Onyx Flame Fan

"Master, I want to try it." With that, Lu Hao summoned a ball of flames into his hand.

Nie Qing's reaction was simply, !!!

"That makes no sense! What spell are you using, my disciple? I can't see any traces of having learned cultivation methods on you at all! This is unscientific!"

How could this be? He thought the ancient techniques had long since been forgotten.

Su Jin's face twitched. Did this old man with a few screws loose actually understand science?

"Master, this is my special ability. Lil Jin has one too."

"You too, lass?" Nie Qing asked in disbelief.

"Oh, yeah. See." Su Jin summoned a thicker vine and pulled down the half-burnt wooden door…

The two men were so caught up in their conversation that they did not bother putting out the fire. What if they started a forest fire? Sheesh.

"B-B-But this is impossible! I don't sense any elemental power in your bodies." Nie Qing held his head and crouched down to the ground, muttering to himself.

"Grandpa Nie, these are special abilities. Didn't you say that there were dark days ahead? Why don't you know about these, then?" Su Jin asked curiously.

"My prediction techniques can only tell that there is chaos ahead. I can't read the actual details of what will happen," Nie Qing replied. Although his ancient divination could do a little bit of everything, it could not show him the exact way the future will unfold.

"I see. Well, that's fine. Come witness the chaos with us, Grandpa Nie!" Su Jin said, looking at the blue sky outside.

Although it had been many years since Nie Qing saw the world outside, that did not mean he could no longer keep up with the times. China had a long history, after all, and Su Jin had heard of these ancient divination techniques as well.

According to legend, a long, long time ago, these ancient divination techniques were used in wars, military tactics, and even in predicting the rise and fall of the kingdom.

Since the apocalypse was upon them, the era which Nie Qing called 'dark days', she was confident that Nie Qing would be able to hold his own even in the middle of the apocalypse.

Nie Qing had assumed that he would be able to conquer the world once he left his safe haven, but after he saw his disciple's and the boy's wife's abilities, he suddenly felt extremely weak. Whatever, he had to leave the mountains eventually. In that case, he might as well tag along with them and see these dark days with his own eyes!

"Hurry up and try the Onyx Flame Fan, my disciple." Nie Qing put aside his hesitation and waited for Lu Hao to summon his special ability flames again.

Lu Hao had temporarily put his flames away earlier. Now that the two of them before him were staring at him again with stars in his eyes, he…

"Master, maybe we should go to the courtyard for this." He was worried he would damage the grandmaster's hall.

"Right, that makes sense. Come on, lass, let's go outside." Nie Qing stroked his beard as he went out, calling Su Jin to join him.

The three of them walked to the center of the courtyard. They were closer to the waterfall here, so Lu Hao was not unduly worried.

He summoned his special ability flames to his hand and opened the Onyx Flame Fan, swinging it at the fire gently. The palm-sized special ability fire shot up once they came into contact with the fan, becoming a blaze as tall as a regular person and more than a meter wide.

Whoa! Nie Qing and Su Jin stared at Lu Hao and his flames in unison, their eyes sparkling.

Lu Hao looked at the Onyx Flame Fan carefully too. It was pretty to behold, but it was also especially light and handy to hold.

"Lu Hao, that fan is a perfect match for your special ability flames. You were right to call Grandpa Nie your Master."

They really struck the jackpot today.

Nie Qing had been feeling pretty pleased with himself at Su Jin's first sentence, but something felt off with the second part. Did they think becoming his disciple would be wrong?

"Grandpa Nie, do you have any other treasures?" Su Jin asked curiously.

"Why? Do you want one too, lass?"

"No, I'm just curious." It was true. Su Jin was not asking for Nie Qing to give them anything else, she just wanted to know.

"I have any treasure here that can absorb enough items to fill a house weightlessly." Nie Qing pulled a cloth bag out of his sleeve.

"Is that a storage bag?" Su Jin asked.

"That it is. I only have the one, but you can have it if you want." Nie Qing was somewhat reluctant. It was his portable storehouse, after all.

"Thank you, Grandpa Nie, but I don't need it. Given your age, you should keep it."

Su Jin sincerely turned him down. She was actually quite touched, because she could tell that everything Nie Qing had pulled out from his sleeve had actually come from this storage bag. Since he offered her the special dimension he was using right now, it just showed how much importance he placed in Lu Hao, his new disciple.

However, Su Jin's rejection made Nie Qing think that she was looking down on his treasure. His beard puffed up in indignation again.

"You little lassie, I told you to take it, so take it!" He tried to stuff the bag at Su Jin again.

What else could she do? Since he had a dimension too, Su Jin decided not to hide hers. Otherwise, she might end up offending him.

"Grandpa Nie, I have a dimension of my own, so I really don't need yours." Su Jin randomly grabbed a flower and made it disappear from her hand.

"You have a storage space too?!" Nie Qing was once more taken completely by surprise.

"Master, Lil Jin means it when she says she doesn't need it. You should keep it," Lu Hao said with a smile.

Nie Qing thought he would be able to show off today, so why did it feel like the young ones were showing him up instead?

Nie Qing did not have anything to carry away, since he had kept all of his belongings into his storage bag. With that, the three of them were ready to go.

Looking at the place he had lived in for several centuries, Nie Qing sighed and turned around to leave.

Grandmaster, worry not. He would come back to visit.

The second Nie Qing walked past the stone gate, the arches marking the entrance instantly became normal stones on the ground.

As the three of them walked down the mountain path, Su Jin and Lu Hao saw their car parked in the middle of an abandoned clearing.

…

What happened to the peach blossoms and spiritual energy from when they came in?

Nie Qing laughed awkwardly. When they walked past the stone gate, he had undone the illusions he had cast over the entire mountain. At first, he had used them to prevent outsiders from coming up the mountain, but there was no need to worry about that anymore. He had hidden his mountaintop residence with another illusion, so he could forget about the rest of the mountain now.

Nie Qing's explanation satisfied the couple's curiosity, and they drove down the mountain.

"Young people these days are getting better at enjoying yourselves. You fly at rapid speeds while seated," Nie Qing said with a sigh from the back seat.

"How old are you now, Master?" Lu Hao asked.

"I am 260 this year."

Far from becoming an immortal, Nie Qing had not cultivated his powers at all. Longevity and good health were just in his fate. It sounded good at first, but having experienced that first-hand, Nie Qing knew that it felt more like a curse.

Nie Qing's story actually made Su Jin respect him from the bottom of her heart. Living alone sounded nice at first. Think of Robinson, however, living alone on a deserted island with no one to talk to, so he ended up conversing with a football. It just showed that Nie Qing's life was probably far from all peaches and roses.

"Grandpa Nie, try not to reveal your treasures once we leave the mountain, or people might start treating you funny," Su Jin said.

"Don't worry, lass, I know that much. Although my sect remained hidden on that mountain for many years, I know that the world now is vastly different from the past. I won't reveal my treasures to anyone."

Nie Qing was extremely grateful to the two of them for bringing him out of there. No matter what happened in the future, he was determined not to cause them any trouble.

Indeed, in Nie Qing's life after this, he never brought his disciple and the boy's wife any problems. Instead, he was a great help to them.