A heavy silence settled in Elder Ning’s courtyard, thick with the weight of her sorrowful memories. “Master, I am sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” Li Yu said after processing all of his thoughts.

“It is alright, Li Yu. It is a part of my past. It is not something I can or should hide from forever.” She replied to him with a smile. He knew it probably wasn’t right to have asked but seeing how his master smiled at him at the end, it made him happy.

Later that day Li Yu left and went to have some food and drinks with brother Kai and Lin Tao. The mood at their table was a bit subdued with a member noticeably missing. Lin sighed, “I miss Hu Jian already. He’s only been gone a few weeks, but it feels strange without him here.”

He then declared, “I’m planning on a trip to go see him soon, once things settle down here.” Kai, who was busy overseeing the expanded operations of the Deep Water Menagerie, shook his head. “I don’t have the time right now, but I will visit him when I get a chance. Tell him I said hello.”

Li Yu said, “If you want, we can go see him together.” But Lin turned it down politely. “Thank you, Li Yu, but I still have things I have to do first, and I don’t want to bother you. You’re always so busy. I’ll go visit when my duties here are all completed.” Li Yu didn’t mind.

He understood. Lin had a much closer friendship with Hu Jian than he did. They had been a duo for years, sharing the daily grind. While Li Yu wouldn’t mind seeing his friend, his desire to do so wasn’t as pressing as Lin’s at the moment.

Li Yu retreated to what he was doing a lot of the time: training. He spent hours every day in the underground chamber beneath his pagoda, practicing with his new staff, Star-Crusher. He could now hold it comfortably, the initial, bone-jarring shock of its weight having subsided.

It was still extremely heavy to him, each swing a monumental effort that strained his muscles to their limits, but he was slowly, surely, growing accustomed to it, his body adapting and becoming stronger with every session.

Meanwhile, the sect had gained a new, and very popular, instructor. Cyra was currently teaching some basic illusionary arts to some disciples of the sect that were interested. After the events in the south, she had decided that she wanted to teach.

The Sect Leader, ecstatic to have an expert of her caliber, had immediately offered her the position of guest elder. To everyone’s surprise, she accepted immediately. It would seem like teaching was something she enjoyed, a quiet and peaceful way to pass on her knowledge.

One afternoon, Li Yu stood watching her class from a distance, he too wanted to see what he could learn. The disciples were struggling, their simple illusions flickering and dying, but Cyra was endlessly patient, her voice calm and encouraging.

He had not forgotten about her story as well, about the group that attacked her and her troops, the loyal subordinates she had been forced to leave behind when she was captured. She must be wondering where they are now, if they are still alive.

He thought back to what Zephyr had said, how the sea is massive, how he had been searching for nearly a thousand years and couldn’t find his family. It was a sobering thought. Everything would take time. Cyra’s quest, Kael’s vengeance, his own journey… he had to be patient, to grow stronger and be ready for what the world would throw at him next.

Fat Pig came by the next day with Bai Yan, their arrival a whirlwind of cheerful chaos. They were here on official Guild business, adding new and rare spiritual fish to the Deep Water Menagerie’s collection to grow. But they were also dropping things off for Li Yu.

They brought crates of high-grade healing pills, a variety of new aquatic life that they had secured for his sanctuary, and of course more aquatic varieties of pigs, octopuses, turtles, and bears. The “liberation” project as his retainers now called it, was still going strong.

But now, there were manta rays as well. It seemed Kael had been clued in by who knows who and had asked the Guild to start collecting manta ray species as well. The commotion drew a small crowd, including Shara, who happened to come by.

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She had just been resting when she heard all the noise and came to check it out. Seeing Fat Pig present all those species and in such amounts made her think for a bit. She soon understood the general idea of it, since she knew all their original beast forms.

She watched as the pigs, turtles, and octopuses were happily transferred into the Koi Sanctuary. Then, her eyes fell on the newly added manta rays, and a thoughtful expression crossed her face.

