by Tao Wong
Together, the pair cooked then handed out the fried bread sticks, warmed soybean drinks, and when it was ready, the barbecued meat.
When the initial rush was done, Elder Li turned to Wu Ying. “Eat. Then we’ll talk.”
Doing as he was commanded, Wu Ying scarfed down his meal before he was forced to raise his hands again, showing them off to Elder Li. Next, she ran him through his aura suppression exercises. As Wu Ying did his best to contain his chi, the Elder scowled.
“Pitiful,” Elder Li said. “If your cultivation was not as low as it was, I would rather use Ru Ping. Do not cultivate further. The less chi you have, the less you will affect the kurinji. Go practice your aura suppression until it is time. When you are reaching for your aura to strengthen it, make sure to not overreach. You must imagine the aura…”
Over the next few minutes, Elder Li detailed the numerous things Wu Ying had done wrong. From overreaching to the inept way he had smoothed his aura, the Elder offered criticism and solutions. By the time Elder Li was done and Wu Ying had time to consider her words, he realized by using both her knowledge and his own, he would likely reach the Greater Achievement level in the exercise.
Excited as he was by the accomplishment, Wu Ying could not help but look into the distance where the three Elders stood. A short distance from them was the reason for their entire expedition—a single bush that had altered its own destiny. The bush sat all by itself, the other nearby kurinji plants having died off due to the mutated plant hogging all of the chi in its surroundings.
Wu Ying let his eyes narrow on the plant, staring at the still closed buds. Wu Ying looked around and noted how other plants were close to flowering and in some cases, were flowering. If the mutated plant followed the same timeline, he had less than six hours to put his new learning into practice.
Moving a short distance away from the campfire, Wu Ying took a seat and cycled his breathing until he calmed down. Then, taking into account what Elder Li had said, he practiced, tightening his aura and smoothing out the imperfections in it. Working to make his presence ever smaller, ever more mundane. Ever more… mortal.
Hours passed in a flash, Wu Ying achieving minor gains through the process. Increased understanding or not, only through the process of practicing could Wu Ying gain a proper understanding and, most importantly, affect the change in his aura. Each minute, each pass over his aura saw an improvement, a gradual tightening that reduced his presence and decreased the leak. To Wu Ying’s surprise, the addition of the strenuous four days of channeling practice was what allowed him to make further strides. The constant flow of chi through and out of his body allowed Wu Ying to sense his acupoints with even greater precision. That allowed him to more closely tighten those acupoints and sense the outflow of chi to the aura membrane.
After hours, Wu Ying was awoken from his training. Ru Ping jerked his head toward where the Elders stood, at the edges of the boundary of the mutant kurinji flower. Even here, Wu Ying could sense the difference, the way the chi flow in the clearing had changed. As he turned his head, Wu Ying spotted how some of the other flowers in the meadow had already opened, others on the cusp of blooming.
“Go. Keep tight hold of your aura,” Ru Ping said.
“What will you be doing, Senior?” Wu Ying said.
“Harvesting. The other kurinji flowers are not as valuable, but they are rare. We can use them for a variety of pills.”
“Of course, Senior,” Wu Ying said. “There will be a lot of work.”
“I know. I’ve already started. I best get back to it. The flowers are only valuable when they have bloomed.”
“Good luck, Senior,” Wu Ying said. He walked forward, letting his gaze dart around the clearing.
Most of the cultivators at the seven formation flags were their strongest members. Those included Chao Kun, Liu Tsong, and Li Yao. Tou He was seated beside the fire, cultivating along with a couple of others. Another cultivator lay, sleeping. Only the Elders were up and active.
“Elders,” Wu Ying said as he bowed to the group as he arrived.
“Wu Ying. You have improved,” Elder Li said, looking the boy over. “Good.”
“Thank you, Elder.”
“I know we have spoken of this before, but let me reiterate. We enter a few minutes before it blooms, holding our auras tight to our bodies,” Elder Li said. “Once within, I will set up the harvesting material we need. I will conduct the entire harvesting process, but you will help me hold aside the branches I indicate. To store the flowers, we will place them in the chi-capturing cold jade container I have prepared. After which, you will take the container to Elder Wei as she prepares the pills.”
