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

[TehChron]

Storms​

"So, how was it?" The humble I asked, having met my foolish student upon the rolling hills at the feet of the third peak.

"How was what?" Ji Rong replied, leveling me a confused glare. Really, his face seemed to be stuck in a permanently agitated expression recently. As his Senior Brother, it was quite worrying to I, Zhiqiang. My feet fluttered in the breeze as I approached Ji Rong's side, coasting smoothly towards his back, and the young delinquent watched my lazy approach warily.

His progress warmed my heart, as I placed a hand companionably onto his shoulder.

"Why, Junior Brother, to think you were such a player," I stress the term, watching the confusion war with the grimace on his face, pure bafflement slowly, yet surely, overcoming his natural surliness, "As one would expect of a talented young scion of the Ebon Rivers, I should say!" Lips twisted, cheeks twitched, and I could all but taste the moment he made the connection, his eyes blinking as the rest of his face slacked.

"What?"

I, playing the supportive Senior Brother, nod succinctly as I paw my sparse fu man chu, "Your hot date, of course."

"What."

"That tryst you took with one of the..." With a casual ease my eyebrows waggled up and down, back and forth in what I was sure was a mesmerizing and suggestive display, "Fairer gender, one might say."

Ji Rong pauses, bless him, and takes a few minutes, a small eternity, to process the moment. His jaw works slowly, his eyebrows furrow, and while my hand remains gently placed on his shoulder I can almost trace the pathways of qi and electricity as he searches furiously for an answer to his question. Eventually, he sighs, he groans, he stomps his feet, and finally...He looks back at me.

"Are you fucking around with me?"

I, Zhiqiang, laugh.

"Of course not, Junior Brother!" My hand pats his shoulder once more, and I give my befuddled student a lifeline, "I am merely referring to your private moment in the Archive a few weeks ago with that most auspicious retainer of Lady Cai!" I chuckle in approval, "How ambitious of you, my student, to not merely be satisfied with pursuing the Sun Princess, but that Moon-drenched singer as well!"

The younger man stills, blanching quite terribly, "...I," He pauses again, seeming to almost have to physically swallow his indignation lest it consume him whole, "You were the one who told me to talk to her in the first place!"

"Was I now?" I muttered thoughtfully, "Ah, such a sinful Senior Brother, this Zhiqiang is." With a chuckle and shake of my head I begin walking away, "Now then, my most lustful student, I think the time has come for us to give you that edge you so desire." Ji Rong follows behind as we begin to ascend the incline before us, "You may be wondering what I was up to the past few weeks, whilst you worked hard at preparing your foundations for taking charge of others after you've left the Sect."

"Not particularly," The younger thug replies sullenly, "Probably something stupid, or cultivating I guess."

"Wrong and wrong," My voice carries back, the air currents warping to obscure our passage from potential onlookers, "It was quite some work to obtain dispensation for today, as there are certain uncommon resources that are in high demand by your Senior Brothers and Sisters." The earth shifts, creating footholds in steep cliffs for the two of us to ascend with, and as we casually stroll through the forest surrounding the third peak, Brother Wind assists us in avoiding any troublesome encounters. For what awaited Ji Rong this day would require him in the very best condition, after all.

"Where're we going?" He called out to me as the first signs of snow appeared in his vision.

"Does the name Gu Xiulan mean anything to you, Junior Brother?"

Ji Rong blinks, nonplussed as I continue forward, "Yeah, she's the scarred girl that hangs around with Ling Qi."

"You want to hear how she got those scars?"

"...I'm listening."

Trees thinned to nothing, as my foolish student's feet crunched in the freshly falling snow, "It is well known that conflict and challenge are required for the growth of us Cultivators, and while most of us are adverse to the risk of potential loss that represents, others acknowledge that such experiences are a method of empowerment the same as any other." I raise a hand into the air, so that my Junior Brother may see the gesture, "If one that is a bit more of a gamble than less...strenuous avenues of cultivation." My hand waves side to side dismissively, before it retreats back into my robes, "Needless to say, Junior Sister Gu had several examples of individuals whom she wanted to compete with, and combined with her family's infamously hot temperament, she sought to close the gap between herself and those whom she did not wish to be left behind by."

Behind me, my errant student paused, his feet ceasing to crunch in the snow as we continued our ascent, "What did she do?"

Silently, I proceeded forward. We make our way closer and closer to the peak, the light dimming as we began to reach the clouds, "The skies around the Argent Sect had been most turbulent the past few weeks. A supercell in miniature, the likes of which would ordinarily never appear this far north of the Wall." Before myself and my student is a massive, sheer cliff, scrawled with formations, and rich in a deep, stalwart Mountain Qi, "This was in high demand by many of those who cultivated Heavenly Arts, but your Senior Brother was able to pull a few strings."

"The hell's a Supercell?" Ji Rong inquired, looking over my shoulder at the meaningless Qi Locus, "You did all that to show me some Mountain training site?"

A bolt flashed down the mountain, and my hand reached out to grasp it's fire, long practice enabling me to mold it into it's intended role. A gleaming chain, stretching from our feet into the dark mass of clouds that hid the peak of the mountain from view, its links thrumming with a deep-set power.

"In order for Gu Xiulan to obtain the edge she needed to enter the Inner Sect in a year filled with the likes of yourself, the Ducal Scions, and Ling Qi, she needed to undergo a true tribulation to close the gap between herself and you all." For the first time since we began our ascent I turned to look at the younger man, "She did this by ascending the peak of the same mountain you climbed to obtain your first set of arts." I ignored the look of bafflement that met me, my Junior Brother should already know better than to think I hadn't figured out how he came to be so Heaven-drenched, "However, while you were the recipient of a fine gift, Junior Sister Gu instead all but begged for power, for tribulation."

The wind picked up, and with it the sound of crashing thunder began to fill the sky, "And for striving to grasp that which was beyond her, she paid a hefty price."

"Her arm." Ji Rong muttered to himself.

"You've done well to reach this far, Junior Brother, but you yourself already know don't you?" My hand remains tightly gripped around the chained lightning, my qi infusing it, intent giving it shape and purpose far beyond that single flash of brilliance, "That for you to reach your goal that you must step past that girl's shadow."

"I have to win."

I hold back a grimace, "Whatever shape that may take." I send another glance towards the heavens, the dark clouds taking on an ink-like pitch, "Will you beg?"

"Never."

"Hmm," Behind me, Ji Rong's fists are clenched tight, "This is a gift, to commemorate your resolve to grow past your time on the streets, Ji Rong." My mind goes back to my own memories of time as a mortal, "That is the first step. It is one that I took. It is one that that girl doubtless took."

"Did you do something like this?" The former delinquent asks, "Challenge a storm?"

"Naturally." I smile wryly, "Are you going to lose to me as well?"

My errant student chuckles, the sound hungry and vengeful, "Screw that, you fucking windbag. I'll pass this tribulation or whatever easily, and shoot past you in a flash."

"Well said, Junior Brother." I paw my facial hair musingly, "You'll need a resolve to match your boasting, but I have faith you'll rise to the occasion." The wind whispers to me that the Qi in the air has reached a tipping point, whatever factor was causing the change in the atmosphere had reached its most severe point. If Ji Rong was to get the most of this opportunity, he would need to go now.

"JI RONG!" My voice echoes through the mountain, carried by the storm, and infused with Intent, "FOR WHAT PURPOSE DO YOU SWING THOSE FISTS?!" As if in answer, flashes of plasma strike around us, blasting away the snow and cold with the fires of tribulation, "CARRY THAT QUESTION IN YOUR BREAST, AND WITNESS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH IN TRUTH!"

I turn towards him, my qi thrumming throughout my body, Live Wire Sublimation's techniques active as I thrust out the chain of lightning towards my foolish student. He steps forward, and with resolve grasps the way forward from I, Zhiqiang. With a nod he hops onto it, and begins climbing the rest of the way into that inky darkness.

Good luck, I think to myself as Ji Rong vanishes into the storm, the chain already beginning to draw deeply from his own qi and the surrounding energy to keep its shape.

"It certainly is lucky that the Weather Diviners noticed this storm build up, Brother Wind." My musing voice echoes in the storm as I face outward, gazing upon the Sect, "It was rather sudden."

That's because it's not natural, of course.

"Oh?" At my partner's musing I cast out my senses to their furthest extent, the shape and contours of the wind leaving a clear trail of clues as to the origin of this mighty storm. Somewhat surprisingly, my eyes turn towards White Cloud Mountain. The Outer Sect. Around which, even now, a storm every bit the equal to this one was churning about, tinged not with the fires of heaven, but a faint echo of song, heralding a coming, anguished end. A note that heralded the end of a performance. A conclusion to Winter.

I, Zhiqiang, twist my lips into a grimace as my fingers comb through my sparse facial hair in frustration.

It would seem that my attempt to give my Junior Brother a leg up had merely resulted in him keeping the gap from growing ever further instead.

No matter.

"It seems that I may have to prepare for these Junior Sisters to bare their fangs at me as well soon enough, hm?" I chuckle mirthlessly.

"Time's up."

A.N.: And there we go, first Zhiqiang entry of the new thread. Figured I'd go with a nice Ji Rong thing to show off his own progress to reflect how he was able to make such a huge jump and nip at Ling Qi's heels in terms of Sect Rankings this past month.

Oh, right, here ya go, @yrsillar

 

[TehChron]

Turbulent​

It's a lovely day, quite picturesque in it's beauty in contrast to the...storm that had occurred a scant few weeks ago. Turbulent weather to reflect the turbulence within the heart of I, Zhiqiang, and so it is only natural that with the calm of newfound resolve that the sky would match my own mood. Arrogant? Perhaps, but in that regard it is fortunate, for I have-

"So what's the plan today, Windbag?"

"Hmph, hmph," I glance towards my scarred errant student where he stands idly nearby, "Must you always be in such a hurry, Junior Brother?" With an affected sigh and shake of my head, I turn my attention towards my latest acquisition. A finely crafted saber, its handle carved of red jade with a golden tassel, innumerable formation characters worked into the seams within the stone that encased the metal itself. A dull, grey steel, with azure ripples imprinted upon one side, the piece itself caught the eye, even if it possessed no obvious signs of Qi being worked into it. The 'back' of the blade was, unlike the curved front, rough and broad, as befitting a tool meant to chop, however, near the handle were a series of grooves; something of a swordbreaker.

It had been the result of ample negotiations and research on my part, not to mention the work involved in acquiring the materials and techniques needed for it's creator to prepare it for me. And yet it was ultimately worth it. A proper Trump Card of my own.

"You wanted to show me a sword?" Ji Rong spoke up, glancing at the weapon.

My eyes turn towards him curiously, "A sword?" I inquire, pouring water into the metallic cup in hand, my grip nestled upon the red stone that served as a cup holder, "Where do you see a sword, Junior Brother?" I continue, before taking a deep drink from it, smacking my lips in satisfaction.

"Okay, a cu-"

I raise an eyebrow in response, my free hand now tapping herbs for smoking into the bowl of my pipe, it's length covered in crimson jade, with a gold tassel dangling from the bottom, "What do you see here, Junior Brother?"

With a sigh of exasperation, Ji Rong rolls his eyes at me, "A talisman, I guess."

"Good answer," I, Zhiqiang, nod in satisfaction, "But no, this is something that is a tool of...last resort." With those words, my errant student stiffens, his long-dormant thuggish instincts coming to the fore, but I merely chuckle at his unfounded paranoia, "You need not worry, Junior Brother Ji." I smile towards him, pawing at my faux man chu, "I would not drag you into potentially dangerous circumstances without informing you first."

"You absolutely would, you asshole." Is the boys immediate rejoinder.

With all due theatrics, I reel backwards, free hand clutching at my heart, "From where does this accusation come? Have I, Zhiqiang, ever not been anything other than truly fair and upfront with you, Junior Brother?" I cough, glancing away as the wind carries water from the air into my eyes and I find myself once again grateful for Brother Wind's assistance, "Such tragic and unfounded paranoia!"

With my senses I can easily discern my errant students glare, already crackling with the might of Heaven. Hmph, hmph! Such a lack of trust! And after all I've done for him as well!

"Such animosity, after this Zhiqiang had even went through the trouble of arranging for that Tribulation for Junior Brother!"

In a display of unsanitary thuggishness, Ji Rong spits to the side in contempt, "That's what I mean!" He gestures at my self rudely, "You didn't tell me about that until we were already at the mountain summit!"

I turned to stare back at him, my expression incredulous, "And you considered a mere hike up a mountain to be dangerous?"

"No, I meant the lightning storm!" Ji Rong shouts loudly, and as my ears ring I take a moment to scratch the sensitive eardrum with a finger.

"But this Zhiqiang informed you of that before you climbed into it, did I not?" I reply back, flicking my finger towards him. To the boys credit, he dodges the projectile with alacrity.

"That's disgusting!" My finger then points towards the spot on the ground where he had spat, and I am treated to the shifting eyes of the young man before me, "A-anyway, telling me about it right when we're already there isn't the point!"

"And to think I had thought of it as a surprise gift for Junior Brother..." I shake my head sadly at Ji Rong's stunning lack of gratitude, "Where did this one go wrong, where such a valuable opportunity is looked upon as some kind of suspicious deed?" After glancing towards the Heavens for guidance and finding them lacking, I turn back towards the younger man before me, "But we are going off topic, Junior Brother." With that I turn around, and resume walking towards our destination.

"Your unfounded paranoia aside, I called you out today because I wished to show you what a challenge among my peers looks like, and to prepare yourself accordingly."

Ji Rong perks up at that as he follows behind me, "You in a challenge, huh? What're you going after?"

"Rank 598, as it turns out." I reply crisply, "Senior Brother Wen has determined that the challenge shall be a duel between us."

Lightning sparks erratically, "Wait, you mean like a fair fight or something?" I nod, "But since when do you ever agree to a fair fight?"

As we continue walking I consider my words for a few moments, before deigning to reply, "There are circumstances which sometimes force even my hand, Junior Brother. Though this Zhiqiang is an impressive speciment indeed, I, too sometimes fail to have the right to choose my own battles." The pause this time is a bit longer, as Ji Rong digests this revelation before opening his mouth once more.

"Wasn't Wen Cao the guy you had a big favor with? The one you were planning to call it in on later?" My eyes narrow at this unexpected bit of insightfulness, "Isn't it a bit early for you to ride in on his coattails then?"

"...It is perhaps a bit earlier than I would have liked, but recent events have caused me to re-evaluate my circumstances, to determine how I need to move in order to avoid being swallowed up by the very wave I had intended to take advantage of." With a ponderous sigh I continue in a near mutter, "You're all moving far more quickly than I had anticipated." It had caught me off guard when Sect Sister Bao had advanced to the mid-500's in one move, but given that the depths of her preparations had enabled her to fool even my senses, such a great leap should have only been expected.

And I had no intention of being left behind at this stage.

"So you're panicking?" Ji Rong added in unhelpfully.

"Not so much panicking," I reply, "Think of it as...re-orienting my goals to reflect the change in circumstances." The duel field enters the edges of my own senses, and Brother Wind begins his work in obscuring our conversation from potential eavesdroppers, "But either way, I am forced to act if I still desire to get ahead of the changing tide."

"Then why bring me out here?"

