In many ways, Long Wenyan was a sentimental man. He was quite fond of children. He was the one who spoiled his grandson rotten. But that was a tale of the past and his grandson was no more. So, the first time he saw the baby, he was reminded of his grandson. The thing he did first on returning to the sect was to order for some warm milk to be brought to his family residence. “Yuaner” he called out on entering the Long family residence.
Long Yuan rushed over to the hallway to meet her grandfather. Luo Yin followed her behind at a slower pace.
“Look what I found in the woods” Long Wenyan lifted the crying baby boy and showed it to his granddaughter as if it were some sort of trophy.
Yuan and Yin, both gasped immediately on seeing the child. Never in their wild imaginations did they think that this wild grandfather would bring back an infant with him.
“This little toad was throwing up a tantrum in the forest, which caused the beast tide.” Long Wenyan proclaimed proudly.
Both Yuan and Yin and all the others gathered in the residence by that time, gaped on hearing this. They couldn’t help but rub their eyes and stare at the crying baby boy.
Long Xue slowly regained his composure. He decided to throw away all the caution in the wind. Even if this turns out to be a dream, he is willing to live in this dream forever without waking up. And, the most pleasant smell of cherry blossoms entered his nostrils. This is a very familiar smell for him. It’s the smell of the most amazing person in the world, mama! With all the strength he could muster, he turned his head in the direction of the scent. A beautiful young woman was standing there, clad in long white robes, with an expression of confusion. “Mama” he called out. Maybe it was his longing for his mother for several centuries, maybe it was something else, for the first time since rebirth, he uttered a word that made sense.
The people standing around all gasped simultaneously. Some were astonished but many were shocked. A baby, who looks merely a few days old, just spoke. The most shocking of them all was Long Yuan. Her face flushed red in embarrassment as she strode towards the baby. She extended her hands towards her grandfather who seemed unwilling to let go of the child.
Signs of struggle could be seen on the baby’s face as it spent great effort to jump into Long Yuan’s hands. But, his efforts were in vain as the best he could do was lift his hands a little.
Long Wenyan, reluctantly handed over the child to Long Yuan, who held the baby as if it was a fragile doll. This child was looking at her with warm eyes and smiling with his toothless mouth. For a moment there, she felt as though all her sorrow had vanished.
Luo Yan, who was standing near Long Yuan looked at the fragile child. She too felt warmth fill her mind as she looked at him. A child is the epitome of innocence. She took the child from Long Yuan’s arms and rocked him.
“Gaga (Aunt)” Long Xue called out, making the listeners all bloom with smiling faces.
At that moment, for the first time since the death of the junior patriarch, the Long family looked happy. All was because of this little unexpected guest.
“So, I’m thinking of adopting him.” Long Wenyan spoke slowly.
“You can’t grandfather” Long Yuan replied.
“Why?” he asked confused.
Long Yuan knew all too about how his grandfather raised children. Her father had been the second biggest bully the sect had ever seen till now! The first was, of course, her brother! And they were both happy-go-lucky people. They were the cockiest people in the entire sect and no one would go against them in the entire sect. She was lucky that her late mother never let her grandfather near her when she grew up. This man is the face of bad parenting. And his parenting got worse by each passing generation. If her grandfather raised this baby, who knows if the child will blow the entire sect up, just for fun! This baby is an angel; he looks so innocent. He should be raised into a civilized young cultivator. He will be the one to cure the house of her brother’s loss! Considering all this, Long Yuan replied “Because I’m adopting him as my own. He has already called me mama, so you can’t have this child. And that’s final.”
Long Wenyan wanted to retort, but he knew he couldn’t win against his granddaughter. If there is someone he feared in the junior generations, it would be his granddaughter. In many ways, she reminded him of his mother! So, he quickly changed the subject and asked “What about his name? Oh, I have got some fine names, by the way. I can help you if you want.”
“Long Xue” Long Yuan whispered.
“Yes, why not name him Long Ch-. Huh!” Long Wenyan nearly dropped his jaws. “What did you say?” he asked conformingly.
“Oh! Since he’s my child, I’ll call him Long Xue. You can leave and take care of the sect matters now, grandfather.”
