by Rick Scott
Contents
Title
Chapter 1 – Ten-Year Rope
Chapter 2 - Shinoto
Chapter 3 - Waru
Chapter 4 – Xian Lu
Chapter 5 – Olja
Chapter 6 – The Peach Tree
Chapter 7 – Oni
Chapter 8 – Reasons
Chapter 9 - Interrogation
Chapter 10 - Repercussions
Chapter 11 - Preparations
Chapter 12 – Jin Yu
Chapter 13 - Departure
Chapter 14 – Tsu
Chapter 15 – Second Chance
Chapter 16 – Secrets
Chapter 17 - revelations
Chapter 18 – Sellblade
Chapter 19 – River woes
Chapter 20 – Upstream
Chapter 21 - River Monster
Chapter 22 – Amatsu
Chapter 23 - Amikazu
Chapter 24 – Nowhere
Chapter 25 – Usurped
Chapter 26 – The Mystic School
Chapter 27 – Catching Prey
Chapter 28 – For but a rope
Chapter 29 – Hidden Gem
Chapter 30 – Fort Dohma
Chapter 31 – Broken Sheath
Chapter 32 – Forced Sacrifice
Chapter 33 - True Intentions
Chapter 34 – Rope Tricks
Chapter 35 - Control
Chapter 36 – Contemplating Chaos
Chapter 37 – First Step
Chapter 38 – A promise and a plan
Chapter 39 –Break Out
Chapter 40 - Separation
Chapter 41 - Turmoil
Chapter 42 – Aftershock
Chapter 43 – Negotiations
Chapter 44 – Emergence
Chapter 45 – Darkness Comes
Chapter 46 - Survival
Chapter 47 – Last Chance
Chapter 48 – Off White
Chapter 49 – Epilogue
Author’s Note
Sundered Soul
A Wuxia/Xianxia Cultivation Novel
Book I
By
Rick Scott
Copyright © 2019 by Rick Scott
All Rights Reserved.
VER 1.00
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
* * *
Acknowledgments
To my wife and kids. This is all for you guys!
Special thanks to all my alpha and beta readers too numerous to name but who watched me bring this book together from scratch and helped me do it!
You guys did wonders for the book!
Thank you!
For more great Wuxia and GameLit reads, check out these links!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GameLitSociety/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/WesternWuxia/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cultivationnovels/
Other Books in series
Crystal Shards Online
Book 1- Dodge Tank
Book 2 - Shard Warrior
Book 3 - Shard Wraith
Book 4 - Gun Blade
Crystal Shards Online Omnibus - Books 1 - 3
Will you leave me a review? Your feedback and thoughts really make a difference, especially for people who want to know what the book is about. If you can, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com.
My eternal thanks in advance if you do so!
-Rick Scott
Chapter 1 – Ten-Year Rope
Kenji stared forlorn at the young woman at the center of the village square.
Like all Han women, she was lithe and fair of skin, with dark hair that spilled to her mid-back over her long ceremonial robes. Kenji was not the only one who gazed upon her. Shinoto, the shopkeeper’s daughter, was well-known throughout Han Village for her grace and beauty. Even now she smiled with a giddy excitement and had even waved to him before taking her place within the center of the square.
Shinoto…so special.
Anyone else would perhaps be wracked with nerves and frozen with fear for what she was about to do. But not Shinoto. Bright and fearless as always, Kenji thought. She was perhaps more special to Kenji than anyone else. But that specialness would end today. Today was the day that Shinoto would cease to be simply his friend, and forever become his better.
Shame crept up Kenji’s spine like a snake coiling a tree. A sickness churned in the pit of his stomach, reminding him of the one thing that separated him from everyone else in the village.
And it would now separate him from Shinoto as well.
Kenji sat at the back of the village assembly, with the other children of the village. Even while seated cross-legged in lotus position, he was a head taller than his peers. But they were peers in terms of ability only. Those next to him were boys eight and nine years old—only just starting in their ascension ranks, learning the basics of how to cultivate Qi by channeling the vital essence present in all things and storing it within their doma.
It was an ability Kenji had still yet to grasp, much less master.
In terms of age, Kenji’s last true peer was now in the middle of the square—Shinoto—17 years old, as he was.
But soon even that would change.
The other villagers sat closer to the edge of the ceremony, where a large reversal rope lay coiled in the middle of the square. The rope was thick, and dyed the bright yellow of a ten-year braid. Kenji knew the ropes well. Both their color and thickness were important, second only to the rune charms painstakingly woven into the thick braids of the rope itself. Thin pieces of red parchment were etched with fine brushstrokes of the old language, serving as conduits to channel sacred energies to activate the rope itself.
The village elders sat upon stools at the edge of the square. To an outsider it would perhaps seem a farce. The elders were perhaps only ten or twelve years old in appearance, but their true age was well beyond that. While not truly immortal like the mystic warriors of legend, the secret rebirthing techniques of the Han clan could make one live over a dozen childhoods.
