Seeing June cry, a desire filled July. Her emotions also raged as she started,” I was a sylph born from the element’s will. The water element was my parent and besides me were my fellow sisters and brothers. Back then, I was just a spirit who didn’t have a conscious, but spirits who live long enough will naturally gain a soul. The fellow brothers and sisters who were born alongside me also gained souls. After we gained souls, more brothers and sisters were born from water’s will. It is an endless cycle. We gained souls and a will of our own but we still followed water. Wherever it went, we were there. Countless of years passed by and we were still following water. We followed water to human settlements, past the vast sea, and many more places. We saw the seven kingdoms of life and how they lived. My fellow brothers and sisters thought that it was interesting, but they still mindlessly followed water; their parent. I, however, wanted something more than being with water. I wanted what the seven kingdoms of life had. I wanted a physical body so that I could feel things other than water. I was filled with greed and desire. With conviction, I came to water and I asked for a body of my own. I talked about my desires and water was generous but, everything comes with a price. My body came from water’s essence and the price that I payed was one which I thought that I could bear.”

By now June’s wailing had diverted to a quiet weep. July noticed and stopped momentarily before continuing.

“Water took me to a pond with a small waterfall and created my body. My body was created from the pond and water told me that my life will be connected to the pond. Water also told me that I couldn’t step outside the five meter radius of the pond otherwise, I would disappear. I thought that I could handle this curse and laughed because of thought of how I was still connected with water through the pond. I said goodbye to my brothers and sisters with a wave of my new arms. More Years passed and I was content. I would be able to touch and smell the flowers that grew on the ground. I was able to play with the animals who came by the pond to drink. I was able to feel the warm sunlight and the chilly wind. I was able to do the things I couldn’t without a body. I was content with all of this, but unfortunately, time doesn’t stop. Overtime, I grew tired of smelling flowers, basking in the sunlight, playing with animals, and many other things. Within all of this, I wondered why my brothers and sisters didn’t visited me. I was also where water was. The pond had water in it so my brothers and sisters should have been able to visit. I thought long and hard about this matter and the answer devastated me. I realized that water wasn’t in the pond. That water wasn’t with me. I realized that I was the one in the pond. Without water, I knew that my brothers and sisters wouldn’t visit me. I thought that water had abandoned me. I started to hate water. I started to hate my parent, but time doesn’t stop. It allowed me to think more and this made me come upon more realizations. I realized that water was generous because it gave me what I wanted. It was my desires and greed that lead me to where I am today. I am selfish and I hate that. These days, I live a boring life. What I had before was taken for granted and so, I started to hate myself. I started to become an empty shell. For many years, I stayed this way but I knew that I couldn’t live like that. With this thought came more years of pondering. I was searching for an answer to my dilemma. Years and years of pondering but there was still no answer. I didn’t know what to do, but one day I found a clue. It was right besides me all along. That day, I blankly looked around me and sure enough, my sight came upon the waterfall. The waterfall was made of water and this waterfall was connected to my pond. This made me think that my realization of water not being with me was wrong so I looked upon the waterfall and cried out with all my might. I plead for water and asked for another chance but water didn’t reply. I knew that I was being selfish but it was my only hope. For the longest time, I beseeched water but there was no reply. My hope started to slowly disappear. At that point, I knew that my connection with water and my siblings had disappeared. I was no longer the daughter of water. I was alone and by myself, I lived. To deal with my twisted heart, I created a persona. It was a lively persona because it was one that loved to play and dance alongside life no matter what the circumstances were. With this, I thought that I could be happy forever, but my anguish and sorrow will never truly disappear.”

July heaved a sigh as streams of tears flowed from her eyes. “Why am I tell this to June… he is still young. He probably doesn’t even understand most of the things i’ve said.”

It was true that June didn’t understand what she said, but she underestimated him. He didn’t understand what she said but he understood her. He heard her voice and felt a familiar feeling. It was the feeling of loneliness and anger towards oneself. He felt a sort of kindredness towards what she felt even though their reasons were different.

July felt a tug on her gown and looked down at the mysterious boy in her arms. His head was on her bosom when he let out a few unexpected words.