"Is it so odd that I wish to impress upon you the strength of the one that is teaching you, Junior Brother?" I reply with a chuckle, "And it should give you a better idea of what to expect at this level of Cultivation when you embark on your own challenges." I tilt my head, and the wind carries my next words in a whisper, "Your Princess seems to not have the time to spar with you as regularly as necessary to help provide a proper frame of reference, and you will need to know what to deal with sooner rather than later should she prove antagonistic to other factions in the Inner Sect."

"Whaddya mean?" My student answered back.

"There are many that would seek to keep their strength hidden, not just myself or Sect Sister Bao, so it is best that you be prepared in case someone attempts to target you as a proxy attack on your Master. Whether here or off the Mountain." At these words, Ji Rong simply nodded, and we finally entered the space for the duel.

...​

"Sect Brother Wu," My opponent for the day greeted, hands clasped as he inclined his head towards me, "It's a pleasure to see you once more."

Ji Rong turns an inquisitive look towards me, one which goes ignored, "Likewise, Senior Brother Wen," I return, hands clasped in respect, "This Zhiqiang is honored that you would agree to this small request."

Light reflects off the shaved head of Wen Cao as he turns a thin smile towards me, "It's no great trouble, I can only hope that Sect Brother will continue to lend me his support in the times to come."

"Such a trifle should go without saying," I reply in turn, "As Sect Brothers it is only natural that this Zhiqiang would give his all towards your success."

Wen Cao looks satisfied, before turning his gaze towards the thuggish boy besides me, "And who might this be?"

I gesture towards the fool, "This one would be Junior Brother Ji Rong, new to the Inner Sect, I've taken a small interest in him and thus have been giving him a few tips here and there." When the bald man before me shows no reaction, I continue, "You have seen him before, a scant few months ago in fact."

The other mans eyes narrow ever so slightly, seeming to really look at the boy for the first time, "You're the one who lost to Junior Sister Ling, aren't you?" Wen Cao said with a smile, as Ji Rong twitched in that subtle way that is flagrantly obvious to the observant. It appears that he will need additional training to steel his nerves!

"Yeah, what about it?" Comes my errant student's surly response.

"Nothing," Wen Cao answers back, "I simply wished to congratulate you on your performance in that match, as it allowed both of you to display your abilities to their utmost." The scarred boy twitched once more, "Yes, I felt that Junior Sister Ling truly could not afford to hold back against you, Junior Brother." The older Cultivator continued, "And in pushing yourselves to those heights, you both displayed such dazzling talents that will surely only be matched by one another, achieving great deeds in the days to come."

My errant student's expression grew cloudy as the thunderhead, and so I rested my hand upon his shoulder in cold comfort. Thankfully, the atmosphere was kept from growing more charged by the flexing of qi, and the sensation of a warm summers breeze, scented of fresh wood grabs our attention. I turn towards the shuffling, genial smile of the approaching Elder and clasp my hands together in respect.

"Disciple Zhiqiang greets Elder Wàn," My humble self calls out in greeting, "This one thanks you for taking the time to officiate this minor challenge."

As Ji Rong and Wen Cao nod their own greetings, the rotund Elder inclines his head, "It is no trouble, Disciple Wu." Eyes closed in apparent mirth turn towards the other two besides me, "Though I see that I have interrupted some friendly jousting between young men."

The taller man nods in confirmation, "There is no need for Elder to concern himself," Wen Cao gestures towards his chest, "This one was merely expressing his expectations for Junior Brother Ji now that he is under the tutelage of a reliable Sect Brother such as Sect Brother Wu." He smiles towards my foolish student, "I have high hopes that he will live up to the pace set by his peers."

"You rate me too highly, Senior Brother." I, Zhiqiang, reply with a chuckle, "This humble self is merely providing Junior Brother with some tips in the application of his favored element due to a slight curiosity, it is nothing so formal as all that." My hand strokes at my facial hair, "Junior Brother Jis accomplishments are his own, and in turn those of whomever he eventually swears himself to."

"Sect Brother is quite wealthy then." Wen Cao answers back, smiling thinly, "To have arranged for a rare Tribulation opportunity to be given to someone else for the sake of indulging such a meager whim."

This shitty bastard! "This one hardly deserves such credit, Sect Brother. It was merely a matter of calling in a few favors, really," I say with a shake of my head, "It is nothing so extravagant as all that."

"As pleasing as it is that the two of you are getting along so well," Elder Wàn speaks up from the side, "There is only so much time in the day, you two." With hastened apologies, my opponent and I proceed into the dueling ground, surrounded by a number of mostly empty spectating boxes, formation pillars creating a sealed space far larger on the inside than on the outside. Yes, this would be for the best. My own contacts were not the type to be invested in my own progress, and for all of Wen Cao's own promise, he was hardly as popular as he believed himself to be.

"I look forward to your future accomplishments, Junior Brother Ji." The bald disciple says genially as he steps into the formation, and as ever, the thuggish boys bristling aura is clear even from this distance.

But even so.

I pause, and turn my head so that my foolish student would see a slight curving of my lips. Hmph, hmph! Worry not, Junior Brother! I, Zhiqiang, shall endeavor to avenge your honor like the innocent maiden that you are!

...​

Inside the altered space, myself and my opponent stand at a somewhat respectable distance from one another. Not quite close, as the Immortal reckons, but certainly close enough for one to close the distance should the other be unprepared. Equidistant between us stands Elder Wàn, suffused in the light of the Sun, "We shall now begin the challenge between Disciple Seven Hundred Ten, Wu Zhiqiang, and Disciple Five Hundred Ninety Eight, Wen Cao." The perpetually cheerful Elder paused, glancing back towards the stands before continuing.

"In accordance with Sect Rules, Disciple Wen Cao has chosen a challenge of direct combat. Let both competitors be at ease that this humble Elder shall not allow either of you to come to permanent harm." At this, Elder Wàn cast a knowing look towards the bald scion, "This one hopes that both of your youthful spirits can be released to their fullest extent." This time he glances towards myself, his smile stretched only slightly too wide, and with a rueful grin of my own I bow towards the rotund man in understanding. Yes.

I will endeavor to not hold back, Respected Elder.

"The rules of this duel shall be simple," The older man continued, "As requested by the Challenged, there are no restrictions on weapons, techniques, spirit beasts, or space in the dueling field itself. The match shall end when one participant is at risk of serious injury, or in the event of an outside influence disrupting the duel. Are both sides prepared?"

The loamy earth was familiar to me, though purged of any influences outside of the natural Qi that suffused this dueling ground. The air was rich, heady with the lingering scent of the storms that had ravaged the peaks only a scant few weeks ago. I even imagined that I could discern the contortions in space imposed by the Formations delineating the boundaries of the duel space. I, Zhiqiang, breath in. My eyes, nerves, olfactory senses, eardrums, tastebuds, each inch of me takes in and memorizes the state of this field. A snapshot of its natural state before the battlefield would be drenched in my opponent's potent Lake Qi.

There was no need for Brother Wind to do anything, his senses were as mine, and the baseline would be sufficient for when we brought our more esoteric senses to bear.

I nod.

This would be the do or die moment. A painstakingly crafted, safe scheme of accumulating favor, cast aside for the sake of a risky gamble. Could I defeat the man before me? I was confident of my chances, but Count Scions, especially ones as praised and skilled as Wen Cao, were not so easily overcome. The bounty of playing matchmaker was that the other man had accepted the challenge with putting only one Contribution Point on the line and thus giving my true reserves hidden, but should he fail there was a slight possibility that he would be pushed back into his previous range should another try and make the leap into the 500s.

I did not doubt that Wen Cao would, at the very least, do everything he could to prevent being humiliated by a defeat at my hands.

Very well. This Zhiqiang shall enter into battle with the resolve to kill. I'll trust in the Honored Elder to keep things at an amicable level.

As Elder Wàn raised his hand up in preparation, I spotted the recognition and simultaneous resignation in his eyes, no doubt displayed for my benefit. My apologies Elder, this one shall be relying on your guidance.

I am rather desperate, you see, and it makes me act quite hastily.

I give you my thanks ahead of time.

His hand lowers.

"Begin!"

...​

My eyes, excellent as they are, are discarded instantly. There is no need for the base senses against one trained in the illusionary arts. In lieu of vision, I call upon the firmament, which has awareness of all that treads upon its surface. Brother Wind expresses himself in full, the frolicking breeze an extension of my limited flesh. My body fills with the fulminating power of Heaven, and my self processes all things at a speed none of my ostensible peers would ever be able to reach on their own.

It is only due to this action that the first pulse of Lake Qi, carried upon a fetid wind, washes over my humble self and is ignored. The illusory technique scrabbles at my mundane senses, stretching a film of energies over my skin and twists and scrabbles at my nerve endings, attempting to carry on a mummers show at my expense. But I ignore it, as a short, curved blade manifests at my side, the familiar sky blue webbing trembling in anticipation.

I take my first step, directly towards Wen Cao, where he had sought to move himself after conjuring a thin film, a construct of Lake Qi as a flimsy after image. My senses brushed against him, easily piercing the obfuscating veil he had cast upon himself, and I felt his lips twitch upward in a predatory smile. Let him, then. So long as he could not tear away Brother Wind's reach in the air, his deceptions would be as nothing before the cutting truth of this battle!

I take my second step, and with a challenging bark of laughter my partner spun through the air at my opponent, and while Wen Cao was a cunning individual, he was not one enamored with the idea of subtlety. In a flash of light, he held out a fan where before his hands had been empty, an elegant bamboo thing, it's silken webbing featuring an image of a lakeside, upon the shore of which stood great read ogres. Some danced merrily, others swam easily, one fished patiently, and yet all had one distinct commonality;

All faced the opposite shore, and where before the expressions upon the creatures were apparently on jolly and cheerful, closer inspection showed them to be rapturous instead as their eyes were universally turned upon the opposite shore, where a number of figures in the imposing robes of nobility stood sentinel as if gods looking upon their creation.

It was an old story, but one I had heard tale of when doing my research into Wen Cao ahead of time. One of too few successes before undertaking this challenge.

Shining burnished steel clashed against immaculate silk webbing, before Wen Cao let the fan go, the fan in hand spinning off to the side and drag the Cutting Truth with it. But this was expected, and so I took my second step, closing far more distance as my opponent stepped backwards, a heavy, polished wooden staff materializes in his outstretched grip. The qi of a fetid lake crept up the talisman, and around my self flimsy constructs of Qi rise up, limbs heavy with malice and intent to strike. Though my mundane senses go ignored, the use of substantial illusions was obvious, and even as I fall into a defensive stance I can sense the air around Wen Cao rippling with the weight of new presences materializing from his dantian.

Crude bludgeons of Lake and Wind qi fall upon me, but they are unsophisticated and they touch only the wind as my limbs entrench themselves further into the loamy earth beneath me. The constructs strike, their limbs now forming simple staves and my eyes of flesh gaze upon a dozen copies of Wen Cao. Twelve weapons attempt to surround, and encircle their target. Twelve blows strike simultaneously, but flesh and blood shifts into a mass of laughing air and swirling robes, and in the wake of that coordinated attack twelve actinic limbs materialize in the thin air, grabbing onto their victims. The mindless constructs shudder as qi-forged blades, woven with characters for dispelling, punch through their insubstantial bodies and dissolve them utterly.

The mass of robes flutters through the chaotic breeze for another moment before the shape of a man reasserts itself within them, and I, Zhiqiang, sink my armaments deep into the earth for later use.

Before me stands three Wen Caos, each identical to the others in every way. Their Meridians, their levels of Qi, their equipment, even the scent of his Domain, three still lakes, concealing a fetid rot beneath their mirror-like surfaces. The flesh of my eyes burns with the fires of Tribulation, and my thick optical nerves capture the moment of disruption as Heavenly Qi lances through the surface of the illusion, revealing a mighty red ogre with the bearing of a man, and a great creature of Yin Wood qi, a humanoid abomination of poisonous moss that was the equal of Wen Cao's own cultivation.

The wind kicks up at the back of all three, and they are launched forward, nearly invisible spores trailing in their wake. But they underestimate Brother Wind, a slight breeze casting the poisonous debris away. Identical sheens of poisonous energies wrap around all three staves, but the true Wen Cao does not finish the descent with his disguised Spirit Beasts, instead his weapon expands into another wide fan, suffused with Wind Qi, the artificial updraft keeping him aloft as Lake Qi begins to surge through his Meridians.

Barbarian Tactics, is it?

Twins land upon the ground, their weight fooled by the illusions cast upon them, and so move with an ease of practice which puts to lie their origins as counterfeits of their master. Poison flares against actinic Qi, as disguised beasts use the Arts of a man to supplement their own natural gifts. One Wen Cao strikes with unnatural strength, his tainted staff bolstered with the immense strength of a Red Ogre. The strikes are cunning and brutish, yet easy to evade and redirect. In a vacuum.

The blows of its partner are more sweeping, herding attacks which leave a cloud of deeply poisonous spores in their wake, the very earth warping and putrefying with the Qi of rot. These, too, are easily dodged. But the taint in the air lingers, even through the flowing wind, and soon that rot becomes a cage, a permeable barrier that grasps and undulates ominously. An obvious trap, a corralling action, and all that is left is to confuse the victim into walking into it completely.

Once more, purloined wind crashes down like a cresting wave, carrying the fetid taint of poison, an illusion meant to seep into the flesh and Meridians, and to Wen scion's credit, this technique is potent indeed. Mundane senses fall first. Their input is cut off, easily amputated. A battery of secondary senses is choked off by Lake qi, the flow in my bodies channels are clogged, stoppered by the stench of stagnant rot, and the touch of the wind is absent. The oily feel of illusions redoubles its efforts, attempting to leech deeply through meridians into my mind.

Live Wire Sublimation flares, and the fires of Heaven burn the taint away into nothingness. With an effort of will, the shell of Qi around an arm is reinforced by energies of tribulation, taking on the defined form of an armored hand as the winds shift, compressed air gathering in the skies above. Even so, as the air becomes slowly more tainted with toxic qi, I begin to fall back, my attention divided between four targets, until three things happen at once.

The first, is a countless number of blades descend upon the ground, intended to cut down myself alongside Wen Cao's doppelgangers no doubt. The second, is one of said stand-ins abandons all pretense of technique to lunge at me, arms outstretched.

The third, is that the earth erupts beneath my feet, and I launch myself straight at the foe attempting to cover the air in pestilence.

Burning fingers grasps the slowest of my opponents, digits clenching furiously upon his face as the handsome features of Wen Cao flicker and vanish, revealing the much larger, shaggier form of a hulking monstrosity composed purely of fetid moss, it's vaguely humanoid form descending upon me, enveloping me, attempting to entrap me. Ever so slowly.

Actinic light erupts from my channels, and vast spikes pierce through the beast with an inhuman groan, and so I step back, leaving behind a white construct glowing with dozens of formations that shine with the Intent to burn. The blades fall from Wen Cao upon myself and his first spirit beast, so I answer by seeking shelter.

The earth rises up, forming a dome against the storm, and the Qi is filled with Intent, the construct inscribed with quickly applied formations to provide sturdiness. Monstrous shrieking erupts within the hastily constructed fortification, and the moss creature begins to burn, so it's only natural to step out, right? I, Zhiqiang courteously create a tiny hole at the bottom, carrying myself out on an errant breeze as I form a hole in the roof to better give the Beast's master an opportunity to aid it.

