Chapter Ninety-Three: Brother Song

That was how it was.

He Song walked steadily onward, wandering aimlessly through the immortal market while his thoughts churned in restless waves.

No one knew how long he had been walking before a faint, fragrant breeze brushed past the tip of his nose.

"Brother Song?" A clear, bright female voice suddenly sounded beside him, carrying a trace of surprise.

He Song turned toward the voice.

Beside him stood a delicate young girl, looking at him timidly.

When he turned and she finally made out his features, her eyes lit up at once, and a look of pleasant astonishment flitted across her face.

"So it really is Brother Song. I was worried I might have mistaken you earlier. Do you still remember me?"

The crisp voice in his ear stirred a vague sense of familiarity in He Song.

But before he could think further, a tiny figure abruptly surfaced in his mind.

That voice...

Su Yan?

How had the little girl who once clung to him for candied hawthorn skewers suddenly become such a bright-eyed, graceful young lady?

And from the look of her cultivation, she seemed to have already succeeded in drawing qi into her body and reached the first level of Qi Refining.

In an instant, He Song remembered who she was.

Twelve years ago, when his own cultivation had just broken through to the third level of Qi Refining, his neighbors had included not only Lin Cong, his long-time friend, but another household as well.

That household had consisted of one old man and one child.

The elder was named Su Jin, and his cultivation at the time had already reached the sixth level of Qi Refining.

The little girl was Su Yan, and she had not yet begun to cultivate.

According to Su Jin at the time, Su Yan was his biological granddaughter from the mortal world.

Because she possessed spiritual roots, he had brought her up from among common folk and kept her by his side to teach her himself.

If He Song remembered correctly, the old man and the young girl had lived beside him for just over two years.

Su Yan had often pestered him.

But Su Jin, because of his cultivation, had never been particularly close to He Song.

After that, the Bamboo Mountain Immortal Market had come under attack from evil cultivators, and many cultivators had perished.

Twelve years passed in the blink of an eye.

He Song had thought the old man and the child had long since died in that calamity, yet to his surprise, twelve years later, he was seeing an old acquaintance in the immortal market once more.

"Of course I remember. I just never imagined twelve years would pass in the blink of an eye, and little Yan would have grown so much."

Looking at the delicate young girl before him, He Song suddenly felt as though he had stepped out of time itself.

When familiar people suddenly grow old.

When those of one generation are suddenly overtaken by age.

When the world itself shifts through endless cycles and vicissitudes, while only the self remains as steady as a boulder.

He Song himself did not know exactly what he felt at that moment.

He only knew it felt as though years and years had slipped away in an instant.

Twelve years on, the little girl who once loved to pester him for candied hawthorn skewers had become a slender, lovely young woman.

And he, meanwhile, had changed not at all.

The contrast made He Song's heart tighten, and cold sweat broke out over him at once.

He was an immortal.

To everyone else, he was an utter aberration.

If anyone truly discovered his secret, his fate would likely be unimaginably grim.

Because of that, he absolutely could not shine too brightly.

Otherwise, once he drew constant attention, every word and deed would be magnified under one pair of eyes after another.

If someone discovered his secret...

By the methods of the experts in the cultivation world, soul extraction, refining the spirit, slicing flesh by the thousand cuts, stripping skin and severing tendons—those would all be trivial matters.

And once the soul was imprisoned, condemned to suffer endlessly for eternity, that would be the true horror: life impossible, death impossible.

He Song did not want his life held in another's hands.

And this secret could be told to no one.

This was the cultivation world, where even soul-searching arts existed.

If there were ever the slightest mishap...

Just thinking of what his fate would be then made cold sweat pour from He Song's body.

What had he been thinking before?

That path would not work.

Naturally, the right choice was mediocrity, invisibility, quiet development, and cautious cultivation.

Only by appearing ordinary could he avoid drawing attention.

Only by avoiding attention could he better conceal himself.

Only by concealing himself well could no one discover his secret.

Only by keeping that secret hidden could he survive more safely.

Only by surviving well could he grow stronger step by step, until no one dared covet his secret.

And before, what exactly had he been thinking?

Entering the Thick Earth Sect as an inner disciple by virtue of his talent in formations?

Those with talent in formations were already few and far between, and among the myriad arts of cultivation, those who happened to choose formations and also succeeded in their first step were rarer still.

A person like that would be enough for the Thick Earth Sect to accept as an inner disciple on the spot.

Clearly, someone like that had nothing at all to do with the word "ordinary."

If he truly entered the Thick Earth Sect in such a manner, then from that day forward he would likely have to live beneath the spotlight.

By then, even stepping out the door might invite spectators.

Every movement would be watched.

That was not the life He Song wanted, nor the life he could live.

A life under constant scrutiny would, sooner or later, reveal a flaw.

Thus, when this realization struck him all at once, He Song immediately abandoned the thought of going to the Thick Earth Sect and becoming an inner disciple there.

Too dangerous.

If his secret were discovered, death without a grave might still count as a mercy. The truly terrifying outcome would be having his soul extracted, condemned to endure torment day and night.

To keep himself from suffering such cruelty, He Song silently resolved himself.

Even if he joined the Thick Earth Sect in the future, he absolutely could not do so as a genius.

At the very least, he would need to wait until he had the strength to resist, to flee the Thick Earth Sect, before he could even consider joining.

Otherwise, He Song would rather remain a lone cultivator than risk being imprisoned for all eternity by joining a sect.

Given his naturally cautious temperament, how could he possibly take such a gamble?

Thinking this, He Song finally let out a long breath.

The gaze he turned toward Su Yan also softened considerably.

If not for Su Yan's appearance, he feared he would still be caught in that dilemma.

Her arrival had, quite by chance, resolved one of his most pressing problems.

Naturally, his impression of Su Yan, whom he had not seen in so long, became much warmer.

"Of course. Twelve years ago I was only eight. Now I'm twenty. I'm not a little girl anymore—I'm an adult now."

Su Yan's eyes curved into crescent moons, and a hint of pride even appeared on her face.

As though growing from a small child into a graceful young woman over twelve years was something to be especially proud of.

"Oh, right. Brother Song, have you still been living in the B district these twelve years? Twelve years ago, Grandpa suddenly brought me to the A district, and since then I never saw Brother Song again."

Reunited after a long separation, Su Yan's delight was plain to see. Standing beside He Song, she kept asking him question after question.

Yet after hearing her words, a look of understanding also flashed through He Song's eyes.

So the old man and the child had not died twelve years ago after all.

They had simply moved from the B district to the A district.

Within the Bamboo Mountain Immortal Market, the houses available for rent were divided into four major districts: A, B, C, and D.

Within those four districts, streets and house numbers were then used for further distinction.

For example, He Song lived in House Thirteen on Crossing Cloud Street in the B district on the outer edge of the immortal market.

The four major districts of A, B, C, and D were all located in the four directions of the market and formed its outer ring. Their spiritual energy was more or less the same, so there was no real sense in which the A district was nobler than the B district.

As for why the old man and the child had moved, He Song did not ask.

Still, rather than let Su Yan chat with him in the middle of the street, He Song felt it would be far more comfortable to sit down in a teahouse and talk over tea.

So it was that He Song soon led Su Yan into the nearest teahouse.

On the second floor, after casually ordering a pot of good tea, He Song sat down with Su Yan by the window, and the two of them began asking after each other's recent lives amid the fragrance of tea.