A Thousand Li

by Tao Wong

  “Realistically, whenever it is convenient for the both of you,” Yu Kun said. “Most of the others joining us are in similar situations. Some of them, like Wu Ying, have skills that are in demand in the sect. But not to the same level. It’s only our friend here who could stay in the sect and not risk himself.”

  Wu Ying shook his head. “I think you’re overestimating how much they really need my skills.” He added under his breath, “And how much they are charging me for my manuals.”

  In truth, for nearly any other manual, he probably would have been fine. But if he was to choose the Five Winds manual, it was nearly five times as expensive as the next most expensive body cultivation manual. On top of that, he also needed to purchase the soul cultivation manual that worked alongside it.

  And while that particular soul cultivation manual was not exclusive to the Double Soul, Double Body Sect, having been taken from a competing sect over six centuries earlier, the number of manuals for that particular soul cultivation exercise was likely to be in the low single digits. After all, the competing sect had been destroyed, leaving its legacy to be scattered to the winds.

  “Maybe. But you’re still coming, right?” You Kun said. “We do need to discuss how we are distributing the herbs you will be gathering too.”

  Wu Ying raised an eyebrow. “What is there to discuss?”

  “Well, among other things, one of the reasons why some of the others are joining us is because I promised that we would distribute some of the contribution points from the herbs you gathered.”

  “Why?” Tou He asked.

  “Well, because we will be going slower, and just killing the cranes won’t be worth our trip by itself.”

  Wu Ying sighed. “I’m amenable to my usual split with other martial groups, but they’ll have to guard me and carry what I tell them to, if necessary.” It was not the first time he’d had to share his herbs, especially when he joined other martial teams.

  “I thought so. And the usual ratio was what I suggested and most accepted.”

  “Most?” Wu Ying said doubtfully.

  “There was one lady who had issues with it. She did say that she’d speak with you directly though and has confirmed she’s coming,” Yu Kun said.

  Wu Ying stared at his friend, noticing the slight smile on his lips. A nagging suspicion blossomed as he asked, “It wouldn’t happen to be Cultivator Xiang Wei, would it?”

  Yu Kun’s grin was answer enough.

  “Have I told you how I hate you sometimes?” Wu Ying asked.

  “I figured it would be good for us to keep an eye on her, since we’re leaving. Especially since you still think she might have something to do with the dark sect, no?”

  Wu Ying considered the question. He had kept an eye and nose out for her and any additional issues. Unfortunately, he had not seen, or smelled, anything. Xiang Wen continued to cultivate, browse the library, visit the apothecarist hall, and generally act like a normal visiting cultivator. There was nothing suspicious about her or her actions, other than the lingering taint of corruption.

  As for any other hints of malicious dealings, Wu Ying had not seen a single sign. Occasionally he caught glimpses of Xiang Wen in the library, and even rarer, he spotted Wan Yan wandering about. She was almost always with one of the inner sect cultivators of the Double Soul, Double Body Sect, sometimes speaking with other visiting cultivators. From their demeanor and clothing, Wu Ying guessed they were nobles like her. Probably individuals she had known before her ascension to the Verdant Green Waters.

  That was something that he had learnt from Li Yao—most nobles knew one another long before they entered a sect. It both solidified their standing among the government—having members in various sects—and provided them an advantage over peasants like him. After all, having friends who were all connections from childhood provide some secret or restricted cultivation exercise manual was easier than if they were all strangers.

  At one point, Wu Ying would have been angry about that. But by now, he was just done. There was no point in being angry about individuals making the most use of their resources. Even if he himself had no access to it, it just meant he had to work harder. And hard work was at least one thing he was not afraid of.

  “No, I don’t think she is. At least, she hasn’t done anything new,” Wu Ying said.

  “And you have been keeping an eye out, right?” Yu Kun said.

  Wu Ying just rolled his eyes as they continued their walk. As they turned the corner, the trio was surprised by the sudden interruption of violence and chi. The group halted, hands falling toward weapons or taking stances.

