Chapter 30: Trace The Tracks Though Timeworn Tomes
Winged_One
Head Engineer of ATHENA
- Location
- Low Earth Orbit
Qian Shanyi gazed out into the night sky and sighed, leaning against the balcony railing. Making the heavenly vow dropped her mood like a stone, and being drained of spiritual energy did not help matters. Knowing that she couldn't push herself beyond what her mere muscles could handle, couldn't even defend herself with a spiritual shield made her feel vulnerable, and her hand pulled on the handle of her sword almost without thought, making sure it still slid out of its sheath easily.
Still, Wu Lanhua was infuriatingly right - it had to be done. Now she just had to make sure the heavens wouldn't see through her deception until the time was right.
Besides, she'd be back to her top shape within a couple days at most. Spiritual energy or not, she was in the middle of a civilized imperial town - nobody would attack her here. Her mind just hadn't fully adjusted after her brief stint in the wilds, where death was around every corner.
She ruminated on this fact as she idly poked at the edges of the vow within her mind, feeling it out, scratching it like a fresh scab over a wound. She could tear it apart at any moment, if she wanted to - but without any preparations, that would spell her doom.
Perhaps she shouldn't let her mind adjust, now that she decided to go after Wang Yonghao. It would only get more dangerous from here on out.
She closed her eyes, and expanded her awareness through her soul and body. Where before, her meridians shone bright with spiritual energy, now they were dim, barely distinguishable from her muscles and blood vessels. Even her senses are not as sharp as before, with no spiritual energy around to manipulate.
Normally, when a cultivator was exhausted, they could circulate the spiritual energy in their body to speed up their recovery - turn it into a whirlpool, sucking in more of itself out of the air - but with no spiritual energy left, she couldn't even do that. The only thing left was to simply wait: over time, it would slowly diffuse back into her meridians on its own.
She sighed again, picked up her backpack and headed back towards the stairs. To think that she couldn't even hop over the second-floor balcony railing without worrying about twisting her ankle. It was a six meter fall - barely anything under normal circumstances.
Exhaustion pressed in on her - partly physical, but mostly emotional - and the only thing she wanted to do now was to head straight to bed.
As she descended down to the first floor, her eyes crossed with Liu Fakuang coming down the corridor. He smiled, waved at her and headed in her direction.
She kept the scowl off her face, returning his smile with a polite nod. He was the last person she wanted to meet right now, after being forced to humiliate herself and beg Heavens for help.
The empire had a ban on the practice of vow making, and as a spirit hunter, it would have been his duty to enforce it. To make matters worse, he could surely sense the flow of spiritual energy around her body - or lack thereof. She couldn't even close her pores and play up her innocence - in front of another cultivator, doing so would be seen as an aggressive move, just short of unsheathing her sword.
She really should have just risked it and hopped the railing.
Briefly, she considered trying to run away. Perhaps she could pretend her stomach was disagreeing with her before he came close enough to sense her properly, and leave the estate before he managed to corner her - but no, that sort of weak deception would only invite more trouble on her head. Inevitably, he would offer his help, and avoiding coming close enough to him for him to sense the difference between a very weak flow of spiritual energy and a total lack of one would be impossible.
Spiritual energy senses came from the dense forest of spiritual cilia surrounding the soul of every person. Halfway between touch and taste, it made it easier to sense spiritual energy the closer it was to your body, where the cilia were densest. If she could have stayed a dozen meters away, then perhaps she could have had a chance, but once he came closer and she saw his expression shift to surprise, there was no real chance of hiding the obvious.
"Fellow cultivator Liu," she said, leaning against a wall while keeping her expression neutral, "how goes the party so far?"
"Oh, I am surprised you'd make one." He finally said, coming closer, with barely even a pause in his step. At the very least his hand was holding a glass of wine and not a sword, though for a spirit hunter, this meant little.
"Make what?" she asked, in the vain hope he meant something other than the obvious.
"A heavenly vow," he said, gesturing to her body with the glass.
"And what if I have?" she said, growing irritated, and immediately kicked herself. That was entirely the wrong thing to say, wherever she wanted to conceal the fact or put it out in the open. She should have been better than this - perhaps she was beginning to spiral.
Her first real mistake was making the vow in the middle of Wu Langua's estate, as opposed to somewhere quiet, where she could rest immediately afterwards. She knew that the vow would instantly drain the spiritual energy from her body, and that would be obvious to any cultivator that came close to her, but she thought she could sneak out before she was noticed, and the moment felt perfect to make the heavens believe she made the vow in a moment of emotional vulnerability. If she had delayed, selling the deception would have been harder - though perhaps she was just trying to justify her own mistakes to herself.
The second mistake was not hopping the balcony railing, leaving immediately as quickly as she could, risk of injury be damned.
In truth, Wu Lanhua's words shook her more than she cared to admit. She still wasn't sure if she made the right decision, and the fact that she might still fail in her quest and end up feeding the heavens for no reason made her skin crawl.
"Well, you aren't supposed to do that," he said, frowning, "People think it's dishonorable."
"I've been told on many an occasion that women already have no honor," she scoffed, putting one of her hands on her hip to steady herself, "Women, children, mortals, is that not how the saying goes?"
Again she spoke without thinking. She needed to get a hold of herself, but the topic was one of old anger, deep grooves already carved into her soul and far too easy to slip into. She heard those words dozens of times - sometimes spoken aloud, and sometimes merely implied - whenever she asked for something above her station. She couldn't be trusted, you see, for she had no honor.
Out of the three words, it was not women but mortals that rankled her the most in the sheer bold-faced lie of its counterpart - honorable immortal. Cultivators were categorically not immortal, not even remotely - those in the refinement stage merely aged slower and were marginally harder to kill. Yet the word was still there - as if it was immortality that brought honor with it, and thus anyone who died had made a transgression against their dao.
"That's… a bit old fashioned, don't you think?" He scratched his head, motioning to a servant to bring them refreshments. "There are many honorable female cultivators these days."
"It only seems to be old fashioned when it comes to losing honor." - she scoffed again - "but not gaining or holding it. Truly a mystery how we get all the drawbacks with none of the benefits."