“Yes, Elder.”
“Good. Now, remember. To begin the harvesting, we must first isolate the chi from each branch,” Elder Li said.
Wu Ying leaned forward, listening intently. Not that he had not learned this before, but Elder Li was focused on ensuring he knew each step perfectly.
Minutes passed, the petals of the flower opening at a glacial pace. After making sure Wu Ying knew his part of the plan perfectly, Elder Li stopped talking. As the tension in the atmosphere increased, Wu Ying could not help but shift and look around, searching for an escape. In doing so, Wu Ying caught sight of Tou He seated by the campfire, munching on the remnants of the barbecued pork without a care in the world. The ex-monk waved the skewer of meat at Wu Ying, making the cultivator break into a smile.
Elder Li tapped Wu Ying on the top of his foot with her cane then walked toward the flowers. Wu Ying settled his breathing and focused on his aura, double-checking it was as retracted as he could make it. Content, Wu Ying followed after Elder Li.
The mutant kurinji flower had stark blue petals with golden highlights and a pistil of light pink. It was a beautiful flower, and on a single crowded branch, multiple flowers bloomed. The shrub the pair approached pulsed as it drew in chi from the surroundings, filling the flowers with earth- and water-aspected chi.
Elder Li squatted next to the flower before she handed Wu Ying the box and laid out her tools, including talismans laid out beneath the base of the plant that would lull the plant’s natural defenses to sleep. She sat facing the flower for long moments, judging the flow of chi. When the plant fully bloomed, Wu Ying needed no one to inform him, for the sudden shift in chi flow was apparent. As if a lock had been placed across an irrigation channel, the flow of chi being drawn into the plant cut off. In his surprise, Wu Ying did not see Elder Li move, but the next moment, a flower was in her hand, held out toward him.
Wu Ying scrambled and opened the box, allowing her to place the flower within. Again and again, Elder Li worked, harvesting the flowers using the knife and foreceps she had laid out, while Wu Ying helped move branches away when needed. Never once did she touch the plant directly.
When the box was full, Wu Ying placed the second box nearby Elder Li before he moved swiftly and surely to the waiting Elders. Outside of the range of disturbance, Elder Wei had begun the process of refining the pills, the cauldron glowing with the heat of the earth flame set beneath it.
“Good. The quality is very good,” Elder Wei said when Wu Ying presented the box to her. After glancing at its contents, she set the box aside, focusing her full attention on her cauldron.
Beside her, Elder Po stood, ready to assist, as Liu Tsong sat at a formation flag.
Time passed with Wu Ying moving back and forth between the cauldron and the plant. He lingered longer each time at the cauldron, watching as Elder Wei added fresh spring water, spirit herbs, beast parts, and even crushed spirit stones. She boiled the entire concoction down multiple times, concentrating the energies of the materials and removing the dregs with a swirl of her ladle. Elder Po caught the dregs in a container that he set aside so as not to contaminate the environment.
When the entire bush had been nearly completely harvested of its flowers, Elder Li returned with Wu Ying.
It was when they had left the shrub’s immediate surroundings
that Wu Ying asked, “You left some flowers behind.”
“We have enough. If it is fated, more bushes will appear,” Elder Li said. “Come. Let us store these properly and watch Elder Wei.”
For hours, Elder Wei worked the pill cauldron with intense concentration. Each movement she made, each action she took was planned to enhance the production of the pill. From the stirring method Elder Wei used, to the infusion of chi or the set up of the environment around the cauldron, the refining of this pill was an intricate dance of chi and intent. It was countless li different from the way Wu Ying blended his own pills. The live demonstration allowed Wu Ying to clarify many previously learned but barely understood principles of pill refining.
It was late in the night when the pills were finally completed. Elder Wei struck the pill cauldron in the side one final time, and the congealed pills flew from the cauldron to land in the waiting bowl. All three Elders peered at the pills, letting out a simultaneous exhalation of relief when they saw five perfectly formed, glistening red pills.
“Saint-level pills,” Elder Wei said, pride radiating from her voice. “If one is unable to break through using these, then heaven has no place for you.”
