"Liu senior brother, just how strong is Uncle now?"
Rokudo Rinko stared at Shiratori Riku, who had defeated Huang Ming without lifting a finger, stunned and curious.
"I don't know. For years now I haven't been able to see through Uncle's cultivation."
"And Rinko senior brother, I may be older, but you entered earlier, so I should call you senior."
Liu Xingyang studied Shiratori Riku, wondering if he could have blocked that move. In the end, he did not know.
He had not understood what Shiratori Riku did. He only felt a pressure on the soul and nothing else.
He did not know what technique it was, what had happened, or how to counter it.
"Eh, you calling me senior feels so strange."
Rinko eyed Liu's big beard. Being called senior by him would always feel odd.
Shiratori Riku, done lecturing Huang Ming, strolled over and looked Liu up and down.
"Hm. Big idiot?"
"Uncle, my name is Liu Xingyang, not Big Idiot."
"Oh, right, Liu Xingyang. Fatty, remember what I just said. Don't go popping your spirit out for nothing."
Shiratori Riku patted Liu's shoulder, then turned away with the air of a hidden master and left.
"Uncle, wait for me."
Rinko hurried after him, but his stride was so long she had to jog to keep up.
"Liu senior brother, why does Uncle call us big idiots every time? Does he hate us?"
Huang Ming asked. They had met Shiratori Riku a few times, and every time he opened with big idiot.
"No. Uncle cares about us. Otherwise he would not have scolded us over sending out the spirit."
"True. Then why call us big idiots every time?"
"Because he has not remembered our names. He does not know what to call us, and he is too stubborn to ask."
Liu stopped there. Huang looked in the direction Shiratori Riku had gone and had nothing more to say.
So he did not hate them. He just had not remembered their names.
...
That afternoon.
"Uncle, Uncle, big news, big news."
Rinko ran over clutching her phone.
"Niece, what is this behavior? We who walk the Way must keep calm. Even if the mountains collapse, our hearts cannot waver."
"So, what is the big news?"
Shiratori Riku was napping in a rocking chair under a shady tree when Rinko woke him.
"It's the Luo Tian Da Jiao at Longhu Mountain. Fresh news. My great-grandfather is offering the Tongtian Talisman as a prize."
"The Tongtian Talisman is one of the Eight Miraculous Skills. I did not expect Great-Grandpa to put that up."
Her voice brimmed with shock. She had never seen the Eight Skills herself, but their fame was enough.
If even such a thing was on the table, the entire gifted world would be thrown into turmoil.
"Tongtian Talisman, the one for drawing talismans? I'm not interested."
Shiratori Riku was unmoved. He might be curious about other Eight Skills, but not this one.
The first time he learned talismanry, he had already developed a method that needed no prep, no altar, and no prior design.
It cost more, but weaving talismans out of the void was not hard for him. The Tongtian Talisman was nothing special.
"But Uncle, it's one of the Eight. I heard it's incredibly powerful and incredibly dangerous."
Rinko could not understand how he stayed so calm. Was this what great cultivation of mind looked like?
Yet last night Uncle had been kicked out to sleep outside by Grandmaster Uncle.
"What is there to fuss over? You have read the temple's classics. Which of those immortal methods is not more formidable than the Eight?"
"B-but those are myths, and the Eight are real."
"A frog at the bottom of a well thinks the sky ends at the lip. Beyond what it sees, it believes nothing exists."
"If you have not seen it, how dare you claim those are only stories and not real things that simply cannot be seen now?"
"R-really?"
Rinko stared at Shiratori Riku, dazed. It was the first time she had heard anyone say this. Usually when people mentioned gods and immortals, they called them myths.
For the first time, she heard that immortals might be real, only invisible in the present age.
"Whether they are or not, we should try and find out. If there are no immortals in this world, then I shall become the first."
Shiratori Riku spoke with bold certainty. If Hojo Toten heard him, it would earn another scolding.
He would be called crooked-path again.