Chapter 3: Many Worlds Sect
Seven paths in fourteen worlds,
the gate and the garden,
the great system unfurled.
Call to the way of heavenless might,
rebuke the sun and rescind the night!
A fragment of poetry attributed to Regis Tenosyat, Philosopher King and notorious anglophile.
Year 2775 Jecht Calendar, Green Soul Plains.
The journey to the sect took about three weeks. Aside from Esorem, there were two dozen other recruits. Some were scholars, but most were random people that had been pulled off the street.
Correction: most were people unwanted by society. Elves and suchlike.
I was beginning to feel uneasy about the quality of the sect. Sure, before, I knew it was a trash sect just based on the quality of the recruiters. Now...?
Now, I was wondering if this wasn't some kind of slave-gathering operation. Higher qualities of transcendents wouldn't have been suspect; but anyone and everyone can cultivate Awareness, and as a consequence, that sort of
walker1 was possible even in the practical
2 world.
I found it somewhat reassuring that there was never any special evidence of my suspicions. As for Esorem, I really couldn't tell if he felt anything at all.
Probably not. That was his way. Even when he got drunk, he spent his inebriation staring silently until someone else set him off.
In the second week of travel we crossed into the Red Ocean Mountains, so named due to a philosopher of the Time's Circle Sect claiming that once, the red stones of the mountains had been the red sands of a long-dried sea. Prior to that, they had simply been called the 27 Song River Mountains. 27 was, incidentally, something like 200 times too small. Later, thanks to a scholar, and certainly not Esorem, I learned that the 27 was in reference to the name of the first ruler of Green Sun Empire, who set eyes on the range 500 years ago.
27 Song River was her name, in case you were wondering.
After crossing to the other side of the range, which was nearly a month of hard travel, we arrived.
Thirteen mountains rising towards the heavens, shrouded in elegant mists! Atop each mountain is a great temple, wherein past masters of the road of Transcendence trained! A great feng shui compass frames the backdrop, glistening like wet gold, and the entire atmosphere is saturated with a sense of unplaceable refinement. A path stretches out, to the mountains, and then, beyond them. Above them! Into the sky, and the Immortal Realms beyond, where the great Gnosis Lords preside, forging Tenebris, and dividing the skies!
Okay, now throw out that image and replace it with three courtyard manors - Chinese style - built side by side. In the middle of the wilderness; a small hill behind them with a building on top of it, and not a goddamn mountain in sight. Wel. Except for the holly normal ones behind us.
Dearest reader, I present: Many-Worlds Sect.
Ta-daaaaah.
From the way Esorem paused, I knew even he was distinctly underwhelmed - and rightfully so.
This was ridiculous. Even the most parochial cultivation clans could be expected to have greater riches.
But behind that ridicule, I felt an unplaceable sense of nervousness.
This wasn't right.
Slowly, we continued forward, and about ten minutes later, we had arrived. The nameless cultivator who had recruited us said, "Wait here," then ran ahead, waving his arms like a madman or a child.
"Seccccttttt Leeeaeeader! Weeeee'reeee Baaaaack!"
...
...
...
...did I
really just see that?
No respect, no formality, no... Yes, some sects were more informal than others, but there was always an unquestionable hierarchy. That was the
point - to create a system in general that echoed the structure of Philosophy as a whole.
The sense of unease grew, as a beautiful, refined, and young-
looking man walked out of the nearest manor, meeting up with the cultivator who had brought us here, whose name I really,
really wanted to know by this point.
Slowly, the man made his way over, exchanging a few amiable and somewhat overly-familiar words with the cultivator.
(You know what? That's his name from now on. Cultivator. I don't even care what his parents decided to call him.)
That thought took some time to describe, but this is not actually a translation, so I'm not completing this literary form.
That joke took some time to write, but actually, you read it in the blink of an eye.
Back to the present. As the nominal Sect Leader and Cultivator the cultivator made their way over, a muttered conversation broke out amongst the recruits with questions such as, "How could someone so young be the leader?" and answers such as, "Er ist Immortal, du Kartoffelscheiß."
