Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Six - What Could Have Been

Curls of steam gentle billowed from the mug, which was a little chunkier, less delicate than the china cups of memory and the herbal scent was new to him, but not distasteful, however one thing remained the same.  Ren Zexian sat upon his seat with a straight back and calm, amicable smile.  Nostalgia swept over Bai Yan for a moment, before being swept away as the other man's eyes softened, altering shape after wandering to the side and beholding a young man, whose face was smeared with mud as he placed pots on the sills of his windows.

Bai Yan's expression soured.  First he'd had to suffer with Chang Min being all lovey dovey with that man of his, now his old friend was also acting like a declawed tiger!  He drank down the beverage in front of him, despite the high temperature of the water.  It was... not bad...

"So Yu Zhang and Long Wanwan survived," Ren Zexian mentioned allowed.  "This is good to know."

Bai Yan snorted. "I am alive too in this world."

The curve of the other's eyes deepened a tad with amusement, though his smile remained unchanged. "I can see this," he replied. He lifted the tea to his lips, wetting them a little before placing the cup back down on the table. "How long has it been since you awakened?"

Bai Yan looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose it has been around two years by this plane's calendar," he calculated. "I have only ever known this realm following the disaster that befell it."

"Around a similar time to my own awakening then," Ren Zexian mentioned. "Chang Min advised me that he came to awareness at the beginning of the chaos in which previous era saw its end in this land, perhaps a lunar month or so prior to me." He reached once more for his beverage as he considered the implications. "And Yu Zhang, Long Wenwen?"

"Actually some months prior," Bai Yan advised him, before indicating the tea pot, seeking to refill his cup. There was a hint of spiritual energy to this tea that sat comfortably in his stomach and had him longing for more. "They settled as father and daughter in the land called China, coming aware of the undead rising around a similar time to the general populace. I know what you are thinking," he added as Ren Zexian refilled his mug, "Yu Zheng considered the same thing. However, there is no evidence of it."

Ren Zexian sighed with a hint of relief. "The timing seemed too coincidental," he murmured as he rose to his feet and elegantly walked over to a cabinet drawer where he removed something from its shelter. "And there is this..." He placed the small sphere upon the table. It did not radiate much aura anymore and it had cracked overtime as spiritual energy seeped from it, leaking into the atmosphere. However, Bai Yan could feel the familiarity of it.

His voice cracked slightly. "Lu Ting?" Ren Zexian nodded.

"He had become one of the restless dead," Ren Zexian sighed, still wondering over the mystery of what had befallen their former comrade. "His mind was no longer his own, I did not even recognise him as I dealt with his walking corpse. Not until it was too late, for both of us."

"What do you mean?" Bai Yan questioned, his eyes widening and then further still as Ren Zexian rolled up the sleeve of his robe to reveal the bite-mark scar hiding beneath the cloth. "He managed to wound you and you survived the infection?"

"En," Ren Zexian replied, sliding down the fabric before smoothing it out. "There was a cost. I am no longer the Cultivator I once was." His smile did not falter nor did he move away his wrist as Bai Yan broke the boundaries of propriety and sensed the pulse of his energies.

"Just Quaternary now?" His voice was strangled to a whisper of disbelief.

"Only just broken through again," Ren Zexian pulled away from Bai Yan to drain the last of the tea from the pot into his cup. Bai Yan sighed heavily, yet as he stared at the other man, he was quick to realise that Ren Zexian was neither upset nor angered by the situation he'd found himself in. He doubted he would have taken the matter so respectably.

"Tch," he clicked his tongue, before tapping his fingers on the table for a moment. "So it was you that moved heaven and earth that summer," he accused, with a hint of envy.

Amusement could once more be seen dancing in a Ren Zexian's midnight eyes, if one knew what to seek within them. "Did we?"

"What do you mean, we?" Bai Yan questioned. Ren Zexian said nothing, but his eyes once more wandered to the shy looking young man whom lingered not so far away. He glanced up from where he carefully watered a few plants, a curious expression upon his face before looking away with a blush in his soft cheeks. "You and Chang Min!" Bai Yan flicked his sleeves in disgust.

