NOVEL NEXT 113: How… How Did She Know?
Dipping her spoon into the steaming broth before her, Lin Songmei took a couple of sips while staring off into space. Holding Yan Mingqing’s hand under the table, Songmei was just waiting for Liu Xueli to finish a conversation with one of the waiting staff.
A couple of moments later, Xueli spun in her seat, crossing her legs under the table as she pumped life back into the conversation. “Good to hear that you two have been resting and have made some friends.”
Leaning forward while propping her chin up with a hand, Xueli grinned, “I also saw that your little team took a job to start tomorrow, yeah? That’s why I rushed the meeting a little and scheduled it the same day.”
“You... You can see what we signed up for?” Songmei asked with a mystified expression, lifting some noodles out of her broth. “I didn’t know that...”
Tilting her head and blinking a couple of times, Xueli shrugged. “Of course I can, I’m your teacher and caretaker! Also, the sign up program for missions is run by the sects, so... it’s just a couple of clicks away.”
“Oh.” Songmei nodded with a blank expression. Some reason, the concept of Xueli being able to watch them from afar just didn’t cross her mind.
Laughing as Songmei continued to nod until Mingqing stopped her, Xueli took a moment to transfer some vegetables from the dishes in the center to her bowl of rice. “Don’t worry your young-in’ heads about it. I won’t intentionally leak any of your personal information—that only leads to me being hounded by more reporters anyway.”
With Songmei and Mingqing doing a synchronized eye-roll, Xueli coughed as she leaned back into her chair while holding her bowl of food. “Anyway, today’s conversation is really just a half catch up I’d like to hear about as your ‘aunt’ and half information dumping session that I might as well include as your teacher. There’s not going to be anything that’ll change the direction of your goals. After all, I’m quite content with how you all are doing. Just keep cultivating, hanging out, and doing some missions.”
“Xueli... you know you.... Can just say you’re too lazy to type it all out and send it to us as a message, right?” Mingqing inquired with a subtle hand gesture, her mouth and expression beginning to thaw as the wait staff disappeared. “We already know...”
“Ruthless-” Xueli cried out with an aggrieved expression, wiping a fake tear as she hid her face with the bowl she was using to eat.
“It’s really not a big deal,” Mingqing added after getting a quiet giggle and urging hand motion from Songmei. “We’re long past judging you for being technologically incompetent.”
Setting her bowl down after dusting its contents, Xueli shook her head, having forgotten the needling power Mingqing had after not seeing her for so long. “Moving... Moving on. Congratulations on opening up your fifth meridian Songmei, I can see from here that your Qi flow is much smoother. How’s your progress Mingqing? Any questions? Also, as a side note, how many people know about the cultivation progress you two have had?”
“Thank you,” Songmei acknowledged as a flustered quiver shook her voice. “Mingqing’s close to me though.”
“Yeah, I’m a couple of days out from opening my fifth meridian.” Mingqing shrugged, not too bothered. “Songmei and I have been taking our time really. We do the foundation setting exercises you tell us to every night too.”
“‘Taking our time’...” Xueli shook her head in disbelief as she pulled a different plate of tofu towards herself. “You two know that you’re cultivating at demon speeds, right? It’s only been four months! Mingqing, though your brother might be prideful, you’ve probably edged him out by a couple of weeks when it comes to these first few meridians.”
Clenching her fist with a smug “Yes!” Mingqing then motioned for Xueli to continue before freezing and interjecting. “Oh, sorry, we also forgot to answer your last question. I believe it’s just Wang Taigang and Han Youhong who know outside of us three. Can you think of anyone else, Songmei?”
A spoon of broth halfway in her mouth, Songmei froze, only for Xueli and Mingqing to motion for her to just finish the spoonful. Swallowing the steaming broth with a cough, Songmei set her spoon back into the bowl and tapped her chin. “No, I don’t think so... we don’t talk to anyone else.”
“Alright,” Xueli mused—it was better than she expected. “Can I just ask that you two keep your cultivation progress on the... on the down low, yeah. As much as it’s tempting to tease, it’ll probably bring you two a lot of trouble and pressure if you’re too open about your current stage of cultivation. What you’re doing right now is fine though, just ask the two boys to keep their mouths shut.”
Getting a mock salute from the two girls, Xueli thanked the two—not in small part because she’d then have less work. “Moving on, what was the next topic I put in my message. Do you two remember?”
““Nope.””
A moment later, having checked her terminal, Xueli blurted, “Oh, oh, oh! Yeah! Okay, so this is just a small bit of information. But the area you all are guarding a transport through has been quite chaotic recently due to a turf war between Wrath and Avarice. So just make sure to bring some weapons and be ready to fight.”
With a pause for thought, Xueli then continued. “Yeah, I didn’t have anything else on that topic. It’s just an important thing to share. Any comments, you two?”
Realizing Songmei and Mingqing were both buried in their food, Xueli felt her heart warm as they shook their heads in unison. “Next topic is mostly for Songmei. Do you want Mingqing to be here for it too?”
With a thumbs up from Songmei, Xueli drummed her fingers on the table. “So... where to begin. So many places, tidbits of information, and not a lot of answers.”