Master Wu, the village chief, was one such as that. Kenji did not know his true age, but it was rumored he had reached the eighth level of ascension more than ten times, and each time within only a decade. That meant that he had only ever aged to perhaps fourteen or fifteen, before undergoing a rebirth again.
Currently Master Wu appeared as a twelve-year-old boy, but to observe him for only a moment, one would notice the distinct mannerisms of a much older soul. The other elders of the village were likewise youthful but wizened, including Kenji’s father, Xian Lu, who sat as an adolescent of perhaps 14 years on the chief’s far left.
His hair was long and tied in a traditional topknot fashion, as was proper for a village elder. His robes too, were trimmed with an edge of jade, signifying an 8th-tier mastery and with four stripes of gold. This instantly distinguished him from any normal 14-year-old, who would be privileged to wear even a violet-trimmed robe of 6th-tier ascension at fourteen.
Kenji’s robe, at seventeen years old, was still trimmed with the base tier of off-white.
Kenji tried to make eye contact with his father, but as was usually the case when it came to ceremonies, Xian Lu glanced away, perhaps preferring
not to be reminded of the shame that was his son, who sat within the ranks of those unskilled in the mystic arts.
An emptiness crept into Kenji’s stomach and he looked instead to the other members of the village clan. The higher-ranked families sat closer to the front. Like some of the elders, a few among them were advanced enough in their ascension ranks to have been rebirthed at a very young age, some even now appearing as only teenagers while well into their middle years.
Others, sat behind them, made up the majority of the Han clan: normal folks who cultivated at a far more casual pace and appeared in their perpetual 30s, rebirthing perhaps once every twenty years and regressing for as many years as they could afford.
Rapid advancement and regression came at a price, both in terms of training and divine materials. Only those with wealth to spare could afford the exotic pills and potions that could double or triple one’s advancement. And regression was no different.
The yellow ten-year rope prepared for Shinoto, which was now being tied about her waist, had no doubt cost her parents over ten taels of silver to procure. To accumulate that much wealth, Kenji would need to work the orchards for over a year. But being from a merchant family, the cost was perhaps not so burdensome for her.
His heart sunk yet again. He had thought to ask Shinoto to the harvest festival in the fall. But a stray thought was all it was now. He was perhaps a fool to even think that he could ever court someone as well-stationed as Shinoto, much less afford her dowry.
Although Kenji’s father could certainly afford it.
As a village elder and a seasoned rebirther, Xian Lu oversaw the creation of all reversal ropes. But even if he was generous enough to loan Kenji such a sum, which he most certainly was not, there was another far more insurmountable gulf that separated himself from Shinoto in terms of station.
Even now, Kenji envied her as she sat upon her knees in seiza position, channeling her Qi. She breathed deeply while working her arms back and forth with each breath, as if pushing the air itself with her palms. A taiko drum banged rhythmically in the backdrop, in time with her breathing—both as encouragement and to give gravity to the auspiciousness of the occasion.
The Han clan was famous throughout the entire Zhou region for their secret rebirthing techniques, fabled to have been passed down by the great goddess of Time herself. And while most of their trade was in producing the Qi-concentrated fruits used by the Zhou Empire to create the powerful pills and potions to advance ascension, what truly made them famous was what they were about to witness today.
As his father would say, ‘To rebirth an orange tree is mundane, but to rebirth a child is to create a gift from the heavens itself.’
So like him, Kenji thought, smirking up at his father. So full of poetry when it came to his work, but so little when it came to anything else.
Long minutes passed as the drumbeat steadily increased and a sweat broke on Shinoto’s delicate brow. Heat and steam escaped in a vapor from within her robes as she cycled the Qi from within her body and channeled it into the yellow rope bound about her waist. The rune scripts began to glow with luminescence and the rope constricted. Then in movements as slow as the motion of her arms, Shinoto began to shrink within her clothing as steam billowed from her pores.
When the final drum beat struck, Shinoto reopened her eyes as a seven-year-old girl and the entire village, save for Kenji, burst into cheers.
Chapter 2 - Shinoto
“Congratulations, elder sister.”
Kenji bowed deeply to the seven-year-old girl who was once his friend, careful to add the title as a form of respect. Despite her new age, Shinoto still looked the same. Dark hair with elegant features, but where she was once beautiful, she had become an adorably cute child once again. Her eyes, however, shone like that of a girl her true age. It was the one thing his people said could never be reversed by the ropes.
The eyes.
Shinoto proved the point by rolling hers at him with a playful giggle, something she did often when he would say something ridiculous.
“You don’t need to call me that, you idiot,” Shinoto said, swatting him on the thigh. “I’m still the same person I was before the ceremony.”
