Bi De observed the village from his place on his Master’s shoulders. The celebrations had largely ended although the decorations would stay up for a few more days. They had ended up staying one additional day, not departing until after lunch, so that they could spend time with the performers after they had a chance to rest. Little Hong Xian had received so much praise that he eventually got flustered and hid behind the Healing Sage and Disciple Xiulan. Floating chopsticks had warded away any who approached, much to the amusement of the village.

Now they would be leaving, and the villagers had come to see them off.

A strange feeling welled in his chest at the sight of the people gathered around, shoving snacks into their hands or wishing them well. He felt almost forlorn, like he knew he would miss this place and look back on this moment fondly even as he experienced it.

“Bye, Meimei, Big Bro!” Hong Xian the younger called, waving enthusiastically at them. The shoulder Bi De was on shifted as his Great Master turned to catch the tackle hug that impacted him. The young lad still looked tired, but his grin was bright until the Healing Sage bent down to kiss his cheeks and hug him. He frowned and made many faces of disgust… but he never tried to push her away. Bi De’s Great Master and Liu Bowu clapped him on the back and ruffled his hair.

“It seems all our training paid off, Xian,” Xiulan said with a proud smile.

“Yeah! Thanks, Lanlan!” The boy cheered, using the nickname he had given her.

Bi De’s attention was drawn away by a great commotion.

“Aww, does Chun Ke have to go?” Several children whined, crowding around the boar and his lady. They pouted and wheedled for one last ride, and shrieked with joy as his kindly brother obliged them.

Bi De shook his head at their antics and turned back to where the village chief’s house was. Sister Ri Zu had gone to pay her respects to her ‘uncle’.

Xian the Elder ruffled Sister Ri Zu’s fur and nodded companionably to Sister Pi Pa. The pig had several satchels filled with mushrooms on her back and looked quite pleased. Bi De watched with a smile at the gentle interaction, until his gaze was interrupted by Tigu and another girl tussling and shoving.

“It’ll be good to get you out of my hair, Muscles.” One of the village girls, Ty An, drawled at Tigu.

“Bye bye, Freckles!” Tigu returned. The girl rolled her eyes… and then blinked in surprise as the Healing Sage came up behind her and embraced her as well, her little brother gone to collect Bowu from the forge. The younger was wishing his other Big Brother goodbye, but there was another scene that Bi De didn’t quite expect.

Huo Ten, the crystal secure on his back, stood across from Yao Che, the blacksmith. Both man and monkey had their arms folded across their chests as they sized each other up. The monkey had taken interest in the forge over lunch and started to poke around, only to be caught by the enormous man.

The monkey bared his teeth and hooted, gesturing at the iron ore resting on the side of the forge.

Yao Che snorted, his breath coming out as steam from his nostrils and his muscles bulged so much they looked like they were about to rip out of his shirt.

“Is that so?” The blacksmith asked.

Huo Ten slammed both his palms into the ground and let loose an angry snarl, his posture similarly aggressive. For a moment, it looked like there was about to be some manner of altercation as sparks flew between the two.

Then Yao Che held out his hand and the monkey took it with great force, both man and monkey squeezing hard enough their faces turned red.

They gave one another a manly nod and disengaged. Yin and Miantiao looked on, amused, as man and monkey turned their backs on each other and began to walk away—only for them both to start shaking their hands in obvious discomfort.

Bi De chuckled and his eyes began to wander as his great Master clasped arms with another man who had come up to him, both of them laughing at some manner of joke.

Xianghua seemed to have no idea what to do as she was fussed over by Hu Li, the woman tying the end of a braid into her hair, and then hugging her tight and kissing her on both cheeks.

The Xong Brothers clasped forearms with their father as they stacked the remains of a successful hunt beside their old house, the boys lasting until their father rolled his eyes and pulled them into a hug.

Bei Be, the great ox wandered in from the outskirts of the village. To Bi De’s surprise, Liu, the quiet little girl who oft bedecked Xiulan in flower crowns, walked beside him. They paused at the outskirts, and both the silent girl and equally silent ox stared at each other for a moment before they both bowed slightly to each other before parting ways.

Little Liu strode with purpose to Xiulan, a holly wreath in her hands. Xiulan knelt down and allowed it to be placed on her head, amusement dancing in her eyes.

Finally, Wa Shi prowled lethargically over, waving goodbye to the Aunties of the village, who waved back and giggled. Even as a dragon, the fish’s stomach was swollen and plump looking from the amount of food the ladies had plied him with.

