Liu Xing pinched his chin, then began observing the kid more carefully. Aside from the wok on his back, the most noticeable thing about this kid was the clothes he was wearing. The quality of his clothes was actually quite good. Right now, what Liu Xing wore was simple traveling merchant's clothes. The quality was not the best, but it was comfortable, but although the clothes were dirty, the kid was actually wearing better clothes than him. Was this kid actually part of some kind of robber gang? Was this banana peel prank a new way to rob people?

"Where?" Liu Xing asked, his curiosity piqued.

The kid opened his mouth, but soon closed it and opened it again, as if he wanted to tell him his deepest and darkest secret and hesitated about it. "I cannot tell you, but please, sir, you need to come with me. This is important!"

Liu Xing narrowed his eyes. The kid wanted him to follow but didn't want to divulge the location. It was mighty suspicious.

"How old are you?" he asked. "Or, is that a secret too?"

"I'm eleven years old right now, but next month, I will be twelve! I thought I would spend my birthday in the wilderness, but if you come with me, sir, I can celebrate it with my sister!" As he said that, his eyes shone like a man trapped in darkness seeing a light.

"Is the place far away?"

"Yes. I cannot tell you the exact location or how long exactly it would take to go there, but if we hurry, we can arrive right before my birthday."

Truth be told, at this point, Liu Xing realized that this kid could be anything. He could be part of a bandit gang, a lure used by a demonic cultivator, or even from some kind of sect desperate for disciples and willing to do anything to recruit one. In normal circumstances, he could have thought longer and pried more information to decide whether to go with the kid or not. After all, there was a chance that this kid truly needed some help. But right now, he was in the middle of things. While he had already given up continuing the race—the rewards eclipsed by the potential benefit of negotiating the dragon vein—he needed to go meet Bai Lin and some elder to discuss half of his dragon vein.

The kid looked at him with wide and teary eyes, like a puppy. But in the end, Liu Xing shook his head. "I'm sorry, kid, but I'm in the middle of something. I need to hurry."

Liu Xing stood up, dusting his robes once again and wearing his straw hat. While he felt a little betrayed in the end because the prank was not intended to be fun, at least he had laughed and realized something he missed in this world from this exchange.

"Wait, sir, to compensate—"

Ignoring the kid, Liu Xing turned around and began to run. Behind him, he could hear the kid shout, and when he glanced back, he saw the kid actually running after him. But he thought the kid would soon give up. After all, even if the kid didn't realize it now, he would soon realize that Liu Xing was a cultivator with quite a high realm, and there was no way for the kid to catch up to him.

"Sir Liu Xing, wait, wait!"

He could still hear faint shouts from the kid, but as he accelerated faster and faster, the shouts became fainter and fainter until the kid truly lost him.

"I hope that kid is not in the middle of something serious." He honestly thought that if he had some time to spare, he could help the kid. But since he was in the middle of something important, he just hoped that the kid would find another cultivator who would willingly slip on banana peels.

As he ran, he thought about the kid and his peculiar behavior, but soon his mind shifted to the Heaven Grade technique. Thinking about this technique made him run faster, and while later the thought of the Heaven Grade technique was replaced by other thoughts, not even once did he think back about the kid. After all, it was unthinkable for a kid to chase him. But Liu Xing didn't know Li Shunqing and how stubborn he was.

***

When the sun finally set, Liu Xing could finally use the Lightning Cloak, and together with his shield, he moved in the night sky unbelievably fast. He actually wanted to use his invisibility so he could be sure he moved undetected, but since there was no threatening presence around him, there was no target for him to aim at, and he could not activate the invisibility. And so, he moved in the sky like lightning. There were several towns and villages that he passed, and some of the mortals there pointed to the sky, probably curious about this horizontal lightning. But, luckily for Liu Xing, nothing happened in his way.

Around an hour later, Liu Xing finally arrived near a lake. The wind on the surface of the lake created little waves that made the lake look alive, yet even with the surface constantly moving, the lake looked tranquil, as if it were a place where a slumbering spirit resided. As he stood there, Liu Xing looked around for Bai Lin's little hut. When he saw the light on the other side of the lake, he realized that he had arrived from the opposite side.

Liu Xing took off his straw hat and let it hang on his back. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the air, and as he exhaled, he couldn't help but smile. "I have finally arrived!"

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Inside his body, his heart began to beat faster and faster, making his blood circulate more rapidly and making him feel full of energy, as if he had just eaten the most nutritious and delicious food made by a spirit chef. His eyes were wide awake, and his mind was eager to move, to take action so he could get the technique he wanted as soon as possible. Yet, even after giggling like a lovesick maiden, he actually decided to slowly circle the lake. He wanted to savor this exhilarating feeling, because deep inside his heart, there was a silly thought that the more he took his time, the better the reward he would get. It was silly logic, but even if it was false, he did it nonetheless.

As he walked, he looked around and felt the qi around him. Though, with his excited heart, his mind couldn't focus too much on the environment around him. Instead, his mind again and again tried to anticipate what technique Bai Lin would give him. He knew it wasn't an offensive technique, but his mind still wandered to lightning techniques that could incinerate the world!

