Cultivation Nerd-Chapter 216 - Like Brothers

With the sun gone and the bitter cold setting in, I quickly got to work. The air had become icy, and the wind cut through our clothes with every gust. Setting up a heating array was the first priority.

With a few well-practiced movements, I erected a barrier. Gradually, the air around us began to warm up, creating a protective bubble of heat.

Satisfied with the warmth, I moved on to preparing arrays for added security. The night may have seemed still, but we knew better than to trust appearances. I placed a series of minor alarm arrays at the edges of our camp and set up basic protective arrays around our sleeping area. Subtle and incorporated into the snow and earth, they were barely visible to the untrained eye but strong enough to shield us from most potential sneak attacks. With everything in place, I finally allowed myself a moment to unwind.

Building a traditional fire was out of the question, with no wood in sight and everything around us damp from the melting snow. Fortunately, I had another solution.

A yellow-red square array, about the size of a human head, designed to act like a furnace, generating intense heat in a small, concentrated area. I activated an extreme heating array I’d learned for situations like this.

I took out some frozen strips of squirrel meat from my storage ring and placed them over the array. Within moments, the sound of sizzling filled the quiet night as the frozen meat thawed and cooked quickly under the glowing heat. The savory scent began to rise, filling the air and momentarily distracting us from the biting cold that lingered just outside the protective barrier.

It was a small comfort, but that sizzling meat felt like a feast out here.

Now that we were all together, the atmosphere felt almost like camping. We started talking about various topics, except Wu Yan, of course, since she couldn't speak normally.

As we reminisced about our experiences since leaving the Blazing Sun Sect, Liu Heng pointed at Wu Yan and asked, “Where did you get her?”

“I saved her from a difficult situation,” I replied, and my cousins were quick enough to notice the reason I avoided going into detail; this wasn’t something I wanted to talk about. “Now my mother can’t get enough of her. She’s teaching her how to cook, buying her clothes, the whole thing.”

“Oh, right,” Liu Qian smirked. “I remember you were a troublemaker as a kid and always worrying your mother to death and going on about cultivation.”

She was teasing me, but it wasn’t like I could refute her; she wasn’t wrong.

“Yeah, Liu Feng was quite the handful when he was young,” Liu Bo chuckled. “I remember when he was five or six, he threw a rock and hit me on the back of the head for no reason. You didn’t even apologize. Though I recall your grandfather scolding you pretty heavily.”

I laughed along, remembering how my parents spent a while afterward teaching me to be gentle. As for my grandfather, he did yell at me, but right after, he bought me a wooden sword… essentially rewarding my bad behavior. Thankfully, my mother and father were the ones who took discipline seriously.

“Well, I apologize now,” I said. “Sorry for hitting you with that rock, cousin.”

“I forgive you,” he replied.

“Now, enough of bullying the younger generation,” I joked. “What about you guys? I bet you weren’t saints when you were younger either.”

“Oh, Liu Qian was the worst,” Liu Bo admitted, immediately throwing her under the bus.

“Yeah, I remember you and Liu Heng used to fight all the time,” I said, recalling some old memories.

“The worst part was they always made me pick sides,” Liu Bo laughed. “They were the absolute worst.”

“Well, as far as I remember, Liu Bo wasn’t the brightest either,” said Liu Qian. “He once ate a shard of glass because he thought it would strengthen his intestines. Liu Heng did it too…”

“That was because you said it was a secret technique your father was teaching you,” Liu Heng muttered in his defense.

“Oh, and Liu Qian used to pick her nose and wipe her boogers on the back of my shirt. I didn’t find out for the longest time,” Liu Bo added.

“Hey, don’t just go around telling people a lady used to pick her nose,” Liu Qian insisted, though there was a smile on her lips.

After more laughter and jokes about our childhoods, Liu Bo turned to me and said, “By the way, I never thought you, of all people, would grow up to become a reader.”

Liu Heng nodded, smiling. “Yeah, that was the strangest thing. I always thought you’d end up getting into fights with an elder’s son or something as soon as you entered the Sect. But somehow, you became a dorky scholar instead.”

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“Hey, Liu Bo, he just insulted your favorite cousin. What do you have to say to that?” I teased.

Liu Bo raised a brow. “Since when did you become my favorite cousin?”

“Since now, because they’re teaming up against us,” I said.

Liu Bo smirked and nodded, but the rest of my cousins suddenly looked worried, as if they feared what was coming next.

“Well, Liu Heng has a crush on Liu Qian here,” Liu Bo said, dropping a bombshell.

Liu Qian and Liu Heng weren’t as closely related to each other as I was to her, but they were still cousins in some way.

