A Thousand Li Books 1-3: An Omnibus Collection for a Xianxia Cultivation Series (A Thousand Li Omnibus)

by Tao Wong

  “But it’s nothing that can’t be dealt with later,” he said. “Come, let’s get your arm looked at properly. And see if there is any food left.”

  Liu Tsong broke into a light laugh, which was punctuated by another bone-shaking thud as the Elders fought. Together, Wu Ying and Liu Tsong limped over to the remaining cultivators.

  ***

  The remainder of the battle between the Elders and the taotei was anticlimactic. In short order, the Elders left the sightlines of the group, tearing up the mountain as they pursued the monster. Wu Ying could not find it within himself to care. Even the fighting techniques the Elders used were so far outside of Wu Ying’s, and most of the other cultivators’, experience, it was like asking a three-year-old to learn to grow rice by watching his family. The three-year-old was more likely to cause harm than grow a proper rice stalk—either over-watering, planting in the wrong direction, or crushing the rice plant. All things in the proper time, in the proper order.

  Knowing this, Wu Ying helped to organize the aid station, boiling water, cleaning wounds, and prepping food. Exhausted or not, Wu Ying was one of the better-off cultivators, especially after he had cleaned and bandaged his wounds. The addition of a flesh-mending pill helped, the anti-pain properties providing Wu Ying some succor.

  It was to an organized and exhausted group the Elders returned to, smiling and joking. Elder Wei was the sole individual who looked unhappy, the loss of her treasured pill cauldron weighing on her.

  “Good, very good. Start another fire. I have a haunch of the taotei. Let us eat, drink wine, and be merry,” Elder Po said, his face flushed with victory.

  “We should rest, heal, and return to the main group. Elder Dong is likely to be worried,” Elder Wei cautioned instead.

  “Bah! Let him worry. We can send a messenger talisman if you are concerned,” Elder Po said. “As the formation is down, it should be no issue.”

  “Ah Li?” Elder Wei said, turning to Elder Li.

  “Let us stay. I have another set of formation flags we can set up. Less complicated, though less powerful. It should be sustainable solely from the ambient chi,” Elder Li said.

  “Fine.” Elder Wei walked aside and pulled a talisman from her storage ring.

  A few whispered words, then Elder Wei folded the talisman, forming a paper crane that she tossed into the air. The paper crane beat its wings, flying in a straight line toward their base camp.

  “Where is my fire!” Elder Po said, stomping around the clearing till he found a suitable spot. “Ye Fan, bring your earth flame over. It shall taste all the better.”

  ***

  A couple of hours later, as the group enjoyed the roasted taotei haunch, Wu Ying could not help but agree. The succulent and chi-infused meat was lightly gamey, the taste of garlic cloves and crushed herbs suffusing the meat. The taotei skin was perfectly dry and had bubbled up as moisture fled the fatty flesh, creating a light and puffy crackling that shattered and spread the dry fat through the mouth with each bite.

  “So, mphhf, good!” Li Yao, who had woken at last, sat propped up against a pair of convenient blades. In her hands was a chunk of meat, which she tore into.

  Beside her, Liu Tsong sat, having discarded her normally graceful demeanor to follow Li Yao’s example.

  “Unfair,” Tou He said from his spot on the ground. Due to his injuries, he could not eat any of the solid food. Wu Ying looked at his friend with concern once more, only to be offered a smile. “Stop worrying. You are worse than my old Master.”

  “But your injuries—”

  “Will heal,” Liu Tsong said for Tou He. “There is some semi-permanent damage, especially to his spine and hips. But those can be fixed at the sect.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that.” Wu Ying looked down, the slice of meat in his hand suddenly tasting like ash.

  “You needed an opening. And you didn’t disappoint,” Tou He said.

  “Rubbish. I did nothing to it,” Wu Ying said, recalling his attack. How he had put everything he could into the strike only to see the taotei shake it off.

  “You did well nonetheless,” Chao Kun said, dropping heavily down beside them. His actions prompted the martial specialist to wince, bruised and torn muscles protesting. “You were fighting a Core cultivation monster and managed to injure and slow it. That is something to be proud of.”

