"Ruxue, what happened to you?" Su Nian's mother said as Liu Xing helped Fang Ruxue down from his invisible turtle.

"Many things happened," she replied as she hugged her, "but Liu Xing brought us some vegetables, meat, eggs, and many more!"

Liu Xing coated the supplies—which he had hastily purchased from people near Brother Roe's house—with qi. He hadn't stored them in his spatial bag, but had simply let them rest on the turtle's back. The moment the supplies lost contact with the turtle, it became visible and descended toward the thirty survivors, who were excited to finally eat a proper meal. However, a commotion arose when they realized they had no place to store everything. To keep the items from being strewn across the grass, they grabbed a large blanket, spread it out, and shouted for him to hold the supplies in place as they began to organize them.

At the same time, standing atop the turtle's head, Liu Xing set down the twenty captives who were still unconscious. Each had their hands and feet bound with rope, and Liu Xing began lining them up on the other side of the grassland. He could hear Su Nian's question to no one in particular, "Who are they?" which Fang Ruxue answered with, "Cultivator business."

+The ropes themselves were mundane, so there was no way they could hold the cultivators. They were merely for show, to give Su Nian and the others an illusion of safety. The true bonds holding them were Liu Xing's power. Soon, twenty unconscious people were lined up on the grass as if they were sacrifices for some ritual. Some had pale faces, and a few were groaning. He knew for a fact that one of them was awake and feigning unconsciousness, but Liu Xing let him be.

After setting down his captives, he shouted toward Fang Ruxue. "Catch them."

Fang Ruxue looked up, and he floated down Brother Roe, who had his eyes wide as if he had just seen a wonder of the world; the old man, who somehow felt more comfortable floating in a standing position; and… Qing Lian. Upon seeing them, Fang Ruxue nodded and began explaining the situation. When they landed, Liu Xing began putting down bundle after bundle and jars and vases of herbs belonging to the old man, as well as some mortars and tools to concoct medicine from his grandson, which Fang Ruxue helped organize. After all of that was done, only Qing Yuan remained.

Liu Xing dismissed his stone turtle. In an instant, the foothold holding him in the air was gone, and he rushed toward the grass. Wind whipped his hair, and soon, he landed softly on the ground. Qing Yuan, who could float on his own, began to descend like a helium balloon slowly losing gas. Upon seeing him, the women began pointing, asking in wonder who he was, which Fang Ruxue answered once again with, "Cultivation business."

When the kid was floating beside him and flashed him a smile, Liu Xing nodded. "Are you physically five or six years old?"

"Ah, I don't know. Perhaps four," he answered in a young voice, blurring some of his "r"s into "l"s. His hair was quite long now, waving in the air, and looking very good. "Thank you for giving me the Spirit Flower."

"From the start, it belonged to you and your mother," he said.

The reason he hadn't brought Qing Yuan and the others to Brother Roe's place was because the attack from the Qing clan had happened at the most inconvenient time. It occurred right after Qing Yuan had digested the Spirit Flower. When he "ate" it, energy coursed through him like a tidal wave, and he needed time to rein it in. Though different, it looked as if Qing Yuan was having a breakthrough, which was quite confusing, because even now, for all intents and purposes, he was still not a cultivator.

However, the flower was still a boon to him, since it had allowed him to grow into a little kid. Even though he looked calm, Liu Xing knew this child was actually excited. "You stored the last petal like I ordered, right?"

"Yes," he said, floating in the air as he tapped his chest, "it is here, ready to be given anytime."

That last petal was to lift his mother's curse. It was not a guarantee, and Liu Xing had a hypothesis about where the curse came from. However, just in case he was wrong—which he believed he was not—that petal would help her. If not lifting her curse, then at least it would soothe her mind. Qing Yuan confirmed that the energy was cold and calming.

He began walking toward Su Nian's mother. From his observations using the Eye of Lightning, he knew that she had been the leader while Fang Ruxue was gone. He asked about what they did, their situation, and much more. Then, Liu Xing began greeting them one by one. They all returned his greeting with a smile, including Fang Ruxue. When he asked which items needed to be used immediately and which needed to be stored, Fang Ruxue said they needed more time to organize. "The vegetables need to be cooked soon, though. They're already going bad."

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He nodded; it was because they hadn't been bought from a market.

While he talked, the women began flocking to Qing Yuan, who smiled and began chattering with them. The little kid had a cool temperament but was also open and easy to talk to. He asked where his mother was, and Su Nian pointed to the back of the group, where she lay on a blanket, looking peaceful. He asked them to help tend to her, explaining that she was not well and needed friends, and they all agreed, some pinching Qing Yuan's cheeks.

