Beginning Beyond The Horizon

After the sun went down and the night crickets began to chirp, Hajime discovered a campfire at the foot of another mountain. Soaring high in the sky, Hajime thought to himself, besides Yul and the others, who else would go so far down south and camp in a deserted place. He led the eagle to the foot of the mountain. When the eagle flew to the landing site and Hajime saw the white goat, Hajime immediately knew that it was indeed Yul and the others.

Hajime jumped off the eagle's back and stretched out his hand. The eagle disappeared and the wooden figure appeared in Hajime's right palm. He put the wooden eagle figure into his cross bag and walked towards a group of people sitting and standing not far away.

"Hajime?" Michio said. 

"Hey, Michio!" Hajime said with a smile and waved to Michio. He looked over Michio's shoulder and found Yul sitting with his back to Hajime, trying to feed Meiji.

Michio asked, "Where have you been?"

"Scout ahead," Hajime said. He walked towards the group of people sitting around the campfire. "What happened to Meiji?"

Michio said, "He must be hungry. We don't know how to milk the goat."

Hajime grabbed the water bag hanging from Michio's waist, bent down to pick up the bowl, poured some water and drank it. Then he walked towards the white goat. After Hajime finished milking the goat, he took the bowl of milk back and looked around to find his bag next to a tree. He walked to the tree, took out a small teapot, and poured the goat's milk into it. He walked over to Yul and sat next to Yul. When Meiji saw Hajime, he started crying, pushing himself away from Yul's arms, cooing and stretching out his hands to Hajime. Hajime reached over and picked up Meiji from Yul's lap. He started feeding Meiji.

Michio looked at Hajime and asked, "You said you were scouting ahead, so what did you find?"

Hajime said, "I found that the Zahog Phoenix has not arrived at Dreake City yet."

Yul rolled his eyes at Hajime coldly, then looked at the campfire and asked, "How do you know?"

Hajime didn't look at Yul, but continued to feed Meiji, and he said, "Baishui told me."

Abrafo said, "So, you've seen Baishui?"

Hajime nodded and said, "I saw him this morning. He said that Jiāo would meet us at the village entrance gate tomorrow morning." He turned around and saw that Michio was eating a roasted pheasant. "Michio... give me some meat." Michio tore off a piece of meat and fed it to Hajime.

Lixin said, "Then early tomorrow morning, you will take us out of here and go to Dreake City."

Hajime chewed the meat slowly and said, "Yes, but I can't take everyone with me."

Lixin said, "Jin and the others don't have to go with us, they will follow us with our supplies on foot."

Hajime said, "Alright, choose who you want to take with you."

Lixin said, "I will only take Shi with me."

Hajime said, "Alright, that's settle. We'll set off early tomorrow morning. We should arrive around noon."

Abrafo said, "Alright... everyone, I will take first watch with Bong, Ping, Heng, and Xiang. Everyone else can go to sleep."

U-ri said, "It's not necessary to keep watch, we can just sleep close to each other." He took out the bracelet and handed it back to Hajime. "Here, I'll give it back to you."

Hajime took the bracelet and threw it into the air. The bracelet quickly expanded and fell, covering them. He stood up with the sleeping Meiji in his arms and walked to the tree where his bag was placed. He saw a blanket spread neatly on the elephant's leaves, so he lay down with Meiji still asleep in his arms.

Yul stood up and looked down at Nayao and Fufu. "You two, don't stay up late." After saying that, he walked to the place where Hajime and Meiji were sleeping and lay down next to Hajime and Meiji.

Yul raised his head and saw nothing but darkness and heard the sound of branches swaying as the wind blew. He turned around and looked at Hajime, who was sleeping with Meiji in his arms. He saw the red string brass bell bracelet on Meiji's tiny wrist. He put his hand into his robe, took out another one, and put it on Hajime's left wrist. After the rope was tied, he looked at Hajime and found that Hajime had already opened his eyes. Seeing the expression on Hajime's face that could not be expressed in words, he stretched out his arms and pulled Hajime and Meiji into his arms. Then he kissed Hajime's forehead.

"No matter what lies you told in the past, I will forgive you," Yul said. "All I ask is that you tell me who you really are. I don't like this feeling, knowing that I am the person closest to you and the person you trust the most, but you would rather tell another person about your situation, secrets and worries to them and not me."

Hajime said, "What I told you the night before was a secret deep in my heart. I didn't tell Kaizen; Kaizen knew my identity because Kaizen knew Xian...Xian is the owner of this body. Kaizen manipulates Xian's memory, this way if Xian's body falls into the wrong hands, they won't know who owns Xian's soul, so since I took control of his body, I can only see the memories Kaizen created, but not Xian's original memory. Finding true love to break the immortal curse was also created by Kaizen."

Yul said, "So, this means that after we get the white dragon tail, you will return to Tanzang?"