  When Wu Ying continued to look down, Li Yao threw a piece of meat at Wu Ying’s face. It splattered on his cheek then slid down to the ground. Flushed with anger, Wu Ying looked at the source of the attack to see Li Yao holding a small rock next.

  “No taking my credit. That wound in its side was mine first,” Li Yao said.

  “I wasn’t—”

  “And no feeling down. We’re alive. Many others aren’t. We’ll burn some incense sticks and paper money when we return. And get stronger. That’s all you can do as a martial specialist,” Li Yao said.

  “I’m not a martial specialist,” Wu Ying replied, but seeing Li Yao toss the stone down beside her, he found himself smiling.

  “No. But you fight like a badly trained one,” Chao Kun said, slapping Wu Ying on the back. “Which makes you better than most others.”

  “Hey!”

  “My apologies, Liu Tsong. You were… well. You are not that good,” Chao Kun admitted, and it was Liu Tsong’s turn to toss a piece of meat at Chao Kun. Of course, the senior martial specialist was more adept than Wu Ying, intercepting and swallowing the flying piece of meat with ease.

  “Better than you. Punching the taotei in the head. What? You didn’t think it had as thick a head as you?” Liu Tsong taunted.

  Wu Ying smiled, watching his friends revel in the food and the fact that they were alive. Even Tou He, too sick and disallowed from eating, was smiling. As Wu Ying turned his head about, he spotted Li Yao smiling at him, and he flushed, ducking his head. Well. They’d survived. And it seemed he might owe the lady a dinner. Pushing aside the sorrow in his heart, Wu Ying focused on the meal and the slight wind that blew across the meadow, brushing against his skin. He focused on the meal and that other, all-important truth.

  They were alive.

  ***

  A week and a half later, the expedition group trooped back into the sect. The expedition avoided the main gates, entering via a smaller side path. Those who were injured were taken to the physician’s hall, their helpers dropping off the injured cultivators before being chased out. Most of the lesser injured had spent the slow journey back healing their own wounds.

  As they stood outside the physician’s hall, Chao Kun glanced between Li Yao and Wu Ying before he excused himself, citing additional work needing to be completed.

  Left alone, Wu Ying looked at the young lady for a moment. “Assignment hall?”

  “Sure. You’ll need the taels for my meal,” Li Yao said.

  “Now?”

  “Were you thinking some other time?” Li Yao said, shaking her head. “There’s no better time than now.”

  Wu Ying savored her words. After a brief hesitation, he offered her his hand before he led her to the assignment hall.

  Time.

  Time to enjoy their lives as cultivators. To enjoy being alive. Time to receive what was owed them. To train and improve their cultivation. Time to grow in strength.

  Because if there was one thing Wu Ying was certain about, it was that there would be another incident. Another time of heart-stopping terror.

  That too was the life of an immortal cultivator.

  ###

  A Thousand Li: The First War

  Book 3

  Chapter 1

  Cold winter air, humid and barely lit by the rising sun, was expelled from Wu Ying’s mouth as he exhaled. Seated cross-legged in the central courtyard of his house in the Sect, he breathed in a slow, rhythmic manner. Chi—the energy of the world—entered his body and circulated through his still, muscular, lean form with each breath. As he drew in more chi to spiral through the twelve cleared meridians of his body,
the chi pushed and strained against them, bringing with it pain and pressure. Again and again, it circulated, passing from meridians to just below his navel as it entered his lower dantian. There, the energy was packed tightly with the accumulation of the last five months’ chi, energy gathered after his return from his expedition and throughout the winter months. Each breath brought more chi, his dantian a tight ball of energy that ached with the accumulation, one that sought a release.

  Holding the energy tightly, Wu Ying opened his eyes. Dark brown eyes stared outward, fixing upon his friend who sat before him. Liu Tou He, the ex-Buddhist monk who still wore the orange robes of his order and kept his head shaved, sat before Wu Ying, watching over him. Beside the monk, Fairy Yang was seated on a nearby table, reading a scroll and casting occasional glances at Wu Ying. Tou He stared at his friend placidly, offering only a single nod of reassurance.

