The road was dust.
Not the kind of dust that settles on old furniture. The kind that used to be fields. Used to be forests. Used to be something. But now decayed.
Now it was just gray. Crunching underfoot. Rising in small clouds whenever the wind bothered to blow.
SomePurifyingDude walked. Slowly. One foot after the other. His blue robe was torn at the sleeve. His Fuchen had lost another three strands.
Beside him, Supreme walked like someone who had never been hungry a day in his life.
White hair flowing. White robe still somehow still clean. Hands behind his back. Humming.
"So," Supreme said, "what's your deal?"
SomePurifyingDude didn't answer. His throat was too dry.
"Come on. Everyone has a deal. Cultivator. Expelled. Wandering around a dying realm like you're looking for something to die for." Supreme tilted his head. "Very dramatic. Very tragic. Very boring if you don't give me details."
"...I wanted to help people," SPD finally said.
"Boring. Next."
"That's it."
"That's it?" Supreme stopped walking. Turned to face him. "You threw away your cultivation. Your sect. Your Master. Your lineage. All of it. And the best reason you have is 'I wanted to help people'?"
SomePurifyingDude stopped too. Looked at the ground.
"What else is there?"
Supreme stared at him for a long moment. Then laughed. Genuinely amused.
"Wow. You really mean that. You're not lying. You're not performing. You actually believe that helping people is a good enough reason to destroy your entire life."
He shook his head. Started walking again.
"That's either the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Or the bravest."
SomePurifyingDude followed.
"Which one do you think it is?" he asked.
Supreme glanced back with a grin on his face
"Haven't decided yet."
Day ~~~
I don't know how long we've been walking. Days. Weeks. Time blurs when every road looks the same.
Supreme talks too much. About everything. Nothing. He complained about his hair for an entire afternoon. Then he complained about the lack of tea. Then he complained about the dust — which is everywhere, so that complaint never actually ended.
But I'm not alone anymore.
I forgot how heavy silence is until someone else was there to break it.
They passed a village.
Or what used to be a village.
The buildings were collapsed. The well was dry. A single tree stood in the center, bare branches reaching toward a sky that hadn't produced rain in months.
A woman sat under the tree. Old. Wrapped in a shawl that might have been white once.
She didn't look up when they approached.
Supreme walked past her without a glance.
SomePurifyingDude stopped.
"Ma'am," he said. "Is there anything...."
"No."
The word was flat. Final. The kind of final that came from watching too many people walk past and say nothing.
SomePurifyingDude reached into his robe. Found a small piece of dried bread. His last piece. He set it on the ground beside her.
She didn't move.
He walked away.
Supreme was waiting at the edge of the village. Watching.
"You're going to starve," he said.
"I know."
"Giving away your last food. To someone who didn't even say thank you."
"I know."
Supreme was quiet for a moment. Then:
"You're not very good at this survival thing, are you?"
SomePurifyingDude almost smiled.
"No. I'm not."
Day ~~~
I saw a child today. On the road. Alone. Couldn't have been more than seven.
I asked where her parents were.
She pointed at the sky.
I didn't ask again.
Supreme gave her something. I didn't see what. A coin? A gem? She ran off before I could ask.
"What was that?" I said.
"Nothing," he said. "Keep walking."
He's strange. He complains about everything. He acts like nothing matters. But then he does things like that. Small things. Things he doesn't want me to notice.
I notice anyway.
The road continued. Endless gray beneath an endless gray sky.
Supreme talked about a city he'd once visited where the rivers flowed with honey. About a mountain that sang when the moon was full. About a fight he'd had with someone, he didn't say who, that lasted three hundred years.
"Three hundred years?" SPD asked. "How do you fight someone for three hundred years?"
Supreme shrugged. "When you're both too stubborn to die, time becomes negotiable."
SPD didn't know if that was a joke or not.
He decided not to ask.
Day ~~~
Supreme talks about impossible things like they're ordinary. Centuries-long fights. Rivers of honey. Mountains that sing.
I don't know if he's lying.
I don't think he is.
Who is he really?
They passed a riverbed. Dry. Cracked earth stretching as far as the eye could see.
SPD stopped. Knelt down. Touched the ground.
It was warm. Unnaturally warm. Like the earth itself was feverish.
"The water used to reach here," he said quietly. "Up to my chest. I remember crossing it once. When I was young. Before joining the sect."
Supreme stood behind him. Said nothing.
"Now there's nothing," SPD continued. "Not even mud. Just... dust."
He stood up. Brushed off his hands.
"The realm is dying. And no one is stopping it."
Supreme tilted his head. "No one?"
"Someone started this. The chaos. The wars. The suffering." SPD looked at him. "I don't know who. But I know someone is behind it."
Supreme's expression didn't change. But his eyes — for just a fraction of a second flickered.
"Is that why you're walking?" he asked. "To find them?"
SPD shook his head.
"I'm walking because I can't sit still while the world burns. If I find whoever started this... good. But that's not why I left the mountain."
"Then why?"
SPD looked at the dry riverbed. The dead fields beyond. The smoke on the horizon.
"Because someone has to do something. Even if it's just walking. Even if it's just giving away bread to people who won't say thank you. Even if it's just witnessing."
Supreme was quiet for a long time.
Then'
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
He said it continued although softly.
"And the bravest."
Night fell.
They sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking a dry riverbed. The moon was hidden behind smoke~colored clouds. Somewhere in the distance, a fire burned. Not a campfire. A wildfire. The kind that didn't stop until there was nothing left to burn.
SPD wrapped his arms around his knees.
"How long have you been traveling?" he asked.
Supreme was lying on his back, staring at the sky. "Long enough."
"Long enough for what?"
"To get bored."
"Of traveling?"
"Of everything."
SPD turned to look at him. The firelight from the distance flickered across Supreme's face. For a moment, just a moment, the smile wasn't there.
Then it was back.
"Don't worry about it," Supreme said. "You've got your own problems. Starving. Dying realm. No cultivation. Very sad. Very dramatic."
He sat up. Brushed dust off his white robe.
"Speaking of which. How exactly do you plan to survive? You can't fight. You can't heal. You can't even grow food. You're just... walking. Hoping something happens."
SPD was silent for a long time.