Looking down, Xie Lian couldn't help but smile at the familiar face of the redhead after so many years. After all, he considered Cale as one of his children.
Despite the redhead having no memories prior to the years they spent together, then Xie Lian could simply bring it back.
Though, there is something about Cale he should direct his attention to.
"Do you know the reason why you're slowly becoming a God?" Xie Lian asks testingly, before standing up from his seat and walk closer to the latter.
Cale frowned for a while before answering, "Because I was stabbed to death?"
Xie Lian huffs disapprovingly, "Quite. But you're not even dead yet, so why is your hair turning black again?"
True to his words, Cale's red hair was slowly turning black, both to his mortal body and his spiritual one.
Cale was silent. Truly, he doesn't know why.
Is it perhaps because he's grieving for Xue Yang's loss? He couldn't even remember how he managed to place all his people's soul into another world.
If he knew, then he could've safely delivered Xue Yang's soul to Rowoon.
"Thinking of sending that child's soul to another world is not possible."
Cale frowned when Xie Lian had said that. He was about to talk back when the God had cut him off.
"Xue Yang doesn't want to rest in peace yet."
Xie Lian then smiles, and Cale couldn't help but think that his smile is that of a sly one.
"And why is that?" Cale asks, his confusion still there.
"Ask him that yourself when Wei Ying and San Lang brought his soul back. Think hard of my previous question first while we snack." The God says before siting down in front of the table, and Cale blinks profusely for a while and wondering when the hell did the table filled with snacks appeared.
Seeing as there is no better thing to do, he would just snack together with the peculiar deity. He wasn't the one to ignore free food after all.
The first food he set his eyes on was mantou, considering he doesn't have a choice since it was on the main serving.
So he grabbed one and took a bite before feeling something crack. His sanity? Maybe. His teeth? Absolutely.
Cale animatedly spits the blood that fell from his teeth, shuddering at the feeling of biting a rock-like texture.
He looked dumfoundedly at the God who eats the rockly mantou like it was a delicacy, that is if you ignore the loud crunching that is coming from Xie Lian.
For the sake of his crumbling sanity, Cale decides to hide the mantou (weapon of mass destruction) in his sleeve and simply picks up his chopsticks to eat dumplings with chili oil, acting like nothing possibly disastrous happened.
Thinking back to the God's first question, there is only one possible answer for that as he feel the hollow spot on his chest.
His golden core.
At the same time, the God before him hums, "You already knew the answer." He says, in a matter of fact tone before looking at the redhead solemnly.
At that time, Cale could simply nod.
His golden core melted when he was stabbed by Alver. Thinking back, Taerang may also have the same abilities like the core melting hand.
Cale unconsciously rubbed his chest, feeling the phantom pain from back then.
He knew he should be jumping in joy, considering that the thing that makes him a cultivator is now gone. But a part of him he buries is regret and fear.
He fears that if he wasn't strong enough to protect his people, past will easily repeat again.
Without the core, he can't use Xiao Wang's full capabilities as a spiritual weapon.
Without his golden core, he can't heal anyone ever again.
And it scares him.
What happened to Xue Yang is simply the trigger to his anxiety.
Truly, he really is an unlucky bastard.
To drown his sorrows, Cale poured tea on to his cup.
Truly again, he is an unlucky bastard. He should've smelled or asked what is the flavor of the said tea.
Cale choked at the liquid, feeling the bitter and sour citrus swirling in his tongue disgusted him.
How the hell did the lemon found its way into a cultivation world? Much less in the Heavenly Realm?!
Cale looked at the God like a feral cat at first before cowering. Hell, the God very much looks like Ron with his vicious smile while he sips his own tea loudly, as if he was urging the redhead to drink all the tea he poured on his own cup.
And drink he did. He doesn't want to die right here and then, atleast not yet of course.
He still wants to go back, thank you very much.
✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶
The moment he opens his eyes, what greeted him was the vast space of the starry night sky, red flowers all around him as if it was offering solitude.
Below him was a shallow water, koi fishes swimming around yet he managed to even float.
He backed away in surprise, yet he couldn't help but be in awe at the magnificence of the place.
Maybe he really was in the afterlife, yet he didn't know it would be this beautiful...
And lonely.
Xue Yang watched the tapestry of stars that were hung above him, his eyes mirroring the shine of the luminous dots.
"If I said I was going to kill the entire Chang Clan of Yueyang, then I wouldn't even spare the dog!"
He flinched at the familiar voice, an older version of him yelling just behind him with sly and contempt.
No, he refuses to acknowledge that the ghost in front of him is him.
It doesn't even makes sense.
Sure, he had such thoughts of revenge against the Chang Clan and it clearly happened thanks to his gege who was the one to help him do so.
"What do you want to do with them?" His gege had asked him once back then, even carrying him like he was such an adorable and lovable child.
Xue Yang remembers how he answered back then.
"I want them to feel pain and despair. I don't want them dead, it's too easy of a punishment for them."
People would normally be scared of how brutal a child's way of thinking like Xue Yang. But it was Wei Xun, his gege whom he will give up his life for.
"I'll make sure that they will feel so. They deserve atleast much."
"Gege..."
Just then, his ghost disappeared before it appeared again and this time, the older version of him was beside Jin Guangyao.
"I greet the Sect Leader." The man says, the older Xue Yang simply looking at the two of them with no respect.
"What is it?' Jin Guangshan asks, not bothering to even look at his son as he was busy flirting with the women that was flocking around him.
It was such a disgusting scene, and Xue Yang couldn't help but look away from them.
The older him simply cocks his eyebrows.
"I would like to recommend Xue Yang to be a disciple of Lanling Jin."
"No...I refuse." Xue Yang mutters, as if saying so could change anything.
"And why should I accept him?"
"He have the potential to be a demonic cultivator, one that could rival Wei Wuxian himself."
Xue Yang's eyes shook, his face miserable as he covered his ears and closed his eyes in attempt to stop the delusion in front of him.
"I want to go back...gege...take me back..."
The tears continued to pour as information was injected to his mind. He doesn't want any of this.
It wasn't his memory, it wasn't his. That ruthless past of his isn't him.
He's a different person, that wasn't him.
He's not the one who made someone dig his own eyes to give it to his friend. He's not the one who would torment numerous people just for fun.
That is n̶o̶t̶ him.
Xue Yang screams, his sobs getting more loud as his cries get more heart wrenching.
"Gege...!" Xue Yang cries as he clawed the water below him, it simply ripples from his acts.
Then, he called for someone else.
"Shixiong! Take me back! I want to go back...!"
Yet there was no answer, and Xue Yang simply cried more.
Sniffles and hiccups resounded, the lone soul aching with all of its entirety.
And Hua Cheng walks closer to that noise.
"There you are."
He looks down at the pitiful stature of the child, all snots and tears as Hua Cheng tried his best to blink and not think how Xue Yang looks similar to his helpless self back then.
"Sorry I'm late, your Shixiong and I were having a hard time tapping in this domain since it's your gege's."
Xue Yang did his best to look clearly at the man in red robes, the latter's hand outstretched towards him.
"Let's go get you home."
Home.
Home is where gege is...
Home is where Yunmeng Jiang is.
It is where Jiang Yanli's pork rib soup is. It is where the vicious Sect Leader Jiang is leading together with his wife. It is where Jiang Cheng would tease him together with Wei Ying, but would always offer sweets when they knew their teasing took too far.
And it is where Wei Ying is, where their constant bickering is and how the older would carry him in his shoulders at the end of the day.
Home.
Xue Yang instantly takes the older's outstretched hand with vigor and confidence.
He will go home, where his family is.