Hmph, hmph, it appears that the flow of air is only accelerating the burning that I've inflicted on the creature! The smoke pouring out from this...impromptu kiln is nearly as wretched as the moss beast trapped within it!

"That was a pretty impressive trick, Sect Brother." A cultured voice speaks out from behind me, one of the two Wen Caos that are left no doubt.

"Not really," I reply amicably, "Compared to you crippling Junior Brother Yan two years ago something like this is as nothing."

A hiss of pain disturbs the field, and a film of Lake Qi that tightly stretches over everything in sight snaps and wavers, revealing the shape of two figures, roughly equal in size. How many layers of deception must this man throw upon his foes before he's satisfied? I shake my head as I paw my faux man chu, the heat of one body erratically shifting, the ground noticing the slight trembling that comes from a flinch of pain.

"Let me show you a better one." Fingers snap, and the dismissed flames of creation rise up towards the second figure that is even now approaching. Whatever trick that has gone into the creation of this illusion is superb. My senses can detect differences, but the Arts of the Wen are truly something else, to enable an illusion so thorough as to make the falsehood real. Even now, the Wen Cao approaching this Zhiqiang was all but identical to the original article. Same Weight. Same Aura. Same Domain. Same bearing. Even the fluidity of movement was exactly like its masters. One would never guess that an uncultured and savage Red Ogre could act with such grace and skill.

Thick constructs, bars harder than any steel, pierce through the surface of the arena and strike my attacker, pinning him in place. Formations flare, and the beams of forged Qi form between them, serving to pin the targets arms and head in place. Intent seals the constructs shut, imprisoning Formations enhancing the purpose of the constructed pillory.

The illusion is dispelled in full, revealing the scowling, raging form of Wen Caos second spirit beast, its brutish strength railing against its restraints.

The Red Ogre's Master is already upon it, a building gale already in hand to sever my work.

"Your beast can't use your techniques if the illusion is broken, Sect Brother!" The voice of I, Zhiqiang, rings out and a gash of red splits open my opponents hand, ruining Wen Caos attempt to utilize his technique as he turns upon me, livid. With ease of focus, I draw a hand back, a thin line of heavenly Qi left behind in its wake, solidifying, gaining definition, thickening into a heavy looking shaft, tipped with a cruel barb.

In the same motion I grasp and hurl the weapon, the projectile boosted and guided with the force of a gale, and with a grotesque sound I send Wen Cao's second beast back into his Dantian. The illusions upon the dueling grounds fall away as Wen Cao glares at me once more, and with a second pulsing of Live Wire Sublimation, the oily Lake Qi that had clung to me is burnt away as well.

As I see truly through my eyes for the first time in this fight, I bear witness to Wen Cao's murderous glower, the blood from his hand freely tainting the air with the metallic tang of his life fluid. With a free hand, I paw at my sparse facial hair.

"Would you care to concede, Senior Brother?" I ask, the wind carrying my offer as a barest whisper.

The illusionist stills, his muscles clenching and unclenching as if from pure rage, involuntary spasms as expressions of his anger...That abruptly come to an end, and Wen Cao turns upon me a beatific smile. Another lie, hidden behind thin lips.

"You have my admiration, Sect Brother Wu." My opponent says, expression serene once more, "I had underestimated you, simply due to your stagnation in the Rankings, and had erroneously assumed that this match would only be the desperate struggle of a pig, ignorant of its place, grasping for something far beyond its station."

Well, it's not as if I had thought any better of him, "Your words honor this one, Sect Brother Wen." I bow in deference, "How would you care to proceed from here?"

Wen Cao's arms go slack, his limbs hanging loose as his aura begins to surge wildly, Meridians in his Arms, Head, Spine, Lungs, and Heart all beginning to channel and expel qi at an astonishing rate!

"To honor your resolution, your skill, and your talent," Wen Cao begins as his body becomes enshrouded in thick layers of shimmering lake Qi, "Let me meet you with my full strength, and show you the true difference between us." His voice warps, warbles, and becomes far, far deeper, "This Art is the first step of the truly advanced Wen Illusionary Techniques!" The words become lackadaisical, his form growing taller, and gaining a level of definition which had not existed prior, "First Phase Reflection!" The surging Lake Qi settles, taking on a silverish sheen, and in that instant I pause at the appearance of the Aura of a Cultivator at the Eighth Stage of the Third Realm.

An all too familiar mask, an all too frustrating bandoleer, an all too envious demeanor.

"...That's quite impressive," I, Zhiqiang say after a pause, "Even to my eyes, you are indistinguishable from Senior Brother Liao!" I bark out a laugh as best as I am able, and begin trying to grasp a chink in the layers of transformed Lake Qi, now indistinguishable from what I had seen of Liao Zhu's aura. My senses fail, however; what appears before my eyes is truly identical to the Third Ranked Inner Sect Disciple.

"Do not worry, Junior Brother! It's the same for everyone else!" The transformed Wen Cao calls out, his voice, body language, everything a perfect match, "There were other options for me to take on, but I felt we would all be best served if I just crushed you while facing down those senses you're always so proud of head on!" With an amused chuckle, he pulls out a knife and begins to juggle with it idly, thoughtlessly, naturally.

"Your sense for irony is too appropriate." I demur, "But I wonder if you can truly match up to Senior Brother Liao's own skills?"

The smell of copper fills the air once more, and I cast my senses to trace the source! If I could detect Wen Cao's spilled-

"Whether or not that's the case, I doubt you would be able to tell in the first place, Junior Brother." Liao Zhu's voice whispers from behind me, and all I can sense is...the knife...sticking out of my shoulder.

I hadn't even felt any pain!

The disguised Wen Cao returns to standing before me, performing bizarre tricks with several knives, a carefree look on his face, the bastard! The fires of heaven fill my veins, shaped by the hardened channels of earth! With an effort of will, I send off a dozen swords, intent on swatting those worthless knives right out of the air!

In the instant between my casting of my attack and their arrival at their destination, the false Liao Zhu disappears. But his knives do not.

Rather, they simply have moved.

Into my outstretched arms.

Crimson life fluid spurts into the air, and I cast my senses around. But this time there is no response. Wen Cao does not reappear.

"To take on the appearance of her favored tutor in the Inner Sect, aren't you worried that you would give Junior Sister a bad impression?" I call out, and the air shifts just so, triggering the ability of the Cutting Truth. And yet, Wen Cao still does not reappear. If there had been any doubt as to the the truth of this deception, then I would have to put it to rest. Such resistance to Cutting Truth's abilities was only possible for Cultivators who were at least a full level of Cultivation beyond me,

"Making an Illusion that not only fools the self, but fools the world around you?" Knives sprout from my knees, and I fall to the ground. But it is merely pain of the flesh, and I am oh so close to having done away with that limitation entirely, "Truly quite the Art! I am in awe of the Wen once more!" I, Zhiqiang, force out through clenched teeth, "But in the end," I can no longer move, but Wen Cao has not yet targeted anything truly dangerous, "Even the illusion of strength is only just an Illusion!"

A knife sprouts from my stomach, but I simply breath in, filling my lungs with the qi-rich air around us, "Sect Brother," My voice comes out as a whisper in the following exhalation, "Let me show you the fruits of that 'stagnation' which you so calmly derided just now." A knife presses against my jugular, the sensations against every fraction of my body brought into stark attention by the fires of heaven channeled through my flesh.

The Qi in the air shifts, a gentle breeze blows, and the knives held against my flesh melt away like dust in the air. That breeze gains strength, turning into a strong wind, and clashes against the warped space of the dueling field, rattling it. My blood weeps freely from my now wide open wounds, but even so, I can still turn to face Wen Cao from where he stands behind me, his thin smile once more in place.

"Impressive, Junior Brother," He replies in his own voice, "What's it called?"

"Echoes of the First Breeze," I say in answer, "An Art of my own design."

Wen Cao's head tilts to the side thoughtfully, "To have prioritized your Insights to this degree at your current stage is putting the cart ahead of the horse, isn't it?"

"Some may say that," I answer truthfully, "But this Zhiqiang wished to lay out his path firmly before walking down it in earnest."

Thin lips twitched downwards, but even that slight tremor was enough to crack his composure. Though I am the more severely injured, and the illusionary transformation had healed him of the wounds dealt by Cutting Truth, Wen Cao's aura is already beginning to gutter out. Now stripped entirely of the Lake Qi constructs he had laid upon himself for strength, and open to the backlash from pushing himself far beyond his limits, there is little doubt that he and I are still on even footing.

While my opponents arms tremble slightly, raising his staff as toxic qi begins to envelop it once more, I take my focus off the Qi connecting me to the ground beneath my bleeding legs. What came next, would be a matter of timing. Though I had few perpetual drains on my own Qi reserves, my stores are not infinite.

"It's been a good match, Junior Brother." Wen Cao says wryly, proudly.

"It's not over yet." I answer back, my head still the only part of my body facing him.

He lunges, the poisoned staff set to stab me from the maximum possible distance, thrust forward with the greatest amount of strength. With my legs and arms in the shape that they were in, a Third Realm would ordinarily be unable to exert the Qi necessary for a proper movement Art, nor an arm based art to knock away the attack. Should I have had another defensive technique, more constructs, or anything of the sort, Wen Cao had other options to just back off and reassess the situation with.

His staff passes clean through my body instead, as my spine burns white.

I utilize the fourth technique of Live Wire Sublimation, shifting the Qi of my body, and through my Domain, replace it with Qi of Heaven. Yes, this Art was the very reason I had so confidently pursued the path I had chosen. Moreso than any other Art I had encountered, Live Wire Sublimation was an introduction into what lay down the path for a Cultivator who wished to express their Domain outward!

As lightning itself, the formless mass of Qi that was my body surged over the attack, and through the insufficiently insulated talisman and body of Wen Cao before reforming into a still bleeding crouch. Hardly better than a movement Art in duration, but the control was far and away superior to merely moving as Lightning.

I lay my eyes upon Wen Cao, now hunched over and smoking from the ruin of my passage. I raise my voice.

"Now it's over."

The younger man twitches, eyes locking on to mine with wariness before jumping away from me. Directly onto the spot where I had been crouching just a moment prior. The mass of Qi I had left behind flares to life, blazing Formation symbols churning the earth in an ever expanding circle that begins howling as it greedily sucks in the air around it.

In an instant, a wide, circular pit lies open, like the maw of some massive beast, its bottom lying in the forgotten depths beneath the Earth. Wen Cao's eyes widen in recognition at something, when the wind shifts and he attempts to straighten himself out at the edge.

"So this is what Junior Brother Yan experienced on that day? Interesting." A line of heavenly Qi lances forth from my eyes, striking Wen Cao and shoving him ever so slightly backwards. Blazing with my intent, the formation characters shine once more, and air is again greedily pulled into the cavernous pit. The forces prove too much for my opponent to resist, and, arms desperately pinwheeling to try and get his expanded staff-glider enough lift to escape into the air, he falls into the pit, a loud cry of shock and anger eventually giving way to a loud crack and final, blessed silence.

"I declare the match finished." A warm, pudgy hand lifts I, Zhiqiang up by the back of my neck, golden light flowing forth and suffusing the wounds that I had taken from the duel, the pain vanishing as they sealed up. Naturally, once my wounds no longer precluded me from doing so, I stood upon my own two feet.

"The winner is Disciple Wu Zhiqiang." Elder Wàn declared, as the earthen pit began filling up, finally disgorging the unconscious form of Wen Cao into the newly restored grass.

...​

"It was a good match, Sect Brother." Wen Cao said ruefully some time later, the minor crowd of onlookers having long dispersed, "Our business is concluded and debts have been repaid, I presume?"

"It was indeed a good match, Sect Brother," I, Zhiqiang, reply back with good cheer, "And you are correct. The scales are now, without a doubt, balanced between us." My hand paws at my sparse facial hair, "Of course, should you seek to employ the services of this one once more, I will give you a special rate, as a preferred customer." My lips twist wryly, and I reach out to the soon to be Disciple Number Five Hundred Ninety-Nine with a pale jade slip.

My former opponent smiles ambiguously, staring at my humble self for a moment before taking the proffered business card, "If nothing else," Wen Cao says as the jade slip vanishes into his interspatial ring, "I will know that it is money well spent."

With a boisterous laugh, I clasp my hands and bow towards the noble scion before me, "Is there something you have in mind, Sect Brother Wen?"

"...Not for now, but I will be in touch." He says with an incline of his head, before turning around to go about his own business, "Oh." He pauses, one hand pointing upwards into the air, "I do mean what I said, Junior Brother Ji." The bald disciple turned towards my errant student, "I look forward to your progress."

It is some time later after we make our way back that Ji Rong finally speaks up, "The hell was with that guy at the end there?"

I shrug, already considering one or two possibilities, "Who knows? The guy's a total sadist."

My foolish student snorts in amusement, "Yeah, it's the only reason you won, windbag."

I raise my eyebrow at him, "Hmph, hmph!" I begin pawing at my faux man chu for effect, "You say that as if that were not why I targeted him in the first place."

"Is that so?"

"Of course." With a wry smile, I, Zhiqiang, decide to impart upon my thuggish student one last lesson for the day, "If nothing else, creeps like him are utterly predictable."

A.N.: FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINALLLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYY DID THIS FUCKING THING @yrsillar

Ugh! Now Zhiqiang is finally in the 500's, has access to the better cultivation sites, successfully put enough distance between himself and the Ducals to retain some sense of self-respect and dignity, and finally has the resources ready to push for his next big leaps in base cultivation as he tries and power-levels his way through the remaining three stages of Third Realm!

And now I can get back to the cool parts, where I make up other stuff to fill Zhiqiangs social circle in the Inner Sect.

 

[Thor's Twin]

A Single Strike

Sweat beaded on Sai Chen's eyebrows as he slowly moved from stance to stance under the noon-day sun. Each step sent needles of pain through his legs, each gesture was vehemently protested by his arms, and each twist made his torso beg for relief. Soon enough he stopped and gently fell down to the ground to look at the sky. The skies dome was a flat sullen grey, a fitting backdrop for the aftermath of the raging storm that had come days before. Birds flew without care from branch to branch, chirping and singing their songs in defiance of the somber, oppressive atmosphere created by the sky. It was calming, knowing that even with the destruction wrought by a maelstrom normalcy would return soon enough.

Sai Chen stood and walked to the edges of the training ground where his equipment lay. Pulling out a jar of water, he chugged it before pouring the rest over his head. It was… exhausting, doing this physical cultivation. But it was needed to break into the yellow realm. Sighing, Sai Chen sat down under the shade of a tree and drew his sword out of its sheath. It was the first significant purchase he made when he came to the outer sect, and so far it had yet to prove to be worth the investment. Made of refined steel with the edges tinged in blue. Etched in the sides of the blade was a scene of cascading water engulfing a village. The hilt was tightly wrapped in black leather with a single light blue tassel hanging from the pommel. Supposedly it was constructed to help with the potency of water arts, but that had yet to make a difference. At least it hadn't broken under the constant strain he placed it under. However, even with this new sword, he seemed no closer to slicing the boulder than when he began.