Kenji smiled at her graciousness. They both knew it was a lie. The blessings of the Han arts had literally transformed Shinoto into a younger self, able to re-cultivate the eight stages of ascension and double her density of Qi, all while retaining her 17 years of experience in a body a fraction of that age.
While he was happy for her, seeing her like this troubled him inside. No longer was she the beautiful young woman he had hoped to dance with at the festival, to cross the line between friendship and something more. Now she was a child with a gold stripe added to her off-white-trimmed robe.
To find a mate was a difficult task within the Han clan. Not only did someone suitable need to be found, both in terms of station and prestige, but their rebirth and cultivation cycles needed to also match. Couples would often delay a rebirth in tandem to have children and then likewise roll-back to the youth and strength of their twenties to raise them.
But there could be no such match for Kenji now—at least not with Shinoto.
His stomach dropped as an emptiness consumed him again.
She’d moved on without him.
He had just lost his chances with Shinoto, forever…
* * *
The fireworks of the post-ceremony celebration flashed and popped in the clear blue sky, sending puffs of white smoke falling over the village. The square was alive with music and dancing and the smell of roasting meat-skewers mixed with that of piping-hot broth and steaming buns and noodles. Kenji avoided a team of dancing children as he balanced two bowls of noodles in his palms, crossing the street to where Shinoto was seated upon the porch of her father’s general store.
He sat next to her and handed her one of the bowls.
“Did you ask for extra chili oil?” Shinoto said, inspecting the noodles with a twirl of her chopsticks.
“Taste and find out.” He grinned at her. “Cheers.”
Kenji knocked his bowl with hers and then slurped a long string of thin noodles, enjoying the flavor of soy sauce, mixed with seared pork and chilies. He savored both the food and the time to relax. There would be no work today, due to the celebration and Kenji hoped to make the most of it.
Despite her new appearance, Kenji found it as easy to talk with Shinoto as he always had. Between slurps of noodles he listened to her as she laid out her new plan for herself now that she had been rebirthed.
Rebirthing had been a goal she had worked towards for over a year, but Shinoto had had trouble cultivating Qi at first. It was why they were often paired together throughout their youth. And while she had worked hard to overcome her difficulties, progressing from first tier to eighth in less than a year, she was not considered a prodigy by any means. She had only just reached the eighth tier of elemental ascension a month ago at age 17, while a true prodigy could perhaps reach that stage at ten. That was the other reason she was so special to Kenji. She was considered a dullard like he was when it came to the mystic arts.
Or at least she had been…until today.
“If I reach the 4th tier by the time I’m 14 again, I could perhaps qualify to join one of the sects of the mystic schools. Then maybe advance to study in the capital. Can you imagine if I were to land a posting at the front? To explore the world beyond the Great Wall?”
Kenji chuckled. “You’d be ready to go by 14, you think?”
“I should have a much better chance against the other clan entries.” She then winked at him. “I’d really be 24, remember?”
She laughed as she nudged him. This was yet another reason Shinoto was special to him. She could perhaps live a much easier life remaining a storekeeper in Han Village, but she craved more. Shinoto yearned to see the outside world, while most Han people, himself included, were happy to stay within the shelter and safety of the clan. Even for him, in as low a station as he
was, he was well-off compared to other clans. Simply being Han came with an air of prestige and privilege.
And at least life would remain predictable, if not mundane for him. The life of a mystic artist, on the other hand, was fraught with endless training and hardships and would most likely come to a violent end on some bloody battlefield, fighting any number of the Zhou Empire’s many enemies to the north.
But besides all that, simply being able to join a mystic school sect was a rare achievement and yet another path denied to Kenji. While the artisan clans within the empire each had a specialty, they were limited to learning only those techniques. The Han were, of course, renowned for their rebirthing techniques, the Kurogane for their steel and metal works, the Shiruku for their silk and textiles, and the Amatsu for their medicinal and healing arts. But once a year, the empire recruited the best and brightest of the four artisan clans to join one of the mystic school sects, where the martial techniques were taught: Blade, Fist, Spear, and Soul. In such schools, reaching the eighth tier of ascension was only the beginning. There were levels upon levels beyond that, measured in Dans, each with eight tiers of their own. There was no limit on what Dan one could reach, even as far as to gain immortality, if the legends were true.
It was perhaps the reason the Han clan was privileged among the rest. To have a similar system of dual ascension with their rebirthing and gold stripes, put them on nearly the same status.
Kenji sighed inwardly. Shinoto was not gifted, yet she was never one to give up on her dreams. Even if it took her years. Already she was preparing to train seven more years just to get a chance to live her dream of becoming a mystic warrior. And being a Han, it was likely to come true. The schools would much more readily accept a gold-striped third or fourth-tier, than even a prodigy from another clan.
Meanwhile, Kenji would likely remain a dullard at 24 when Shinoto eventually ventured off to one of the mystic schools—following her dream.