A Trillion Years Later

"Oh… this is unexpected," Yang Shi remarked, blinking in surprise.

Within the girl's roots, a corrosive poison — though weakened — was circulating, slowly damaging her body and causing her frail health.

But the most interesting thing wasn't the poison itself, but the patterns filling her roots. They made it clear that she possessed a special physique.

These patterns glowed faintly, fighting against the poison within her and preventing it from spreading uncontrollably.

"What happened? Is it very difficult to heal?" Bai Yan asked anxiously, snapping Yang Shi out of his daze.

"Huh? Oh! It's not that. I was just surprised by the little girl's talent."

He smiled, reassuring Bai Yan, who calmed down upon hearing that. He already knew about his sister's talent, but this wasn't the time to dwell on it.

"Elder, can you heal her?" he asked, his face filled with worry, getting straight to the point.

"Of course!" Yang Shi smiled gently, without hesitation. "But I must say, the little girl was saved by her own talent. It seems the poison was already quite weakened when it reached her. Even so, for a child without cultivation, it would've been certain death. What saved her was her special physique, which suppressed the weakened poison and prevented it from running rampant through her body."

He explained, turning his gaze to the little girl, who was watching him in silence.

Upon hearing the elder's certainty, Bai Yan's heart trembled. There was hope.

This time, he didn't hesitate to reveal anything. Any information that could help his sister needed to be said.

"My parents were Foundation Establishment cultivators. But at some point, they offended the leader of the Heavenly Venom Sect. They managed to escape, but were poisoned by that bastard."

He clenched his fists at the memory, and his eyes turned red.

"My mother was pregnant with Jingjing at the time. Before the poison could kill both her and the baby, she forced a premature birth… and died shortly after due to the poison. Although she survived, Jingjing was still exposed to some of the poison while in the womb. My father was poisoned too, but since he was stronger, he held out a bit longer. He took Jingjing with his last strength to where they had left me hidden — and entrusted her to me."

At this point, tears of helplessness and hatred were already streaming down his face, but he forced himself to continue.

"With what strength he had left, he sent us away while luring the leader of the Heavenly Venom Sect. Ever since, I've been fleeing that domain with Jingjing, following my father's instructions. I used the money he gave me, what he taught me, and the little power I had to, through much struggle, get to where I am now, with Jingjing."

He explained with trembling breath, reliving the trauma.

But when he looked up, he froze.

Elder Yang Shi was, at that moment, seated on the ground with a small cauldron floating and swaying before him, while spiritual flames licked at the sides of the black pot.

The strangest part was that he wasn't even looking at the cauldron, but rather at Bai Yan, his eyes filled with compassion and sorrow at the story he'd just heard.

Bai Yan's mouth twitched violently at the sight, and he even forgot his sadness for a moment.

He didn't know whether to be angry that the elder had started pill refining while he was telling his story, or to be furious that the man was giving him attention while refining pills that were clearly for his sister.

He really wanted to shout, 'Focus on one thing, you bastard!'

But while Bai Yan was going crazy, the elder's cauldron trembled.

The flames surrounding the cauldron extinguished immediately, and four small holes opened in the lid, expelling a faint stream of black smoke.

"What a sad story," Yang Shi said, a sorrowful expression on his face, as he opened the cauldron lid with his spiritual energy.

From within it, a completely white and perfectly round pill rose, floating under his control.

The cauldron closed its lid and flew straight into his storage pouch.

Yang Shi stood up, holding the pill between his thumb and forefinger.

Everyone in the room stared at him, stunned and open-mouthed. They had never seen or even heard of such absurd and laid-back alchemy speed.

No one just sat down in the middle of a conversation and did lightning-speed alchemy while casually chatting.

It was so fast that the pill had been refined in the exact time it took Bai Yan to tell his story.

Even the little girl Xiaoxue was surprised. She had never seen an elder from the sect refining a pill, although she had heard other disciples comment on how incredible it was.

In truth, few disciples had witnessed such a thing.

This was because the sect's cultivation techniques were so powerful that no one really saw a need for pills, which made the alchemy pavilion one of the most neglected in the sect.

The few who had witnessed something like this were the disciples who attended the alchemy classes.

But Aotian knew that as the cultivation realms increased, more people would begin seeking auxiliary resources to speed up their advancement. At the moment, progress was too fast, and relying on pills seemed counterproductive, so it wasn't yet very popular.

While everyone — except Aotian — stood speechless before Yang Shi's impressive skill, the elder took a step forward, stopping beside the equally surprised Bai Jingjing. Then, he did something even more unexpected.