She rubbed her eyes, and leaned her head back until it touched the wall behind her. She needed to focus. The man wasn't being aggressive, he wasn't even telling her about the imperial ban on the practice of vow making, which by all rights was his job. Which meant - what?
He said that people thought it was dishonorable, not that it was dishonorable. A strange way of phrasing things, a linguistic distinction drawn entirely subconsciously. One that implied a personal disagreement. And Wu Lanhua did say that she made the karmist shrine as a gift to someone close - but surely that was madness. A spirit hunter could not be a karmist, could he? But if it was his relative…
Perhaps she could use this.
"I am sorry, these words were uncalled for." She sighed, giving Liu Fakuang a short bow. "I put up a brave front, but in truth, my travels have been a strain on me as of late. This is, of course, no excuse, so if I have offended your family, I will take my leave at once."
"Well, it's not my family yet." He laughed, his sunny attitude starting to return. "Our marriage isn't for another two months."
"Nonetheless. This vow brings me great shame, and I didn't wish to tarnish your house by association. I apologize for not thinking clearly."
This play was weak, but it was the best she could think of now that she managed to put herself into a corner. At worst, if she was wrong, her situation should not change much.
"Oh no, that isn't what I meant at all," he responded, his reflexive denial only further cementing her suspicions, "I just meant that you should be careful with it where other cultivators can see you. I've lived as a loose cultivator for five years, before I got into an imperial program - if others start to doubt your honor, it's almost impossible to crawl your way back."
"They already do," she said, giving him a pained smile. As if she didn't know.
At least now that she got him to reflexively defend the abominable practice, he should be less likely to bring a hammer down on her head for it.
"Well, it could always get worse, right?" He scratched his head, "And you don't seem like the type to duel your way back into good standing. No sect would deal with a dishonored loose cultivator - the only thing left for you would be to go hunt demon beasts out here on the frontier. We see that a lot, people passing through, heading into the wilds to do just that - and many never return. Your teacher really should have explained this before you set off on your own, but I know how tight lipped old spirit hunters can be at the worst times."
"You know, I would have expected a stronger reaction from a spirit hunter," she said, not managing to hold her curiosity back, "Talking of being careful in front of others? You almost speak like a karmist."
"Hah, I'm a bad karmist," he chuckled. "But I was raised as one, yeah."
She barely kept herself from sneering in disgust, and instead bowed deeply, keeping her face away from his sight until she could school her expression better.
"Then I must thank you," she said, forcing imagined gratitude into her tone with the sheer force of will, "I will take this advice to heart."
The empire might not have banned karmism, but the antagonism between the Heavens and the world of cultivators was a long one, going back to the times of Gu Lingtian and the treaties signed after his rebellion. Even now, the heavens would seek to strike down any cultivator that advanced in realm with a heavenly tribulation, their swords only bound by the restrictions on their interference in the mortal world. Because of this, most cultivators would refuse to deal with the heavens at all - after all, why should they, when the Heavens sought their death?
That a spirit hunter, one meant to guard humanity against the monsters was actually willing to give them face, beyond the bare minimum required to call on one of the rare techniques that involved heavenly forces, have a fucking shrine built, stirred hot rage in her heart.
How could you? How many deaths will be enough before you will spit in their face?
"Besides, what would I even do with you? Give you a fine?" He chuckled, throwing a glance out into the gardens through one of the windows. "My Lanhua would kill me. She was so excited to have you here, do you know? I was surprised - usually, she is quite jealous, but it's good you two made friends. Just don't do it again."
"I wouldn't think of it." She shook her head vigorously, raising up from her bow. "This was the first vow I ever made in my life, and I dearly hope it will be the last."
Oh how she wished she could say what she truly thought of having to make it, but she had to toe a line, and only let a part of herself shine through. The heavens were, no doubt, paying careful attention to her now. If she let it slip that she had no intent to fulfill her part of the bargain, the tribulation would come in the very next moment, and her entire gamble would bring her nothing but death. If she was to survive it, she needed to make careful preparations, and have Wang Yonghao by her side.
At the end of the day, the heavens had to believe that she made the vow out of sheer desperation, violating her long held principles in the process. It wasn't even entirely incorrect. Being ashamed of it was only natural, and so she had no need to hide it.
"So you aren't a karmist? Then why make it at all, if you are so ashamed?" He scratched his chin, looking at her strangely.
"My talk with your fiance touched on… a personal issue of mine," she said, looking away, wishing she could make herself blush with a thought to sell the deception better. Widening the blood vessels would have been trivial if she had even a shred of free spiritual energy in her body. "It brought me to a place of great despair. I suppose I reached out for the first thread of help I could think of."
"Could we help you somehow?"
She looked over at him, and could tell that, once again, he was being genuine. It made her feel a little bad for deceiving him, even though she knew he would just bring more problems on her head if she came out clean. That feeling was instantly washed away with fury of raging netherworld flames when she thought of what else he might stand by, if he was willing to simply let her get away with bowing to Heavens.
"No." She shook her head, keeping her feelings from her face. "I have already embarrassed myself quite enough. I am thankful to you and your fiance for inviting me here, but I am afraid this matter is far too private to ask for help from people I have met only just this week."
She pulled herself upright, and bowed deeply to Liu Fakuang a second time.
"Thank you once again, for your discretion. The day had been quite exhausting for me - if you do not mind, I would say my thanks to your fiance, and then retire for the night."
This went better than it had any right to, so it was time to get away from here before she said something she would regret.
He nodded to her, and together they went out into the gardens. On the way there, she picked up a glass of mulled wine from one of the passing waiters, as well as a small plate of delicate, airy biscuits that seemed to melt in your mouth.
They really were exquisite, especially compared to how easy they were to bake. She would have to go over her memories and write all her observations down before bed, just to make sure she didn't forget any subtle points about the head chef's technique.
As the pastry dissolved in her mouth, she allowed herself to believe that maybe, just maybe, her plans would all work out.
When they found Wu Lanhua again, she was chatting with a couple merchants, laughing quietly at some shared joke. Once she saw them approach she threw a word here, a meaningful glance there, and somehow managed to substitute herself with Liu Fakuang without interrupting the discussion at any point. It all seemed so casual to her, passing through conversation like a flock of hummingbirds fluttering through the branches of a forest, so fast and quiet that you could hardly believe you weren't imagining it.