Bi De watched it all, the strange feeling persisting. Out of all of them… he was the one with the least connection to this village. He normally took to the roofs and merely observed. He considered himself a protector of this place, not truly a part of it. He would act to defend it, as he had done in the Eighth Correct Place, but Bi De could see he had made no true connections.

He mused that it was something he would have to rectify in the future.

There was a soft cough that drew his attention. Liu, who had given the crown of holly to Xiulan, was standing before them.

She said nothing as she held up a smaller ring of holly fit for Bi De’s head.

The rooster hopped from his perch and bowed his head, allowing her to crown him with the evergreen boughs of holly.

The girl planted her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction.

This little one was tolerable, compared to the rest of the children, Bi De decided. He would have to do something in return for this thoughtful gift. And he could play the game of go that the Elders of the village so enjoyed. Perhaps that would be his path forward?

“See you later, everybody!” Bi De’s Great Master called as the flurry of goodbyes wound down. It was what his Great Master preferred to say, implying that they would meet again in the future.

Then he ventured over to the sleigh and whistled. Chun Ke and Pi Pa trotted forward… but instead of being hitched up themselves, hopped into the driver’s seat.

Chun Ke squealed happily as his Great Master lifted up the front of the sleigh.

They exited the village to uproarious laughter while Bi De bid them his own goodbye, his voice echoing over the hills.

Their walk back home was a relaxing one, walking instead of a race against the wind.

Bi De, for his part, stayed upon his Great Master’s shoulder, simply enjoying the moment, the time that was here and now. He took strength from it.

He did not look at the crystal’s contents immediately, of course. Such a thing would have been foolish without properly centering himself… and he would have, in Pi Pa’s words, been an ‘unbelievable boor’ to set himself to a task in this time of joy.

It was not fair to any of them , he too wanted this moment before he learned whatever shocking revelation the crystal would surely hold. When they arrived home they would be together, exchanging the gifts to mark the celebration of the new cycle’s beginning. Bi De would share in the joy of hearth and home.

Bi De was looking forward to it. He was curious what the others had gotten for each other.

The present pile was honestly a lot bigger than I had been expecting.

Really, I had no intention of forcing other people to give gifts. I just kind of thought it would be something I did. Hell, I didn’t mind. I always did like giving people things for Christmas more than I did getting them.

I hadn’t really expected Meimei to just start making things for people, joining in without a word from me.

Peppa and Big D had noticed what she was doing, and before I knew it everybody was all in on Santa day.

I was a little iffy on it being some kind of mandatory thing, I didn’t want to turn it into something like it was in the Before, but I had a feeling we were still in the “thoughtful gift that was useful” stage rather than any kind of super commercialized thing.

After we got back home and had settled in, we all ended up around the fire to do presents. I started handing out the gifts to be opened one at a time with everyone scattered around the room. We filled the couches and the cushions, and there was an air of excitement and curiosity as I started handing out my gifts. Tigu looked a bit nervous in the beginning, her bright red hat on her head, but that dropped off quickly once I handed her a gift wrapped in cloth.

Really, the wrapping on the presents looked a bit more drab than I was expecting, but wasting coloured paper for this wasn’t something even I really wanted to do. Instead, the presents were nearly tied up in cloth and leather. A few of them were even wrapped in reed bags, like the kind we used for rice.

“Alright, next one is for Big D…” I said, holding my gift out to him.

“Thank you, Master.” The rooster said, bowing as I handed him his gift. With deft movements of his beak, he opened the package and beheld the cloak within. It was a near duplicate of the one Meimei had made for me, with a water-proof exterior and a warm silk lining.

“This one is from me and Mei.” I explained, smiling at his wide eyes.

“Thank you Master and Mistress. I shall cherish this.”

The rooster bowed low to both Mei and I. I grinned back at him, then looked over the rest of the crowd. Most of my gifts had already been distributed.

Tigu was already intently examining a scroll on knotwork designs from Pale Moon Lake City. Washy was sitting beside her, equally intent on what I had gotten him: a bunch of journals from explorers.

It was nice that the Azure Jade Trading Company could specifically find ones that talked about food a lot. Honestly, those people were wizards.

Rizzo seemed to like her new little bracers, which had been a bitch and a half to sew, while Peppa cheerfully displayed a set of brushes to a cowboy-hatted Chunky. For Xiulan, Yun Ren, Gou Ren, and Xianghua I had made sets of actual skates. Proper, purpose built ones.

