by Wong, Tao
Yu Kun had complained about the loss of demon stones, but his complaints had been overruled by the already dirty and tired group. No need to add foul-smelling substances to their clothing, especially since demon beast fecal matter somehow stuck even better than normal waste.
It amused Wu Ying how few of the epics of his peasant past, how few stories he’d read discussed the logistics of trampling through the countryside for weeks on end. How the heroes of his favorite stories never concerned themselves about torn and bloody clothing, at most having a single, artful tear in a sleeve. The reality of an expedition was mostly one of dirt, hunger, and exhaustion.
And what gains there might be, might be little or ephemeral. Yu Kun, like Wu Ying, had achieved a point in his current development that sudden increases in his cultivation were unlikely. Minor improvements in awareness and skill with martial forms accrued, as did Wu Ying’s bag of herbs.
“One moment,” Wu Ying called.
The group ground to a halt and, seeing him dismount, followed suit. They were not surprised to watch the Gatherer walk away from the group after tying his horse off, head pivoting from side to side as he neared his goal. Around a tree, the cultivator bent, brushing aside leaves and branches to locate the mushroom he had smelled.
“White and purple spots. Spores are…” Wu Ying lightly tapped the mushroom while holding a knife beneath it, making sure to tap it with a convenient stick. He brought the knife up to his eyes, careful not to breathe while he verified the color. “Pale yellow. Nearby plants are correct too.” The Gatherer grinned and began the process of digging up the mushrooms to transplant into his ring.
“What did you find?” Tou Hei asked, having made his way over.
“Purple-eyed forest mushrooms.” Even while talking, Wu Ying was taking care to dig around the tree and the fungi, pulling the ground up around the mushroom while mentally carving the same gap in his world ring. It required a deft use of chi to do the same within the ring, a manipulation of the formations that made up the ring itself. But once done, he deposited the entire mushroom beside a smaller tree he’d transplanted earlier, all situated near the pond he’d created for the Sun Lotus. “They’re not particularly useful for apothecarists, but they help manage nearby chi flows. It’s one of the types I was looking to add to my ring.”
“You smelled it?” Tou Hei asked. At Wu Ying’s nod, he continued as the pair wandered back to the group. “How did you know what it smelled like?”
“I didn’t. I can just… sense the difference. The way it interacted with the surroundings. I could tell what the smell meant, in general, and then because of how it interacted, I assumed it was something good,” Wu Ying explained. “I wonder if Master Cheng knew…”
To his surprise, the use of his new sense of smell for chi had widened his range for his search for herbs. And while Wu Ying was busy learning to differentiate the various smells in the wild, his living world spirit ring was nearly filled to the brim with plants he’d transplanted. Even his horse was weighed down by what he’d located, the various herbs carefully arranged to dry, keep moist, or were otherwise stored. The few that could be stored in his other spirit ring, he had.
“Ask him, when you return,” Tou Hei said.
Wu Ying flashed his friend a tight smile, reminded of why they were there. Once he’d thanked everyone for their patience, he pointed at the marsh, so similar to the one before. “Our objective lives in there. Objectives, perhaps.”
Trees dotted the terrain before them, marking areas of shallower water and firm ground, with tall roots and murky water everywhere. In the marsh itself were wisps of mists obscuring sight, while colorful plants, both beautiful and poisonous, threw yellow, purple, green, and red splotches of color across the shaded landscape.
“Reports in this region indicate that the Chan Chu are common in the marsh before us. Due to the lack of easy routes within, and the danger from spirit and demonic beasts this far in, few cultivators bother them. As such, it’s unlikely that the Chan Chu have been wiped out since the last report a decade ago,” Wu Ying said, reiterating points he’d brought up before to the cultivators as they rode. But he could not recall what he’d said and what he hadn’t to each of them, so he repeated himself. “The marsh itself is only mildly dangerous. The plants within are poisonous, but Lei Hui has left us with enough pills that we should be protected. Just try not to touch anything colorful.”
The group broke into laughter at Wu Ying’s words, but soon calmed as he raised his hand.
“Take what you need, leave behind what you don’t require. We’ll tether the horses and set up a formation to keep them and our belongings safe, but…” Wu Ying shrugged and the rest nodded in understanding.
They were in the wilds, and while they had a decent formation for defense, without a cultivator to keep it safe, there was no guarantee. Chance could just as easily send a Core Formation beast nearby as it could keep their belongings safe.
“If there are no questions, we leave tomorrow.” A pause. “And thank you. All of you. Again.”
***
The next morning, the group set out on foot. Training, experience, and a little enlightenment had progressed all their skills in qinggong to such an extent that they no longer feared the water. As a group, with Wu Ying leading and Yu Kun taking up the rear, they ran across the marsh, feet tapping against the liquid that flowed and shifted beneath them. Of course, they made sure to stop at dry spots of land whenever they could to recharge their dantians and allow Wu Ying to watch for signs of their prey. Even so, their journey through the marsh was much swifter.
