NOVEL SIMPLE Ch-16-The Elder Arrives
(Lou Xia POV)
Before dawn, I exited my cultivation, grabbed my sword from my space bag, and began practicing my sword techniques as I usually did.
Many cultivators would freak out if they found out that I did this, as they value the time during dawn when Yang Qi is the most abundant for their cultivation, but I had plenty of Yang Qi as it was, and I by no means needed more right now. Especially after my return from my mission, which my parents were not happy about.
Letting those thoughts fade, I continued my practice until the first lights of dawn lit up the world. I then stopped my practice and left the room so that I could face the day along with that weird kitsune.
Entering the kitchen and dining area, I expected our host to already be up by now, only to find no one there.
Since that was the case, I walked over to the table and took a seat, intending to wait for Vale to come downstairs, when I heard some noise from that direction. Turning my head in that direction, I watched as a figure fell through the opening in the ceiling that was left for the stairs and kicked off the wall, doing a half turn and landing on her feet in the middle of the room facing me.
When she landed and looked up to see me sitting there, she looked shocked before mumbling something I could not make out and then walking over to the stove, saying, "Breakfast will be ready in a moment. I hope you like steak because that is all I have right now."
That last statement was somewhat shocking to me as I thought that most higher-level cultivators would be able to have any basic food that they wanted, but then again, this kitsune was quite strange, so this was just another thing that could be added on top of that. I also did not want to refuse her hospitality in case she took some offense to that, so I just sat there and watched as she pulled out a piece of meat and a cast iron skillet from her spatial device and placed them on the stove.
She then took out some wood as well and placed it in the opening below before lighting a fire to begin cooking.
This confused me again because I did not understand why she did not use a Qi flame as all other high-ranking cultivators tend to do.
I also noticed she was wearing a type of dress that I had never seen before when she came down. All of this made me question if she was even a cultivator, to begin with, or if I had made a mistake about that.
After a while, the smell of cooking meat spread throughout the house, and the sleepy head down the hall finally decided to join us.
Taking his seat on the other side of the table, Zhuan Jiahao and I waited for the kitsune to finish preparing the food.
When she finished, she pulled out some plates and utensils from her spatial storage and brought the meal over to the table.
What surprised the two of us(mainly me) was when she placed the already plated stake in front of us with a set of utensils next to it. This was not something normal for us, but we followed tradition in waiting for our host to take a set and have the first bite.
I then watched in fascination as she put her hands together and bowed her head, muttering something under her breath before lifting her head and cutting the steak.
When she took a bite, showing that the food was safe, Zhuan Jiahao and I followed suit, and I was shocked after the first bite to find that we were eating the meat of a foundation realm beast.
Though this did not do much for my cultivation, it was not every day you got to eat the meat of a beast like this. I was also behind in my body cultivation, so this would at least help with that a little bit.
No longer caring about etiquette, I practically inhaled my food like I had been starving for weeks on end.
Finishing, I looked up to see that Jiahao had done the same.
We then looked at the kitsune and saw that she had just taken the last bite. Though her eating was not as elegant as I would have expected, she was still more refined than either Jaihao or I had been.
After she swallowed, Vale looked at us with a smile on her face and said, "I am glad to see that someone likes my food. Now I have some things I need to finish up on the house so you can either watch me or sit here. Sorry, there's not much to do, but I didn't really plan for any guests staying for very long."
With that said, she gathered the dishes and walked back into the kitchen.
I then got up and followed her into the kitchen as I decided to help with the dishes as a minor way to repay her for saving my life.
When I did this Vale looked surprised and said, "Oh, thank you. You don't need to help me."
I shook my head at her when she said that and replied, "It's the least I could do for you helping us earlier."
After finishing the dishes, she stored them back in her spatial device and went to walk outside. But before she reached the door, we all heard the screech of an eagle from outside, followed by the loud flapping of wings.
Zhuan Jiahao and I ran past Vale out the door when this happened, and in front of us was the Windstrider that we road here on as well as Elder Xei jumping down off its back.
(Vale POV)
Stepping outside behind my two guests, who now seemed to be hopped up on some weird energy drink, I was greeted by a giant bald eagle the size of a two-story house standing proudly on what could be considered my front lawn.
Standing next to it was a burly middle-aged man with a salt and pepper-colored beard and hair as well as a pair of gray-colored eyes. His beard reached down to his chest, and his sideburns had been shaved off, giving him a look that was between a classic immortal cultivator and a bodybuilder in all the ways that did not mix well.
The middle-aged man was looking at the two guests of mine when I walked out and said, "Is this the person we are looking for?"
When the man said this, Lou Xia bowed her head to him and quickly explained, "Sorry, Elder Xei, but we haven't checked as we almost got killed by a golden core stage white tiger when she saved us and have spent the night here recuperating after she invited us to rest."
