Bai Gui was thinking about Fei Chen even though he had left Fie Mingzi's stone house. He was the commander of the Shadow Corps of the Heavenly Palace; this legion was solely under the command of the patriarch.
Usually, he will be training recruits, mainly orphans, as it is comparatively easy to cultivate loyalty in them. which was why he had never seen Fei Chen and only heard of him from his master.
Trying to calm his inner turmoil, he took several deep breaths, his voice shaking as he asked Fei Mingzi.
"M-master, th-that child..."
He couldn't complete his sentence, feeling a lump in his throat and his eyes becoming bloodshot with tears pooling in them.
"Mao'er, he is not Haoyu, even if he looks like him. Do you understand?"
Hearing his master's melancholy tone, Bai Gui fell silent. Suppressing the anguish in his heart, he replied in a hoarse voice.
"This disciple understands."
"Hmm, you may leave."
Bai Gui silently retreated just as he had arrived, without alerting anyone.
Fei Mingzi could understand Bai Gui's reaction after looking at Fei Chen. With their ages being quite close to each other, they had become sworn brothers, and his son's death had affected Bai Gui deeply, he always thought it was his fault for not looking out for his sworn brother.
.....Scene Break.....
It was finally the day of his departure from the Heavenly Palace. He had said goodbye to all his family members and people from the Gongsun clan.
He has also gotten his space bag, which he wears on his waist. The space inside the bag was large—about ten cubic meters. His grandfather gave him around 100,000 teals of gold and silver, the mainstream currency used in the world. There were also recovery pellets and various food items that would last him for quite some time. His grandfather had also given him a tent and some beast-repellent powder for when resting at night in the wilderness.
Fei Chen had requested a practice sword made of ironwood to practice the basic sword techniques throughout his journey. He felt it was finally time to start his sword training.
Fei Chen was currently standing in front of Fei Mingzi's stone house, from here he would go with Bai Gui on his flying demonic beast.
While Fei Chen was occupied in his thoughts, he suddenly felt a heavy feeling envelop him from above. It was not hostile; it was just announcing its arrival. Looking at the demonic beast slowly descending, Fei Chen was in awe of the majestic-looking golden eagle; it was at least eight meters long and three meters high, and its beak and eyes were back-gold in color, with its body covered in raven black feathers except for the portion of his head which was bright golden.
The golden eagle landed gently in front of Fei Chen, scrutinizing the boy, who was now looking at its steel-like claws, which shined with cold light, while inwardly thinking.
'It will be a few years before I can have my own flying demonic beast.'
Bai Gui alighted from the Golden eagle, seeing this Fei Chen stepped forward to greet the elder.
"Fei Chen greets, elder Bai."
Bai Gui since his last outburst had calmed down, and after looking at Fei Chen closely, he had concluded that, even though Fei Chen resembled his grandfather, Fei Haoyu, his mannerisms and behavior were too mature for a child his age.
"Hmm, good child. Have you gotten everything for the journey?"
Smiling at the boy, Bai Gui asked about his inventory of essentials for surviving in the wilderness.
"Elder Bai, I have it all in my spatial bag."
"That's good. Let's depart then. Cang Lan country is quite a distance away from the central region."
Saying so, Bai Gui climbed the eagle's back, with Fei Chen following behind.
The Golden eagle flapped its wings powerfully, taking to the skies and flying well above the clouds. Fei Chen looked down at the Heavenly Palace mountain, which was shrinking in his vision. He saw the courtyard he had lived in for the past three years, the training yard where he practiced martial arts, and the family library where he read books.
Fei Chen felt various emotions in his heart looking at all these places; Fei Wuji and Cang Wuya's faces also appeared in his mind. There was also an image of a young girl, which made Fei Chen smile.
.....Scene Break.....
Flying above the clouds, Fei Chen felt liberated, free from any constraints. He closed his eyes and sat on Golden Eagle's back, feeling the slight wind against his face.
Most of the air resistance was warded off by the eagle's spiritual qi, which has wind and lightning attributes, allowing the golden eagle to easily negate the wind resistance.
Having an attribute granted to your spiritual qi was a rare thing among cultivators as compared to demonic beasts, who were generally born with one or more attributes.
Fei Chen himself does not have any attributes of his spiritual qi, since all the martial techniques and cultivation manuals he has studied till now are all neutral.
But he was not worried about that; after all, his trip to Hundred Miles city would take care of such issues for him. Fei Chen also wanted to get as many varieties of seeds as he could throughout his journey; this was all for when he would access the Violet Jade immortal realm.
Fei Chen then started cultivating, and even though he didn't consciously need to enter meditation to cultivate, it had become a habit for him to meditate as it allowed him to pass time faster.
Bai Gui was keeping an eye on Fei Chen, so when he saw him cultivating, he was mildly impressed. He had thought that, since it was Fei Chen's first time flying, the boy would show his fascination by looking around and enjoying the view.
Time slowly passed, and without Fei Chen realizing it, it was already nighttime. He opened his eyes, feeling some movement underneath himself. The eagle has descended into a forest, with towering trees and tall grasses everywhere.
"We will rest here tonight."
Fei Chen just nodded and alighted from the eagle's back after Bai Gui. They found a good spot for both of them to set up their tents, followed by spreading the beast-repellent powder around them. This powder was only effective for the beasts below the Martial King realm, which was sufficient, and if there was a beast of higher rank, then with Bai Gui's peak Martial King level cultivation, he could easily take care of that.
After setting up their tents and having dinner, both of them went to rest inside their tents. They didn't really need rest, as for cultivators, deep meditation is more beneficial than sleep.
Fei Chen took out his ironwood practice sword and started training the Basic Sword techniques.
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