Entering the Scarlet Solaris Domain, Wei Wuyin sat atop the crane, his eyes flashing as he meditated on various things.
A thought emerged in his heart as he caressed the crane's back.
"What do you think about receiving a name?" He asked with a warm smile, his spiritual sense communicating its intent and readied to receive her response. A startled cry emerged from the crane, her eyes filled with remembrance.
When she was with Chu Lingxi, her name had been Aria. When she joined that musky man and his son, she was called Guan. She didn't like either names.
"What do you think about Bai Lin?" Wei Wuyin asked.
The crane's heart shook, and it slowed its flight speed. It felt like this moment was of the utmost importance to her, despite having other names before. It was like...this was it for her. Her 'true' name.
Bai Lin.
Bai.
Lin.
She liked it. With a joyful cry, she smiled with her eyes.
Wei Wuyin replied with a hearty smile of his own. This crane had saved his life and allowed him to break free from whatever sealed his mind before. She had accompanied him since he truly started his journey in the cultivation world, and perhaps, if immortality doesn't exist, she would accompany him at his end.
With a content laugh, he nodded. "Bai Lin!" The name felt right and he was satisfied with it. Seeing that the feeling was mutual, he was relieved.
As they flew through the skies, Wei Wuyin sent his spiritual sense outwards and was constantly battered by a wave of nostalgia. At times, when he noticed a building or town was no longer there, he felt melancholic. While a person may not change, the world will surely move on.
It didn't take long before they saw the Scarlet Solaris Mountain emitting faint scarlet light in the distance. When Bai Lin saw this, her speed increased as the rumbling wind in Wei Wuyin's ears became heavier. However, he was just as excited.
His heart was pounding with excitement. It felt like a literal blink of an eye, a short matter to him, but he knew a full ten years had passed. In his mind's eye, trapped in his sea of consciousness, he couldn't appropriately gauge time and so it felt like both a blink of an eye and an eternity. It created a disparity of surrealism and perception.
Kree!
Kree!
Kree!
He looked around and saw various variant eagle and crane mounts in the sky, being rode on by disciples or members of the Scarlet Solaris Sect. Sometimes they were alone, sometimes they traveled in groups, but they all noticed Wei Wuyin and Bai Lin.
Her pure white color, golden beak, and golden eyes was a distinctive difference between them. Not to mention her size was greater than theirs by several-fold.
Bai Lin communicated with her fellow cranes and beasts, speaking to them in the human equivalent of basic greetings and small talk. She was telling them that she, Bai Lin, had returned.
In fact, these beasts had great lifespans. Many of them go through entire generations of families before dying, becoming legacy beasts that could protect low-level cultivator clans for centuries.
Bai Lin, for example, was given to Wei Wuyin while she was young, but she could easily live for three hundred years. Cultivators at the Fifth Stage of Qi Condensation, Yang Growth Phase, had a lifespan of about two hundred years.
As for Mortal Gods? Even Wei Wuyin wasn't entirely sure. It was rumored to be around three or five hundred years, but it wasn't very well-defined. The prevailing theory was that lifestyle and purity of refined energies determined one's lifespan. For example, those who birth wood qi usually gain an extra fifty or so years.
While the goal of cultivation was power and immortality, most just want longer lifespans to see and experience more of the world.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a group of variant eagles took to the skies and came their way. Their momentum was fierce and valiant. They were the Scarlet Solaris Sect's Aerial Guardians, and they defended against unannounced arrivals and possible aerial strikes. As they were in a time of war, they were quite cautious.
As they watched the skies regularly, they immediately noticed Wei Wuyin's arrival and his unusual crane. They shot to the skies in full armor, ready to deal out death.
Bai Lin hovered in the sky under Wei Wuyin's order.
Wei Wuyin took in a deep breath and looked at these Aerial Guardians. Each of their cultivations were at least at the Second Stage of Qi Condensation. Their ages were beyond fifty, but they were powerful in the cultivation world. With their skills in aerial combat, no one would ever underestimate them.
A larger variant eagle appeared, atop which was a woman in full armor. Her armor was definitely of a high quality and had faint scarlet qi emissions. She radiated an air of elemental energy and revealed a mystical aura.
Her cultivation was the highest, being at the Fourth Stage of Qi Condensation, and her stance and armor showed her importance.
She was the Captain of the Aerial Guardians.
When Wei Wuyin saw her, he felt a distinct aura of familiarity from her.
There was an exchange of stares as he looked into her helmet that covered her entire face outside of her eyes. Her eyes were black and clear. When he tried to recall who this woman was, he froze.
"You…"
When those words escaped his lips, the captain removed her helmet to reveal long black hair and jade-like skin. Her hair swayed with the wind as faint signs of tears were at the corner of her eyes.
"Su Mei!" He exclaimed softly, recalling the young girl who had clear black eyes and short black hair. As their two images superimposed upon each other, he realized they were one and the same.
