Chapter 503: A Grave, a Tear, and an Immortal Body

A Grave, a Tear, and an Immortal Body

Perhaps this was simply the fate of mortals.

Birth.

Life.

Death.

Reincarnation.

Leon let out a quiet sigh.

At least the old Hermit could finally rest in peace.

He picked up a handful of earth and let it fall over the grave. Then another. Slowly, he covered the old man’s body until nothing remained visible beneath the fresh soil.

The wind swept across the hill, carrying away the silence that followed.

Shasa stood nearby.

She hadn’t said a word for a long time. Her eyes remained fixed on the small mound of earth before her, as if she were waiting for something.

Perhaps she was waiting for the old Hermit to sit up and complain.

Perhaps she expected him to grumble about the cold, brush the dirt from his clothes, and tell her that she was making a fuss over nothing.

But nothing happened.

The wind continued to blow.

The grass swayed gently.

And the grave remained silent.

Something inside Shasa was beginning to change.

It happened slowly, almost painfully. There was no sudden revelation, no single moment when everything finally made sense.

The truth simply began to sink in.

The old Hermit wasn’t sleeping.

He wasn’t going to wake up.

He wouldn’t scold her for coming home late anymore. He wouldn’t complain when she ate too much of the food they had managed to find. He wouldn’t ask where she had gotten another sunflower or shake his head when she gave him some ridiculous explanation.

Those little moments had always seemed ordinary.

She had never thought much about them.

There had always been another day. Another chance to annoy him. Another opportunity to hear him grumble.

But now\...

There would be no more chances.

The old Hermit was gone.

Shasa’s fingers tightened around the edge of her yellow sleeve. Her small shoulders trembled, though she seemed almost unaware of it.

She lowered her head.

A hollow feeling spread through her chest.

She had known about death long before this day. She understood what it meant when someone died. She knew that some people left this world and never returned.

She wasn’t so naive that she couldn’t understand the difference between life and death.

She had seen too much for that.

She had known hunger. She had suffered pain. She had experienced the cruelty of people who cared nothing for whether she lived or died.

She understood how the world worked.

What she hadn’t understood was how it would feel to lose someone she had come to depend on.

The old Hermit had been there when so many others were gone.

He had remained beside her when she had almost nothing. He had given her a place to return to, however shabby that place might have been. He had complained about her habits, argued with her over food, and fussed over the smallest things.

Back then, she hadn’t realized how much those ordinary moments meant.

She had simply assumed they would continue.

Now, standing before his grave, she finally understood what it meant to lose the one person who had stayed.

There was no one left to complain about her coming home late.

No one left to ask whether she had eaten.

No one left to wait for her.

Only a mound of fresh earth remained.

Leon noticed the change in her expression.

The usual mischief had disappeared from her face. Even the restless energy that seemed to follow her everywhere had faded.

For once, Shasa looked utterly lost.

Leon didn’t try to comfort her with empty words.

He knew better than to tell someone to stop being sad when they had barely begun to understand their own grief.

Some wounds couldn’t be healed by a few reassuring words. Sometimes, a person simply needed time to feel the pain.

So he let her stand there.

He let her look at the grave for as long as she wanted.

After a while, Leon took out a simple stone tablet and placed it carefully in front of the mound.

There was no elaborate carving or grand inscription. The stone was plain, its surface rough and unremarkable.

Only four words had been carved into it.

Old Hermit’s Grave.

That was all.

There was no need for a glorious title or a lengthy account of the old man’s life. As far as Shasa was concerned, he had always been the old Hermit.

That was who he was.

That was how she would remember him.

Leon brushed the dirt from his hands and turned toward his student.

"Student, the old Hermit will rest here from now on. Remember this place. When you’ve grown up and become a little more sensible, you can come back whenever you miss him."

His tone was gentle, carrying none of its usual teasing sharpness.

Shasa slowly shook her head.

She kept looking at the grave.

For a moment, Leon wondered whether she had even heard him.

The words seemed simple enough. She understood what they meant. The old Hermit had been buried, and this was where he would remain.

She could return whenever she wanted.

But somehow, hearing it spoken aloud made everything feel worse.

Rest here?

Come back when she missed him?

Why would she need to come back if he could simply return home with her?

Shasa knew the answer.

She just didn’t want to think about it.

Her lips parted slightly, but no words came out. She lowered her gaze, her fingers still clutching the yellow fabric of her sleeve.

Rias watched her for a moment before stepping closer.

Her long red hair stirred in the cold breeze. She stopped beside Shasa and gently placed a hand on the girl’s head.

