"Even with all the weight training I've been doing, I'm still the same weak toddler in front of them." He mumbled silently with a slightly depressed sigh escaping from his pouted lips.
The two old man didn't notice his reaction at all, they moved toward the table that rested in the middle of their small living room and sat around it.
Before long, Sheng Wang was pouring tea to the native spiritualist Buckethead who had a large plastered smile on his angular face.
The burlesque man inhaled the aroma of the beverage before gulping the entire hot cup in one go. The scalding temperature of the liquid didn't seem to stop him from tasting the tea as he could be seen enjoying the herbal aftertaste for a few seconds after he emptied his cup.
Sheng Hao couldn't help but sit down next to the two men, and silently accompanied them in their usual tea session. Although he didn't speak, he still enjoyed spending time with the two old friends that were soon laughing out loud after Buckethead started narrating his recent journey.
"You should have seen the face of that hundred-year-old Spiritual Ape. The crooked grimace that painted its furred face when it noticed that I wasn't going to back down from acquiring their wines was really priceless!" Sheng Hao nearly spit the mouthful he was swallowing when he heard the shameless tone in his uncle's voice.
"Although, I couldn't force myself to take care everything and left them more than a quarter of what they had brewed. I couldn't accept being that cruel with them, in the end I even gave them a few spiritual herbs I harvested when I was crossing the wilderness so they could refill their whine well." He finished with a small sigh as if he had ended up having a good time with the population of spiritual beasts.
The reincarnated man couldn't help but feel confused. His uncle Buckethead was clearly showing signs of extensive greed but had still nonetheless resorted to some means to calm down the tribe of Spiritual Ape and didn't leave them barehanded. From the end of that story, he even felt like he had ended up developing some sort of basic relation of exchange with the apes.
"I wonder how Spiritual Ape Wine taste like?" mumbled the small boy mindlessly. Although that sentence had left his lips in an inaudible whisper, the two old men sitting around the table stopped in the middle of their discussion. Their heads turned toward the young boy as they gazed at him with a strange smile that wasn't really a smile. Sheng Wang responded in a short sentence while the native spiritualist took the time to explain the nuances of the aromas that could be tasted inside the Spiritual Wine.
"One taste is enough to lift up your mood, it'll warm up your inner organs and even boost your blood flow circulation. You might even go through a breakthrough in your cultivation if the spiritual wine is brewed from rare spiritual herbs." His mouth couldn't help but click his tongue as he remembered the taste of the beverage.
"Speaking about that… I've kept a little jar of that wine for the rest of the elders. We should take the occasion to try to group up those secluded bastards and feast for a few nights!" The tone in his voice made it seem as though he was yearning for some festive atmosphere in his life, missing up the nights where he could truly let go. Sheng Wang couldn't help but change the subject to something else as he started asking political questions to the tribal spiritualist.
"Did you receive any news from the Jianshen Empire?" asked Sheng Wang in a serious tone that still trembled slightly, showing the importance of what was going through in his head.
Sheng Hao couldn't help but feel that the atmosphere had changed suddenly, going from a comedic and festive tone to something far more somber and serious. He gulped silently and stopped looked at the pair of old man, his gaze fell on the cup of tea he was holding between his hands as he fell in deep thought.
The last sentence about the spiritual wine had left him wanting to taste the liquor. However he couldn't help but feel that the subject was far too sensible for him to jump on the sudden occasion. In the end, his addictions were still something he needed to guard himself against. Alcohol could be consumed in a benign manner, but he had also seen first-hand how one could lose himself in the liquor.
After a few seconds, he shook his head and refocused his mind on what the two old men were speaking about. Although they were conversing about geopolitical matters he wasn't interested in, he nonetheless listened quietly and tried to understand.
"There is still a blockade around the royal capital. People can rarely come in and come out unless they are equipped with a special authorization coming from the royal eunuch of the Queen." Buckethead's face contorted slightly before continuing.
"The citizens and native from the capital are having trouble dealings with these new laws, but I didn't delve too much there and I can't tell you more about this as my journey wasn't focused on that place. I still took the time to listen inside the taverns and had managed to acquire a few interesting pieces of information." The man's thick eyes couldn't help but wonder slightly toward the young boy sitting next to them before adding.
"I've heard from a few drunk soldiers that they are still on the lookout for the royal prince. However most of the people there think that he had died that night from the spiritual curse that was put on the royal clan." Sheng Wang's eyes shone brightly and lit up, the atmosphere around him tensed slightly before calming down.
The little changes that had shuffled one after another on his face had happened far too quickly for Sheng Hao to notice anything substantial from the strange scene. The mind of the young boy was far too focused on trying to understand but his mind didn't possess the necessary information to connect the dots and link the story to himself.
In the end, Sheng Wang had to this day avoided any talk related to their common pasts and hadn't given the young boy the necessary tools to understand that they were speaking about him.