He withdrew a jade tablet from his bag and began to meditate on the instructions hidden in the jade. The art, "Cascading Water Channel," seemed to be slightly misnamed. It was not purely a water art, but indeed a water and wind art. While Sai Chen had seen some water and wind arts mingle the qi to create ice, this art seemed to keep them wholly separate. One technique had the water qi flow through his arm meridians and into a sword blade while the second technique had the wind qi flow from his head and connect the tip of the sword to the target of the strike. The art seemed to promote a single slash, bringing the full force of water on the target's defenses and carving a channel through them, seeking weakness and breaking through it.

The art worked well with his basic strength enhancing art. Allowing him to hit harder and faster than his peers, but only for a single strike. Hopefully, he could develop the two arts so that a single strike would be all he needed to finish off all but the most troublesome opponents. But for now, he was content to simply channel the qi and drill their flows into his memory until they became second nature. He could not fumble the execution of the art when everything depended on a single perfect strike.

Time seemed to pass slowly while he meditated on the meanings and flows of qi in the jade tablet. Progress crawled at the pace of a snail, but Sai Chen eventually made a breakthrough in his understanding. He could hold the water in place, within the blade, and let the pressure build up. The longer the wait, the more power was unleashed when the strike finally did fall. It was a double edged sword though and would require using the ability carefully. If one waited too long, then the opponent would get a free attack against you, but launch the attack too soon and the blade would bounce off the opponent's defenses. Like everything in this art, the timing required would need to be perfect to get the best result. Now, however, was the time to practice and implement what he had learned. Standing up and sheathing the sword, he walked towards the stubborn boulder in the middle of the training ground and stood before it.

With a deep breath, Sai Chen calmed his nerves and blocked out the sounds of the forest. It was merely him and the boulder in front of him. Drawing his sword he entered a high stance, prepared to strike down against the stone in front of him. Then, he began cultivating, letting his qi flow from his dantian to his arms and head in controlled patterns. Qi of air, and qi of water. The qi flowed up his arms, through his hands, and coated his blade, ready for the command to leap forth. From the tip of the sword, however, extended one single line. A string of air that only he could see. The string connected his sword to the boulder, the single spot he wished to slice, and it pulled at his sword. Insistently it pulled, trying to bring the sword and the boulder together, but Sai Chen resisted the force and simply breathed. And with each breath, he pulsed more qi through the meridians lining his spine, fortifying his muscles for a single explosive moment.

He could feel the pressure in his muscles as the qi built up, like water striving to burst a levy. And then, a moment of silence. Nothing moved, nothing breathed, not even his heart beat. All that existed was the boulder, the string, and the sword. With a sound of breaking dams and whirling winds the moment ended and Sai Chen moved. Water roared from his sword and the wind screeched as it pulled the blade even faster then he could swing it. Before an eye could blink, his sword had descended and sliced the boulder in two.

It was a smooth cut, creating a glossy finish on the inside of the boulder. He carefully inspected his sword for knicks and cracks, but there was none. A more thorough check, probably by a blacksmith, would be needed to ensure that the sword had not suffered undue stress. But now was not the time for that, now was the time for satisfaction. He had done it! He had struck through a boulder with a single strike!

A/N: It's been a while since my last omake, so here's one! @yrsillar another omake for the omake throne!

As always, I hope you read and enjoy. Critiques and criticisms welcomed.

 

[TehChron]

A Normal Evening​

Pale flames traced through the air, pillars rising forth and carving intricate strings of untold thousands of formation characters glowing brilliantly with Intent and focused Qi. Suspended in the air of the crafting stage was an ephemeral wonder. A temporary construction of Heaven and Earth Qi, channeling the energies of creation in a massive, impossible furnace that churned endlessly. Bits and pieces of layers of formations would dim, flake apart into constituent Qi, and then be gripped and reconstituted into a new layer in an unending and high-speed display of control and timing.

Gusts of wind blew, errant breezes carrying the still-beating heart of the Heaven-Chasing Ram, clouds of freshly diced Three-Hundred Year Spider-Root, and other exotic ingredients into the brightly burning inferno. The layers making up the construction rotating rapidly to allow the additions unobstructed passage. All the while, Qi pulsed through the air, feeding the flames additional fuel and Intent to help forge the mixture into a result worthy of the Cultivators of the Argent Sect.

In awe, the ingredients melted down and began to take form around a single shining object; the High Grade Core of a Fermentation Aphid, notorious for wrecking the crops of higher level estates and infamous scourge of the Sects own farms. Ordinarily a pest, but when allowed to roam it, as it's name suggests, gathered the residues and medicinal energies of its food into an incredibly potent foundation for cultivators who could tease out its secrets. Time passed, and an aurora began to leak out, joining the lights cast by the shining constructs and the roaring flames in which the ingredients were being bathed.

A pitch orb took shape within the depths of those fires, and additional arrays, worked within infinitesimal layers shone brightly, bathing the forming pill with a rainbow of colors and manipulations, and the tar flaked away, revealing a lustrous pearl. A hint of scent filled the air, the refreshing smell of high grade medicines triggering the olfactory sensations of the gathered Cultivators before being shut off abruptly, the smoke of the flaking tar caught in an air-tight seal. The supernatural flames within the furnace dimmed, but the pale energies that constructed grew bright with final effort as the layers compressed, tightened, and shrank into an infinitesimal coating of the resulting pill, the energies dying down at last to reveal a singular bronze orb, carried down by a laughing breeze into the waiting hand of its creator.

I, Zhiqiang laughed, turning a knowing look towards my opposite, and Bao Qingling stood up from her own specialized furnace, her own work sealed professionally within a carrying case. Though our eyes did not meet, I could still recognize the anger and insult rolling off her in almost visible waves, and with a flourish I placed the Highwood Condensing Pill into it's own carrying case to present to the judging Elder.

...

"So you lost." My errant student stated the obvious as we walked through the forests ringing the Third Peak.

"I did indeed," I reply, pawing at my faux man chu, "Your observational skills improve by the day, Junior Brother. Senior Brother is most pleased."

Ji Rong glanced back towards me, glaring as was his wont, "Okay, I get that you were expecting that, but why."

"This may seem strange to hear, given your rather hot-headed Mistress, but sometimes you need to present weakness in order to project strength."

The young man besides me paused, blinked once or twice, and then strode the catch back up to me, "Okay what."

Time for another lesson, it seemed! "Which seems stronger to you: The Steelfurred Bear that shows no reaction, no loss of strength, despite accumulating wounds, or the Steelfurred Bear that does everything possible to avoid a blow?"

"...There's a-"

I sigh, "Okay." Let's try something more familiar then, "The Gang Leader that shrugs off the loss of a few enforcers but still retains his territory as if he was unscathed, or the one who husbands his strength desperately, never willing to commit for fear of risking a potential loss?"

"The guy that can take the punch, I guess." Ji Rong responds, now that we're on ground he can comprehend, "So I guess you were showing off that you could take a hit like that without blinking?"

"So you can learn," I chuckle idly as the sun finishes setting, welcoming the darkness, "Truly a testament to the efforts of whomever took the time to soften that thick skull of yours, Junior Brother."

The scarred boy rolls his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. So why the Spider creep?"

The air vibrates with a low hum as I contemplate how to phrase it, "Mostly a matter of aesthetics, I suppose." A hand rises up, "On the one hand, Sect Sister Bao is someone who recently made an even bigger splash in advancing down the rankings than I did, and displaying that I could challenge her in her area of speciality was in its own way a show of strength."

"Even if you lost."

"Especially if I lost." I correct, "Creating that Highwood Condensing Pill was no trivial feat, Junior Brother. My skills simply allowed me to emulate the necessary skills required to bring about an adequate recreation of the steps required for its creation." With a casual flick of the wrist, the Qi of Heaven is channeled down a single Meridian, launching from my upraised palm into a miniature recreation of the construct I had relied upon, "This was a disposable, one time furnace designed to create the Highwood Condensing Pill exclusively. It, combined with a passing knowledge of the actual process and recipe for the pill itself, could hypothetically allow a Cultivator who is inexperienced in the crafting of pills to create an adequate product. A waste of the ingredients compared to a more experienced hand using them, but as needs must."

But the scarred boy seemed skeptical, "And if it wasn't that particular pill?"

More miniature furnaces, each subtly different in construction and arrangement of Formation script, took form above and around the original example, "I would have adapted as the circumstances demanded."

"...And the reason more people don't pull that kind of stunt?" Ji Rong paused, scowling to himself, "Oh yeah. Money."

"Naturally," I, Zhiqiang, chuckled, "Hmph, hmph, do you once again realize how amazing your humble teacher is, my foolish student?"

"Yeah, humble." My errant student mumbled, as if I could not hear him, "So I guess if you could pull that kind of stunt off, what's to stop you from pulling a similar stunt again in the future, huh?"

I nod in satisfaction as the constructs are returned to base qi and thus my dantian, "Correct. Its a thorough check on any would be opportunists that think this Zhiqiang to be easy prey, whether to be challenged by, or to challenge themselves. So long as others are wary, I can have the time I need to focus on more important matters."

The first lights of the Grinning Moon come down through the sparse canopy of the forest, "Which brings us to why I had you accompany my self, Junior Brother."

"What, you plan to drag me into being your punching bag for a month or something?" The former delinquent replies skeptically.

"Not at all!" I chuckle in response, "No, this Zhiqiang shall have you accompany a friend of mine who is in dire need of company, and can assist you with the troubles your beloved Master shall inevitably bring down upon you."

"Oh yeah?" The trees part, revealing a clearing covered in tall grass, bathed in moonlight, "Well-" I swiftly cover the blowhards mouth with my palm.

I've miscalculated.

"Do not make a sound." Brother Wind whispers in Ji Rongs ear, and he slackens against my grip, "I was not familiar with this section of the mountain, and thus did not recognize the circumstances of taking this route."

Tall grass. In the middle of the night. Our destination was directly ahead of us, past this field, and as ever I was confident in my stealth...So it should be safe. Worst case scenario, unless we were remarkably unlucky, we wouldn't stumble across a Pack Alpha and thus would be more than capable of repelling any singular creatures that tried to run us down.

"Do as I do." Brother Wind whispered once more, and with that last warning the both of us drew the air around myself and Ji Rong into a tight film, blocking out scent and sound utterly. Wind Qi came next, as our presences were suppressed as thoroughly as possible. And with that, we stepped into the grass, slowly, desperately moving between blades of plant matter as I laid a path through the field that would avoid contact with the creatures that had made the patch of land their home.

The sound of heavy breathing and snorting, the occasional honk breaking the silence with which my errant student and I moved, but unfortunately, with my focus on suppressing the presence of Ji Rong and myself what it was, my own proud senses failed to track every possible opponent. As a flash of dark scales peeks through the blades of grass, I barely manage to maneuver around it safely, and my errant student attempts to emulate my movement.

However, a beast which had gotten the drop on me would be far beyond Ji Rong's own abilities to detect. Which, as our moving obstacle moved its snout downwards at seeming random, soon discovered. The scarred boy failed to pick up on the need to react, and the two lightly brushed against one another. A shrill, piercing cry came a second later, a hunting call that stripped away the thin layer of wind the Brother Wind and I had weaved around the boy and revealed his presence as the tall grass began to shake violently before parting to reveal the long snouted, inquisitive and reptilian face of the inhabitants of this territory.

A Third Realm Foundation Crescent Talon Ravager.

The initial cry was answered by a chorus of honking sounds, and additional cries as the numerous other presences I had managed to detect began making their way towards our location. Ebony claws reached towards Ji Rong, who stood oddly still, and I could see my errant students eyes bulge in shock.

"The hell is this ugly thing?!" He barked out, and the monster tilted its head, silver and black scales shimmering in the moonlight. Green eyes blinked, its mouth opened in a snarl, and the Spirit Beast leaped at the shorter boy, its trademark silver crescent claw set to carve open Ji Rong.

To his credit, he responded with an admirable left hook to the jaw, laying it out.

Unfortunately, the idiot tried to savor his victory, so I had Brother Wind communicate something very important.

"Yes, yes, well done, but these things are pack animals so we need to go!"

With a look, my errant student and I began booking it for the opposite end of the grass, the cries and shaking hounding us at every step. Divots of pale qi were driven into the earth, traps to hamstring and otherwise hold up our pursuers, and still we ran as I desperately attempted to occlude Ji Rong from their senses. But the beasts had his scent, and as tempting as leaving him to his own devices was, I decided against the easy route as his Senior Brother ought to act.

What a troublesome child, this Baron Ji continues to be.

Eventually, we break through the grass and return to the forest, at which point a trio of the Ravagers passes through the boundary of their own territory to continue the pursuit. But there was a reason the creatures stuck to their own territory where the moonlight shone brightest. Here, in this forest, the shadows grew deep and hungered for whatever prey they could grasp.

Flickering masses of darkness fell upon the monsters en masse, dozens of Second Realm Darkness spirits fell upon the intruders, attaching themselves to their brilliantly shining scales like so much pitch, their sheer mass weighing them down, entrapping them. Scales shone a bright silver a moment later as Ji Rong and I ran, and as the battling spirits neared the end of the effective range of my senses, I could see the man-sized reptiles digging into the mass of pitifully mewling shadows with relish and a triumphant cry.

The plan a success, we eventually slowed down, neither of us quite out of breath yet.

"So..." Ji Rong paused, breathing deeply, "The second thing?"

"Right, so the second thing." I, Zhiqiang, clear my throat and raise my other hand up, "I had something of a personal score to settle with Sect Sister Bao."

"And that was?"

"She had apparently managed to hide her cultivation level from my own senses." I sniffed, "As she had overcome me at my speciality, my pride demanded that I at least answer the insult back in kind."

My errant student blinked, "Okay...But you lost?"

"I lost, true, but I still came within spitting distance of matching her own skills despite having not even a fraction of her investment into pillcrafting." A hand pawed at my faux man chu, "The very fact that this Zhiqiang came so close despite approaching her field of specialization so casually was a tremendous insult to her own talents as a crafter. 'What if he had become a Crafter? Did he just decide he had no need to put as much time or effort as I did into it? Did he just decide that my own speciality was inferior to his own cludged together sensory skills that I already beat?! Is he looking down on pillcrafters?!'" I counted fingers off my hand.

"Something like that should have been going through her head near the end there." I chuckle throatily, "So I should think our balance in that regard settled."

"You sure about that?" Ji Rong replied doubtfully, "She seemed like the type to really hold a grudge."

"Pfft, hardly." I replied with a shake of my head, "Her type is far too focused on cost-benefit analysis to try and waste time on something as petty as a grudge over basic tic for tac-manship." I chuckle lightly at the thought, "At the very least, she should have some awareness of her position as the scion of a Count house, and going so far over something as small as this would inevitably look bad."

"And if she does?"

I, Zhiqiang, snort, "She's possibly the most unsociable person I've ever seen. What can she possibly do to hamper this Zhiqiang?"

I would later come to recall that for that Ji Rong's skull was thick as stone, he didn't get to where he was without his own talents to maneuver through a crisis. Specifically, a kind of base animal cunning and instinct that proved more often accurate than not.

There were times that, as much as I would not want to admit it...He had a point.