“Yes…” Elder Po reached for a pill only to have his hand smacked by Elder Wei.
“Do not put your dirty fingers in my bowl. I will hand it to you.” Suiting action to words, Elder Wei flicked a pill into Elder Po’s hand then repeated the action with Elder Li.
The pair took the pills with a slight bow to Elder Wei before taking a seat a distance from each other in the clearing. Around them, smaller defensive formations were set up to ensure the cultivators were not disturbed, as well as to enhance their collection of chi. In seconds, the pair had stilled their breathing and calmed their minds before they consumed the pills.
“Elder Wei?” Wu Ying tilted his head as he watched her place the remaining three pills in a pill bottle.
“Elder Dong and I will consume our share in the sect,” Elder Wei said. “We are close to ascending from the Core cultivation stage. If we ascend, we will be noticed by the heavens and must face a Heavenly Tribulation. This is not the place for that.”
Wu Ying nodded. Heavenly Tribulations were well-known disasters and roadblocks on the road of cultivation. The first major tribulation occurred when a cultivator formed a Nascent Soul. The Nascent Soul itself was a rebirthed, untouched, uncorrupted soul, one soaked in the cultivator’s dao from the moment of its inception. The newly born soul would then face the displeasure of heaven, protected only by the strength the cultivator had accumulated.
If the cultivator survived, the Nascent Soul would grow over the course of the cultivator’s journey to immortality, absorbing enlightenment and meaning from the cultivator’s existence. In the end, the cultivator’s Nascent Soul would be fully grown and face a final Heavenly Tribulation. If it survived, the cultivator would ascend to the heavens as a new immortal. Those unfortunate souls who steeped themselves in a false dao, those who failed to embrace their dao fully, or those whose dao was too small and narrow would fail at this last step, destroyed by the wrath of heaven itself.
A shift in the flow of ambient chi made Wu Ying turn his head, his jaw dropping as he felt the environment churn. Chi, swirling and resolving in a whirlpool of energy, flowed directly toward each of the Elders in their formations.
“How long…?” Wu Ying said before he stopped when he spotted the pale mien of Elder Wei. “Elder?”
“Oh, no,” Elder Wei breathed. “Heaven’s fury. The formation cannot hold if they cultivate here. We should have realized it…”
“Realized what?” Wu Ying said, but understanding shut his mouth too.
The Elders were draining the ambient chi, bolstering their cultivation as they attempted to breach the barrier between one cultivation level and the next. Nature abhorred a vacuum, and the more the pair cultivated, the greater the flow of chi from outside the formation. The shift in chi put a greater pressure on the deceptive mists the formation created, forcing the reinforcing cultivators to pour in more chi to stabilize the entire formation.
As Elder Wei dithered, Wu Ying spun, assessing his friends and fellow cultivators. One, then another cultivator started trembling, their chi levels bottoming out, their bodies reacting to the lack of chi within themselves. Wu Ying’s mind spun then firmed, his thoughts clear.
“Senior Ge. Senior Liu. You must let the formation go,” Wu Ying said. “We cannot hold it. Break the formation, all of you! The rest of you, form up. We must fight and delay the taotei when it arrives.”
“Delay it?” Elder Wei said shrilly. “Are you insane? You are not even at the Energy Storage stage!”
“What choice do we have? Run?” Wu Ying shook his head, casting his gaze back to the unmoving forms. “No. We stand and fight. If we can hold on long enough for the Elders to break through, we should be able to win.”
“And if not?” Elder Wei said.
“Then it seems our road ends here,” Tou He, who had just trotted up, answered for Wu Ying. The monk flourished his staff, turning his head from side to side as the mists outside churned and boiled. “Why have they not dropped it yet?”
“Because I can’t order them to let it go.” Wu Ying turned to Elder Wei. “Please. We cannot have them exhausted when the taotei arrives. If it will fail, at least it should fail on our schedule.”
Elder Wei pursed her lips, pressing them so tightly together they turned white. After letting out a dissatisfied harrumph, she raised her voice. “Let the formation drop. Retreat and rest. We will face the taotei and delay it.”
