Avilar leisurely walked around his hometown market area. His mind free from any worry, his body full of energy. It was a good day, and he felt like nothing could change this.
He approached a stall.
"One bowl, please."
He threw some coins to the boy managing the stall before admiring his surroundings.
A month had passed since he had left the army; however, he still couldn't believe it. He was home. He was free and, most importantly, he was a cultivator.
The young man managing the stall gave him a steaming bowl of noodles.
"It's the first time you visit the city?"
Avilar shook his head.
"No, I'm revisiting. Last time I was here, I was still a teen... I guess six or seven years ago?"
"... Speaking of which, is the Green Wood Inn still around? I used to work there."
The boy rested his elbows on the counter. Avilar was his only customer, so he didn't mind chatting.
"You must be really impressed, uh? In the last few years, Cracked Mountain expanded a lot. The King even assigned us a city lord to manage the surroundings."
Avilar let out a low whistle.
"Damn, he must be at least a Soul Wandering cultivator, right? That's the minimum required to run a town."
The boy shrugged.
"I don't know what realm he is in, but the city lord is very strong. He arrived yesterday with a few other cultivators, but he must be extremely strong. The moment I saw him, my knees became weak, and I couldn't help but bow down to him."
He paused for a second.
"Ah, right, if you planned to stay at the Green Wood Inn, you are out of luck. To celebrate the ascension of the city lord, he organized a martial tournament for cultivators. The participants are all staying there, but if you want, you can get a decent room at the Saurus Tavern. It's just around the corner. You ne—"
The boy was about to tell him how to reach the Saurus Tavern, but Avilar stopped him.
"Tournament? Are the registrations still open?"
The boy looked at Avilar again, his eyes instantly filled with respect. If Avilar had asked for something like this, then he was definitely a cultivator. The boy became excited. It was the first time he had talked to a cultivator.
"Yes, Sir, today is the last day the registrations are open. However, there are some requirements. I don't know the specifics, but the participants must be below Foundation Realm..."
He did a small bow.
"I don't know what that means, but I hope, Sir, that you will find it helpful."
Avilar nodded.
"Thank you."
However, just as he was about to go away, the request Yun Qiang had made when gifting them his cultivation method resounded in his mind.
During your life as cultivators, try to be nice to mortals.
He stopped in his tracks and threw some extra coins at the stall owner.
"Thank you. If I manage to win, I will come back and check your talent to see if you can cultivate."
The stall owner's eyes shrank in surprise. He hesitated for a second and was about to thank him. However, when he looked his way, Avilar had already disappeared.
Ten minutes later, Avilar entered the Green Wood Inn, a black plaque hanging from his neck. He was officially registered for the tournament.
-Somewhere- Rose Kingdom
Aru and Bren walked beside each other, their pace neither slow nor fast.
"So, Aru, what are you going to do now? Where are you going?"
Aru puffed out a bunch of air.
"I already told you. I'm just going around as I please. I will stop when I find a good, isolated place where I can settle down and live in seclusion."
Bren crossed his hands.
"I'm going back to my village. There, I will set up a mortal caravan and use it to make money. After that, I will make the town large and start training other cultivators to run the caravans. And after that, when my subordinates are strong enough, I will create my own sect."
"..."
Aru let out a long sigh.
"Bren, this is the seventh time you said this today..."
Bren pointed at the surrounding forest.
"What about this forest? What do you think of it? Is it calm enough for your taste? I'm sure you can build a cabin somewhere, and nobody would bother you."
Aru looked at the surroundings before looking directly into Bren's eyes. Every time they passed a forest or crossed a river, Bren would pester him with this kind of useless question.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Forests are too noisy. Too many animals, and too many people who want to hunt the animals."
After a few minutes, a small mountain appeared on the horizon. This mountain wasn't extremely tall nor wide. Its terrain was completely rocky and deprived of vegetation, giving it a cold and lonely aura.
Bren pointed at it.
"What about that mountain? There are no animals there."
Aru shook his head.
"No, it's too rocky. I will have difficulties when cultivating my garden."
Bren fell silent for a moment before sighing.
"I understand. Well, my hometown is nearby. I'm sorry, but soon we will have to say goodbye to each other... When you find a place to stay, please send me a letter. We lived through too much stuff to let our friendship disappear."
