The older Alex started speaking first.
"This is the first ti I have co here since the funeral, isn't it?" he asked. "I wish I could have co sooner. How have you been doing, master? Are you having fun in the afterlife? Or have you reincarnated already?"
"If you did, I hope you are born as the daughter of soone important like a king or an emperor so you never have to work a day in your life again," he said. "Although, I would love it if when I die, I can be your disciple once again in the next life."
"Do you want to hear how I've been living master? You would have probably worried that I was going to have a hard ti, but I didn't," he said. "I have a beautiful wife and an even more beautiful daughter. I can only say that I've been blessed, master. I'm sure you would feel nothing but happiness seeing my life right now."
"And there would be nothing that would make happier than to see you again," he said. Tears overflowed from his eyes, filling the cracks of his wrinkled skin as they flowed down his cheeks.
Alex patted the old man on his back, consoling him while letting him shed his tears. Unlike him, the old man had never had the chance to speak what he had in his heart for all these years.
The old man started talking about his life and how she had influenced it. He told her that he was a better person today because of her.
Alex nodded as well. He started talking about his own ti away as well. It had been 3 decades since he had last co here and there were plenty of stories to tell her about those tis.
He didn't have much in his heart that burdened him, unlike the old man, but talking to his master still made him feel relieved.
"It's not a lie when he says you've influenced our lives heavily, master," Alex spoke. "Did you know, every ti I visit an auction house, I think about the ti you took to my first auction."
"When I practice Alchemy, I rember your teaching. When talking to strangers, it's your words that remind to be wary of them, to not show my hands when I'm up against an enemy."
"Following your and master Wen Cheng's teaching has led to a status far beyond either of you could've ever imagined," he said. "Do you believe it, master? I'm a king, now. King!"
"It's the greatest achievent anyone could have achieved," he said. "I only wished you were here to see that, master."
"Master!" the old man started screaming once more as he cried like he hadn't since his mother's funeral.
Alex couldn't help but tear up hearing the old man's screams as well. He looked up to not let the tears flow, but they fell down his face inevitably.
"Why aren't you here, master? Why did you have to die? Was it my fault?" the older Alex asked.
"I wish you were here, master," Alex said and silently cried as well.
Albeit the sa person, the two of them were never similar to each other at all. However, for the first ti in their life, they had cried together for the sa reason.
They shed tears, one after another, and felt the sa emotion at the sa ti. For the first ti, they were closer to each other than they had ever been before.
For the first ti since they existed as two, they were the sa in mind and body. And thus, for the first ti, their souls resonated as if the two Alex were truly just one.
Alex saw two visions at the sa ti, one clear, one blurry.
In the clear vision, he was looking at his clone who was knelt beside him with his master's grave in front of him.
In the blurry vision, he was looking directly at his master's grave in front of him. He was looking through his clone's eyes.
Then, he heard the man's thoughts, he felt the man's feelings, and soon, he started seeing his mories.
* * * * *
Alex looked around nervously while he stood next to a priest by himself. There was a space in front of him and beyond that were a few girls that stood wearing similar pink clothes.
He recognized one of the girls that stood on the other side. What was her na? Sarah, right? Why did he know that na?
Many people were staying in two groups. He saw his parents, uncle and aunt, and his cousin. Then he saw another older woman on the other side that he felt he was close with.
He heard cheers and turned in that direction to see a young Emily walk out in a white gown.
Was that a wedding dress? Of course, it was, what else could it be? It was his wedding after all.
'No, not mine,' Alex thought. He had been through such mories before where he nearly believe he was soone he wasn't. He hadn't died over 100 tis in the volcano just to forget who he was seeing soone else's mories.
Still, that was not to say that it wasn't hard to dissociate himself from the mories. He decided to let it play out and soon he was sucked back into believing it was his mory.
Emily walked up to the altar and he slled the sweet scent of rose from her clothes. Was that what he rembered from back then?
The next portion was a blur in his mind and all he rembered was the kiss and then the mory vanished.
'What's next?' Alex thought.
He saw a mory of his honeymoon where they had gone to the snow resort in the snowy mountains of Plumroot city.
He saw his father working hard in the fields.
He saw Hannah's wedding and who she was married to.
He saw a mory of a very sick Emily that he had to take care of over the night.
Another mory surfaced of a sick Emily, only this ti she was slightly older and the mory was a happy one. That was the day they found out that after years of trying, Emily was finally pregnant.
Alex saw the Birth On that he had heard about. The sky churned and the winds roared.
He saw the mory of the first ti he held his daughter in his hand.
The mories continued. He saw a mory of finding his father in the field. He rembered the first ti his daughter walked on her own.
He rembered the first day of his daughter's school life. He rembered the last day his mother breathed in that hospital room.
More and more mories flashed through Alex until he had seen everything that the other him deed important enough to rember.
* * * * * * *
Alex could probably still see more mories if he wanted to, but… that was not him, was it? This was his clone's life. Even though he had seen it and knew what happened in it, it was not one that he had experienced.
As such, unlike the tis his clone had spent in his body, he knew for certain that whatever he saw was not his life.
They were different people and they should remain different.
Alex pulled his consciousness out of his clone's body and shook his head.
He realized that he had now gained the ability to peek into his clone's mind and look through his eyes. Controlling him was not a possibility unless he could suppress the soul itself sohow.
However, Alex couldn't think why he would need to do that. He decided to never do that again and let his clone keep his privacy.
The older Alex hadn't realized at all what had happened. He was still crying all the sa in front of his master's grave.
Alex sighed and sat down with a solemn look on his face. His emotions were in slight disarray due to the mories, so he couldn't feel just sadness anymore.
So, he sat there and waited for his clone to pour out his grief onto their master's grave.
Alex looked at the tree that had grown so much since the ti he had co back. The Yin Gathering tree's seed was sothing his master had bought and he had helped her plant it.
He wondered if the essence of his master's yin was absorbed by this plant. After all, she did have a great yin body.
He even guessed that it was a Celestial-grade body.
A Celestial grade Yin body, which had likely evolved from a Divine grade one when she entered the Forbidden Fields.
'How strong would master have been had she not gotten into Alchemy?' he wondered. 'Would she have beco a strong fighter? Would she have still been alive if that was the case?'
Alex wondered if she had made a mistake in her life by joining an Alchemy sect. However, thinking about it, if she hadn't joined an alchemy sect, then she would have never been his master.
He smiled a bit when he realized that.
The older Alex had cald down by now and only sniffled a bit here and there.
"Let us return," Alex said to the old man who nodded.
The older Alex turned toward the gave and bowed. "We will be leaving for now, master, but we'll be back later. I want to talk with you plenty more tis," he said.
Alex bowed toward her grave and well and walked away.
The two walked down the alchemy mountain and went back to the Elder's Hall. By the ti they got there, the sect master had talked with the elders, and together they had co to a decision.
Alex was to gain full authority of the sect until they decided otherwise.
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