He Yu pushed aside his concern as he followed his father inside. He couldn’t be seen? Why not? This was his home. Sure, he’d left almost twenty years ago, but he should be welcome here. There weren’t any signs of danger—no powerful presences betraying any other cultivators nearby. At this point, that’s what it would take to pose a threat to him or Chen Fei.

  With the door firmly closed behind them, He Yu, Chen Fei, and He Gang gathered around a table inside the modest home. He Gang looked between the two of them, his features lined with a mix of relief and worry both. It struck He Yu how much his father had changed in what seemed like such a short amount of time. When he’d left, He Gang had been a strong man, just entering his middle years and not showing any outward signs of age. Now, his posture was less firm, his face lined. He still walked with a limp, and he seemed to have slowed even more for it. The strength of a lifetime working the forge was still there, mostly. But he appeared shockingly… mortal.

  The change was more than just the passage of time. More than the weight of age. The lines around his eyes, his mouth, the result of worry. Of grief. The telltale mark of a father who’d lost a son.

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” He Gang eventually said. “When the sky turned red, I feared. When news of what the befell the sect reached us, I didn’t dare hope.” His voice hitched, emotion thick in his words as he spoke.

  He Yu didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner,” was all he could manage.

  Next to him, Chen Fei picked at the fur trim of her vest.

  He Gang shook his head, “No. I’m sure you had your reasons.” He seemed to perk up, then, as he looked over He Yu once more. The weight seemed to fractionally fall away from him—grief and loss slowly turning to pride. “You’ve grown, Yu’er. You look a proper immortal, now.”

  That hit He Yu differently than he’d expected it to, but no less hard. He could practically feel his chest swell at his father’s praise. “I’ve recently formed my Nascent Soul,” he said. “Chen Fei is at the Golden Core stage, and half a step into the Fifth Realm.”

  “So that’s your companion’s name,” He Gang said, turning to Chen Fei.

  She bowed over a clasped a fist. “It is an honor to meet you, Uncle He.”

  “And are you two?” he let the question remain unspoken as he looked between them.

  He Yu glanced to Chen Fei, and the heat in his cheeks mirrored the color in hers. He Gang laughed, and a comfortable familiarity and ease settled over the gathering. The three of them spoke long into the night, with He Yu and Chen Fei recounting their time at the sect, and He Gang tactfully avoiding any more prying questions.

  When they’d finished catching up on the past fifteen years, He Yu brought the conversation back around to his father’s initial reaction. “Why can’t I be seen?” he asked.

  He Gang’s expression darkened. “You’re an outlaw, Yu’er. I guess you’ve been away for some time, if you didn’t know.”

  “I have,” he answered. Briefly, he explained that he and Chen Fei had been in seclusion since the sect fell. Neither he nor Chen Fei wanted to go into much detail about what exactly had happened at the sect, and He Gang didn’t press the question.

  “I see,” his father said once He Yu had finished relaying his time with Yongnian. “Still, it’s not good for you to be here. The provincial governor sent out the declaration shortly after his appointment.”

  “Who is this governor?” He Yu asked. The more he learned about how this province was being administered, the less he liked this governor. Even if he didn’t know their name.

  “Lord Xin,” He Gang said. “That’s all I know him by.”

  He Yu fought back his anger at that. It could just be a coincidence. He didn’t know for certain who this Lord Xin was, but he certainly had his suspicions. It would explain why he’d been singled out, after all.

  “Dong Wei has also managed to get himself appointed to a position of authority. He scrapes and bows. He flatters Lord Xin’s envoys, and he’s been rewarded for it.”

  That wasn’t something He Yu had wanted to hear. “Rewarded how?”

  “First, he was given authority over the town. Not only was he allowed to continue running his school, but now he’s officially Shulin’s magistrate.” That wasn’t right. Shulin was far too small a town to have a magistrate. A village elder, who would have been Dong Wei anyway, sure, but an appointed official?

  “I take it there’s more?” He Yu asked.

  “Dong Wei’s flattery has gotten him far. With the wealth of his appointment, he’s been able to reach the Third Realm.” Significant for a place like Shulin, but inconsequential as far as He Yu was concerned. At worst, it meant that Shulin would be stuck dealing with Dong Wei for at least another seventy years.

  “Doesn’t sound all that much to worry about, if you ask me,” Chen Fei said.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Perhaps not in terms of his cultivation,” He Gang said. “Especially not compared to either of you. But he’s held a grudge.” He Gang turned back to He Yu. “That woman, the one who recruited you for the sect. Dong Wei hasn’t forgotten how she humiliated him. When you failed to return from the Shrouded Peaks in defeat and humiliation, his hatred for you only grew, Yu’er.”

  “What did Senior Sister Zhang do to him?” Chen Fei asked.

  He Yu told her. She’d already heard about the tournament, and the origin of Sha Xiang’s irrational hatred for him, but he’d never told about how Zhang Lifen had threatened Dong Wei. He’d hardly thought about that incident in the years since. It had seemed far too insignificant in the face of everything else. Now, it seemed, it had come to matter once again.

  “Well, it’s not as if a Third Realm could do anything to either of us,” she said.

  “He’s spiteful and boastful, but he’s no fool. He’ll summon Lord Xin if he finds you,” He Gang said. “Although, I don’t know if that matters. Nascent Soul.” He Gang shook his head, muttering to himself in disbelief. “I’d never have imagined you could achieve such heights.”

