I sighed as I placed my hands on the ground and pushed the hill back into place.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Gramps doing the same, just with my shovel. I turned back to what I was doing and considered the land around me.

The forest wasn’t in the greatest shape, which sucked because I liked this forest. I closed my eyes and touched the little web of gold that was still writhing with irritation.

I felt an incessant tugging in my soul.

With a sigh I closed my eyes and found myself somewhere else. A grassy plain with rolling hills— a familiar little girl jumping forwards to tackle me.

“Are you alright?!” Tinalan demanded as she started scuttling around me like a beetle. She pulled open my shirt, staring at the massive bruise on my chest. She shifted up to my back, then was shoving her head down my sleeve with almost desperate fervor. Fingers probed bruises and chest, hissing with irritation every time she found some new injury.

Honestly, it was kind of funny, despite the notes of concern and panic that was flooding down our little link.

“That bastard…” she hissed as she finally stopped her probing. Then her eyes snapped to mine. “What was that, huh?! He just says “Let’s just stop and be friends,” and you just say yes?”

“A little bit.” I replied gently.

Tianlan looked at me like I had grown a second head.

“Why?”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

“Well, let’s take a load off, yeah?” I said, pointing to a rock that we could sit on. Tianlan nodded. I sat down on the moss covered rock, and the Earth Spirit joined me.

I took a moment to gather my thoughts, before saying anything. “Well, for one thing, I… kind of had a feeling this was coming, so that took the sting out of it.” Tianlan raised an eyebrow. “That, and well, I did win the argument.”

“How?” she asked, confused.

“He hesitated.” I stated simply. “He had me. He had won, and like he always says, the strongest is right. When I looked into the old man’s eyes, when I told him I would follow my path until the end… he stopped. He didn’t force me. He couldn’t force me. And then he had to decide that he valued me more than any ambition he had for me. When he let me go and bowed, he took the first step to apologize and build back that bridge.”

Tianlan was silent as she digested my words.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still kinda pissed at him, but this could have ended a lot worse than it did.”

This kind of fight back in the Before would have been a relationship ending. The other half? They told me our disagreement had been positively civil. A few punches and some harsh words. A bit of casual landscape rearrangement that ended with the Elder admitting he was wrong and apologizing? Grandpa saying he was wrong, and he was sorry? I think I just heard every Asian and Latin kid from the Before start screaming that the end times were coming.

“So… you stopped.” the Earth Spirit said.

“So I stopped. I’d like to believe in second chances.”

As long as what people did wasn’t too heinous. I had my limits on people being cockwads.

Tianlan chewed her lip for a moment, and then sighed.

“We got our asses kicked.”

“We did.” I agreed. “It was like a toddler fighting a gorilla.”

The old man had literal centuries of experience on me.

“I’ll do better next time,” the Earth Spirit promised me. “I’m still getting used to this again.”

“Take your time, shortstop.” I told her, and started to ruffle her hair. Tianlan giggled at the touch, but quickly sobered. She got a bit of a shifty look in her eye.

“Jin?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you… say no? You know what will happen, with this— with our—” She swallowed. “You know, that at the end of this, you’ll die.”

Now that was a heavy question. I could see the hesitation in her. I could see the scars that memory crystal had put on her, about Xiaoshi’s own hang ups.

“It’s not like I want to die, Tianlan. I fully intend to live my life for as long as I can. It’s just that it always comes back to what you’re willing to sacrifice for immortality and for me, the costs are never worth it.” The Earth Spirit stayed silent. “Let’s take us, first. What would happen if I tried to get back on the ‘proper cultivation’ track?”

“We—we would—,” she stumbled over her words. “We wouldn’t be connected anymore.”

I could tell the thought worried her. Hurt her.

“Exactly. I would have to start all over again, for one thing. And that… that would take a while. Cultivation requires true and absolute dedication. It isn’t something you can dabble in if you want to make it to the top.”

Tianlan mulled over my words, before nodding hesitantly.

“It’s time, mostly. I have no desire to sit and meditate all day to find a better spot to sit and meditate. I have no desire to go on a five year journey for some special plant that will increase my abilities fivefold, or something. Xiulan’s mom left when she was twelve and told her she might be back some day.”

