The Caves of Tūnshì Zhě
The dusty rock wall pressed painfully into Wang Lei's back as he struggled to weave his presence throughout the natural qi of the cave system he had found himself in. It was made easier by the fact that whatever ritual the barbarian tribe living in these caves had enacted had drawn all the spirits to that great pit near the back of the caves. The screams of the imperials the tribe were sacrificing did make it harder to focus on his escape though. He had managed to slip in before the ritual started but now that Wang Lei needed to leave.
When he neared the cave exit he had to bite back a curse. It seems as though not every tribesman had attended the ritual as two warped men stood guard at the entrance to the cave system. The two men in front of him looked more like boulders than men with their tumorous rock growths that leaked black liquid. He felt the powerful qi radiating off of them and knew that any attempt to get by them with his skills would be felt. The qi and the number of tumorous rock growths let Wang Lei know that these two were likely among the most powerful in the tribe. Being chased by them was a risk Wang Lei could not afford to take. With a careful breath he leaned his body and qi back into the cave walls. As he watched the cave exit for his chance as the distant screams led his thoughts back to simpler times.
Three days ago
A stack of papers hit Wang Lei's desk before he even had a chance to look up at the sound of the door opening. The emerald eyes of the person he hated most in this city stared at him as he raised his head. "Zhang Jing. It is a… pleasure meeting you so soon in the day."
"Cut the shit Wang Lei. Two more surveyor teams have vanished. You need to get out of your chair and do your job to figure out what is going on."
"Surveyor's disappear all the time Zhang Jing. I don't see a reason I should leave the comfort of the city every time you force an under trained and under equipped team out past the wards. If you were not so concerned about getting a quick promotion by finding something maybe your surveyor teams would last longer."
Zhang Jing's teeth sounded like millstones as they ground together. "All of my surveyor teams understand the risks they take. I am not here to be slandered about my methods. I am here to inform you that two surveyor teams have disappeared during the same assignment. It now falls to your division to figure out what threat is there." Zhang Jing's smile turned draconic, "unless of course you would like me to inform our superiors about your cowardliness."
Wang Lei simply sighed and gestured to the papers that Zhang Jing had put on his desk. "Very well. I will trust in you this. What is the assignment that seems so dangerous."
Zhang Jing flicked her wrist and a map unfurled across the desk. "This is the area of discussion. The area is very hilly with steep valleys. I don't know if there were any records of the area but if they existed they were destroyed during the Duchess' ascension and so it falls to the surveyor teams to find out what may be there."
"Since my other teams are already committed I will go personally and see what the problem is. However, you will owe me quite a few favors for this Zhang Jing."
Wang Lei could see Zhang Jing teeth as they ground together. "Fine, fine. I, Zhang Jing, will owe Wang Lei two favors after this mess is cleared up."
"Very well. Than I shall leave immediately. But Zhang Jing, try not to create even more messes for me before I get back."
Present Day
As the sun began to peak it's way into the deep gloom of the distant screams slowly petered out. With new light Wang Lei was able to make the various cave paintings this tribe of barbarians had scrawled everywhere. A great scaled beast seemed to have chased them into these caves. Before he had time to make some sense out of the crude paintings the sound of running feet drew his eyes away from the paintings. A young barbarian was rushing towards the entrance. Wang Lei had noticed him before the ceremony throwing small rocks at the few imperials remaining in their crude cells. Now though it seemed from the silver of qi in the boy that he had managed to awaken sometime in the night.
As the boy neared the entrance one of the guards slowly turned to face the boy. With excited sounding gibberish the boy pointed to the small rock growth on his arm. With a careful movement the guard wrapped his arms around the boy. Slowly standing back up the guard barked gibberish at his companion before letting the boy drag him deeper into the cave. The other guard soon followed the pair. Without looking back Wang Lei dashed out of the cave and into freedom. He would have to inform the imperial army that a tribe of barbarians had made a home in the middle of Imperial territory. Such things could not be left alone.
A.N
So not super happy with this piece. It feels very stilted and the flow seems off to me. Nothing I did seemed to make it better though so here it is for the thread to critique. This idea came from world history 101 where the author talks about isolated tribes and mentions of older tribes making pacts with spirits in order to cultivate. In these caves the tribe trades flesh for spiritually active rock growths that let them start to cultivate. The tribe also just recently learned that if they fed the spirits before asking for bargains they could get a lot more power for far less flesh from themselves.
@yrsillar Omake for the Omake throne! Critiques are welcome as they help me become a better writer.
), I strongly reject the idea of ever swapping out our resist art. We do not have SES just to stop strong dispellers from pwning us, we also have it to stop everyone with weaker dispels from being able to threaten us. That is is really important. Moreover, it becomes even more important in group scenarios where our fields become more important, and there are more possible dispels on the field.
