In the end, he couldn’t help himself. In his defense, they were cutting it close— there’d only been a few days left before the second semester started, and he’d been worried that they’d gotten caught up in some spot of trouble or another and wouldn’t be able to get back in time.

It didn’t take much to find them. There was a preponderance of things he could have divined for, but he’d chosen to search for the boxes— he knew his own refining style incredibly well, which made it easy for him to get a rough read on where they were. From there… light could travel pretty fast, and it didn’t take him long at all to pinpoint their exact location.

He resisted going there himself, just making sure that they were on their way back. They appeared to have managed to board the train returning to East Saffron, so if everything went well, they’d be back soon. He didn’t pry further, but it didn’t take a genius to see that Avyr had taken well to the cultivation technique that he’d devised for him. Good, good, he’d been hoping he’d like it…

He pulled back his attention before he could scan everything. He could wait a little longer to see their results.

No… he smiled, and leaned back in his chair. They’d done well. Maybe even too well…

They’d outgrown the 32nd Precinct, he was sure. The only one left who could challenge them was Xinshi, and he… well, he would challenge them. In many ways, he’d grown beyond the 32nd Precinct too. Guxi should be proud that her son had acquitted himself so well… though, Mingtian had a faint suspicion that Guxi wasn’t the supportive parent type of person.

He had work to do, but… when they got closer, he’d go meet them at the train station. They’d probably gone through a lot.

A friendly face would go a long way.

………

A few hours later he reincorporated in the station, beneath a pillar and out of notice, watching as train after train slid into the station. The only trace of his appearance was a slight touch of light, a gleam playing across the metal and slightly dirty tiles, and the slight eddying of displaced qi. Not his most subtle entrance ever, but it wasn’t like anyone was watching…

He walked up to the platform their train would arrive at, just… waiting, as a sea of passersby flowed around him, heading to and fro with frenetic purpose, never standing still for a moment. It was an incredibly vibrant place, alive with the whole of the city— a breathing, beating heart of commerce, almost. For such a small realm, it was really remarkable how advanced they were. Not quite to the level of the heavenly, but that was fine. There was a unique confluence of weakness and technological advancement that made…

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He pushed those thoughts to the side as a familiar train rumbled into the station. Well, it looked much the same as any other train, really, but he could tell— the well-wearied aura of it, of steel that had seen plains and mountains and snow, and fields alive with winter wheat— from East Saffron to Chongtian and back again. And— perhaps most notably amongst all the smeared impressions of its travels, a burning little ball of pristine extreme yang qi, bursting forth from a soul that had cultivated itself in the very essence of unending and unceasing energy.

He smiled, and moved down towards Avyr’s car. It reminded him a great deal of his own cultivation, in many ways—

Boundless radiance. One day, maybe, Avyr would take that path himself. The train screeched to a stop, hissing and engines still rumbling, and falling slowly silent as it settled… Or maybe he’d take a different path, but that was fine. The doors unlatched and swung open, and travelers began to stream out— it was his path, after all. No cultivator could ever walk the same path as another. Not truly, at least… and Avyr wasn’t his disciple.

He kept telling himself that, at least, as Lily stepped out of the train car. She looked… worse for wear, the fancy bag she’d bought for the trip nowhere to be seen— though he could sense she’d managed to keep the boxes. Good— he’d made them tough enough to survive, just in case. The spirit stones were shoved in one of her pockets, which meant she’d found that particular gift…

He could see the moment she recognized his presence, confusion warring with disbelief for a faint fraction of a second before she settled on giddy excitement, breaking into a run and flinging herself at him, eyes alight— “Master Mingtian!” Not her master, but he didn’t correct her— allowing her to crash into him and stumbling back a bit— still mortal as he was. Technically mortal. “We did it! You wouldn’t believe the sort of adventure— it was— we—” every time she tried to speak she switched topics, stumbling over herself for a few seconds before she blushed in embarrassment and just buried her head against his jacket.

“We did it.” Avyr was given the same cautious berth as he always was, passersby shying away as he walked calmly up beside him. In their defense, Avyr felt even more threatening than before, his feline grace only compounded by the sheer, profound force of his cultivation. If he continued on this path… hm. Mingtian frowned slightly, leaning forward. It was a bit hard to tell with his mortal-level perception, but if he loosed his seals just a little he could tell that something had shifted. Not in the cultivation itself— though he’d he saw signs that he’d set it spinning at one point in time, that was a natural progression of the technique. No… something deeper. Something more fundamental, something threatening in the shadow of his cultivation’s light…

Mingtian’s frown disappeared, his smile turning brilliant. Now that was unexpected— and interesting! Very, very interesting… he’d have to keep a close eye on the cat. “Good job, both of you. You’ve well and truly exceeded my expectations.” Both as the mortal he was pretending to be, and the Immortal Sovereign he actually was. “Now you just need to surpass everyone else’s.”