Chapter 27 - Goodbye

Once the celebration ended, it was time to go to sleep and finally have some rest.

Unfortunately, the tents they had with them weren’t enough for everyone, even if they tried to huddle together inside. So, the older males decided to sleep directly on the ground.

Hei refused the tent offered to him, saying he preferred to sleep without. Indeed, it had to be noted that because of his childhood, he had developed the strange habit of being at ease to sleep only if he was inside his mother's silk. Otherwise, he preferred to sleep directly on the ground, not to mention that other people needeed the tent more than him.

After they had finished organizing for the tents and fell asleep, Hei stood up stealthily, after a couple of hours, with Ye and Xing sleeping soundly. Paying attention not to make a noise, he went out in the buffaloes’ direction and began to wake them up slowly, starting from the albino buffalo.

The albino buffalo initially seemed a little surprised by the rude awakening, but it made no fuss and calmed the other buffaloes by telling them to be quiet.

The reason he was doing this was that he wanted to use the night's cover to travel. Even if it was rude to leave without saying goodbye, he thought it would be better to do so than to leave tomorrow morning.

In fact, his mother could travel great distances at high speed without making a noise. If they wanted to reach the Flower Sect quickly, then moving that same night was the best because otherwise, they would have to wait for the next night to travel at full speed while during the day, they would have made only a little way.

As he lined up the buffaloes, Hei heard footsteps behind him and turned around quickly. At the entrance to the cave, he could see Kang waving his hand and making a bitter smile.

"So, I was right. For some reason, I imagined that you would leave tonight." Kang said in a calm tone but at the same time with a touch of bitterness.

Without waiting for Hei to answer, he continued, "Actually, I would have liked to make you one of ours. But I guess you have already decided your own path. I know you harbor many secrets, and honestly, I am very curious. But it's none of my business, not to mention I owe you. Only, if you need a hand in the future, don’t hesitate to ask. I don't know when we'll meet again, but I feel that one day our paths will cross again."

At that point, he took a little break before continuing, "But before you go, I must ask you one last favor. I hope you won't say no." After saying this, he pointed behind him.

As if they were waiting for Kang's gesture, the moonlight’s rays illuminated a small corner of the entrance left in the dark before.

There was a blue-haired girl there. Her pale white skin seemed to sparkle in contact with the moonlight, and her blue eyes looked blankly at Hei. Her worn-out clothes had been replaced with a simple blue dress, probably belonging to one of the other girls in Kang's group. Her feet, on the other hand, weren't wearing sandals, but they were naked while they were dirty from the ground due to direct contact.

Watching her, Hei was speechless because he had guessed what Kang was trying to say to him, which was taking her with him.

It was true that he had saved her and had helped her to eat, but taking her with him was different from what he had done before.

Seeing that he was hesitant, Kang added, "I don't know what they did there, but she was left marked. She doesn't talk, and she barely moves as if she were a doll. The girls had a lot of trouble changing her. I know I ask you a lot, but you are the only one who she showed a hint of reaction to. Although I said that I would welcome everyone, I have to think about the collective good rather than that of a single individual. We have no way to help her, but you do, instead. So I ask you to take her with you."

Hearing Kang's words, Hei sighed. He had wondered how they would look after her in the future, but he didn't think they would ask him to be responsible for her. It was true that he was intrigued by the girl's story, but if he took her with him, it would mean exposing his secrets to a stranger.

As he was about to refuse, Hei heard his mother moving slowly and saying, ‘Say yes, we will take her with us.’

Surprised by this twist, Hei couldn't help asking the reason. After all, his mother was the one who had taught him not to trust blindly people he didn't know well.

‘She is special, she is about the same age, and yet, she also has developed her spirit power. That must be why she was caught. Perhaps she even awaken it when she was younger. Such talent is enough to attract unwanted looks, but if properly protected and trained, it can prove to be an excellent ally. Although I told you not to trust others easily, at the same time, you have to find good companions to whom you can entrust your life. You and your little sisters alone aren’t strong enough to fight against the difficulties of this world.’

After her speech, Bao Bei stopped talking and waited in silence. Ye and Xing were also affected by their mother's speech and begged Hei to say yes. Previously, they had taken a liking to that strange girl and were curious to know about her.

Since both his sisters and his mother were favorable, Hei had no more doubts and nodded his head, "All right. I will take her with me. I hope to be able to help her in some way. "

Expressed his consent, he approached the girl and took her hand, "Come, from now on, you will travel with me. Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. "

To reassure her, Ye and Xing came out of Hei's body and climbed the girl's outstretched hand, ending up on her shoulders. She had no reaction of disgust or terror but simply looked at both of them. Slowly, she began to move, being guided by Hei to where the buffaloes were. Then she was helped to climb over the albino buffalo, which fell to the ground to make her climb.

Seeing how Hei was able to communicate so easily with the animals, Kang was once again stunned, but he quickly recovered.

