Chapter 17 - Departure

Later in the morning, Leyvi and Anda were ready to depart. They were waiting in Anda's courtyard for Lilian.

Ten minutes later, Vivian and Lilian arrived at the courtyard. Vivian was wearing her usual loose dress, on the other hand, Lilian was wearing an outfit for gardening from top to bottom. She even has a cute sun hat on. Both of them have wavy silver-colored hair.

Lilian was standing behind Vivian looking somewhat unhappy. Leyvi can understand her feelings, being forced to go together on a journey with some unfamiliar people is not something he would prefer to do too.

"Please treat my sister well. She hasn't gone out of the sect for nearly 20 years so she needed some change in her mood." Said Vivian while looking at Leyvi.

Leyvi was stunned. 20 years. This girl is a true introvert. Well, she grew her own alchemy ingredients and her big sister is an alchemist. He can see why there was no need to go out at all. She must like gardening a lot. She wears a gardening outfit even when traveling.

"Elder Vivian, don't worry. If anything happens, I will protect her like I would protect pan...Anda!" Leyvi almost said panda girl. Anda already glared at him. Lilian who was behind Vivian blushed slightly.

Leyvi who saw her expression was confused. Girl, I was just gentlemanly replying to your big sister. I haven't started flirting with you yet. Why are you blushing already? 

"Hehe..You don't need to worry about that. Her realm is higher than both of you. She can protect herself just fine." Vivian wanted Lilian to experience things herself. If there was a need for battle, Lilian had to participate in the battle. 

"Don't worry elder, since Lilian followed our family for travel, even if she didn't need our help, I would still watch out for her safety, I would take upon this responsibility." Leyvi continues acting gentlemanly in front of them. Anda knew this and just rolled her eyes.

Leyvi sneaked a peek at Lilian and saw her blushing again. Seems like this introverted girl blushes easily. It would be fun teasing her later.

"Anda, your husband is quite good, alright, I'll go back now. Get along with each other!" Vivian praised Leyvi a bit but Leyvi thought she was just being polite, after all, Anda was her personal disciple. Vivian then left. Lilian looked uncomfortable after her sister left.

"Miss Lilian, please sit here, and let's introduce each other first. Feel free to drink this tea." Leyvi showed the sit to Lilian and poured a cup of tea for her.

After Lilian sat Leyvi introduced himself, "My name is Leyvi and this is my wife, Anda, you should already know her." Lilian nodded.

"Does the tea taste good?" Lilian nodded.

"Do you like gardening?" Lilian nodded.

"Are you prepared to go out of the sect?" Lilian nodded.

"Your outfit suits you. You looked cute wearing them." Lilian blushed. She looked down.

What is going on here? He had been trying to have a conversation with her and tried to make her talk, but she only nodded and blushed all this time. Leyvi was confused. He then looked at Anda.

The moment Anda saw Leyvi look at her, she finally burst out laughing. She was holding her stomach while laughing.

Leyvi was dumbfounded. What is wrong with these two girls? Are they in cahoots to make fun of me? 

After laughing for a while, Anda finally calmed down.

"Sister Lilian can't speak. She was born mute." Anda finally told the truth while holding back from laughing again.

Leyvi was stunned. He didn't see this plot twist coming. Leyvi then glared at Anda while complaining in his heart. This panda girl really wanted to see me act like a clown. That's why he wasn't told earlier.

Suddenly a voice came directly into his mind. A sound transmission!

"Mr. Leyvi, please forgive Lilian. Lilian was born mute so Lilian can only communicate with a sound transmission. However, Lilian didn't like to communicate this way that much because it feels rude." Lilian explained her situation using a sound transmission made by spiritual energy.

"Miss Lilian, don't worry about it. You can feel free to communicate that way with me. It's not rude at all." Leyvi smiled and replied to her. He resumed his gentlemanly act. As usual, Lilian blushed.

Lilian was born mute. Before becoming a cultivator she could only use hand language to communicate with her older sister. Vivian became an alchemist because she wanted to cure her little sister so she could speak. However, it was futile. All healing products didn't work because her muteness was not caused by an injury. 