"It’s all right," Rias murmured. "You don’t have to think about everything right now."

She stroked Shasa’s hair, taking care not to disturb her.

"From now on, we’re your family."

Shasa slowly lifted her head.

She looked at Rias as though she were trying to understand what those words meant.

Her eyes lingered on the older woman’s face. There was warmth in Rias’s expression, and she wasn’t looking at Shasa with pity.

She meant it.

She really meant it.

For a brief moment, Shasa seemed to want to say something. Perhaps she wanted to ask whether Rias would really stay. Perhaps she wanted to know whether this promise would last.

But the questions remained trapped behind her lips.

In the end, she simply nodded.

"Okay..."

Her voice was unusually quiet.

Rias gave her head one final, gentle pat.

Shasa turned back toward the grave.

And that was when the emptiness inside her seemed to grow heavier.

She couldn’t explain it.

Her chest hurt, and breathing suddenly felt strange. She swallowed, trying to push down the uncomfortable feeling, but it refused to disappear.

Why did it hurt so much?

She had been hungry before. She had gone without food for days. She had been beaten and forced to sleep in the cold. She had watched people leave without looking back.

She had learned to endure things that would have broken many others.

Sometimes, she had even laughed at things that should have made her cry.

She had always believed that if she was strong enough, she could get through anything.

But this...

This was different.

There was no enemy to fight. No pain she could grit her teeth and endure until it passed. No one she could chase after and demand an explanation from.

She couldn’t do anything about the grave.

She couldn’t force the old Hermit to open his eyes.

And she couldn’t make him come home.

Her vision blurred.

Shasa blinked quickly, confused by the sudden wetness in her eyes.

A tear slipped down her cheek.

She froze.

For a moment, she seemed almost offended by it. She raised the back of her hand and hurriedly wiped her face, as though she could make the tear disappear before anyone noticed.

But another one followed.

Then another.

This time, she didn’t wipe them away.

She simply stood there, staring at the grave as tears gathered in her eyes.

Her mouth trembled faintly.

She didn’t make a sound.

Perhaps she still didn’t know how to cry properly for someone she had lost. Perhaps some part of her was still waiting for the old Hermit to appear behind her and ask what on earth she was doing.

But no one came.

The tears continued to fall.

Leon watched her quietly.

His expression changed.

Until now, he had wondered how much Shasa truly understood about the old Hermit’s death. She had seemed strangely composed throughout the burial, almost as though the loss hadn’t fully registered.

He had suspected that her understanding of death was different from that of an ordinary person.

Now, however, he saw it clearly.

She understood.

Perhaps she had understood from the beginning.

She simply hadn’t been ready to accept it.

That single tear told him more than any explanation could have.

Leon didn’t say anything. He let Shasa cry in silence, giving her the space she needed.

Yet even as he watched her, another thought began to take shape in his mind.

This girl really is the reincarnation of a mighty figure.

He had suspected as much for some time.

There was something unusual about Shasa, something that went beyond her strange temperament and astonishing physical strength. Her instincts were sharp, her reactions often exceeded what her apparent experience should have allowed, and there was a natural fierceness in her that couldn’t easily be taught.

She was still young in many ways, but there was something about her that felt much older.

The question was, who had she been in her previous life?

Leon narrowed his purple eyes and studied her more carefully.

He had no answer yet.

But perhaps he was about to discover another piece of the puzzle.

As Shasa’s emotions continued to fluctuate, a faint glimmer appeared between her eyebrows.

At first, it was barely noticeable.

Leon might have overlooked it if he hadn’t been watching her so closely.

Then the light became clearer.

A subtle mark emerged beneath the traces of her tears, faintly shimmering against her skin.

Leon’s expression changed.

He leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed on the spot between Shasa’s brows.

That is...

His breath caught.

A King Seal.

For several seconds, he simply stared.

Then a quiet sound escaped his lips.

"Hiss..."

He hadn’t expected this.

Not here.

Not in a broken little city where the streets were worn, the buildings crumbling, and ordinary people struggled to survive.

Certainly not in a girl who had spent her days living in a ruined wooden house, finding whatever food she could and wandering around with a carefree attitude that often made her seem utterly unconcerned about the world.

Yet the evidence was right in front of him.

A King Seal.

A talent of the Martial Emperor level.

Leon found himself looking at Shasa with renewed interest.

If her emotions hadn’t fluctuated so intensely just now, he might never have noticed it. The mark had been concealed so deeply that an ordinary examination would likely have missed it altogether.

Even he had needed the right circumstances to catch a glimpse of it.