After making sure that the girl wouldn’t fall from the back of the albino buffalo, Hei turned to Kang for the final farewell. "I think it's time for me to leave. I thank you for the help you gave me, and I wish you all good luck."

"No, we are the ones we have to thank you for. Without you, this future would have been impossible." Then Kang extended a hand forward, and Hei reciprocated by shaking his hand.

When they separated their hands, Hei led the buffaloes into the woods while the darkness swallowed them slowly.

Kang sighed, thinking it was a pity he hadn’t managed to convince Hei to stay. Together they could have done great things. However, it wasn’t the time to regret. He had to rest now. Then, he would start establishing their new home.

*

Arriving at the pond they had found earlier, Hei sent the girl down from the albino buffalo and asked her mother, ‘If we keep her with us, then I think it's better to give her a name, what do you say mother?’

Bao Bei replied, ‘Why don't you decide together and give her a name? You can also give it to buffaloes so it will be more advantageous in the future.’

Hearing that, Ye and Xing got excited thinking about what name to give her. However, they realized that they didn’t know so many people’s names and reluctantly had to give the task to Hei.

Hei also didn’t know so many people's names, so he thought it would be better to give her the name of some flower, which was very suitable as she was a girl.

Since she had blue eyes and hair, he started to recall all the flowers he knew with that color, but for some reason, they didn't convince him very much. But as he was thinking, his eyes fell on her feet still dirty with earth. That was a very clear contrast.

The girl was indeed stunning and possessed a mysterious and fascinating feeling around her. But, that atmosphere was ruined by the dirt she had in her feet. It was as if her purity was being slowly contaminated.

Yet to Hei, it seemed the opposite. The girl wasn’t being contaminated by dirt, but she had come out of the soil. Then he came up with the perfect name for her.

"Lian," Hei whispered as he looked at the blue-haired girl. She shivered slightly but said nothing.

‘What a nice name, where does it come from?’ Ye and Xing asked in chorus as they climbed Lian's body as if they were on Hei's.

“It comes from the lotus flower. It is born in murky waters, yet its beauty isn’t affected at all; actually, it is more emphasized. It is present in various colors, including blue. It means rebirth. I don't know what they did to her there, but I hope one day she will recover and come back to being alive and being reborn into a new person.” Hei explained, telling them what he had thought about when he was choosing the name.

Ye and Xing paused a moment to contemplate its meaning and then continued to run over her body, humming her name ‘Lian, Lian.’

It was bizarre for Hei to see them so attached to another person, not even with Lei Lei and Lei Bai, they had shown such an attitude. Perhaps it was because they perceived her as a helpless creature they wanted to protect or that she had no repulsion or fear in her eyes.

Although, over the years, Lei Lei had always been friendly with them, she couldn’t hide a slight trace of fear if they approached her suddenly, since spiders and snakes weren’t creatures that you would normally consider beautiful and cute.

Obviously, Ye and Xing clearly understood Lei Lei's point of view and never made it a problem, preserving for her a deep affection and a sweet memory. But it was another thing to be accepted without prejudice or fear from another person. After all, the only one who had no problems with them, excluding their mother, or animals and spirit beasts in general, was their big brother.

While they were playing, Hei turned towards the albino buffalo and said, "I think that the time has come to give you a name too. What about Shui?"

The albino buffalo nodded its head to indicate that it liked the name. Literally, its name meant water. It represented the species of buffalo to which it belonged.

While Hei wanted to give the others buffaloes a name, Shui shook its head. Confused, Hei tried to ask why and Shui answered that there would be plenty of time to name the others in the future, but it was better to leave because they didn't want to make him waste time on them thinking about the names.

They had, in fact, lost some time, and finding a name for the rest of the buffaloes wouldn't be easy. Thus accepting its suggestion, Hei signaled that they had to leave.

Since the buffaloes, although they were fast, weren’t as fast as Bao Bei, they were sent in her dimensional pocket.

Although this was like a separate dimension inside a living being that had reached a high rank and it was usually used to contain objects, it was also able to carry living beings.

Of course, it wasn’t an unlimited space, and its size was based on the strength of the user's soul. Furthermore, it wasn’t a suitable place to spend long periods unless one wanted to have undesirable effects on one's own cultivation since they were inside the soul of another being. Precisely for this reason, this was used as an extreme means of transport only if it was strictly necessary.

Once the buffaloes were inside, Hei picked up Lian as he saw she wouldn’t move while his mother increased in size. To accommodate two people on her back, she expanded her size to two meters.

Then Hei mounted on her back, placing Lian in front of him. Ye and Xing were also advised to hold on tight and look after Lian if she moved during the journey. Fortunately, Lian kept her attitude and didn’t flinch as she was placed on the back of a two-meter spider.

At that point, Hei gently touched his mother's back to tell her they were ready. So with the moon still high in the sky, Bao Bei began to move quickly in the dark night in the Flower Sect’s direction.