Aru responded with a simple okay, his face devoid of emotions, as if he didn't care about his friend.
So the duo continued their walk like this, with Bren asking questions while Aru responded with simple and short answers.
The only time Aru took the initiative to speak was a few hours later. The mountain Bren had pointed at wasn't a random point in the distance anymore but a close landmark that could be seen even with mortal eyes.
"You know, this mountain doesn't look that bad. I will live there in the future."
Bren teasingly smiled.
"It's not too rocky anymore?"
Aru nodded.
"It's just right. I couldn't see it well from afar, but it's a perfect mountain. It's not too tall, so I won't suffer from the cold, and it's isolated from any mountain ranges, so I'm sure nobody will bother me. Besides, I'm sure the view from up there is breathtaking."
Bren tried not to laugh. He knew that Aru wasn't as asocial as he wanted to look, and the real reason he changed his mind was to live close to him.
"What about your garden?"
Aru felt embarrassed; however, he tried his best to retain a calm and indifferent outlook.
"My garden... I can renounce it. Besides, when I'm strong enough, I will be able to change the mountain and create a small plot of fertile land or something similar to it."
Bren couldn't restrain himself anymore and started laughing at Aru.
"Clearly, you changed your mind because you missed me."
Aru feigned indifference.
"No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
"No—"
They argued like this for the rest of the day, only stopping when they reached the peak of the mountain and Aru decided to stay there.
When they left each other, both of them were smiling. From where he stood, Aru could see Bren's village. In the end, he wouldn't live far away from his favorite friend.
-Swords of Heaven - Crow Dynasty
Yun Mei walked among a sea of stars, her body unconsciously moving among them, her mouth repeating her master's words.
"Let fate guide you."
Her voice sounded calm, almost relaxed.
"Don't seek the stars. Let the stars seek you."
As she repeated this mantra, her mind sank deeper into meditation while her body moved further into the shining galaxy before her.
For an unknown amount of time, only blankness filled her consciousness, her mind unaware of how much distance she had walked from her starting position.
Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat, breaking her from the heavenly rhythm and snapping her back to reality.
Yun Mei smiled. Her palpitations weren't a bad sign; they simply signaled to her that she had reached her fate and she didn't have to wander around the endless sea of stars anymore.
She slowly opened her eyes, taking her time to adapt to the surrounding lights.
"Uh?" She looked around a few times. "We are this far from the main body of the Star Galaxy?"
Disappointment flashed in her eyes. Most of the stars that surrounded her shone with a dim light, and only a few of them truly shone like real stars.
"I guess my fate lies with these untalented people..."
After spending most of her time studying the way of heaven and fate, she was familiar with the basic principles behind the sea of stars. The shinier the star, the more talented and prosperous a cultivator was.
She moved forward, unwillingness clearly written on her face.
"Maybe I'm fated with the few talents around here..."
Her master had told her stories about her predecessors; each one of them had stopped before shiny and bright stars. As her master's disciple and the future heir of the Swords of Heaven, she couldn't be lesser than her predecessors.
She had to find a brilliant star.
In the following minutes, she swam around the endless sea of pebbles like stars. Since fate wasn't guiding her anymore, each step took her a considerable amount of energy, while her master's expectations weighed on her mind like a heavy rock.
As she moved, she passed various clusters; some were small and shiny, while others were large and dim. However, she didn't give them any attention. They weren't enough for her. Besides, she didn't feel any palpitations when walking past them, so they weren't destined for her.
Suddenly, she felt it. She had found the cluster of stars that was destined for her. Her pupils trembled as she laid her eyes on it.
"No..."
Tears started falling out of her eyes.
"No. This can't be..."
Her gaze fell on the pitifully small cluster before her.
"Master said I'm the next saintess of the Swords of Heaven. I can't stop here."
With trembling movements, she tried to walk away from those stars. She didn't want to stop here.
However, the moment she took a step in the opposite direction, a strong pain hit her heart, forcing her onto her knees.
She let out a pained cry.
"Why?"
She tried crawling away, but the pain only intensified, forcing her to stop.
"Why me?"
She turned around, crawling back to her place before the cluster of stars. The soul-tearing pain was too much for her, so she could only accept her destiny. Maybe someone else would have tried to resist and defy heaven's will, but she wasn't that stupid. Defying heaven never ended well, she knew it; the only reason she wanted to change clusters was to not disappoint her master.