The cobbler had looked at me like I was mad, but I paid good money and he had gotten a lot of business from me.

Bowu was marveling at his set of steel-toed working boots.

I didn’t need the great and powerful OSHA Sect to cross time and space and start screaming at me, thank you very much.

Miantiao got another knitted snake sock, and for Bebe I had made a better hitch for the plow so he could carry it around easier.

Yin and Huo Ten were the hardest, really, but both seemed to like their new helmets well enough.

Though, I must admit, I did sneak in a bit of tomfoolery.

“Hey, Meimei!”

My wife glanced up as I chucked her a present. An eyebrow raised, she opened the cloth and found within it a hat.

“I’ve already got one of….” She tailed off as she noticed something amiss about the design.

Then she started cackling.

It was a classic design, several white deer on a red backdrop. Xiulan glanced at it before she too stifled a laugh.

Because while most of the hat looked normal… in a few of the scenes, one deer was humping another.

She pulled it on immediately, a massive grin on her face.

Maybe it was a little scuffed to only get her a hat… but hey, I had already done a library and a greenhouse so I was running out of ideas for this year. Though from her bright smile I could tell that she liked my rude present just as much as everything else I had done.

“That’s me done. Who’s next?” I asked and opened up the floor.

To I think everybody’s surprise, Babe the ox stood and walked with purpose over to a simple stack of wood. He picked one up in his mouth and took it over to me.

Curious, I accepted it. It was simple. Simple, but the fact that he had made anything at all was surprising.

Upon the block was a single word. Done not in brush strokes, but utterly perfect cuts that had a style and personality about them. Rou’s memories were impressed, a slight push of feeling from the hours he had spent learning how to write and craft the Courtly characters, experience I leaned on heavily.

I glanced up and saw that basically everybody received the same thing. A block of wood with a single word.

“This will look good on the wall.” Yun Ren said, tilting his piece of wood so that I could see the Character for Truth on his.

Meimei was staring at hers with a raised eyebrow. “Constellation?”

Before we really had time to consider everything, Chunky bounced up and shoved in his gift.

Chunky’s displayed set of pottery was amateurish, and he had obviously been coached by Miantiao for how to properly make the set of pots and planters, each with a protrusion that made them look like a different chibified animal.

There was a fat, round pig, a curled up, sleepy-looking cat, and a sitting hen, to name a few, and Rancher Chunky with his cowboy hat had handed all of them out eagerly.

“This is so cute.” My wife whispered as she stared at the little rat pot that had been presented to her.

One by one, more and more people stood up to pass around the stuff they had gotten everybody.

Miantiao obviously had things like glassware, including a giant, german style beer stein that I had shown him a drawing of.

Peppa’s gifts, on the other hand, leaned more towards the practical. She got me what looked like an organizer for my desk that she stared very, very pointedly at.

I turned to my wife for moral support and simply got a raised eyebrow. I pouted. My stuff was organized fine! I knew where everything was!

Mostly.

Yin and Huo Ten had doubled up together, and what followed was a collection of stuff they had found while digging away, from geodes to giant quartz chunks. Fascinating rocks and crystals.

Gou Ren and Yun Ren had given things like more leather pouches and thick gloves… mostly because we could never get enough of the things. Rizzo had handed out a kind of personalized little first aid kit. There were things like burn creams and salves for Bowu and Miantiao, while I got some kind of really funky goop that was minty and made the affected area go all chilly.

Xiulan, on the other hand, had a shit eating grin on as she gave me several more games that she was clearly looking forward to beating me at.

Tigu and Washy had teamed up for theirs, and I was quite impressed when they brought out the first one for me.

It was a wooden haft. A shovel haft. It was formed out of a strong, sturdy piece of Ashwood—a limb from a tree that wasn’t on the farm, from the feeling of it, but there was still just a little bit of Qi to it. It felt strong even now.

“Washy came up with the idea and helped me find the branch.” Tigu said, giving the dragon his due. “And then we carved it together.”

I smiled at the swirling patterns and geometric shapes that, if rolled out, would form a complete scene: a river, flowing through fertile land.

For something last minute… It was really, really nice.

The pair delivered more carved and crafted objects to everyone else. From Gou Ren’s new staff to a hair tie for Xiulan and two smaller hafts for Meimei’s little herb garden rakes and trowels.

Meimei’s too was pretty personalized, though again, instead of everybody groaning at getting clothes, Meiling’s gifts were received with enthusiasm. Hell, Meimei was just flat out insane at this. Tailored shirts? Silk underclothes? Shit, you’d have had to pay a fortune for this stuff and Meimei could just… make it.

