Chương 563: Chapter 558: A Sad Goodbye

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was that something was on my chest. It was warm and small and making little noises that I recognized as one of Moon's cubs who had apparently decided that my torso was an acceptable place to take a nap while I was unconscious and unable to do anything about it. There was another one curled up right against my side too, and I could feel tugging at my leg which meant the third one was down there doing something, probably climbing me like I was some kind of tree.

My head felt heavy and full when I tried to think, my brain was struggling to catch up with everything that happened, but slowly, the memories started coming back to me in pieces: Du Yanze and the corrupted shrine. Lu Chenyang and what he sacrificed so that I could escape. The Nightmare Enforcer consuming his spiritual manifestation while I got away.

I breathed in sharply and tried to sit up without disturbing the sleeping cub on my chest, but it was too late, the movement woke it up, the little panda blinked at me with those big dark eyes and made a questioning sound.

"Sorry," I whispered, "didn't mean to wake you up." The cub yawned showing off its tiny little teeth and then started climbing up higher to rub its face against my chin, and even with everything weighing on my mind right now, I couldn't help but smile a little because it was soft and still smelled like baby animal and milk and simple things.

Moon was a few feet away watching me with that patient expression she always had and when she saw that I was awake, she made a small huffing noise like she was saying, "oh good, you're up."

"Moon," I said, "how long was I out for?" She lifted one paw and extended a claw, one, which meant one day. Okay, that wasn't bad at all considering what happened. The cub on my chest had decided now that I was awake, it meant it was playtime and it scrambled up to my shoulder and started batting at my ear repeatedly, not hard enough to hurt, but annoying.

And then the cub that had been sleeping against my side woke up and joined in, because apparently if one sibling was having fun, then everyone needed to have fun, and that was how it worked. The third cub down at my legs had found my storage pouch and was chewing on the spiritual jade clasp.

"No, no," I said, pulling the cub away, "that's not food, you can't eat that." It made this disappointed little squeak but then accepted being redirected toward my sleeve, which it apparently found to be an acceptable substitute for jade and started chewing on the fabric contentedly. Moon watched all of this with what I could only describe as amusement, like she found it entertaining to watch me struggle to manage her children, and I suppose from her perspective, it probably was pretty funny.

I managed to eventually extract myself from all three cubs and stood up brushing fur off of my robes, only for all three of them to latch onto my legs.

"Can you call them back?" I asked Moon, "I need to check on something important." Moon made a low rumbling sound and all three cubs stopped what they were doing and looked over at their mother, she gestured with her big paw in a sweeping motion that very clearly communicated come here right now, and all three cubs abandoned me instantly and went scrambling back to press against her side.

The sudden absence of them was a little sad, something I didn't expect, I had gotten so used to having them around over these past few weeks, but I needed the space to assess my condition without worrying about accidentally hurting any of them. I turned my spiritual senses inward and felt for my cultivation base and there it was, solid and settled and real. The Oneiric Sovereign cultivation that I had broken through to during everything that happened in the Realm of the Chosen.

I could feel it clearly like it had always been a part of my foundation, even though it hadn't been there before, and I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I was holding. I had known intellectually that cultivation breakthroughs didn't stay behind when you dreamwalked, but feeling that foundation there now confirmed in the real world was something else. I channeled some dream qi to test how it flowed through the new cultivation base. The result was more than I had intended.

Silver energy burst out from my body in a sudden wave washing over the area before I could pull it back under control, and even though it wasn't dangerous, the spiritual pressure was very noticeable. Moon's head snapped up, her eyes going wide.

"Sorry!" I said pulling the energy back, "I'm still adjusting to the new level, I didn't mean to let it slip like that, it won't happen again." Moon studied me for another moment with a serious look and then made a gesture that meant something like "fine, everything is okay." The cubs, who had peeked out from behind her to see what the commotion was about, relaxed when they saw the situation was calm and tried to climb back over their mother to get back to me, which Moon stopped with one firm paw and a stern sound.

She approached me herself instead, her spiritual senses extending outward to examine my cultivation base for any signs of instability or deviation. I stood still and let her do it because this was her home, and she had every right to make sure I wasn't going to cause a problem, even accidentally. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The examination took around two minutes and when it was done, Moon made a satisfied rumbling sound, and gestured at me and then herself, then made a settling motion that I understood to mean stable, good, no problems.

"Thank you for checking," I said, "And for keeping me safe while I was asleep." Instead of responding, she disappeared into the deeper part of the cave and came back a moment later with a clay pot held carefully in her mouth, and she set it down in front of me and gestured insistently. Eat now. The pot was filled with spiritual honey that had crushed spiritual herbs mixed through it, the smell was strong and rich and full of concentrated dream qi, my mouth watered despite not being particularly hungry.

"Moon this is too valuable," I started to protest, "you don't need to." She made a sharp dismissive sound that meant that she did not care about my protests and that I was going to eat it anyway, so I ate it. The honey mixture was extremely rich, and my cultivation base absorbed the spiritual energy from it eagerly.

Whatever herbs she had mixed in were clearly high quality, cultivated for their restorative properties, because I could feel my spiritual channels strengthening and the fatigue from the cultivation integration process fading away as I worked through the pot. While I was eating, the cubs got permission from Moon to approach again, and they climbed back into my lap happily and started investigating the pot with great interest.

