WangXian Forever 5

Chapter 59 Stray

863.

The number echoed in their minds, too great a figure to fathom.

Wei Ying was amazed for many reasons. Firstly, the physical aspects, and the implications of what her age could mean. Usually, the uncultivated humans started wilting at around age sixty, seventy if they were lucky. If they reached the century mark at all, it was with a frailty soaked in sadness and regret for the stolen youth.

Cultivators, depending on their rate of cultivation and mastery of core strengthening, could live longer, perhaps two to three hundreds of years, in the same physical body. Immortals had the same fate, because after all, the physical form must return to whence it came from, the only difference being their connection to their souls and entwining with their cores. This practice alone would keep their memories intact, for future rebirth.

And rebirth was a certainty.

Until the nullifying of any residual karma, a person kept coming back to repay their debts. It was all about balance.

Zhitiao was as spritely as a teenager. Her physical prowess was simply amazing, in fact, all the Children of the Tree displayed remarkable agility for their biological ages. It should not be possible, and yet, here they were.

Zhitiao stared at Wei Ying, waiting for him to come to terms with her answer.

Wei Ying was thinking about everything Zhitiao would have seen. And experienced.

Every changing season, every single year, that passed by like a single day. The sheer length of time she had lived for, made him already tired just thinking about it. He slumped back into Lan Zhan, reeling.

"Did you...did you know the Seventh Sea Dragon? Tiaopi De Long? And then, what about Li XiWang's mother? You must have known Zai Shu Xia." Wei Ying watched as her eyes changed, becoming warmer at the mention of her sister.

He knew his daughter was paying attention. They hadn't told her much of what they'd discovered previously about her parents, but it was time she knew. There was no point hiding anything now. Wei Ying was a big believer in the truth.

Unless it hurt someone, transparency was inevitable, and they could only shield Li XiWang for so long. Sooner or later, she was going to find out about her parents, who they were, what they were like; all he and Lan Zhan could do, was be there for her. He saw Hui Gai put a protective arm around her little shoulders as she listened, one hand holding his tail, stroking the pointy end with her thumb, while unconsciously, her other hand was buried in messy white fur. Xiao Mao had snuggled closer to Li XiWang and curled into her side.

Wei Ying smiled. Li XiWang had people she could rely on...she would be alright.

"A-Xia was the prettiest baby I have ever seen. Her skin was fairer than ours." Zhitiao turned her brown hands, palms up and then, palms down. "She was different. From birth."

"What do you mean?" Wei Ying couldn't believe she was actually answering his questions. Without extra help.

"She had the bluest eyes, and her hair was like a waterfall of black. Thick and lovely, heavy and soft. We took turns to look after her, when she was young." She had inadvertently answered his next question. "And naughty. She was always getting into trouble with our Elder Sisters." She laughed softly, remembering.

They, none of them, had heard her laugh before. It was like the tinkling of tiny bells in the wind.

"She was carefree and innocent. Curious to a fault. She found wonder in the everyday things, in the way that a whole flower is contained within its seed, the way the shape of a tree is determined from a sapling. She would ask us questions we had no way of answering, and it was then, that she began to look for the answers by herself. Elsewhere. She would go out to play and spend the whole day far away from us, returning only when the sun kissed the sky a final goodbye."