Projecting a picture of a dozen or so eyes, Xueli began. “I started off by just referencing the public database. Eye powers that pop up out of nowhere—as in, your parents don’t have any—are exceedingly rare, so it was a good start to just see if your eyes matched up with any of the publicly known ones. Right now, I’m just projecting all the purple ones. I have a pretty good memory of what your eyes looked like and your eyes match up pretty close to several of these.”
“Number three... five, ten... eighteen, and nineteen...” Songmei murmured as Xueli projected a couple of yellow circles around the ones close to Songmei’s. “What’s the problem then?”
“Well, I recognize a couple of these so I can answer a couple of them,” Mingqing murmured as a pensive expression sank onto her face. “Number three is a cultivator from a millennia ago who was active on the southern continent. They’ve been dead for close to four hundred years now and have had no recorded descendents. Small problem when it comes to birthing you.”
“Yeah, small problem, just a little,” Songmei agreed with a laugh. “What about the others?”
Getting a hand motion from Xueli to show she was free to continue, Mingqing stroked her chin. “Well, I don’t recognize some of the others, but I’m pretty sure ten is one of the esteemed elders in a sect located in the western continent. She’s still alive, which is good, but she also has been in a stable marriage for close to two and a half centuries and has a family. That’s all I know though.”
“Not bad, not bad,” Xueli praised as Songmei gave Mingqing a few appreciative hand squeezes under the table. “I can add a little then. Number three was someone born without any reproductive organs. They reached a level of expertise where they could in theory reproduce with some techniques, but... yeah I kind of doubt it.”
“Why’s that?” Songmei asked, curious as to the doubtful expression slathered over Xueli’s face.
“Okay, so I was doing some research, yeah? This expert is famous for their androgyny.” Xueli remarked with a head scratch. “Nothing wrong with that, of course, but they’ve also been recorded saying things along the lines of being a person transcendent beyond gender and the human body. To the point where it was part of their very cultivation. They even taught at Starlight Lake long long ago. Some of the elders who remember them say that they really just... didn’t care for passing on their bloodline.”
“Alright, so they’re out,” Songmei sighed, agreeing with Xueli’s research. “Who’s next?”
“So, though it’s possible because number ten is still alive, I doubt it.” Xueli shrugged. “Beyond what Mingqing said, she also looks nothing like you, and her eye powers are very... very far from yours. Her eyes allow her to use a freezing technique even though she’s a fire cultivator.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that,” Mingqing added as her lips pressed together, “She’s... really different from you, yeah...”
“For the others...” Xueli went down the list, “Number five was locked away in a prison over half a millennium ago and died a couple hundred years ago, also their powers didn’t do anything remotely similar to yours. Number nineteen on the other hand is barely a decade older than you two, she couldn’t have had you Songmei even if she tried.”
“So that leaves number eighteen?” Songmei asked, seeing all but eighteen had a red X through them.
“Well, I’d like to say that, but... number eighteen also seems unlikely.” Xueli sighed. “She was actually a disciple of Starlight Lake. My junior sister, about a decade younger than me.”
With Xueli’s voice dropping as a tinge of unwillingness crept into it, Songmei and Mingqing quieted down. Xueli, clearing her throat, shrugged it off. “Well, it’s been a long time, so you two don’t need to look so serious. It’s part of life. But for context, she and this other man, a sectmate in her year, were a famous married couple—don’t know how she got married before me but it happened somehow. I was one of her bridesmaids too!”
Ignoring the laughter now coming from Mingqing and Songmei, Xueli continued, “Anyhow, they were married for a long time, but never had children. A couple of missteps later though, and they were being hunted by the devils in the central continent. They’re assumed to be dead after they went on the run and disappeared thirty five years ago.”
“Oh...” Songmei murmured, now able to see why Xueli was in such a dilemma. “The way you said it though makes it seem like they’re the most likely candidate.”
“Ahh... I’ve heard of them,” Mingqing nodded, “they’re probably the most likely because their bodies were never recovered, that’s why they are assumed to be dead. Then again though, you’re a little past sixteen and they disappeared for close to two decades by then.”
“Yeah, that’s the gist of it. Notably though, my junior sister’s eye powers weren’t related to yours though even if they look the most similar. Her eyes allowed her to plunge the opponent into a mental delusion if they were below her in cultivation.” Xueli shrugged, “So I’ll be doing some more research to see if there’s anyone else.”
Finishing her vegetable dish, Xueli ended off by explaining “usually abilities related to the eye awaken once you’ve opened all your meridians. So I’ve sealed them off for now or they’ll just destroy your eyes. Based on what powers you exhibited though, I’ll start making a training guide for you to use once you enter the foundation establishment stage though.”
One “thank you” from Songmei later, the three of them took some time, ordering some more food and eating what was already on the table. Following some light conversation to ease up the atmosphere, Xueli, with a twinkle in her eye, cleared her throat.
“Now, for the last thing,” Xueli grinned as she couldn’t resist letting a teasing laugh slip out of her mouth. “Would you two like to tell me about you two dating? You two couldn’t have thought I wouldn’t notice you two holding hands under the table the whole time now, did you?”
