Chapter 280 - Interlude Of His Return

[ Interlude - A pause between the acts of a play + the recap of the last 48 hours story-wise. Fast-pass if you will. Contains rhyming. ]

And so the son of Li Chao Yun returned to earth and he raised hell on the second day of his return.

A more accurate account of the tale would have been Li Yang visiting the afterlife, not necessarily descending into the underworld alone, but chaos did come upon his arrival.

The first day of Li Yang's return already caused some business relationships to unravel. The rather eccentric couple, Song Chuanli and Song Angeline, met him in the forest of Japan. Saving their lives, saving one, meant saving the other, and in their eyes, they saw a dependable young man.

Yes, Li Yang appeared young to them, a gentleman who might become an excellent influence on their daughter. Their minds were convinced and so they provided accommodations until his return to their home country.

A party was soon set and he would know of it later.

But not now, since there was much for him to do and he focused on his own desires first.

Upon his arrival and the news of his presence back in Shanghai was announced… it caused quite a sensation.

It alerted Taiga in the Shou Temple Sect to even Bo Lifen in the premises of her brother's milk tea shop. The former finding a reason to no longer hide and wallow away in the temple. While the other, shying away.

But Li Yang's first agenda had always been seeing his daughter first.

It was a strange thing to admit to himself, but that was what he prioritized. The heart of a child was still soft and prone to a pang of loss in depths that he himself knew by experience. So he came to the hospital and realized that Luo Ju Di was in a coma all this time—and that her soul was snatched by the Sluagh—he made a move to correct what was wrong.

Thus the circle of death, the Grim Reaper, and then the afterlife.

A journey that plunged him to the depths of the spiritual realm. Right into the very underworld where a certain Goddess, an Observer, shared her desires with him and made it known that she was the first to meet him in person.

Attempted to sway him away with a fruit.

It did not work, and he continued on his decision to save Luo Ju Di.

Only learning later when he saw the horde of Sluagh that a certain Tigress followed him. Taiga had thought that the Grim Reaper stole away her Bossman when she just saw him. It was a pressure that weighed on her shoulders and it weighed far more than she was willing to admit.

But so it happened.

Nay, lest it be said that the man did not work against the cycle of life and death. All he did was to bring back what was once there, all of this effort given, in an attempt to repair. Unbelievable that all of this happened under the span of a little less than twenty-four hours.

… And yet it was far from the very end.

A contact made by a Mermaid, a long-savored and awaited reunion with a Tigress, and a certain Tea Sommelier who just happened to be passing by in the same bar as he did. One after another, in only a few hours after making sure that his responsibilities to his child and her mother were given, came to this event.

But it wasn't enough to end the day at all.

There was someone else he wanted to find and who was yet to come along. Despite the Panda's adamant protest and reminders of deadlines, it wasn't Anna Song. On the contrary, it was his secretary. Amidst it all, she was the first and constant presence in his past.

It was a surprise that she would come to his mind last.

Thus, it once again led to outside of the city and into an island of its own, traveling past ghostly seas and seafaring beasts that devoured ships and fishes of old. And then, before he knew it, there she was, lo-and-behold.

Ying Yue He came upon a lofty cultivation sword and surprising things were realized.

This hidden island, of the heavens sealed to others, and a desire of a certain individual that made his blood boil. Despite the peaceful surface, there was a lot of wretched turmoil that made him decide to escape.

Into the forest they went, draping and wearing cloaks and shawls of invisibility not to be shed. Towers of cultivation and a ship used in the ancient days, into the latter they arrived and then fled.

Only leaving a sense of foreboding and dread.

Thus came the end of the forty-eight hours or so upon his return. Li Yang currently below the deck with Bo Lifen discussing things she had so much to learn. Meanwhile, there was much left to do for a man that was this stern.

Goals, missions and quests.

Each one required his devoted and hundred percent attention at best.

All of this was at the Heavens' behest.

Thus came the compensation in the form of a System. While the Heavens' Observers held his will for ransom, in exchange there was much he could achieve, seek and derive.

A number of things that many could only dream of striving for. 

And there were several things to yearn for: Power, influence and wealth of splendor, countless beautiful women to adorn one's bed and parlor, but all he desired—fair enough to note that he had everything most craved and required—was the ability to return to how things once were.

Freedom given, no more, no less—he would be the one to decide which life he shall live in.

—-—-

Author's Note: This chapter is more or less, an attempt to make a narrative voice, try on a bigger storyteller sense of grandeur if it were possible.. Rhyming more? Plain words are still the best in web fiction as clarity is the game, but if you pay for a novel in bookstores or e-book, some of them classics like Lord of the Rings have rhythm and flow. Some might not appreciate that kind of writing, and this one too, so I hope you fast-passed on this one?