Me and the devil

三

Three days later, Mortal Realm, The North

There was a small tea shop right by a busy road, it was a small establishment, sure. But the scenery was beautiful. Elegant mountains and flowing rivers, people and the bustling city. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but if one was fortunate enough to gaze upon such a sight. It would have been forever ingrained in their brain as a beautiful memory.

The tea master was quite idle. If he wasn't serving any customers, he would drag out a stool to sit on and look at the lush and beautiful scenery. Today while watching the clouds drift by, He saw a white clad cultivator coming from a long distance away. The man looked weary, his clothes were slightly dirty and his head was bowed. As if he had walked for a long while.

At first, the man walked right by the tea shop, then he halted, and slowly backtracked. He tilted his bamboo hat and looked up at the sign. "Little shop of chance encounters. What an interesting name." He smiled.

The man looked tired but his face held such a cheerful expression that the tea master couldn't help but smile back. The man asked: "Is Mount Yujun nearby here?"

The tea master nodded and pointed. "That's it right there."

The man let out a sigh, tension leaving his body. I've finally made it.

The man was Xie Lian.

After departing from Ling Wen's palace, he had jumped down from Heaven with much bravado, and his sleeve got caught on a cloud. Yes, a cloud. Xie Lian didn't know how that was possible but it had happened, he had tumbled down from the thousands-of-meters tall sky and crash landed at some unknown location. He had been walking for three days and three nights, and now, finally, he had reached his destination.

He wondered what Hua Cheng was doing.

Xie Lian picked a table by a window and ordered some tea and snacks. While he drank and ate, he suddenly heard the sounds of weeping and gongs being played.

He looked out the window and saw a marriage procession surrounded by both men and women young and old.

The air surrounding this procession was strange. At first glance it seemed like any old marriage procession, but upon closer inspection, the men's faces were grim, angry and terrified, the only emotion missing was happiness. But still they all wore red and were decorated with flowers. The tea master watched this scene play out, he raised his copper teapot to pour out some tea, but strangely enough, he didn't seem to find the procession odd. He just clicked his tongue, shook his head and went on with his business.

Xie Lian watched this strange procession pass by and thought deeply for a moment, he pulled out the scroll Ling Wen had provided for him and was just starting to reread it when he saw something dazzling in his peripheral vision.

When he looked up, a ghostly, silver butterfly flew by his eyes.

'One of Hua Cheng's silver butterflies? What's it doing all the way over here?'

Xie Lian extended one of his fingers.

The butterfly immediately flew over and rested on his finger.

"Hello little guy, did you get lost? Where's San Lang?"

The butterfly of course gave no reply.

"Is he close by? Is he okay? Did he get hurt?" Xie Lian was getting worried now.

The butterfly flew away.

Xie Lian sighed, if Hua Cheng was in any danger, the butterfly wouldn't have flown away, it would have gotten him to follow it and then lead him to Hua Cheng.