Chương 169: Goodbye

The next place I needed to go was my quarters back in the Outer Disciples residence, mainly because I still needed to inscribe the formations onto the formation flag but also because there were two people I needed to talk to before anything else, Wei Lin and Lin Mei, since they should at least know I was about to leave the sect for a while.

I found both of them where I figured they'd be, out in Lin Mei's small herb garden behind the Outer Disciples' residence, and she was in the middle of teaching Wei Lin about some medicinal plant and judging by the glazed look on his face, it was not going well at all.

"... and that's why you have to harvest spirit herbs during lunar phases," Lin Mei was saying while holding up what looked to me like a leaf.

"The qi concentration changes depending on…"

"I'm going on a mission," I said, cutting her off, mostly because Wei Lin looked like he was about thirty seconds away from falling asleep on his feet. They both turned toward me and Lin Mei looked mildly annoyed that her lecture got interrupted while Wei Lin's face was pure relief.

"What kind of mission?" he asked, already going into what I'd started calling his networking mode in my head.

"Something profitable maybe?"

"Beast wave defense," I told him, trying to keep my voice casual about it.

"Some village needs help with it." Lin Mei's eyes narrowed.

"Which village?" I should've known better than to try being vague around her, she had this almost unnatural ability to tell when someone was holding something back.

"... Floating Reed Village."

"Your home village?" Wei Lin straightened up so fast he looked awake.

"Why didn't you say something sooner, we could've…"

"You're at Stage 5," I cut him off, as I could.

"The mission needs Stage 6 minimum at least. Besides," I gave him a small smile, "somebody has to look after Liu Chen and Rocky while I'm away."

"We could still help somehow," Lin Mei insisted.

"Maybe not with the fighting part, but…"

"No." I kept my voice firm but tried to make it kind at the same time.

"It's too dangerous, beast waves aren't like spiritual beast attacks, they're more like natural disasters except this one has teeth and claws attached to it."

"Then why are you going at all?" Wei Lin demanded.

"You're not that much stronger than either of us are."

"I'm not going alone though," I told them both.

"I joined up with a team of Inner Disciples, they're all Stage 7 or higher."

"Oh." Wei Lin relaxed a little at that.

"I'm surprised they took on an Outer Disciple for something like this."

"Formation Guild badge works wonders," I said with a grin, holding up the token for them to see.

"It's amazing how much more respectful people get once they think you might blow them up with a few placed lines on a piece of paper." Lin Mei wasn't going to be distracted that easily.

"Be careful," she said softly.

"Beast waves are unpredictable, even Stage 9 cultivators have died from not being careful enough."

"I will be," I promised her.

"Plus I'm not planning on fighting unless it's necessary, I'm going to focus on defensive formations and helping with evacuation instead." She nodded but I could tell she was still worried underneath it. Wei Lin looked like he wanted to say something more but one look from Lin Mei stopped him before he got the chance.

"We should let you go get ready then," Wei Lin said instead.

"Do you have everything you're going to need for this?" I ran through my mental list. Storage ring stocked with emergency supplies, formation materials, and enough spirit stones to power several big arrays if I needed to. Runes all maintained, qi reserves topped off from morning meditation.

"I think I'm good. Although..." I paused for a second.

"Could you two do something for me while I'm gone?"

"Of course," Lin Mei said, and Wei Lin was nodding along too.

"Keep an ear out for any news about Elder Chen Yong. He's been in seclusion for a while now and..."

"You're worried about him," Lin Mei said, finishing the thought for me. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"He's been acting strange lately," I admitted.

"If he comes out before I get back, just let him know I left the sect for a mission." They both said they'd pass the message along, and after a bit more back and forth with advice and well-wishes, I headed back to my room to start inscribing formations and doing some last-minute packing. A knock on my door pulled me out of my thoughts. It was Su Yue standing there.

"You ready? Liu Chang wants to go over the strategy one more time before we head out." I checked where the sun was in the sky. Had an hour gone by like that?

"About done," I said, shoving the last couple items into my storage ring.

"Lead the way then." She brought me to a small courtyard near the south gate where Liu Chang and Chu Feng were standing around waiting. Liu Chang had a map spread out across a stone table with small spirit stones placed on it as markers for different things.

"Ah good, you made it," he said, looking up as we walked over.

