"I avenged you, Elder. I killed him."
Seeing Xian Li react like this, Elder Zhurong couldn't help but be surprised.
Was this the same young man who usually acted like a grown-up elder before?
He began to take his hands off Xian Li but Xian Li didn't, instead he tightened his grip. Elder was now among the only ones he could trust.
While there were still people who were truly loyal to him but he couldn't just sit with them and talk like he could to his own.
Zhurong found something unusual in Xian Li. He suddenly remembered something-
How is Xian Li here?!?
"Wait! What are you doing here?! How even did you?!?"
Seeing the reaction of Elder Zhrong, He sighed.
"It's a long story..."
"So what? I got all the time in the world. Just tell me" Zhurong said to listen what had happened.
"But I don't! I need to save some lives out there in The Immortal Realm!" Xian Li said impatiently.
"Then just keep it short." Zhurong said.
" 0_0 " (Xian Li's reaction)
"Sigh! Fine I'll tell you but you tell me what happened to you. How are you still alive?!"
"It's a long story..." Zhurong replied.
"Then just keep it short." Xian Li replied sarcastically.
"... Using my weapon at me, Huh!"
He closed his eyes for a few moments, opened it and started narrating his story.
"It all began when that 'customer' killed me, or that's what I thought..."
...
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
This was the scream of that 'customer', not Zhurong's.
Zhurong's last attack had severely injured him and he was feeeling immense pain due to his fire, The Azure Skyfire.
While Zhurong ahowed a faint smile and closed his eyes, accepting his demise. But the fate had other plans for him.
He suddenly felt something wrong.
Is this how death is supposed to feel??
He opened his eyes to check, only to find himself looking at an old man, a very old man, with a long, white beard.
He examined him completely from up to down. Then, he opened his voice and said something in a light voice-
"Help him find the right direction."
He was confused and just as he was about to ask, he was abrupted by a sudden change in scenery where he found himself where he was now.
That old man's voice was heard again-
"Just wait for him.... patiently."
This was the only message he left for him. He did not-
Who?
Wait for Whom?
Help find the right direction for Whom?
What is the right direction?
How will I show the right direction when even I don't know what it was?
And Who even IS that old man?! (though it sounds strange 'cause the one saying is also an old man.)
He could not understand nor could he ask someone about it. He rarely met anyone in this world except for the people in the restraunt he went to eat food. Every month, he sold some weapons he upgraded.
He bought some low-level weapons and armours, upgraded it and sold it as an anonymous forger. After selling, he could get enough money to live and eat as a normal person.
Sometimes, when he gets some extra money, he would save half of it and use the rest half to get some better meals.
Finally, after countless years of waiting, someone he knew came. Xian Li came. Now, he could finally strive for better in his forging skills and strive to become ehat he had longed to become, A Forger Monarch! (Same as Heavenly Monarch but in both blacksmithing and cultivation.)
...
"I tried to find the 'right direction', but when I still couldn't find it, I left everything on fate itself. May the fate guide me.
From then onwards, I just waited for someone to come, though I had a suspicion that that it was you but I never really did anything to confirm it, like I even could. Ha!"
"Looks like it really was me, huh?"
"It seems so to me"
Zhurong shrugged his shoulders.
"So, Will you tell me about your situation now? And keep it short as I did.."
"But it is much longer than your story!"
"So what?"
"But-"
"No, buts!"
"Sigh. Okay. I'll tell you."
"Now that's more like it!"