Chapter 244

  Legends and Myths (II)

  It truly was true that though the history may not repeat itself, it will rhyme.

  We weren't being rushed out into the middle of the night through some underground tunnel, but we may as well have been. Luckily, though, it looked like the kids expected it and merely shrugged it away as just one of those things that are 'normal'.

  As they all dispersed, I actually held back the ever-elusive Rayce, as the vague relationship would no longer hold water.

  "I'll follow," he said as soon as everyone left.

  "Are you sure?"

  "Hm," he nodded. "There is nothing here for me."

  "Wasn't there someone who was to take you in?"

  "..."

  "Oh. Sorry."

  "It's alright," he smiled somewhat bitterly. "Even if they did want to, I'd have chosen this, regardless. If you'll have me, of course. I understand that I can't be your disciple and that I may never measure up to your Disciples, but... I'm not entirely useless, I believe." Oh, what a severe understatement that was.

  I couldn't quite pin Rayce's personality, not yet, anyway. Dai Xiu was the chipper, loud (sometimes obnoxiously so) sort; Xi Zhao was a mellowed-out version of that with a lot of that classic teenage aloofness tossed in there; Wan Lan was a 'measured' sort who bore herself rather averagely only to entirely lose her mind while fighting; and Light... well, Light was her own little thing, sort of like Long Tao.

  Rayce?

  I mean, all I got is that he's the silent, unsuspecting, so-easy-to-miss-you-think-he's-a-ghost sort.

  "We haven't really talked, have we?" I said. "Sit. I'll make us some tea."

  "No, let me--"

  "--it's fine," I chuckled as I stood up and started preparing. "I'm assuming you've gotten a rather skewed idea of me based on how the kids treat me, no?"

  "..." ugh. At least deny it a little.

  "But, believe it or not, I'm not made of paper."

  "I know that," he said. "You are a great man, Master Lu. How much your Disciples care for you simply proves that further." Haah.

  I like compliments as much as the next guy, but I'm realizing a lot of them are coming off the back of me doing something kind of... normal? I mean, helping people in a disaster is, like, a quintessential part of being human. To me it is, at least.

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  Rather than skipping steps with Qi (well, outside of quickly starting the fire...), I poured water into a bowl and let it slowly boil as I mixed a few tea leaves into a bowl.

  "Thank you," I said. "I couldn't have done nearly as much without your help."

  "... I don't believe in fate," he said rather abruptly, his head lowered. "I understand that it may be a heretical thing to say to a cultivator... but I don't. All I know is that my entire life, up until the moment we met, has been a curated lie. I've never made a choice of my own, not once. I... I don't know who I am. But I have a feeling I won't find myself staying rooted in one place."

  "Would you like to be my Disciple?"

  "E-eh?" My words shocked him, but there was a reason I asked. Well, there were several reasons.

  One, I wanted to see whether him voicing he'd be my Disciple was enough to 'register' him as one, or do we need to live out that relationship for a bit first?

  It could be that Long Tao was a special exception, as I never really asked any of the other kids to officially be my Disciples--at some point, though, the system started treating them as such. Maybe it had some telepathic abilities that allowed it to read their minds and recognize when they recognized me as a Master, or it may just have been the passage of time... but I didn't know for certain.

  Secondly, I can actually be his Master. I've fiddled around with creating some Shamanic arts and realized it wasn't all that different from martial arts--I mean, it was different, fundamentally, but not so much that I can't do both.

  Namely, Shamanic Arts had no 'distinction'--there was no such thing as a movement art, or offensive art, or weapon art. It was literally like spell tomes, in that I'd inscribe a specific action within the confines of the system, and that action would become an art with no categorization.

  This was positive in that I could make one art do ten things, but it was also a negative in that I couldn't truly specialize it in a meaningful way.

  Creating something like a 'Fireball' art, for instance, wasn't as simple as 'a fire element shaped into a sphere and tossed forward' because, for Shamans, it wasn't as simple as changing the property of Qi into fire and creating flames that way.

  How did they do it, then?

  ... no clue. Honestly, I have no idea.

  "You may not know this, but I've inherited a rather large library of tomes from my parents," I said. "And among them aren't just cultivation arts--there are also some shamanic arts. Naturally, the choice is yours--both in whether you'll believe me and accept me as your Master. Whether you do or don't will have no bearing on your place with us; you will still be welcome and will not be treated any differently. As such, you can take your time--"

  "--Disciple Rayce greets his Master!" Oh, wow, was that ever easy? He even went down to one knee, though he didn't kowtow, thank God.

  Just then, the system did inform me that I've acquired a new Disciple, alongside a few... other things.

  [--new Disciple recruited]

  [Host has been rewarded 200 Creation Points]

  [...]

  [Anomaly Detected]

  [New Disciple follows the Path of Shamanism]

  [As this is Host's first time recruiting a Shaman, a special reward is given]

  [...]

  [The next Shamanic Art created will cost 1 Creation Point but can only be of Heaven-tier and below. Would Host like to create it by himself, or would you like to accept the System's suggested Art?]

  ... wow. Another time being struck by a bolt of lightning.

  Wasn't this sort of how it went with Long Tao and the Heart-Stitching Art? Honestly, I legitimately believe that if I'd stupidly chosen to make my own art at the time, I'd have either failed or would have been much further behind than I am at the moment. Even if it was 'unassuming', it's essentially what's kept me (mostly) sane in this world, not to mention the very thing that bought me a lot of goodwill with Long Tao and eventually Hua, too.

  Even though I've 'fiddled' around with creating Shamanic Art, I don't really know what I'm doing quite yet. Why would I struggle to concoct something to impress him when I can trust this unfeeling, unthinking, uncaring system to do it for me once again? Maybe it will surprise me once more.

  [--A new Shamanic Art has been created: Prismatic Lensing (peak-Heaven)]