One of them made a serious attempt to stick his face into it for a taste but Moon pulled him back gently. This was medicine, not snacks. The disappointed noise he made was adorable. When I finished the honey, I set the pot aside. Moon was still watching me with that checking expression, making sure I wasn't going to have some kind of delayed reaction, and only when she was satisfied that I was genuinely stable, did she fully relax.

"Thank you for everything," I said, "the healing, the teaching, the safety, all of it, I wouldn't have gotten this far without your help." She made a dismissive gesture, but I could tell she was pleased. Then she gestured at me again in a more complex sequence of movements that I interpreted as a question, something like, breakthrough, how?

"It was preparation meeting an opportunity I didn't expect," I said, "I had to understand something fundamental about how dream qi works, and the meditation that led to that understanding pushed me over the threshold for advancement at the same time." Moon tilted her head and then made a gesture that seemed to convey approval. Good. Earned. The cubs were getting restless in my lap, apparently the serious adult conversation happening above their heads was not interesting enough to hold their attention.

One of them had gotten onto my shoulder to survey the cave from up there, while another one had discovered that my sleeve made an excellent hiding spot and was in the process of trying to burrow into it. I scratched the one on my shoulder behind the ears while carefully extracting the other one from inside my clothing. I thought about how uncomplicated they were.

How their world right now was playing, eating, sleeping, but eventually, they would have to grow up and deal with all the complicated difficult things that cultivation society involved. Moon would protect them as long as she possibly could but sooner or later, they'd need to face the world on their own. Which brought me to the thing I had been avoiding thinking about.

"Moon," I said, "I need to leave soon." Her expression fell. The cubs picked up on the shift in their mother's mood and stopped playing and looked between us with worried little faces.

"I'm sorry," I continued, "I wish I could stay longer, this place has been peaceful and safe, and you've been kind to me, and I'm grateful for everything but I have responsibilities that I can't keep avoiding, people who are depending on me, a battle that has been building for a long time." Moon made a small, disappointed sound.

She had known I would leave eventually, dream walkers always did, that was the nature of what they were, but knowing something and then experiencing it were very different things as I had learned myself. The cubs clearly understood on some level that I was leaving because they pressed closer to me with their little paws gripping my robes tightly like if they held on hard enough, they could keep me from going anywhere. The smallest one made a questioning chirp. Stay?

"I can't," I told her gently, "I have somewhere I need to be." The smallest cub made a distressed sound and climbed up onto my chest and pressed her fuzzy cheek against my face. My heart genuinely broke a little at that. I gathered all three of them into my arms and held them close. They pressed into me, making small whimpering sounds, and even knowing that I had to leave and that it was necessary, it didn't make any of this easier.

"Take care of your mother," I told them, even though I knew they probably couldn't understand the actual words, "she's special, don't give her too much trouble." They responded with a collection of small panda noises that I chose to interpret as agreement. Moon came over and gently extracted her babies from my arms one by one.

They protested but obeyed and settled near her feet, looking up at me with sad eyes while she made soft rumbling sounds to them that I couldn't understand but that seemed to be explaining that this was how things had to be. Then she leaned down and pressed her forehead gently against mine. It felt warm, sincere, and meaningful. When she pulled back, she pointed one paw toward the cave entrance. Go. I nodded and walked toward the entrance.

Every step felt heavier than the one before it, and at the opening I stopped and looked back at them. Moon and her three cubs settled together, watching me from their nest.

"Goodbye," I said. Moon made one final rumbling sound. It didn't feel like goodbye, it felt more like until next time. And that this wasn't the end of our time together. I hoped she was right, she probably was because now that I understood Dream Gates, I could eventually create one connecting my inner world to other realms, which would mean I could bring Moon, Little Bloom, Ancient Oak, and the other companions I had encountered during my travels together in one place.

My inner world was still small and undeveloped, but it had potential, and with the cathedral's teaching thrones and the Genesis Seed's ability to integrate different energy types, it could eventually become a real meeting place for beings from different realms, that was worth working toward. But that was all future planning and right now, I needed to focus on what was in front of me. Finding Lu Chenyang.

And then dealing with Wu Kangming in the confrontation that had been building between us since we first crossed paths. I stepped out of the cave and into the open air of the Dream World and gathered dream qi around my legs and pushed upward, the flight felt different now at the Oneiric Sovereign level, more stable and controlled and natural.

I rose up above the mountain peaks until the Dream World spread out in all directions below me and from up here, I could sense other cultivators in the distance, their spiritual signatures marking their locations like fixed points in the vast open space around me. Several were at my level, Oneiric Sovereign realm practitioners going about their own business, and one signature felt significantly stronger than mine, probably a Lucid Lawbearer, but none of them seemed interested in me or what I was doing.

That was good with me because I didn't have time for territorial challenges or random encounters with cultivators who wanted to test how strong the newcomer was. I had somewhere I had to be. The Slumbering Scholars Sect, where Lu Chenyang's injured body was waiting, where I could begin to repay what I owed for his sacrifice, and where I could start learning how to create a Dream Gate of my own.