The Banquet

We stood in front of the opening gates of Brother Hao's banquet location. Guards stood on either side and in front of us was a lively courtyard as several other men and women waited. There were perhaps around fifty people here total. The atmosphere was amiable as everyone chatted with one another, no doubt trying to make connections and expand their network.

As the gate closed behind us a few pairs of eyes started wandering over to see who the newcomers might be. Those who saw had one of two reactions: they either stared confused for a moment or, as in the majority, smiled amiably and waved at us.

This wasn't the first time I've come to my Brother Hao's parties after all. The only ones who wouldn't know about me were those who were here for the first time. Every banquet of his I've been to there has been, without fail, at least a few new faces. These banquets of his only seem to get larger and larger.

Those not in the know started asking some of the people around them of my identity and one of those who did came over to personally greet me.

"Lord Ip, Madame Jing, It's so nice to see the both of you again! I see that you have brought an extra this time, I wonder who this girl might be?"

I looked at the corner of my eyes where I saw Jinzi take a step forward.

"Hello Sir! My name is Xue Jinzi, and this man here is my BIg Brother!"

"Ah, now aren't you cute? So you're his Little Sister?"

"Uh, Y-yes…"

The man reached his hand out to pat her head to which she scurried behind me like a little frightened rabbit.

"Ah, I'm sorry Miss Xue. I didn't mean to scare you, This uncle just wants to be friends." The man smiled at Jinzi who poked half her head out from behind me and looked through the gaps of my right arm..

"Don't worry about her, it's her first time at one of these places. She must have used all her courage to speak earlier. As the banquet goes on she might become a little more used to the atmosphere and be more open."

Using my left arm I patted her head through the gap of my arm.

Finally the doors to the hall opened as my conversation with the man was starting to end.

"I'll see you three inside, goodbye Lord Ip, Madame Jing, and Miss Xue."

The man went back to the group of people he had been chatting to earlier as my Brother Hao stepped out to scan his courtyard.

"Everyone! I'm glad you can all make it! Now without further ado, welcome to my little banquet. I hope you all enjoy yourselves here." At that point guests started funneling past Hao Wang as he stood there.

Finally as we neared it seemed like he sprung to life as he noticed us approaching.

"Brother Ip, you're here! I'm glad you came, I actually have someone for you to meet, but that can wait till the end. Of course I can't forget Sister Jing and it seems you brought another person this time, who might she be?"

Jinzi stepped up once more to introduce herself.

"My name is Xue Jinzi and I'm his… Little Sister."

"Ah ok, well for now just go in and relax. We have plenty of food so please go ahead and help yourself."

As we went in I pulled Jinzi aside. Ying'er on the other hand went on ahead.

"Jinzi, are you okay? You know you don't have to force yourself to say you're my Little Sister.

I'm not stopping you from calling yourself my wife."

"No, that's not it. I'm just a little conflicted. I want to call you Big Brother, but at the same time I want them to know I'm also your wife. Don't worry, from now on I'll call you Big Brother with confidence! It doesn't matter what they think."

'Uh, ok. Well that's taken care of I guess.'

"Come on let's go, do you want to socialize?"

"Um, a little, but I mostly just want to be with you."

"Alright, I'll take you around then we can stop whenever you want."

Then I took her around and had her greet a few people, mostly the ones I knew were the most friendly. Surely those 4 years in the wilderness had depreciated her social skills so I simply thought that this might be a good way for her to reacquire them.

Those people didn't do anything out of the ordinary, at least from my memory of them. They complimented Jinzi and were very patient as she conversed with them. In the end they gave their little fare wells as we left and approached other people.

Finally after the seventh person she had had enough and brought me away from them. I believe that had indeed gained back a bit of that social ability, if not decrease her shyness by a bit.

We moved away from the crowded and lively center and entered a more isolated area. There was a nice big couch for us to sit on. I sat on the left side with an arm rest and she was in the middle leaning her head against my shoulder.

"Big Brother? Can I ask you a question?"

"Just ask, when have I ever prevented you from doing so?"

"Well, I just realized that Lord Hao must have been friends with you for a long time."

"Yes, how did you know? Can't I simply make friends as I am now? What brought you to that conclusion?"

"Well, I just don't think you would make many friends considering how you are now. Ah! I don't mean anything bad by that, I just mean with how you don't want to really be recognized as influential you wouldn't be friends with the city's lord."

"Well, we were childhood friends. This was the city I was born in afterall."

