Chapter 15

"Go on, boys rake the ground!" Luo Huifang deliberately pretended that they were not Wu Jinjing's latest potion's test specimen.

Lan Jianhong and Li Jiayi gritted their teeth, there was an obvious grinding sound coming from their mouth. But when the two men saw one another their anger melted, their heart beat faster, and their faces flushed. Neither one wished to take their eyes off the other.

Lan Jianhong took a deep breath. "The first step is to rake the ground, then we spread the seeds…"

Li Jiayi continued for him, almost shyly, "Make sure that you spread it evenly, since the soil is wet from the rain we just need to wait around a week for the seeds to germinate."

"That sounds easy."

"Yes, I'll spread the seeds that way, you can go elsewhere."

"I'll go there with you then."

"No! I mean yes?" Li Jiayi stuttered.

The two ended up going in the same direction, they were walking side by side.

"Reminds me of a couple cultivators I had seen from my old sect." Jin Liwei whispered.

Luo Huifang proceeded to fall on the ground. The woman in green was shaking, tiny laughter managed to escape from her mouth that she tried to clamp together.

Ming Yongnian ignored his fellow sworn siblings' antics and approached the old man. "Thank you for allowing my brothers and sisters to use your land."

The old man's hands holding his cane visibly shook. "Please, it is I who should be grateful, if what the immortals planned to perform was a success it'll benefit my village more than the immortal themselves!"

Wu Jinjing smiled. "Old man don't be so modest, we might become neighbours in the future, this kind of thing is a small matter."

"It's a shame that my house is far too small to accommodate all of you."

"Don't worry! We can arrange something for ourselves tonight." Wu Jinjing assured the old man.

Their conversation seemingly made a turn for Ming Yongnian's child.

"Immortal, is this your child?" The old man asked. It had been a very long time since he saw a baby, most of the children in the village had grown up, and no one in the village currently has a child. In fact it had been a few years since a baby was born. None of their villagers wished to have a child or could have one in these harsh conditions. They could barely feed themselves, feeding a newborn baby would be impossible.

"Ah!"

Ming Yongnian nodded, he could feel triumph coming from his child. What was this child celebrating for?

The old man laughed. "Ah, it really is heartwarming to see a child so young. But, forgive me if this comes across as rude, immortal. While I was living in the southern realm I heard that it is very hard for cultivators to have a child of their own."

Knowing Ming Yongnian's callousness, Wu Jinjing was the one to answer the old man's question, "It is! Old man you are very well informed. The higher the cultivator's cultivation stage becomes, the harder it is for us to have a child of our own. My eldest brother had a lucky encounter and found a spiritual foetus."

"Children are like a gift and sometimes a source of stress… hopefully for the immortal it would be the former."

"Ah!"

"Little child, were you agreeing with this old man?"

"Ah, ah!"

"Hahaha, what a charming child."

Ming Yongnian felt the smug his daughter was having. "Especially charming indeed."

Lan Jianhong and Li Jiayi finished spreading the grass seeds around the premises. They surprisingly came back with hands interlocked, face obviously flushed.

Luo Huifang coughed. "Little sister Jinjing, when will it wear off?"

Wu Jinjing looked embarrassed. "I'm afraid I do not know, this was a new potion I made quite recently, apart from that special concoction I had created."

Jin Liwei said, "They'll kill each other once the potion's effect wore off." The two women silently agreed to Jin Liwei's words, because they would kill each other or themselves.

***

In a room gathered more than a dozen people, none of them looked older past their late forties. All of them looked pleased, smiles on their faces, their wrinkles seemed smooth and less pronounced with their happiness.

One man walked to the dais, he had everyone's sole attention. "Just a few days ago our most renowned cultivator, the Golden Crowned Lord, had his breakthrough and has ascended to the heavens."