After several minutes, he finally arrived at the little garden in front of Bai Lin's hut. He didn't take time to observe the garden, but instead, he walked swiftly toward the door and knocked on it three times. "Grandpa Bai Lin, this is Liu Xing," he said calmly, but inside, his heart hammered at his ribs. "As promised, I have come back!"

For a second, there was silence. He could hear the sound of the waves on the surface of the nearby lake as well as the song of the bugs in the serene night. But then, a flurry of sound could be heard from inside. He could hear the bamboo bed creaking, the old man's frantic steps, and finally a loud slam when the old man opened the bamboo window. From this little window, old man Bai Lin poked his head, and when he saw Liu Xing, his eyes widened and a wide smile formed on his lips.

"Liu Xing! You finally arrived! Did you finally come to deal with Wei Yi? Are you coming with reinforcements?" Bai Lin looked around.

"No, I didn't come with reinforcements since there's no need for it," Liu Xing looked old man Bai Lin dead in the eye and said, "after all, it's already done. Wei Yi is dead."

Bai Lin blinked once, twice, and three times. Liu Xing knew that this old man didn't have any hearing problems. The man understood fully what he had said, but he probably needed time to process what he had said.

"A-are you serious?"

Liu Xing tried to present himself as seriously as possible, then nodded. "I can assure you that he is dead. I killed him with my own hands."

Bai Lin nodded, but the nod felt robotic, as if his body was moving on its own. "C-come in, I think my ears have a problem. I want you to tell me again what you said earlier, but closer." With trembling hands, he closed his bamboo window.

He could hear several crashing sounds from inside, as if Bai Lin was drunk and banging on every piece of furniture he had. At one point, he cursed at his table, and a few moments later, shattering sounds could be heard, as if several glass plates had fallen to the floor and shattered.

"Wait a moment, please," the old man said.

"Take your time," Liu Xing answered. The old man was flustered, which was understandable. The old man must have thought that he had come here to finally deal with Wei Yi, just to be told it was already over. It was like a merchant expecting a meeting with a prominent figure to get a contract that would make him rich, but the prominent figure had already created the contract, signed it, and presented it to him.

He could hear Bai Lin tidying up his little hut—some plates were truly broken and he put them in the back of his house. Then, several moments later, the door opened with Bai Lin standing in front of it. He invited Liu Xing inside and served him a cup of tea that tasted bitter yet refreshing. He remembered this was his grandson's favorite. Bai Lin sat across from him, tasted his bitter tea, and inhaled and exhaled repeatedly, "I'm ready. Tell me again what you said earlier."

Liu Xing decided to start from the beginning. He told the old man about the Xia clan, Xia Juentian, the abominations that almost killed him, his choice to go to the capital of the Twelve Sun Empire, the disaster that happened there, the culling, the fight with the giant, and finally, the moment when he killed Wei Yi.

"So he is truly dead, then." Bai Lin commented at the end of the story. "It explains why I haven't seen him recently. To think that he went to another city and wreaked havoc there."

"I've discussed Wei Yi's origin with the emperor of the Twelve Sun Empire. He is occupied right now, but if he has time, he will come here and deal with the Wei clan."

There was also the matter of the Xia clan. They were insignificant right now, but they had a right to come to this city and demand repercussions from the Wei clan. After all, that clan had lost several of their members to Wei Yi's abominations. He was pretty sure Wei Yi's name as well as the incident in the Twelve Sun Empire would spread, and the Xia clan would probably hear about it later.

Bai Lin asked several questions related to Wei Yi as if trying to verify his claim. When he told him about Wei Yi's appearance as an old man, he nodded as if he wasn't surprised.

"So he's really dead?"

Liu Xing nodded. "He is dead."

The old man inhaled deeply, as if trying to solidify this reality in his mind.

His eyes turned red, and tears began to fall freely from them. Bai Lin frantically wiped the tears from his cheeks, but the tears were like a large river, mere two hands could not stop them. In the end, he decided to put both of his hands to his face, as if hiding from the world, and began crying. At first, the sound was soft, but it proceeded to become louder, raw, until he finally cried freely. The moonlight that entered the hut made his tears shine, the wind began blowing stronger, swaying Bai Lin's white beard and hair, as if trying to console him, the song of the bugs intensified, as if they too felt the sorrow of Bai Lin who had lost his grandson.

As Liu Xing sipped his refreshing tea, he let the old man express his sorrow. After all, he knew that this cry would not last forever. The old man perhaps was sad that his grandson had died before him, but he could be relieved since the one who killed his grandson was already dead.

As he cried, he grabbed his grandson's painting and hugged it tight, as if that painting truly was his grandson. After five minutes, the cry became softer, and at the ten-minute mark, he put the painting of his grandson atop the table while wiping the tears on his cheek.

The old man sat with his back straighter than before, his body more relaxed, as if a master masseur had finished with his body, and while his eyes were still red and puffy, there was a shine in them, as if the old man had been trapped inside a dark place and successfully escaped into a bright room.

"Thank you," the old man clasped his hands and bowed deeply.

"You're welcome," Liu Xing said. "Now, about the rewards..."

"Of course. I promised you a Heaven Grade Technique. And since you completed my wish, this technique is yours!"

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