In short order, the cultivators broke away from the formation flags, stumbling over to where Elder Wei waited. Wu Ying and Tou He helped their fellow sect members, handing out the remnants of breakfast to the hungry and tired group. The moment the group finished their food, they sat down in a loose circle and cultivated to restore their drained chi.
Without the continual infusion of chi, the formation broke down. Mists which had obscured and confused dissipated in the evening air, leaving the surroundings easy to see. The waxing moon and clear night sky gave the wary cultivators a good view of their surroundings.
“Rest well, all of you. When the taotei comes, it will not come quietly,” Elder Wei said.
She strode off a short distance, returning to her refining cauldron, and she began the process of cleansing the cauldron. Wu Ying sighed and moved around the meadow, setting up a series of bonfires if the monster did come. Thankfully, it seemed the taotei had left the immediate surroundings.
Yet as Wu Ying reached out with his senses, he could not help but note the massive shift in chi caused by the cultivating Elders. It would not be long before the monster noticed the change. And then it would return.
Chapter 22
A summer dawn was peeking around the edges of the mountains in the distance. Wu Ying yawned, sipping on the cup of tea he had brewed to keep himself awake during the chill of the night. He took another turn around the encampment, nodding encouragingly at the other cultivators who were awake. As one of the most rested individuals, Wu Ying had taken it upon himself to stay alert, allowing the others to regain their strength. Each minute, each hour, Wu Ying had expected the taotei to turn up. And yet, silence still lingered.
The howl that penetrated the meadow made Wu Ying wince. Even now, having heard the taotei repeatedly over the course of the week, he still felt the bone-deep fear the demon beast’s approach engendered. The taotei was a legendary demon, a creature of ravenous gluttony, a monster that even the heavens rejected. A monster whose existence was an affront to the heavens and the Dao of all things.
The howl was more than sufficient warning for the cultivators. As one, they roused themselves from their seats, standing and readying their weapons. Liu Tsong fell back beside Elder Wei’s massive pill cauldron, guarding her Master. From her storage ring, Liu Tsong conjured her weapon, the segmented, three-piece staff clicking together as she pulled on the internal chain t
o lock the weapon in place.
Senior Ge stood at the forefront of the group, bare-handed as always. Dressed in new robes, the long-haired cultivator had tied his hair into a bun in preparation for the battle. Over the course of the week, his left arm had healed somewhat, though it still lay by his side, bandaged. Beside Senior Ge, Tou He held his favorite staff, the weapon resting on the ground as he leaned on it. Li Yao, with her spear, flanked Senior Ge on the other side. When she caught Wu Ying looking, she flashed him a smile and received a tentative one in return.
“Bah!” Breaking away from the group, Li Yao strode back and kicked Wu Ying in the shin. He howled, hopping on his foot as he clutched his injured leg. “Stop looking so somber. You’re making all of us sad.”
“You didn’t have to hit me!” Wu Ying growled.
“I didn’t have to. But I wanted to.” Seeing Wu Ying put his foot down, Li Yao flashed him a smile. “When we’re back at the sect, I’ll let you buy me dinner in compensation.”
“When… that sounds nice,” Wu Ying said, offering her a tentative smile.
“Good.” Li Yao smiled then walked back to her spot.
It was then that Wu Ying realized what Li Yao had said. “Wait. I’m buying you dinner?”
Wu Ying looked around, puzzled, but none of the other cultivators were paying him any attention. Or, if they were, they weren’t looking at him. Another howl, this time much closer, drew Wu Ying’s attention back to what was truly important.
“Later. I’ll think about it later. Maybe after we kill the demon…”
Their first sight of the taotei came as it crested a small hill, rushing in its unnatural manner. Powerful forelegs bunched up and sent the monster hopping forward while the smaller hindlegs caught up to the body. In this manner, the taotei moved in a strange semi-hopping motion, like a frog’s hop reversed.
“Li Yao, Tou He, and myself will hold the front line,” Chao Kun said. “We will attempt to attract its attention and force it to spend itself on us. In turn, the rest of you are to flank it and attempt to cripple its legs. The creature is fast and dangerous, the horns along its body sharp and spirit-infused. Attack and back away immediately. Is this understood?”