At first, Lilian wanted to be able to speak too but after trying all kinds of healing products and still failing, she stopped wishing for it. She was fine using sound transmission when communicating with her sister.

Due to her muteness, she didn't have friends and as time passed she began to love tending to her garden alone. Even after a long time of not interacting with anyone else besides her sister, she didn't feel lonely. She only started to communicate with Anda recently after her sister introduced them.

And thus, Leyvi became the first male she interacted with after such a long time of being an introvert. She couldn't help but blush every time Leyvi talked.

Anda observed Lilian. This poor girl, this inexperienced lass couldn't even discern that Leyvi was just acting gentlemanly. Anda secretly smiled. It looks like she didn't have to do much.

"Alright, it's time to go!" Leyvi sensed something and knew it was time to go. He immediately stood up. The next moment a small monkey appeared beside him. Stripey has arrived. All this time he had been stealing from the rich and helping the poor with his abilities. All of the cities and towns nearby would miss this monkey Robin Hood after he's gone. 

"Miss Lilian, this is Stripey, my spirit beast. He learned how to do sound transmission so feel free to communicate with him." Leyvi introduced Stripey to Lilian. She nodded while blushing. After that, Leyvi saw that Lilian was communicating with Stripey. So, she's not that shy with animals huh?

Later, 3 people and a monkey were seen walking out of the north gate of the Mountain Dew Sect.

Leyvi and Anda decided to enjoy their journey slowly and enjoy the scenery for now. Their destination is the Bara Volcano which is located northwest of the former Mystical Array Valley which means they will pass the location of the former Mystical Array Valley while heading to the Bara Volcano.

It was 2 years since the destruction of the Mystical Array Valley. Some survivors who were out of the sect during the tragedy vowed to get their revenge someday. But how were they supposed to get their revenge? They didn't even know who destroyed their sect. In the end, It was an impossible wish.

Leyvi and the party walked through the Triad Forest following a similar route he used to take. However this time, he didn't need to act sneakily because he is now a Foundation Building realm cultivator. No more tree climbing. 

A normal Foundation Building cultivator who wanted to travel would just fly through the forest and stop from time to time to rest and replenish their spiritual energy. But Leyvi and the rest were walking to experience things.

Leyvi's spiritual sense covered a kilometer radius area around him. He detected many spirit herbs around him. Leyvi sighed, it was very hard for him to find all these spirit herbs when he was in the Qi Refinement realm, but now when he has a spiritual sense, he doesn't need them anymore. Qi Refining pills are useless for the Foundation Building realm because their spiritual energy has liquidized. 

That said, Leyvi and the party didn't directly ignore these spirit herbs, they would still pick any ingredients that were near them. Especially Lilian! She would run around here and there picking up the plants, checking on the grasses, cutting a certain part of the plants that she probably planned to plant in her garden. She would even fly up the trees and collect the mushrooms.

While traveling, the party would meet a few low-ranked demonic beasts. If it was back then, Leyvi would need to put his life on the line to defeat them but now? It was a piece of cake. A low-ranked demonic wolf? Leyvi instantly killed it with sharp qi. A low-ranked demonic tree? A kick was enough to bring it down. A low-ranked demonic python? A qi jolt was enough to shatter its brain.

It was all too easy. Leyvi would store their carcasses obviously. All of them are money! They are traveling outside now, so the sect's contribution points would be useless. All of these demonic beasts would be traded for spirit stones later.

In the Foundation Building realms, they would need a lot of spirit stones to cultivate. Of course, they can absorb spiritual energy and transform it into a liquidized state like normal, but it is a slow process and inefficient.

Use spirit stones or other kinds of materials containing a dense amount of spiritual energy for a faster absorption rate, and consume the Qi Liquefaction pill to transform the spiritual energy into liquid form faster. These are the two main things a Foundation Building realm cultivator would look for in this realm.

Two days later, Leyvi and his party arrived at the previous spot of the peach tree. There was no more peach tree here, and no more formation. Only an empty openings in the forest.