Finally, after entirely too long, the Sect Leader stood before us.
"You, you, and you. He said, pointing to two scholars and a lawyer. Your intellect is insufficient. Go to Manor Three and learn. It's the one in the middle. You seven," he indicated a large group on the left that was mostly composed of elves, "And you," the sole musician, "Your basis is sufficient. Manor Two - the leftmost one - begin cultivating your Awareness at once. You will be fed only if you practice ten hours a day."
"All the rest except for the ranger - Manor One. Cultivator will personally help you get started."
"As for you, ranger -" he pointed at Esorem- "what is your name?"
"Esorem."
"Is that personal, or familial?"
"It's my name."
"Wonderful," the Sect Leader said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Esorem, then, do you have any idea why nigh unto the totality of your soul is missing?"
What. No it wasn't. He had the normal amount.
Esorem blinked like the idiot he wasn't. "What is a soul?"
...Correction! Esorem blinked like the ignoramus he was. The pained wince of the Sect Leader increased. After kneading his brow for a moment, he glanced at Cultivator. "Five Surface Intellect?"
"Yep," Cultivator replied.
The Sect Leader sighed, and withdrew a phial of gleaming blue liquid that I recognised at once. An Animal Vigour. Soul that someone had sold to an alchemist, reified into liquid form.
They were horrendously expensive.
Around the neck of the phial was a small alchemical array that I had seen countless times before. It would transubstantiate the contents into the original form, and give ownership to the drinker.
The Sect Leader tossed the phial to Esorem underhand, and Esorem caught it with his typical, abnormal dexterity.
"Drink it," the Sect Leader said. "It will hurt, but, it should at least get you out of the Ashen Realm."
Oh. How incredibly
stupid of me not to have thought of that.
"Ashen Realm?" Esorem asked.
The sect leader nodded, eyes sparking with faint approval. "Even now, you're still somewhat curious... that should be your strongest personality trait, then. Good. It fits a Philosopher."
The Sect Leader paused for a moment, then explained. "Your soul is half of what makes you, you. To truly cultivate transcendence, you need all of it. Not even a little bit can be missing! But someone took yours. They left you with just enough to keep your body moving. There are six soul realms in general - Death Realm, Ashen Realm, Ember Realm, Flame Realm, Blaze Realm, and Sun Realm. Everyone is born with Sun Realm, but like I said - something took most of your soul from you. As you loose soul, you lose yourself. Even in Ashen Realm you're still able to live, but... you should have noticed that you barely feel or care about anything, right?"
Esorem shrugged. "Sure."
"That's it. Ashen Realm makes someone as close to dead as they can be without being dead. I wonder... How long have you been there?"
"Always."
The Sect Leader's eyes widened, and his face became pale.
"Truly?"
Once again, Esorem nodded.
The Sect Leader bit his lip, eyes shifting back and forth for a moment before he laughed bitterly, and withdrew another blue phial from his robes. Just how many of the damn things was he carrying!?
"Well then, I suppose as a special gift... Here." He lobbed the second phial to Esorem. "With that, your soul should recover completely. It will be painful - but then, you will be able to practice cultivation. To have come all this way, I assume that Philosophy must hold something of vast importance to you, so enduring this much should be nothing. Come - I'll take you to your quarters. Cultivator-" Actually he said a name, but in my heart, Cultivator would always be Cultivator "- already left, after all."
That said, the man turned, and began walking... towards the first manor!!!!1!11¡!!one!¡1!!!
How ever could we have seen that coming.
1: Walker, Sage, Transcendent : Awakening, Consonance, Transendence. Title : Circle. Within circles, stages. Within stages, realms. Awareness Awakening is a Stage within the Circle of Awakening.
2: Eg, the everyday world. The world of cultivation has an analogous term: Secular.
[A/N: This is the only snip from C3 that will be posted or the time being, still messing with the rest.]