Liu Bo, seemingly oblivious to the tension, continued. “He even confessed to her. She brutally rejected him, and he cried, like, snot running down his nose and everything-”

“I think that’s enough,” Liu Qian interjected, breaking the quiet atmosphere.

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“What? I thought it was funny,” Liu Bo shrugged, turning toward me. “This was just after we entered the Blazing Sun Sect. Guys were always trying to get close to Liu Qian. It was about a year before you came.”

Still going on? Wow. He was either incredibly socially dense or doing this on purpose. I was betting on the latter.

Not here to judge, but seriously, what was it with the cousin stuff? There were plenty of pretty girls out there.

Still, I wasn’t going to hold it against them. They were good people.

But now, as I looked at my two cousins, I couldn’t help but see them in a very different light. Come to think of it, I usually never saw one without the other.

Could there be a reason why Liu Heng was so loyal? She might have rejected him at first, but... was it still just a crush, or had their relationship developed into something more?

I shook my head, trying to dispel the unwelcome thoughts. This had nothing to do with me, and I didn’t even want to know! Why did Liu Bo have to blurt it out like that?

“I will push your face into this,” Liu Qian jokingly threatened Liu Bo, pointing at the heating arrays I used as a makeshift cooking furnace. My squirrel meat was scorched black by now. “We’re family, and we shouldn’t talk about silly things like romantic love between us. Liu Heng was just confused. I see you all as my brothers.”

This was awkward... mostly because I caught a brief frown crossing Liu Heng’s brow, just for a split second.

I observed Liu Heng closely, noticing the way he silently watched Liu Qian. The way his eyes lingered on her neck as she reprimanded Liu Bo… there might still be something there.

Wait, now that I knew about this, was I overanalyzing everything?

Also, I might be the only one who considered this weird, given that certain marriages weren’t unusual here.

After that, we talked more about our time in the Blazing Sun Sect, and despite a few awkward moments, the night ended on a good note. We laughed, reminisced, and finally settled into sleep using some of my arrays to keep off the wet ground.

...

The following morning, we resumed our journey, trudging through snow-covered terrain until a forest finally came into view. The trees were bare, and there was more snow than we knew what to do with.

Without stopping, we entered the forest. It was a maze of towering trunks and tangled vines. The cold air was thick, and the ground beneath the snow was uneven. Vines hung low, forcing us to duck and weave as we made our way deeper. The silence pressed in, broken only by the occasional rustle of branches. It felt as if the forest were closing in on us.

“A bit further, and we’ll meet the elder,” Liu Qian said. “Keep your eyes open for anything suspicious. Our task is to scout this area since we knew the fields wouldn’t have any monstrous beasts.”

We carefully maneuvered through the forest, avoiding frozen branches to keep from slipping. I kept a particular eye on Wu Yan, but she had grown accustomed to moving at such a pace by now. She even developed the habit of stepping only where I stepped.

As we moved, my senses were on high alert; both my eyes and Qi senses scanning for any sign of danger. I tried to detect any trace of mental energy from a hidden monstrous beast, knowing some could camouflage their Qi. But I found nothing.

Finally, we stumbled upon an old man in strange attire standing on the snow without leaving a footprint. He wore black, like my grandfather, signifying his status as an elder. But he also had a chunky wool hat on his bald head. I knew it was to keep his head warm, but it looked odd paired with the rest of his official-looking clothes. Despite what must have been a long stay in the wilderness, his appearance was immaculate, not a hair out of place.

“You’re here,” the elder said, steam curling from his breath. “Faster than expected, though not as fast as you could have been. Did you notice anything unusual on your way here?”

“No,” Liu Qian shook her head. “No monstrous beasts, not even a wolf. The place feels... dead.”

“As expected,” the elder nodded. “But we had to be sure, and now we can plan for what comes next.”

It seemed there were higher-level plans in motion, but I was more concerned about the monstrous beasts. Why hadn’t they attacked yet? Since when could they control their hunger?

Two possibilities came to mind. Either the Thunder Wolves had some kind of plan, perhaps led by intelligent monstrous beasts. That was terrifying, as such beasts would be acting with purpose, or they had fought for territory with another group of monstrous beasts and nearly wiped each other out.

While Liu Qian and the elder discussed the mission in detail, my mind wandered to the monstrous beasts. What could they be planning?

Could they be preparing to attack from underground? Unlikely. Even if they dug an entrance far away, a tunnel that long would surely be noticed.

Another possibility was that they’d used the snowfall to cover their tracks. If they traveled while snow was falling, their footprints would be erased by morning.

Of course, this could all be man-made too. Perhaps the Clan Head or someone else wanted certain elders out of the city, and a coup was unfolding back home.

There are so many possibilities, yet few clues lead to the truth.

Times like these reminded me I was no detective.

Had I missed something along the way?