“Don’t be lonely.”

A burst of warmth spread through her body as she trembled. Suddenly, she laughed out loud. Her laughter reached the heavens and shook the earth.

When June looked up at her, she stopped and said, “I won’t.”

“You won’t?” asked June.

“No. Not if you're here,” she replied.  

“Then… will you be there if I feel lonely too?”

“I’ll be there. If i’m not then who would feed you?” she said jokingly.

“Promise?”

“Promise!”

June slowly fell asleep in her arms. Today was an exhausting day for him.

When she noticed that June had fallen asleep, July smiled, then turned towards the direction of the waterfall and said, “I’m sorry. Thank you.”

As if it heard her, the waterfall glimmered for a moment then it died down and it was normal once again.

They had only met for a day, yet it felt as if they were closer than ever. They had only met for a day, yet he relied on her with all his being. And she? She relied on him too. She told him her story, her feelings, and her desires.

They desperately needed someone to cling onto to take the loneliness that they’ve felt in their hearts away. The reason why the both of them had become so close was probably because of this.

Only they themselves can understand what they were feeling at that time.

The night was young, but it passed quickly. The sun rose up and shone brightly as the birds chirped. June woke up abruptly on July’s bosom. His head sprang up and he looked around, but the sunlight blinded him. After a few blinks, he could see again, but what he saw scared him.

Six meters away, there was a demonic beast staring right at him with its bright red eyes. June had seen demonic beasts before and was scared at first, but Boa’s reassurance made his fear slowly disappear. June was scared once again now that Boa wasn’t here.

He tugged July’s gown in  fright and woke her up.

“Mnnn.. What is it..” asked July as she woke up groggily. She laughed when she saw June pointing at the demonic beast in fear. When it heard July laugh, the demonic beast snarled angrily and pounced at the two.

July raised her arm and pointed her palm at the demonic beast. A small ball of water rose from the pond behind her and shot towards the beast.

Bang!

The water ball hit the beast and with a bang, it exploded. The demonic beast was hurled back and it hit a tree with great force. Insta kill!

June gawked at the small cat like demonic beast. Blood was flowing out of its mouth, but other than it being drenched, it looked fine. The force from the blast had erupted it’s organs so it may have looked ok, but its insides were a mess.

June turned and looked at July with sparkling eyes. “July, you cultivate?!”

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“Err, nope,” replied July. “Cultivators do not have the ability to control the elements like that anyways.”

June didn’t see the water rising up from the pond, so he thought that July had produced the water herself. What's more was that June thought that cultivators can actually do things like that. Boa was supposed to teach him all of these gradually, but he threw it off and spend most of their time together playing. This was a father who wanted his child to grow up and live without any worries. He knew that one needed power to not have worries but he didn’t teach his son anything and only played around.  (Doting and idiotic father to the max!!)

“You are cultivating and you don’t know this? Why didn’t your parents teach you?” laughed July as she asked.

“Well, I don’t have a mother…” When June started to talk, it made July feel bad because she asked such an insensitive question, but she smile after hearing his next words.

“Father is enough for me, but he only taught me how to write and talk. Other than that, we played around a lot.”

June wasn’t as gloomy when he talk about Boa anymore. After July consoled him, he felt much better than before.  

“That's… such an irresponsible father,” said July as she shook her head.

“Well, sylphs don’t usually cultivate because they are missing bodies. That is also the reason why sylphs are so rare in the world. Cases like me are special. I have a body, but I don’t cultivate because my body is connected to the pond. So, if I cultivate, the Qi that I gain will disappear because of the pond,” explained July.

“Understand?” she asked.

“Yup! You can’t cultivated because of pond, but why does pond no allow you to cultivate?”

July rubbed her neck with a strange expression on her face and replied, “I’d like to know that too, but I’m guessing that it's part of my curse…”

“Other than that… I didn’t ask you before, but what do you mean by your father is up there?” she asked as she look up at the sky. If it was where she thought it was than the simple idea that she came up with would make him happy.

“Not sure, but he said something about a higher realm and ascending,” replied June.

