Nighttime.
{Anything new?}
"Not at the moment. What about you? Got something to share?"
{Not much is happening at the moment. The work that you have left me is on the right path.}
{The Elders were a bit nosey today when I was asking for reasons to the changes in your iterations. They still think I am trying to obtain you one way or another.}
"I hope you aren't. That would be a pain."
{Do you think I am fool? You are too much trouble to have. Things are fine the way they are.}
"Indeed."
{Why did you change your schedule though? Leng Yaozhu must not have something that time consuming for you.}
"I wonder about that as well. Things are going down just fine. With the current speed that I have, I could most probably replant the entire continent in a day. I would be tired out though. Might be more than that actually."
{That's the best Ice Jade Scorpion spirit soul in the entire continent that we have provided you, of course YOU would get a skill that would be heaven defying.}
"You say that when you haven't even seen the complete speed that it is capable off."
{That just adds to the claim.}
"Yeah. You were the one who was going to give me a healing type spirit soul."
{Let's put the past behind us. Knowing you, you don't even care about it anymore. Why sour our moods over it then? You would have done the same to me if you were in my place.}
"I wouldn't have. And I indeed don't care about it. I just pointed it out because of how hypocritical it sounded when coming from you."
{My praise for the spirit soul is real.}
"And forced up are praises for me. I know I am not easy on the ears but you don't need to act like all those people. You are the President of the Spirit Pagoda, act like it. Don't lower yourself to the standing of those bootlickers."
{...I hate you. I hate you a lot kid!}
"That's more like it. Being truthful doesn't hurt. Look at me, I always speak my mind."
{I feel like you should respect me a bit more then.}
"Nah."
{*Sigh*. Is it raining there?}
"Yeah. I have taken shelter, will be enjoying my soup and bread soon. What about you? It should be snowing in Bright City. Enjoying the snow all alone? With no company whatsoever."
{Hateful brat. I am genuinely surprised though. I didn't think you would be eating something other than fruits. Bread and soup at that. Let me guess the soup, is it tomato?}
"No, it is mixed vegetable dumpling soup. I have three different breads as well, two soft and one sweet. They go extremely well with the vegetables."
{Who cooked your food? Surely you didn't?}
"I did. Why? I can cook just fine. I am a good cook even."
{Oh! That's a surprise. I thought of you as a power hungry ascetic or worse. Did something happen to change that?}
"No. I was free today, thought that since I have time why not cook? It has been a long time since I have cooked food."
{You are surprisingly normal.}
"For eating cooked food? What kind of abominations have you created me in your minds as? I am pretty normal. Although I can be said to be a picky eater but that's normal as well."
{That I can easily imagine. You do indeed seem like the type who eat one out of the hundreds.}
"Not that much. What about you? What are you doing?"
{Drinking. As I already told you, things have been going well. A little too well but it's good regardless.}
"You seem to have accustomed to your life at Bright City. Someone's not returning to the Spirit Pagoda it seems."
{Once the time is ripe, I will return to my office as well. For now, I am needed here more.}
"Good for you. I can't fathom how you all stay put to your positions through all these years. It hasn't even been a year and I am bored from the replantation."
{Really? I thought you enjoyed it from the amount of hardwork that you were putting in it.}
"That's just a work habit. I had started it as a way to get the resources for my advancement since I had nothing but suddenly I had everything and this all became obsolete. Now I have my strength, am strong and still doing replantation but I do not want to do this for much longer."
{Why? You don't care about the planet anymore.}
"I said I don't want to do it any longer. I never said I won't do it. Once I get my Four Word Battle Armour, I am going to finish the replantation in a day and then disappear into the world."
"The replantation is taking a huge part of my life such that I do not even have time for myself. There is no point to increasing strength now. I am strong already."
"There's no point to gaining anymore wealth, you have given me enough."
"All the strength, all the money and yet I feel empty at times. My everything revolves around me and I am doing not much but just the same thing everyday, every night."
{You should take a break between work then. You sound burnt out from over-exertion.}
"That's what I am doing."
"I had wanted to thrive among the Soul Masters. Now I want nothing more to return back to my previous peaceful life."
"I need the Four Word Battle Armour. I want to live more."
{You have stored up a lot of emotions in you. I just realised that you are surprisingly fragile. Tonight is indeed a night full of surprises.}
"I told you. I am pretty normal. And I am not fragile, I am just a bit lost on my purpose from here on out."
{For once if you were to do the replantation of the whole continent in one day, I don't think we could recover from the afterworks.}
"Yeah. That's why I am taking it slow."
{Have you given any thought to what you want to do after replantation?}
"I will leave for the other continent and do the replantation there at the actual rate that I had set in the beginning. 10-20 mins a day, once or twice a week and the rest of the time would be me trying to enjoy the travels."
{...That's good to know.}
"Obviously. Later then, my soup is ready."
{I hope you find your calling soon. You are far more important than you think.}
"You might be surprised at just how much self aware I am about these things."
He said and cut the call.
Fan Lin then served himself the pot of the soup and bread and went to sleep after finishing it all.
The rain still continued its rhythm rants. The world was healing. He was asleep again amd now he was dreaming.