She walked over to the bustling Fat Pig, her movements hesitant but determined and whispered something in his ear. Fat Pig’s cheerful face broke into a wide, understanding smile. He nodded enthusiastically and said, “Of course! Consider it done!”

She didn’t have to tell Li Yu what she had said; he already knew. He knew that now he would soon be accepting sharks as well, in larger quantities. A warm feeling spread through his chest. He smiled. It wasn’t about the sharks.

It was that she felt safe enough, that she felt she belonged enough, to finally ask for something for her own people. She was comfortable enough with the group to do such a thing, so he said nothing, simply giving her a small, encouraging nod, a silent acknowledgment that he had heard, and he approved.

Ever since returning to the sect, Shara had been let out of the Koi Sanctuary to get used to her new surroundings. Li Yu eventually learned a bit about her past over the weeks as they got closer and talked often.

Her past was not a grand one, but a mundane story of survival. She was just trying to survive in this world with no real family, a talented rogue cultivator who had been captured in her youth and forced into servitude as a beast before she could transform.

Then she moved from master to master until one day her current master was killed and she was ignored, freeing her to wander alone. Her life had been a constant inescapable struggle. Her quiet and fierce nature was a product of a lifetime of having to fight for everything. Her story was somewhat similar to Bai Yin’s but had its own twists and turns.

A few days ago, he had found her staring out at the peaceful sect, a wistful look on her face. When he asked what was on her mind, she confessed. “I am tired of fighting, Young Master. My only real dream is to run a small quiet inn, a place where travelers can find a warm bed and a good meal.”

This was not the dream she always had but was the dream she currently had for the last few years. Stemming from a tiredness of the cultivation world as a whole.

Li Yu was surprised to hear this but he immediately put her in contact with Kui. Kui had suggested a chain of high-class inns bearing the Guild’s name, but Shara had shaken her head. “I don’t want to run a series of inns,” she had said. “Just a single inn. I've been fighting my whole life, entering one thing after another that I could never escape from. I just want one place to call my own.”

Li Yu smiled back at her. “That shouldn’t be a problem. You could start by opening an inn at our new southern headquarters.”

“You could come back here from time to time to absorb the Koi Sanctuary’s energy for your cultivation,” he had offered.

But she had surprised him again. “Thank you, Young Master, but I don’t think I’ll need to. I really just want to be done with fighting and the cultivation world as a whole. I know you took me in so I could help out the guild. However, this has been my dream for many years now and I would like the chance to pursue it.”

She took a chance in telling him this. He could easily say no, you need to work for me and what I need. Saying that “I can’t just have you running off somewhere and running an inn!”

Li Yu respected her decision and he didn’t want to stop her from pursuing a dream that could be made into reality. However, thinking of his own recent, brutal lesson, he had offered a word of caution. “I understand, Shara. But it is tough to fully get away. Bandits or rowdy guests could destroy your inn. You will need the power to protect yourself, to protect your peace. You should still absorb the energy and just slowly get stronger for your own protection.”

It was probably caution that wasn’t needed as she was already a Mid Core Formation expert, someone that could beat most sect leaders in the south. She might just be the strongest innkeeper on this continent, however he chose caution anyways. He had looked her in the eyes, his voice filled with a conviction born of painful experience. “As I’ve learned, you can’t just escape or hide. You need power to achieve your peace.”

She understood and agreed. Here was someone who could have rejected her and used her but he didn’t. He was still actually worried about her and that touched her a bit. It wasn’t enough to break down all the walls she had up through her life but it did make an impact.

Now, a plan was in motion. Kui was already in the process of clearing a section of land for her inn at the southern headquarters. Since it was going to be at the headquarters, it should be safe and have a lot of customers from the Guild’s trading operations. Once that was done, she would go down there and help to design the inn of her dreams and run it.

For the first time, Shara had a future she could look forward to that didn’t involve a blade’s edge. Her presence here today, watching the lively arrival of Fat Pig, was that of a person on the verge of a new and peaceful life. There was a quiet and hopeful light in her eyes that hadn't been there before.