Chương 267: Story 11 - How to Save a Sect in Six Simple Steps (Part 41/41 End) 🎉

After gathering my stuff from the alchemy room, my forge, and all the other places I left things, I teleported into my bedroom.

"Holy shit!" Aside from my window, which had a beautiful view of Fairy Lake from several floors up, everything had become much nicer. Lacquered chairs and a table had been placed next to the wall. There was even a vase that held a single lotus from the lake. It was as if the dragon had gotten tired of my boring decorating skills and wanted my room to have a super nice aesthetic. The bed I barely slept in anymore changed from its utilitarian look to something that wouldn't be out of place in an ancient palace.

It had white cotton sheets and a blue silk comforter. Fuck it. I used my spiritual energy to collect everything I owned, including the damn bed.

"Sister Lin! Check this out!" Little Spring's muffled voice called to me. I took a step and appeared next to him in the larger hallway. He had opened the door to the time-stopped pantry. It had quadrupled in size. The barrels of dangerous vines that had been a thorn in our side had vanished, leaving the room looking barren. The body of Demon Lord Xu wasn't visible, but after a quick scan, I found it. A small portion of a wall had long drawers like you'd see in a morgue from my past-past life.

He'd been stored in one of those. The gold dragon appeared above Little Spring's head and began to circle around him like a halo while looking too pleased with itself.

"As you can see. The space can now absorb the dangerous substances placed in here and use them as energy to power itself. It's much larger and has one more function! Go ahead and set a food item on this shelf." He gestured to a thick chunk of polished wood with a live edge that had been embedded in the wall. The characters for 'Treasure of the Immortal Mirror Chef' had been carved into its underside. Little Spring took out a cup of cooked spiritual rice from his ring and placed it on the glossy surface.

"Let's see, for simple spiritual rice, place a low-tier spirit stone next to it," the dragon directed. As soon as the stone touched the shelf, it sank into it. A second rice bowl, exactly the same as the original, appeared beside the plate. The dragon excitedly gestured to the two bowls. I narrowed my eyes.

"What?" Its tail drooped.

"You can see that it will copy any meal, right? As long as you use enough spirit stones." Did that practically plagiarizing author seriously give that fucker Bloodsword a limited version of Meng Hao's mirror? One that only duplicated immortal cuisine?! Those motherfucking reprehensible assholes! Just thinking about what I went through! Goddamn it! There was a time I had to live with a painful, lingering injury. I needed a meal from a Grand Flaming Lizard's Tail to counter the ice energy left in my body.

The only place where those lizards lived was in a secret realm that opened every century. It had closed twenty years earlier, so I couldn't find any on the market. One night, I noticed that Fairy Garlic made Bloodsword and his wives a massive dinner that included that lizard tail as a dish. I flew over because I thought the asshole had finally done something good for his martial sister, but when I arrived at the outdoor feast and asked if I could have a portion, the fucker and his wives refused.

They threw me out with so much force that I landed back in my immortal cave. When I promised to pay triple what the dish was worth, they yelled at me for being selfish! How the fuck had I been selfish? They were selfish! After that, I took several decades to study the teachings of the Sage Physicians I'd bribed. Then I spent five years developing a treatment for those injuries! And all that work could have been avoided with a handful of high tier spirit stones and a less fucked-in-the-head main character.

"Sister Lin?"

"No… that's great. Really, very cool... and exciting." Maybe if I became a powerful immortal, I could visit the previous timeline and murder that tail-eating, selfish scum bucket? He had this shit the whole time and could have easily given me a portion to heal me. Little Spring beamed.

"This means we just need to find one set of the ingredients for the Golden Core body cultivation dishes, then earn enough spirit stones to pay for multiple duplicates!" I nodded. Without this mirror shelf, even if we had the money, there weren't that many ingredients on the market. Not when we needed 60 portions. I smoothed down a loose strand of his soft hair.

"Let's keep our eyes out for the ingredients we need. Maybe we'll get lucky, and some of them will be easier to find on this continent."

"Oh! I use this to make two years of meals for you!" He looked sheepish.

