Immortal Forest.

  Although the sounded grand, it partially met the grandeur. In simpler words, a glorified garden where rare herbs and trees prospered all year around.

  We walked down the path where four seasons meet. Along the wide path were flowers of distinct colors and seasons in full bloom giving house to numerous rare butterflies and bees.

  “This used to be Osmanthus Peak Master’s personal garden, but the Grand Elder takes care of it now.” I expined.

  “It certainly lives up to its name.” Lingling said, her eyes swimming through the flowers.

  “Hehe, this is my personal pyground now.” Hua Mei skipped ahead of us. Her mood always became better upon entering this pce.

  “A pyground this big?” Wang Yang looked at me for confirmation.

  “Technically speaking, yes.” We opened this pce for the disciples so they could have a rexing time and even get some rare herbs too, if they could find the pce and herbs. Only a handful of disciples knew of this garden’s location now.

  “What? You don’t trust me?” Hua Mei looked at Wang Yang with a raised brow. “Looks like I’ll have to show you some proof.”

  She snapped in the air with a smug smile.

  “Start!” The cute yelp didn’t go far, but it reached the intended person.

  A slow, somber melody permeated the air. A cssic song from a great musician that transcended the world and instruments.

  “…Music? From where?” Wang Yang looked around the flower field but he couldn’t locate the zither.

  He looked around because it seemed to him that someone had pyed the zither behind him, and when he turned the sound’s position changed too. In truth no one pyed, it was a recording from the time I pyed to keep Hua Mei entertained at the bamboo forest. Xianquan recorded it and pyed it for the kid at times like this.

  I could’ve done better along the middle notes. I started learning about zither at the time of recording, so it left a lot to be desired.

  “Are you impressed yet?” Hua Mei asked Wang Yang.

  “Totally.” He admitted easily.

  “Heh, this is nothing.” With her nose to the sky, she turned around and beckoned him. “I’ll show you something real amazing, follow me.”

  Wang Yang followed Hua Mei down the path after I permitted him. We evacuated the disciples in advance so it shouldn’t be a problem.

  As the path of flowers ended, we entered the wood paradise, it had numerous species of wood from the continent, both ordinary and spiritual in spades. This pce helped a lot in construction because the array helped in rapid growth, it brought about a decent profit while doubling as a pce to py hide and seek for Hua Mei.

  Mei and Yang had long left the path and entered the birch forest that seemed endless at a gnce. Only Lingling walked a step behind me in silence.

  “If you need answers you can ask, I am your Master after all.” I turned to Sun Lingling.

  “I… Well…” She must’ve felt a big shock to tumble over words.

  “Is it about Hua Mei?” I spoke it for her.

  “…Yes.”

  Any cultivator would have questions after seeing Hua Mei’s realm. How come a nine-year-old is already in Foundation Establishment realm? The question was simir to asking why birds fly or why fishes swim. However, the answer had every bit of grandness a cultivator could ask for.

  “Lingling, have you heard of Blessing of the Dao?”

  “Yes, it is a famous saying that no one believes but still wishes for.” She said.

  “Who wouldn’t want to receive such a blessing? It reveals to you the mechanisms of your destined path and the intricacies of the universe. The boost it gives to your cultivation and prowess is enormous.” Blessing of the Dao surfaced in the Saint Era and had been immortalized alongside the one to encounter it, only brief mentions of it came in the first genius generation and it remains a mystery to this day.

  “Is master saying that…” She caught on quick.

  “At the age of four Hua Mei received Blessing of the Dao while watching her father practice. Without ever learning about a cultivation method, she reached the peak of Qi refinement in three hours, her understanding of Martial Dao and its potency rivaling a Peak Master.”

  A little kid achieved something her father had pursued his whole life, but the blessing itself came to Hua Mei for a reason. Blood pys a strong role, but the innate talent and physical potential of the kid who could walk after one month of her birth pyed a bigger role.

  At that moment, the blood, the innate talent of the child, and the high-level insight of a master from a higher realm observed by that child came together to bless the child and left the absorption of that Dao to her. Of course, Hua Mei didn’t disappoint anyone, not the parents that gave birth to her or the heavens that gave her the opportunity.

  “So, it is like that.” She muttered.

  “It can’t be helped if it is like that. That's what you are thinking, right?” I turned to her, dropping my stride to match her.

  “Yes, it is not something I can use.”

  “Do you want to be in her position?” I asked.

  “Being associated with the Blessing of Dao, it should draw a lot of attention.” She said.

  “That’s putting it mildly. If the news gets out there’d be no end of trouble for her and the sect.” Assassination attempts from the Demonic Cultivators would rise, more powerful sects would come around to get their way, and there wasn’t a shortage of old, despicable monsters around the world. “Since that day we’ve had to limit the pces she can go, the number of people she can meet, and what she can do. It is no different than living in a cage.”

