The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)

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After a moment's consideration, you shrug and move towards the wooden door. You have nothing to go on except your instincts and the symbols on the door, and each symbol looks just as 'inviting' as the others. As far as you are concerned, all of the doors lead to the same place: a room in the Warren which is keeping some sort of rare treasure from you. It doesn't matter which one you pick. The only thing that matters here is that you make a choice.

The wooden door swings open with a loud creak and you stride through, ready and willing to face whatever the Warren has to bring against you.

You take two steps into the room before you freeze. There's a clicking sound from behind you as the door snaps shut all on its own, but you ignore it. You are too busy staring at your new surroundings.

The room behind the hidden door looks like it could be made from the same wood as the entrance. It's difficult to tell, however, because every single piece of the long hall has been covered in paintings. The paintings themselves seem to have no specific theme. There are paintings of every shape and size in this gallery. Small profile pieces of people you do not recognize bedeck the wall. The floor is carpeted with oils depicting forests, rivers, and mountains. The ceiling is not immune to the decoration; it too is jammed full of art, each showing an animal, a person, or what you can assume are spirit beasts of some sort.

There are so many paintings that the idea that there may be an actual room behind them is almost comical. How could there possibly be space for anything as pedestrian as a wall behind those framed canvases? If you pried one away- no easy feat, considering how densely they're packed- you suspect you would only uncover another layer of brushstrokes.

Only two spaces are empty of paintings in the entire gallery. There is a small space surrounding the door you've just entered that you are now standing in and a larger one on the far end of the gallery. The far space has only two things in it: a small table, on which sits a wooden box, and another door.

It does not take a master of the Art to know where you are supposed to be going.

But now that you have your destination, what is the test supposed to be? You feel safe in assuming it has something to do with the paintings. What will it be, though? Is there a key hidden in one of them that will open the exit? You bend over, peering at a nearby painting of a swan in search of a clue-

-and jump away, back hitting the door, as the contents of the painting decide they want to take a closer look at you.

A small, gelatinous echo of a bird pulls itself out of the swan's painting. It is no larger than a cat and only comes up to your knee, but it lets out a screech of menace that forces you onto your back foot. It steps forward, flapping its wings at you, its ethereal neck twisting and darting forward like a snake.

Before you fully realize what is happening, Chui Dao is in your hands. A step and a swing later, the ghostly swan is sailing across the room. It smashes into another painting with a sound like raw meat hitting stone.

All you can do is stare after the swan. "So," you mumble to yourself. "That was… odd."

<Mu-Ghi!>

Somehow, it does not reassure you that Chui Dao agrees with you. It is a fairly odd spirit in it's own right. It calling something else strange… it feels akin to you telling someone else that they are too obsessed with charmcrafting.

That's not important now. You wrench your mind off of Chui Dao and back to the portrait gallery. Now that the gelatinous swan has vanished, you can focus on what just happened. You learned something important there: namely that the portraits here will disgorge their contents at you if you look at them for too long. That must be what the eye on the door symbolizes.

But will it happen every time? Is it every portrait, or just a certain number of them? You need to test this. You glance at another portrait, this one a profile of a dignified looking man with combs in his hair. You take a breath, pause, and-

You do not get to exhale before another echo appears. This one resembles its subject as well, and the dignified man that leaps forward looks far less dignified when he is the consistency of jam and spread across the floor and walls as a large smear- a fate that this echo also meets when it tries to leap for you and is smacked across the room by Chui Dao, who's running commentary echoes in your mind as it impacts against the echo.

So it is every painting, and it barely takes more than a glance for the echoes to emerge. If you look at any of these paintings, even briefly, the echoes will come. You doubt they will be so easy to dispatch when they arrive in great numbers and there will be no way around calling up such numbers as you make your way to the other side of the room.

But you are no stranger to traps centered on your vision. The maze worked on a similar principle, after all. If you close your eyes…

If you close your eyes…

If you…

You stop and, once again, force yourself to blink.

But just like the first three times you tried it, nothing seems to happen. You can feel your eyelids closing. The strain on your eyes vanishes as usual. But the room around you remains clear. Your eyelids do nothing to shield you from the gallery. It is as if the paintings themselves have burrowed so deeply into your mind that you can still make out every detail, even with your eyes shut.

…interesting. It feels as if the Warren knew the first thing you would try and moved to counter it. That… you are not certain what to make of that. Is the Warren intelligent? Or is this just some kind of accidental side-effect of its nature?

Those are questions for later. For now, the question is how you are going to cross this room and make it to the next door without looking at any paintings when you cannot close your eyes. It could be impossible though. You cannot see a way around looking at the paintings for the fraction of a moment needed to awaken them. Maybe you should try to chart out the path with the fewest paintings on it and just prepare to endure the horde that will descend on you. Or…

...or maybe you should stop being foolish and think like an Artist already.

