Chapter 255: The Date
After a copious amount of explanation, Mengfei finally took down the wedding decorations after finally understanding that no, Tianyi and Daoyi aren’t going to get married because they decided to attempt a relationship. Despite Mengfei’s expressionless silence, Daoyi had never heard her master be so vocal in her regret.
With that awkward episode over, Daoyi bid farewell to Tianyi. She had thought that he would invite her the next day, but she had not seen a hide nor hair of his person for the whole week. On the morning of the eighth day, Daoyi blinked when she saw Tianyi pacing back and forth in front of her room, a basket in hand.
“Tianyi.”
Tianyi nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Daoyi. He awkwardly looked over and smiled. “Hi! You’re awake. U-um, are you ready for our date?”
“I was expecting it a week ago, and I thought you gave up, but no, I’m not.” At Tianyi’s devastated expression, Daoyi laughed. “I have to get changed. You’re dressed up more than usual. As a woman, I can’t lose to you on that front.”
Tianyi clutched his chest as he felt his emotions peak and dip in the short interaction between the two. He never thought that just talking could bring so many surprises.
When Daoyi stepped out, she wore a burgundy brocade dress with silver embellishment that complemented Tianyi’s own black and gold brocade robes. In addition, Daoyi had worn more makeup, giving her a more glamorous aura and more hair accessories.
“Oh,” Tianyi breathed in, not knowing what to say. “You look…very beaut-good. You look very good.”
Tianyi cursed at himself. Why did he suddenly change his words mid-sentence? Did his brain short circuit?
Daoyi hid her giggles behind her sleeves. “You look very handsome too. Well, when you’re not blushing, that is.”
Tianyi suppressed the urge to cover his face and reached out his hand towards Daoyi but paused midway as if stuck in a dilemma. ‘Is it too soon to hold hands’
Daoyi made the choice for him as she intertwined her fingers with his, making his face flush even more. “You know, it’s beginning to feel more like a play date with a younger brother more and more.”
“Shut it,” Tianyi said while covering his face with his sleeve. He quickly led Daoyi towards the location of their date, taking care not to crush Daoyi’s hand. Why does it seem like the control of his fleshly strength was fluctuating so much?
Daoyi followed Tianyi out of Jade Peak Palace halfway down the mountain, where she was led to a field full of flowers. The ground had marks of artificial tampering, so she looked at Tianyi. “Don’t tell me that this took you a whole week to do.”
Tianyi avoided Daoyi’s gaze. “I did it by hand by myself.”
“Why?”
“I thought it would be more meaningful if I did instead of using extraneous powers. Not that I could. I mean, I could, and it would still be myself since Shifang is my clone and all, and AHHH!” Tianyi took a deep breath. “I just thought it would be more meaningful if I did it this way.”
Daoyi didn’t say anything and released her hand from Tianyi’s. She took a step into the field of flowers, allowing the delicate mishmash scents of contrasting flowers to enter her nose. She spun around a few times before allowing herself to fall on her back while laughing.
Tianyi walked up and kneeled next to her. “So, you like it?”
“Yeah, I like it a lot,” Daoyi said with her eyes closed, still enjoying the moment. “Thank you.”
Tianyi coughed into his hand and allowed a calm silence to settle between the two. All the flowers were of the most ordinary kind. He couldn’t very well waste hundreds of thousands of spiritual flowers just for a date, could he? Well, he could, but he wasn’t that much of a wastrel.
When Daoyi had her fill, she sat up and looked at Tianyi. “You’re very different from me and Xi Ri.”
Tianyi furrowed his brows. “What does that even mean?”
“It’s nothing,” Daoyi said. Then she glanced at the basket in Tianyi’s hand. “What’s that?”
“This?” Tianyi asked, showing the basket. “Since it’s a picnic date, I made food myself. Mother tried to help but…” He gained a faraway look in his eyes. “Luckily, I persuaded her not to.”
Daoyi giggled. “This is really like a regular date even though both of us are already in our sixties. Mentally, we’re even older.”