A.N. I originally intended this to cover more stuff, but due to the length its reaching and the pain in the ass I had to deal with for the last Omake, I'm gonna just split it into two parts instead. Here ya go, @yrsillar

 

[henkalv]

The Milk Run

This job had redefined the term milk run in Mo Wuhan's mind. Initially I had been apprehensive, hitting a town wasn't really in our wheelhouse. Not that walls mattered much, and the mortals were practically walking sacks of silver, but wherever there were people there were cultivators, and this town had an old guy living in it who was one of the scarier ones.

We had our own monsters though. Zi Xinya and Dai De made most jobs milk runs. Just sit in the trees while the merchants pass under like lambs to the slaughter, then fire off arrows when Zi Xinya charged in. I didn't believe what I was seeing the first time she did that. The lady was clearly of a higher physical cultivation then the rest of the group, though I didn't really know how it all worked. All I had ever learned about cultivation just mentioned things up to the yellow realm, and when I had asked about anything beyond I had been laughed at by the guys I served with. No wonder that he had deserted. I recognized strength when I saw it though, and watching this tiny woman cleave through a horse all casual like with her axe sure was strength.

She was only half of what made this gig so good though. It wasn't like we could expect to keep raiding merchants without having the wrath of the nobles fall on us. Most of the guys in the "unit", as Dai De would call us, were from other smaller groups who got broken up. They were the lucky ones, the ones who got away when the nobles decided they had had enough. That wouldn't happen to us though, cause we had Dai De.

While Zi Xinya was busy making mincemeat of the merchants Dai De would flit around, waving his hand at trees and touching the ground. Somebody not in the know would think him insane or dumb, what with the nervous ways his eyes darted around while he walked around a slaughter. But somebody in the know would never see him. What Dai De did was to put a veil over the battleground, then a veil over their passage into the trees. Nobody had followed us, nobody could. The first sign something was wrong would be the merchant never arriving wherever they were going, the second would be somebody stumbling into the pile of corpses we left on the road.

We hadn't had a proper fight in ages, and we hoped there would be an age before the next one. Way back when some paranoid merchant had filled his carts with guards instead of goods. Probably thinking of cashing in a bounty. That hadn't worked out for him, not at all. The few that might have run away from that particularly ambush had felt their spines turn to steel at Zi Xinyas war cry and our aim made perfect by Dai De. They didn't usually break out those techniques, there just wasn't any point. But if push came to shove then we were more then just a gang of guys with bows.

Today it wasn't just us on the job though. In addition there was some Bai riding along. The guy treated us and the ground with equal contempt from the top of his giant snake, sniffing at us when we walked past like we smelled or something. Wuhan had never seen Zi Xinya bow, or heard Dai De stammer before, but whenever they talked with the Bai they would. Not that they talked often, the guy shadowed us, keeping at the edges as if we tainted his precious nobility by our very presence. Some of the guys grumbled at that, but got a swift smack from Zi Xinya for the comments. Zi Xinya wouldn't have any of us talking our way to an early grave. They couldn't, wouldn't, protect us if this Bai took offense. Nobody beside the leaders knew why this Bai was with us. The whole thing stunk. Playing games with the nobility was a good way to get into that early grave. But Zi Xinya and Dai De hadn't messed up yet. Nobody was going to gainsay them on this job.

It was too late for it now anyway, and anyone who said anything would have sounded stupid at this point. After getting to the town we practically just marched up to the wall and had Zi Xinya knock it down. Put a few arrows in the mortals who were too stupid to get out of the way and the rest was all looting. The guards were nowhere to be seen; it was like a buffet. Only thing that kept us from picking the town clean was the constant nagging by the Bai that we had to be quick about it. Maybe he knew something we didn't, cause as we marched out of the town the houses around our exit were catching fire. Some idiot had probably knocked over a candle while looting, but how did the Bai know that?

Sclurph sklup was the refrain of the march. Boots into mud, boots out of mud. The terrain couldn't decide if it wanted to be a march or a wood and it wasn't quite a rainforest either. It was like it had picked the worst properties of all and decided to run with it. The trail was about as obvious as any trail left by over fifty guys marching. Nobody vocied any worries though, Dai De had our trail well in hand. All of us carrying some treasure from the town. Apparently the point of the raid had been some package that the leaders had been fussing over. It wasn't something the rest of us was privy to, and honestly, we didn't care. The point for us was what we could grab, in my case some heavy pouches of silver taken from some fat townies. For all marching through the swamp was a pain this was a good day.

Beside our leaders the band was split in two between us yellows and the ones in red. Made a natural chain of command really. I was marching towards the front of the column, just behind Dai De. As usual, when we had marched for a while, the reds would fall behind. I turned shouting for them to keep up, and in the silence that followed my shout I heard a soft melody ring out. It sounded like childish curiosity, it honestly would have been quite nice if I wasn't hearing it while marching through the middle of a swamp. Turning my eyes forward again I saw Dai De go rigid. There was a cultivator out there.

"Get in formation!" Zi Xinya shouted. Most of the column was in the process of stopping, more confused by the music then alarmed. To the bumpkins in the band the thinly veiled terror in Zi Xinya's voice might have sounded odd, but the ones of us who had served knew a musical cultivator when we heard one. We were turning towards the sound, people bunching together in groups and getting their weapons out when the song changed.

I heard a grunt from Dai De, then laughter sounded out from the woods. Not like something a man could make but like something you could hear in a dream, and ghostly forms of lords and ladies carrying cups streamed out. It was like they couldn't decide what they wanted to look like, a moment a green lady in a gigantic dress was laughing as she swiped by one of the reds, the next moment the same lady would be a red man in some fancy riding leathers, spinning and twisting away from a swipe from one of the yellows. The phantoms that did get hit just burst into coloured mist, then reformed into another form. They hadn't harmed us though, merely dazzled us.

Us yellows were clumping up around Dai De and Zi Xinya, and shortly after the reds also understood the futility of swinging at the phantoms. Between Zi Xinya shouting for them to get into formation and the desire not be alone among the mad phantoms they swarmed around us, forming a sort of square. In the army I had been an archer. Not the most glorious of roles but it came with certain demands. Primarily among them were perception techniques. A tiny trickle of qi shot into my eyes and it was like I woke up to a whole new world, seeing the bugs flying through the air and the details of the bark on the trees around us. But for all that I couldn't see wherever the cultivator was who had sicked the phantoms on us was. I knew, thought I knew at least, that there always was a cost to techniques like this. Bursting enough of the phantoms would put a hurt on the qi reserves of whoever was doing this. I lifted my bow, sighted down some fop in a long black coat and loosed on him. Yeah he reformed as a annoyed looking purple woman in a short dress afterwards, but at least I was doing something.

Someone had gotten a bead on the cultivator though, as a shadowy form flowed around a bolt in the periphery of my vision. What drew most attention wasn't that feat, but the bang afterwards as one of the thunder bolts went off. A tanned face of a young girl with blue eyes looked back at us from where the blast had just been, looking unruffled by the sound; black hair flowing long with what looked like stars in it, the rest of her shrouded in shadows with the top of some dark cloak at her shoulders. I couldn't for the life of me understand how I had missed someone so tall. Dai De had stepped forward, or I had stepped back, but as the shadow touched ground again I saw Dai De look eyes with this girl. I felt myself smirking, this wasn't the first time I had seen this trick. Some hotshot cultivator thinking that taking down a band of bandits would be easy, then losing all coordination as soon as Dai De looks at them and waves his fan.

This time it didn't go like that though. It looked like she faltered for a second, then a flute appeared out of the shadows rising towards her mouth. The focus on what fresh horror that flute would bring almost made me miss the shrieking blade bursting into existence and homing in on Dai De, who crouched just in time, my eyes followed it as it turned behind us. The thought "oh no oh shit that's a domain weapon" had just shot through my head as the phantoms stopped, stood up straight and lifted their cups in their air. The laughter turned to a roar of approval, the ones standing close pointing at us and cackling, all of them stamping at the ground. They almost drowned out the slow sad song the cultivator was playing, and as I turned towards her I saw a wall of black fog rushing towards me.

It hit and it was like my sense of the world turned mute. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, much less my feet and sounds travelled oddly, like people was shouting from under water. Screams from men who had laughed as a town burned just hours ago sent chills down my spine as they were distorted in the mist, and I could have sworn that Zi Xinya hadn't been where I was hearing her voice shouting from. A thud rang through the mist, like a giant taking a step. I looked up, but all I saw was black fog.

I was about to run. I didn't care that being alone in this mist was probably death. I couldn't see anyone; I was practically already alone. Then I felt steel enter my spine, Zi Xinya hadn't shouted, but maybe that wasn't a necessary part of the technique. Whoever had made me feel fear like that had to die. I started to search the mist and as I did I felt a flood of qi enter my eyes. Dai De was guiding my arrows. Me and the other yellows in the centre of our groups lifted our bows as one and loosed where we saw the girl, standing in front of some large rock. The phantoms threw themselves on the arrows in front of her, some of us shot off into the mist and she flowed side to side. Still some hit home. Five arrows should have been enough to turn this living nightmare into a pincushion, but they merely bounced off her dress. Sure, it looked like it would have hurt, but the point of an arrow wasn't to beat someone to death.

A buzzing sound filled the air. Dai De had released his triumph card, Wénzi. The bug spirit was usually just used to scout out caravans, but he could deliver a sonic attack that should end whatever fight we found ourselves in. It soared up into the air and the beat of its wings made a buzzing sound that hit us all. As loud as it was for me it should have been hell for the girl. The very earth smoothed out where she stood and the shadows flowed away, revealing her wearing a conservative black dress with silver threads in it. She just had time to wince before the rock behind her bellowed and a part of it shot forward, clamping down on Wénzi and dragging it out of the air. As the "rock" lumbered towards us I saw that it was a gigantic turtle with a snake for a tail, the snake swallowing down what had been Wénzi while fire and smoke leaked from its maw around the corpse of the spirit beast. A Xuan Wu? What the hell was a legendary creature like that doing so far from the savage seas?

But that all faded away as I heard the song. The light voice of the little girl floated softly through the mist. She didn't know where her mother was, she needed help and she was so very very lonely. I took a step forward. I had to find her, to help her. Hands grabbed at my shoulders, but they couldn't stop me from this. Another few steps and I was beyond the reds, Zi Xinya shouting to let me go, that if I couldn't hold the line then I shouldn't take anyone else down with me, but what did I care? My mission had changed.

I heard screams around me, a burst of sound from the woods sent a group of archers I didn't recognize tumbling into the clearing and after the monstrous snake half of the Xuan Wu swallowed Wénzi it belched, and a glob of liquid fire flew over my head. But what did I care about any of this? The sad song still beckoned me and I could see her now. This sad little pale girl in a light blue dress standing in the mist. I had to go to her. But then the song changed. The mist thickened and suddenly I couldn't see the girl anymore. I was enraged, my mission a failure, but then I finally came to my senses. "oh shit" was my first thought as I realized how far out of formation I had gotten. I could still see the tall girl, but that was hardly a concern, as beside me the Xuan Wu towered.

I had a short reprieve as arrows burst from the woods. Apparently there were more archers I didn't know about around. I didn't know who they were, but they could be the empress guards for all I cared as long as they killed whoever this monster was. Their arrows carried a sick looking purple qi as they homed in on their targets. The Xuan Wu didn't dodge, it hardly could, but most of the arrows merely bounced off it, and those that hit had their purple qi extinguished by it almost immediately. The girl fared similarly. She dodged around most of the arrows, but three hit. Two just bounced off her dress like ours had, but one penetrated and grazed her. I saw the purple qi slither into her wound and for a moment I hoped, hoped that whoever these allies were they had the means to put down this monster. Then that hope died. The purple qi extinguished.

The Xuan Wu roared, and I had but a moment to try to run before darkness descended on me. The snake had swallowed me, but that was just the beginning of my problems. Its fangs went straight through what armour I had and I felt pure fire flow into me. I felt my mouth open to scream, but I couldn't produce a sound, the agony was just too much. I hardly felt it as the monster lifted me into the air, shake me and then threw my still living corpse away. I landed at the edge of the clearing; my head turned towards the formation.

The mist parted before my comrades and I saw them run. Only will to see the one who was going to end my life fail let me live on for moments more. Then the mist thickened again, but not uniformly this time. Shadows formed beast, nothing with a name, but creatures of fang and claws loosely formed by the mist nipped and clawed at my friends, and before they could escape this pocket of hell the mist closed back in around them. Through a titanic effort I managed to turn my head, where the instigator of all this stood.

A light passed over. I couldn't see where it hit, but I didn't think it meant anything good for my comrades. That hardly mattered though. As the world darkened for the last time I saw an arrow bore into the green lights the girl had put around her. She flowed again and managed to get around it, the tree it hit melting. A haughty voice rang through the mist and I found myself doing something I hadn't done in all my life. Cheering for a nobleman.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@yrsillar Made an omake. Wanted to make something to show off how terrifying LQ is to an outside observer, though it might mostly have shown how terrifying Zhengui can be. I haven't really written anything before so I think it was for the best that I posted it when most of the thread was asleep. Thanks a lot to the ones who pointed out flaws. Anyway would love to be added to the omake threadmarks.

 

[Alectai]

Tempering

White Cloud Mountain was a silly place.

The largest peak throughout the grand range that the Argent Sect called home, it nonetheless was largely depleted of all significant resources save a particularly diverse and resilient ecology of spirits, beasts, and all manner of other things. Probably why the economy was all based on pills and cores while getting decent weapons was a pipe dream unless you got care packages from home, getting her feet on the ground when she got started involved an egregious amount of study, a few brawls, and snapping who knew how many prototypes before she finally got something that could stand up in a decent fight and rampage her way through the impromptu pecking order of the Outer Sect, stumbling into the Inner Sect--and finally having the peace and quiet--and literary opportunities--to do the things she actually wanted to do.

Of course, now? Things were... Good-ish. That's was a fair way of describing it, her rank was respectably high, her position secure--and that she hadn't made any considerable breakthroughs in her studies could be mostly blamed on her over-inflated ambitions and limited access to resources. She could understand why a formal apprenticeship would be... Politically inconvenient, and her limited pedigree and projects were yet beneath the notice of one of the luminaries who might really be able to show her a thing or two.

But progress was still being made, you know? Rank Five Hundred Eighty Three, a solid establishment into the Framing stage of Cultivation. Three years of studies. It was great! It was fantastic! If she wasn't an unacknowledged bastard, it'd be more than enough to ensure her formal recognition of Heir!

But, she was, and worse--provably so. So here she was on a mountain with almost nothing to offer her--save for it containing the dregs of the absurd quality of fresh blood that's going to distort the ordinary betting pools for years. That she hadn't bothered to notice any of this in the past year because she was too bloody busy treading water--spending hours of her time fulfilling orders to earn the Points to pay for her personal projects, for access to the deeper archives for arts that were higher quality. Ambition was good and all, but apparently she missed an opportunity to get access to possible ducal patrons!

She scoffed, and rocked in the place of the campsite she had set up, pending the arrival of her student. It was a missed opportunity, but that didn't mean all the good ones were gone--just the most obvious ones, right? This one in particular was a new and unique specimen based on the student profile! And she could go gather some residual materials from the mountain after [Winter's Muse] blew up in the process--always do two things at a time if you can get away with it after all.