  A moment later, the walls of the inn ahead of them exploded, a body in orange and blue robes following the shattered wood to enter the empty street. The cultivator flipped in midair, landing with grace on his feet, one hand on his curved sword. Amusingly, Wu Ying spotted a finger-sized piece of wood hanging from the man’s bushy beard, having been caught in the explosion and movement.

  Walking from the shattered wood wall, dust and smoke from the damage swirling around her, was a young lady. She wore the Double Soul, Double Body inner sect robes and, to Wu Ying’s surprise, carried a pair of short spears. The points of the spears crisscrossed behind her back as she stalked the other man.

  “Say that again!” she snarled, motes of metal dust glinting and swirling in her unleashed aura. It pushed at the smoke, clearing it, even as the air around her glittered in the moonlit night. Outlines of a creature, some animal, formed as her chi pulsed.

  “You’re damaged. Just like the rest of your sect,” the sword cultivator said as the earth beneath his feet cracked, mud flowing to cover his lower extremities.

  Wu Ying raised an eyebrow as he watched the pair of fighters. Around the woman, the outline of a metal bear formed, its arms elongated and twisted to follow the pair of spears. Wu Ying cocked his head, squinting as her aura took on the shape of the bear in greater detail in his extended senses. She even smelled like the animal, all woodland fur, wood and earth chi mixed with the metal of her soul cultivation.

  “An animal soul,” Yu Kun muttered.

  “What?” Tou He said, watching the pair trade insults.

  Surprisingly, no guards had arrived, even with the amount of energy the pair were spilling into the air.

  “Sometimes, a cultivator’s soul is distorted or mixed with an animal’s. Perhaps they were one before, in their previous life, and never changed enough. Perhaps they had a severe karmic imbalance.” Yu Kun shrugged. “Whatever the reason, their soul is imprinted with the animal. They generally can’t cultivate normally but…”

  “The Double Soul, Double Body Sect focuses on the different,” Wu Ying finished.

  “Yes.”

  As the earth cultivator continued to speak, the mud crawled all the way up his body to his neck. He still kept talking, delaying the fight while coming up with creative insults about her taste in food and her sexual preferences.

  The group fell back without a word, choosing not to get involved as they spied on the free entertainment. They were not the only ones—farther down the street and out of the inn’s higher floors, heads appeared.

  “Not a very practical fighting technique,” Tou He muttered, eyeing the earth cultivator.

  “What? You don’t leave the people you challenge enough time to ready themselves?” Wu Ying shook his head morosely. “For shame, my friend. For shame.”

  “Useful if you were the ambushee,” Yu Kun pointed out.

  “Except his control is slipshod.” As Tou He spoke, a clump of mud fell to the ground around the earth cultivator. At the same time, a flare of earth chi broke from his aura, splashing the surroundings with its energy.

  “Well, yes,” Wu Ying said. His eyes narrowed, he extended his aura sense to touch the other cultivator’s aura, gauging it for a second before pulling his senses back when the aura almost snapped at him. “I don’t think that technique is meant to be used at the Energy Storage stage.”

  Th
ere were nods from the other two. It was a difference in progression philosophy. One group felt that learning and pushing forward with the most powerful, most complex cultivation techniques an individual could handle was the best method. It meant that when the cultivator reached the next stage, they had a ready-made technique they could use immediately, one that was powerful and suitable for the cultivation level.

  The other teaching philosophy focused more on current usefulness. Students were taught stage-appropriate techniques, ones that could be used at the present level, and ignored techniques at the next stage until the cultivator broke through. It meant that at the start, they were often lacking in appropriately strengthened techniques, but it also meant they were often well-versed and stronger at the later stages than those who were looking forward.

  Due to the speed Tou He and Wu Ying had progressed, they both were focused on catching up within their own levels of progress. Neither had significant fighting techniques, though Tou He at least had a few that tapped into his fire aspect. Wu Ying, without an elemental aspect to his cultivation, was bereft of even that advantage.

  Though at least Wu Ying had his sword skills. And his toys like the Brilliant Woo Petal Bracer. And his Spirit-level sword that he had yet to really use.

