Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Tilled Earth Sect

Yi Xun kowtowed towards Elder Shi, along with the other outer sect disciples assigned to this patch of rice paddies. It was... not a good sign that the Elder had personally come to inspect their efforts when normally an Inner Sect disciple would suffice. Hopefully, nothing was wrong with his work, after his recent purchase from the Sect's Library he couldn't afford the sect points it would take to fix any errors made in caring for the fields.

Elder Shi walked past them without giving any form of acknowledgment of their respect. Instead, he stalked towards Mo Chun's rice paddy and began to move through the growing grains of rice, with not even a ripple of water indicating his passage. With a grimace as if he had eaten something rotten, Elder Shi gestured with one of his hands and pulled up a rice stalk, roots and all. Wriggling on those roots were pale worms.

"Whose rice paddy is this?" Demanded Elder Shi.

Mo Chun's face went pale, but he managed to lift his head and say, "It is mine, Elder."

"And what," asked Elder Shi cooly, "are these on the rice's roots?"

"Uh…"

"'Uh?' Is that what they are!?" Shouted Elder Shi, "I thought these are the Rice Root Worm, a virulent pest that consumes the roots of rice stalks! A pest that is easily handled by the observing disciple, until they infest a whole paddy. Which they have now! A whole paddy of rice that needs to be uprooted and burned to prevent the further spread of these pests! Give me your reasons for this travesty!"

"I have none," whimpered Mo Chun, "I can only beg forgiveness for my errors."

"Forgiveness doesn't put food into the bellies of your fellow disciples," spat Elder Shi, "Nor does it put money into the Sect's coffers. Tell me, useless Mo Chun, should I yoke you with the oxen so that you can pull the plow and till fields? Is that what it would take to make you useful to the Sect?"

Mo Chun, wisely Yi Xun thought, simply stayed silent and pressed his head against the ground even harder. There was no responding to Elder Shi when he got like this, better to endure the tongue lashing than to try and wheedle out of it.

"Feh, useless." Turning, Elder Shi addressed the rest of the outer disciples gathered here, "It seems, dear disciples, that there is more work to be done on this paddy. Mo Chun, Yi Xun, Zhan Jie, and Lian Xia. You are assigned to pull out all the stalks of rice in this paddy and burn them. You will of course be compensated for this task, which will naturally come out of Mo Chun's sect points. And, Mo Chun?"

"Yes Elder Shi?"

"After the task is done, report to Disciple Zi for further details of your punishment."

With that, Elder Shi walked back towards the Main Sect compound, and all but the four named disciples dispersed to their tasks. Yi Xun cracked his back, began circulating qi in the patterns described within the Sect's cultivation method, and started to pluck the poor little rice stalks from their watery shelter. All the while, creating ever more imaginative curses against Mo Chun.


Hanging his outer sect robe on the clothesline, was a bit harder than it should have been. His arms ached, his back ached, his legs ached, everything seemed to ache. After cleaning up Mo Chun's problem, he had to race to Disciple Liu to begin his tasks that he had been assigned. She was understanding as to why he was late, but unwilling to allow the feeding, brushing, and cleaning of the livestock to be delayed because of unforeseen circumstances. Which meant he had to do the same amount of work in roughly half the time. But now he was finally free for the evening. Well, figuratively free. He still had to take care of his garden, but it could go a day without effort. Probably.

So, instead of weeding his garden, he lit a candle in his room and pulled out the tattered treatise he had acquired from the Library. Not even the librarian had known the thing was there, hidden in a little forgotten corner of an old bookshelf. "Rudimentary Insights into the Basics of Geomancy" it was called. Apparently, geomancy had something to do with how things were organized and placed to better promote certain objectives. It didn't seem to have anything to do with cultivation or meridians, which was nice because he wasn't particularly good at that. Elder Fan still didn't know how Yi Xun had managed to mangle his meridians that badly when trying to open his first one and now an Inner Disciple had to watch any of his attempts at opening them. Elder Fan said it was for the furtherance of knowledge, but Yi Xun felt pretty sure it was to keep himself from dying.

But enough about his troubles! He had a book to read, or at least the tattered remains of one, and he wasn't going to let a little mopping stop that. Lighting his candle and cracking open the treatise, Yi Xun began to read of the very basics in regards to Geomancy. He learned about the patterns of the world and how one could set up their own patterns in an environment to improve comfort and productivity. He learned about the importance of those patterns and how they affect the daily lives of mortals as well as the life of the Emperess herself. He learned about some of the massive fortress cities in the Celestial Peaks which used geomantic principles to remain unassailable from outside forces. By the time he was done reading, he had completely rearranged his room in one of the basic patterns to ease difficulties and improve health. And, as he flopped down onto the mattress, he thought that it was working already.


A/N: @yrsillar another make for the Omake throne! This one is about how even some basic geomancy might make life a little bit more bearable at a smaller and localized sect. I hope you enjoy!