Po and Li eventually made their way back to the main part of the panda village where they were overwhelmed with the smells and sights of food.
The masters, a little run down and worn out, were happily stuffing their face and relaxing at a couple of tables chatting with the other pandas in the village. Master Shifu was busily engaged in conversation with an older panda and Master Croc whom the masters hadn't seen in almost two years. Master Bear was busy engaging some children with how he confronted Kai, having to admit eventually that he had his chi stolen by Kai almost immediately, but boy could he make a not even one minute battle sound utterly epic!!! Po saw Tigress run after Lei-Lei who had a terrified Mantis in her paws and manage to convince her to put the poor master down. She then picked the little girl up and immediately walked back over to a group of panda while Viper, having tagged along out of concern for Mantis' safety, checked up on him to make sure he hadn't gotten whiplash.

Po and Li were eventually called over to a table where they sat down and immediately joined in the splendors of a late lunch. Mr. Ping was a little preoccupied with prepping his secret ingredient soup for everyone and passing it out, though he did give Po a tight hug while in passing and even patted Li on the back before going back to serving. Po felt a genuine feeling of relief wash over him and he took a deep breath and leaned forward to rest his arms and head on the table for a moment. Li complimented his relaxation form and squeezed his shoulder. Po didn't really respond to this. He just glanced around at the happy faces just as relieved and ecstatic that the danger was over and they could celebrate in peace, which they did for the rest of the day. The masters freed from Kai were not used to having a smorgasbord of food accessible to them, and by the end of the day were trying to hide from the pandas so that they didn't feel obligated to overstuff themselves with dumplings, bean buns, or some other concoction made for the occasion.

Li thought over Po's offer to move to the Valley of Peace for the remainder of the day, and by the following morning had decided to put the question to the pandas living in the village. He explained that Lord Shen, the whole reason they had evacuated, had been killed ages ago, and since they had just learned chi, it would be nice to move to the peaceful valley to continue their training. Some of the pandas were a little concerned about that since the mountains were all they had known and quite frankly, they hadn't had much trouble from outside attacks since moving. However, in light of the fact that the ambitious Kai had been able to find them, the truth at the end of the day was that there was no true safe place to hide from the world. So instead of hiding, they should prepare to face it head on. This convinced everyone that it would be good to leave, and so every panda in the village began to prepare for the long journey back to the Valley of Peace. Master Shifu was a little nervous about the influx of pandas, but Po assured him that there was plenty of space, and most of the pandas in the village were farmers so there wouldn't be much of a fuss. 

The journey back to the valley took about two weeks since there were a lot of pandas and most of them needed to stop and catch their breath as well as eat every couple of hours on the road. Li had no complaints since he knew it was quite a bit of a large group, and he preferred having a more pleasant move than the first time. During the journey home, one of the elderly pandas entertained the masters as well as the younger ones who had only known their peaceful mountain home about life before the mountains. They told about how they used to live along the river just a few miles from the open sea, how they were held in high honor by the royal family of Gongmen City for their loyalty and their ingenuity when it came to farming techniques. Li even inserted a comment or two about how his father, Po's grandfather, moved from Northern Myanmar to China as a young man and was employed as royal chef and taste tester in Gongmen City to ensure no one was poisoned. He served the royal family well for many years until he eventually met his wife and moved to the River Village and retired. However, he kept entertaining everyone with stories of working in the palace, including having to climb up and down the stairs every single day which always triggered asthma attacks, though he always tried brushing it off as if it was nothing. (Po just laughed and empathized on the pain, since he had to climb the same stairs before confronting Shen). 