  Wu Ying’s meandering thoughts were interrupted by a sudden surge of chi from both combatants. They launched themselves at one another, the bear-lady leading her charge with one extended spear while keeping the second close to her body. Her opponent actually ignored his sword, now that he was covered in mud, and charged forward bare-handed.

  The incongruity of the attacks—bear-woman using weapons, sword-wielder ignoring his—made Wu Ying’s jaw drop a little, even as the pair traded blows that were nearly too fast to watch. The two were close to peak Energy Storage, the energy from their attacks sending gusts of wind blowing back from their location and leaving the walls and ground scarred by lethal intent.

  Even as Wu Ying watched, the bear’s paw—the spearhead—was thrust at a chest only for it to be blocked, consumed by the mud, then freed by the strike of the other shaft against solidified mud. Rather than stay on the defensive, the mud man stomped on the ground, sending a wave of earth to flood up the woman’s feet, only for her to jump and break free.

  Both fighters were gifted, using their respective weapons and abilities with skill, but Wu Ying saw that the earth cultivator was fading. On the other hand, the spear-wielder’s aura intensified with each second, the aura solidifying and the spearhead gaining additional tearing heads.

  “Should we intervene?” Tou He said, sounding concerned.

  He had reason to be, for the ground was being scoured by the bear cultivator’s metal aura, the sweeping forms of her spears leaving scars on the ground and grinding away mud. A splash of blood, a flicker of control lost, and the mud-covered cultivator staggered away, hands gripping together to send a wave of mud outward. It struck, only to break against an invisible but audible barrier as the floating Elder above them blocked the attack with a clap of his hands.

  A moment later, the two combatants, the focus of the sound, were pushed aside, each staggering a few feet away. Before they could continue, the Elder had floated down to chest height. The Double Soul, Double Body Elder studied the pair silently, almost daring them to continue their duel. Neither were sufficiently caught up in their rage and offered him a bow in greeting.

  By that point, Yu Kun grabbed his friends’ arms and dragged them away before they were implicated in the fight or, more likely, the cleanup. As they hurried away, portions of the epic scolding that the pair of cultivators were receiving drifted to them.

  “Took them long enough to stop it,” Wu Ying said.

  Fights like that in the middle of the Verdant Green Waters Sect, or even the town beneath the mountain the sect resided upon, would be stopped much, much faster. There was no way their Sect would allow such an unsanctioned duel. That was what the dueling rings were for.

  “Different philosophies. They feel that some minor scuffles are acceptable over here,” Yu Kun said.

  “And how do you know that?” Tou He asked.

  “I might have had to defend my honor a few times,” he replied with a grin. “Anyway, it’s not as if I have a lot to do other than gamble while waiting for you guys.”

  Wu Ying rolled his eyes but held off on vocal judgment. After all, his friend was there as much for Wu Ying’s good as anything. Still, as they hurried off, Wu Ying could not help but recall how long it took for the Elder to arrive. It seemed that security in the Double Soul, Double Body Sect was less vigorous than in his own.

  ***

  Xiang Wen stared at Wu Ying, arms crossed, while the group stood a short distance away at the docks, waiting for the pair to finish their discussion. Due to Wu Ying’s and her own busy schedules, neither had had time to meet and finish the discussion that Yu Kun had begun, leaving them to complete the negotiation on the day of their departure.

  Wu Ying had to admit, as he stared at the young lady, that she was pretty. Not beautiful like Fairy Yang. Where the Fairy might receive the devotion of multiple poets for decades of their lives, each competing with the other and driving themselves to greater and greater heights of creativity, Xiang Wen might receive the occasional verse to her looks. A stanza to her elegance. A quartet to her lustrous smile.

  Unfortunately, all of that was marred by the smell of corruption that surrounded her. That, and the unhappy glare she directed at him.

  “I want half of what you will receive,” Xiang Wen said again.

  “Not a chance.” Wu Ying crossed his arms.

  “You owe me.”