In another life, Qian Shanyi would have enjoyed learning under the merchant woman until she could beat her at her own game.
"Your mood seems to have grown worse since I left you," Wu Lanhua noted, leading her deeper into the gardens where they could speak in privacy. "I don't suppose you are here to accept my offer?"
"Not quite. I will be leaving town tomorrow morning."
"What utter certainty," she said, pursing her lips in disappointment, "Quite unlike your words on the balcony."
"I've listened to your advice. The cost is already paid."
"My advice? If you had actually listened to me, you would have made the right decision," Wu Lanhua sighed, showing her a bed of exotic flowers that she was surprised could still grow in the cold mountain air. Unlike some other parts of the garden, this one didn't even have a heat control talisman. "Foolish child. And this cost, it could not be simply reneged on?"
Qian Shanyi smiled. It was nice to talk to someone whose thinking went in the right direction straight away. So many things could be left unstated.
"No, I am afraid not." She shook her head. "I came by to give you my thanks, and to make sure there were no misunderstandings between us, as I will be leaving the party soon."
"Leaving? Why, do you have somewhere else to be?"
"I am exhausted and need rest," she said, letting the tiredness she felt slip into her voice. Her limbs felt weak, almost as bad as when she was still starving in the world fragment - at least back then she had spiritual energy to make up the difference. But it was the mental exhaustion and shame that were the worst of it.
When it came to physical weakness, she could only wait for the spiritual energy in the air to be slowly absorbed by her body. With how little of it there was in town, this would take many hours - perhaps even a couple days - but afterwards she would be back in top shape. For the strain on her mind, there was no easy cure.
"All the more reason to stay." Wu Lanhua quirked an eyebrow at her, as they entered a cozy gazebo tucked away from sight by walls of shrubbery. A bench wrapped around its perimeter, with a small table right in the middle.
There was already a tray with refreshments left for them, the wine still warm and steaming slightly in the cold night air, no doubt brought here once the Wu Lanhua made some secret signal to her servants. Qian Shanyi didn't notice any, but there were many ways to conceal them in perfectly ordinary movements: a casual hand gesture, a wave of her fan, or perhaps a finger tucking a hair lock away in just the right way.
"You won't find a better place to relax anywhere in town, no matter how hard you look for it," Wu Lanhua said, pouring them both some wine, "I have always made sure my house was the place to be, even if this party is quite small by my standards."
"The only thing I am looking for right now is to close my eyes for the night," she said, cradling her fingers around the glass and enjoying the heat seeping into them.
"Then take a bed in my guest bedrooms." Wu Llanhua quirked an eyebrow at her. "In return, I hope you won't begrudge this old woman some conversation over breakfast? There is much to discuss about our future cooperation."
"Cooperation?" She gave her a confused look. "I will be leaving tomorrow. Surely you know better than to try to convince me again?"
"Who is trying to convince you?" Wu Lanhua grumbled, clearly having prepared to do just that. "That ship has already sailed. But your foolish chase will surely end, one way or another. Once it does, you will know where to find me."
She supposed that did seem obvious, from her perspective, given that she thought Yonghao was just some errant ruin delver. And Qian Shanyi did need a way to sell all those treasures later…
"Oh, that's what you meant," she chuckled, "Of course. I mean no disrespect by my decision to leave - but the promises I made come before my desire to learn from someone like you. In fact, as a token of my goodwill, allow me to offer you a gift."
She reached into her backpack, took out one of the swords, and handed it to Wu Lanhua. The merchant woman gave her a quizzical stare, but accepted the offering.
"I could have been in a fair amount of trouble, if your fiance were to find out about me," she explained, "I hope this artifact makes up somewhat for the trouble I have caused in return."
"You know, I could help you sell all four of those. I assure you my prices would be much fairer than the ones you would get from the other merchants."
"Let's not get that far." She laughed at the shared joke, left unstated, and received a light huff in return. She wasn't about to put all her wealth in Wu Lanhua's hands. She trusted the other woman somewhat, but not that much.
"How do you plan to sell those on your own while traveling?" Wu Lanhua shook her head, tucking the sword away behind a shrub, still wrapped in the cut of Silvered Devil Moth Silk. "But I suppose it's only proper for you to make mistakes while young. This is a generous gift, so let me respond with one of my own."
Wu Lanhua reached into a pocket of her overcoat, and took out a small wooden box with the emblem of the lotus engraved on the top, and passed it to Qian Shanyi. She flicked the lid open, and saw her new seal. The one that was supposed to be given to her in person at the imperial office where she requested it.
She gave Wu Lanhua a grim, unamused stare, which she seemed to take in stride.
"I happen to have a friend at the imperial offices," the merchant said with a light smile, "who had kindly allowed me to bring it over to you."
"Truly."
"Is it not a great gift after helping me with this party? Now you do not have to trudge over there in the morning. You could even sleep in."
"One wonders if I could have received it before the party even started, when I already wasted my time going there today."
"I am afraid I am not much of a philosopher. Who could truly say what could happen if the time were to flow differently?"
"Are you now? The office told me it could only be made ready by tomorrow. Yet you give it to me now - is this not a mastery of time?"
"Oh, it's just a trifle of bureaucracy. Hardly worth noting."
Qian Shanyi sighed, and tucked the seal away into her clothes. This was a power play, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.
"So, would you accept my humble offer of a guest bedroom?"
"Will the time flow differently again if I say no?"
"Who can truly say?" Wu Lanhua said with a slight smile. "But I doubt it. It is only an offer. After all, there are no more misunderstandings left between us, and with how strong your will is, I could hardly convince you to abort your chase?"
Qian Shanyi grumbled, but nodded, and got up.
"I will see you in the morning, Lanhua."
"Sleep well, Yishan." She heard Wu Lanhua chuckle as she left the gazebo. "Don't let the worries into your mind. Tomorrow will be a whole new day of possibility.
She did end up spending the night at Wu Lanhua's estate. It was ceding a bit more control to the other woman, but she did give her the seal freely, as opposed to holding it over her head until she agreed. There was also a small danger of Liu Fakuang checking her backpack and finding the swords, but even if he had any suspicions, he did not act on them. Overall, keeping Wu Lanhua happy still seemed like the best strategy.
