‘What? Have a drink?’
Tianhui looked at Tianyou, who was sitting on the windowsill swinging a wine bottle.
It was quite an incongruous sight.
The eldest senior brother of the Huashan Sect offering a drink to his junior brother.
But Tianyou himself was completely nonchalant.
“If not now, when else would I share a drink with my junior brother? Of course, it would be dangerous if we get caught drinking...”
Tianyou’s lips twisted as he spoke.
“If you keep your mouth shut, and I keep mine shut, no one will know, right?”
Tianhui’s eyebrows curved like a half-moon.
‘I thought all Daoists were stiff and uptight, but there’s a pretty decent guy here?’
He grew interested in Tianyou.
He especially felt a strong sense of affinity from the words spilling from his mouth, as they aligned with his own thoughts.
“That’s perfect timing. I had some things I was curious about anyway.”
As if he had been waiting for that answer, Tianyou hopped down from the windowsill.
Then, sitting down at the table, he opened his mouth.
“Sit down quickly too, junior brother.”
Tianhui sat across from Tianyou.
“I should have brought them with me...”
Watching him sit, Tianyou suddenly rummaged through his robes.
After rummaging for a while, he pulled something out.
It was a wine cup.
“Here, this is yours.”
Placing the crude wine cup in front of Tianhui, he tilted the bottle and poured the wine.
Glug—
“It’s not a very good wine, but if we drink it together, we can enjoy it.”
Tianhui picked up the wine cup in front of him.
The night sky’s moon was deeply submerged in the sloshing wine within the small cup.
‘Is this unrefined rice wine?’
Rather than being fragrant, its pungent smell and floating dregs made it hard to call it a fine wine even at a glance.
‘This isn’t bad either.’
As he tossed the contents of the cup into his mouth, the unique fire qi of cheap unrefined rice wine heated his insides and warmed his body.
The distinct taste of unrefined wine, different from fine wine, had plenty of charm.
As he was savoring it, Tianyou, sitting across from him, widened his eyes.
“You drink quite skillfully, junior brother.”
“The same goes for you, senior brother.”
At the calm reply, Tianyou clicked his tongue.
He had thought Tianhui had changed from the past since he accepted the offer, but he had changed much more than he had anticipated.
‘Well, I’ve changed too, so it’s only natural.’
Tianyou scratched the bridge of his nose.
He too had changed from the past.
To the point where he drank alcohol every day, which he hadn’t even touched before.
Meanwhile, Tianhui continued to drink.
Fortunately, he didn’t get drunk right away this time.
‘Seeing that I don’t get drunk immediately, I guess my body has gotten a bit more accustomed to alcohol.’
Unlike the first time he drank, a moderate buzz made him feel good.
“Oh my. At this rate, there won’t be any left for me.”
Perhaps feeling thirsty watching Tianhui drink, Tianyou also made a fuss and downed his cup in one gulp.
“Kuh, that’s the stuff.”
Looking thoroughly pleased, Tianyou drew a large arc across his mouth and nodded his head.
“I’m telling you, you really have to drink after finishing a job.”
Still smiling, Tianyou set down his cup.
“But you’ve changed quite a bit, junior brother. In the past, if I offered you a drink, you would have waved it off asking what nonsense I was spouting, yet here you are drinking it readily.”
Had he gotten drunk off just one cup?
Tianyou gazed at Tianhui with hazy eyes and let out a soft chuckle.
Tianhui ignored his steady gaze and took a sip from his cup.
‘Of course I’ve changed. The Tianhui you remember is already dead.’
This was their first meeting.
In the five years since becoming Tianhui, Tianyou had not returned to the Huashan Sect even once.
It was a cold statement, but it was the truth.
The Tianhui he knew no longer existed in this world.
“But you look better now than you did in the past. Back then, it seemed like you were always wary of others’ eyes.”
With those words, Tianyou rested his chin on his hand.
Perhaps because he drank quickly, he stared at Tianhui with slightly unfocused eyes and spoke with a slackened expression.
“Oh right, you said you had something to ask this senior brother? Go ahead, ask me anything.”
“What is the Huashan Sect’s standing in the Wulin Alliance right now?”
“...What?”
Not expecting him to ask something like this, Tianyou blankly parted his lips before snapping back to his senses.
“Why are you asking that?”
“I’m also a disciple of the Huashan Sect, shouldn’t I at least know that much?”
Instantly, a crack appeared in Tianyou’s smile.
“That’s true, but...”
Trailing off, Tianyou shook his head vigorously and wiped the smile completely from his face.
“Then what do you think, junior brother? What do you think our sect’s standing is?”
“I get the impression they’re looking down on us.”
Tianhui bluntly continued.
“Both the location of this pavilion and its shabbiness—it feels like they’re completely ignoring us, isn’t it?”
