Chapter 365

Ghosts of the Mine (XI)

I moved some ways away from the rest before meeting up with her; she remained silent for a good few moments, as though still mulling over some deep decision she had to make.

"You seem accustomed to awkward silences," she spat out something I really wasn't expecting.

"... women, me, and awkward silences are a classic combination."

"Heh," she chuckled. At least, it looks like she won't be wringing my head off its beautiful neck. "With such a quick wit, I sincerely doubt it."

"Quick wit or no, a lot of women seem to freeze to silence when the answer to their question, 'So, what are you doing with your life?', is 'Uhm...'."

"Ha ha ha," this time around, she laughed, and I successfully exhaled in relief. All those years of failing to properly flirt and learning how to seem to be paying off. "Indeed. Though I've never taken a Dao Companion myself, most of my Junior and Senior sisters do say that there are few things less attractive about a man than when he is ambitionless. Alas, I've not come here to talk about that."

"You must have questions."

"Oh, a few hundred of them," she said, smiling faintly. "But, truthfully, I needn't answers to them. The world is full of mysteries, and only a fool or a charlatan would ever claim to have seen through them all. Rather than questions, I have a proposal for you."

"A proposal?"

"Seeing where you are going and with whom," she emphasized. "I'll assume you are headed to the Mountain to attend the Phoenix Realm Conference, or whatever silly name they are calling it."

"We are."

"You have the token?"

"Hm."

"My proposal is simple," she said. "Could I task you with taking something into the realm and burying it there?"

"Uhm..."

"... come with me," she suddenly said, turning around and walking toward her camp. I hesitated for a moment but chose to follow in the end, quickly catching up.

She led me to their 'cargo' and to the back of it, grabbing toward the cloth covering it.

"I understand it is presumptuous of me, but if you could swear an Oath..."

"I solemnly swear upon the Heavens that, whatever I bear witness to underneath, I shall not divulge to another soul until the day I die," I said and meant it. If she's asking me to bury something in a hidden realm of a major power, it's likely a freakin' bomb or something. Why would I ever talk about that with anyone?

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Thank you," her voice mellowed out as she slowly--and I do mean slowly--began to pull back the cloth.

I couldn't quite see anything at first, but before long, three... things, I suppose, came into view.

No, those weren't things.

They were people wrapped up in bandages, seated in lotus positions.

... yo.

What the actual fuck?!!

"They aren't alive," she said, her tone perfused with melancholy. "All three underwent their final Nirvana recently. There is a custom where I'm from that those undergoing their final Nirvana may request where they are to be put to their eternal rest--two chose this range's Spirit Peak, one of our worshiped sites."

"..." Alright.

I was expecting a lot of things, even the most insane things, to be under that piece of cloth, but three dead people carefully wrapped in bandages as though mummified being carted off to their final rest?

Yeah.

Wouldn't have guessed it in a million years.

"... two chose?" I picked up on the insinuation and immediately figured out what she wanted to ask of me.

"That's right," seeing as she isn't carrying them in a spatial ring... "The third one requested to be put to rest in his hometown, Jade Blossom City." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"..." she grinned rather playfully as I nearly groaned out loud.

"Ha ha, you really do struggle with keeping your expressions strict. I do find it oddly disarming, though. Besides, even if he did request to be put to rest in the Phoenix Realm, I'd sooner hang myself wholly naked for the world to see than let anyone else, no matter how trustworthy they are, do it. Being selected to carry out the Eternal Pilgrimage is one of the greatest honors, and nothing short of death will stop me from executing it. No, it's not him. But someone did make a personal request of me to bury an item in the Phoenix Realm."

She produced it as if out of thin air--though I couldn't see any rings on her fingers--a rather rough-looking hairpin. It looked like it had once had petals of a flower shoot off from its top edge, and it looked like it once had color beyond ashen gray and dirt brown.

Now, however, it was a broken-down thing, crudely torn, with jagged edges protruding where it once tied itself together.

"A tale of unrequited love, as it were," she said. "On his end," she pointed toward the body to the far left of us.

"Oh."

"They met in the realm many, many, many moons ago," she said. "And though he fell in love, he was never quite brave enough to pursue it. She gave him that hairpin after they'd left the realm and told him to find her. But he never did." I mean, I pined, sure. But from the sounds of it, this dude pined pined. "I don't understand it either, truth be told." She must have read it from my expression, speaking with a shrug. "But some people simply are just that way. Of course, I'm not asking you to do it for free. I can give you an extremely rare and powerful cultivation method to teach your disciples--"

"--spirit stones."

"H-huh?"

"I'd rather just have Spirit Stones."

"N-no, you don't understand; this method is actually of Ancient variety, and the only reason I'm not using it myself is because I was far too along the path of cultivation when I discovered--"

"Spirit Stones and spices. Just those two will do."

"..." She was looking at me like I was insane. And a patient man would have just used this as a form of a bond, taught the method to one of the kids, and then used it to prove our friendship in the future.

But to hell with the methods.

I need stones. I mean, I know we're heading over to the mine right now for that express purpose, but I'm completely freakin' broke. There are only dust bunnies and a lick of nothing else in my metaphorical wallet. The kids can't cultivate normally; forget setting up any kind of an array--especially the enlightenment one that I wanted to set up for the damn Yin-Repelling art.

Even if I had all the other ingredients, it turns out that I still needed stones to both engage and fuel the formation.

"Uhm... v-very well," she said. "Spirit Stones it is."

"Thank you."

Thank you indeed!

Finally... I'm finally not destitute!

... for how long, though? For how long...?