"That's good. Very good, good…" added Sheng Wang who finally ended the silence that had taken place around the table. "What about the overall situation inside the continent, did you hear or find anything strange through your travels?"
Buckethead opened his mouth, ready to say that he hadn't noticed any peculiar news but his lips came to a stop. He couldn't help but remember a specific moment of his journey, thought deeply for a few seconds before exclaiming.
"I've noticed a strange event happen in valleys of the wilderness… Well, to meet a weird variant of Spiritual Beasts isn't anything rare or strange. But on the way back to Toe Village, I've met something weird with a strange spiritual signature that I've never met before…"
"I don't really have any basis on what I am going to say as I am not any kind specialist who studied spiritual beasts. But these creatures weren't really the type of beasts that I've seen on the Portalia Continent…" He continued before remembering something else and added. "I've also met a bunch of weirdos not far from the spot where I have found the strange beast. They ended up attacking me but I didn't have much difficulty in dealing with them." He added before throwing the matter out of his head.
It was in the nature of Buckethead not to curse his thoughts with information he wasn't able to process. He was far too conscious on the damages that arise when a spiritualist overthought too much. Due to their powerful minds and strong thoughts that nurtured their will, the mind of a spiritualist could easily birth mental demons that would haunt them through their daily life till they died if they weren't able to deal with them.
Mental demons on their own weren't able to kill a spiritualist, but the effect was similar to a psychosis where the spiritualist could lose track on what was real and what wasn't. Buckethead trusted that habit of his, he was aware that he wasn't part of bright-minded individuals and knew that he shouldn't pursue certain matters more than what he already did.
"This is indeed weird… You think there is a relation between the creatures and the people you've met?" asked Sheng Wang as he couldn't help but sense his guts direct him toward that hunch.
"That I really can't say for sure… Well, it's just something I've dealt with in the middle of my trip. I don't think you should bother your mind with this. If I notice something strange, I'll just speak with Flamelle." Sheng Wang could sense in his friend's words that he didn't know anything else related to that event and stopped asking questions.
The discussion took another turn with the native spiritualist counting some short stories he had amassed to the young boy. The reincarnated man smiled and laughed to the tribal man's narration, he couldn't help but throw the matters related to the spiritual wine and the strange beasts out of his mind as he too shared the events that happened in the village when Buckethead wasn't in Toe Village.
Although the reincarnated man knew that his life in the village was repetitive and uninteresting, he was aware that Buckethead wasn't the type of individual that would be bothered by this pace of life. From the different physical exercises to the different crafts he had worked on, he spoke about his progress with spiritual energy and finished on a few words about the other elders he had met.
"Oh that shy Asimov had finally left his star grotto. Don't listen too much to his lectures… His craft is the weirdest one among the elders and doesn't really have any use unless you attain his level in the astral studies." The tribal spiritualist's eyes were full of respect when he was speaking about the art of astrology.
"Even for me, I can't help but avoid butting heads with that star gazer when he is in a grumpy mood." He mumbled lowly with Sheng Wang reaffirming his words with a nod of his own.
Sheng Hao felt his view of Paski Asimov change, he couldn't help but yearn the teaching of the eccentric man. However he contained himself as he knew that he wasn't able to have that sort of luxury due to the intense schedule he was already imposing on his daily life. On that thought, the reincarnated man remembered that Buckethead's presence had made him forget that he was supposed to receive a lecture from the Old Witch Flamelle.
He rose to his feet with a push of his hands on the linen carpet, apologized to Buckethead and Sheng Wang before darting in a speedy dash with his figure disappearing from the small cottage. The two men sitting around the table couldn't help but chuckle slightly from the urgency they sensed in the young boy's sudden pace.
"She can be the harshest one in the Toe Village." Mumbled Sheng Wang who looked at his grandson's disappearing figure with a small smile hidden in his beard.
Although Flamelle wasn't specifically a harsh tutor, the rare times where the young boy had missed her lectures had made him learn that she wasn't the type of person who liked having her time wasted. Especially when she was sharing her expert knowledge on Alchemy and Rune Enchanting, she could sometimes lose her calm when she was disappointed.
With that knowledge in mind, his legs kicked harder on the ground as he pushed his speed to the max. Soon he arrived in front of the Old Witch's cottage, his breath was short due to the rapid pace he had run with and he took a few short seconds to calm himself before patting his clothes. The moment his hand moved toward the wooden doorknob, he felt a pressure from the other side and couldn't stop himself from releasing a loud gulp as the door opened up on its own.
The person he tenderly called Grandma Melle appeared in front of him. She didn't speak many words and only told the young boy to follow him with a nod before taking him to her workshop. Sheng Hao sighed silently, his heart calmed down when he noticed that the old woman wasn't mad at him. He followed her with quiet steps and before long the pair arrived in front of the witch's workshop.