"Since we're leaving soon, I won't be able to bring them to you right away. I'll have to send them through that merchant we met, if I can find her. The one who told me about Immortal Island. She owes me."

"You don't have to do that." While I now enjoyed the food he made me, it wasn't necessary. As a cultivator, I'd long since gotten used to fasting. He frowned.

"If I don't, you'll just go back to eating grain liberation pills or nothing at all. We're both still developing. We need to eat healthily if we don't want to stunt our growth." Why was this kid so obsessed with food? He was a cultivator, damn it. I crossed my arms.

"You'd better pull out all the stops, because I'll only finish them if they taste amazing. Be prepared. I'll message my critique to you when we have our weekly discussion at the Alchemists' Guild." He grinned.

"You're taking the wall?" Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"It's my wall. They're not getting it back." I only promised to return it when they sent me home, which they didn't do.

"Anyway, I've finished packing. Let's meet up with our teams, board our ships, and get out of this sect for good."

Since I didn't want to cause a misunderstanding, I had my friends and band members join me at the familiar practice grounds. A few stone tiles were dirty with small pieces of debris and dust, showing how close the fighting came to the inner sect. I landed next to Dread Lotus. She gave me a huge, warm hug.

"Are you seriously going away for good?" I grinned and hugged her back.:: I have to return home. That was always the plan. But the Alchemists' Guild in the city has a new communication wall, so we can chat once a week if you go there.::"Even if we exchange messages, I'll still miss seeing you.":: As long as you keep living, we'll meet again someday. The world is only enormous for those under Immortal Bone Creation.:: She nodded. I turned to the rest of Thunder and Lotus.

"It was an honor to play with you all." Azure bit her lip, and she wiped away a tear. She cleared her throat.

"You as well, Elder Linlin." Gold String bowed deeply.

"My ancestor and I will be here for you if you ever need us. Once he's finished creating his new body, we'll come visit you." Dread Lotus suddenly smiled brightly.

"That's right! We'll definitely visit when we earn the spirit stones. Our continent has a good teleportation array system." Formidable Tiger rubbed his nose.

"I still have a lot to learn from you, Elder Linlin." I pulled a jade slip from my new ring. I'd prepared it a long time ago, since I knew that I'd be leaving sooner rather than later.

"That's why I made this especially for you." With a simple flick, it flew over to him. He clasped his hands around it and bowed.

"Thank you, elder!" When I turned back to my friends, I studied them. They'd become stronger. It wouldn't be long before they reached Golden Core.

"I expect you all to show me your songs in the future. I bet they'll be cool as hell."

"Yes, Elder Linlin!" They all said. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dagger and his team arrived and quickly came over. He and his puppeteers clasped their hands and bowed.

"This disciple greets Elder Linlin!" He still looked pale, but he was better than when I last saw him.

"It's good that you survived."

"Thanks to you, elder." I wasn't too sure about that, but if he thought so, I'd accept it.

"Are you here to see me off?"

"Actually, I volunteered to be your diplomatic partner. And my team is going with us to work as our security." I crossed my arms and frowned at him. He wasn't exactly the charismatic partner that I had in mind. But he came with a team I could count on, and I knew him.

"Why volunteer?"

"After witnessing how you took down those Nascent Soul Elders, I feel compelled to keep helping you." I shook my head.

"If you think I'll have time to teach you anything, then you're wrong. This diplomatic mission is supposed to be my vacation."

"…"

"What? You don't think so? As far as I'm concerned, you'll take point on so I can focus on my research."

"Will you have time for that? I doubt those orthodox disciples will let you rest."

"Hah! At the very most, I'll beat up any Foundation Establishment disciple that challenges me for my place in the Inter-sect Tournament."

"If any of them do that after seeing what you did, they deserve the swift death that awaits them." I grinned.

"That's why I said this would be a vacation. Now go make sure everyone has everything squared away, and meet me at the ships. We won't be back here for years."

"Yes, Elder Linlin!" As they left, I turned to my flying band. They had patiently waited for me in their nodes. That wasn't something I asked them to do. The places where the missing musicians would have stood were more noticeable like this. I narrowed my eyes at them, as if judging their performance one last time. Some shuffled their feet; others nervously cleared their throats.

