After that talk with the Blazing Sun Immortal, there was nothing left to do but return to the Sect.

I flew back with Zun Gon, the same way we’d come here to begin with. But neither of us said much during the flight, and Zun Gon kept casting weird glances my way.

We landed near one of the warped roads in the Inner Sect. The strange shape was due to the calamity, like the ground had melted into a blob, some parts wider than others, with sections where the road had disappeared entirely. The earth was still scorched, but the smell of ash was gone. The snow and cold had washed it away.

“Despite acting like I’d accepted you into our fold, I never really thought you’d be anything special in the long run,” Zun Gon said, breaking the silence with a voice that sounded harsh, but not dishonest. “Just some seemingly talented guy to help us save face while we looked for someone better.”

I’d already guessed as much. Sure, I had a certain authority now as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and as a maybe future Core Elder. But unless they thought I had the potential to become a Nascent Soul cultivator, I was just… a placeholder.

I stared at Zun Gon for a bit, sizing him up.

Then I smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I don’t have a high opinion of the people here either.”

I was planning to steal whatever they’d deny me anyway, so I didn’t feel particularly offended.

“Though I guess now that you’re telling me this, your opinion’s changed?” I added.

“Yes,” Zun Gon nodded, his gaze drifting to the scorched Sect grounds. “You remind me a lot of Shan Yi. Confident. Always seem to have a plan for everything. If you’d been born with real talent, you’d definitely have reached Nascent Soul.”

That was flattering.

But I wasn’t some girlfriend you could compliment once in a while and still treat like shit.

“So,” I said, tone sharpening, “Are you actually going to give me access to everything my position as Martial Technique Elder entails? Or are you going to play naive and say something like, ‘Oh, the library is still being rebuilt’?”

Sure, the library was being rebuilt. That part was true.

But I didn’t need a library to access the techniques.

Zun Gon looked at me like he was trying to read my thoughts. After a moment, he nodded and said, “Despite everything, I still feel like you might take that next step… and reach Nascent Soul.”

He looked down at his callused hand, the burn scars around his knuckles catching the light.

“Mindset is a crucial thing for a cultivator,” he said. “Even though most people only refer to talent when discussing how far someone can go in cultivation.”

He went quiet for a bit, like he was thinking about something or maybe just reminiscing. I’d noticed that many cultivators became sentimental after a certain age.

“Technically, I had the talent to become a Nascent Soul cultivator,” he said. “Even now. I’m at the peak of Core Formation, and after so much accumulation, I could take that next step any day and try… But at the same time, a part of me knows that if I take that next step, I’ll die.”

Another short pause.

Like he was still trying to sort through his thoughts. After a moment, he turned to me and asked:

“What would you do if you were in my place?”

“If everything’s ready, and you’ve done what you wanted to do… then I’d take the next step,” I said. “No reason to linger in a life of redundancy.”

At that point, it’d be stupid to worry about death.

Had this guy never been in a real life-or-death fight? Probably had. So why was he acting like this?

If I were in his place, I’d take some time to enjoy myself; read every technique I could get my hands on, learn whatever interested me. And then, if I died… at least it would’ve been on my own terms.

Cultivators, people in general, died every day. Most of the time, not on their own terms.

“Yes,” Zun Gon smiled faintly. “Now the difference between us becomes clearer the more we speak.”

Well, yeah. We were different people.

And if he said I had a lot in common with the previous Sect Leader, he was dead wrong. That guy liked messing with people. I liked reading. If I were in his position, I wouldn’t waste my time on people I didn’t care about.

“Perhaps I should stop hesitating too,” Zun Gon said, looking at me as if he wanted confirmation. As if he were waiting for someone to tell him it was okay.

But why the hell was he looking at me?

The guy was at least over a century old. That’d be like me asking a five-year-old for life advice.

Maybe this was what spending too much time in indoor cultivation chambers did to people.

I was about to tell him a polite lie to nudge him further, now that he seemed all emotional, maybe pushing my agenda a little more.

But he turned around and began walking away.

Maybe hearing the conversation between me and the Immortal had shaken something loose in him. Given him a new perspective. But that kind of clarity born from someone else’s passion? That was dangerous.

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It was temporary.

It was like that burst of energy you get in the middle of the night when you suddenly feel like turning your life around. But by morning?

It’s back to the same routine.

As I watched him walk away, a thought came to mind.

“Hey, do you know anything about what happened to Hu Jin?” I called out.

Zun Gon turned around, looking a bit surprised. Then he gave a bitter smile.

“Why do you want to know? What was Hu Jin to you?”

He was a pain in the ass. Things were finally going well, and I didn’t want that guy to show up out of nowhere for some petty revenge.

“While I didn’t know Hu Jin that well,” I said, lying through my teeth, “I considered him a friend.”

“Before the calamity, I sent out some squads to search for him. But they found nothing,” Zun Gon said. “I’m sorry to say, but it’s likely Hu Jin is dead. And in our current situation, we can’t afford to be distracted.”

That was good news. And it didn’t feel like Zun Gon was lying.

