Chapter 425 - 406: Take Things as They Come

Chapter 425: Chapter 406: Take Things as They Come

"Who’s there? Who’s running into the mountains this late at night?"

It was a few of the town’s able-bodied survivors on night patrol. They held torches, illuminating his mother’s panicked face.

His mother’s body tensed, and she instinctively tucked Lu Ping behind her.

"It’s... it’s Mrs. Lu!" one of them recognized her. "Where are you taking Pingwa so late at night?"

Another man drew near. The torchlight cast his face in an eerie glow, and his eyes darted back and forth between Lu Ping and his mother.

"I... I..." His mother’s lips trembled, and for a long moment, she couldn’t form a complete sentence.

Lu Ping could feel that the hand holding his was drenched in cold sweat.

"The boy... the boy just recovered from his illness; he was getting stir-crazy inside." His mother finally forced out a sentence, but it sounded incredibly hoarse and strained. "I... I brought him out to look at the mountains, to get some fresh air."

"Fresh air? In the middle of the night, in the mountains?" The man chuckled, but the mirth didn’t reach his eyes. "Mrs. Lu, you’re not thinking of doing anything rash, are you? Mr. Lu received an Immortal’s guidance. That’s a tremendous blessing. From now on, the whole town will provide for you and your son. What could you possibly have to fret over?"

"That’s right. Don’t be afraid. We won’t let you be mistreated."

Though they spoke words of comfort, they were unconsciously closing in, forming a loose circle around them.

After a long silence, his mother finally said, "...I understand. We’ll... we’ll go back now."

The young Lu Ping didn’t quite understand. She kept a firm grip on his hand and turned to head back. The torches followed behind them all the way to their doorstep before slowly dispersing.

The moment the door closed, Lu Ping felt as if all the strength had been drained from his mother. She leaned against the door, slowly sliding to the floor. She buried her face in her knees and let out a sob. The little Lu Ping didn’t know why his mother was acting this way. ’Weren’t those just our neighbors?’

After that night, his mother became even more withdrawn.

She would just sit on the doorstep each day, staring blankly out of the courtyard for the entire day.

The townspeople still brought them food, still speaking words of gratitude, but Lu Ping couldn’t shake the strange feeling he got from the way they looked at him and his mother.

’The elders and neighbors never used to look at me this way. Is it because Father went to seek an Immortal?’

’Father was gone.’

’And now Mother wasn’t speaking either.’

’It felt like the house had returned to the deathly quiet of the plague.’

The only difference was that the warm current in Lu Ping’s body was becoming clearer, and the whispers in his ears were becoming more frequent.

"...#@... ...@#%#..."

He couldn’t understand the sounds; they just made him feel agitated.

A few more days passed like this. This evening, his mother made Lu Ping a lavish dinner with fish and meat. She kept putting food on Lu Ping’s plate, but couldn’t eat a single bite herself.

"Ping’er, eat more."

"Mother, you eat too." Lu Ping placed a piece of meat in her bowl.

His mother stared at the meat in her bowl for a long time before slowly raising her head. Her once-bright eyes were now filled with nothing but lifeless ash.

"Ping’er... Mother... has to go away too."

Lu Ping’s movements stilled.

"Go? Where? To find Father?" he asked urgently. "Let’s go together!"

His mother shook her head. She reached out and gently stroked Lu Ping’s face.

"Mother is also going... to seek an Immortal."

"Why!" Lu Ping couldn’t hold it in any longer, and tears streamed down his face. He jumped off his stool and hugged his mother’s legs. "I won’t let you go! What’s so great about seeking an Immortal? Isn’t our home good enough? Am I not good enough? Father left, and now you’re leaving too! Don’t you want me anymore?"

He sobbed uncontrollably, clinging to her with all his might.

But his mother just held him, letting his tears and snot smear all over her clothes, her body as still and unmoving as a stone statue.

"Ping’er, listen to me." Her voice was faint, almost weightless. "From now on... you’ll be alone. You must live on. Find a place where no one can find you. You don’t need to achieve anything great, don’t be obsessed with things like your father and I were. Just be content with what you have and live a good life, okay?"

"It’s not okay! I won’t be okay!" Lu Ping wailed. "I don’t want to be alone!"

His mother said no more, only held him a little tighter.

After some time, Lu Ping had cried himself to exhaustion, his sobs subsiding into quiet hiccups in his mother’s arms.

His mother carried him back to his bed and tucked him in. She stood by the bedside, watching him for a very, very long time, then turned and walked, step by step, toward the door.

"Mother!" Lu Ping shot up from the bed, wanting to chase after her.

His mother reached the doorway and stopped.

"Don’t come out."

"Get as far away from the town as you can, and never... come back."

As her words faded, the moment she closed the door, Lu Ping suddenly felt the object tucked inside his clothes turn scalding hot!

A faint white light suddenly erupted!

He felt the whole world spin. The room, the courtyard, and his mother’s resolute departing figure all twisted, dissolved, and vanished into the light...

When he could see clearly again, he found he was no longer in his familiar home.

He was surrounded by steep cliffs and jagged rocks. Above him was a narrow sliver of sky, where a solitary moon hung.

A cold wind blew down his collar. He stood all alone in an unfamiliar canyon, and fear instantly engulfed him.

"Mother! Father!"

