historical

Bo Lifen didn't have much plans tonight—this was supposed to be her vacation after all. Away from stress, work and the rest of her family who annoyed her. And yet in between her day, there would be things that left her rather embarrassed about what had happened last night. "Geez, Lifen." She had gotten too unnerved about things that she was upset that a stranger didn't tell her that he had a brother!

"Way to go." She rubbed her face and tried to erase the thought from her head. It wasn't like she was going to see him again after that—except, she actually had to go back right now. She would retrieve her great-grandmother's thermos from the man, but prior to that.. she had finally finagled the truth from them just today and didn't quite know what to think about it..

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Early morning, in the Bo Ancestral House

Bo Lifen knelt in front of her great-grandmother and poured her tea, "I still do not understand why you would like to give away the very expensive and difficult to get pearls to him, Granny Lanfen." It was a surprise that her friend had gotten on them, and now it was given freely to someone else. "Just what is so special about Li Yang, anyway?"

"He's practicing cultivation." Granny Bo Lanfen said as she sipped her Black Ocean Pearl Tea. There was a relaxed look on her face. Whatever ailments she experienced were eased to some extent. "And he's a filial young man. He once visited every person in this neighborhood and gave them presents during Christmas. And it's common for a senior to help a junior who's begun their path."

Bo Lifen had looked up in confusion, "What?"

"He gave me a sweater—"

"Not that, Granny Lanfen. You said he's practicing cultivation—did you just reveal that information to him before we've arrived?" Bo Lifen blinked. She understood that her great-grandmother had wished she pursued cultivation instead of becoming the Clan Head, but to give away information to someone not involved at all was too much. Living vicariously through someone else was already questionable! "We've already got my brother studying, why would you involve him?"

"You sound a little disrespectful child, but that is where you are wrong. His cultivation did not start with me and rather I'd had seen it from the moment he stepped in the other day." Their great-grandmother's voice was calm, but it cut straight to her. "Bo Lifen—I'm disappointed that you didn't see it. Then again, you barely had time to cultivate yourself. How about you, Lei? You're already at what level of Qi Gathering?"

"Uh, I'm already at Fifth Stage Qi Refining, Great-Grandmother Bo Lanfen."

"That means exactly the same thing, doesn't it?" The matriarch rolled her eyes. "But ah, to be at that stage at your age—it means that you'll probably break through Foundation Establishment when you're twelve. My great-grandson is a genius!"

"It depends.." Her younger brother looked up, a slight hint of uncomfortableness in being the center of attention. "As for your question, his aura is strange for a normal person, but he also doesn't seem like a normal cultivator because the way he absorbed the qi around him is done unskillfully. Rather haphazardly?"

Their matriarch calmed down, giving him a shrug. "Good eye, there's something wrong with his method. I for one can't tell anything, but it's mostly because it's far too early to tell."

She listened quietly, unsure of what to say. Even whether or not she should believe it.

And it was obvious from her face.

"We now have two people who are confirming it, Lifen. Catch up to speed. He had a spirit animal with him—a rascal one. Could barely see it, but it was there." her great-grandmother sighed, "For all we know, that would have been his master."

Bo Lifen didn't think that she would have gotten so dull with sensing aura, but she noticed nothing strange about the man at all. Perhaps it was because she was worried about him being a no good lecher and had focused all of her attention in proving that he was. And yet instead of worrying about her skills, she was more worried about the last part of her great-grandmother's words. Spirit creatures. Beast Spirits? She cleared her throat, "I don't think that's.."

"Do you think I was imagining it?"

She didn't want to say it, but thankfully her brother spoke up. "Well, uh, there are not a lot of spirit animals—"

"They're few in between, they're rare because cultivating takes a lot of resources—but I really saw it. Small. It's aura unlike that of any normal creature—it's why the man wanted bamboo shoots. I gave them the ones with a lot of natural qi." Grandma Lanfen shrugged, "I wouldn't be surprised if there's an ascended flower cultivator somewhere. All living things cultivate."

Bo Lifen sighed, "And I've seen what I've seen—it's like the mermaids all over again."

"Ask him yourself when he gets back. And also get my thermos too."

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It was already around 8pm when she had dropped by to pick up the thermos. And she would come upon a strange sight, she'd see a man sitting down on his porch. He was alone and had his face in his hands. The surrounding air was tense, thick and heavy. It was as if the tension coiled around them like a snake and would unravel at a wrong move. And it was there that she realized that he whether or not he was actually a cultivator, the energy that surrounded him was dark. One's aura often reflected their mood as well, especially so to untrained people who couldn't control it.

She chewed on her lip, reluctant for another incident like last night. Still unsure if she would get it wrong and this was another person entirely, "Li Yang?"