Of course, not every story was happy, and as the large group drew closer and closer to the panda village, the older pandas, including Li and other parent pandas, eventually relayed what had happened after Lord Shen attacked their village:

There had been fire everywhere....Wolves stalked the land.....Every panda did their best to try and fend off the danger....Li was quite good with a hoe and had used it to fend off one of the wolves and protect Po, allowing his son and wife a chance to escape through the nearby forest in the dead of winter.....Running was so difficult when you could barely catch your breath and yet you felt compelled to because you knew that if you didn't run you'd have swords or claws buried into your head and you'd be left behind dying and dead in the snow, never to see your loved ones again. Fire kept melting the snow around them until the village was nothing but ash and dried grass, smoke rising from each timber of wood that fell as the structure weakened from the attack. And Lord Shen and his wolves could be heard moving deeper and deeper into the woods, chasing down any pandas who were fleeing. Everyone was encouraged to flee down river. It was frozen over enough, so I figured we could at least slide down it. It'd be faster that way. I didn't know who was with us or not. It was hard to tell. The village elders promised to do a count and let me know and I went back to the village to see if anyone was left behind or if someone turned around and came back. Two people were trapped in a house. Good friends of mine. Lu let me help his wife out...but there wasn't enough time to help him....I felt awful....Bai kept telling me it was fine...I saved her and her son....everyone kept telling me that. I gave orders, I helped the elders...but it doesn't feel good knowing you couldn't save everyone, you know. And I've had to fight that feeling for a long time. I'm a lot better now. But sometimes I still dream of that day. Dream of coming back and knowing there was nothing left.....Only one person turned around and came back to the smoke. And ash. And flames. I just led them down river. You could still hear screams coming from the forest.....I'll never forget the screams....And I just hoped and prayed none of them were you or your mother......We kept going down river....the elders refused to let us go back. It was too dangerous. Lots of us were missing. I knew a lot of them were gone. I couldn't sleep. Couldn't eat....and then one night I...I saw something. A vision, I guess. I think I might have fallen asleep, but I didn't feel rested, so I don't think so. I saw our dead. Some were buried by the ashes....some were buried by the snow.....I saw.............................................................

When I got that vision, I lost all hope of getting you two back. But I did see a few people still alive, huddling in the forest with wolves still lurking around. So against the leader's judgment I took a few people and went looking for them. We only lost one, just to hyperthermia though. Everyone else was still alive by the time we reached them. It was so scary walking through that forest. Every shake of the trees, every howl of the wind...we just hoped it was the weather and not Shen or his minions. I wanted to go and hold your mother one last time. Hold you, wherever you possibly were in the glimpse I saw...but that was way too risky. The mission was risky enough. So we left. Went back to the river...it felt like forever......and we finally got all our living to safety. And we left. Trekked as far away as we could until we eventually found the mountains. And there we've been for years. 

"I...I saw you fighting when I got here and all I could think of was what if someone else killed you? I guess I still have to accept the fact that you're fully grown butt kicker," Li finally said as he and Po walked through the valley, attracting a lot of attention from the residents with their big group. "I have to work on the overprotective bit, I suppose." 

"That's cool," Po promised him. "I know I didn't react very well when you told me you lied. I was just worried about everyone." 

Li chuckled. "What can I say?" he offered. "Sensitive empathy runs in the  family. I'm just so relieved you're alright." He sighed. "I wish your mother was still here though," he admitted. "I miss her every day of my life."

"You'll have to tell me more stories," Po said, rounding one of the corner streets and leading his farther down a bit past one of the valley's rivers. "Now that we have all the time in the world. Oh, this is going to be so exciting! I can come down and visit, I can teach you guys more chi stuff, hear some stories, you and dad can talk...we can redo that family picture we took when you first got here with all three of us...!!!" 

Li laughed. "You know," he admitted. "When I found you, I was totally expecting something entirely different." 

"What were you expecting?" Po asked curiously. "I mean, you saw me in a vision. What was I doing?" 

"You were in a room holding your little panda plushie that your mom made for you." 

"Ohhhhh." 

"I thought a lot of things. Like, maybe you were working a thankless job with an overdemanding boss. Or maybe you were adopted by a kung fu master and that's how you learned kung fu. Or you could have been an indentured servant...or maybe you worked in a chime factory or something!"

"A chime factory?" 