He shouted in fear, but only a vast echo answered him.

Just then, a faint rustling sound came from the rocks above his head.

Lu Ping looked up, trembling.

In the moonlight, a pure white figure was perched on the edge of the high cliff, its golden eyes fixed on him.

It was the monkey.

It was a little bigger than he remembered, but it still didn’t seem to be an adult. Its pure white fur shimmered under the moonlight, looking clean and fluffy.

Lu Ping tilted his head back and opened his mouth, but his throat was too dry to make a sound.

’It’s him.’

The white-furred monkey on the cliff also tilted its head, seeming to size him up, its golden eyes filled with a hint of confusion.

’This little guy... How’d he end up here?’

’Did they use that thing... so soon?’

Lu Ping trembled, and the night wind made him shiver. He finally found his strength and shouted up at the cliff.

"Where’s my mother?"

"Little monkey, did you see my mother?"

"My father... did my father really go to seek an Immortal?"

His cries echoed through the empty canyon, sharp and choked with the sobs of a child.

The monkey did not answer immediately.

It simply stood up from the high cliff edge, stretched its limbs, and then leaped.

The white figure traced an arc through the air, landing not far in front of Lu Ping. Startled, Lu Ping stumbled back two steps and fell onto the cold ground.

The monkey walked up to him, crouched down, and met his gaze.

"Seek... seek... Immortal?"

The words came out haltingly from the monkey’s mouth. It tilted its head again, seeming to struggle to understand what the young Lu Ping was saying.

’Seek an Immortal? I haven’t even cultivated into a demon Immortal yet, so what Immortal are they seeking? Those Immortals flying in the sky kill demon beasts for their cores at the drop of a hat, set traps to capture and enslave spirit beasts. What’s so great about seeking that kind of Immortal?’

’It had no idea what this little brat was talking about or why he was saying it, but... from the looks of it, he must have used the thing it gave to Mr. Lu.’

Lu Ping looked at it, a surge of hurt and hope swelling in his heart.

’It can talk!’

’Father and Mother weren’t lying!’

"My mother left! She said she’s going to seek an Immortal too! She doesn’t want me anymore!"

"My father left too! They’re both gone!"

"Do you know where they went? Can you take me to them?"

Lu Ping wailed incoherently, reaching out his small hand to grab the monkey’s arm.

The monkey instinctively jumped back, dodging his hand, but then felt it shouldn’t have done that.

’Is it too late to go back and let him grab my arm?’

’Forget it.’

It began to scan him up and down with its golden eyes. Finally, its gaze landed on Lu Ping’s chest.

There, from his earlier fall, a corner of the hard object in his inner pocket was exposed, and the rough cloth wrapping it had come slightly loose.

The monkey drew closer, extended a claw, and gently hooked the object out from inside his shirt.

It was a piece of iron it had given to Mr. Lu, engraved with some twisted patterns.

What truly drew the monkey’s attention, however, was the piece of sackcloth wrapped around the iron. On the cloth, a few lines of text were scrawled crookedly in black charcoal.

The monkey brought the cloth closer to its eyes, somewhat puzzled.

Although it could already speak, it didn’t recognize many written characters yet.

It stared for a long time before it was able to make out a few of the characters.

"...take... son... go..."

"...far..."

"...don’t... return... town..."

Although it couldn’t recognize many of the characters, when strung together, it roughly understood the meaning.

’It was asking it to take this child and run.’

’Run as far away as possible, and never go back to that town.’

The monkey fell silent.

It recalled when Mr. Lu had found it, his bloodshot eyes and his reckless determination. It also remembered its own suggestion to "burn it all down," and how Mr. Lu had angrily stopped it.

’It still didn’t understand.’

’Why?’

’Hadn’t those people all recovered?’

’So why run?’

’But... this was what Mrs. Lu had asked of it.’

The monkey scratched its head and stopped overthinking it.

The next moment, it dropped the sackcloth, put the now-inert object back inside Lu Ping’s shirt, and then grabbed Lu Ping by the scruff of his collar, lifting him off the ground.

Caught completely by surprise, Lu Ping was hoisted into the air, his feet dangling off the ground.

"Ah! Little monkey, what are you doing! Let me go!"

"My mother isn’t here! She’s in the town! I have to find my mother! I’m not leaving!!!"

He struggled with all his might, kicking and flailing his arms and legs.

But the monkey paid him no mind, and holding him tight, turned and sprinted off, away from Qinghe Town.

Its speed was incredible. The cliff walls on either side rushed past, and the cold wind stung the young Lu Ping’s face.

"Let me go! You stinking monkey!"

"I want to go home! I want to find my mother!"

Lu Ping’s cries were torn to shreds by the wind. He watched the direction of his home grow more and more distant, his heart filling with fear and anger.

’His parents didn’t want him, and now this monkey was trying to drag him off to some godforsaken place!’

’He wouldn’t let it!’

In his desperation, Lu Ping opened his mouth and bit down hard on the claw that was holding his collar.

"SSSK!"

Yelping in pain, the monkey instinctively released its grip. Lu Ping fell to the ground, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

Ignoring the pain, he scrambled to his feet and turned to run back the way they came.

The monkey started back toward him, but before it had taken two steps, it sensed an aura rapidly approaching!

’There’s a human Cultivator nearby!!!’