"Huh? Does that mean that you're the same cultivation as him?"

"No, not quite. I'm just a little higher than him."

"What about Sister Xiuying, how strong is she? Is she stronger than you?"

"I'm still stronger, by just a bit."

"Really? She's pretty strong. So you knew that Lord Hao as a child then it makes me curious as to how your childhood went. Do you mind telling me about it?"

"Sure, It's no big deal."

"Oh, one second!" She quickly readjusted her way of sitting so that her head now rested on my lap facing up. Last, but not least she grabbed my right arm and started hugging it. With the way she hugged it my arm crossed the valley, but was entrapped within by her arm's pressure forcing the mountains together and in turn squeezing my arm. "Ok, I'm ready."

"Alright, first off I'll just talk about my childhood and family, before I became a cultivator. If I tried to tell you my adventures as a cultivator from the beginning to now then then the party would be long over before I would even get past the 3rd or 4ft realm.

First of all, when I was born in this city my family had some influence, there were originally 3 major families in this city, my Brother Hao included. But now you can see that only his family still remains.

In some aspects you would probably refer to me as a young master if it was back then. Now, onto my family. My immediate family consisted of my parents, a younger brother by 2 years, and older sister by 3 years. Of course as an influential family our offshoots and branches were around as well. Actually, we weren't the main family of the Ips, but we would have been the next branch family in line of the power. Unlike them, our immediate family wasn't craving power. My uncles, aunts, and cousins all fought with the other influential families of the city for power.

In fact when Brother Hao and I first became friends our families shunned us for "concluding with the enemy," but it was like foreshadowing as after a few years of our friendship our two families actually started collaborating with one another.

I don't quite know the details since I simply didn't pay attention, but the third family, the Ye family, eventually lost most if not all their power. I don't quite know what happened to them since. But they weren't the only ones who lost anything.

The reason why was most probably because of the combined pressure of our Ip and Hao families. I think they were having a secret war since every once in a while I noticed that members of both our Ip and Hao families started disappearing, from both minor branches to even the main branch.

Something drove the members of both our families to leave and never return. At one point they didn't even be discreet about it anymore and sent the entirety of our families including the main ones. The only ones that were left behind were my and my Brother Hao's immediate families, they said that we had to keep our respective families alive. Whenever we inquired what was wrong they simply said that our families didn't want to join the political battle in the first place so we should stay.

From then on the city was peacefully ruled by our conjured families. But three years later the patriarch of the Hao family returned in tatters and clutched in his hands was the necklace that our Ip Family patriarch would wear. That was given to me as the next male heir to the family.

He explained being the last survivor of their assault against what the main family of the Ye branch tried to do, they all tried to hold onto their last shreds of power and even return it by turning to demonic cultivators.

After that everyone from our generation started cultivating and we found out our talents. My younger brother was quite adventurous, braving the dangers of various lands, but perhaps that was just because he felt a little inferior to me from our talent ratings, while my elder sister seemed scared that I would become like my younger brother who adventured on long journeys away from home. I knew that I couldn't stay at home or else my experience would never increase so eventually I left like my younger brother.

At 18 I found out our younger brother had met his end, by a large group of rouge cultivators who belonged to no faction. In a fit of rage I annihilated those rogue cultivators and went home a mess. My elder sister took care of me and tried cheering me up every day for a week until I felt better.

When I turned 24 that marked the end of our parent's lives since they were actually still mortals, they said that they wouldn't eat any life extension pills and that they would just let life go through its course. They had enjoyed their life and died at the age of 50. (Age expectancy of ancient chinese spanned from 22 to 35 years if not younger)

At that point it was just my elder sister and I. We were together for a long time, until I hit 32 she went out and never returned. Of course it's been hundreds of years now since then and I've just accepted that she won't return. I assume she died somewhere unknown to me, but I can only wish the best.

It was then I was all alone as the only member of the Ip family left. I gave up the properties I had to my Brother Hao in exchange for some wealth and then I started on my adventure. Of course I never expected to return so we had a farewell ceremony before I left into the unknown."

Of course I left out the part where I transmigrated here, but she had no need to know that.

"T-that really all happened? So that means that you're all alone just like me? My elder brother and younger sister are somewhere out in the world too, but I think they're still alive. If I could survive the world I'm sure they could too!"

"I'm sure they are, we'll all meet them one day."

I rubbed her head with my left hand and she closed her eyes with a smile.