Upon hearing this, July grinned and said, “When I was still following water, I heard many people talking about this higher realm. They called it the heavenly realm. Apparently, you can ascend once you get past the Dan Infusion stage. How bout it little June? You can probably see your father once you cultivate long enough.”

June’s eyes sparkled with excitement and this made July happy, but his next words shocked her.

“What's the Dan Infusion stage? When will I get past it?”

In shock, July replied, “Your father didn’t teach you what the cultivation stages were?! How can you cultivate? Oh wait… that’s right! You’re a mystical beast so you should have all different systems, but he still should have told you.”

“Mn, he should of told,” copied June.

July heaved a sigh and thought about how irresponsible Boa was. She thought if such a person was able to reach the height of mortal power and ascend then they should be sensible enough to educate June about cultivation.

July continued to explain, “It’s different from mystical beasts, but all humans should use this system. Ok, in short, the first stage is the Spirit Condensing stage, second comes the Qi Refining stage, third is the Profound Qi stage, fourth is the Developing Dan stage, fifth is the Finalizing Dan stage, and last of all, the six stage is the Dan Infusion stage. They all are split into three stages; early, middle, and late.”

“Oh! I wonder how long it will take for me to get past the Dan infusion stage,” said June.

“One day you will!” laughed July in response. She didn’t dare tell him that it would take lots of luck, talent, and dedication to get past the Dan infusion stage. Afterall, she got his hopes up, so she didn’t want to put him down.

June was incomparably excited for the future. Before, he looked up at the sky with gloom, but now, he looks up with excitement and resolution. July felt happy when she saw June looking up. She was happy that she could be of help.

After gazing at the sky, a ting of curiosity rose inside of June and he leap of the rock they were sitting on. He ran towards the cat like demonic beast and inspected it. By now, the blood leaking from it’s mouth made a small puddle, but it didn’t sicken June at all. Instead, he poke it a bit and turned around to July to ask,

“Can we eat it?” He had never tried to eat demonic beast before, so he was curious about it. Little did he know, there a time when he asked to same question to Boa and Boa answered with a stern, “No!”

Having forgotten that time, June could only ask July.

July rubbed her temples and said, “Your father really didn’t teach you anything did he?”

“He taught me how to read and write!” exclaimed June.

“Ok, at least he taught you that and no, you cannot eat the demonic beast,” said July.

June was in need of meat. Fruits could not satisfy his meat belly, so he complained, “But I want meat!”

July knew that that was hungry when he hear him complain, so she plucked a Dai fruit from the tree and gave one to him.

June wanted to eat some meat, but food was food, so he happily munched down on the Dai fruit. It was an ok breakfast for him.

“Listen June…   if you want to eat meat then you have to cultivate,” said July.

“Why?”

“Because there are a lot of demonic beasts like this Treehouse Cat here. Although it's only a rank 1 demonic beast, it is still as strong as a late spirit condensation stage cultivator. So, if you want to go and hunt, you should wait until you have enough strength to evade these demonic beasts,” explained July.

June’s face paled. The thought of having no meat until he reached a certain amount of cultivation devastated him. Right now, June was only at the early spirit and matter stage.  In fact, June already knew about the spirit condensation stage, but he forgot about it. The book of inheritance already explained that the spirit and matter stage is comparable to the spirit condensation stage, but it did not tell June what the later stages of his cultivation was.

July laughed when she saw his face turning pale. She couldn’t help but tease him, so she said, “You better hurry along with your cultivation. Otherwise, when the Dai fruits run out, there will be no food anymore.”

June’s face paled even more. The food lover being deprived of food? Such a thing was unbearable for him. It was so unbearable that he forgot about his noble thought of cultivating to meet his father. Instead, he changed it to cultivating to get enough strength to eat.

With that thought, June immediately ran back to the rock. He sat down and started to cultivate with determination.

This action made July laugh even more. Somehow teasing June made her really happy. She skipped to where June was and sat down too. She stared at him with delight.  He was interesting even when he was cultivating. However, she made a confused face and thought, “Don’t pandas eat bamboo though?”