That the bed felt so much softer than her cot at Old Chen's was only a bonus, and did not factor into her decision in the slightest.
In the morning, she took an opportunity to use Wu Lanhua's private baths, and then had a long breakfast with her and Liu Fakuang. Their talk stayed casual throughout, which she appreciated, though she could tell the spirit hunter had some burning question on his mind. She didn't give him an opportunity to ask, lest she be made to lie again. With a full night's sleep at her back, tolerating the presence of the karmist became a lot easier, but she was still glad when the meal came to an end.
Spiritual energy in her dantians and meridians was very slowly starting to recover, though it was still far from reaching that critical level when she could spin it into a cycle and begin actively sucking more out of thin air. At least she was still in the refinement stage, and thus her soul needed barely any energy to sustain itself. If she was in the building foundation stage, then this level of prolonged exhaustion would have been actively life threatening. The heavens, of course, knew this, and that they always chose to drain a cultivator completely when making a vow was yet another sign of their murderous intentions.
Once the breakfast finished, she got her payment from Wu Lanhua (Three gold yuan, as agreed), and was pleased to learn that the cultivator robes she wore the day before were a gift as well. That expanded her wardrobe from one set of clothes to two, or three if she added in the robes she wore originally when she came to this town. She could actually do laundry without an issue now.
After she once again thanked the pair for their hospitality, she left the estate, and headed directly for the market. She needed to buy a hat.
Her divination bottle only showed her the direction towards Wang Yonghao, but not the distance. She could try to simply head in the same direction; but of course she needed to travel faster than the man if she had any chances of catching up to him, and such a direct path would obviously not align with any actual rivers or pathways. If she had any hope of catching him, she needed to know his actual current position and then make a plan for how to reach it in the shortest time possible.
The answer was simple: triangulation.
Triangulation was one of the most basic principles of geometry, used for surveying all over the empire. First, you picked two nearby points. Then, you measured the angles between these points and some target location. Assuming you knew the distance between these two points, then with a little bit of mathematics, you could know the distance to your target; the more precise your measurements, the better the distance estimation would be.
She easily bought some supplies she would use to measure the angles at the market - wood, nails and some thread, mostly - which only left one crucial item: the map.
Having the distance and direction alone wouldn't be enough. She needed to put a point on the map, to figure out how to actually get there.
That meant she needed to visit the post office again.
Given her recent luck, this was definitely playing with fire - postmaster Lan Yu was one of the only people who could definitively identify her as Qian Shanyi, the cultivator who tried to sell swords without going through the normal procedures, and thus also the one who committed identity fraud - but she felt the risk was justified. First of all, Lan Yu should be off duty today - she told her that she only worked every other day, and today was not one of those. Secondly, she was going to be leaving town - even if she got recognised, she was reasonably sure she could hop on a ship before the news spread and the spirit hunters came to question her.
She had considered going to the post office in the next town over, before deciding against it. It would take at least a day to get there, and if she did and then realized she actually had to head in the opposite direction, she would waste another day on top of that. She was already a full week behind Wang Yonghao: such a waste was unjustifiable, given her circumstances.
On top of that, there was the question of how long her vow could last. She had managed to deceive the heavens for now, and it was well known that the heavens did not completely understand the thought and behavior of cultivators, but the longer they had the time to observe her, think back on what they have seen before, the higher the chances they would see through her lies. Karmists believed that the heavens knew anything you have ever done in your entire life - and even though she did not believe that, the amount of information they had available was generally accepted to be truly extensive. It was a question of how long it would take the heavens to realize she didn't actually change her mind about her promise to help Wang Yonghao get rid of his luck, assuming they already knew about it - if that happened before she even triangulated Wang Yonghao's position once, she would have absolutely nothing to go on.
Just to be on the safe side, she wore her new cultivator robes, and bought a wide brimmed hat with a long, dense veil on the market, concealing her face entirely - even if Lan Yu happened to see her, she shouldn't be capable of recognising her.
This time, her heart beat faster as she approached the metal doors of the postal office, no longer feeling the same sense of safety as she did before. She pushed through them without hesitation, and came into the same room: wood and cloth, a smell of paper and ink, and a young man she had not seen before behind the counter. There was a queue of five people, and she waited patiently for her turn, looking around the room. Thankfully, nobody else present - not even the young postal worker - was a cultivator, which put her at ease.
"I would like to have a copy of the regional map," she said quietly, once the queue finally got to her, her voice rasping and pitched slightly differently from normal, on the off chance that Lan Yu was within earshot. "Here is my seal."
She handed over her new seal, and the man nodded, stamping it into the visitation book for the library.
"For the flying sword or regular navigation?"
"Both, please," she nodded, her veil moving slightly around her face.
"Alright," he said, getting up and stretching. "Let me show you to the library, though you'd have to wait for a while for the maps to be copied."
Young man locked up the cupboards behind the counter with a set of wooden shutters, picked up a pair of talisman lanterns from a hook near the door, handed one to her, and led her deep into the complex, lighting their way. She followed after, through narrow staircases and straight corridors, stepping carefully in the dim light of the lantern he carried. She kept her own turned off - these talismans had to be recharged with spiritual energy, and it seemed like a waste, even if she wouldn't be the one paying for the spirit stones to recharge them.
The library was small, the ceiling hanging lower than she was used to back in the Golden Rabbit Bay, but at least the smell of old books was a familiar one. The man pulled a lever near one of the walls, and with a grind of stone a set of shutters opened up, letting a shaft of light into the room. She took a seat at the reading table right below it, setting her unused lantern down on the floor.
"I'll send you the maps for copying in just a moment," the man said, heading off into the stacks.
She nodded to him and closed her eyes, focusing on the spiritual energy in her body to pass the time. She spent the time practicing moving it around her body, trying to get it to circulate in the right pattern to absorb more energy out of the air, but it was still far too sparse for it. It was a bit like trying to build a bridge that needed ten planks out of just nine - the twirls and loops of spiritual energy kept collapsing in on themselves, simply not strong enough to reach a point of stability. She was getting close, though.
When she heard footsteps approach, she opened her eyes again, and turned around expecting to see the man return, only to come face to face with the postmaster Lan Yu, holding two scroll cases and a book under her shoulder. Her face was locked in her usual mask of professionalism, and only the slight purse of her lips betrayed her mood.