"I was just going over the terrain with them. The beast wave is most likely going to come through here," he tapped a spot on the map showing a valley pass, "which works in our favor for containment purposes. The village itself is located here, two hours away from the pass at a traveling pace." I looked over the map, taking note of the terrain features around the area.

"There's a river running along the village's eastern border here. We could work that into the defensive line somehow." Liu Chang nodded like that was what he'd been thinking too.

"My thoughts exactly. Su Yue can use her fire techniques to throw up a steam barrier if we end up needing one, and Chu Feng's wind can help direct it where we need it to go."

"And my formation arrays can stabilize the ground and give us early warning if something's coming," I added in.

"Though we'll have to be careful with placement, too many formations packed into one area can end up attracting more beasts instead of helping."

"Wait?" Su Yue looked surprised by that.

"I never heard that before."

"It's not common knowledge outside the Formation Guild. Different beasts react differently to formation energy, some of them get drawn toward it and others avoid it, so if we know which beasts we're likely dealing with, we could maybe use that to our advantage somehow."

"That's assuming we even have time to set up formations in the first place," Chu Feng pointed out. He'd been quiet through this planning session, his earlier nervousness replaced with this intense focus that made me think Azure had been right about that act of his from before.

"Even basic arrays can make a difference," I told him.

"And I've gotten good at deployment by now." Liu Chang clapped his hands together once.

"Right, so that's the plan then. We head to the village first, set up defenses there, then work with the other teams to move out and intercept the beast wave before it reaches the settlement itself. Any questions on that?" We all shook our heads.

"Good. Then let's get moving, the sooner we get there, the more time we'll have to prepare for this." As we headed towards the gate, I hung back a little, my thoughts were on if I prepared enough. Had I packed enough formation materials with me? Should I have bought more emergency talismans while I was at it? Hell, was I even ready for any of this?

"Master, are you worried about the mission," Azure piped up.

"Or about going back to the village?"

"Both," I admitted to him silently.

"It's complicated. I've got these memories of growing up there that are not mine. I remember a kind father who taught his son tailoring, a mother who always seemed to know the right thing to say, but I never met either of them, I don't know them know them."

"But you feel responsible for keeping them safe?"

"Yeah," I sighed.

"Is it strange to feel protective over people I never technically met in my life?"

"I don't think there's a standard protocol for inherited memories and the emotional attachments that come along with them," Azure replied.

"But for what it's worth, I think wanting to protect innocent people is admirable regardless of whether there's a personal connection there or not." Maybe I was overthinking it way too much. The village needed help, I was capable of giving that help, and right now that was all that mattered in the end.

"Thank you, Azure, I think I really needed to hear that." We reached the south gate where a sect elder was standing by waiting to check our mission tokens.

"Remember," the elder said when it was our turn, "this is a defensive mission, civilian safety is the priority here. Do not chase down fleeing beasts unless they're posing a significant threat to a settlement, understood?"

"Understood," Liu Chang answered for the whole group.

"And try to keep the property damage to a minimum this time around," the elder added, shooting a pointed look at Chu Feng. Chu Feng managed to look both offended and a little embarrassed at the same time somehow.

"That warehouse was unstable before I did anything! My wind blade just helped it decide which direction to fall in, that's all."

"It fell onto three other buildings."

"... in a controlled manner though?"

"Just go." The elder let out a sigh, clearly tired of expecting sensible behavior out of juniors.

"And try not to destroy any more architecture out there." As we stepped through the gate, I took one last look back at the sect behind us. The familiar buildings looked peaceful against the morning sky, disciples were going about their daily routines, it was a different picture compared to the chaos we were about to walk into.

"Are you having second thoughts about this?" Su Yue asked, noticing that I was lagging a bit behind everyone else.

"No," I said, shaking my head.

"Just hoping we all make it back in one piece, that's all."

"You've got nothing to worry about," she laughed.

"Beast wave missions are our specialty at this point." I nodded and turned my focus forward again, feeling this strange mix of emotions all at once. Anxiety about what we might run into out there, determination to protect the village no matter what, and this odd sense of anticipation underneath all of it too. After all, this was going to be my first combat mission where death would mean something final, there'd be no reset this time around.

"Azure," I thought to him as we picked up our pace, "let's go over everything we know about beast waves while we travel, I've got a feeling we're going to need every advantage we can get out there."

"Of course, Master. Though perhaps we should also talk through some contingency plans for meeting your parents?" I nearly tripped over my own feet at that. Right. That was going to be very awkward.