Good. One less problem.

Besides, I trusted the Blazing Sun Immortal to sense if any heavenly-level manipulation started happening around here.

I nodded. But before he could continue walking, I stopped him again.

“By the way, I want to learn a Sky Grade technique,” I said. “After all, as the poster boy of the Blazing Sun Sect, I don’t have a single Sky Grade technique. I’m feeling a little underpowered.”

Well, I did have one. But nobody knew that.

Actually… the Blazing Sun Immortal might have guessed something. I’d handled his mental pressure better than Zun Gon had. I hadn’t frozen up despite how heavy it felt inside my head.

But the Immortal believed in a Wild West ideology. If you could get your hands on something, through trickery or otherwise, you deserved it. You only deserved what you took, not what the world handed to you.

“From now on, the Sect will invest in you,” Zun Gon said, nodding. “In a true sense, this time. You should come meet me tomorrow. I’ll deal with everything and have it ready by then. I need to inform the other elders first. You’re welcome to attend the meeting if you want.”

“No thanks,” I replied. I was uninterested in listening to old folks discuss things beyond their comprehension.

In some ways, my conversation with the Blazing Sun Immortal had given me more authority than even Zun Gon himself.

And I think he knew that.

After he walked away, I turned around as well. I formed a skin-tight jade suit and levitated, flying off at breakneck speed.

It didn’t take long before I arrived at the only green patch on this blackened mountain.

The plant growth arrays were still intact, even after everything. That was the benefit of being a Level 4 Array Conjurer.

As I landed, the scent of grass wafted into my nostrils. I relaxed, and a small smile crept across my face.

Fu Yating was sitting on the porch of the wooden house, with Speedy sleeping beside her. Wu Yan was out in the yard, practicing with her back turned, but her mask was off.

As for Batsy, she was stuck under Speedy’s heavy neck and couldn’t get up. By cultivator standards, Batsy was at Body Tempering, while Speedy was somewhere in the higher stages of Qi Gathering. She stood no chance.

She was surprisingly submissive, which was odd, until I noticed the bite marks on her left wing.

The mental command I’d placed on her had been designed to temporarily lower her aggression. But after that meeting with the Immortal, it must’ve broken due to the mental strain on me, the technique user. That usually wouldn’t happen with the kind of absolute control the technique was built for.

Either way, Batsy had chosen the worst possible target to bother: Speedy, while he was sleeping.

I chuckled and approached Wu Yan, curious about what she was practicing.

She sensed me approaching a little too late and hurriedly slipped her mask on.

Fu Yating noticed me too and smiled.

I nodded back and stepped up beside Wu Yan.

“How’s your training going?” I asked.

Wu Yan turned to me slowly. There was a flicker of hesitation in her posture, barely noticeable, but there.

Then, without a word, she lifted her hand to the porcelain mask that had concealed her face for so long.

She took it off.

For a moment, I almost expected… nothing. Blankness. Something unsettling.

But what greeted me was… human.

Her face wasn’t just faceless skin anymore. Now, she had features, dark, slightly tousled hair framing soft cheeks, brown eyes that shimmered faintly in the cold light. A narrow nose. Pale, small lips. A quiet face that was almost unremarkable. Almost.

It struck me then that her face looked strangely familiar. Not in a déjà vu kind of way. No. More like a reflection warped by still water.

She looked like a female version of me.

Or rather, like someone who had studied my face, softened it, and made it her own.

But what was unsettling wasn’t seeing my own face staring back at me.

It was her expression.

There was no warmth in those brown eyes. No vulnerability. No emotion. Just a cold, detached calm, like an alien trying on a human mask and not quite knowing how to wear it.

“I am extremely happy, but am having a difficult time forming a working smile,” she said, her voice sounding eerily like my mother’s.

“Also, your theory was correct. I can push the limits of my metamorphosis and break one of its supposed rules: that I can’t change my face,” she stated, voice eerily calm.

“Did you break through?” I asked.

If she’d reached Foundation Establishment without me present, that could’ve been dangerous. Also, I’d taught her better than that.

“No, but I am approaching the stage where I would be ready for it. I can’t hold this face longer than two minutes. Perhaps after I break through, my control will improve,” she said.

I smiled and reached out to pat her head.

“Now you really look like my sister,” I said. “But remember not to rush it. Your element is dangerous.”

Her element was something no normal person could handle without going insane.

But she should be so in tune with it… that it shouldn’t affect her theoretically.

Theoretically.

She embraced it a bit too much. Which should help her transition.

However, one of the side effects of choosing such a broad, abstract element was incredible early progress. There were old records of cultivators who chose Wisdom as their element, and they learned techniques at absurd speeds... before losing their minds.

That would also be a sign: mastering her element too well.

Wu Yan opened her mouth and said, mechanically: “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

I stared at her for a second before realizing she was trying to laugh.

“Welp,” I said, “no better time than the present. Let’s work on that laugh.”

Wu Yan nodded.

“With any luck, we will have her laughing like a serial killer in no time,” Fu Yating said. “If she takes after you.”

That bitch.