Tianyi tried not to think about that as he opened up the basket to reveal the contents. Inside were two familiar sandwiches foreign to the Huang Realm, two plates of fried potatoes cut into strips, and two glass bottles containing a dark concoction full of bubbles.
“Hamburgers, french fries, and coke!” Daoyi said in surprise. She took a piece of the french fries and tasted it. “It tastes just like how I remembered them to be.”
“Probably not,” Tianyi added from the side. “It’s probably just your nostalgia coming through. The potato fries are actually made from a spiritual plant native to the Huang Realm known as tudou, the coke is part of the reserves I bought from Dong Chifang’s shop when I attended the Heavenly Connection Gathering, and the beef patties between the buns are made from Snowwhisk Oxen meat.”
“Did you cook this yourself?” Daoyi asked as she took the hamburger from Tianyi.
“I already planted all these flowers by hand. I wasn’t not going to cook this by hand after all the effort I spared, just to skimp on this.” Tianyi said as he took a bite. He frowned a bit. “The ketchup still needs work, and cheese took me quite some time to find since it isn’t very popular in this culture.”
“It’s already very good,” Daoyi said. Unlike Tianyi, she had already devoured her burger and fries in a couple of bites. “Our next date, you should make at least ten more burgers.”
“Glad to know you like it,” Tianyi said as he finished his burger, his heart much calmer than before. After finishing, he gave Daoyi the towels he had prepared beforehand to wipe their hands, not that cultivators couldn’t just use a spell to clean them. Well, Tianyi couldn’t, but it was the thought that counts.
“Now what?” Daoyi asked, her expectation rising.
“The sunset?”
Daoyi looked at the afternoon sun. “That’s at least another six hours away.”
“Sorry, I drew a blank, and I didn’t want our first date to be off the mountain since I’m unsure if I could keep calm under everyone’s stares. Mother suggested that we exchange poems as a courting ritual, but I elected to ignore that advice. I don’t think either of us can compose poems. The last time I made a poem was for a school project,” Tianyi said.
“I can’t make up poems, but I can write and sing, but isn’t it supposed to be the guys that are serenading the girls?” Daoyi asked.
“Don’t look at me like that. I support gender equality, so I give you the go-ahead to serenade me,” Tianyi said.
“You’re the one chasing me, not the other way around.”
Tianyi opened his mouth, but no words came out. “Point. However, in the likelihood of scaring you away, I’ll make the executive decision of not serenading you.”
He crossed his arms and began to list the numerous movies and books he read in his mind. ‘Nope, definitely not the shiny vampire one or the BDSM one. That’s just asking for trouble. Oh! I know!’
“Wait for me,” Tianyi said and immediately ran off, leaving a confused Daoyi.
When Tianyi returned, he carried a large table along with the four treasures of the study: brush, paper, ink, and inkstone. “I’m going to paint you like in the movie Titanic.”
When Daoyi heard this, she started to laugh so hard that tears began to stream down her face. Tianyi’s face also reddened when he heard this, “Is that a bad idea?”
Daoyi shook her head. “No, it’s a great idea. Go ahead, Tianyi.”
Tianyi had his reservations but still started to paint. As time passed, he started to ignore the external environment and focused solely on his painting. Four hours later, when he was done, he blinked as he looked at the Daoyi on his painting and the Daoyi modeling.
“What, did you make a mistake?” Daoyi asked as she stepped behind Tianyi to look at the painting. Upon seeing the painting, she froze.
The painting depicted a woman twirling freely in a field of flowers. Most prominent of all was the woman’s carefree smile as if unburdened by the toils of life.
“Does it not look like you?” Tianyi asked upon seeing Daoyi silent. He began to twirl the brush, waiting for Daoyi’s response.
“No, it doesn’t.” Tianyi’s heart fell into his stomach when he heard those words, but Daoyi’s next words confused him. “I like it a lot, I can keep it, right?”
“Huh, sure,” Tianyi quickly said. “I mean, I painted it for you, after all.”