“Ugh, so you see it that way too?”
Feeling embarrassed, Tianyou scratched his head.
Then, setting down his cup, he grumbled.
“That’s right. Just as you said, the Alliance is completely looking down on us right now. They talk about the Righteous Faction, the Nine Sects One Faction, and all that, but in the end, the martial world is ruled by the strong.”
Tianyou surveyed the room.
“Did you know, junior brother? I heard the building our sect used to stay in wasn’t here, but the pavilion currently used by the Zhongnan Sect. But when Martial Uncle Xuangang went to Baiguicheng...”
Tianyou flinched mid-sentence as he recalled the relationship between Xuangang and Tianhui.
“...Various things happened, and we were practically chased out and moved here. It’s only at this level because my junior brothers and I cleaned it up. When we first joined the Alliance, it was much worse. Hahaha.”
Unlike the smile hanging on his lips, Tianyou’s eyes weren’t laughing at all.
“You say we ‘moved,’ but ultimately, we were driven out by the Zhongnan Sect, right?”
“That’s right.”
With those words, Tianyou took a sip of wine.
The wine swallowed down his throat was truly bitter.
“Well, that’s that.”
Refreshingly downing a cup of wine, he smiled benignly again and changed the subject.
“How is it? Is your body okay now?”
“My body? It’s fine.”
Answering the question as if it was no big deal, Tianyou burst into a hearty laugh.
“Hahaha. That’s a relief. I was informed through Master’s letter that you had recovered, but it was hard to believe. But seeing how you look now, it seems it was all true.”
Tianyou said in a bitter tone.
Like the unrefined rice wine he was drinking now, his voice was deeply bitter and sunken low.
“We should go back to the sect at least once to see Master, but...”
Tianhui looked at him as he drank, practically burying his face in his cup, letting the words trail off.
Then, as if tossing it out casually, he said.
“Couldn’t you just come with Martial Uncle Xuanzhen?”
“Hahaha.”
Tianyou let out an awkward laugh.
“To do that, like I said earlier, we haven’t secured our place in the Alliance...”
“Right! Come to think of it, didn’t you say you were learning martial arts from Martial Uncle Xuandao?”
“‘Learning,’ you say. It’s a bit different, but similar.”
Tianyou said with an interested look in his eyes.
“I’d like to see what kind of martial arts you’ve learned, junior brother. Of course, not right now, but later.”
Even after that, the two shared trivial conversations and continued to sip from their cups.
How much time had passed like that?
Glug—
Wine was continuously poured into their cups like an unceasing spring, and perhaps because of that, it ran out in less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick.
“Tsk. We already drank it all.”
Tianyou tucked the empty wine bottle and the two cups into his sleeves and stood up.
His face flushed from the alcohol, he looked down at Tianhui with a relieved expression.
“I’m glad you like drinking, junior brother.”
“It seems the other senior brothers refused.”
“Actually, aren’t you and I the unusual ones?”
“That’s true.”
“Actually, I came to find you today for another reason. From tomorrow onwards, for a few days, you probably won’t be seeing me or the other junior brothers.”
“Where are you going?”
“A few days ago, a mission came down from the Alliance to eliminate the former Demonic Leader. It’ll be boring, but spend a few days on your own.”
With those final words, Tianyou disappeared.
‘Still, as the Eldest Senior Brother, his footwork is pretty good.’
Tianhui chased the traces of the vanished Tianyou before drawing up his internal qi.
Hiss—
He blew away the alcohol’s effects in one breath and flopped straight down onto the bed.
As he did so, he recalled Tianyou’s last words.
‘A mission to capture the former Demonic Leader? I’m curious how they’ll do it.’
His curiosity was piqued.
Who the former Demonic Leader was.
And how they would capture him.
‘And just how weak must they be to suffer such treatment? I’m truly curious.’
* * *
The next day, the pavilion was bustling.
In the spacious courtyard, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, including Xuanzhen, were making preparations to depart.
Xuanzhen made eye contact with each of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, who exuded a sharp aura like tempered blades, and then parted his lips.
“Are you all ready?”
“We have finished.”
“We are prepared.”
The Plum Blossom Swordsmen answered in unison.
Xuanzhen gave a slight nod, seemingly pleased with their demeanor and actions.
“Keep the mission in mind, all of you.”
“Understood.”
“Then let’s go...”
At that moment.
Bang—
The door suddenly burst open.
At the sudden event, the gazes of Xuanzhen and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen turned toward the door.
Then, the moment they saw the person stepping out the door, bewilderment filled their faces.
“Tianhui?”
“Junior brother?”
Tianhui, who had opened the door and stepped out, swept his gaze over the Plum Blossom Swordsmen before approaching Xuanzhen and speaking.
“Let’s go together.”