Pausing only to shake your head at your own foolishness, you reach down deep into your core and step into the Garden.
***
"And that was all it took?" Kumi asks, not even bothering to hide the smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"That was all it took!" you answer, annoyance clear in your voice. "The portraits didn't even threaten me, and the closest I got to danger was when I stubbed my toe on a painting frame! I just turned off my sight and walked. I have had more dangerous trips down the stairs in the Spire! At least there, Jai Shouxi may be lurking in the corners to cut off my fingers!"

"Is… is that a common occurrence?" Kumi asks. Your senior moves slightly to the side, swaying out of the way of a villager with arms too full to see in front of him. "Should I be worried that one of your roommates wishes to dismember you?"

"No, no," you answer, waving off her concern. "It is just a thing he has been interested in since I completed my charm. Fa distracts him most of the time. But that is beside the point! My home was more threatening than the Warren was!"

A chuckle escapes Kumi's lips and she shakes her head. "And what's wrong with that?"

The bluntness of the question is enough to give you pause. "I beg your pardon?"

"What is wrong with an easy level of the Warren?" Kumi repeats. "You passed the trial. You received the reward, right?"

You nod reluctantly, digging into your pocket to grab the bottle that was in the box next to the exit from the portrait gallery. It is a small thing of blue glass, filled to the neck with a thick elixir. You only opened it for a brief second to taste a drop, but that was enough to fill your nose with the scent of fresh-cut grass and overripe berries. "I did," you answer.

"And is it useful?"

"It is," you answer, annoyance still loud in your voice despite your words. It's true; the Elixir may not be the most impressive cultivation aid you've ever held, but it has its own unique benefits. Just the single drop you tasted left you sitting in a relaxed stupor on the Warren floor for the better part of an hour. You cannot imagine what drinking the whole thing will do for you.

Elixir Gained: Speech of a Revered Great Elder! (Grade 1 Healing, restores one MEN stress box)

"Then I fail to see what the problem is," Kumi continues. "You cleared a trial, received a useful reward, and now you will be able to go down another floor. What could be wrong with that?"

"I am not sure," you finally answer. "I think I was just expecting… I don't know, more from the Warren."

"Here," Kumi says absently, handing a bag over to you. You take it automatically, slinging it over your shoulder where it joins the last six she has given you. As you get Kumi's next parcel settled, she replies, "I suppose I can understand that. But the Warren is just like that sometimes."

"It's… just like that?" you repeat.

"It is," Kumi confirms. "Sometimes, you enter the Warren and are not even given a choice. Fire flies at you from every angle, enormous insects attack you with scythe-like claws, you find yourself ankle deep in snow with no idea where you are... but sometimes, you just have to get across a room. Sometimes you just have to fight a statue. Once, I just had to feed a strange-looking bird the proper food."

Your senior shakes her head, her braids brushing against your shoulder. "There is no rhyme or reason to the Warren. You take what it gives you and don't think twice about it. If you pass, you come out better for the experience. If you fail, you try again… most of the time."

You hold back a sigh. "How does it function?" you muse. "Is it a charm gone wrong? Has it become a Natural Wonder over time? It…"

Kumi reaches back and stretches up, slinging an arm over your shoulder. "Kong Zhi," she says fondly, reaching out to flick your nose. "These are questions for the Sages. If any of us are blessed enough to become one then I am sure that we will find the answer. Until then, just repeat after me: it's just like that."

"I... " another flick is the reward your hesitation gets you. You glower down at your senior and do as you are bid. "It's just like that."

"There we go!" Kumi cheers. "It's just like that! You can puzzle over it all you want, but it will take us and all of our court a thousand years to reach anything approaching an answer. Until we get there, just remember: it's just like that."

You suppose there's no arguing with that. Or rather, you suppose Kumi will physically not let you argue with that. So you sigh and nod, allowing the topic to drop. Instead, you glance at the bags on your shoulders. "Why are we even shopping here anyway?"

It's hours after your 'expedition' to the Warren. You were just making your way back to the main entrance when you had practically run into Kumi with her arms full of odds and ends she had collected in preparation for her next mission. Trying to be thoughtful, you had helped her carry them to the storeroom, but that had only been the beginning of your labor. Kumi had decided to take full advantage of your willingness to help out, which is how you found yourself wandering through the village above the sect with arms laden with cloth sacks full of a little bit of everything.

But still, you are not sure why you are here. It's a confusion that seems to baffle Kumi. "Where else would we shop?" she asks.

"...the Inner Market?" you ask rhetorically. "Honestly, I am not sure why you need to go shopping at all. Why don't you just requisition things from the Storeroom?"

"Because we only get so many requisitions," Kumi answers. "Anything that we don't get from the storeroom, we have to provide ourselves- and I am not purchasing anything of importance from the Inner Market. There are too many eyes there. Perhaps if I reach the Sixth, I'll frequent it more often, but for now I will stick with the village."