“Thank you, Tianyi,” Daoyi said with a heartfelt smile as she stored the painting away.
“Now what?” Tianyi said, looking at the sky. There were still about two hours left before the sunset. In the end, Tianyi and Daoyi watched some videos on Xiyinet. Most of them were related to cultivation and battle records, but it was fun analyzing the battles and the mistakes in them.
“I should implement the like and dislike feature so that videos giving or purposely releasing bad advice will be ignored,” Tianyi said.
“I’m surprised that people haven’t filmed any plays yet. We should direct a movie for our next date. I’ll handle the movie’s soundtrack.”
“You’re giving me the majority of the work then,” Tianyi complained, but he still agreed. “Think we should ask Xi Ri to join?”
Daoyi shook her head. “His mood is still unbalanced. I don’t know how long it will take him to return to his previous persona.”
“Persona?” Tianyi asked.
“It’s nothing,” Daoyi said. Then her eyes lit up and pointed at the sunset. “It’s already dusk! You can see the stars at the same time as the sun. We couldn’t do that in our past life.”
Tianyi glanced at the sunset. Half the sun had dipped under the ground, and a strip of the horizon had been dyed orange. Above the orange, the sky had dimmed remarkably, allowing the stars to shine. “Maybe. I wouldn’t know since there was so much light pollution.”
“Well, there’s at least one good arriving here,” Daoyi added.
Tianyi nodded. “Living forever does sound awesome. Which is why I’ll definitely transcend my Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation.”
Daoyi held Tianyi’s hand. “I believe you.”
After a moment, Tianyi slapped his forehead. “I forgot, Mother wanted to invite you to have dinner. Just the three of us.”
As Daoyi followed Tianyi back, she couldn’t help but ask, “She’s not going to push for marriage again, will she?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Tianyi said.
For the next year, Tianyi didn’t cultivate at all and quietly enjoyed life. He and Daoyi directed a film like she wanted, which became a smash hit. Mostly thanks to nothing else being comparable and Tianyi having full control of the Xiyinet.
He partnered with Daoist Moneybag to sell more Xiyi Talismans. However, Daoist Moneybag, due to the Jade Cauldron Sect’s participation in the Tripartite Alliance, was constantly monitored, but the Xiyi Talisman still spread thanks to the ease of information dispersal. Especially in the midst of a war.
Disciples no longer needed to ask or seek the information out. As long as they are in the sect, they can surf the Xiyinet for information with the click of a few buttons, boosting the Xiyi Talisman’s popularity. To meet demands, a new model of the talismans that forewent the formation card hardware had been created.
Sect Master Xia even gave Tianyi guidelines to moderate the content on the Xiyinet, further establishing the Xiyi Talisman’s staying power. Even after the war ends, the Xiyi Talisman will be a permanent mainstay.
Tianyi was even asked to create a better method to connect the Xiyi Talisman so that it didn’t only have network functionalities in the Buzhou Immortal Sect. For this, Tianyi was helpless, but Mengfei was not.
Using the Heaven, Earth, Man Trinity Palace, Mengfei allowed the Xiyi to cover the whole Huang Realm.
With the year over, Tianyi decided to undergo his Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation.
Tianyi sat on the Jade Lotus Clear Pond, the place where he first began his immortal path. A fair distance away stood his mother, Daoyi, Grand Elder Zhang, Elder Jadeflame, Elder Violet Snow, Sect Master Xia, and even other head elders.
‘No pressure, Tianyi. It’s not like all of the Buzhou Immortal Sect’s bigwigs are watching your Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation. Not like a failure will affect anything, just your prestige and entire future. No biggie.’ Tianyi sarcastically thought.
He nodded his head towards his mother, and she controlled the Jade Peak’s formation to isolate him. If anything went wrong, the explosion of his true qi of primordial chaos wouldn’t destroy Jade Peak.
“Let’s begin.”
With Tianyi’s word, an enormous tribulation cloud descended. It was so large that it nearly covered the entire Heaven Continent.
