"What are we doing here?" Jin Hua grunted as she blew the flower between her fingers, scattering the petals into the wind. He'd dragged her to these godforsaken mountains without so much as an excuse, and was just mindlessly standing there, on the edge, hands behind his back.
"Examining something," Yun Qi replied.
"No, you are examining something--I am being bored out of my mind."
"Hush, just a moment," she groaned, but turned silent, her eyes peeled to the back of the man who'd delivered her quite a few shocks in the time they've been together.
They'd mowed down through just shy of ten Elders of the Holy Lands, and would have likely gotten through more if any of the other ones ever left their sanctuaries. By now, they must have figured out that the 'hunt' had something to do with the fall of the sect in the backwater, and had locked themselves deep in the sects' lands, never leaving.
However, even those ten were quite a marvel.
Jin Hua never helped--not that she could do much to help with her mere Inner World Realm--only ever observing from the side. The man's sword was... terrifying. She often felt as though she weren't watching a martial artist, a person, but rather the embodiment of death.
And if she felt that terror, she could only imagine what those who faced the blade felt.
Once more she expressed gratitude to her past self for having the wherewithal to pair up with the man rather than following him and trying to trap him for those ungrateful bastards. And with each fallen Elder, she grew more certain that he would fulfill his promise--that, within just fifty years, she would have her revenge, and perhaps a calm heart at last.
"They were here," he suddenly spoke.
"Huh? Who? The remaining Elders?"
"No," he shook his head. "The kids."
"... you have kids?"
"Survivors from my sect," he said, turning around at last.
"Oh. I didn't know that others survived."
"I didn't either until recently," he said. "But... it's definitely them. I couldn't forget their Qi even if I tried."
"..." she remained silent, uncertain as to what to say; though she wanted to offer her help and track the survivors down, this was the Eternal Mountain. Tangling up with these sorts wasn't exactly good for either of them. "Do you want to look for them?" still, she couldn't not ask.
If she learned that Xao'er was actually alive? She'd turn the entire world upside-down looking for him, all else be damned.
"In due time," he said, sighing. "So many questions still remain unanswered. We should leave; the array won't hold on for much longer."
They descended the mountain quite rapidly and started trekking through the nearby forests, leaving westward.
"You mentioned there's a chance some of them might leave the sects soon. What did you mean?" he asked as they emerged upon the lake's shorelines, leaving the tangled web of the mountain ranges.
"The Nirvana Festival," she said. "I heard a few Elders mention it some decades back. The master of the Nirvana Frontier Island invites Elders and Sect Masters of the Holy Lands for a festival of sorts. I don't actually know what it is about as they never mentioned, but there's a good chance they'll attend since they'll feel safe with an Emperor at their side."
"... and how is that a good opportunity?" he looked at her quite oddly. "Are you under the impression I can kill an Elder of a Holy Land and hide it from an Emperor?"
"If anyone can find a way," she said with a shrug, prompting him to smile.
"I'm afraid your unshaken faith is misplaced," he said. "Nonetheless, there's no reason for us not to go. Perhaps heavens will slip up and afford us an opportunity, who knows?"
"Or maybe you're hoping to run into those kids there?" he stumbled a bit, almost imperceptibly so, but she noticed it, causing her to smile, too. "You've become much easier to read. Originally, I had pegged you for a mysterious, cold, unfeeling murderer; turns out, you're just an old man with a soft heart."
"A man can be many things," he said. "No, a man must be many things. That is what my mother used to say."
"Really? Mine imagined every man in the world was like my father: callous, angry, and devoid of heart. I suppose that is many things, in a way."
"Mine wasn't much better, if my mother is to be believed," he said. "I wouldn't know, as she killed him when I was two."
"Sheesh." she whistled lowly as they slow down their pace, turning to a brisk walk along the lake's edges. "Every scar's a story unto itself, after all."
"What is yours?" he asked. "You didn't inherit your mother's views, after all."
"Oh, I have," she said with a chuckle. "For most of my life, I firmly believed her words. Then... I met Xao'er. A mumbling, perpetually distracted little thing who wove a tapestry of flowers for me because he thought I looked sad."
"..."
"I damn near killed him because of it," she continued. "Mostly because I was beyond embarrassed he'd done it publicly and that was his intention. But... as I spent more time with him, I saw that he's really just a gentle, awkward soul. Had almost no talent for cultivating, but was a genius of talismans and arrays. Didn't think so himself, though, but I convinced him of his genius. I pushed him until hubris manifested in him, and that confidence bred into arrogance. I warned him not to go that day as it sounded like a trap, but he was confident he'd be able to see through any array. Tsk, a damned fool."
"..." how long had it been since she last spoke of him so openly? Tears drifted into her eyes but she quickly snuffed them out. "I'm sorry," he said. "Why did they even go after him, if you don't mind me asking?"
"... I don't know," she said. "I thought he'd left me for decades; however, a maid-servant called me on her deathbed and confessed to me what they did to him. By then, that bitch was well beyond my reach, and there was nobody else to question. I could only stew in my hatred and hope that, one day, the heavens would gift me a chance to unmake her. And thus appeared you, like the burst of light in the darkness."
"A lot to live up to," they'd stopped by the calm waters, looking over the length of the Phoenix Lake.
"Whether you do or don't, I won't fault you either way," she said. "Thank you... for listening. Even if I die, there's at least going to be somebody else to remember him."
"... I'm too old to be remembering so many people," he said. "So, you better live."
"I'm fairly certain you're younger than me, however."
"Am I?"
"How old are you? No, let me guess--just shy of two hundred, no?"
"... wrong."
"But quite close," she grinned.
"How old are you, then?"
"Ah, dear Yun Qi, you can't just ask a lady her age out of the blue; how utterly improper."
"A good thing, then, I'm not asking a lady."
"... hurtful, but fair." she chuckled. "Today, actually, is my 400th birthday, if you could believe it. Quite an achievement."
"... we ought to celebrate it, then."
"We really oughtn't. What we ought to do is leave this place."
"... then a gift, at least," he said. "You shared something intimate with me, I feel like I should do the same. His name is Lu Qi," Yun Qi stretched out his hand whereupon a canvas appeared in it. He stretched it out slowly and unfurled the face of an ordinary-seeming man... whose eyes were like two blades piercing her soul. "Then there's little troublemaker Dai Xiu, and there's Xi Zhao, and there's Light..." a story began, gentle and unassuming.
A story of a man who, in the troves of harsh and unforgiving world, was its antithesis. And a story of the kids who loved him more as a father than they respected him as a Master. And a story of the sect's dark and dreadful end, which began the tale of Yun Qi.