It was truly a joyous occasion for their sect, not just because one of their former disciples managed to ascend to Celestia. "Our benevolent Golden Crowned Lord had left behind his entire treasures, to our sect, for our disciples to use."

Indeed these old cultivators were staring at Ming Yongnian's treasures. Treasures which Ming Yongnian gave up to ward off these old hungry sharks.

Some of the people in the room could no longer hide their greed and were dared enough to ask, "And who will receive these treasures, Sect Leader?"

The man on the stands, the Sect Leader, maintained his smile. "Why, it would not be fair if I gave it all to one person, of course we shall share these treasures."

One person laughed, as if their laughter was infectious it spread to the entire room.

The disciples who could not hear the elders and Sect Leader's conversation were observing these groups of elders and Sect Leader actions and reactions, thinking that there was a joyous occasion. This group of elders and Sect Leader would remain stoic most of the time, disciplining wayward disciples in the most barbaric ways. Yet now they were like a group of children finding chocolate cookies on the top shelf of the kitchen.

The disciples guarding the room from afar shared a look, something big had happened, that much was all they knew. There was a premonition, a few days after the Golden Crowned Lord's great breakthrough and ascendence to the heavens.

Colourful lights and lightning flashed in the sky. Red, blue, green, yellow… Terrifying. Beautiful. Both seemed to be the correct description. Yet such feeble words could not encompass the entirety of a grandiose display in the heavens.

A premonition. Was what their brain conjured.

Something great had happened. Will happen. Some of them mayhaps given the chance to witness history be written.

An inkling that someone, something, had created a "gap" in the world. They were supposed to run in terror yet that day they found themselves in a trance.

The teachers halt their hands from punishing the disciples. The diligent disciples stopped mid performing their stances. The lofty Sect Leader turned into a mere man. The tall treacherous mountains lowered themselves. The animals, the wind, the whole world stilled. Welcoming an unknown entity. An unknown future.

The Sect Leaders and elders, the rulers of the world, Devils, Demons, Ghosts, Beasts, Heavenly Immortals rather fool themselves and deny the truth. Fool themselves that the premonition was caused by the Golden Crowned Lord's great breakthrough. And deny the simplest most absurd truth.

The disciples were told that the premonition was a sign that their Golden Crowned Lord had ascended into the heavens. All of them could not help but scream "false!" in their hearts. This premonition was not the Golden Crowned Lord's. Yet their mouth proudly uttered the lies.

And now their Elders and Sect Leader played pretend. Discussions filled with the Golden Crowned Lord as the epicentre of anything noteworthy.

Loud creaking and thumping of the opened door put a halt to the festivities. A disciple drenched in sweat, heaving for air shouted, "Elders! Sect Leader! The, the—"

"Speak clearly boy!"

"The Da dynasty secret realm! Someone had forced it open!"

Murmurs broke through the crowds of elders, along with the disciples who had been standing guard.

The Sect Leader's smile grew larger. "This is excellent news, my Elders. We should seize this chance and claim the treasures within the Da dynasty secret realm!"

Just when the elders were about to celebrate yet again the disciple bathed in sweat said something incredulous, "There are three Da dynasty secret realms that had been opened…"

Shouts broke among the elders.

"What!"

"Three at once?!"

"Who could do such a thing?"

"No, it's possible if it's the work of that cultivator, force opening a secret realm should be a mere tedious work."

"That Feng Delun boy of the Jingyi sect?"

"Yes, yes, his skills in the art of arrays were truly astonishing, many compared him to another array master who had ascended centuries ago."

"But how could he locate the secret realm? Last I heard the boy had no sense of direction."

"No it's possible," The elders looked towards the Sect Leader. "It is possible if he worked together with the owner of the 'Heavenly Compass'. We'll discuss the how's and why's once we seize the treasures."

The Sect Leader began directing the disciples and elders to set off to the location of the secret realms. They brought the best disciples in their sect, it was after all no new news that the Da dynasty secret realm was treacherous as it was deadly.