The student meets the immortal

Baoshan Sanren has always been difficult to find, even when people really need her healing and teaching to accomplish rebuilding their meridians or transplanting golden cores. Especially Xiao Xingchen, as he has a very sick Xue Yang with him, a young man hoping for a new finger and stronger powers. It turns out the streets have left a mark on his body, because despite being very strong on the outside and his extremely healthy golden core, he can get ill in extreme climates like any other person, but he gets worse faster. The lack of air in the mountains and cold wind gave Xue Yang a cold, a cold that turned into a hacking cough, and now the boy struggles to hike at the same speed, which was probably too fast to start with. Xingchen has not only promised his son the possibility of a pinky finger, but now he needs medicine. Xue Yang, even if he ignores the loves

They are nearly at a mysterious palace in the mountains that Xingchen thinks must be the entrance to the sect, not that he knows because cultivators are always blindfolded coming and going out, and he's desperate. He's travelling alone, or might as well be, as his disciple has been running a fever for the last few days and can't walk with him. "Leave me behind Daozhang, go find immortal Jie Jie. I'll wait for you here.", Xue Yang had coughed from the abandoned shack they were using as a rest stop. The one thing Xiao Xingchen is not doing is abandoning Xue Yang, not after how much improvement he has made from the scraggy and angry seven year old that planted to wreak havoc on the world. He's lost his finger and if he feels abandoned his immense cultivation will turn to the demonic side, like people said about Yiling Laozu, which might be the best example of a good cultivator tuned dark.

"A-Yang, stay here and rest. Shizun can go ahead and get big sister Baoshan, while A-Yang tries to fight his illness and cultivate so his body is stronger.", Xiao Xingchen says, leaving a change of robes and a blanket beside him. He'll have another look at the disciple once he has looked around for Baoshan Sanren a bit more, although she it suddenly seems to turn up in front of him on the mountain when he is about to give up for the night, near the edge of the roads and rocky paths down the mountain. Baoshan Sanren greets him with the familiarity of a family member, not that he's surprised when did spend longer than Cangse Sanren in the heavenly sect, but he is just as shy and reserved as he was a long time ago. "Master, please help this old disciple, and his new disciple. This disciple is ignorant of your skills and needs help despite his age.", Xiao Xingchen bows with clasped hands. Baoshan Sanren never reveals her face unless she is within the sect walls, so all Xingchen sees is a smile on her lips through the layers of black gauze covering the oversized hat, but he feels assured will be resolved in her hands.

Fortunately, Master Baoshan and servant are still close after Xiao Xingchen has left the mountain, so he can leave this life with no regrets over what he did not so and should have done. As long as he finds Song Lan, and A-Qing if she hasn't been given a family to rely on. The master knows her disciple well enough that although he wants to talk for years to come about life in Yueyang and his past experiences, he also realises he should accomplish the task he has previously committed to first, otherwise it will weigh on his mind. "Give me any necessary information Xingchen, I know this is a test of my skills to come, so I may as well be prepared.", a lilting female voice asks from under the gossamer veil, the bewitching tone of Baoshan Sanren. Xingchen pours all he knowledge of Xue Yang he has, mixed with heartfelt pleas to save the world and the innocent child from a life of delinquency, into his teachers listening ears on the trek back to the rest house.

Baoshan Sanren sees through her veiled hat, a sickly cultivator in oversized white daoist robes lays under a blanket. "A-Yang, this is Baoshan-Jie. She can restore your health and fix your pinkie finger, try to focus on the figure behind the veils using your qi.", the disciple coaxes his young disciple gently. There is no need to, because for the first time, Baoshan Sanren removes her hat outside of her sect, to look properly at Xue Yang, "Hello A-Yang, my student speaks well of you, but there are some things not to your liking about yourself yet. I can help if you are strong enough to fight this mountain fever first.", she says calmly, like Xingchen's master did in his old memories.