She was smiling, when she spoke of her mother, but the old pain was still there.

“Gramps just chucked me in at a sect and told me he would be back as soon as he was able— and three years was fast.”

It had been really fast, by cultivator standards, if I was honest.

“I’ll be damned if I do that to the people I love. I don’t want to come back to… snapshots. From three to six for my son. From six to nine on another journey. From nine to fifteen if things get rough. Then one day I’ll blink and he’s thirty. In the end, you’ve spent less time and made less memories with the people you loved than when you were mortal.”

“What if you stay for those parts, then set out later? You’ve got time.” Tianlan returned. “Xiaoshi lived long enough, and had a lot longer left in him.”

I nodded. “Well, yeah. Maybe I can become immortal. Can they? And then I’ve spent all this time becoming immortal, and the reason I want to be immortal is dead. Some of the texts say when we ascend, we move past such petty cares. If that’s a petty care, then ascension can fuck right off.”

Tianlan was silent for a moment. “Yeah. Yeah… I get that. It hurts. It still hurts, those memories, from so long ago.” the Earth Spirit whispered.

“And yet still some will go for it. Some will say immortality is worth it. We all make our choices. But in the end, our choices make us. Two years ago, I made a choice. A choice to abandon the heavens, and live my life on the earth. I don’t regret that choice.”

Tianlan took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

“Hey, Jin?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you came here too.”

I smiled at the Earth Spirit and then opened my eyes.

I once more stood in the forest, my hands pressed on a pristine hill. It lacked any craters, and the uprooted trees had been returned to their proper place.

I sighed, drained after the heavy talk, and turned my attention to the reason I stayed. When my family felt me and Gramps fighting, instead of running away they ran towards us. Which was objectively fucking stupid, but it didn’t stop the warm and fuzzy feeling that they had all been willing to throw down for my sake.

Especially one rooster in particular, who Gramps was also stealing glances at while he shoved around his own hill with the help of my shovel.

One brave rooster, who had offered himself in my place.

He was dumb, and an idiot, and I’d be talking to him later to thank him for everything he did for me because chewing his ass out is the last thing on my mind.

I shook my head. Fucking hell. When I ran out here, I had just wanted to farm. When had my life gotten so complicated?

I had no damn clue. Some parts like this fight sucked the fat one.

Other parts…

I looked over the people who were helping me repair the land. Other parts made it all worth it.

Shen Yu was deep in thought as he sat within Jin’s home.

His grandson was out getting more barrels of his drinks. Shen Yu waited patiently thinking over what he would say once they had drunk enough to soothe the aches from their bout. He wanted them to speak frankly on the things left unsaid between Jin and he.

Repairing the forest had been interesting, a surprisingly relaxing activity, and it had given him the opportunity to study what Jin meant to do, this ‘Heaven on Earth,’ he wanted to make here.

Jin continuously giving to the earth now made sense in the context of his goals. As did all the others of this farm. They were one force, moving in tandem, and working towards a common goal.

Humans and Spirit Beasts both, impressed by Jin’s quest, aiding him without restraint.

It truly was an interesting project. He would observe more, and perhaps see how the Earth Spirit reacted to Shen Yu’s own Qi.

But that was for later.

Now Shen Yu had to contend with the surreptitious glares that were being sent his way. Jin’s …family were preparing another meal, traveling in and out of the kitchen, shooting glances at him whenever they did. It was good that his grandson was so beloved! Their anger was amusing, he approved of it.

Even little Tigu, so eager and affable before, was upset with him. He still could not believe that she was a common house cat! He thought for sure she may have had some manner of Tiger Spirit bloodline, but an actual cat?

It was astounding what Jin had accomplished.

The only one who wasn’t avoiding him, or glaring, was the rooster, Bi De, the one who had managed to cut him.

‘Beware of Chicken’, Jin’s sign had declared. A prescient and truthful warning.

The rooster honestly reminded him of Lu Ri, if he were a man, instead of a chicken. Shen Yu could almost see a resemblance. A dutiful, stoic Disciple who was loyal and more than he first appeared.

It was arrogant of the beast to offer himself in Jin’s place.