  “I’m not done yet,” He Yu said.

  “Surely. But you won’t reach any higher here. As much as I’m grateful that you’ve come, certainly you won’t be staying.”

  It was a hard thing to admit, but his father was right. “No, we won’t. There’s a long road ahead for both of us, and it will take us far away from here.” He thought it best not to mention what he intended. Certainly his father wouldn’t take well to the news that he intended to challenge—and defeat—the ancient cultivator who now ruled the whole of the empire.

  “I trust you’ll be leaving soon, then? I suppose it’s for the best,” He Gang said, shoulders sagging a bit.

  “About that. There’s a reason we came beyond a simple visit.” He Yu produced his guandao and presented it to his father. “I need my weapon reforged. It’s no longer suitable, now that I’ve advanced to the Fifth Realm. If possible, I’d like something that can carry me to the highest level of cultivation.”

  He Gang’s eyes practically jumped out of their sockets. For a moment, he just stared at the weapon, speechless. “I can’t.” He shook his head. “This, this is beyond me. I’m not even worthy to sharpen a treasure of this quality.”

  “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have do this work,” He Yu said. Surely his father was capable enough? He may only be barely awakened to the First Realm, but he was a master smith, regardless.

  “I can’t,” He Gang repeated. When He Yu objected again, He Gang silenced him, then pointed at the formation script along the back of the blade. “I couldn’t even begin to tell you what this script was. Or this one along the haft. Maybe, if I took my time, I could match the workmanship of the weapon itself, but you have to know the workmanship isn’t really what matters. I am no formation master.”

  “I am,” Chen Fei said. Then she added, “Well, not a master, but I’m pretty good. At least that’s what Senior Brother Ren had always told me.”

  “She also cultivates metal qi,” He Yu added before his father could object again. “She’ll be able to help with the forging process, not just the formations. If your forge isn’t up to the task, she can help there, too.”

  “It seems you’ve discussed this between yourselves, already,” He Gang said.

  Chen Fei gave an enthusiastic nod. “The significance of all the pieces will matter the most,” she began. “Reforging the weapon he’s been using, having you do the actual metalwork, and having me do the formations. It will come together in a weapon that’s spiritually significant to him. It will serve him better than just about any other weapon he could get somewhere else.”

  He Gang reached out and picked up the guandao. As he turned it over in his hands, examining it with a practiced and critical eye, He Yu couldn’t help but smile to himself. Although he’d not said as much yet, He Gang had already agreed to help. The two of them sat in silence while He Gang ran his hands over the haft and the blade, peered at the formation characters, and tested the edge with his thumb. They waited as he went to fetch a sheet of paper and a piece of charcoal. As he sketched out plans and muttered to himself.

  “A star fell to earth just last month,” He Gang said after a little while longer. “If you can find it, we can imbue the new blade with metal from it. With such a material, even a lowly smith such as myself could create a treasure to shake the heavens. Especially with the help of a formation expert of Lady Chen’s mastery.”

  “Please, just call me Chen Fei. And I’m no expert.”

  He Gang fixed her with the stern gaze that had pinned He Yu so many times during his youth. “I’m sure this Senior Brother Ren knows better than you do.”

  He Yu couldn’t help but laugh as Chen Fei shrank back. He’d been on the receiving end of that look more than enough times to know its power. “I can search for the fallen star come morning,” he said. “It’ll keep me out of the way while you work, and keep Dong Wei from learning I’ve returned, at least for a day or two.”

  “Good,” He Gang said, in that firm but still kind way of his. “It will give me time to ask Chen Fei some questions, too.”

  Chen Fei shot He Yu a nervous, half-frightened look. He simply shrugged in response. “You’ll get along fine,” he said. “My father isn’t any worse than Ren Huang. Certainly easier to deal with than Senior Sister Yi.”

  They talked late into the night, the conversation quickly falling under He Gang’s authority and turning to matters of metalcraft and formation work. Once the focus shifted fully to the project of He Yu’s new weapon, Chen Fei relaxed as well. She talked excitedly about the kinds of formations the weapon would need. He Gang listened with the ear of an expert craftsman, nodding along as he made notes with rough but quick strokes on his paper.

  Before they got too lost, He Yu interrupted them and asked where he might find the fallen star. As the night grew long, and the eastern sky eventually grew pale with the coming of dawn, he slipped out and left Chen Fei and his father to their work. He had to admit to himself; it was good to be back after all this time. Even if he couldn’t stay, he was glad he’d come. He’d missed Shulin, and that missing piece had been something he’d not even realized was there until the town had come into sight.

  He’d missed his father, and seeing that the man who’d raised him was healthy despite his advancing years eased his heart and his conscience alike. However long or short it would take to forge the new guandao, it would be a welcome reprieve from the world of cultivation and the long road he’d committed himself to. For a time, he could simply be a son again.

  But first, he had a fallen star to find.

  He Yu passed beyond the formation stones that marked the boundary of Shulin. He kept his presence tightly restrained as he rushed through the forest with only the power of a body that had passed through the Third Realm and had been tempered by the wrath of heaven. Using his techniques would announce his presence to everyone within at least a day’s journey. Heading off in the direction his father had told him to search, He Yu set himself to his immediate task. Obtaining metal fallen from heaven.