8 eight

It was spring in the central plains and the people of the small town Senyue were preparing for the spring festival.

A tall half Japanese youth with brown hair stood near the entrance of one of the shops, attracting a lot of attention. He wore an orange mantel, a white shirt and black pants, and on his hip hung a brilliant blue sheath with golden ornaments.

Many who passed him whispered in awe, and the women blushed when he looked at them.

But Ran Xin didn't like any of the woman he saw. Why the hell did they blush?! He didn't have any intentions, nor was he aware of his good looks.

When MiQian finally left the store, he was surprised at how grumpy Ran Xin was.

„Did something happen?" He asked with a confused smile.

„They are staring."

MiQian looked around. „Indeed they are, but is that really so surprising?"

„What do you mean?"

„You are very good looking. Don't you know that?"

Ran Xin just blinked. „What did you buy?"

„Inter spatial spirit pouch." He showed the tiger a white pouch with black incantations. He had put everything they were carrying around in it.

MiQian was wearing a robe of an extremely light yellow which he had made himself two days ago on their second day in the deserted town.

Along the way they had discovered that they could talk with each other over everything and nothing, or in other words: they could talk bullshit with each other. Of course it wasn't serious, just being sarcastic.

„Ran Qi."

„What?"

„Nothing, I just wanted to call you by your name."

„Okay, but don't do it too often."

Ran Xin nodded. He had discovered that when he was nicer to MiQian, MiQian would be more calm and accept weirder requests. He also seemed to be in a better mood, which caused Ran Xins mood also to be quite good.

MiQian noticed this and commented. „You're like a cat reacting to the mood of its owner."

„Your cat?"

„Uh… Pretty much… I mean, if someone told you to shut up, would you do it?"

„No."

„If I told you?"

„Then I would."

„You're a henpecked husband confirmed!"

„Excuse me, what? When the hell did we marry??"

„Take it as a way of saying that you're kind of… weird."

„Well, I'm not the only one, wife."

MiQian hid his face in his palms. „Please stop, I'm gonna die of embarrassment."

„Why? You started it."

„Says the guy who can't read."

„What's got that to do with that?!"

„Oi, your comebacks are getting weaker. Am I not giving you enough time to think of one?"

With that, Ran Xin went quiet. MiQian had to stretch to pat the head of the tiger.

„Don't worry, you'll get better at it." He grinned.

„Sure, whatever."

„Ok, now you're just sulking. How a bout we do something you wanna do?"

The tiger thought for a bit. „Bottoms up."

„Wait, alcohol? I don't remember…" … if I'm good with that or not, was what MiQian wanted to say but couldn't because he was already being dragged to a pretty high status bar.

You see, Senyue was a small town, but very popular for its festival, so it had many visitors in this time of the year.

There were many wealthy people who traveled to the town and stayed there for a while.

Among those people were also a certain master and his disciple. Plus a yellow bird demon girl.

Those three people sat in a private space in the bar that Ran Xin and MiQian had just entered and were talking about their next step.

„They should be here…"

„Are you sure? My master dosen't like crowded places…"

„I agree with Liang Shao. This town is closest to the deserted town, and it is proven that they were there. The next step would be to get resources."

„But master, didn't you say that Ran MiQian does not like the tiger?"

Fei Mo sighed. „There might have been a change in their relationship."

„Then, will master be safe?" Asked Huang Hua, very concerned about MiQian.

„Since nothing seems to have happened to him yet, I would say yes."

Liang Shao frowned. He wasn't so sure about that.

He had often collided with the tiger demon and didn't trust that big aggressive cat at all. Rather would the sun go up west than Liang Shao trust LaoHu Jun!

He took a sip of rice wine and started coughing. He wasn't good with alcohol. Huang Hua on the other hand drank it like water, Fei Mo drank it like tea.

„Should we ask around?"

„For MiQian? Yes, that would be… But…"

„What is it?"

„Qiao Li is also searching for him, or rather his disciple. I know that you don't like him, so…"

„He probably has a different way of searching, so we will not run into each other. And if we do, we will ignore the other one."

„If you say so…"

„I don't get it." Said Huang Hua.

„What do you not get?"

„If he dosen't like master Qiao, why don't they just fight or talk it out?"

„It's more complicated than that…"

Liang Shao now understood MiQiaos concern for the demon girl. She was naive like a human girl, unlike other demons careful and not impulsive. Like a small, yellow bird.

They talked for a while and Fei Mo decided to ask around together with Huang Hua, while Liang Shao set out alone.

As he left the shop, he thought he saw MiQian in the crowd on the street and tried to follow him. This was the first time that he was annoyed by all the women around him. He was busy, he didn't have time for chitchat!

Since the streets were so full, he hopped onto a roof and looked from there. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice.

„What are you doing here?"

He turned around and looked straight into MiQians eyes.

„We were searching for you."

MiQian raised his eyebrows. As his eyes glanced over the town he seemed to be thinking.

„You're going to come with me. You can't stay with a tiger demon."

„Why not?"

„W-why… He's a demon that's killed thousands of humans! He is not a good being to be around."