"Fellow cultivator Qian Shanyi," she said in her same precise intonation, coming to a stop next to one of the other reading tables, and setting the scroll cases and her book down on it, "I did not expect to see you in my postal office ever again."
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Still, Wu Lanhua was infuriatingly right - it had to be done. Now she just had to make sure the heavens wouldn't see through her deception until the time was right.
Besides, she'd be back to her top shape within a couple days at most. Spiritual energy or not, she was in the middle of a civilized imperial town - nobody would attack her here. Her mind just hadn't fully adjusted after her brief stint in the wilds, where death was around every corner.
She ruminated on this fact as she idly poked at the edges of the vow within her mind, feeling it out, scratching it like a fresh scab over a wound. She could tear it apart at any moment, if she wanted to - but without any preparations, that would spell her doom.
Perhaps she shouldn't let her mind adjust, now that she decided to go after Wang Yonghao. It would only get more dangerous from here on out.
She closed her eyes, and expanded her awareness through her soul and body. Where before, her meridians shone bright with spiritual energy, now they were dim, barely distinguishable from her muscles and blood vessels. Even her senses are not as sharp as before, with no spiritual energy around to manipulate.
Normally, when a cultivator was exhausted, they could circulate the spiritual energy in their body to speed up their recovery - turn it into a whirlpool, sucking in more of itself out of the air - but with no spiritual energy left, she couldn't even do that. The only thing left was to simply wait: over time, it would slowly diffuse back into her meridians on its own.
She sighed again, picked up her backpack and headed back towards the stairs. To think that she couldn't even hop over the second-floor balcony railing without worrying about twisting her ankle. It was a six meter fall - barely anything under normal circumstances.
Exhaustion pressed in on her - partly physical, but mostly emotional - and the only thing she wanted to do now was to head straight to bed.
As she descended down to the first floor, her eyes crossed with Liu Fakuang coming down the corridor. He smiled, waved at her and headed in her direction.
She kept the scowl off her face, returning his smile with a polite nod. He was the last person she wanted to meet right now, after being forced to humiliate herself and beg Heavens for help.
The empire had a ban on the practice of vow making, and as a spirit hunter, it would have been his duty to enforce it. To make matters worse, he could surely sense the flow of spiritual energy around her body - or lack thereof. She couldn't even close her pores and play up her innocence - in front of another cultivator, doing so would be seen as an aggressive move, just short of unsheathing her sword.
She really should have just risked it and hopped the railing.
Briefly, she considered trying to run away. Perhaps she could pretend her stomach was disagreeing with her before he came close enough to sense her properly, and leave the estate before he managed to corner her - but no, that sort of weak deception would only invite more trouble on her head. Inevitably, he would offer his help, and avoiding coming close enough to him for him to sense the difference between a very weak flow of spiritual energy and a total lack of one would be impossible.
Spiritual energy senses came from the dense forest of spiritual cilia surrounding the soul of every person. Halfway between touch and taste, it made it easier to sense spiritual energy the closer it was to your body, where the cilia were densest. If she could have stayed a dozen meters away, then perhaps she could have had a chance, but once he came closer and she saw his expression shift to surprise, there was no real chance of hiding the obvious.
"Fellow cultivator Liu," she said, leaning against a wall while keeping her expression neutral, "how goes the party so far?"
"Oh, I am surprised you'd make one." He finally said, coming closer, with barely even a pause in his step. At the very least his hand was holding a glass of wine and not a sword, though for a spirit hunter, this meant little.
"Make what?" she asked, in the vain hope he meant something other than the obvious.
"A heavenly vow," he said, gesturing to her body with the glass.
"And what if I have?" she said, growing irritated, and immediately kicked herself. That was entirely the wrong thing to say, wherever she wanted to conceal the fact or put it out in the open. She should have been better than this - perhaps she was beginning to spiral.
Her first real mistake was making the vow in the middle of Wu Langua's estate, as opposed to somewhere quiet, where she could rest immediately afterwards. She knew that the vow would instantly drain the spiritual energy from her body, and that would be obvious to any cultivator that came close to her, but she thought she could sneak out before she was noticed, and the moment felt perfect to make the heavens believe she made the vow in a moment of emotional vulnerability. If she had delayed, selling the deception would have been harder - though perhaps she was just trying to justify her own mistakes to herself.
The second mistake was not hopping the balcony railing, leaving immediately as quickly as she could, risk of injury be damned.
In truth, Wu Lanhua's words shook her more than she cared to admit. She still wasn't sure if she made the right decision, and the fact that she might still fail in her quest and end up feeding the heavens for no reason made her skin crawl.
"Well, you aren't supposed to do that," he said, frowning, "People think it's dishonorable."
"I've been told on many an occasion that women already have no honor," she scoffed, putting one of her hands on her hip to steady herself, "Women, children, mortals, is that not how the saying goes?"
Again she spoke without thinking. She needed to get a hold of herself, but the topic was one of old anger, deep grooves already carved into her soul and far too easy to slip into. She heard those words dozens of times - sometimes spoken aloud, and sometimes merely implied - whenever she asked for something above her station. She couldn't be trusted, you see, for she had no honor.
Out of the three words, it was not women but mortals that rankled her the most in the sheer bold-faced lie of its counterpart - honorable immortal. Cultivators were categorically not immortal, not even remotely - those in the refinement stage merely aged slower and were marginally harder to kill. Yet the word was still there - as if it was immortality that brought honor with it, and thus anyone who died had made a transgression against their dao.
"That's… a bit old fashioned, don't you think?" He scratched his head, motioning to a servant to bring them refreshments. "There are many honorable female cultivators these days."
"It only seems to be old fashioned when it comes to losing honor." - she scoffed again - "but not gaining or holding it. Truly a mystery how we get all the drawbacks with none of the benefits."
She rubbed her eyes, and leaned her head back until it touched the wall behind her. She needed to focus. The man wasn't being aggressive, he wasn't even telling her about the imperial ban on the practice of vow making, which by all rights was his job. Which meant - what?