"Well I do love wind chimes." 

The two made their way further down the path until they came to a little clearing surrounded by water. The land was considerably big with what looked like an abandoned farm plot close by the river and tall trees surrounded one edge of the river, giving any potential occupants some shade. 

"What do you think?" Po asked his dad. "I mean, we'd still have to build your house, but...it's kinds of similar to home." 

Li took a second to look around and examine everything, but then he gradually smiled and said, "I think I'll be very happy. I'll probably love it more once I have somewhere to sleep in." 

Po laughed and promised he'd help everyone get right on that. He immediately ran back to the main area of the village where he saw everyone curiously gathered around some of the newcomers and asking where they had come from. Po and the Five helped elaborate that the pandas had been hiding for a couple of years but were now coming back now that there was no threat to their species. They looked forward to staying in the Valley of Peace and learning chi from the Dragon Warrior who was now a master of it. Everyone of course was surprised by this since they had been expecting Grandmaster Shifu to be the first to master chi. After all, that's how it went: First the master...masters the skill, and then the student followed. However, Shifu admitted that Po was an incredibly fast learner, so he really shouldn't have been surprised at this development. Po just smiled, still remembering Shifu's face when he learned Po had mastered chi before him. 

Though a little surprised by the sudden influx of pandas, the villagers were quick to help everyone get settled into the valley, helping chop down more timber for houses and providing some housing for those who didn't yet have homes. Mr. Ping let Li sleep in his old room since he didn't want the old man to go huffing up and down stairs every two seconds and trigger an asthma attack. Or worse. Within less than a month, every panda who had come from the high mountains had a home to settle into in the valley and had started new farms and even a few businesses. (One of the panda elders made really pretty jewelry). As a way to commemorate the event, Po, now named the new master of the Jade Palace, threw a big celebration in the arena of the Jade Palace and invited everyone from the valley to come and celebrate. Mr. Ping made special noodles for the occasion, and Po went to great lengths to prepare for the event by sitting everyone down in advance to learn the basics of chi: a power which comes from within. f course, this was not the first time he had done this. When he first became Dragon Warrior and learned what the secret of the scroll was, he had willingly shared it with many of the villagers, including some of the local kids who were excited to have a Dragon Warrior at long last. He had sat by a bridge for a few hours showing a bunch of kids the scroll with their face shining back clear as the dawn and explaining that they were their own best warrior. And if they believed they were special and talented, they were. And no one could take that away from them.

Shifu had grumbled on the matter for a little while, but it was Shifu. He always did that with Po.

As the celebration erupted, Po looked around in awe and excitement. His friends ere having a blast enjoying themselves (except for Mantis who was once again at the mercy of Lei-Lei much to Monkey's entertainment), the village was now integrated with pandas, so many people Po was excited to continue getting to know. His dads were getting along, he knew who he was, and he finally had his real dad back getting to know him as well, and he could learn so many new things about himself and even about people he had never even met. He would never be exactly like those who came before him, nor would there be anybody exactly like him down the road. But that was okay. He had grown to be content with both the past and the future and he was excited to keep learning about his family history, learning how to be a good teacher, learning more about what it meant to be Dragon Warrior. He had all that to come. But now was the time for a good old fashioned party! He caught a glimpse of Li going full out with kung fu tactics before wheezing and calling attention to his asthma. Po smiled. Yep. This was definitely his dad. He wondered if his mom was a kung fu enthusiast too, but he supposed he wouldn't know the answer to that, at least for a while. He turned to Master Shifu, quietly observing the festivities from his usual place in background and was greeted with a respectful bow. Po bowed back. This was the master who taught him everything he needed to know, after all. He then made his way to the front of the grand stage he was on, and upon getting everyone's attention, began to perform chi. Every on looker joined in, projecting a powerful wave to erupt throughout the entire valley and beyond, making flowers bloom and covering much of the Valley of Peace with a soft, peaceful glow of energy and light. 

True masters of chi at last.