Hell, all of my family from the Before had been pretty handy in the clothes department, making warm shirts and doing patch jobs, but Mei blew that completely out of the water. You could barely see the seams, even with cultivator enhanced vision.

But Mei just shrugged and treated it like it was normal. “I still have a lot to learn.” she said primly.

“Humble brag.” I shot back at her.

My wife stuck out her tongue at me, her face slightly flushed.

Then, we arrived at the last person left who had waited patiently.

A rooster stood up.

“If I may, Great Master,” Big D stated calmly.

Carefully, he picked up the first of his gifts and presented it to me.

It was a drawing. A drawing done in what people would consider a traditional chinese print. It was of a man looking over a hill, with a rooster on his shoulder.

Below that was a set of elegant characters.

“We all make our choices. But in the end, our choices make us.”

“If I had a thousand lifetimes, and a million choices, I would choose this path every time.”

I swallowed thickly, I could feel tears in my eyes, and glanced up. Everybody had their own page. Meimei, sitting beside me, was looking at hers with surprise. She glanced up at the rooster, before it transitioned into a smile. Peppa was stoic as she received hers, while Chunky oinked happily. Tigu was squinting at her print page, and then she furiously rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“You’re too sappy, you stupid bird,” she muttered.

“Maybe just a little,” the rooster’s rumbled back, his deep voice echoing.

The room lapsed into silence as Tigu grabbed Big D and pulled him into her lap. She rubbed her chin aggressively against the top of his head, and the rooster just looked bemused.

I chuckled at the sight and put my arm around Meimei as she leaned into my side.

The hearth slowly burned down as the night wore on, and I just basked in the glow.

“Oh! Right, I have one more present!” Tigu suddenly said. She popped up off the floor and shot outside.

I raised an eyebrow at her haste, and I saw some curious glances.

We did not have to wait long for her to return. She came back in, lugging an ice sculpture covered by a blanket.

“This is for you, Blade of Grass! I have overcome the fact that you’re boring to make this! It turned out quite well, no?”

The blanket came off the sculpture.

Xianghua clapped her hands over her little brother’s eyes.

Meiling let out a puerile giggle.

I stared for a moment longer than was probably polite before looking over at Xiulan.

The Cai Xiulan of the past probably would have been angry to the point of coming to blows at what Tigu had just done.

Instead of anger, or even serious embarrassment, there was simply fond exasperation.

“Thank you, Tigu.” She said, holding out her arms so that she could give the girl a hug. “It’s as well done as always.”

The silence was slightly awkward, before it was broken by a muffled pop as a tiny white fox burst into existence beside Yun Ren.

“Ugh, that took more out of me than I thought, and the ambient Qi is so strange.” The white fox cleared his throat. “Hello again, Nephew. It’s good to see you again—” The fox’s eyes caught on what had previously consumed everybody else’s attention.

“Oh my.” The fox said, and then he turned to Tigu. “Darling, this is magnificent. Do you take commissions?”

Needless to say, the night burst into a flurry of activity and all I could do was lean back and watch it with amusement as Big D hopped onto my shoulder.

We both watched with amused smiles as the fox, Nezan, made himself comfortable.

I sighed with contentment as I looked at Yun Ren arguing with his magical girl mascot.

The lingering feelings of the night before still resonated in Bi De’s breast as he stood in the pre-dawn light. The warmth filled his breast even as he prepared himself.

“Call me if you need me, okay?” His Great Master asked as Bi De looked at the crystal. “I’ll hang around in case anything goes wrong.”

Bi De took a deep breath and nodded. They were in a forest, brightly lit by the winter sun. Ri Zu, Yin, Miantiao, and Huo Ten were here as well, looking on with calm eyes.

He stood before the crystal that had defined his journey, a fragment of the past and the answer to his question.

It was time.

There was no more second guessing himself, it was simply time for action.

His beak touched the crystal as he plunged into the memories.

Deep asleep, a girl curled into her blankets, her house warm and comfortable. Her Qi churned sluggishly, as golden cracks sealed, and turned the colour of flesh. An eye regrew, as did an arm, as she inched towards wholeness once more.

Yet despite the peacefulness of her surroundings, there was a little frown on her face.

Tianlan dreamed. She dreamed of a time long since past. A past that had a thousand sweet memories, and a thousand bitter ones.

She dreamed of how she made a connection to a little boy, and friends long since past.

But most of all—

She dreamed of how she broke.