Long Wenyan looked at the baby with pleading eyes, but the infant looked away from him quickly, almost as if he didn’t exist. Heartbroken, he walked away slowly with hesitant steps.
“Maid, bring the warmed milk to my chamber” Long Yuan spoke quickly and left with the baby, with Luo Yan following beside.
Two days have passed since Long Xue’s arrival at the sect. The Cloud Piercing Sect was slowly regaining its composure. The sect grounds were not too crowded but disciples were there in not so small numbers. The people in the sect didn’t seem to be overly sad anymore. The main reason for this was because of the rumour that the Long family has adopted a new baby monster. Rumour has it that the little infant was responsible for the beast tide a couple of days ago. Most people ignored this news, well, rumours are rumours after all. No one was willing to believe that a baby caused a beast tide, except for the elders involved in the search party perhaps. Anyhow, the atmosphere of the sect had spiced up for the last couple of days. The people of the sect were slowly recovering from the trauma caused by the death of the junior patriarch.
Some disciples were having a spiced up conversation in the training ground for Qi condensation disciples when the sect bells began to toll. They tolled twice, indicating a visitor from outside. The massive gates of the Cloud Piercing Sect opened slowly and several divine senses scouted the entrance. Three flying geckos landed outside the sect gate and slowly walked into the sect. Each gecko had a rider and on the head of the gecko in the front was an old man clad in black, with his eyes closed. His clothes weren’t elaborate but he carried an air of ancientness. Despite his skinny appearance, no one would think that this old man was someone easy to deal with.
Long Jiang, the current sect leader, and Long Yuan’s father flew to the entrance and landed right in front of the gecko on which the old man was sitting. He looked at the old man and called out “Elder Ma, welcome.”
The old man sitting on the gecko opened his eyes. He looked at Long Jiang and whispered “We, of the Severing Sword Sect, have come to offer compensation for the unfortunate death of the junior patriarch of Cloud Piercing Sect. Take these three caskets, filled with treasures, as compensation for dissolving the bad blood.”
By this time, Long Yuan had come out to the sect gates to see what the commotion was. Luo Yan was also present. Long Xue, however, was pretending to be asleep in the mansion. He had come to know in the past two days that his uncle was killed by the Severing Sword Sect.
Elder Ma, spoke to Luo Yan, in a tone filled with no emotions “We are sorry for your loss. With this compensation, we hope that the Cloud Piercing Sect won’t hold any grudges with us.” He put some cultivation power when he uttered the last sentence, so it reverberated across the Cloud Piercing Sect.
Many disciples hissed, clearly showing their discontent. Long Jiang boiled up with anger but kept a calm expression on his face. Luo Yan, on the other hand, was on the verge of breaking down.
Long Yuan’s face boiled up. She was about to retort coldly when Long Xue, who heard elder Ma’s voice started cursing him loudly. However strong elder Ma was, he was an ant compared to Long Xue’s cultivation in his past life. Long Xue couldn’t take in the way, elder Ma had insulted his sect!
“Screw you, son of a bitch! Crawl back to the hole you came from. You are not big enough to be in the sect of this mighty me. Screw your mother, screw your father.” Long Xue screamed. But, what came out was the loud, shrill wailing of an angry baby.
Long Yuan and Luo Yan, instantly rushed back to the mansion. In the past couple of days, they had realised that when the baby was angry with something, he would throw a tantrum by screaming and only by them rocking the child would he calm down.
Elder Mo didn’t understand what the baby was screaming at all, but he was surprised to see that an infant was able to make such a noise, which could shudder even someone with peak nascent soul cultivation like him. He spoke while getting up “There seems to be something interesting in this sect. Why don’t you let me tour the sect?”
“Mo Shunyuan, stay your hand!” this voice came from some mountain inside the sect. It weighed down with heavy pressure on elder Mo, forcing him to sit down.
“Tsk” elder Mo clicked his tongue and gave up on resisting the pressure and it vanished. He clapped his hands and the three boxes flew off from the backs of the gecko and landed on the ground with a loud thud. He waved his hand and signalled the riders to return to the sect.
“These three caskets belong to Luo Yan, take it to the Long Mansion.” The voice from the mountains spoke once more and went silent.
Few disciples rushed in to deliver the heavy casket to the Long mansion. By this time, the baby had calmed down and the sect became bustling once again.
