"...My real name is Lu Qing. I'm the president... no, the former president of the previous generation's Alchemist Association."
"..."
...Grandmaster Lu Qing!
Among cultivators of the old era, everyone would know that name. He was the one and only legend to have ever become a Tier-4 alchemist, and had held the position of Alchemist Association president for a very long time.
Throughout his tenure, he had invented many new medicines and revived numerous lost alchemy formulas. His very existence had become the hope of an era in which the art of alchemy had fallen so far.
If he revealed his identity in public, it would surely cause panic and chaos. The only news anyone had of him was that he had vanished while traveling — no word of where he had gone. Who would have thought he had taken on another identity entirely, as the owner of a cultivators' gathering hall that dealt in information as freely as it served food?
Fortunately, the only ones who had seen his face were a young woman who paid little attention to other people's affairs, and a child of just a few years, who did nothing more than tilt her head in curiosity.
"Grandmaster Lu Qing... I've heard that name before!"
Tang Yeye spoke up at once. Naturally, the girl would know. She came from the Tang Clan, famous for their alchemy. She had even had the opportunity to take medicines this very Grandmaster had personally refined.
"So I still have some fame left?"
The elderly man chuckled at the girl's reaction. He turned to Bai Fanxian, who remained still, and said,
"But it seems I can't compare to you at all."
Even though he had stepped away from his identity as Grandmaster Lu Qing, he had continued to follow the news from his vantage point as the elderly shop owner. Every remarkable story about Bai Fanxian had reached him.
The identity of the "Alchemy Empress" was far beyond anything he could hope to reach.
Bai Fanxian had heard this elderly man's name more than a few times. From the Tang Clan to the Alchemist Association, the name "Grandmaster Lu Qing" came up often. She herself had wanted to meet the foremost alchemist of this era. She just never imagined their first meeting would be like this.
"I should have noticed from the alchemical scent on your hands..."
Bai Fanxian wrinkled her nose. For a legendary alchemist, a lingering alchemical scent was simply unavoidable. She had not noticed it at first — this was a restaurant, and it also served as a trading post for rare items, where the accumulated scents had long since blended into something indistinct.
"Ho ho... it's an honor to receive praise from you."
Grandmaster Lu Qing stroked his beard and laughed lightly. He could sense the same alchemical scent on Bai Fanxian as well.
Except what he sensed did not come only from her palms...
...It came from her entire body.
"...I must be too old."
The elderly man chose not to press further. There was something more important right now anyway.
"...I've told you what you wanted to know, so... uh..."
Grandmaster Lu Qing looked restless. But he was not being rude — he was simply afraid of displeasing Bai Fanxian and sending her away.
"...Sigh."
Bai Fanxian sighed. It seemed she had made herself the villain by refusing to tell the truth.
"...Honestly, I don't know where 'that place' you're talking about is."
"...!"
The elderly man's frozen expression said it all — he did not want to believe it. When he shot to his feet, Bai Fanxian caught the faint ripple of dimensional fluctuation that escaped him.
"...Are you serious?"
"Mm... but tell me the name of the place first. Maybe I know it?"
At her words, Grandmaster Lu Qing settled back down. The tension around him eased as he came to understand her perspective.
Perhaps he had jumped to conclusions too quickly.
"...The Myriad Demon World... you didn't come from there?"
Myriad Demon World.
"..."
"No... I'm certain I was born and grew up on this world." Bai Fanxian turned the unfamiliar name over in her mind and answered, certain of it.
"I see... I see."
It was not anger, not resentment. On the contrary — he seemed to wither before her eyes, looking suddenly much older.
"My apologies. I dragged you into this trouble..."
Before he could finish speaking, the little black kitten who had been quiet all this time jumped onto the table, its round eyes bright and sparkling.
"Meow! Kuro knows the Myriad Demon World, meow!"
"...!"
WHOOSH!
It was not the talking cat that had him lurching to his feet — it was what the cat said. Grandmaster Lu Qing had to actively restrain himself from snatching the little creature up and squeezing out every last detail.
That was because Bai Fanxian had narrowed her eyes and extended her qi in a quiet warning: do not touch, do not harm.
Even if the little one had broken its promise by speaking in front of others — at this point, it hardly mattered.
"You know it?"
Bai Fanxian rested her hand on the table, and the little one leaped up without hesitation, small enough to sit comfortably in her palm.
"I know it, meow..."
The little black cat tilted its head, puzzled. It did not understand why Bai Fanxian was asking.
Its next words stunned both adults in the room.
"...Because it's the name of Kuro's world, meow."
.
.
.
"Is that so?"
After the initial chaos settled, Grandmaster Lu Qing and Bai Fanxian talked through everything they each wanted to know, leaving him with a rough understanding of her situation.
The elderly man summarized what he had gathered.
"You want to open a portal to that world to help your companions, right..."
Bai Fanxian did not tell him everything. She said only that the Myriad Demon World was where her companions were, and that she needed to go and bring them back.
She did not tell him about her ten-thousand-year history. Only those truly close to her knew that.
"You don't seem surprised at all?"
Bai Fanxian asked, studying Lu Qing's calm demeanor.
"...Right now, many unprecedented demonic beasts are appearing in this world. So it wouldn't be strange if some people ended up slipping into another world or dimension too, would it?"
The elderly man spoke of the current situation Bai Fanxian herself knew well. As the keeper of a cultivators' hub, he had clearly grown accustomed to the unusual.
"That's true..."
As the "Leader," how could Bai Fanxian not know? But the number of demonic beasts appearing had not been as frequent as she had anticipated. Both the military and cultivators remained on guard at all times and had managed to contain the damage each time. Ordinary citizens were also growing more accustomed to these events with each passing day.
She no longer needed to handle them herself, as she had in the early days.
"Besides... I'm the same as you."
"..."
"I also want to find a way back to that world."
Bai Fanxian could have guessed from his demeanor earlier.
How could someone with no ties carry a desire that strong?
"...You said 'back'... or did you come from the Myriad Demon World?"
Bai Fanxian caught on at once. If she had truly met someone from that side, it would be far easier to ask about the situation there.
"Not really."
Lu Qing shook his head. The old man's smile softened at the memory.
"But I've been there..."
And what he said next told her everything.
"...And met the most important person in my life there."
"Your lover, grandpa?"
Tang Yeye, who had been sitting quietly for some time, asked with bright eyes. The question — so guileless — touched something in the old man, stirring a tenderness for this kind of innocence in someone who had seen so much of the world.
"Ho ho... that's right. She was both my benefactor... and the person I wanted to be with for life."
He did not deny it. He even ran his fingers over the fake skin — crumpled now like a lump of clay — with a quiet tenderness.
Being separated by different worlds from the person you love — it was no different from being dead to each other. What did it matter if you were alive, if you would never see each other again in this lifetime?
"You got that thing from there?"
Bai Fanxian could tell where this was going.
"Yes... That's why I assumed at first that you had come from the Myriad Demon World — you recognized it, and you could see my real face."
Lu Qing nodded without any attempt to hide it, which made Bai Fanxian furrow her brow.
The disguise was so masterfully crafted that even she had almost missed it. No wonder people in this world had no idea that the vanished Grandmaster Lu Qing had been this close all along.
But the reason she had seen through it at first glance was something else entirely.
"...Have you ever heard the name An Weiying?"
"...An... Weiying?"
Because Bai Fanxian knew who had made that fake skin.
Her companion. An inventor.
...From ten thousand years ago.