Jiu Xian woke up with a ringing head and parched throat. Searching for water to quench his thirst, he stood up from his bed.
"Oww! What the!" he stepped on a piece of a broken wine jar. Holding his foot in his hand, he looked around and saw many broken jars and broken pieces of furniture.
As he applied bandage to his wound, his mind slowly drifted towards the last night.
After Mie'ren left with the immortal woman, he drank with the villagers, drowning his sorrow disguised as happiness for Mie'ren.
He walked alone inside the house, drinking wine straight from the jar, shouting and kicking and throwing the furniture and finally he blacked out.
His face turned red as he flushed at his drunken behaviour.
'Good thing, no one saw me like that.'
'I need to drink in limit from now on,' he thought as he finished wrapping the bandage around his foot and started cleaning the mess he had made.
He threw the garbage into a sack and cleaned the floor. Afterward, he lit a stick of incense to mask the lingering smell of alcohol that had taken over the room.
Once he finished his chores, he picked up the ring and the jade the immortal woman had given him.
"How does this thing work?" He muttered, turning the jade over in his hand.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus on it, but nothing happened. For nearly half an hour, he experimented with different methods to activate it. Eventually, he collapsed onto the bed in defeat, holding the jade above his face as he studied it.
His grip loosened.
The jade slipped from his fingers and struck his forehead.
A cool sensation spread across his skin, followed by sudden warmth that seeped into his body. Before his eyes, the jade began to crumble, turning into fine dust.
His mind buzzed with information.
'Golden Sun cultivation Method—created by Bai Ruexue. By reversing the principles of Sliver Moon Method of the Ice Jade Palace, this Cultivation Method can allow one to cultivate up to the golden core realm.
Jiu Xian staggered, overwhelmed by the torrent of unfamiliar concepts— Qi circulation, meridians, cultivation realms. The terms felt foreign, yet strangely as if he had always known them.
Exhausted he sat down, brewed himself a cup of tea and began planning his future.
'If I want to meet Mie'ren again then I need to reach the Golden Core Realm. My first hurdle is the Body Tempering Realm, and for that I will need Qi-rich natural resources...'
But he had no idea where to begin searching.
He forced himself to set that worry aside and focused instead on the Golden Sun cultivation Method. For now, his only goal was to achieve initiation, though even that would have to wait until the next morning. The Golden Sun cultivation Method could only be practiced when the first rays of the sun touched the Earth.
'Might as well try to see if the villagers know anything about Qi plants,'
With that though, he stepped out of his house, a faint trace of hope rekindling in his eyes.
"Uncle Lao, how are you?"
"Ah, Xian'er. I'm as well as these old bones allow." Uncle Lao chuckled, the wrinkles on his face deepening. "What brings you out? It's rare to see you outside of your house unless you're going hunting." Uncle Lao asked
"Nothing much. Just thought it was a good day for a walk."
"I see..." Uncle Lao said, clearly unconvinced. "You must be feeling lost after Mie'ren left. You two were together. Don't worry, Xian'er— there are plenty of fish in the sea. You will find someone fated to grow old with you." He laughed and patted Jiu Xian on the shoulder.
Jiu Xian lowered his gaze."I don't know, Uncle Lao, I don't think I will ever find someone like Mie'ren again. She is the only one for me."
Uncle Lao sighed and continued trying to comfort him for a while before Jiu Xian finally managed to steer the conversation elsewhere.
"I understand, Uncle Lao. You are right. By the way... do you know anything about immortal plants? You are the village apothecary—you might have heard something."
"Hmm... Immortal plants?" Uncle Lao stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I don't know much, but when I visited the Red Tiger Village, I heard a story. A young man supposedly found some wild ginseng deep in the Red Tiger Forest.
"He gifted the ginseng to the village chief to marry the chief's daughter. They say when the chief consumed it, he grew twenty years younger."
Jiu Xian's heart stirred. Finding a clue so quickly felt like a blessing. He thanked Uncle Lao and continued asking around, hoping for more information.
The talk with the villagers provided him with many vague and inconclusive clues.
Exhausted from speaking with half the village — and from enduring their attempts to console him about Mie'ren — he returned home and lay on his bed, letting out a long breath.
"There's no clear path laid out for me... What am I supposed to do, Mie'ren?" he murmured, staring at the spot where she had vanished.
'Immortality...Cultivation... I never wanted any of this. I only wanted to marry the woman I loved live a quiet life. Yet here I am, chasing immortality like a fool.'
He spent the rest of his day, trying to busy himself with books and chores, but no matter what he did, his thoughts kept circling back to Bing Mie'ren— and cultivation.
Too tired to stay awake, yet too anxious to sleep; he dragged out the wine jars from the storage hut and drank until the world faded into darkness.
For mortals, immortality is but a distant dream.