  “Must be suffocating.” She muttered.

  “It is, even when we try to give her some joys of childhood.” The same happened before regression. “But I wish to change a few things from now on, and for that, I pn to talk with her parents.”

  “They must be worried too.” Sun Lingling understood it too.

  “I want them to worry about the present more than the future.”

  It wasn’t Jiahao or his wife’s fault for focusing on cultivation, they were doing it to gather enough strength to protect their child. Us fellow disciples were the same, but that left Hua Mei even more isoted because we barely had time. Before regression, I didn’t have enough strength or means to suggest anything to them, but after knowing the future I couldn’t let it go on.

  If one sect isn’t enough to protect her, how about an alliance of the major sects, the minor sects, and the friendly foreign sects? An alliance to stand against the Demonic Cultivators remained my ultimate goal, but I also wanted to give Jiahao and my sect the safety net I couldn’t give them st time. Of course, it would be far from easy, but I have started ying down the groundwork.

  “Is there a reason Master is telling me about this?” She asked, stopping at the border between the birch and oak forest.

  A reason, of course, I had one.

  “Even with a longer lifespan than mortals, how many years do you think we live?” This mindset became the reason for the current situation, and I couldnt fault with it. “Cultivating, studying, practicing, vying for a higher realm than the current one to protect what we have, and then we burn the extra years the same way. I say we live even less than mortals.”

  “To be the ideal cultivator you have to rid yourself of the past that haunts you and the bleak future that unsettles you, one must enjoy the present and accept the joy of being alive. This was the teaching of the first saint.” The first cultivator who received the Blessing of the Dao.

  Of course, it applied to Sun Lingling as much as Jiahao.

  “…” Sun Lingling still carried her older sister’s sword and with it a purpose.

  “I can’t ask something of you that I am incapable of.” An ideal is an ideal because it is unattainable, as it should be. “Between the past and the future, don’t overlook the present that defines you. That is all I am asking.”

  “The present that defines me…?” She muttered, almost in a trance.

  Her eyes moved to the sword in her hand, and an immediate response came from within her. She must know what she needs at this moment, what she has to do. The choice remained simple, but the weight attached to it was enormous for a young girl like her.

  “Master!! Help!!” Wang Yang came running down from the opposite end of the path, and he wasn’t alone. A horde of frost bees chasing after him.

  “Keep running. If they sting you again, it is over!” Hua Mei kept up with ease and even had a fun time teasing as usual.

  “I suppose it is not that bad.” I said.

  “Is it not?”

  Lingling’s question made me smile. The kids had fun like this after all, and now Hua Mei had two people who were close in age.

  After chasing the bees away, I tended to the stings on Yang’s right hand. It had swollen to triple its size and turned blue. Frost bee’s sting did hurt a lot, but it did increase the person’s resistance to cold.

  “Damn you Mei, I trusted you.” Wang Yang huffed, forgetting his pain.

  “Why would you trust someone when they say there is a treasure in a bee hive? It’s not like I told you to stick your hand inside it.”

  “…” He couldn’t refute that.

  “Mei, it looks like you need some punishment.” I pulled her right cheek before she could run away.

  “Sowwy! Stap!” She squirmed around for a while before giving up.

  “Master…” Lingling called out as we passed into the oak forest. “…I’ll accept it, the sword.”

  She had let go of the past for the moment to gain strength so she could face it in the future. I handed her the prepared sword, she pced the Ashen Bde in her ring and pced her hand on the hilt of the white sword.

  The sword in her hands hummed in response.

  Sun Lingling pulled it out of the sheath to obverse the crimson edge it had now. Her sword qi changed, more importantly, it stayed free from the tiniest of waves seen before. In one single moment, she had broken past the barrier of Sword Cultivator and reached the Sword Master realm, becoming the youngest to achieve it on the continent.

  As they say, a nudge is enough to guide a genius.

  Of course, that nudge wasn’t easy to pull off.

  “Uncle! Come on or we’ll be te!” Hua Mei called out from ahead with Wang Yang.

  “Let’s have a feast for this.”

  Sun Lingling nodded and followed after me.

  Upon exiting the library the next day, I noticed Hua Mei’s presence in the training area. And with her were Wang Yang and Sun Lingling. Arriving at the rooftop in stealth, I watched the two spar with Hua Mei.

  It’s good that nothing changed from st time. If anything, Hua Mei had another friend.

  But I couldn’t continue watching them, my token buzzed and a message came through.

  [Partner, I’ve completed it.]

  The key to destroy Gu Changge came within reach.

  ...

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