"Tell them about the situation with the Qing clan," Liu Xing said to Fang Ruxue, then pointed to the men lying on the grass. "I'll go there and... handle them."

As he walked toward the men lined up on the grass, he began to think about what to do with them. He had already decided to use them as leverage, but what kind of leverage? In the first place, what did he want to do with the Qing clan? Obviously, seeds of conflict had already been sown between them, but his focus was not on the Qing clan, but rather, the Jin clan.

He pinched his chin, and at that moment, Qing Yuan caught up to him and hovered near his shoulder. "What are you intending to do with them? Kill them?"

After consuming the Spirit Flower, Qing Yuan had grown a little bigger, and instead of using qi to vibrate the air, he used his own voice. It was quite high-pitched, yet it still carried a calm and composed feeling.

"No, I have no intention of killing them," he glanced toward a man at the end of the row, the one who was already awake yet pretending to be unconscious. "I intend to bring them back to the Qing clan, though I'm still considering whether to leave them intact or not."

"Oh? What do you mean by 'intact'? And why are you considering it?"

Both of them finally arrived at the edge of the row. The one who lay nearby was a man with a huge belly but small arms and legs. However, he remembered how nimble this guy was. He began to walk alongside the line, intending to arrive at the only one who was conscious.

"Well," he continued, "I'm in the middle of some… self-discovery. You see, I've just realized that I'm a man who will take drastic measures in the face of a dangerous threat, but when I think my enemies aren't too formidable, I tend to be more forgiving."

He still hadn't found a satisfying answer to this question. He didn't want to be a cruel and ruthless cultivator, yet he also didn't want to be a naive one who would likely get stabbed in the back. The situation with the Qing clan members was quite hard to determine, even when using his usual method of weighing whether they were threats or not.

Individually, they were not a threat. He could easily kill these men. However, as a whole, they were dangerous. A clan hell-bent on revenge could spawn many schemes and trickery, not to mention they must also possess some treasures. While some treasures worked in a straightforward manner, many tricky ones could become threats to Liu Xing.

As they moved toward the end of the line and Liu Xing began to elaborate more on this side of him to Qing Yuan, Tide Walker decided to appear. In an instant, the shark smiled and began rubbing its face against his cheek, which elicited some laughter from him. Then, it greeted Qing Yuan in the same manner, and when the shark realized that Qing Yuan was also floating, it began to nudge him, pushing his back as if it was eager to play.

Liu Xing laughed and said, "Sorry, buddy, but I need to consult with this guy."

Tide Walker looked at him with narrowed eyes, as if it was displeased, but Liu Xing summoned his gun, converted some of his qi into potent qi, and began feeding the shark little balls of it. Tide Walker instantly perked up and began to eat all of his qi balls. To make it more interesting, Liu Xing began to control some of them so Tide Walker could chase down its food. At the same time, he continued to elaborate on the moral framework that he unconsciously followed to Qing Yuan.

The talking baby laughed after Liu Xing finished his story. "What a weird man. You know that I'm merely a two-year-old kid. And you throw heavy questions at me as if I'm a sage."

Liu Xing flashed a smile, and his eyes saw a twitch of a finger on the man at the end of the line. "Well, you're a miraculous baby. So I might as well take my chance."

"The funniest thing is, I think I do have some insight into it," the baby continued with a smile. "It's not a unique concept, actually. I observed this in the city."

"Oh, do tell," Liu Xing said, his eyebrows raised. Truth be told, while he had indeed hoped that Qing Yuan could give him some insight, he hadn't actually expected an answer. He just wanted to make small talk to fill the air, as well as a means of making the man at the end of the line think he was distracted. However, his ears and attention began to focus on Qing Yuan. He thought that if he successfully reached a satisfying answer, it would help his life immensely.

"Are you aware of the concept of 'face'?" the baby asked. "Not the physical part, but a social construct that exists within a society."

"Face?" Liu Xing stopped walking, then turned to his side. A spark of an idea ignited in his mind, and the cogs in his brain began working at full speed.

"Yes," Qing Yuan nodded. "It's a fascinating concept, one that is quite simple, yet also intricate. You could say that it's like an image you need to protect within society, and when someone doesn't give you face, you need to lash out with an almost unnecessary form of suppression. For example, about a year ago, I heard a story from several birds about a man from a certain gang killing another man who accidentally stepped on his shoe. Do you think his reaction was too exaggerated, Liu Xing?"

Liu Xing nodded. It was indeed too much.

"But, there's a logical explanation for why he did that, and understanding this could help you decide what you need to do in your current situation," the baby added, and Liu Xing was eager to hear his explanation.

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