The scent of burning incense tickled her nose as a newcomer came into the range of her techniques. She could pin the taste of wild animal in there too... But further away, as though it was being crammed under a large rock to stay out of sight. Now that was curious--the profile said they were spirit blooded, but most tended to sorta lean into their advantages to leapfrog ahead, most tended to be commoners who couldn't afford not to take advantage.

But when the fox-eared, two-tailed junior sister prowled into the clearing, the narrowed eyes and sideways glances indicated no small amount of suspicion, it seemed like the usual expectations were gone.

She snapped her notebook closed, the sound sharp enough to draw attention towards herself. Both the Junior Sister... And was that a bat hiding behind her hair? That was strangely adorable. "Right, you'd be Junior Sister Su Ling then?" She asked, the book flashed away to her storage bracelet as she climbed to her feet--she was a bit casually attired right now, just a simple top and skirt, because her armor here would be gross overkill. "You're early--that's good, it's to your benefit, because I strongly believe in encouraging that sort of behavior. I am Zhi Yun, Disciple Rank Five Eighty Three. It is to my understanding that your request was for a practitioner of the Fire and Mountain Elements to provide some insights for your own development?"

"Yeah" She nodded--curt and non-communicative, highly skittish as one might expect, but at least willing to explain herself. "Had some extra points after the big storm, figured I'd see what the big fuss was about."

Huh, no previous investment in a tutor? That was a little odd--but a quick secondary assessment... Bandoleers, filled with pills and formation scripts. She couldn't help but smile as she clapped her hands together, leaving the fox-girl to hop back protectively. "Oh my! A junior sister who knows the pain of the material treadmill! I'd call it nostalgic, but that problem doesn't go away no matter how far you climb." As Su Ling seemed to settle down from the sudden movement, Yun struck again. "Still, there are benefits to be involved as an artisan--I was originally intending to simply go over some basic exercises and tests to get a feeling for your needs today, but for a true junior sister--I think a few demonstrations would be more appropriate"

Junior Sister seemed lost and regretting her life decisions--but she was already stuck here. She would know better than to book it after spending so many points--Yun knew the pains of an artist and the desire to squeeze every mote of value out of every resource you spent. More importantly, the moment she made contact with her Senior Sister and admitted who she was, there were no refunds, those points were hers, and she had every intention of abusing that to the fullest.

"Fortunately, this is a good time for you to accept tutoring" Yun allowed, gesturing off into the distance, beckoning her Junior Sister to follow. "The recent super storm was the consequence of the Fourth Grade guardian of the upper reaches self-detonating as part of a long delayed life cycle." Was that a sense of dawning recognition she smelled? Hah! Gossip material! "Such things have consequences of great value to artisans, as the residual Qi tends to taint the divine material already present on the mountain--aspecting them towards unusual elements and augmenting their power. It also tends to cause mutations in the local wildlife until we get around to intemperately exploiting them to death. Still, if you're curious as to where the Rimefur Wolves came from? Same kind of thing--they lived in the Domain of a fourth grade spirit for enough generations that they just adapted to take advantage of those emanations."

"So, what you're sayin' is that it's possible to change what a spirit can do?" She asked--and ah hah, that explained the giant rock on top of the musky scent. "Of course--if you're asking about yourself" Su Ling seemed to tense at that. "It should actually be easier--you've got strong spirit-blood... But you're also still human, you benefit from a measure of that flexibility--and the Third Realm breakthrough is a good one to take advantage of fundamental changes like that--you're on the right track so far if your scent's any indication." Zhi Yun sniffed--loudly--as emphasis. "But just dropping a mess of Mountain Qi isn't going to make that Lake shit pivot around. You need to know the Mountain, you need to understand the Mountain--you need to overcome your innate affinity with bloody minded diligence and understand it--and more importantly, how it relates to you better than the natural knack you got from your bloodline."

Junior Sister Su Ling shifted uncomfortably at that. "I'm trying, it's just--I can get what the books are saying about it, and that Mirror trick helped... But it's a pain to stay in the mindset."

Not particularly unusual. "Well, yes--let me ask you something--how often do you put yourself at risk?"

She bristled again--touchy touchy! But after a moment's consideration, shook her head. "Maybe... two or three times? Last year?" She didn't seem to want to elaborate much. "If I'm going to fight, I try to make sure I'm gonna win."

Ah, that type. "Well, there you go." A dramatic flourish off into the distance. "The Mountain is unyielding, it stands against all manner of trial and tribulation, uncaring of the slings and arrows brought on by the world. Much like the Lake, it's a highly static element--but where the Lake consumes and devours, the Mountain burdens and endures. You don't play it safe, you do whatever you feel like it and if the world tells you to move--you tell it to fuck right off you'll do what you want."

The girl was about to protest, but Yun hushed her with a gesture. "And no, don't go saying that 'You're not that great in a fight', there's no such thing as a Cultivator who's bad in a fight. That Production vs Combat track thing? It's completely artificial... In fact, let me demonstrate real quick."

Yun smelled it coming a while back, swooping and licking its proverbial chops. A mutated Eversoar Shrike, driven mad by the entropic Qi it metabolized in the recent tribulation. Apparently dumb as a sack of rocks if it wanted to take a poke at her given the Cultivation advantage, but it was still solidly a Third Grade Spirit Beast. Was probably going to try and eat her junior sister if it got a chance.

So she slung the satchel off of her back, and take hold of the handle jutting from the top, and accessed the storage formation held within. Eversoar Shrike... A Wind/Thunder Third Grade beast ordinarily, prefered to strike from diving attacks, pinning its prey to surfaces with constructed spikes, and letting them bleed to death. The entropic mutation would likely give it a strong corrosive effect to cause this desired outcome to happen faster.

The correct choice in that case is to pin it in place, and shatter it with a sufficiently high temperature blow.

She could use her favorite configuration for this.

Fire, Mountain, Sledge-formation. The handle of Argument shook as the head was assembled within her Armory, pre-defined components and formations clicking into place and interfacing with the spell diagrams that made up the weapon's core.

The Shrike seemed to recognize it had been detected--and shrieked as it began its attack, diving to the earth, aiming for Yun's Junior Sister. Never even realized it lacked a chance in the first place.

Yun stomped, the ground splintering in the wake of her unmatched strength, and her aura shone out--careful positioning caught the stupid bird in it, and it yelped as what was once a graceful dive turned into a pratfall to the ground below. Wouldn't kill it, and it'd probably dispel her gravitational magic and book it in a second.

Good thing it didn't have a second to operate with--she drew Argument from the Armory, the head assembled into a magmatic sledge of heroic proportions, gleaming with white-hot energies. As the bird falls, the last thing it sees is a hammerhead the size of most of its body careening into its face.

And then it's gone, flash-boiled and cauterized in a single motion.

Yun can't help but flourish a bit, shouldering the colossal weapon as she catches the fallen bird, sans head--good material is good material after all--and she grinned, looking back at her Junior Sister.

"See, a common misconception is that Production-track is weak in battle, because we don't have the time or resources to learn the best arts. That's incorrect. Us Production-track folks? We build our own Arts long before anyone else does... So, Junior Sister Su Ling--do I have your attention yet?"

This should be a more entertaining diversion than she thought!

 

[henkalv]

Spoiler: A Day's Work

Sunrise was just about to begin .The grinning moon still shone down on the land, clearly visible a bit over the horizon, but where the night had been deep and dark before now the horizon had a thin line of deep red running across it, grading into yellow, pale blue and then deep dark blue .There was something special about this time in the morning. I hadn't taken the opportunity to appreciate it before, but these days I did so each morning. I leant back in my rocker and it let out a soft creak, repeating the sound as I slowly leaned forward again. The birds hadn't woken up yet and the horses off in the field were resting. The world was taking a breath before the coming dawn. It reminded me a bit of meditation really, the peace of it all.

The only other sound in the world was the slow breathing of the little girl in my arms. Little Yijun. Zhelan often joked that she is a little cultivator with how little she sleeps. It is a blessing then that I need less sleep still. My wife might think it is some burden to sit out here all night long with the baby, but she doesn't understand a cultivators relationship with time.

Slowly the red line across the horizon started to fade, as did the deep blue above it. Instead the yellow and light blue fields grew larger and larger. Those who haven't sat through a dawn might think that the moon would dip beneath the horizon, but that wasn't the case. Instead it followed it and rose a bit, but as the sky grew brighter it was obscured. Any minute now I thought as only light blue remained of the horizon.

The dawn broke, not by the sun, but by a riot of birdcalls. With it the little bundle in my arms awoke as well, crying out with the cacophony. Through my perception art I could feel Zhelan stir in our bedroom, a low grumble on her lips about mornings. I smiled. Leaning down I brought Yijun close and whispered

"morning little treasure. Mom's up now, shall we go see her?"

I rocked the chair and whispered to Yijun, who soon quieted. From the house I could feel Zhelan dress and I got up from the rocker as she closed the door to our bedroom behind her. Walking inside I met her in what passed for our common room. Small, with pale skin and curves, it was a wonder she hadn't been snatched up by some young master while I was away in the army. She opened her arms as she saw me and with a sleepy "come here", we exchanged a baby and a kiss.

Zhelan rocked little Yijun and I whispered to her "I think our little treasure is hungry my heart, I'll go and get some breakfast for you". She nodded and brought Yijun over to a bench to breastfeed, while I turned for the kitchen to make good on my promise. I could see some low burning coals still in the stove as I entered the room, the formation work to keep the smoke from drifting into the house still holding strong. I wasn't a master of formation by any means, but tricks like that was common enough, especially among soldiers who prized the little comforts when deployed. I needed only feed the smouldering fire some wood, then throw together some porridge, bread and smoked meat. The meal I prepared was a lot larger than what Zhelan would need, but that was alright, we were feeding the farmhands too after all.

After taking the large pot of porridge off the stove I went back to the common room. Zhelan was rocking Yijun, whispering nonsense stories to her as the baby slowly went back to sleep. I kissed her brow, then whispered "I'll go wake the lads, there is porridge and meat in the kitchen". She nodded as she rose. I was heading out of the house while she went back to the bedroom with little Yijun.

Outside the morning was in full swing. The horses were getting up, walking about and congregating by the water trough. I had gotten it filled up last thing yesterday with the help of the lads so there was plenty of fresh water for the horses. There were 41 of them in all, with 9 being foals and 2 being stallions, all of mortal stock. They had quite the large pasture to run at and I preferred it that way. Animals kept poorly was a recipe for aggressive spirits settling down, much like a farm kept in disrepair could summon spirits that might ruin a farmer.

A couple of horses came over to say good morning, nudging me as I walked about the house. I laughed as Moonsilver nudged me. Shew was a beautiful white mare, the pride of the herd. While I liked to think that she was greeting me I knew it was mostly about her wanting to be fed. I laughed merrily at her insistence.

"Yeah girl, yeah, I hear you. Need to get breakfast in the lazy bones before I feed you though" I said and waved my hand at the bunkhouse, more like a cabin really, adjacent to my house. Moonsilver snorted, seemingly like she disbelieved my claim, but she walked back over to the trough to get a drink instead of following me around. Common mortal stock of horses was descendant from spirit beasts, which often had some degree of higher intelligence. That the intelligence disappeared with the loss of cultivation was common knowledge, but I sometimes wondered if that was actually the case.

Stepping up to the door of the bunkhouse I could hear one boy snoring softly, another loudly and the last one in the process of getting dressed. I knocked, then shouted at the door

"Morning's here lads, time to get up. There's breakfast in the kitchen"

From inside the room I could hear the snoring stop, then the boy who had just finished dressing opened the door.

"We will be right over Master Lin"

Luo Ling gave a quick but respectful bow to me in the doorway. Once he had probably had a pale complexion, but now it was a ruddy colour from working long hours in the field. I nodded back then turned back towards the house. Behind me I could hear him urge on his friends to hurry up.

Back in the kitchen Zhelan was eating. She had set the table for five, two on one side of the table and three on the other. I sat down beside her, but I didn't partake of the food. It would have been a terrible waste.

"Going out today?" she asked me between bites.

I nodded "think this might be the day, he has grown a lot less skittish of me lately"

A little smile blossomed on her lips at that, but nonetheless she said "be careful. You going outside of the formations each day isn't good for my heart at all"

I kissed her brow and gave her a quick hug "I will, my heart"

Then I sat back again, we were about to have company after all.

I could hear them jogging from the bunkhouse long before they got to the door, and as they entered the house they slowed, removed their shoes and walked calmly into the kitchen. The three farmhands stood themselves in a row in front of the table, where they bowed and as one intoned "good morning Master and Mistress Lin"

They held the bow for the barest second, and as they rose from it Zhelan elegantly gestured towards the other side of the table and said "have a seat". You would be forgiven for confusing her with a lady of some noble family in that moment, regardless of her common clothes.

The boys sat with decorum, and served themselves one after another in a dignified manner, but that was where the manners ended. They were growing boys after all. Luo Ling was the only one who managed a sliver of politeness with food in front of him, but Xun Guanyu and Liu Xinyue practically devoured their breakfast. We didn't mind, it was not like we were an actual noble household, if anything it was flattering. I hadn't had occasion to eat much since my army days, and it was good to know that my skill at cooking hadn't atrophied for it. As they finished eating it was time to get down to the tasks of the day.

"There are a couple of things that need doing today first we got to feed the horses and then it is compost day" on the other side of the table the boys groaned at that. "However," I began, and they perked up "I am going to need one of you to tag along up until the barrier. In case today's the day then I'll need you to run to the Lords manor to get the formation specialist. It will probably be a lot of standing around, but it'll be better than shovelling crap. I'm guessing you all will want to come along?" the lads all nodded at that, eager to get out of a crap duty. "Well you will have to play rock-paper-scissor for it then"

They eyed each other, then turned towards each other. Each of them lifted a fist up by their chin, and Luo Ling counted down "3. 2. 1." The results were two papers, one scissor and a grinning Luo Ling.

***

After we finished breakfast the boys went off to feed the horses, Zhelan went to keep Yijun company and I went back to the common room. With me I carried a slab of meat, a mortar, a pestle and a cutting board. I put the cutting board down on the ground, sat myself in front of it then lifted one of the floorboards up. Under it was a small compartment I had built myself, and in it rested a small pouch. I lifted it out and from the pouch I fished out a beast core. It wasn't a high grade one, and it wasn't particularly large, but the pouch filled with them was a small fortune for a rancher like me. I placed the beast core in the mortar and pestle, and then I crushed it.

*Crunch crunch* I could practically feel the silver in every compression, but I consoled myself that it would be worth it. The stone was reduced to a fine powder and I carefully scooped it out of the mortar to rub it into the meat. After I had run out of powdered beast core I eyed the piece of meat critically. A second passed, I sighed in defeat, then lifted another beast core from the pouch to be crushed.

***

As I exited the house I had the meat wrapped in a leather in one hand and my old spear from my army days across my back. The horses had already been fed and I could see Xun Guanyu and Liu Xinyue walking around in the field with shovels. Luo Ling had saddled Moonsilver and was brushing her. Walking up behind him I said "you know, you could have given your mates a hand while I was preparing. Stuff like this is going to end up with them carrying a grudge"

He jumped a bit, I must have snuck up on him again, then turned to me and answered "Master Lin, I intended to, but Moonsilver here charmed me before I could" at that both me and Moonsilver snorted, and I eyed her for a moment. She whinnied and threw her mane like nothing was the matter, but I was on to her now.