  Wu Ying shut his eyes once more, drew another deep breath, and set to it. Chi gushed from his dantian, following his meridians, rushing forward at an ever faster rate. Each breath brought another circulation among the greater and smaller meridian paths, scouring them clean of minor refuse. With all twelve regular chi meridians cleared, Wu Ying was ready. He had been ready for months to take the next step.

  Another exhalation as Wu Ying focused and pushed the distractions aside. Energy thrummed through his body, beckoning him to move, to make use of it. But all this energy, this accumulation of chi, was for another reason. For the next stage. Wu Ying directed the chi at the first of the Energy Storage meridians—the Conception Meridian, ren mai[57]. Breaking through the blocked Conception Meridian and freeing it for use was the first step in the Energy Storage stage. At least for the Yellow Emperor cultivation style that he practiced. From there, the cultivator would have to open and cleanse the other seven meridians as dictated by his style.

  Each breath cycled the chi, bringing the accumulated energy to bear. Each circulation wore away at the blockage, an internal blow against the vessels that made up his body. Each circulation was a punch in his chest that started from within then reversed as the energy rebounded. With each rebound, Wu Ying had to take control of the rebounding chi and redirect it to join the normal flow of chi in his meridians, even as he pushed against the blocked barrier. The amount of chi he was channeling was greater than the amount his meridians could handle, increasing the pain ever further.

  His dantian was the dam that had held back the flow of chi, forced to build up to dangerous levels and threaten the flood plains of his body. Now, Wu Ying had released the flow of water—of chi—into the drainage ditches that criss-crossed the fields of his body. But the flow of water was so great that some of it gushed out, spilling into the fields where they were not meant to be, while the rest broke against the dirty jam at the drainage ditch that led to the next field. Each time the chi flowed back, it spilled and was lost, wasting Wu Ying’s months of careful husbanding. At the same time, the water damaged the fields.

  Pain flowed through Wu Ying’s body, making his breath hitch and his body tense. It mattered not, for Wu Ying’s consciousness was concentrated within. At pushing and pushing at the blocked meridian. But no matter what he did, it would not give way. And in time, the gushing water subsided, the flow reduced. The impetus for his breakthrough receded. Even as his chi escaped, the pain faded, going from nerve-shattering, bone-breaking agony to the more subtle pressure of constant hurt.

  A moment’s hesitation, then Wu Ying began the slow process of reacquiring what chi still flowed in his body. He dragged the overflowing energy back to his dantian, wrapped it behind the dam of his will, and reduced the flow within until it reached a manageable level. When he was done, only then did Wu Ying open his eyes.

  “I failed,” Wu Ying admitted to his friend and Fairy Yang, though he knew they had sensed that already.

  Tou He nodded placidly while Fairy Yang gave a simple curt nod before standing to leave. The most dangerous part of breaking through—or failing to break through—had passed. Though Wu Ying’s body hurt, smaller blood vessels broken, the damage—for a failed breakthrough—was minimal.

  Drawing another deep breath, Wu Ying pushed aside the feelings of failure and closed his eyes again. He might have failed, but he still had work to do. Work to recover what chi he could, to contain it for his next attempt.

  ***

  Wu Ying stood in the middle of a courtyard much larger and more ornate than his own. Seated in front of him was his Master, Elder Cheng. Master cum sponsor for the Sect. Even seated, Elder Cheng looked to be taller than most men Wu Ying had met. Elder Cheng’s oval face was framed with long, lustrous black hair, and like Fairy Yang, his disciple, he was dressed in the traditional green-and-black robes of an Elder of the Sect. By his side, Elder Cheng’s jian rested against the wooden chair he sat upon.

  “It seems that you failed,” said Elder Cheng.

  “Yes, Elder Cheng. I’m sorry,” said Wu Ying.

  “It is no matter. We all fail at some point,” said Elder Cheng. “What is more important is that we learn from our failures. Now, what did you learn?”

  Wu Ying hesitated as he considered his words. No use being dishonest with Elder Cheng. Wu Ying had been mulling over the failure for the last few hours, trying to work out what he had done wrong. “I did not have enough chi to break through to the next stage. My blockage must be harder than most.”

  “Incorrect,” said Elder Cheng. “It was not that you had insufficient chi. It was that you had insufficient enlightenment. Cultivation is not just about an accumulation of energy. It is an accumulation of knowledge and experience. And you, you spent the entirety of winter in the Sect.”