What an extraordinary little girl.

His initial surprise gradually gave way to curiosity.

Just how powerful had Shasa been in her previous life?

And what had brought someone of that caliber to be reincarnated in such an obscure place?

There were too many questions, and far too few answers.

Leon didn’t intend to force the issue. He had already learned that Shasa possessed a stubborn streak, and he doubted that pressing her with questions would accomplish much.

Besides, he had discovered something even more interesting.

He reached out and gently took her hand.

Shasa turned to look at him. Her cheeks were still damp, and her eyes remained slightly red.

"Teacher?"

Leon gave her a reassuring look but didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he closed his eyes and focused his attention on her body.

A faint thread of Mana spread from his hand.

It entered Shasa gently, moving through her body as Leon carefully examined her internal condition. He paid close attention to the flow of energy, the structure of her meridians, and the subtle characteristics of her physical constitution.

At first, he expected to find something unusual.

After all, the King Seal alone was enough to suggest that Shasa’s talent was far beyond ordinary.

But the deeper his perception reached, the more his expression changed.

Something wasn’t right.

Her body was not merely strong. There was an underlying quality to it that seemed fundamentally different from that of an ordinary cultivator.

Her physical constitution possessed a peculiar vitality, as though the very foundation of her existence followed a different set of rules.

Leon carefully examined it again.

Then he opened his eyes.

For the first time since meeting Shasa, he looked genuinely stunned.

"An Immortal Body?"

The words escaped him before he could stop them.

He stared at the girl standing beside him, momentarily at a loss for words.

An Immortal Body.

Such a physique was extraordinarily rare. It was the sort of constitution that could make powerful cultivators abandon years of carefully laid plans just for the chance to obtain it.

Yet Shasa possessed one.

And she had been living in a ruined wooden house, surviving on scraps, with seemingly no idea of what lay dormant within her.

Leon withdrew his Mana and remained silent for a moment.

He needed to think.

A King Seal was already astonishing. An Immortal Body made the situation considerably more complicated.

If word of Shasa’s physique spread, she would inevitably attract attention.

Some powerful figures might offer to take her as a disciple. Others could attempt to win her over with promises of resources and protection.

But not everyone would have good intentions.

There would be people who saw her as an opportunity rather than a person. They might covet her bloodline, seek to exploit her constitution, or attempt to take what she possessed by force.

Leon had no intention of allowing that to happen.

He looked down at Shasa.

She was still standing quietly beside him, her attention drifting between his face and the grave behind them. Whatever extraordinary secrets her body concealed, she remained the same girl who had just lost someone dear to her.

She didn’t need more trouble.

And she certainly didn’t need the entire cultivation world discovering her existence before she was ready.

Leon raised his free hand.

A thin strand of Mana gathered at his fingertips before flowing into Shasa’s body.

This time, he didn’t examine her.

Instead, he guided the energy through her meridians, allowing it to settle deep within her body. The Mana spread carefully, wrapping around the distinctive aura of her physique and concealing its unusual characteristics.

He worked slowly.

The process had to be precise. Concealing something so extraordinary without disturbing its natural development required care.

Eventually, the aura that had made her Immortal Body so distinctive faded beneath the layer of Mana he had established.

To most people, Shasa would now appear far more ordinary than she truly was.

Only someone with exceptionally powerful perception, or someone who already knew what to look for, might uncover the truth.

Leon lowered his hand.

For a moment, he observed Shasa to make sure everything was in order.

Then he finally relaxed.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

His mood had improved considerably.

He had come across an extraordinary student, one who possessed a King Seal and an Immortal Body. Her physical strength was already impressive, and there was clearly more to her than he had initially realized.

The old Hermit’s death had left Shasa with a wound that would take time to heal.

Leon couldn’t erase that pain.

But he could stay beside her. He could teach her, protect her, and give her the chance to grow into someone who would never again have to face the world completely alone.

As for her extraordinary talent...

That was something they could deal with in time.

Leon glanced at the grave once more, then looked back at the girl beside him.

What a lucky discovery.

He had found a treasure.

Not gold. Not a rare artifact. Not some ancient inheritance buried beneath the earth.

A student.

A future powerhouse whose true potential had yet to unfold.

And if he nurtured her properly, there was no telling how far she might go.

Perhaps one day, Shasa would stand among the strongest cultivators in the world.

Perhaps she would even reach its very peak.

Leon couldn’t know that yet.

But as he watched her standing quietly beside the old Hermit’s grave, he found himself looking forward to discovering just what kind of future awaited his little student.