"Regardless" I drawled "I'll be coming back at the western barrier, by the road, so ride up there and wait for me". He nodded at that and got in the saddle, setting a comfortable pace away from the ranch.

The pace I set was also comfortable, but much greater. I didn't have any arts specifically to travel fast, the army was a lot more concerned with stamina than with sprints, but a silver physique by itself lent enough speed that the term "jogging" got redefined. Soon I was passing by the neighbouring farms. There wasn't another ranch for a while yet, but there were plenty of farms around. They relied in part on the compost from my horses to keep their fields plentiful, the baron had organized it so that the ranches were spread out among the farms. Earning a few silvers by selling shit to my neighbours were a fine addition to my income, though it didn't amount to a great deal. I probably wouldn't have been as sanguine about the scheme if I had to shovel that shit myself, but that was the sort of work you had farmhands for.

Soon I was running through sparse woodland instead of fields and farms. Nobody wanted to live right up on the formation barrier, being the first to go if some stronger spirit beast broke through was an unenviable position. The farms usually had at least one cultivator on it, but those were largely retired soldiers without their armour, most of them in the low to high reds. I could feel a slight tingle as I ran through the barrier and then I was in the untamed wilds. You wouldn't think it based on the environment, the forest around me had hardly changed. The true threats would not be around here as they found the barrier an annoyance, nonetheless I was on my guard, it wouldn't do to break my word to Zhelan.

I knew where I was going. We had been meeting at a clearing not far into the woods every day for weeks. It was a stroke of luck that I found it at first really, I stumbled over it while out hunting low tier spirit beast, an activity I rarely took part in in the past. Me and Zhelan didn't know if little Yijun would take after me and be a cultivator, but if she was then I wanted to give her all the opportunity in the world. That meant saving up for tuition in one of the great sects, but that cost a lot, even for a rancher like me, so we had started saving already now. There wasn't a lot to do on the ranch that the farmhands couldn't take care of and hunting brought in some extra silver, albeit at a risk.

I came upon my destination, a sizeable clearing in the growth, forming a sort of mini-plain within the woods, and saw that who I was meeting was here. He was deceptively common looking. A horse with shorter legs than imperial horses and a powerful chest. His coat was a light brown colour and he stood about as high as a man. Where the similarities ended with a normal horse was his mane, which was a dark red colour, constantly dripping blood into the ground. This was a Tianma.

The great Tianma's were said to have bones with the same hardness as dragons, and they had wings to fly through the sky with, indeed they were thought related to dragons in some way. When they ran they didn't sweat water, but rather blood, and a cultivator could drink the qi infused blood both for sustenance but also as an aid in cultivation. This made them a prized bonded for a cultivators whose elements matched that of the specific Tianma. This one however wasn't one of the greater Tianma, he didn't have wings that would propel him into the air, but he was a prize nonetheless. He stood amongst his little herd of 3 mares and a foal, guarding them against whatever other spirit beast might intrude on its territory.

When I stepped into the clearing the herd tensed, sensing a foreign presence. But then they quickly relaxed. Their leader had not spurred them to motion before, and we had sensed each other long before the rest of the herd had. We were old friends by now. I unwrapped the bundle of leather and placed it on the ground, my offering of beast core infused meat presented. Then I took four steps back and knelt on the forest floor.

That started a standoff. I looked at the Tianma, waiting for him to act, while he looked at me, waiting to see if this was the day I would spring a trap on him and his herd. It was a short standoff however. Looking at him and his herd it was clear as day that they had lived through lean times. While the Tianma still looked strong he didn't have the massive musculature that a well fed Tianma would have, and his mares were lean. The foal hid behind one of the mares, but it too was thin.

The Tianma started pacing slowly towards me, head lowered and ears to the sides as it took careful steps towards me. The body language was calming albeit prepared, "I am no threat to you if you aren't a threat to me" it seemed to say. In return I folded my arms in my lap with my palms upwards. "See how far I am from grabbing my weapon" was my unarticulated answer. He came up to the meat on the ground, then he sniffed it. It passed muster, apparently, for he bit down, flicked it up and swallowed it whole. Then he stopped there and looked to me. I had been granted an audience, now I just had to make my case.

"Great Tianma" I began "It is my honour to speak to you. As you know I have come here every day for a fortnight, leaving you offerings like this one, and it is my pleasure to have won your trust so we may speak" The Tianma nodded at this, an intelligence hidden beneath its eye weighing me as I spoke. "While these gifts are not insignificant for one such as I, they are but a measure of my true wealth, and of the opportunity for you" I gesture towards his herd "while you are magnificent, I can see that your herd is suffering. As such I would like to propose you a deal. I am the owner of a herd of 41 horses who are all well fed. They are free to roam within a plain I own that is expansive. I would like to combine this herd with yours, so I might provide food for both. Obtaining beast cores for yourself would not be too onerous for me. In return I ask that you stay within that herd, that you father foals to enrich it. On my honour I swear that you and yours would be well treated should you take up with me, and your herd would swell many times from it. What do you say, great Tianma?"

Silence was my initial answer, even the herd of mundane horses seemed wont to break it. I worried that drawing attention to the state of his herd might have insulted him, but really it was my best chance. Convincing a spirit beast of peacefully coexisting without binding them was a rare thing, but diluting its blood in the stock of my horses would leave me with a much grander herd, both in quantity and in quality. It wasn't like I could force it to comply either. Keeping a spirit beast as a slave would be a 24/7 effort and not worth whatever it gave me. Much better to convince the Tianma to become a sort of vassal, at the head of my herd. If it did take offence though then he might trample me, and he might even succeed.

The spirit beast took a step forward, its stance the same peaceful stance as before. When he was right in front of me he nudged my forehead with his nose. Agreement was reached.

***

The trip back to the barrier was longer than the trip out to the clearing. The Tianma could likely outrun me easily, but its herd was another matter. I could outrun a healthy mundane horse normally, and these were not healthy, not to mention the foal impeding us. I was in high spirits though. With the partnership of the Tianma secured Yijuns future was secured. Yes, it would take a bit of upkeep to keep it in beast cores if I didn't want to spend all my days hunting, but that would easily be made up by the quality of his offspring, not to mention what other farmers would pay for breeding rights.

As we got to the barrier I warned the Tianma that it would be uncomfortable to get closer, and that I would send for someone to open the way. A short conversation sent Luo Ling galloping to the baron's manor in order to get the formation specialist. Then we could only wait. Opening the way for a tamed spirit beast wasn't an unheard-of occurrence, but it was certainly not a common thing either. The spirit beast blood would be a boon to all the horses in the community however, so I could trust the formation specialist to hurry to the barrier.

I thought the Tianma might have better senses than I, for he was the first to perk up. Before long I could hear an entourage arriving as well, which was worrying. A formation specialist didn't need 18 horses to get to the barrier.

When the party came into view I could see about 20 men, most in the armour of the baronial guard on horseback and two of them in silks running ahead of the horses. Among the throng I could see the bureaucratic uniform of the formation specialist, but that was small solace when it came in this party. This could not signal anything good. The Tianma didn't seem worried however and as the lead pair stops before me I recognized them.

I kowtowed immediately, sneaking glances at the lord out of the corner of my eye. "Baron Hao" I said "this one offers his most humble greetings". I had an inkling of what he was here for, together with his heir, and a wise man didn't stand in the way of the nobility.

"You are Lin Bo, the rancher?" he asked, while looking to his heir and giving a subtle nod

"Yes, my lord"

The formation specialist was fiddling over by the barrier, and the soldiers were spreading out as if trying to encircle the small herd. Still the Tianma seemed unworried, rather he fixated on young Hao Tu, the baronial heir, who were hiding his hands in his sleeves. Sensing his guard spreading out Baron Hao lifted an arm towards them.

"Stop" he said with a calm demeanour and a gesture at his guards "It wouldn't do to spook who we are here to meet" The guards stopped, and started to move back towards the barrier.

"This is a magnificent spirit beast in your company rancher Lin, a Tianma correct? I see it is unbound"

"It is so Baron Hao" I responded "I haven't the qi to keep such a spirit bound to me. Rather, I negotiated a mutually beneficial deal with him"

"that so? It is good to see that my subjects can be so resourceful. We heard about your exploit from you man when he came to have the barrier opened. My son is in need of a spirit you see" The baron said, looking at the Tianma while speaking "We will just have to try to negotiate a better deal then"

My heart sunk at those words, but it was what I had expected. Young Hao Tu steeped forward at his father's nod and brought forward a beast core from his sleeve, one greater in size and of higher quality then anything I could provide.

"Great Tianma" He said, a trace of puberty in his voice "while your deal with rancher Lin Bo may be a good one, may I offer you another, greater, one?"

The Tianmas eyes followed the spirit core in his hand, nodding at his words. It too understanding what way the wind was blowing.

"I require a spirit beast to aid me in my cultivation, and within you I can see the elements most beneficial for me. Should you let me bind you, then this core, and many like it in the future, shall be yours. Furthermore, after binding yourself with me you will partake in my qi and grow even greater through it. It is my request that we become companions, great Tianma" as he finished his speech he bowed and left the spirit core on the ground. As he stepped back silence fell on the assembly, all waiting for the Tianma to make his decision.

First the Tianma turns to his herd, he walks up to each one and whinnies softly, rubbing his neck with theirs and spreading his blood on them. Then the Tianma turns to me, be bends his neck and similarly spreads his blood over my check and neck. Lastly the Tianma turn to Hao Tu, he steps up to the spirit core, bends his neck to it and in a single crunch eats it.

The deal is struck, there is nothing but formality ahead of it. He steps close to Hao Tu, bends his neck and pushes his snout into his hand. The binding takes place. The victorious baronial scion rides away with seven of the guards and the formation specialist, leaving me kowtowing to Baron Hao.

"I am not heartless" The baron says after the exuberant heir has left "I realize what good fortune you have let go with this. While I could take this without compensation as is my right as baron, being known as the baron who robs his subjects has never been my ambition. Rise Lin Bo, and tell me, what boon would you want in compensation for the Tianma?"

This feels like a trap. Asking for a king's ransom would simply get me laughed at, but asking for nothing at all would be equally foolish. As I rise I think furiously. With my eyes focused on the barons feet and my postured bowed I say "Baron Hao, it is my hope that my daughter, who is but a babe, will in time show promise as a cultivator. I am saving for her tuition in one of the great sects, so that her possible talent might blossom. Anything to help me pay her tuition would be greatly appreciated"

"hmm" says the baron, stroking at his chin in thought "another cultivator within my lands would be a boon in itself, but making long term promises would be impossible, because if her talent is too great then they would be moot. I cannot grant you her tuition fee in full, but I will grant you another boon. For the procurement of the Tianma, you shall pay no taxes on your ranch for the next five years. May your daughter have the fortune of great talent, and may this give you the opportunity to pay for her schooling" He nods to himself, satisfied with his solution, then he turns without further comment and runs off, with but a word to the guards to keep up.

After all the commotion I am left standing at the edge of the barrier, with a bloody red mark on my check among three mares and a foal. While the prize of the Tianma eluded you, todays did net you a little increase in your heard as well as exemption from tax for a good while. It is not as great a prize as the Tianma would have been, but it is what you have gotten. All in a days work.

@yrsillar Another omake written, this one inspired by your comment on how domesticated animals are "devolved" variants of wild spirit beasts. I fear it might be a slog to read through, furthermore I am not very used to writting dialog so I might have bungled that something fierce. The whole thing is about 4650 words so I figured putting it in a spoiler would make so it didn't clog up the thread. I was intentionally vague at where exactly in the empire this is happening as I am not sure enough about the setting to get everything about one location right, hopefully it slots in somewhere well enough though

 

[FixerUpper]

Soldier

It is hard work, living.

How easy the opposite.

She runs. They all run. Her boots stick to the ground, a friendly, companionable shluck, shuh-luk, shluck that is echoed back at her from all sides, a staccato of flying mud accompanying their pursuit, threatening to rip boots from their feet at every turn even as they chase their guiding star. She doesn't care though she knows she should.

She can still hear him, her old drillmaster, Goat-Faced Qin, shouting with that annoying, high-pitched cadence that you were sure would have been excised as a matter of course out of an old silver, that it would come out with the sludge when you burn out the impurities swimming in your veins, but no.

Your boots are your life, he'd say. You're a goddamn soldier, and you're all soft, and no, not soft as gold, you're as soft as tallow, you're as soft as a wet fart, with no hopes and no prospects at anything better and you'd grunt yeah, yeah, we know, shut the fuck up.

So remember this, he'd yell, over the eyeballs rolling, voice rising as he senses he's losing your attention, losing your respect, remember you miserable flakes of rust, you grimy dog-children, you artists of piss and shit, when you're on the march, the first things to go will be your feet. You can lose a lot. That sword you all love, that treasure you're hauling, that talisman you're wearing, and that blood, swirling around your belly. But not your boots.

Because your boots are your spirits-be-damned life.

And man oh man, did they all hate Goat-Faced Qin with his limp and his fake eye and his braying laugh and his face like a goat, cheeks gaunt and near hollow and that little wisp of a beard scrabbling out of his chin, graying with age and how he'd put you down even on the worst day of your life.

But he's dead now and she wasn't there to see whatever coward stabbed him in the back, slashed his good eye and stole his boots. None of them were.

None of them were here for no one and isn't that the bitterest of pills.

Old Man Zhang had a family here, or part of, he's old old, with seeds scattered all over this backwater. She'd played with his grandkid when he was only waist high and last she'd heard he had married a fat, beautiful girl and started his own family, some years back. No talent at all, not for cultivation, but a charmer who had been doing well on the exams, could make something of himself, even as a mortal.

Here Auntie Lu, I made this for you to keep you safe!

A paper charm. He made them for everyone his grandpappy talked about, when he deigned to talk at all to his hack of a no-talent grandchild. She'd lost it, years ago, and now wishes she hadn't. The curse of the memory of an Immortal.

She can see his back, broad and muscular, Old Man Zhang, the only third realm among them, their rock in any fight, near to the end of his second century, or was it third, calm and stoic no matter what the crisis. He'd had a big family. Had being that small, painfully important bone buried in the salad.

He looks like he doesn't care, he's every inch the career soldier, but she saw him at the doorway of a bloodstained house, nothing glamorous, but nice for a mortal family, saw the blood seeping through his fingers as he silently cradled a too-small body, his pipe at his feet.

She herself had a lover. A little dish to the side that she kept to herself.

It wasn't going to go anywhere though he'd wanted it to. He'd wanted children. She hadn't. It should have ended there.

She can see his eyes, so big and soft, like those of a child, and his dark curls that framed his head and his lips whispering

Love you, Lil Lu.

She nearly stops. But everyone's boots are shluck-shuh-luck-shulucking their way through the muck, cuz' they're in this together, cuz' out here there ain't no one that hasn't lost someone to this farce of a tragedy and the white rage so close to black despair is kept on the precipice once more, fuel for their inner fires.

So they run.

Don't become a soldier, her father used to tell her, it's all just rutting, one way or another. You fuck or get fucked and that's no life for a woman.

I like fucking, she'd tell him, amused at how his face would go crimson and how he'd begin to sputter, you can't say that you little harlot.