Arrogant, but intriguing.

A foundation as solid as rock. A cultivation style all his own.

Shen Yu was staring at what he would consider an ideal man in the form of a feathered biped that most would try to put in a soup pot.

He shook his head with a smile.

He would consider it. Jin’s path would require strong guards and Shen Yu still had not adequately apologized.

“Bi De.” Shen Yu commanded, the rooster perked up.

“Meet me on the morrow. I wish to see your true strength.”

The rooster bowed.

It was then that Jin came in, carrying a barrel over his shoulder. Shen Yu’s eyes immediately locked on to the casket, as it oozed Qi.

“We’re having the good stuff out tonight! I don’t want to have to drink an entire barrel to feel anything!” Jin shouted.

“You were holding out on me?!” Shen Yu demanded as Jin set down the barrel.

His grandson grinned.

As it turned out, yes, Jin had been holding out on him.

He had very much been holding out on him.

The heady, golden brew touched Shen Yu’s lips.

And Shen Yu, connoisseur of all beverages, from the best to the least, considered the mead.

The thick body; the sweet taste. It had been a long, long time since Shen Yu drank his first Qi filled beverage. Shen Yu had drunk thousand year old vintages. The mead in his hands was not the finest thing he had ever drank; not by far. Nor the most Qi filled.

But it felt like the first time he had drunk, all those years ago.

It felt warm. It settled in his stomach, present but not heavy.

Shen Yu took a deep breath and let it out, along with some of the tension within him.

And things were still tense; Shen Yu had received quite a lot of sidelong glances as Rou spoke to him about what had happened at the Dueling Peaks. Shen Yu would have to follow up on it. Demons? Here?

He would be paying a visit to the Shrouded Mountain Sect soon.

…After he drank the rest of this barrel. Or got Jin to make him another one.

“If you had brought this out first, we could have avoided all that unpleasantness.” Shen Yu joked, and Jin rolled his eyes.

The boy smiled.

“Cheers, Old Man.”

Their cups clinked, the gesture one of peace.

And then, their eyes were drawn by a commotion. The others had similarly calmed, after Jin had distributed his golden brew…. And now, they were, well…

Rip roaring drunk after a single cup.

Hong Meiling had downed three at the beginning of the tale, giving Shen Yu a glare the entire time.

Now, however, she was in a predicament.

Cai Xiulan’s arms wrapped around Meiling’s throat, disrupting blood flow and constricting her airway.

“Why must you always tease me so, Meimei?” The woman demanded in Meiling’s ear, her cheeks flushed with drunkeness. ”You are pregnant no longer; and now, I can have my revenge.”

“Xiu-Xiulan—” The smaller woman made a few choking sounds, then rapidly tapped the arm that had taken her. Xiulan leaned in, to savour the choked apology.

“Harder~” Meiling breathed with a throaty moan.

Cai Xiulan stared blankly at the woman in her grip, the light in her eyes dying as Jin’s wife stole her victory.

Meiling started to cackle, and the pretty fairy’s eyes narrowed. The grip tightened again, and Hong Meiling suddenly looked rather less playful, her laugh cutting off into sounds of strangulation as the woman picked Meiling up, took her to the door and— there was a splash, as Meiling entered the river. Xiulan came back in, dusting her hands off.

Meiling entered a few minutes later, her grin still firmly on her face, and a laugh on her lips.

Shen Yu started to laugh with her. That woman… She may not like him very much, but as Hong Meiling started dancing on the table, singing Shen Yu’s favourite song…

Well, even if his grandson’s wife didn’t like him, Shen Yu decided he rather liked her. He smiled and lifted another cup to toast her, one the rat had spiked with some form of laxative. He drank it and winked at her.

It was surprisingly potent, but of no real consequence.

Shen Yu sighed as some of the tension bled from his shoulders.

It was not what he wanted, nor expected from his trip… but he was feeling satisfied all the same.

He sat with his grandson, and began to pet the boar as the creature walked over and sat beside him. He watched an absolutely fantastic performance.

Hopefully Lu Ri was having an enjoyable time… though he doubted it.

The man was probably dour as always, but that was his charm!