any slip ups on her part which could expose her variant bloodline and also means that the actual function itself is as efficient and difficult to detect as possible.”
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Before his mother could continue with the other functions of the collar, Xu Long interrupted with a question. “Why 20 years?”
“Because that is how long I have theorized, after 6 years of observations, that she will have to withhold from cultivation to avoid any future complications. Obviously she will still be relatively small for her species, but there are options she can pursue should she wish to reach a similar size to her mother, this 20 year wait period will simply ensure that she is healthy and grown enough to pursue whichever path she desires.
“The reason that I have restricted her ability to control the disguising of her eyes until she can cultivate has to do with the second function, which is a little more complicated, I have already explained to you both about her unique circumstances and Xiao Xing has agreed to halt her cultivation to allow her body to grow. That being said, there is a path that is open to her that does not interfere with her growth, which is where the second function comes into play, the collar will act as a focus that will allow her to train her spirit under the stars. This means that she will be able to effectively half-cultivate during this waiting period, in fact she has already been doing this since she started taking lessons with me in my garden.
“So when she has grown enough and can start cultivating in earnest she will be able to cultivate at an astonishing speed. Thus I can be sure that both you and her will have the power to deal with any problems that may arise from Xiao Xing having the ability to display her true eyes whenever she desires.”
Xu Long just stared at his mother when she finished her explanation, he was so used to her meticulous planning and the great care that she takes when it came to anything related to his education and future. But now that he was sitting here listening to the same meticulous care and attention being given to Xu Xing, he was really heartened and more than a little astonished that she found the time.
“I really don’t say this enough, or perhaps much at all now that I think about it, but thank you for everything you’ve done for us Mother, I sometimes get overwhelmed just listening to the thought and meticulous care you put into everything you do, we are both lucky to have you.”
Xu Long had to smile when Xu Xing added her own yip to the end of his little speech. When he looked back up at his mother sitting across from him and saw her tearing up a little he stood up and went around the table and held out his hand to pull her up into a hug.
“No teleporting out of this one.” He heard her laugh into his chest as he squeezed a little harder, Xu Xing who had jumped from his hand to his mother’s shoulder at some point, was rubbing her face affectionately on his mother’s cheek. They stayed in each other's embrace for quite a while, each knowing that this was probably the last time they would see each other for quite a while. Finally his mother tapped his back and he let go of her.
As she wiped a tear out of her eye she looked up at Xu Long. “Well, I’d say we aren’t going to top that for farewells, there is just one more thing before you three leave the valley.” She smiled and then materialized a crate with 16 sealed glass bottles.
“Each bottle has 500 stellar tea pills, for a total of 8000. I would say that even our little glutton here would be hard pressed to go through all of those in a short amount of time.” She joked as she pet the fox that was still on her shoulder but was now staring wide eyed at the crate of overflowing riches that had just materialized.
Xu Long was smiling at the face that Xu Xing was making as he watched his mother materialize a large barrel of water with a smaller container of water and Xu Xing’s favorite bowl on top of it.
“Now, I suggest that you take one bottle out of the crate, the smaller container of water and her bowl and place them in one node, then store the barrel and the crate in another.”
Xu Long nodded his head. “That makes sense, I was just thinking that all this was going to be a hassle to deal with without anyone seeing me materialize an entire barrel and crate everyday.” He then had a thought. “Hey, what about my food?”
His mother patted his shoulder. “For that I am going to have to defer to your forest survival teacher.”
Xu Long had a bad feeling, he looked over to where Old Wu had been sitting quietly watching the whole time, he was no longer there. Then he felt a large bear-like hand on his other shoulder.
“C’mon kid, it’s about time for you to come out from behind your mothers robe and learn how to survive in the real world, are you ready?”
Xu Long looked over his shoulder at the stoic Old Wu and nodded his head before turning back to his mother and hugging her again for good measure. “I’m going out for a while Mother, I will see you soon.”
She choked up a bit. “I appreciate your confidence in me Long’er, but it will be some time before I break through to Dao Seeking and you cannot come back to the valley without substantial risk to its secrecy.”
He looked down and smiled confidently at her. “I know Mother. But in the life of an Immortal it will be but the blink of an eye.” Her mind blanked and she stood still, completely shocked when she saw that smile and heard what he said.
Xu Long didn’t particularly notice how his words had affected his mother as he looked over at the greedy little spirit fox that was still on his mother’s shoulder, eyeing the crate of tea pills, and shook his head. “C’mon Xiao Xing, it is time to go.”
He separated the items as his mother suggested and then placed each group in their respective nodes in his bracelet, an act that seemed to snap Xu Xing out of her trance, after which she nuzzled his mother on the cheek before jumping over to Xu Long’s outstretched hand, she was then promptly placed into her preferred position in the front of Xu Long’s robes.
Turning around to look at his Mother, who was still somewhat stunned and just staring at him, for what would be the last time in quite a long time, Xu Long unwound the blindfold from his right wrist and then brought it up to his eyes, getting in a last little “see you soon” to his mother before his world became a black void that was soon filled with the qi flows that he could feel around him when he was blindfolded.
Just as he was about to turn towards Old Wu and make his way out of the valley for the first time in almost ten years he felt himself being held tightly by, given the height, almost certainly his mother.
She said in a small voice. “Be safe out there, Long'er.”
He hugged her back and replied. “You have my word, Mother.”
After a few more seconds she let him go and he turned to where he perceived Old Wu to be and started walking towards him.
“Shall we, old man?”
Old Wu simply lightly snorted before he gave a nod to Xu Li and then turned and started walking out of the valley.
Xu Li, looking a little pale, sank into one of the seats around the table and watched her son walk off with his father's most loyal disciple. She said softly under her breath, sure that Wu Zhong would pick it up, “please look after my boy Zhong.” She felt a light breeze blow past her face that was rich with energy and she knew that was him saying ‘I will take care of it’.
Xu Long and Old Wu walked out of the valley in silence, Xu Long reeling from the emotional goodbye and Old Wu respecting his need for a moment to collect himself. By the time they had reached the entrance, Xu Long had indeed collected himself and was now buzzing with excitement at the prospect of finally leaving the valley.
Old Wu next to him could feel his excitement and had to chuckle.
“Sure you haven’t forgotten anything kid?”
Xu Long was just about to shake his head when it dawned on him that he had actually left something, and that there was a good chance his mother would discover it. He went a little pale. “Shit, I left that book you gave me, Mother will almost certainly find it.”
Old Wu let out an uproarious laughter. “Relax kid, she gave me the first half of the book to give you, I doubt she will look through it and discover the second half.” He then looked over at Xu Long with a raised eyebrow. “Now that I think about it, you never actually asked me questions about it.”
Xu Long turned his head in Old Wu’s general direction and shrugged. “It seemed fairly self explanatory, I memorized it all carefully. Actually now that you bring it up, there is one thing I was curious about…how come all of the men in that book were so small, you know, down there, I couldn’t figure it out.”
Old Wu just stared at him, getting increasingly annoyed at the earnest look he was getting from the kid’s apparently honest question. In the end he pushed him out of the valley entrance in frustration. Then he started mumbling to himself.
“Just how much do the Heaven’s love you kid? Is it not enough to be a prodigy born to a couple of spectacular parents…”