He was wrong. It's not all fucking. The thickened skin on her hands and feet attest to her training, day in and day out, cultivating the Threefold Way, that incomparable art for mediocre talents, the scars that mar her form give proof to her experience. Army took her apart, brick by brick, and built her back up, stronger, faster, meaner than before.

Don't do it, her father tells her, the day before she runs to see Uncle Xu and join the army, the edges of his long mustache quivering with emotion as he speaks, they will fill your ears and head until it is bursting with righteous indignation and marching songs, but truly, there is no honor in it. Become a potter, become a weaver, become a painter, hell, become a butcher – anything but this wretched magpie vulture existence. It isn't worth a goddamn fiddler's fart. Who needs another soldier? Another pair of eyes to watch the border and get stabbed by barbarians or lured by spirits? There are more than enough in the world already.

You're a soldier, Baba.

So shouldn't I know? It gets to you, all the killing. A soldier never gets to choose. So you'll never know. Never know if it was right or wrong, if the blood on your hands is good or bad or in-between, if it deserves mercy, or if it doesn't.

And it's true. It's true as anything she has ever heard come out of his mouth. They never tell you about the days you're hunting down deserters who just want to go home, scared kids who signed up for glory only to get the gore, or the gang of thieves that hoodwinked an official but never drew a drop of blood, men and women who beg and beg as the noose approaches, sometimes not even for themselves, they know that wouldn't work, but for their student, for their lover, for the stupid dipshit they tricked, yeah, yeah, this was all just a long con I'm the only one that deserves to lose my head, please, please, please, all pathetic with hope, or the barbarians who, yeah, you know in your bones they'll grow up and wanna destroy the empire, but right now, right now they're nothing more than brats and sir, no one would notice if we let them slip away, they're so small, c'mon, sir, we're not monsters, sir, for mother mercy's sake, they cry and bleed and shit just like us and sir, sir, SIR.

Yeah?

I didn't sign up to this gig to kill children.

No one ever does, Lu.

But. On this day, on this one occasion, in this singular moment, she knows. She burns with the knowledge.

Today her enemies deserve everything that is coming for them.

 

[Thor's Twin]

Mortals Matter: Servants of Ling

Crimson light bled into lavender as night gave way to dawn. The dull light seemed to seep into a small, simple room, barely brightening the space and revealing a young woman resting on her mat. Early morning light and the songs of birds were enough, however, to rouse Hao Daiyu and she rose from her mat to begin another day. Finding the space where her uniform was neatly folded in the dim light without causing a ruckus was only possible due to her familiarity with the room, and after pulling the uniform out it was a matter of moments to get properly dressed for the day. Taking a small mirror, Hao Daiyu carefully combed the bird's nest that her hair had become during the night until it was in some semblance of order. With the initial morning routine ended, she carefully opened the door and stepped out into the common hallway. Already, she could hear the Landlady stoking the oven to prepare a morning meal for the common workers and servants who rented rooms in this place. Walking down the stairs, she greeted the landlady quietly and bid her a good day. And then she was off, walking through the streets of the town, towards the wealthier sections.

In these wee hours of the morning, stars were still visible, and the moon hung low in the sky casting a soothing radiance before it would disappear and allow the sun to take its place. Hao Daiyu saw the mountains of the Wall, like jagged teeth, curling around the southern horizon. Each day those mountains evoked a tiny thrill of excitement and wonder in her. This is where the Immortals held the line against roving despoiling barbarians. Where men and women of legend fought valiantly against beast and barbarian, protecting the Empire from their predations. And she had been selected to serve one of those very same Immortals! While the vast majority of the thrill and excitement had worn off over the months of mundane work, Hao Daiyu still liked to think that in her own small way she was helping secure the Wall against barbarians. That thought brought about a thrill of joy that no amount of washing clothes, cooking suppers, or sweeping pathways could stamp out. Even if the sheer amount of repetitive work to do sometimes made her grumble in her heart, it was far and away superior to her previous occupation.

It did not take long before she was before the Ling Manor and the guards which stood constant vigilance over it. While they assuredly knew her face by now, she still presented her token and they unlocked the doors for her with a brief press of their hands. Now… now it was time to get to work. After briskly walking across the paved pathway to the main house, Hao Daiyu navigated the hallways of the house until she reached the kitchen and serving area. Then, there was little time to chat with the other servants who had arrived before her. Quickly washing her hands and face in some rose-scented water, she began her assigned tasks. Drawing water for the meal, cutting the vegetables and meats that would go into the dumplings, tending to the fires to ensure that they would not get too hot or burn out, and setting the table for Lady Ling Qinnge and Biyu's breakfast.

The sun had fully crested the horizon when Lady Ling Qinnge sat down for breakfast, along with the ever-energetic Biyu. While they were eating, Hao Daiyu and some of the other servants were preparing the food for the rest of the servants' breakfast, a much simpler affair. Rice porridge with some leftover meat and vegetables on the side. Once Lady Ling Qinnge finished her breakfast, tasks were assigned, shopping lists were drafted, and the servants had their meal. Hao Daiyu was, as expected, was assigned the duties of washing the clothes used by the household and then tasked with sweeping the dirt and debris off of the paved pathways that wound around the manor. With a light sigh, she finished her breakfast and then set off to finish her tasks.

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Taking a bamboo broom from a storage space, Hao Daiyu moved to sweep the pathway in front of the manor. She figured that sweeping in front of the gate was the most practical option, given that it was also the area with the most dirt and debris.

Faint music was the only warning Hao Daiyu had before the gate to the city opened and Lady Ling entered the manor's yard. Which was surprising since it was known that Lady Ling visited the household mainly at night. That surprise, however, quickly welled into a panic. Hao Daiyu's hands reflexively tightened painfully around her broom. She felt like she was pinned in place by the attention of the Immortal in front of her, the weight of said attention completely different than even the guardsmen customers in Tonghou. Time seemed to slow as her eyes darted across the rest of the pathway and noticed just how much work was left. Then questions of propriety flooded her mind. Should she kowtow to Lady Ling? No, Lady Ling Qinnge had instructed them that such a measure wasn't necessary.

Stepping off of the walkway and bowing low, Hao Daiyu greeted the Immortal in front of her with a quiet, "Lady Ling," and prayed to the great spirits that it was the proper response.

"You may raise your head," spoke the Immortal and in the next instant, she was walking down the pathway.

Sighing with relief, Hao Daiyu raised her head and noticed that Lady Ling had already made it to the main entrance of the manor. But something about the path piqued Hao Daiyu's curiosity, and so she took a moment to more closely inspect it. The dirt and debris that was still on the pathway were completely undisturbed by Lady Ling's passing. It was like she had never walked across the pathway. It was disconcerting for Hao Daiyu, to see that a person of such power could move through the world and leave no indication of their passage. Taking a shuddering breath, she resumed sweeping the pathway.

A/N: Well, this is an idea that has been percolating through my head for quite some time. As always, enjoy the read, and critiques and criticisms are welcomed.
Also, @yrsillar another omake for the omake throne!

 

[Lena27]

Alright, @yrsillar --this my first attempt at an omake! Hope everyone enjoys... 😰

Formation: Dawn
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Chao Bo bowed before the altar in the pale morning light. The altar dedicated to Dawn, one of the Sun's aspects, was a sculpted work arrayed with mirrors. Sunbeams streamed in, bouncing off of mirrors of varying sizes, wreathing the altar in glorious sunlight. It was during these quiet hours of the morning that Chao Bo felt most in awe of the Great Spirit he worshipped. While the other faces of Sun were equally magnificent, there was a certain serenity and grace in the Dawn that both humbled him and inspired him to do better. With eyes closed, he murmured prayers to both the Dawn and the Sun as a whole.

There was a scuffling noise outside, in the temple's garden.

Chao Bo sighed and opened his eyes. This was the third time. The third time his morning prayers had been interrupted by this little urchin. Visiting hours were not until later and even then, he frowned upon unsupervised children tramping through the gardens. Really, he thought, shaking his head as he stood. Had no one taught this child to leave alone what was not theirs?

Chao Bo exited the altar room, walking staff in hand. He quietly stepped toward the temple entrance and opened the door an inch. He peered through the crack searched for the source of noise. The song of larks greeted him and early morning light shined through the temple gardens. He scanned the sundrop bushes, looking among the yellow buds for that troublesome child. This time, he was going to catch her. He knew she had to be around here somewhere and--ah.

There she was, scurrying between the fangrose crops and a sundrop bush. Chao Bo slipped through the door silently and crept across the pavillion. He walked silently to the pavillion's edge. He did not think the child would notice his approach regardless, as she was entranced by the beauty of some fangrose buds. The little girl reached forward to pluck a vermillion petal, a look of awe in her round, brown eyes.

"Ahh!" The child's yelp echoed in the morning quiet as she cradled her now bloodied fingers in her other hand, having snatched it from the flower's maw.

"Serves you right," Chao Bo chuckled.

The girl whirled around to face him. Chao Bo only had a split second to take her features in--her eyes wide and her dirty face turning pale--before she bolted. Having already played the game of chase twice this week, Chao Bo knew better than to try grabbing her. He headed towards the gates, his staff aiding him in keeping a fast pace. He quickly unlocked the gates and strode out onto the street. Chao Bo headed to the small hole in the temple wall. He did not know how this child dug such an opening in what he had believed to be solid stone but after finding the hole yesterday morning, in the wake of the child's escape, he was determined to find out. He reached the small opening, where the little girl was already struggling to get through. Chao Bo watched her squirm and squeeze her way through, marveling at how small she was. The hole should have been only big enough for a small animal to climb through. This girl could not have been any older than 6 years old. It must help, Chao Bo thought, that she was quite underfed.

She finally yanked herself through the hole. The child barely had a second to stand up before Chao Bo scooped her into his arms. She gave a yelp of surprise and immediately tried to squirm out of his grasp. Chao Bo held on tight though, unperturbed by the child's struggles. "Calm down," he said soothingly. "I'm not going to hurt you." She did not seem to be listening though.

Chao Bo carried the fitful girl back inside, nudging the door shut behind him. He gently set her down and was unsurprised when she ran for the door. Chao Bo summoned his firmest tone, strengthened by the power of the Sun spirits, and said in a deep voice "stay."

The child froze, her tiny hands on the door. Chao Bo used his staff to straighten up and turn around. He regarded the girl seriously, taking her in. She was clearly underfed and dirty but not as much as urchins he had seen in other parts of the city. Her long black hair was tangled with brambles from the temple garden and he could see that she had picked flowers and stuffed them in her robes. Someone should have taught this child better than to desecrate the temple gardens so, he thought grumpily.
He looked at her, eyes wide and frightened, and felt his irritation fading. I'm getting too old to chase around small children, he thought wearily. There was a reason Chao Bo never had children of his own. "I'm not going to hurt you," he repeated, in the gentlest tone he could manage. He turned and pointed with his staff to a pair of mats on the floor. "Sit."

Chao Bo took one of the mats for himself, sitting down heavily. The child approach the mat cautiously and sat down. There was a moment of silence as the two regarded each other. "Do you know what this place is?" Chao Bo asked. The girl shook her head hesitantly. "This is a Temple of Sun, where Sun spirits and their cousin-spirits of Light and Life are honored daily. The gardens which you so admire are cared for by myself, for I am the caretaker of this temple. I may not be as learned as a priest but I devote myself to care of these gardens, of the temple's walls and alters.

"It is in grave error to descrecate any part of the temple. And that includes," he intoned, "picking flowers."

The child quailed under Chao Bo's heavy gaze. However, she clutched the petals and flowers in her pockets covetously.

"What is your name, child?"

"L-Lai Meixiu" she responded in a small voice.

Chao Bo grunted. "Hm. That is a lovely name. Well, Lai Meixiu. You must ask the faces of Sun for forgiveness. Come with me." He stood slowly, leaning against his staff, and walked to a doorway at the back of the room. Lai Meixiu hesitated and then followed him. He led her to a sequestered room which he opened with a key.

Lai Meixiu gasped. Chao Bo glanced at the child and saw her gazing in the scene, astounded. The room was full of windows and mirrors. Beams of morning light shined through the glass and bounced off of various glass surfaces. Some of the window panes were kaleidoscopes of colored glass that refracted the sunlight in a breathtaking array. In the center of the room was an altar. As she approached the altar for a closer look, Lai Meixiu thought it looked more like six altars that were all interconnected. It seemed that the mirrors were all strategically placed to redirect the sunbeams to one altar, leaving the others in relative shadow. That one altar was also made up of smaller mirrors as well as structures made from both stained glass and clear glass. The bottom of the altar was a shallow pool of water which glimmered in an almost mesmerizing fashion.

Though it was more difficult to see the details of the five other altars, Lai Meixiu could see that they all shared similarities and yet were also unique. The one most covered in shadow had some sort of mist hanging about it. The painted glass gave it an almost dusky quality. However, Lai Meixiu found her eyes drawn toward a different altar, one whose mosaics gleamed in the reflected light, giving off hues of crimson, burnt orange and deepening yellow. The little girl's eyes drank in the details greedily, trying to memorize the beauty before her.

Chao Bo cleared his throat. The child reluctantly looked away from the altars to give him her attention. He motioned her forward. "Stand in front of the Dawn altar. You desecrated this temple just after Dawn's awakening, in it's light. Therefore you must ask the face of Dawn forgiveness." He waited until she was in position. "Now return what you took from the temple," he said sternly, pointing to the altar.

Lai Meixiu breathed in sharply, her little hands balled into fists within her pockets. She looked at Chao Bo sullenly, with a pouting lip. His stern gaze did not waver and she looked down at the floor.

Lai Meixiu slowly brought up handfuls of flowers from her pockets. She held the crumpled petals in her hands and after a pained moment, scattered them before the altar. Many of them fluttered to the bottom and floated on the shallow layer of water. However some of them never came down. Amazed, Lai Meixiu watched as some petals seemed to disappear into the sunlight. One ochre petal passed through one beam and seemed to disintegrate. For a moment, all the altar's light was suffused with a similar shade of ochre before returning the white light of dawn.

Chao Bo watched with a thoughtful expression on his lined face. "It would seem that Dawn has forgiven you, child. I thought as much, for she is far more forgiving then some of her more fierce, warrior brothers. Now that is done with, we must confront other matters. Come with me."

He hobbled out of the room, taking Lai Meixiu by the hand. She followed reluctantly and looked behind her at the breathtaking altars one last time.


Chao Bo studied the small child who sat across from him at the table. He had sat her down while he made some tea and food for them both. When he came back into the room with the meal, he found her rapt attention on the food in his hand. He now watched as she dug in. The child was scarcely taking the time to swallow. He was surprised she had not choked yet. He left her to eat and came back with a bandage and some cleansing ointment. She barely looked up until he took her hand. Lai Meixiu watched as he bandaged her finger where the rosefang flower had cut her. She almost immediately returned to her meal. Chao Bo watched and wondered who had taught the girl her manners, or lack thereof. No thanks given for the meal or for mending her wounds, he mused. "Where," he began, "are your parents?"

Lai Meixiu looked up at him mid-bite, a guilty expression on here face. "N...not here."

"Clearly" he responded dryly. There was a beat of silence. "Where are they?"


**To be continued**