"Lord Wuyin!" Her voice was suffused with stuffed and intense emotion as her heart beat seemed to be carried along with it.
When those incomparably familiar words entered his ears, he warmly smiled.
Ten years.
In those ten years, Su Mei had accomplished the difficult feat and ascended to the Yin Form Phase without her primal yin. Her talent had always been extraordinary, noticeable enough for Wei Wuyin to give her many roles of importance and treat her very well.
Not only had she grown more powerful, she had even developed. While her armor was covering most of her figure, he could tell she had become more womanly and her breasts had even increased in size. Her skin was like jade and her aura told the world that she was a strong woman.
Before he could say a word, he felt himself being embraced. A set of armored arms wrapped around him and a soft face embedded itself into his chest. He felt wetness through his robes.
"You're alive!" She cried, her emotions all over the place. To her, Wei Wuyin was her savior. She had been nothing more than another man's plaything struggling in a weak, insignificant harem.
That day, he arrived with a thundering blow and pulled her out of a pit filled with despair and unimportance. She grew and developed with his lessons and life story as a guide.
She idolized him.
From the honorary disciple, he rose without a single backing, and even though he was met with tragedy within his family, he still stayed strong and true. Those words he said to her that day, that day he saved her, still lingered in her heart.
She had never stopped being hungry. Hungry for a better life!
The guards who were watching were stunned, and many members of the crowd stopped. They stopped what they were doing and watched the crane above. The usually cold and heartless Captain of the Aerial Guardians was crying in the arms of an unknown male.
They all had confused looks and once more looked at Wei Wuyin, their eyes analyzed his everything.
Wei Wuyin didn't mind. Right now, the only two people that mattered were him and Su Mei.
He caressed her hair and held her in his embrace. Two people, a subordinate and a leader, had a heartfelt moment.
"Come, let's go." He said, letting her lift her face that had lines of tears running down. Seeing his warm smile, she nodded and removed herself. She didn't ask how or why. The fact he was alive was enough.
She returned to her eagle, "We need to report this to the Sect Leader." Turning her eagle, she flew towards the Scarlet Solaris Sect's Scarlet Palace.
Wei Wuyin nodded as he followed along as she acted as an escort.
After he left, a middle-aged honorary disciple exclaimed as he recalled something. When he was a young man, his mentor informed him of a man, one who was a legend that rose up from an honorary disciple to a core disciple, subverting the beliefs of many people.
Wei Wuyin!
"That's Wei Wuyin! He's alive!!" He screamed aloud, his voice reaching many people's ears. When that was said, it was like a spark went off in everyone's mind. A figure of legend emerged and superimposed on the brief image of the current Wei Wuyin.
An uproar was ignited!
While the crowd were going wild with realization and speculation, Wei Wuyin followed Su Mei from behind. She was diligent in her job as she didn't turn around and ask any questions despite definitely having a number of them floating in her heart.
In truth, it took every fiber of her willpower to not do that. She had to constantly remind her that Wei Wuyin needed to meet the Sect Leader before anything else.
At the top of the Scarlet Solaris Mountain was a grand palace reminiscent of immortal abodes of legends constructed of pure scarlet stones. It exuded an exceptionally fierce and aggressive aura that left one in awe and fear.
The scarlet qi roiled off the palace walls. It was so dense that the qi had transformed into a mist that flowed with the wind itself.
This was the resident of the true upper-echelon members of the sect.
When they arrived, Wei Wuyin saw two guards stationed there, both emitting dense elemental energies. These guards had been here the last time he was here and their cultivation bases weren't much different.
Wei Wuyin instructed Bai Lin to land. With a powerful landing, she drew the attention of those stoic guards. Su Mei looked at Wei Wuyin and landed next to Bai Lin. Her eyes were filled with suppressed emotions.
Wei Wuyin jumped down from Bai Lin and stretched his limbs a little, limbering his body. "I'll be fine. We'll talk more after I've officially returned." He comforted and assured her.
He walked up to the grand palace doors that radiated dense scarlet qi. The two guards wildly inspected him with their spiritual senses and were visibly shocked. One of them even exclaiming, "Wei Wuyin?!"
According to the sect, Wei Wuyin was confirmed dead. Emphasis on 'confirmed'. This meant a high-level figure deemed him deceased on credible information. If that's true, how could he be standing before them now?
"I ask for an audience with the Sect Leader." He stated calmly.
They went blank for a moment before regaining their calm. One of them nodded saying, "I'll inform the Sect Leader of your arrival." As a guard with decades of experience, he knew when to be stunned and when to do his job, and it was never the time to be stunned.
Turning around, he placed his hand on a specific location on the door and sent in his spiritual sense, obviously sending a message directly to the Sect Leader inside.
After a minute of exchanges, the guard removed his hand and stepped back. The door proceeded to open.
"You may enter."
Wei Wuyin nodded and walked in.
He had returned.