He said that people thought it was dishonorable, not that it was dishonorable. A strange way of phrasing things, a linguistic distinction drawn entirely subconsciously. One that implied a personal disagreement. And Wu Lanhua did say that she made the karmist shrine as a gift to someone close - but surely that was madness. A spirit hunter could not be a karmist, could he? But if it was his relative…
Perhaps she could use this.
"I am sorry, these words were uncalled for." She sighed, giving Liu Fakuang a short bow. "I put up a brave front, but in truth, my travels have been a strain on me as of late. This is, of course, no excuse, so if I have offended your family, I will take my leave at once."
"Well, it's not my family yet." He laughed, his sunny attitude starting to return. "Our marriage isn't for another two months."
"Nonetheless. This vow brings me great shame, and I didn't wish to tarnish your house by association. I apologize for not thinking clearly."
This play was weak, but it was the best she could think of now that she managed to put herself into a corner. At worst, if she was wrong, her situation should not change much.
"Oh no, that isn't what I meant at all," he responded, his reflexive denial only further cementing her suspicions, "I just meant that you should be careful with it where other cultivators can see you. I've lived as a loose cultivator for five years, before I got into an imperial program - if others start to doubt your honor, it's almost impossible to crawl your way back."
"They already do," she said, giving him a pained smile. As if she didn't know.
At least now that she got him to reflexively defend the abominable practice, he should be less likely to bring a hammer down on her head for it.
"Well, it could always get worse, right?" He scratched his head, "And you don't seem like the type to duel your way back into good standing. No sect would deal with a dishonored loose cultivator - the only thing left for you would be to go hunt demon beasts out here on the frontier. We see that a lot, people passing through, heading into the wilds to do just that - and many never return. Your teacher really should have explained this before you set off on your own, but I know how tight lipped old spirit hunters can be at the worst times."
"You know, I would have expected a stronger reaction from a spirit hunter," she said, not managing to hold her curiosity back, "Talking of being careful in front of others? You almost speak like a karmist."
"Hah, I'm a bad karmist," he chuckled. "But I was raised as one, yeah."
She barely kept herself from sneering in disgust, and instead bowed deeply, keeping her face away from his sight until she could school her expression better.
"Then I must thank you," she said, forcing imagined gratitude into her tone with the sheer force of will, "I will take this advice to heart."
The empire might not have banned karmism, but the antagonism between the Heavens and the world of cultivators was a long one, going back to the times of Gu Lingtian and the treaties signed after his rebellion. Even now, the heavens would seek to strike down any cultivator that advanced in realm with a heavenly tribulation, their swords only bound by the restrictions on their interference in the mortal world. Because of this, most cultivators would refuse to deal with the heavens at all - after all, why should they, when the Heavens sought their death?
That a spirit hunter, one meant to guard humanity against the monsters was actually willing to give them face, beyond the bare minimum required to call on one of the rare techniques that involved heavenly forces, have a fucking shrine built, stirred hot rage in her heart.
How could you? How many deaths will be enough before you will spit in their face?
"Besides, what would I even do with you? Give you a fine?" He chuckled, throwing a glance out into the gardens through one of the windows. "My Lanhua would kill me. She was so excited to have you here, do you know? I was surprised - usually, she is quite jealous, but it's good you two made friends. Just don't do it again."
"I wouldn't think of it." She shook her head vigorously, raising up from her bow. "This was the first vow I ever made in my life, and I dearly hope it will be the last."
Oh how she wished she could say what she truly thought of having to make it, but she had to toe a line, and only let a part of herself shine through. The heavens were, no doubt, paying careful attention to her now. If she let it slip that she had no intent to fulfill her part of the bargain, the tribulation would come in the very next moment, and her entire gamble would bring her nothing but death. If she was to survive it, she needed to make careful preparations, and have Wang Yonghao by her side.
At the end of the day, the heavens had to believe that she made the vow out of sheer desperation, violating her long held principles in the process. It wasn't even entirely incorrect. Being ashamed of it was only natural, and so she had no need to hide it.
"So you aren't a karmist? Then why make it at all, if you are so ashamed?" He scratched his chin, looking at her strangely.
"My talk with your fiance touched on… a personal issue of mine," she said, looking away, wishing she could make herself blush with a thought to sell the deception better. Widening the blood vessels would have been trivial if she had even a shred of free spiritual energy in her body. "It brought me to a place of great despair. I suppose I reached out for the first thread of help I could think of."
"Could we help you somehow?"
She looked over at him, and could tell that, once again, he was being genuine. It made her feel a little bad for deceiving him, even though she knew he would just bring more problems on her head if she came out clean. That feeling was instantly washed away with fury of raging netherworld flames when she thought of what else he might stand by, if he was willing to simply let her get away with bowing to Heavens.
"No." She shook her head, keeping her feelings from her face. "I have already embarrassed myself quite enough. I am thankful to you and your fiance for inviting me here, but I am afraid this matter is far too private to ask for help from people I have met only just this week."
She pulled herself upright, and bowed deeply to Liu Fakuang a second time.
"Thank you once again, for your discretion. The day had been quite exhausting for me - if you do not mind, I would say my thanks to your fiance, and then retire for the night."
This went better than it had any right to, so it was time to get away from here before she said something she would regret.
He nodded to her, and together they went out into the gardens. On the way there, she picked up a glass of mulled wine from one of the passing waiters, as well as a small plate of delicate, airy biscuits that seemed to melt in your mouth.
They really were exquisite, especially compared to how easy they were to bake. She would have to go over her memories and write all her observations down before bed, just to make sure she didn't forget any subtle points about the head chef's technique.
As the pastry dissolved in her mouth, she allowed herself to believe that maybe, just maybe, her plans would all work out.
When they found Wu Lanhua again, she was chatting with a couple merchants, laughing quietly at some shared joke. Once she saw them approach she threw a word here, a meaningful glance there, and somehow managed to substitute herself with Liu Fakuang without interrupting the discussion at any point. It all seemed so casual to her, passing through conversation like a flock of hummingbirds fluttering through the branches of a forest, so fast and quiet that you could hardly believe you weren't imagining it.
In another life, Qian Shanyi would have enjoyed learning under the merchant woman until she could beat her at her own game.
"Your mood seems to have grown worse since I left you," Wu Lanhua noted, leading her deeper into the gardens where they could speak in privacy. "I don't suppose you are here to accept my offer?"