"That performance back there was terribly impressive. I am beyond proud of what we accomplished. You should be proud of yourselves as well. Each of you will be remembered for your contributions to this war for generations to come." One girl I had once yelled at for missing a few notes during practice bit her lip. Her eyes grew moist.

"But don't rest now. I expect your Dao of Rock to continue growing! You should keep playing in both the flying band and your separate bands. Write your own songs, even if they're bad; you'll learn something about music and yourself. That will make you stronger! Even when I'm not here."

"Yes, bandleader!"

"We saw the mural, bandleader!"

"We'll miss you, bandleader!" Damn it. The wind must have picked up some of that dust because it definitely was the reason my eyes started to water. I cleared my throat and blinked rapidly. I held my hand high above my head.

"First Flying Band of the Irrepressible Beast Blood Sect! Rock and Roar!"

"Roar!"

We met back up on the destroyed plain in front of the massive immortal ships. Noxious was there with our kidnap victims. They all looked confused and angry, and were clutching pill bottles I assumed were filled with their antidote. Fairy Cacophony greeted her inheriting disciple. The tall, thin man bowed to her. Dominaneering Restraint Master smiled widely at his grandson and gestured for him to get on the ship. Hopefully, that guy was someone the kid could rely on until we met back up.

I looked past Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dagger where Little Spring was. One of his wolf-eared taggers stood beside him. I assumed he was the partner who volunteered to go with him. He smiled wanly.

"I guess our armor set really is cursed to separate those who wear it." Scowling, I jumped over to him and flicked his glabella.

"Correlation is not causation." He rubbed his forehead.

"I know! I know!" I nodded.:: Are you going to be okay, Sister Lin?:::: Why wouldn't I be?:::: I'm still worried since you won't be able to access the space in an emergency.:::: Did you forget that I lived without it in my last life? I'll be careful. Frankly, I'm more worried about your personal mission. Even with Ghosty there to advise you, you'll still be getting close to where your mortal enemy lives.:: Fuck.

Sometimes I wondered if it wouldn't have been better to have left earlier and just suffered through the boring, no-good, very long walk home.:: I'll be careful, Sister Lin.:::: Just… don't do something stupid like actually go to the island yourself!:: Xiao Bai jumped into my arms. I touched his nose to prevent him from licking my face.

"I will miss you too, but I do not need your germs on me." Everyone going had already boarded. It was time for us to join them. I set the not-puppy down next to Little Spring. He smiled at me, then started walking toward the dark red and gold ship. I briefly turned around when I sensed eyes staring at me. Noxious, Brother Wrathful Waterspout, Sister Golden Pride, and Elder Vengeful Siren nodded to me. I bowed to them, then faced my ride. So… this was goodbye to everyone. The kid stopped like he forgot something.

He suddenly dashed back over and gave me a hug that was too tight.

"I'm going to miss you!"

"Damn it. This is embarrassing. You're embarrassing me in front of our seniors." I bit my lip and ignored the sour feeling behind my nose.

"It's fine. They don't care. But I won't see you for two whole years! I'll miss you." I patted his head.

"Those years will pass in the blink of an eye. They'll go by so fast you'll barely notice I'm not there."

"Not possible!" Then he turned and ran to board his ship. I assumed that it would leave first, but it stayed there. My team and I boarded the deck. It immediately lifted off and began moving toward the northeast. I stretched my divine sense out to make sure Little Spring wasn't being bullied already. The wolf-eared disciple disembarked just as Teasing Mouse hurriedly flew onto the ship's deck. Wait. Hold on. How the fuck did the Junior Sect Leader decide to send that incompetent bitch?!

Sure, she was charismatic, an important aspect for an ambassador, but she also needed to be smart! Besides, sending a Demonic Dancer to that orthodox sect was not a great idea! Okay. I had to look at this logically. She had grown since working with Little Spring. The kid would definitely continue training her while researching the Blue Wave Clan. Maybe this was a good thing. Fuck. Why did I have this feeling, like shit was going to fall apart?

[Image Link] Fairy Lin and Little Spring will return in Story 12: Going Home Golden