Talks about the incident on the Red Hills involving the demons clan had died out as fast as it was hotly spread after five long years.
Red Hills sect was no longer what it used to be five years ago, it was no longer a righteous sect but now stood as a sect that cultivated in the demonic path. Jin Bei--he uses that name now--became the new sect grandmaster opened the sect doors to those who had studied the art of demonic cultivation in secrecy all this while. Demonic cultivation became widespread and many seek to study it due to the rapid burst of heightened powers and quick breakthrough in ranks that come with practising it.
During these years, I've worked and managed a bookstore. I got the job through one my acquaintances outside while I was on one of my scenic tours back when I was still a Red Hills disciple. I liked it, I think, bookkeeping. It was always quiet around here, I don't need to speak much to other people and I was left to my own devices most of the time. It gave me a lot of room to think. About those times.
At times I wonder where the other disciples are; if they are still alive. Sometimes I feel like going back, to see if second shixiong's peach blossoms field was already growing potatoes but then I thought that Red Hills must have already changed a lot with the new takeover. And I didn't want to see that.
I heard the sounds of horses galloping and stopping outside my bookstore. A familiar face came down from the ornately decorated carriage.
Jin Bei invited himself in and sat on the guest chair of my desk. "It's been a long time shidi. You're hard to find as always." Ignoring him wasn't hard, I just had to pretend he was air.
He sighed and rubbed the edges of one of the books on the desk. "Let's go back shidi. To our sect."
I ignored him all the same but unlike in the past, he paid it no mind and continued on. "I kept everything as it was. The peach blossoms field, the koi pond, the library is still there, your room is cleaned every day and no one touches your belongings."
He still doesn't get it. That you can't have everything in the world, that things have changed and he had chosen his path.
"Shidi please. You know why I had to do it."
I finally spoke. "I'm not your shidi, and my shizun is not your shizun either." His eyes reflected pain.
"I didn't mean to kill shizun that day. Just... come back and I'll explain everything." He spoke more despairingly this time.
"You asked me once if I believe in fate, I said I had. But our fate has come to an end a long time ago."
Jin intercepted. "I didn't want the world, or the sect. I wanted a home."
"I can't afford for it to be taken away from me. I come from the demon race shidi, shizun was going to eradicate all the demon lines, I will not watch. It was my last resort."
"Then it's fate." I said.
"But you blame me."
"I like to believe that there's two kinds of fate in this world. One where you could only close your eyes and accept whatever's coming, and one where choose your own path."
"With time, even a mountain can turn into river. And even if the river runs to the sea, the waters are destined to never meet. Such things, shixiong, are what we call fate. You and I are like that too."
I saw the tenseness in his eyes, the stubbornness, but he hadn't refuted.
Maybe this was what fate had planned for us all along; that we'd walk on different paths. If I hadn't known shixiong before, I wouldn't have to hate him either.
If I wasn't part of the power struggle, if I wasn't shizun's disciple, I would have been happy to see the two worlds merging and living together, half-bloods coming out of the darkness and their fears to join the human race. Red Hills sect is looked up to by every human and demon in the realm. I know in years to come, I would be glad that Jin Bei had taken the reins to push us forward. But I hope as well that we shall never meet again.
"Shizun had once said that if it was meant to be yours, it will be. If not, no matter how you push or force it, it will never be yours. Red Hills isn't mine, it's yours. From the very beginning."