Chapter 45

  Antechamber (I)

  A new dawn came, and with it a new visitor--Spirit Sage's servant here to whisk away the pair of my disciples for one of their awards: Antechamber.

  Back when I proposed the bet to Elder Qin and asked for the Antechamber specifically to be one of the rewards, I didn't really know anything about it. I mean, I still don't, but I didn't back then, either.

  All I know is that it's some sort of a hallowed place of cultivation that's occasionally been offered as a reward in the sect for monumental deeds. How I got the Elder to promise he'd arrange for both of them to attend... I will never know.

  "Okay, let's go," I said as I joined them; maybe it was a bit of paranoia in me, but I didn't want to leave them alone with Spirit Sage. Not that I'd be able to do anything if that demonic bastard decided to kill them or take them in, but for the peace of my mind, I want to escort these rattling buses while they're getting polished. "Hua, make lunch and dinner for Light. I'll also swing by the Resources Department today and order us a new batch of materials to build her house, so finalize the measurements."

  The boy nodded, and I wondered silently if he ever got tired of pretending to be a mute weakling while he was a half-god...

  Anyway, the descent was speedy; the servant that came to fetch them didn't speak, and Long Tao certainly didn't speak, leaving only Dai Xiu and me to chat on occasion.

  "Cherry pie? That's your favorite?" I asked while the girl beamed.

  "Yes! I only had it twice, but... I can't forget about it, Master! When I get my first stipend and when I am allowed to leave the Sect, I swore the first thing I would do is buy a cherry pie!" She seemed more determined about this than she did cultivation, if I'm being honest. Well, not fully, but it's also kind of scary how close it got.

  One notable thing is that she knew just how many Spirit Stones I had... yet she still said she'd used her own stipend. Maybe I'm worrying too much about her? I mean, it's cherry pie, in the end--how many Spirit Stones could it possibly be? A hundred?

  ... damn. Money really does change you. Khm.

  "I really like cherry pie too," I said. "I actually tried making it once before."

  "Eh? Really?! Master knows how to make it?!" she asked, suddenly seeming electrified.

  "No, no, I said I tried making it," correcting her, my mind swiveled back to the distant memory of me being a bit... drunk, to be honest, and trying to follow an online video on how to make a cherry pie. All was going well until I put it in the oven, set the alarm to check on it every 10 minutes, and... fell asleep.

  Woke up to the raunchy scent of the burnt crust, and oh boy, was it ever raunchy.

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  It kind of soured me on making it ever again. Then again, I tried doing a whole lot of things while drunk that I never did sober.

  Wow. That sounds kind of... depressing.

  "Maybe I should try it again soon?" Her expression truly was like a world wonder. From excited to disappointed and back to jubilant all in the span of a literal 5 seconds. There were some people who wore their hearts on their sleeves, and they'd all feel she was too open with her emotions. "You really that excited to try Master's cherry pie?" I asked with a chuckle.

  "Hm!" she nodded. "Master is amazing, so your cherry pie must be the best in the world!"

  "..." I paused because I noticed Long Tao's shoulders briefly bounce up and down. At least, thank God, he stifled a laugh; it's one thing when he's his disrespectful self back on the Peak when it's just us, but there's a third party here (Sect Master's servant, no less). It'd do neither of us any good if the word got out that he openly laughs at me and I just brush it off.

  So, thank you, old monster, for the bare minimum of respect.

  They sort of stood on the opposite ends of things, did they not? There was Long Tao, who looked at me like I'm some sort of a fancy prop, and there was Dai Xiu... who seemed wholeheartedly convinced I make the best cherry pie in the world based entirely on my offhanded comment that I tried making one back in the day.

  "I'll see about it one of these days, then," I said. "If you like the pie so much."

  "Yaay!"

  Haah.

  Was this the power of kids? Was this why people had kids? Ultimately, I think everyone's at least kind of aware that kids are... a lot. You know? Loud, filthy, loud, annoying, loud, chew up 20 years of your life... and yet, despite knowing all that, so, oh, so many people still have them.

  Is this it? This warm feeling in my chest because I managed to make her smile so happily?

  Oh boy.

  No! This is just child propaganda, and I'm not going to fall for it!

  Khm.

  As I mentioned before, the Sect's prime mountain peak was all the way back in the rear; it was actually a marriage of two different mountain peaks stacked on top of each other, in a way. Whether it was natural or artificial, however, Lu Qi never learned, or bothered learning, at least.

  Nonetheless, there was the far-back Ancestral Peak where the tombs of all past Sect Masters and important figures were located, alongside the retired so-called 'Prime Elders', the last bastion of defense of the sect. They were all old, haggard figures barely holding on through some secret means; as for how many of them there were or even how strong they were, again, Lu Qi wasn't exactly in the position to know.

  In front of the Ancestral Peak was the simply named Master Peak, where, as the name implies, the Sect Master resided alongside his servants and disciples.

  Unlike my haggard, desolate mountain in want of everything, this one was... lush. Oh my God, was it lush.

  Just standing at the bottom, in front of the gated entrance (an arch woven out of tree branches, like nature itself made it), felt like I was breathing in some soul coolants, if that makes any sense.

  Qi was far richer, and the greenery... oh, Mother Nature.

  Trees sprung up everywhere, tall and thick-trunked, with wide canopies offering frequent shade. There was a strange mix of green and pink leaves, and there wasn't even a pattern to where they appeared--they just mixed and mingled, as though most natural.

  Even blades of grass stranded by the roadside were tall, lush, and riveting, their glint sharp and focused. Furthermore, unlike my dirt-paved road to the Peak, this one had freakin' stairs--marble-made, hand-carved stairs!

  On the way up, we saw many a statue lining the side of the road, most depicting either previous Sect Masters or the sect's most important historical figures, and some even depicting those mythological beasts like dragons and phoenixes.

  One thing, if you could pinpoint anything, that was similar to my mountain was that we barely encountered anyone on our way up--two kids, in fact, one of whom was a servant and the other who was a disciple. The servant exchanged greetings with the servant escorting us, the disciple pretended we were ghosts and she couldn't see us, even after Dai Xiu bowed and greeted, and I... I mostly just seethed in envy, if I'm being honest.

  I was rich? Pshaw.

  No. This, yeah, this was being freakin' rich.