"Everyone has a fate. When you find yours, you only have to accept it..."
Bitterness and resignation filled her eyes. As her master said, she couldn't do anything about it. She had only to accept her fate.
Her eyes slowly moved towards her fated cluster of stars. It was a simple one, with two pebble-like stars at its center and three shining stars slowly rotating around them.
Yun Mei let out a sad uphmf.
"Particular..." Her voice sounded bitter. "But nothing special..."
To other fate readers, this cluster arrangement would look abnormal, even unnatural. Logically speaking, brighter stars represented stronger and more talented cultivators, so why would they rotate around lesser cultivators? In the cultivator world, the strong ruled the weak, so why would the strong orbit around the weak?
However, Yun Mei had the best teachers and could access the library of the Swords of Heaven, so understanding this cluster was extremely easy for her.
In fact, she even recognized this pattern as one of the various patterns described in The Fate Behind Favors, a book dedicated to describing unusual and strange clusters of stars.
According to this book, this was just a temporary phase of the cluster, and it meant that the talented cultivators were indebted to the untalented ones. This debt could be anything, from money to a life-saving grace. However, the author of the book made sure to point out that this abnormal shape was just temporary.
No debt could last forever, and eventually, the talented cultivators would repay or forget about their debt, letting the cluster recover its natural shape, where the weaker talents orbited around the stronger talents.
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared beside her before quickly taking the shape of an old man. Xing Ze. Yun Mei's master.
Yun Mei's pupils shrank in surprise before she quickly stopped lying on the ground and prostrated herself before him.
"I found my fate." Tears started flowing from her eyes as her voice trembled. "My fate is not great like my predecessors. I'm ashamed to disappoint Master."
"I ask Master to punish me."
There was a moment of silence before Xing Ze spoke.
"You found your fate..." His voice sounded satisfied, not angry or disappointed like Yun Mei had imagined.
"Good. Good."
Yun Mei raised her head, her eyes still wet with tears.
"You are not angry?!"
Her master looked her in the eyes. Yun Mei could see it. Xing Ze wasn't lying.
"Why would I be angry? Yun Mei, even if your predecessors were fated to shinier stars, they took years to find them..."
"Years."
He caressed her long hair.
"Yun Mei. You only took a week to find them. It's the fastest time in the entire history of the sect! I'm proud of you!"
Yun Mei cried a little, her eyes moving towards the small cluster of stars.
"But... but my stars aren't as good as theirs..."
Xing Ze hugged her.
"You don't have to worry. What a fate seeker needs is talent in reading and finding fate. It doesn't matter if the cultivators you find aren't strong right now."
"Think about it. Your predecessors took years to find their fates. In this time, the talents that were fated to them had time to develop and grow on their own, making their stars shinier and attracting other stars towards them."
Yun Mei stopped crying.
"So my cluster will become brighter in the future?"
Xing Ze nodded.
"Yes, it will. However, you shouldn't think about it."
"Now that you found your cluster, you can go on with your training. After you finish it, you can go and search for the talents in this cluster."
Joy shone in Yun Mei's eyes. She hugged her master back.
"When can I go and search for them?"
Her voice was filled with excitement. The journey that the protagonist had to take to gather all the heroes was the most exciting part of every story. Yun Mei was obviously eager to live it and start her journey to search for them.
Xing Ze cleaned her tears with a small cloth.
"Next year."
"Before starting your journey, you must finish your training and take part in the Crow Dynasty Quinquennial Tournament."
Yun Mei looked at him with a pleading expression.
"Do I really need to take part in the tournament...? I don't like fights."
Xing Ze smiled while giving her a fatherly look.
"Some things are necessary for your growth, even if you don't like them."
He pointed at the cluster of stars.
"Now mark all of them with the seal I taught you. With it, you can always trace them and see how each star evolves..."
"Also, remember to mark the dim ones. You never know how humans grow. Maybe they are just in a low moment in their lives and are just waiting for the right occasion to show off their talents."
Yun Mei nodded. There was no more dissatisfaction in her; instead, Xing Ze could even see affection in her young eyes.
This small cluster of stars had become like a small plant in her eyes. A plant that, with care, was destined to grow into a tall and majestic tree.