The village wasn't in the highest part of the mountain. We could still keep going up for a decent distance.
Zhao Lintao showed me the way. I followed him up the mountain, curious.
"Where are we going, anyway?" I asked.
He said he would show me where I could live and have a private place for myself.
"There's an abandoned cabin up the mountain," Zhao said. "We have no idea who lived there. This cabin is older than the village. But the area up there is harder to live in—colder, and the appearance of spiritual beasts is more common. That's why our ancestors built the village down the mountain and not at the top."
A cabin that had been there since before the village—which I knew was at least a hundred years old—was quite interesting. Who lived there back then?
I asked Zhao more about the cabin, hoping to learn something about its past, but he had nothing to tell me.
"The cabin only has the furniture," Zhao said. "We searched it before for any clues about the previous owner, but there's nothing. Whoever lived there must've taken everything before leaving."
It was a shame.
We kept going up for thirty minutes until we finally reached the cabin. Zhao wasn't joking when he said it was at the top of the mountain.
It wasn't easy to get there, and the wind was much stronger. My clothes and white hair were flying wildly with the gusts.
Zhao looked at me and said, "Now that I think about it, your white hair is quite… different. Does anyone else in your family have it?"
"No, not at all."
Now that he mentioned it, I wondered what the reason behind it was.
Anyway, he showed me the cabin. It was surrounded by forest—a small, hidden sanctuary at the top of the mountain.
The inside wasn't bad. It had everything I needed: a room, a fireplace to keep warm, an oven to cook food, a desk, and a bathroom outside.
But I wasn't looking for luxury. Having the basics was enough. What I wanted was a place to plant my spiritual beasts and start growing my power—and that, I had plenty of.
Zhao said I could change anything I wanted up there. He even mentioned it might be a good place for our future sect. I didn't want the sect there.
"If we're building a sect," I said, "I want it up there."
I pointed at a tall mountain peak nearby, almost impossible to climb for a non-cultivator.
"Are you serious?" Zhao asked. "Isn't that a bit much?"
"We need to think big, my friend," I said. "Not just an ordinary sect, but the sect, alright?"
"Makes sense."
I could already picture people trying to climb the mountain to reach the sect. It could be the first trial for my future disciples. I didn't want anyone lazy or weak in my sect.
They had to be strong, with plenty of energy to… do everything for me. I knew that a sect leader didn't do shit! The books I read always said they had a lot to deal with, but they never did anything!
All the work was passed to the elders, while the sect leader enjoyed life and trained. I wouldn't be training, obviously—that was for the foolish—but taking care of my beast farm and doing other hobbies sounded nice. That's what I wanted.
Of course, that was just me thinking about the future. At that moment, what I had to do was clean my future cabin, because it was covered in dust.
To my surprise, Zhao helped me clean it. The man was a really good friend, and I'd only known him for a few days.
Was he doing all of this just so I could teach his son in the future? Even if that was the case, he'd helped me a lot, so repaying his kindness was the least I could do.
We spent two hours cleaning the cabin, removing all the dust and making it look as good as new. It was already getting dark by then, and the temperature dropped drastically.
I picked up an axe I found and chopped down a few trees for the fireplace.
Now that I had some Qi, it wasn't hard to produce a tiny flame to light the fire. That was a basic thing anyone with Qi could do, even without practice.
We sat near the fireplace, warming ourselves.
"Did you like the place? I mean, not just your cabin, but the village, the region."
"Yes, I do," I said. "It's nice here."
I wasn't lying. I really liked the whole region. The mountains were gorgeous, and I could already imagine them covered in snow during winter, making the area even more beautiful.
But for me, the thing I liked most was how isolated the area was. There was basically no one around us, making it the perfect place for me. I didn't want anyone spying on my beast farm—that, I was sure of.
"That's good to hear," Zhao said. "I'll head back to the village, and tomorrow I'll bring you supplies that should last a few weeks."
"Okay," I said. "Thank you."
"No problem, my friend," Zhao replied with a smile and a light tap on the back.
He left me alone.
I was a little hungry, my stomach starting to make some noise. We had eaten before reaching the village, so it had only been a few hours—but still, the hunger was creeping in.
I had to endure it. I didn't want to wander into an unfamiliar forest in the dark just to search for food. Zhao would bring supplies the next day, so all I had to do was wait.
In the meantime, I relaxed near the fireplace and slept a good night's sleep.
I couldn't wait to start my beast farm the next day. The first thing I needed to find was the remains of spiritual beasts.
Would it be easy to find something in that forest? Were there any cool spiritual beasts living nearby?