  “I did take some assignments…”

  “Some. But none of those assignments pushed you. None of them expanded your mindset, expanded the type of experiences you have had. And while your dalliance with Li Yao has given you something new, have you drawn upon that to expand your cultivation?” said Elder Cheng. “Have you achieved any enlightenment from being with her?”

  Wu Ying flushed as Elder Cheng blatantly spoke of Wu Ying’s budding romance with his fellow Inner Sect member.

  “Don’t think that I chastise you because I seek your embarrassment. I do so for your own good. At your age, there are many competing desires. The flush of youth is strong. But this is also the time to expand upon your cultivation. When one turns twenty or thereabouts, breaking into the Energy Storage stage becomes significantly more difficult. The blockages in each meridian harden. It is possible to break through afterward, but it requires herbs and spiritual treasures. Expensive spiritual treasures.

  “As for Core Cultivation, after thirty, it is extremely difficult. Too many gifted students fall by the wayside, thinking they have time, indulging in fleshy pleasures and their ego.”

  Wu Ying blinked, never having had his teachers be so blatant about the difficulties of expanding one’s cultivation. He knew that there were roadblocks as one aged beyond the normal lifespan of a mortal. Even though each level of cultivation expanded one’s lifespan, the ease of ascending to the next level still favored the young. The additional lifespan that one gained from achieving a higher level of cultivation worked against the very laws of nature itself, or so it seemed.

  “You should know that you are not one of those gifted sons of heaven. You have some skill. You have some ability. You have even achieved more enlightenment than most in the time I have known you. None of that truly matters if you do not seek to better yourself.”

  “I’m sorry, Master. I will do better.” Wu Ying lowered his head.

  “Good,” said Elder Cheng. “That is all that I will speak of this to you. From here, it is your decision. That too is fate. Now, your Senior has told me that you have improved your swordsmanship. Show me.”

  Wu Ying nodded, walked to the center of the courtyard, and drew his sword. He paused, looking at Elder Cheng, and received a nod of acknowledgment. At first, Wu Ying started with basic forms of the Long family sword sty
le. However, he soon diverged, adding in the movements of the Northern Shen and the Mountain Breaking Fist styles he had studied. Dragon sweeping the Branches turned into the Third mountain Fist which transformed into a sweep from the Northern Shen style before ending in the Dragon rises in the Morning. Motion to motion, form after form, he continued around the courtyard. It was fifteen minutes before he was done.

  “Impressive,” said Elder Cheng. “You’ve definitely improved and integrated the styles you have been studying. I have noticed that you are not touching upon the Dragon’s Breath, your chi projection method.”

  “That is true, Master,” said Wu Ying. “Because I have been trying to conserve my chi, I have not been practicing that form.”

  “That is your decision, but I would recommend you reconsider it.”

  Wu Ying waited for Elder Cheng to add to his statement, but he waited in vain. “Is there a particular reason I should be practising the Dragon’s Breath?”

  Elder Cheng looked concerned, stroking his chin. Eventually, he seemed to make up his mind and spoke. “The state of Wei has shown its aggressiveness over the winter. We have confirmed that they are purchasing large amounts of feed and other materials they will need for an extended campaign. As you know, the Six Jade Gates Sect have added to their Core Formation elders. It is because of this that we believe the state of Wei has chosen to escalate the war.

  “While we do not expect, nor desire, our Sect members to take part in the war, it is not necessarily up to us.”

  “I see.”

  “Now, as for what you’ve been practicing, I have a few suggestions…”

  ***

  Later that evening, after an exhausting afternoon of training with Elder Cheng, Wu Ying found himself at the inner sect dining hall with Tou He and Li Yao. With the year coming to a close, the Sect had opened up the stores and become more generous in the kinds of food that was served. It helped that the martial specialists had located a herd of white-tipped spirit deer, many of whom now graced the Sect’s cooking pots. This uncommon bounty saw an increase in the hall’s attendance, making the normally barren building busy with traffic. The sounds of people eating filled the room, the clatter of utensils, the tap of wooden chopsticks on porcelain bowls, and the slurp of wet noodles a homey reminder.