"Not quite. I will be leaving town tomorrow morning."
"What utter certainty," she said, pursing her lips in disappointment, "Quite unlike your words on the balcony."
"I've listened to your advice. The cost is already paid."
"My advice? If you had actually listened to me, you would have made the right decision," Wu Lanhua sighed, showing her a bed of exotic flowers that she was surprised could still grow in the cold mountain air. Unlike some other parts of the garden, this one didn't even have a heat control talisman. "Foolish child. And this cost, it could not be simply reneged on?"
Qian Shanyi smiled. It was nice to talk to someone whose thinking went in the right direction straight away. So many things could be left unstated.
"No, I am afraid not." She shook her head. "I came by to give you my thanks, and to make sure there were no misunderstandings between us, as I will be leaving the party soon."
"Leaving? Why, do you have somewhere else to be?"
"I am exhausted and need rest," she said, letting the tiredness she felt slip into her voice. Her limbs felt weak, almost as bad as when she was still starving in the world fragment - at least back then she had spiritual energy to make up the difference. But it was the mental exhaustion and shame that were the worst of it.
When it came to physical weakness, she could only wait for the spiritual energy in the air to be slowly absorbed by her body. With how little of it there was in town, this would take many hours - perhaps even a couple days - but afterwards she would be back in top shape. For the strain on her mind, there was no easy cure.
"All the more reason to stay." Wu Lanhua quirked an eyebrow at her, as they entered a cozy gazebo tucked away from sight by walls of shrubbery. A bench wrapped around its perimeter, with a small table right in the middle.
There was already a tray with refreshments left for them, the wine still warm and steaming slightly in the cold night air, no doubt brought here once the Wu Lanhua made some secret signal to her servants. Qian Shanyi didn't notice any, but there were many ways to conceal them in perfectly ordinary movements: a casual hand gesture, a wave of her fan, or perhaps a finger tucking a hair lock away in just the right way.
"You won't find a better place to relax anywhere in town, no matter how hard you look for it," Wu Lanhua said, pouring them both some wine, "I have always made sure my house was the place to be, even if this party is quite small by my standards."
"The only thing I am looking for right now is to close my eyes for the night," she said, cradling her fingers around the glass and enjoying the heat seeping into them.
"Then take a bed in my guest bedrooms." Wu Llanhua quirked an eyebrow at her. "In return, I hope you won't begrudge this old woman some conversation over breakfast? There is much to discuss about our future cooperation."
"Cooperation?" She gave her a confused look. "I will be leaving tomorrow. Surely you know better than to try to convince me again?"
"Who is trying to convince you?" Wu Lanhua grumbled, clearly having prepared to do just that. "That ship has already sailed. But your foolish chase will surely end, one way or another. Once it does, you will know where to find me."
She supposed that did seem obvious, from her perspective, given that she thought Yonghao was just some errant ruin delver. And Qian Shanyi did need a way to sell all those treasures later…
"Oh, that's what you meant," she chuckled, "Of course. I mean no disrespect by my decision to leave - but the promises I made come before my desire to learn from someone like you. In fact, as a token of my goodwill, allow me to offer you a gift."
She reached into her backpack, took out one of the swords, and handed it to Wu Lanhua. The merchant woman gave her a quizzical stare, but accepted the offering.
"I could have been in a fair amount of trouble, if your fiance were to find out about me," she explained, "I hope this artifact makes up somewhat for the trouble I have caused in return."
"You know, I could help you sell all four of those. I assure you my prices would be much fairer than the ones you would get from the other merchants."
"Let's not get that far." She laughed at the shared joke, left unstated, and received a light huff in return. She wasn't about to put all her wealth in Wu Lanhua's hands. She trusted the other woman somewhat, but not that much.
"How do you plan to sell those on your own while traveling?" Wu Lanhua shook her head, tucking the sword away behind a shrub, still wrapped in the cut of Silvered Devil Moth Silk. "But I suppose it's only proper for you to make mistakes while young. This is a generous gift, so let me respond with one of my own."
Wu Lanhua reached into a pocket of her overcoat, and took out a small wooden box with the emblem of the lotus engraved on the top, and passed it to Qian Shanyi. She flicked the lid open, and saw her new seal. The one that was supposed to be given to her in person at the imperial office where she requested it.
She gave Wu Lanhua a grim, unamused stare, which she seemed to take in stride.
"I happen to have a friend at the imperial offices," the merchant said with a light smile, "who had kindly allowed me to bring it over to you."
"Truly."
"Is it not a great gift after helping me with this party? Now you do not have to trudge over there in the morning. You could even sleep in."
"One wonders if I could have received it before the party even started, when I already wasted my time going there today."
"I am afraid I am not much of a philosopher. Who could truly say what could happen if the time were to flow differently?"
"Are you now? The office told me it could only be made ready by tomorrow. Yet you give it to me now - is this not a mastery of time?"
"Oh, it's just a trifle of bureaucracy. Hardly worth noting."
Qian Shanyi sighed, and tucked the seal away into her clothes. This was a power play, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.
"So, would you accept my humble offer of a guest bedroom?"
"Will the time flow differently again if I say no?"
"Who can truly say?" Wu Lanhua said with a slight smile. "But I doubt it. It is only an offer. After all, there are no more misunderstandings left between us, and with how strong your will is, I could hardly convince you to abort your chase?"
Qian Shanyi grumbled, but nodded, and got up.
"I will see you in the morning, Lanhua."
"Sleep well, Yishan." She heard Wu Lanhua chuckle as she left the gazebo. "Don't let the worries into your mind. Tomorrow will be a whole new day of possibility.
She did end up spending the night at Wu Lanhua's estate. It was ceding a bit more control to the other woman, but she did give her the seal freely, as opposed to holding it over her head until she agreed. There was also a small danger of Liu Fakuang checking her backpack and finding the swords, but even if he had any suspicions, he did not act on them. Overall, keeping Wu Lanhua happy still seemed like the best strategy.
That the bed felt so much softer than her cot at Old Chen's was only a bonus, and did not factor into her decision in the slightest.
