Brand new day, folks! Me and Liangyu were on our way to the Lotus Pavilion. That's where we'd find our dear friend Jian. After the day before's conversation, I'd braced myself for a non-stop marathon of Liangyu's complaining. Instead? Total silence.
We were walking along a fairly dense forest path, and I kept giving him suspicious glances. Utter silence. It wasn't even like he was giving me the silent treatment on purpose. Dude simply wasn't talking.
"You planning on saying words today?" I finally asked.
He didn't even look up. "Say what? Is there a script I missed?"
"Oh, so that's how it's gonna be. Okay."
A few minutes later, the silence was broken by the sound of frantic footsteps. Two kids came sprinting out of the brush, lungs burning as they skidded to a halt in front of us.
"Help! Please!" one gasped, clutching his knees. "Our friend... he's stuck in a tree!"
Ahan. Sure. Plenty of people walk this path every minute, but these random kids just so happen to ask us for help.
Liangyu, however, didn't miss a beat. "What?! A child in peril?!" He gasped with the theatricality of a low budget stage actor. "Lead the way, small citizen! Ziyang, move your ass, a life is on the line!". His over-the-top concern and god-awful acting almost made me laugh, but I wanted to see where this went, so I followed.
We found the "victim" thirty yards away. A tiny kid with his leg "trapped" in a gnarled tree root on the ground. It looked about as dangerous as a lukewarm bowl of soup.
"Fear not!" Liangyu said, shifting into a wide stance, channeling his Earth Cultivation. With a dramatic grunt, the ground groaned and the root peeled back like a literal banana skin.
The kids went feral. One tackled Liangyu's leg in a hug, another started a victory dance that looked suspiciously choreographed, and the "stuck" kid dropped to his knees, wailing and bowing like he'd just seen a god. Dude was legit bawling! Gotta admit, that was some passionate acting for such a young cast.
Liangyu, of course, wasn't done. "This is nothing, kids! Watch this!" He shifted stances and turned the tree into a damn treehouse. And not some scrappy hut either, it looked professional. Something that would've taken nearly three hours to build, and he pulled it off in three minutes without breaking a sweat. Mad skills, I'll give him that.
The kids went wild.
"WOAH! THANK YOU, KIND SIR! WE SHALL REMEMBER YOU FOREVER!!"
Liangyu offered them a wink. "Anytime." He glanced at me, puffing out his chest. "Kids, right? It's a gift. I could turn this whole grove into a mansion by lunch if I felt like it."
I just stared at him, my expression somewhere between impressed and exhausted.
"I could even transform said mansion into whatever flower family you'd like. Multiple, if I wanted. I can even-"
"I know, Liangyu. You can stop," I cut him off.
"Stop what?"
I turned my gaze to the kids. "How much did the guy give you?"
Here I was, heading out to recruit people, and Liangyu had already bought himself three.
One kid just said, "Huh?" while the other two froze.
I didn't even glare that hard before the shortest one started stammering, "Wha- what, we don't know what-"
But the sharpest one though, blurted out like a true businessman, "Three coins, one each. How much you offering?"
"You little snitchin' ass, come here!" Liangyu was about to turn the kid into a tree before I stopped him.
"Nine coins. Three each. Go buy yourselves something actually fun."
They snatched the money and vanished into the woods like forest spirits.
"Really?" I looked at Liangyu. "Amateurs act better, dude."
He scowled. "Asshole."
"At your service."
"I'm perfect!" he snapped.
"Who says you're not?"
"You do! Forget whatever smooth-as-butter shit he pulled in that tournament, you know damn well I'm just as capable."
"Mhm. So you can turn this forest into a mansion?"
"You're damn right I can."
"And play with tree roots like noodles?"
"Like they're my personal fucking snakes."
"Lift boulders?"
"With ease."
"And summon a storm of wind?"
"Of cou- I- I mean-"
"That's the point, Liangyu. Your Earth Cultivation is top-notch, but you're missing one key element. Wind. You know damn well that if you truly mastered earth, you'd be able to tap all five elements, it's the very reason why earth cultivators are usually so feared. You're decent at most, but wind? You just can't hold it."
"You think I don't know that?" he muttered. "You know I compensate by focusing my qi on-"
"Doesn't matter what trick you pull. At the end of the day, they're still tricks. They won't take you far. But if Jian joins us, not only would we have two of the best Earth Cultivators, he could be your perfect catalyst!"
Liangyu still wasn't convinced, but I could tell the truth stung enough to land.
"Be honest. You hate the guy. But wasn't that what pushed you to get better? I still remember how the both of you would try and one-up each other. He'd run twenty laps around Tianlan, you'd run twenty-one. He'd practice five stances, you'd practice six. Until you two were clearing a hundred laps a day and nearly seventy-five stances. Trust me, he's the perfect choice."
That speech hit his logical side. Liangyu finally tilted his head and muttered, "Fine. Let's go. But you're doing the talking."
"Cool."
We finally agreed and pushed forward.
After a long walk, we reached it. The Lotus Pavilion. Gorgeous place. But the best part wasn't even the scenery, it was the fragrance. Like Heaven, soaked in another better layer of Heaven. Just… magnificent.
We flashed our official documents to the guards and stepped inside.
"Welcome!" three attendants sang in perfect harmony, offering us jade cups of chilled nectar.
I took a sip and felt my soul leave my body for a second. "Wow."
"Wow indeed," Liangyu said too. Though his perverted ass was staring at the ladies when he said it.
"What's up, bitches!" came a voice from afar. Jian, of course.
"And there goes the three seconds of peace," Liangyu muttered.
Jian walked up towards me, grinning ear to ear, and pulled me into a rib crushing hug. "Dashing as always, king! How are your parents?"
"They're great," I said with a smile.
Then he turned to Liangyu, and the smile dropped. "Liangyu."
"Jian," he replied.
"How's your mom?"
"How's your sister?"
"Oh, she's fine."
"Good to know."
They stood there for a long moment, locked in a psychic wrestling match, staring into each other's souls with enough intensity to start a fire.
Finally, Jian broke eye contact and turned back to me, beaming. "So, what brings you to my neck of the woods, buddy?"
"We… have a proposal."