Chapter 1: True North Country
Cha Ming and his four disciples looked around in marvel as they entered Beihai City, the largest coastal city in True North Country. They saw boats entering and exiting the busy harbor in the distance, their sharp eyes aiding them in rendering it in the finest detail. The buildings in the old city had a rustic charm to them; their stone construction and the salty air reminded Cha Ming that he’d yet to see an ocean in this lifetime.
“Where’s Mermaid’s Place?” Huxian asked eagerly as he jumped onto his older brother’s shoulder.
Cha Ming scratched him between the ears and smiled.
“It should be near the western docks,” Cha Ming answered. “Coffee first?”
“Coffee,” Huxian said. It was another life and another time, but somehow, the beverage had found its way into this world as well. They entered a crowded building where people discussed both business and their daily lives. Most of them were mortals. Despite this fact, their group of four cultivators and a demon drew little attention as they made their way to a bar staffed by moderately attractive women who made coffee while desperate men ogled them.
“My friends and I will each have a large cup of… True North Blend,” Cha Ming said. The name was purely coincidental. As it were, True North Country resembled Cha Ming’s Earth home in many ways. For one, it was colder than all other human-inhabited territories. For another, it was the only democracy on the continent. Like that would last.
“Do you mean a dabei or a chao dabei?” the lady asked. She wore the innocent smile of someone who’d completely given in to her corporate overlords.
“Chao dabei,” Cha Ming said, massaging his brow. Whether it was corporate culture or strict branding regulations, some things never changed.
Soon enough, they sat on a balcony enjoying their steaming hot beverages. The scent of rotting fish was thick in the air, but as a body cultivator, Cha Ming dulled himself to these external smells. He reserved his senses for sip after sip of blessed coffee, enjoying the dark but slightly bitter taste as it danced around his tongue.
“This is life,” Cha Ming said to the others.
Unlike him, they weren’t taking kindly to the stimulating beverage. Some of them had even polluted their drinks with milk, sugar, and flavoring. A travesty if he’d ever seen one.
“I’d wager I could make something with a similar taste, if a little more potent,” Jin Huang said, smacking his lips in appreciation. “A thousandfold increase in strength might do the trick.”
Cha Ming’s eyes lit up. He took the young man by the shoulders and spoke sternly. “I knew when I first laid eyes on you that you’d be my favorite disciple.”
The others groaned. Noticing that his abrupt movements had surprised other patrons, Cha Ming sat back down and continued to drink. As he did, he pondered his disciples’ paths and how he might help them. His way of thinking had changed during his journey to Jade Moon Planet. The ten years he and Huxian had spent there made him much more suitable to guiding them compared to who he was before he left. As a late-marrow-refining cultivator and a middle-core-formation cultivator, only transcendents could bully him now. As for Huxian and his friends, well, they were only middle-core-formation demon beasts, but he wasn’t the least bit confident about taking them on as a team. All of them had power in spades now.
Power. It’s something we gained in our ten years on Jade Moon Planet, Cha Ming thought. We got techniques, alchemical manuals, and even an entire herb garden.
But he’d give it all up in a heartbeat for one more day with Yu Wen. Now he only had one chance at seeing her again: finding her in the cycle of reincarnation and restoring her memories. And for that, he’d need to become an immortal. His sights were set on the higher realms now, conveniently aligning with Huxian’s ambitious goal of savoring everything in the universe.
Older brother? Huxian asked, jumping on his shoulder and breaking him from his reverie.
Yes, Huxian? Cha Ming asked. He took another sip of dark coffee.
There’s something interesting going on just outside our building, Huxian said. I think it deserves a second look.
I noticed a short while ago, Cha Ming said, focusing on the blip in his intangible field of transcendent force. A teenage girl, surprisingly strong for her tender age, was running away from two men. She had a large lead on them and would soon escape their pursuit.
Is there something I’m missing? Cha Ming asked. Huxian wouldn’t bring it up if it were trivial.
Embrace my shadow qi, Huxian said.
Cha Ming obliged. The world changed as black and white inverted, and a completely different scene appeared. In the shadows, he saw people appearing and disappearing as they entered the dark world for seconds at a time. There were also the usual creatures of shadow that were born one moment and died the next. He ignored these and focused on the area near the girl, where he now saw several dozen deadly pursuers. They didn’t exit the shadows but clung to them with purpose.
“I need to go,” Cha Ming said to his startled disciples.
He and Huxian jumped off the balcony and onto the street below. Vendors and mortals shouted in indignation as he zipped past them. He soon reached the two men chasing the girl in the open. They were normal thugs, nothing more, so he gently tapped their skulls and sent them tumbling to the side of the road, unconscious. He then appeared next to the girl, who looked at him in alarm.
“Who are you?” the girl asked, clutching her right hand warily. He saw it flash as she retrieved something from her storage device.
“A friend,” Cha Ming said gently. “Are you aware that there are forty men trailing you in the shadows as we speak, all of them armed and dangerous?”
Her eyes narrowed. Before she got a chance to reply, Huxian