"Vrrrmmm... here comes the Flying Boat!" Pretending to steer the pill through the air, he guided it directly to the little girl's open mouth, still in shock, and pushed it in with spiritual energy so she could swallow it easily.

"W-what…?!" Only then did Jingjing snap out of it and, startled, brought her hands to her neck, reacting to having swallowed a pill without knowing what it was.

"You…!!" Bai Yan also widened his eyes in panic and rushed toward his sister to hold her.

But before he could get close, Yang Shi's powerful hand grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

"She's going to vomit the poison, get out of the way, I don't want to detoxify you too!" Yang Shi now had a serious expression and completely ignored the shocked Bai Yan.

Jingjing froze for a moment, until her face turned green. She immediately lowered her head and vomited sinister purple liquids.

Yang Shi acted quickly, controlling the expelled poison with his spiritual energy and incinerating it on the spot.

Bai Yan, seeing this, said nothing more. He simply stood to the side, watching with worry and silently praying in his heart.

Soon, the little girl had expelled all the poison, and then her pale little face began to regain color under the effect of the medicinal pill.

Yang Shi stepped closer, took her pulse, and a gentle smile returned to his face.

"Little one, you're fine now. The pill I gave you didn't destroy the poison because your body couldn't withstand such fierce energy fighting in your roots. That's why it only expelled it. The remaining spiritual energy in the pill will gradually repair your body and bring you to full health in a few days."

Yang Shi explained with a soft smile, gently stroking her soft, white hair.

It was only when she felt the warmth of his palm that little Jingjing awoke from her stupor.

Still slightly dazed, she raised her small trembling hands to her eyes. Her nose tingled, and tears began to fall like rain.

She no longer felt short of breath. There was no longer that sensation of searing embers running through her body. The constant weakness had vanished, giving way to a comfort she never thought possible.

Her brother may have suffered greatly for her, but the one who felt pain every day, every hour, since birth… was her.

Jingjing might have seemed like just a cute and sickly little girl, but she never had the right to be a child. From the moment she understood the concept of death and the relief it could bring, she longed to embrace it. But for her brother, she persisted — because she knew she was all he had left.

While he persisted every day for her, she persisted every day for him.

And now, healed, the tears blurred her vision more than ever before, because for the first time since she could remember… she was happy to be alive.

…

With Jingjing's recovery, she, like her brother, joined the Infinite Dao Sect out of gratitude and in search of a better life.

Jingjing was the most talented disciple recruited by the sect so far, considering that Liu Rihai's roots were still damaged.

The Infinite Dao Sect then continued traveling for months across the Bamboo Sword Sect's domain, conducting recruitment in all 16 Foundation-level cities, which also attracted people from various satellite towns around them.

The number of disciples increased outrageously with each city visited.

Total disciples recruited in each city:

0 → 558 → 762 → 821 → 792 → … → 1012 → 687 people

Total disciples recruited during the expedition:

0 → 558 → 1320 → 2141 → 2933 → … → 13,107 → 13,794 people

Total disciples in the sect overall:

123 → 681 → 1443 → 2264 → 3056 → … → 13,230 → 13,917 people

By the end of the journey through 16 cities and 5 months of travel, the Infinite Dao Sect had reached the impressive mark of nearly 14,000 disciples, with only 245 of them being inner disciples.

The second round of promotions was held, based on completing certain challenges and demonstrating specific talent for each pavilion. Among the 93 eligible outer disciples, those who showed the greatest talent and affinity with a specific pavilion were allowed to become inner disciples of that pavilion, with no option to change later.

Of course, they could refuse and try to enter a pavilion in another way, should they want more freedom in choosing based on preference rather than talent — but in this recruitment, no one did.

As for the other 190 new inner disciples, they were promoted by demonstrating talent, effort, and potential before the outer elders, earning the promotion through recommendation.

After 5 months of travel, the ship was returning toward the Bamboo Sword Sect, and the final destination was no longer far off.

Aotian stood at the bow of the ship, watching the landscape rush past below as he recalled the months that had passed.

Beside him was Rihai, holding his hand and looking in the same direction.

'It's been about a year and three months since I came to this world, and considering my promise to marry Rihai was set for a year after we met, and it's already been a year and a month... once we arrive at the sect, it's time to speed things up — preferably before the sect goes to war.'

'Who would've thought I'd marry a woman I love just one year after reincarnating… what luck!'

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Just kidding, the real title is: Returning