Chapter 247: Life 73, Age 42, Martial Grandmaster Peak
A year after starting everyone down the path of Soul cultivation, I received an important letter from SuYin. She had passed her training and had earned the right to become the lord of one of the Verdant Forest Sect’s outlying cities. As she only had a few months left before she would be raised to Martial Lord, she planned to return to the Wastes for one last visit.
When the time came, Bao and I went down the mountain to meet her in the small, nondescript village where she grew up. Once she ascended to Martial Lord, it might be an entire lifetime before could see her family again, so she wanted to take this opportunity to say goodbye.
After explaining her situation to her parents, we all worked together to move SuYin’s entire extended family to a small city north of Mount Jiang. I wasn’t yet comfortable moving a large number of mortals to the mountain all at once, but I also wasn’t comfortable with her family being so far away that I couldn’t help them if they ran into trouble. Moving them to a nearby city and giving them a basic communication formation so that they could call for help if needed was the best solution I had.
I only had a few of these communication formations left from my time in the Nine Rivers Sect, and I had found that they were nearly impossible to make without a Martial King’s will-lock, so I had been hesitant to hand them out to my clan members or their families. I only did so now because I felt that it was the only way to give SuYin true peace of mind. Once she rose to Martial Lord, she would be locked out of the Wastes and unable to help her family in any way. If she wasn’t confident that they were safe, she might face difficulties maintaining the mindset needed for proper cultivation.
After moving her family, SuYin stayed in the Wastes for nearly two full months, but eventually, she had to leave. Before she did, she pulled me into a side room from a private discussion.
“Master, do you remember Young Master Wang?”
I had to think for a moment. “The guy who recruited you from the Verdant Fields Sect?”
SuYin nodded. “Yes, he… I… Once my training to be a city lord was complete, he came to talk to me. He… He told me why he was so insistent on recruiting me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Aside from you being a skilled herbalist?”