Ren Zexian chuckled softly, shaking his head, unable to contain his amusement any longer. "I don't regret it," he informed his old friend. "We seek immortality for what reason? I always considered my research my driving force, the need to know more, to understand the way of cultivation far beyond that which was taught or recorded. It frustrated me that with my homeland, my works and research would also be lost. I did not wish to see my legacy end with Eld Dein, thus if I could not make my final mark there, anywhere was fine. I taught the first mortals I came to meet in this world a few things that I knew as soon as they were receptive to it due to this drive of mine. And then I met Nathan. And what I thought I was living for seemed no longer so important."

"Granted, he is a pretty child, but Dao Companion?" Bai Yan was still not reconciled. In his heart, in his dreams, he had imagined reuniting with the others and resuming their journey. Seeking away off of this humble rock and returning to the middle realms. Perhaps beyond that to the realm that had remained out of their reach for so long. However, two of friends had deviated from this path.

"I love him," Ren Zexian said simply. "He is the part of me that I had never known was absent."

Bai Yan pouted and once more gulped down his tea. The hint of spiritual energy was still nestled in its depth, but that didn't alleviate his mood. "Then what of Chang Min? What's his excuse?"

Ren Zexian looked at Bai Yan, looked through the man's reaction as if completely aware of his thoughts. It would have been unsettling had Bai Yan not been long used to this way of the other. "Chang Min, I believe, has found in Cole what he has always wanted. A home." He picked up the empty mugs and tea pot, taking them to the kitchen area and the basin sink. "It is perhaps coincidence that Chang Min found a Dao Companion as restless within four walls as yourself when he had always before disliked the way of a wanderer, but had little other choice in the circumstances."

"Yes, why did he never pick me?" Bai Yan wondered aloud as if this had always been a baffling thing to him. He was handsome and strong, his eyes seductive and captivating and should he open his arms, there had always been someone willing to fall into them. Even as they wandered in those last hundred or so years, he was able to find a companion to warm his bed should he want to. His own close comrades were not completely immune to him, though he and Ren Zexian had never chosen to cross that line. He'd not approached Long Wenwen out of respect for Yu Zheng, but Chang Min should have been fair game and not so immune to his charms.

"You have to ask?" Ren Zexian said simply, causing the other man to think about it for a moment before shrugging it off. Dao Companions represented a stable component in the life of a Cultivator and Bai Yan was nothing if not flighty and unreliable in this regard.

Chang Min and his man had proven their closeness as he'd watched with suffering eyes over the few days that they had remained in the army base to produce and develop those tall stone walls with their metal skeleton, before leaving for home. The base hadn't wanted Bai Yan or the other pair to leave, but Bai Yan had never shown any intention on staying and Chang Min and Cole were also attached to their existing home and companions. There was nothing that the base could do about it. They could only be satisfied with the benefits that they'd already obtained; the new wall and the plant potion that Bai Yan had given them to speed up the growth of their vegetables.

It happened to have been the same potion developed by Yu Zheng for the Golden Leafed saplings they'd grown in their former realm. There happened to be a side effect that any fruits of the plants grown with the potion would not contain seeds, any cuttings would not root and any new roots would not sprout, but the base had been desperate and had decided that they had enough seed or could even obtain more, so it wouldn't matter if used on a few crops...

Bai Yan had also exchanged some animal carcasses he had on hand for a few things, such as information on bases in the area, a few large bottles of fresh water and an interesting charm doll on a 'keychain' that had taken his fancy. The base apparently hadn't had any tea or he would have exchanged a bit more.

He wandered lazily around the gardens of this base nodding to himself that at least his old friends did not seem to lack food, when interesting smells came from one of the large property and tickled the senses of his nose. As someone who cooked Medicinal Cuisine, he was always curious when it came to the foods of this land, but had been seldom satisfied. This never stunted his enthusiasm for them, however, and so with renewed vigour, he headed for its kitchens.