"Besides!" she continues, reaching into one of the bags on your shoulders. "The Inner Market doesn't have anything like this!"

Kumi waves a robe in front of your face. It's of a fair enough make- inspecting the weave doesn't make you nauseous- but doesn't strike you as anything special. Only the sky-blue coloring makes it stand out from all the other robes you've seen today. It may be a farmer's outfit, but you suppose it could be the outfit a farmer would wear on the day of his daughter's wedding.

"No, I suppose they don't," you muse. "But why-"

"This will serve perfectly," Kumi continues, ignoring you entirely. "Half the trouble with long term assignments is finding comfortable clothing to wear during travel. You don't want to wear your sect robes every day; that will draw too much attention. So a few sets of normal clothing are imperative if you wish to have a pleasant trip, and I am not spending my requisitions on something so trivial."

"Fair enough," you respond with a shrug. "And the rest of it?"

"Provisions," comes the easy answer. "A few odds and ends that I will be able to sell. Some trinkets that I'll be able to use as gifts. Nothing special, but all interesting. And the Inner Market is many things, but interesting is not usually one of them."

You nod along with her list. You suppose you can see why she would not want to spend her coveted requisitions on such simple things. "If I may ask, Senior, what is your assignment? Do you expect your absence from the sect to be an extended one?'

Kumi glances up at you, golden eyes dancing. "Awww, is my junior already missing me?" she coos. "Fear not, Kong Zhi, for I will always be with you!" She reaches up and grabs at your neck again, this time pulling you down into another of her customary embraces.

"I should not be gone long," she states after she eventually releases you, her hand resting on your shoulder. "Perhaps a few weeks, maybe a month. Most of that time will be spent traveling, though."

"Oh?" you ask curiously. "Where are you headed?"

"Soaring Crow," Kumi answers. "Are you familiar? It's a smaller city in the east of the Empire, about as far east as you can go without reaching the Wastes. It-"

"Actually, I am already quite familiar with Soaring Crow," you interrupt. "It is actually my family's ancestral home."

"Really?" Kumi asks, interest clear on her face. "You lived there? That's quite a trip!"

You shake your head. "I have never lived there, per say. But every Kong until Father was born and raised there, and he has taken me several times to meet other family members. It's not Harmony, but it's a very nice city, if a touch hot."

"Being next to the Wastes will have that effect, I suppose," Kumi muses.

You shrug in acknowledgement and continue. "Anyway, what is in Soaring Crow for you?"

"Spirit Beasts, what else?" Kumi asks rhetorically. "There have been whispers about a colony of Spirit Beasts living in the catacombs beneath the city and feasting on the flesh of the unwary. It's fairly standard fare, but the reports have gone on long enough without an answer from the Breath that Master has decided to send me out to investigate them."

Kumi sighs. "But that's boring," she states. "We can talk about ravenous Spirit Beasts any time! Tell me about Soaring Crow! What is there to do there when I'm not hunting?"

You pause, considering the question, and shake your head. "I'm sorry, but I do not think I am the best person to ask. Most of my time there was spent with family or training. I didn't have the leeway to see the sights."

Your senior shakes her head in mock disapproval. "For shame, Kong Zhi. Your beloved senior asks you for one simple thing and you cannot provide it? I expected better of you." All you can do is roll your eyes at Kumi's chastisement.

"Tell me you can at least speak about the food there," she continues. "I would hope you know that much."

"The food?" you parrot.

"Yes, the food," Kumi repeats. "Whenever I go somewhere new, I always try the local cuisine. Immortal Chefs always bring out their best when a foreign Artist is before them. But more than that, it's part of my routine on missions. When I first arrive at a new city, I find a restaurant serving something I've never tried before and dig in. It gets me in a different mindset, which helps get me ready for work."

"So?" she continues. "You have to know something about the food there. What's good?"

You nod in acquiesce. "I suppose I know a bit about the food," you say. "It's a touch heavier than cuisine from the central Empire and uses a few more spices, but it is still very good. And there was one place that I visited once with food I've never been able to find again. It was delicious."

"Oh?" Kumi prompts. "My curiosity is piqued! Where is the one place I must go to in Soaring Crow?"

"It was…"

Where did Kong Zhi favor in Soaring Crow as a child? Where should he send Kumi to
[] The Cobalt Kettle. A tea house with an incredible selection of teas, and selection of light snacks. They have a reasonable selection for Artists and it is also a wonderful place to study.
[] Uncle Han's. A humble stall with an incredible beef noodle soup. The best bowl in town, and it has a gregarious owner. Perfect place for a bowl and to hear some gossip.
[] The Furnace. A barbecue place with the finest cuts of meat. Also, your father said it's the only place in the city that has a bar worth anything. Pricy, but you know that Artists looking for the best of Immortal Cuisine in Soaring Crow go here.
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