Chapter 76 – Upon the World (I)

Chapter 76

Upon the World (I)

I was terrified in equal measures of being excited, to be honest.

Standing at the sect’s arched and gated entrance, a distantly familiar memory and sensation crawled into my headspace, back when I was 22.

I’d just graduated not a month earlier with a bachelor’s, and, as a reward, I decided to treat myself to my first cross-Atlantic trip: a full two weeks in Germany for Oktoberfest. The feeling of right now is awfully similar to the one I felt while standing in line to board the airplane.

It was about stepping out into the unknown; not only did I have no experience with the world past these mountains, but neither did Lu Qi. As far as both of us were concerned, the borders of the sect were the borders of the world.

I didn’t let any of this show, however, as I had a whole assortment of kids and monsters by my side–there was nobody left behind, in fact.

Long Tao was there, yawning; Dai Xiu and Hua were excitedly chattering about something (well, she was…), Xi Zhao appeared anxious and restless, and Light… well, she was right by my side, eyeing me frequently.

The only thing–well, person–we were waiting for was Elder Qin, and he showed up just about ten minutes past dawn. He wasn’t alone either, with two kids in tow–one was a young woman, perhaps in her mid-twenties. She was rather beautiful, I must admit, yet had an odd coldness to her that made the looking… prickly.

I expected something more from the Creator’s Eyes, but she was actually rather ordinary. No special physique or bloodline or talent, and the only thing I could glean from the system’s description of her was that the cause of her coldness was some form of trauma. What? I had no idea.

Besides her, there was the little boy, just about a year or two older than Light, it seemed. He was a bit… round, you could say, and was snacking away at some fried potatoes already.

Similarly, there wasn’t anything particularly unique about him–ordinary as ordinary gets.

“You ready?” Before I could question why he brought them, Elder Qin asked, passed me, and left the sect.

… was I ready? Why ask if you’re just gonna assume ‘Yes’?

Nonetheless, I took my first step out into the world with the weight of the cosmos. Okay, I am being a bit melodramatic and facetious, but in my defense, I haven’t really travelled anywhere in almost ten years. It was mostly just trips between the apartment and pharmacy and occasionally stopping by the bar near my apartment complex to wet my throat a bit.

The walls receded and the world unfolded–thick mountains still flanked slightly, and we were situated on top of a hillside with steepish falloff, green pines arising everywhere around us.

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I’d wondered what our mode of transportation would be (it wasn’t going to be feet, I’d hoped), and as soon as I saw the horses, I flinched. Believe it or not, I actually did learn a bit of horseback riding back in college, but, well, it’s been twenty years. And these weren’t your everyday horses.

Their hair was white, while their manes were almost crimson-colored, their legs as thick as logs, while their tails seemed not made out of hair but rather ethereal strands of energy that pulsed infrequently like sine waves.