The man that I now knew as Elder Xei did not seem to be very pleased when she said this but calmed down not long after and, with a look of impatience now coloring his face, said, "Then what are you waiting for? Pull out the talisman and check."
Lou Xia quickly waved her hand after being given the order, and a small slip of paper appeared in it, with a beam of light above it pointing in my direction.
Moving left and right, I saw the beam of light following me, so I could infer that they were probably the people from the Silver Moon Sect looking for the now-wrecked ship.
Looking back at them, I locked eyes with the Elder, and then suddenly, it felt like the air and gravitational pressure around me increased as my senses felt like they were underwater.
Taking this as a provocation, I pulled out my rifle from my inventory and chambered a round while pointing it at the clearly hostile Elder.
Off to the side, Lou Xia shuddered as she watched me pull out the rifle, but I could not care less as I felt my instincts trying to take hold. They were not as strong as they once were, but I still needed to suppress them consciously. Then the Elder spoke, saying, "Where is the chartered ship of the Silver Moon Sect?"
This was not something I could keep secret, nor did I even want to, so I quickly replied, "Shipwrecked on the coast, not far from here."
The Elder did not back off when he heard this and looked at me with some suspicion as he asked, "Did you have any part in making it wreck?"
I thought about that one for a moment, considering how the ship was wrecked because of the goddess's descent, which was also because of my reincarnation, so I replied truthfully, in case this old cultivator had any way of detecting lies, "Not exactly."
This did not do much to help my case as the pressure around me increased exponentially while the Elder asked, clearly ready to strike, "What do you mean not exactly? It's a yes or no question."
I felt a little bit of sass well up from somewhere and replied to the old man, "And if I was unconscious during the whole thing, would I still be the one who caused it to crash?"
He then asked something that was honestly a good question, which I did not have a good answer to at the moment. "And how can I be certain that you are telling the truth?"
I wanted to try and be somewhat civil about this, but it is amazing how sassy someone could feel when having weapons pointed at them. So I responded without thinking much about what I was saying, "How can I be certain that no matter what I say right now, you would not just kill me and be done with it?"
That was probably not the best thing that I could say, as directly after the old man blew up shouting, "How dare you?! I am a righteous cultivator, not some member of a demonic sect!"
This led to the discovery that my new and improved fox ears were much better at capturing sounds, leaving my ears ringing and fueling my sassy spree as I responded, "And how can I be certain you're telling the truth when all I have to go on is your word?"
The Elder looked indignant when he heard that and puffed out his chest in pride as he said, "My robe and token should be enough!"
All of this was now starting to piss me off. So I decided to try and shut him up for good as I said with a hint of finality in my voice, "I don't know what the robe of an elder of the Silver Moon Sect should look like, and I can't sense Qi yet, either."
That last comment of mine seemed to leave him at a loss for words. Afterward, the pressure released, and I put my rifle away.
Now, back to some sense of civility, I step back and motion to the door of my house. He simply shook his head before going silent, no doubt thinking of my words.
(Elder Xei POV)
I was sitting on the outskirts of the Forgotten Forest, waiting for the chaos Qi to dissipate with the Windstrider by my side.
After two days, it had lessened enough for me and the Windstrider to enter.
Following the tracking talisman that I gave the disciples, I soon saw a pillar of smoke rising in the distance. The size of the pillar suggests that it is similar to a campfire, and it was also in the direction of the two that I sent into the forest. So I decided to put the talisman away and head for the pillar of smoke.
Reaching there, I saw an odd house surrounded by more oddities below me in this meadow on the edge of the forest.
Ignoring those things, I landed and stepped off the Windstrider, only to see both disciples exit the house. Following the two was what looked to be a fox-kin girl with blood-red hair and a tail.
Little did I know that this would lead to one of the most interesting encounters I have had in a long time.
This girl, perhaps no older than sixteen or eighteen, managed to outwit me in a game of words, and now, I had to think about how to determine whether she was telling the truth.
I finally came up with a solution I thought might work, but only if there was enough circumstantial evidence to back it up, or I might as well just kill her and deal with the potential consequences later.
Speaking up this time without putting any pressure on her and trying to keep any hostility out of my voice, I said, "I will give you the benefit of the doubt and decide to trust you, but I want the full story."
This seemed to satisfy the girl as she replied, "That I can do. It's not like there is much use in hiding it after all, and there isn't much either of us can do to change it."
With that, she sat down on one of the steps leading up to her house and started to recount a sequence of events that I never thought I would ever hear coming from someone completely sane in my life.
The first thing that jumped out to me about her story, which made me think that she was lying, was when she started to talk about a goddess. Still, soon, I was doubting whether the claim by some of my colleagues that gods and goddesses are just different names for immortals and not something else entirely was true or not.
Then she started talking about the storm and what she saw of the crew.
That was when I completely forgot about that debate and started questioning other things, not knowing this was just the start.