Hajime nodded.

Nayao turned to looked at Yul who was sleeping beside Hajime and the baby. "Yul, he looks very close to that man," Nayao said sadly. "Is that child Yul's or Hajime's?"

Fufu, who doesn't know who the child's father is, said, "I don't know. When I first met them, they were already very close. The last time I saw Hajime, Hajime left with someone, and he return with the baby, so the child was probably his." She looked at Nayao and noticed that Nayao was a little sad. She stood up and wiped the dirt off her butt. "Let's go to bed. There will be a long day tomorrow."

Nayao said, "Why do I feel that everyone here values Hajime so much." She stood up and started walking towards the tree. She sat on her blanket next to where Yul sleep.

Fufu said, "I felt the same way as you, until I saw with my own eyes what he could do."

Nayao sat on the blanket and looked at Yul holding Hajime and the baby in his arms. She stared at them for a moment, then lay down and closed her eyes.

The next morning, the early birds were already chirping, U-ri stretched out his arm, but he couldn't stretch far, he looked at his arm and found Meiji lying in his arms. He looked up and saw that it was already morning. At this time of day, the sun has not yet risen. He looked to the right and found that Fufu was still sleeping in the distance, and Hajime and Yul had left their sleeping place. He found Michio snoring on his left side. He stood up slowly, picked up Meiji, and found that the tents set by Lixin's subordinates had been taken down. He saw Hajime milking a goat and Shi, Nayao and Jin were cooking. He walked over to the campfire.

"Oh, good morning, Sir U-ri," Jin greeted with a smile.

"Do you have hot water there?" U-ri asked.

Jin quickly fetched a bowl of hot water and placed it in front of U-ri. When Ping walked up to Jin, U-ri took out a handkerchief, dipped it into a bowl of water, squeezed it with using his right hand, and began to wipe Meiji's face.

Ping asked, "Captain, is breakfast ready?"

Jin said, "It's ready."

Ping walked back to Lixin and others.

"Sir... U-ri," Nayao said, watching as the bowl of soup was placed in front of U-ri. "Can I ask you something?"

U-ri said, "Go ahead. I will try my best to answer."

Nayao asked, "I just want to know, who is the father of the child?"

U-ri looked at Nayao with a smile. He asked, "Who do you think this child looks like?"

Nayao said, "I don't know, that's why I asked."

U-ri said, "This child is Meiji Bayarmaa, the grandson of General Kazan and the son of Yul." He smiled at Nayao. "Ah...when he grows up, he will be another Bayarmaa general. Hehe... is that right..." He smiled at Meiji.

Nayao murmured, "The child is Yul's."

"U-ri," Hajime said. "Let me feed him, so you can eat." Hajime sat next to U-ri, and U-ri handed Meiji to Hajime.​

"I'll wake up the others," U-ri said and walked towards Abrafo and the others.

Nayao watched Hajime feed Meiji and noticed that Hajime was wearing the red brass bracelet on Hajime's left wrist. Nayao remembered that the red brass bracelet, was really the same one that Yul bought a few days ago.

When U-ri and the others sat walked up to the campfire, Yul, Lixin, and his men were already seated and starting to eat.​

"What's the plan?" Abrafo yawned and stretched his arms.

Yul said, "Sir Jin and others will transport horses and other personal necessities to Dreake City on foot. Hajime will fly us to Dreake City first."

Bong asked, "Who fly and who walk?"

Abrafo said, "I volunteered myself and Bong to walk."

Hajime said, "Three eagles. Yul, U-ri, Meiji, and me. Michio, Abrafo, and Bong. Then Lixin, Shi, and another one."

Fufu said, "I'll go with Captain Jin and the others."

Shi said, "Let me travel with the group. Lady Fufu, you can fly with My lord."

Fufu chuckled. "You follow your Lord and serve him. I choose to walk," Fufu said.

Each of the nine people grabbed some personal belongings. Hajime reached out to the cross on his back, took out three wooden statues, and threw them into the air. Three big eagles flapped their wings and appeared in front of the eighteen people.

Yul helped U-ri climb onto the back of the first eagle, and then Hajime and Hajime reached out and pulled Yul onto the back of the first eagle.

Abrafo, Michio and Bong were walking towards the second eagle. Lixin grabbed Bong's collar and pulled Bong towards the third eagle with Shi. 

"You bastard, you are arrogant and rude," Abrafo said through gritted teeth. Abrafo was about to grab Bong, but Michio grabbed Abrafo's arm. 

"Let it go," Michio said. "No matter what, we're going to the same place."

Abrafo jumped on the eagle's back irritably, and Michio helped Nayao get onto the eagle's back.

When the eagle climbed into the sky, the people uniformly below began to move towards the tail mountain ahead.

The first eagle circled back, swooped down, grabbed the white goat on the ground, and then continued to fly south following the two eagles.