Nor even regarding him as a person, MiQian thought. He wasn't sure if he should come with Liang Shao. That guy was the other protagonist, the mind. He was a calm thinker and had a gentle character, almost the opposite of the hot blooded tiger.

He had gotten to know Ran Xin, so he should also get to know Liang Shao. Maybe he would discover more plot pieces.

„Where's the tiger?"

„Dunno."

„But didn't you travel…?"

„I came here by myself." But with ‚here' I mean this roof, so I'm not really lying. Though I really don't know where the tiger went. He was picked up by Qiao Li, so he'll be fine… At least I hope. If they meet… No, I'd rather not imagine that.

Liang Shao couldn't tell if MiQian was lying or not since he always had an indifferent look when he looked at the cultivator.

They quickly found Fei Mo and Huang Hua and MiQian teased the demon girl for worrying so much about him.

The evening came, and they got two rooms: One for master and disciple, the other one for Huang Hua and MiQian.

MiQian sat down at the table in his room and started meditating. He needed to digest the alcohol and get rid of his horrible headache.

Ran Xin had placed a cup of alcohol in front of him, and MiQian had stared at it the whole time.

The tiger got annoyed and said „If you don't know, you have to try" or something like that.

„But alcohol stinks…"

„Just try it!"

So MiQian had given up and drank it. Surprisingly, he didn't feel any different, so he drank a bit more. To him, the alcohol had no taste.

Only after he had drunk four times the amount Ran Xin drank, he started feeling a bit… weird. Shortly after that he really felt drunk.

And now he had a headache.

He guessed that his pacify ability had somewhat neutralized the alcohol for him. If he could just control this ability…

„Master?"

„Yes?"

„Not all demons are bad… right?"

„Everyone has power, but it's their decision what they use it for. You can say that someone is bad or good, but it depends on the perspective and other factors. Saying someone is bad is too simple thinking."

„Okay."

He patted her head.

„Master, please teach me."

„Teach you what?"

„Anything that can be useful to me!"

„Okay… This master will do his best to teach this curious disciple!"

„This curious disciple will attentively listen to everything Shizun has to say!"

„Good! Then let's start. To know what this Shizun should teach you, you should tell me about most things you already know. Just… anything that comes to your mind."

„Ok. This disciple will do her best."

MiQian listened carefully to everything Huang Hua said. He hoped to get at least a bit information about this world to deal with it better.

There were three realms inhabited by two races, the humans and the demons. Humans and demons could achieve immortality, but only humans could also ascend into the heavens as deities.

In the human realm also existed monsters and spirits that were similar to demons, but somehow not the same nor their own race.

Demons were able to become humans and the other way around, but only with the help of a god, or a curse.

When traveling between the realms, you could get spit out anywhere in the world. The more powerful could control this and pinpoint locations.

The desert nation and the two lands in the plains were currently at war, but they couldn't fight at the border anymore because a deity had set up some kind of very complicated array. This was also the reason that caused most realm-travelers to end up at the border.

The country in the north was very rich, the one in the south peaceful and the western lands wild.

There were also the sects. Most originated from a clan, and they cultivated their spiritual energy to achieve immortality. For this purpose they also slew monsters and exorcised spirits.

If they infused anything with spiritual energy, they could use it as weapon. With that, they also could throw the energy, creating glares that cut anything in their way down.

Spiritual energy could also assist in healing and curing, but also poison.

Demons and animals could also cultivate and get a human body.

„You know a lot."

„Oh, it's common knowledge…" Huang Hua blushed.

MiQian was happy with the information he got, so he asked about more personal things. It was basically to make sure that Huang Hua was a proper girl that could survive in society.

After knowing roughly her level of education, he started to teach her about politics, physics and chemistry, language and biology.

MiQians parents were both teachers, just like their parents and those parents and so on. It was in his blood and mentality to teach others. He knew that his education was very high since he loved to know things, so for Huang Hua, he started slowly with the very basics.

Because of this he discovered fairly early that she couldn't write and had a simple, limited vocabulary.

To properly teach Huang Hua everything, he created small pearls that contained his knowledge on the various topics. If she crushed one of the pearls, she would absorb the knowledge. He knew it was much, so the pearls were small, not containing too much and were put on a string in the right order.

Different colors indicated different topics, different size a different amount of knowledge.

Everything was put into a small pouch which was given to Huang Hua. If she had questions, she was supposed to first think about it by herself, and ask to confirm or when she still didn't get it.

Creating those hundreds of pearls was very exhausting for MiQian, because he compressed his spiritual energy into physical shapes. This process was something he just had come up with, which meant that it wasn't a trained ability and he didn't know about any possible side effects.

But this little project of his gave him another idea: Create orbs. They would be concentrated spiritual energy given the shape of an orb, and you would throw them like a glare. They would expand, compress and so on, but without physical shape.

So while Huang Hua was learning, MiQian cultivated the orbs and pearls. His goal was to have an excessive amount of spiritual power that would rarely be exhausted. He would have an ocean of power…!

But he would only be able to use a bit… It would still exhaust him, like trying to scoop up water from the ocean with his bare hands.

However, MiQian decided that he should first cultivate so much energy before he worried about how to use it efficiently.