Though his ears weren’t able to hear any of the words w.a.n.g Tong was saying and his eyes straining to read the possible words w.a.n.g Tong’s lips were saying, Bai Yunfei knew w.a.n.g Tong was talking about him. To say Bai Yunfei was nervous was an understatement. He was nervous.

Nervous beyond belief.

A chance for him to regain his memories was here at last! It was only just a chance, but Bai Yunfei wasn’t willing to let this chance slip past his fingers just yet.

He thought that living in this village would slowly make him give up on the notion of remembering who he was. He thought that perhaps he’d decide to start anew in the village and perhaps abandon the old him. 

But in the end, he still wanted to know. He wanted to know who he was.

He couldn’t give up! The chance that had always been beyond reach on the horizon was now in front of him for the taking. Desire like never beyond kindled the flames in Bai Yunfei’s heart. Not even a parched man in the desert dreaming of water could compete for the thirst Bai Yunfei had now!

Just who was he and where did he come from? He just had to know!

If these ‘Immortals’ had a way for him to regain his memories, Bai Yunfei would pay whatever price it took! And gladly!

After what seemed like an eternity to him, Bai Yunfei watched as w.a.n.g Tong turned to look at him. “A pill to restore memories does indeed exist…”

“It exists!!” Joyous wonder exploded into Bai Yunfei’s eyes, this was his chance!

“But that recall pill is for treating memory loss from a blow to the head. I don’t believe your memory loss was from such a cause?”

Bai Yunfei deflated almost immediately. “I…I’m not sure…but I recall being severely hurt before losing my memories.”

“It’s fine, we’ll administer the recall pill to you and see if it works first.” w.a.n.g Tong smiled. “But it’s the damage to your soul that I find more troublesome. It may require an extensive period of time to treat that particular problem.”

“The damage to my soul?” Bai Yunfei blinked. He wasn’t quite sure what w.a.n.g Tong was getting at. “I am already very grateful for the chance of regaining my memories. Anything else isn’t as impor—”

“No no,” w.a.n.g Tong chided gently, “the damage to your soul is actually the greater concern. We must treat that first before anything else. Come with us and we’ll explain it to you on the way.”

“Come with you?!” Bai Yunfei yelped. He thought that the Immortals would simply give him the ‘elixir’ and be on their way. He never thought that he’d have to leave the village with them.

“Yes,” Nodded w.a.n.g Tong, “we currently don’t have the recall pill on us. We’ll need to head back before we give it, so if you’d like, you may come with us.”

“Ye-yes! I’ll come with!” 

——————

“Big brother Tang…are…are you really going to go with the Immortals?”

A tiny voice spoke out to Bai Yunfei, it was Stone. Once the plan was made, Bai Yunfei had told the rest of the village of his plans and prepared to set out with the Immortals before Stone stopped him.

“I am. They’ve the ability to give back my memories so I have to go.” Bai Yunfei nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll come back to the village even if I don’t regain them.”

“But…” 

“Don’t stop him, Stone. Tang Long going with the Immortals is a good thing.” Elder Zhong interrupted Stone at once. “They are Immortals!” He exclaimed with excitement, “To go where the Immortals reside is a chance rarely given by fate!

“Tang Long, I don’t see a reason for you to rush in coming back should the chance to stay arise. Learn their ‘magic’ or perhaps even how to make the ‘elixirs’, this is an unbelievable chance of fortune!”

“Elder Zhong is right! Tang Long, we’ll all be happy for you if you become an Immortal!”

“That’s right! Our village will be blessed if you come back as an Immortal!”

“You’ll definitely become an Immortal, I believe in you!”

“This village is your home no matter what, Tang Long. You can always come back.”

The words of the villagers made Bai Yunfei feel happy yet sad that he’d be leaving. He wasn’t one to ask for two bites after getting one. He just wanted to regain his memories and come back to the village, even if he didn’t get his memories back. And if he did get his memories back and knew where his actual home was, this village was still his other ‘home’.

The villagers were all upbeat and happy for Bai Yunfei. It wasn’t as though he was leaving the village forever. Many of them were hoping that he’d get his memories back and come home victorious.

Then under their expecting eyes, Bai Yunfei was wrapped in a glow of light and slowly ascended to the skies… 

Before they left Bai Yunfei made sure to repeat again and again to the villagers not to say anything about the Immortals or the elixirs to anyone. 

Bai Yunfei stood behind the tiny Feiyun whose feet s.h.i.+ned a bright red color almost like a red cloud. He watched as the village and forest beneath him shrunk smaller in size with each pa.s.sing second, making him feel like he was flying above the clouds. It was an amazing feeling.

Right by his side was Lao Sha. The dog was curiously looking around the sky as they flew, but it wasn’t very scared. As a previous inhabitant of the Core World, Lao Sha was often p.r.o.ne to paying the equally often-bored Xiao Fang company. Xiao Fang would usually allow Lao Sha to do many things in there such as take flight, so what was something like this to the dog? It was merely a trick it had long since seen before… 

A flicker of human-like emotion crossed Lao Sha’s eyes at the thought of Xiao Fang. The dog looked up at the chest of Bai Yunfei where the Core Stone hung around his chest. It was thinking of Xiao Fang.

It could remember what Xiao Fang said to it the moment before Bai Yunfei was critically injured… 

“Lao Sha, I’ll have to go into hibernation after I split open the void. I don’t know when I’ll wake. It’s up to you to protect Bai Yunfei when he awakes and regains his memory!”

When Lao Sha was in the Core Stone, it and Xiao Fang had both been watching Bai Yunfei fight. It knew just how powerful Bai Yunfei was, but now…Bai Yunfei looked like he was in awe at the act of flying. How could someone as amazingly powerful as its master be so humbled and in awe of his inferiors as these people? Lao Sha felt a strange sense of wronging, wronging on behalf of his master.

Xiao Fang had said Lao Sha would have to be the one to protect Bai Yunfei. So that meant Lao Sha had to get stronger so no one would dare attempt to harm its master!!

To protect its master. That was the very basis behind Lao Sha’s growth and how it was able to bite to death that grizzly bear three years ago and then two Soul Sprites today… 

Every so often, the sword-riding w.a.n.g Tong would cast a curiously amazed glance at Lao Sha. To his eyes, the ‘halfing’ dog was a very curious beast. The dog had attempted to get close to Feiyun’s soulbeast and was adamantly refused, but that didn’t seem to deter the dog or even intimidate it in the slightest. It merely just gave a ‘resentful’ look at the soulbeast before returning to Bai Yunfei’s side.

That was the curious bit w.a.n.g Tong had. 

“I wonder just what kind of happenstance or magical herb this dog ate in order to become a halfling…”

Had w.a.n.g Tong known that Lao Sha had actually taken in a considerable quant.i.ty of primal liquid not once, but twice, and spent the last three years eating the primal stones within a mountain of it, he surely would’ve been speechless…