  “I do. But I’m already giving the team twenty percent of what I will be bringing back. If I give you half, I won’t even have half of what I gather.” Wu Ying shook his head. “I need those contribution points.”

  “You. Owe. Me.”

  Moving his lip, he considered his options. Finally, he spoke up. “I’ll give you three-tenths of what I gather.”

  Before he even finished speaking, Xiang Wen had agreed.

  The next thing Wu Ying knew, she had hurried away to join the rest of the team waiting at the boats, ready to be taken to the nearest village, where they would be riding off. As he watched her scurry away, he could not help but wonder if he had been taken advantage of.

  As he walked over to the group, a small smile crossed his lips as he remembered her dripping wet body.

  Well, maybe both of them had taken advantage of each other.

  When Xiang Wen turned around and caught him smiling, she glared at him almost as if she could read his mind. Wu Ying wiped the smile off his face before he proceeded to be introduced to the rest of the group by Yu Kun.

  To Wu Ying’s surprise, two of the others joining them were members of the Double Soul, Double Body Sect. The pair were brothers, though they could not have been any more different in physical appearance. Other than a slight similarity in their eyes and chin, the pair were opposites.

  The older brother was short and pudgy, defying the norms of most cultivators by keeping his padding. His brother, on the other hand, was stick-thin, gaunt in a way that one would almost accuse his brother of stealing all his food. His hollow cheeks and deep-set eyes stared at Wu Ying and Yu Kun until the pair moved on.

  The last addition was Wan Yan—an addition that prompted Yu Kun to offer an apologetic shrug. While none of them enjoyed her company, she was a fellow Sect member. The female cultivator just stared at Wu Ying when he greeted her, not even deigning to offer him a greeting in return.

  Rather than take offense, Wu Ying ignored her and followed the group onto the waiting boat. Soon enough, they pushed off from the dock and entered the river, heading downriver to the fishing village closest to their destination.

  As they departed the sect, Wu Ying could not help but look forward to their little adventure. As much as he enjoyed studying and practice, getting out of the city was important. The constant presence of humanity, the over
powering smells, the lack of lush greenery, it took its toll on him. Now, as they headed out into bountiful nature, he felt a small portion of his growing tension loosen.

  Chapter 17

  The entire trip only took a few days before they were at the foothills of the mountain range the flock of birds inhabited. Along the way, they traipsed along village paths formed by the infrequent travel of other wandering cultivators and the occasional brave forester or intrepid merchant.

  It had been nearly a day since they had seen the last of the small hamlets nearby, the surrounding lands fertile but infrequently cultivated. The centuries-old bamboo forest they traveled through sprawled across the land, the ground only sparsely lit by scattered beams of light. The chirp of crickets, the flutter of fleeing birds surrounded the group, even as the constant sway of the tall bamboo rippled through their senses.

  The trip had been relatively uneventful. A number of demon beasts had accosted them. Long, jade-green snakes that lay in wait while they rode past, striking from ambush. A herd of angry sows that threw themselves at the group’s animals, their skin and muscles made of hardened metal that they had consumed from the remnants of the red soil that lay in the surroundings. Even a couple of screaming monkeys had thrown their fragrant attacks before scampering away, overwhelmed by the disgusted and aggressive response of the cultivators.

  None of those events were particularly onerous to the experienced group, the beasts struck down in rapid order. The group could have made better time if it was not for frequent breaks they took as Wu Ying pulled aside and scurried deeper into the woods in search of a distinctive scent. However, none complained, especially when he extracted a handful of crystallized demon beast cores from a bush.

  “These plants only grow when there is a particular combination of spirit stones, adjacent plants, and chi in the environment. It’s likely these cores were buried in the past by another animal, and it never returned for them,” Wu Ying explained as they rode off, purposely staying vague.

  It wasn’t because he was jealously guarding his knowledge for fear of being discarded. It was more a general concern for his friends in the future. There were at least a half dozen other plants of similar nature and appearance which could lead his friends and the others astray. At least two of those plants were highly poisonous, and another was an active threat to cultivators with its climbing ivies and sharp thorns.