In the morning, she took an opportunity to use Wu Lanhua's private baths, and then had a long breakfast with her and Liu Fakuang. Their talk stayed casual throughout, which she appreciated, though she could tell the spirit hunter had some burning question on his mind. She didn't give him an opportunity to ask, lest she be made to lie again. With a full night's sleep at her back, tolerating the presence of the karmist became a lot easier, but she was still glad when the meal came to an end.
Spiritual energy in her dantians and meridians was very slowly starting to recover, though it was still far from reaching that critical level when she could spin it into a cycle and begin actively sucking more out of thin air. At least she was still in the refinement stage, and thus her soul needed barely any energy to sustain itself. If she was in the building foundation stage, then this level of prolonged exhaustion would have been actively life threatening. The heavens, of course, knew this, and that they always chose to drain a cultivator completely when making a vow was yet another sign of their murderous intentions.
Once the breakfast finished, she got her payment from Wu Lanhua (Three gold yuan, as agreed), and was pleased to learn that the cultivator robes she wore the day before were a gift as well. That expanded her wardrobe from one set of clothes to two, or three if she added in the robes she wore originally when she came to this town. She could actually do laundry without an issue now.
After she once again thanked the pair for their hospitality, she left the estate, and headed directly for the market. She needed to buy a hat.
Her divination bottle only showed her the direction towards Wang Yonghao, but not the distance. She could try to simply head in the same direction; but of course she needed to travel faster than the man if she had any chances of catching up to him, and such a direct path would obviously not align with any actual rivers or pathways. If she had any hope of catching him, she needed to know his actual current position and then make a plan for how to reach it in the shortest time possible.
The answer was simple: triangulation.
Triangulation was one of the most basic principles of geometry, used for surveying all over the empire. First, you picked two nearby points. Then, you measured the angles between these points and some target location. Assuming you knew the distance between these two points, then with a little bit of mathematics, you could know the distance to your target; the more precise your measurements, the better the distance estimation would be.
She easily bought some supplies she would use to measure the angles at the market - wood, nails and some thread, mostly - which only left one crucial item: the map.
Having the distance and direction alone wouldn't be enough. She needed to put a point on the map, to figure out how to actually get there.
That meant she needed to visit the post office again.
Given her recent luck, this was definitely playing with fire - postmaster Lan Yu was one of the only people who could definitively identify her as Qian Shanyi, the cultivator who tried to sell swords without going through the normal procedures, and thus also the one who committed identity fraud - but she felt the risk was justified. First of all, Lan Yu should be off duty today - she told her that she only worked every other day, and today was not one of those. Secondly, she was going to be leaving town - even if she got recognised, she was reasonably sure she could hop on a ship before the news spread and the spirit hunters came to question her.
She had considered going to the post office in the next town over, before deciding against it. It would take at least a day to get there, and if she did and then realized she actually had to head in the opposite direction, she would waste another day on top of that. She was already a full week behind Wang Yonghao: such a waste was unjustifiable, given her circumstances.
On top of that, there was the question of how long her vow could last. She had managed to deceive the heavens for now, and it was well known that the heavens did not completely understand the thought and behavior of cultivators, but the longer they had the time to observe her, think back on what they have seen before, the higher the chances they would see through her lies. Karmists believed that the heavens knew anything you have ever done in your entire life - and even though she did not believe that, the amount of information they had available was generally accepted to be truly extensive. It was a question of how long it would take the heavens to realize she didn't actually change her mind about her promise to help Wang Yonghao get rid of his luck, assuming they already knew about it - if that happened before she even triangulated Wang Yonghao's position once, she would have absolutely nothing to go on.
Just to be on the safe side, she wore her new cultivator robes, and bought a wide brimmed hat with a long, dense veil on the market, concealing her face entirely - even if Lan Yu happened to see her, she shouldn't be capable of recognising her.
This time, her heart beat faster as she approached the metal doors of the postal office, no longer feeling the same sense of safety as she did before. She pushed through them without hesitation, and came into the same room: wood and cloth, a smell of paper and ink, and a young man she had not seen before behind the counter. There was a queue of five people, and she waited patiently for her turn, looking around the room. Thankfully, nobody else present - not even the young postal worker - was a cultivator, which put her at ease.
"I would like to have a copy of the regional map," she said quietly, once the queue finally got to her, her voice rasping and pitched slightly differently from normal, on the off chance that Lan Yu was within earshot. "Here is my seal."
She handed over her new seal, and the man nodded, stamping it into the visitation book for the library.
"For the flying sword or regular navigation?"
"Both, please," she nodded, her veil moving slightly around her face.
"Alright," he said, getting up and stretching. "Let me show you to the library, though you'd have to wait for a while for the maps to be copied."
Young man locked up the cupboards behind the counter with a set of wooden shutters, picked up a pair of talisman lanterns from a hook near the door, handed one to her, and led her deep into the complex, lighting their way. She followed after, through narrow staircases and straight corridors, stepping carefully in the dim light of the lantern he carried. She kept her own turned off - these talismans had to be recharged with spiritual energy, and it seemed like a waste, even if she wouldn't be the one paying for the spirit stones to recharge them.
The library was small, the ceiling hanging lower than she was used to back in the Golden Rabbit Bay, but at least the smell of old books was a familiar one. The man pulled a lever near one of the walls, and with a grind of stone a set of shutters opened up, letting a shaft of light into the room. She took a seat at the reading table right below it, setting her unused lantern down on the floor.
"I'll send you the maps for copying in just a moment," the man said, heading off into the stacks.
She nodded to him and closed her eyes, focusing on the spiritual energy in her body to pass the time. She spent the time practicing moving it around her body, trying to get it to circulate in the right pattern to absorb more energy out of the air, but it was still far too sparse for it. It was a bit like trying to build a bridge that needed ten planks out of just nine - the twirls and loops of spiritual energy kept collapsing in on themselves, simply not strong enough to reach a point of stability. She was getting close, though.
When she heard footsteps approach, she opened her eyes again, and turned around expecting to see the man return, only to come face to face with the postmaster Lan Yu, holding two scroll cases and a book under her shoulder. Her face was locked in her usual mask of professionalism, and only the slight purse of her lips betrayed her mood.
"Fellow cultivator Qian Shanyi," she said in her same precise intonation, coming to a stop next to one of the other reading tables, and setting the scroll cases and her book down on it, "I did not expect to see you in my postal office ever again."
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