1540 A Gift

Alex sat in a somewhat busy diner, with a cup of coffee and some waffles in front of him. He had a newspaper in front of him and something large and rectangular to the side.

He drank his coffee and read the newspaper, watching the lives that the mortals lived around him. A life that should have been his but had been taken away from him without his choice.

He remembered being angry about it back then, but that anger remained no more.

Half a year passed by since Bai Jingshen went back to the Western continent. Alex had asked him to take Pearl with him so he could be with his family in the meantime, but he couldn't do so.

Only his body was strong enough to bear the force of the Qi that barred this world from the outside.

Now, the day of everyone's return to the Eastern Continent was coming closer and closer. Less than a month from now.

The arrival of new people had been something people had expected for half a year before it happened, so they were able to handle the influx of a million new people without much worry.

Especially given the fact that people with cultivation bases rarely ate anything at all. There was no famine or resource problem.

In fact, they brought back resources for everyone to use. However, most of what was brought back was useless and Qi that wasn't under the control of someone's intent was stripped away from everything as the Godkiller's Intent sent it flying to the edges of the continent, only adding to the size of the great destructive qi wall.

A bulky woman with an apron came by him with a clear coffee jar in her hand, half filled with the black liquid.

"More coffee?" she asked.

"Yes, please," Alex said, moving his cup closer to the woman. 

The woman sighed and refilled his cup. "You know, this is your 8th cup in the last 2 hours you've been here. That's quite a lot of coffee," she said.

Alex gave her a wide smile and patted his stomach. "Thank you for your worries, but they are misplaced. I can eat anything and not worry," he said.

The woman looked at him with narrowed eyes for a moment. "Cultivator?" she asked.

"Yes," Alex said.

"Came with this lot or the last one?" the woman asked.

"All of them," he replied.

The woman thought for a second. "Aren't all of them supposed to come from different continents? And from what I hear, you cannot move to different continents so easily," she said. "You can't have come from all continents, surely."

"A handful of people did," Alex said. "I'm one of them."

"Is that so?" the woman said. "I suppose you'll be returning then?" 

"Yes," Alex said. "The day of departure is coming closer. I do not know when I will next return if I ever will."

"Hmm," the woman mused. "You must be visiting for the last time then."

"Yes," Alex said.

"Did you come with someone?" she asked.

"Uhh… you could say that," Alex said. "Maybe not? I can't really explain."

"Sounds complicated. I wouldn't want to learn," the woman said with a chuckle. "Anyway, I wouldn't want to take your time. And I need to return. Have a lovely evening."

The woman left. The sky started growing somewhat orange as the time rolled around to 5.

The door to the diner opened with a ringing of a bell and a girl walked in and took a seat behind Alex, back turned to him. 

"You came late today," the woman from before talked to the girl. 

"Yeah, the teachers are taking their longest to let us go. They keep saying if we slack, we won't pass the entrance exam, and make us stay an extra 15 minutes."

The woman chuckled. "The same, then?" 

"Yes, please," the girl said.

"Entrance exam for college, huh?" Alex said from the other bench. "I remember when I took mine." He chuckled a bit. "Our home's internet was slow, so the questions took their time loading. I thought I had failed, but fortunately, I did well. I got accepted to Oakleaf University."

The young lady turned around. "You are an alumnus of the of the Oakleaf University?" the girl asked excitedly.

"In a way," Alex said. "I went to the university, but before my semester began, I was taken away."

"Oh, you're from the outside?" the girl asked. "No wonder you look so young."

Alex nodded.

"I was from the outside too," the girl said. "But I must now go meld in the society, I suppose. Learn science and math," she said with an exaggerated gesture. 

"You should learn science and math if you want to be big," the woman came back with the young girl's food. "Cultivators have no place in this society where cultivation is impossible." She looked at Alex and his empty cup. "More coffee?"

"Actually, no," Alex said. "I was just about to leave."

He got up and turned toward the young woman. He could finally see the girl fully. She had long black hair with wide eyes that held a blue iris. She wore a white top with a long blue skirt and had a bag held around her body diagonally.

Alex smiled and handed over the rectangular package he had been keeping by his side.  The thing was taller and wider than her torso.

"This is my early congratulatory gift to you. I'm sure you'll pass the entrance exam with no problem," he said. "Open this with your father."

The girl looked puzzled, holding the large thing with her two hands. She looked toward Alex, her eyes asking questions her voice could not.

Alex simply rubbed her head. "You've grown to become a fine young lady," he said. "Your sister would be proud to see you."

He turned to walk but stopped midway through before turning around. "Also, I can tell you haven't taken the pill yet. Tell your father that now might be a good time to eat it."

Alex placed some money on the counter and walked away.

The girl stayed there, confused, the same for the older woman. She wanted to see what it was, but she had been told to wait. Given that the order had been from a cultivator, she dared not defy it.

She ate her food quickly and left the place. She took the package in her car and drove back to her home, which was on a farm.

She greeted the workers who were leaving, while hurriedly making her way to the house, searching for her father.

Her father was someone who couldn't be called middle-aged just yet. His face made him look no older than in his late 20s. If he were to walk with his daughter on the streets, they would most likely call the two of them siblings more than anything.

The man looked toward his daughter who came rushing into his room with the package in her hand. "You came back late today," he said. "I was going to call you. Did you go shopping?"

"Huh? No," she said quickly, placing down what he had in her hand on the sofa. "Some weird cultivator guy gave me this earlier at the diner. Told me to open it with you."

The man looked back with a confused look. "A cultivator?" he asked. "What did he want with you?"

The girl shrugged. "His words were cryptic for the most part, but… there was one thing," she said. "He said my sister would be proud of me. I'm wondering how he could know."

The father's face changed. "What?" he asked out loud and looked at the package. "The  man that gave you this knew about your sister?"

The girl nodded.

The man couldn't stop himself from opening the package. He quickly undid a small rope that tied most of the paper and took the thing out of the package.

Inside was what anyone could have guessed by the shape of the package. A painting.

On the painting were three people, with a couple standing in the back and a girl sitting on a chair in front of the two. 

The male half of the couple was a young man with a striking resemblance to the man who held it now. He wore a simple white cultivator robe with blue outlines and some minor patterns

In front of him was a young girl, resembling the girl that had brought the painting.  She too wore a simple robe, but this one with green flowers all over 

However, neither of the two were looking at either of their own portrait at all. Instead, they stared at the woman who stood behind the girl, left of the man.

She wore a white robe with a transparent shawl around her. It shined bright with its color, but what shined brighter was her loving smile that seemed to look into one's soul and tell them everything was going to be alright.

The girl gasped as tears flowed down her cheeks. "Is that… mother?" she asked. She had never seen her mother except in old, nearly torn pictures. Her face wasn't clear there as it was in the painting.

Her picture in the painting had a soul that a million others could not hold. This was the most precious thing the girl could ever hope to get in her life.

On the frame of the painting was a single note that she saw afterward and picked it up to read while wiping tears from her eyes. On it was a simple sentence.

To Lilin, so she knows her mother will always be with her - Alex