Left unspoken was the greatest concern—the issue of locating the three-legged frog. They no longer had an Elder to expand their search radius with her senses, nor could they afford to be blatant in their attempts. They had no idea what lived in the swamp, what they might attract if they conducted themselves like Elder Yang.
Worse, the amphibians were not known to be easily baited. Hunters would often place numerous traps, using time and experience to locate and bring back their prey. The cultivators had neither in great quantities, so they could only hope that Wu Ying’s expanded senses and the sparse expedition notes would lead them to the creatures.
Day after day, the group trooped through the marsh. At night, they set up sparse formations, built using simple talismans to ward off insects and other spirit creatures. They hid their presence through the day and night as they searched for signs of the Chan Chu. Twice, they were attacked by powerful monsters, including once by a Core formation mutated water strider, as large as one of their horses, with a pair of pincers that glowed when it cast waves of water at them.
Tou Hei nearly drowned, trapped in a bubble of chi-formed water by the angry water strider due to his flame attacks. Only the combined attacks of Yu Kun and Wu Ying managed to crack the creature’s shell and end it. Luckily, as an insect, it was significantly weaker than a larger, Core formation spirit beast.
The second attack was by a Chan Chu, but only in the Energy Storage stage. The smaller animal had latched his tongue around Wu Ying’s arm and tried to drag the swordsman into the water. Dealing with it had been a simple enough matter, such that it would have barely been worth noting, except for its origin. As a member of the species they hunted for, it gave them hope that they would find an appropriately sized monster. Unfortunately, the smaller heart was unlikely to be sufficient.
And so, the group continued to search, trudging through the marshes, skimming along the water and batting aside the occasional evolved insect. They swallowed anti-poison pills daily, the acrid taste of the pills leaving a lingering bitterness on the tongue and causing nausea for a few hours after they were swallowed.
All the while, the team moved carefully, wary about their enemies. Yet, neither sign of enemies nor three-legged frog appeared in the days that passed. Their long circular search had them nearing their entrance location when Wu Ying called a halt to the expedition.
“We have a heart. It isn’t
great, but we have one. If we take any longer, the heart will degrade even further. And whether or not our prey is here, we have not found them,” Wu Ying said. “I think it is time for us to go.”
The group was silent, all of them watching him and their surroundings. He noted how their shoulders were bowed, their hair damp and plastered to dirty faces, hair oily from lack of washing. Clothing that was once pristine had stained and torn even further, making them all look like vagrants rather than upright sect members. Yet Wu Ying felt a flash of pride as not a single one of them jumped at his suggestion.
“Thank you again,” Wu Ying’s said. “Tomorrow morning, we turn back and retrieve our horses.” He looked around the simple, mushy ground, in the bowels of the trees that rose around. “We’ll rest here for tonight.”
Chapter 30
The morning found Wu Ying up before the others, having taken the last watch of the night. Whatever malaise he might have felt over having to choose to use an imperfect material for his Master’s potion, he had driven it away. Instead, he bounced around the group cheerfully, goading them on with promises of a warm meal at the end of the day’s trek.
Encouraged by the cultivator, the team members dressed and washed quickly before following the running cultivator. They stopped much less frequently, only long enough to ensure that their chi reserves were close to full, barely checking for signs of the Chan Chu.
It was perhaps fated then that, as they neared the entrance to the marshes, Wu Ying smelled a familiar scent. He nearly lost his footing on the water, sinking half an inch into the brackish liquid before he exerted his chi and bounced away onto a root. Perched on the slimy wooden sustenance-giver, Wu Ying breathed deeply, head tilting from side to side as he confirmed what he sensed.
“Trouble?” Yu Kun asked, hand on his swords as he scanned about him.
“No… a Chan Chu. A big one too.” Wu Ying hesitated, looking at his friends. He wasn’t surprised to see flashes of conflict on their faces, emotions of disappointment, fear, and anticipation crossing them all. A powerful Chan Chu was dangerous. And they were so close to being done. Choosing to attack it put them all at risk, when they were close to being done.
Not choosing to do so…
“Whatever Buddha wills, it seems,” Tou Hei said. “So what do you suggest we do?”
Wu Ying couldn’t help but smile at the ex-monk’s words. Yu Kun looked resolved, while Wang Min was a little paler than normal.
Wu Ying gestured for them to come closer and pointed at the female cultivator. “You should tune your instrument as best you can. When we find it, we will need you to be ready.”
She nodded and sat, extracted her guzheng, and tuned it, having already laid out a simple sound-blocking formation around herself.
Seeing the musician settled, Wu Ying turned to the others. “Unless there’s a reason to change, we will follow the basic plan. Tou Hei, you will have to hold its attention. Yu Kun and I will do our best to kill it, but we will not strike until Wang Min has frozen the creature.”
The ex-monk nodded. His role meant he would have to bear the brunt of the attacks for a few minutes, but if the others unleashed their attacks too soon, it would definitely spell failure. None of them could catch the spirit frog if it truly meant to run.
Wu Ying looked over as Tou Hei hummed, then continued. “I will see if I can find the Chan Chu while we wait. Yu Kun, please verify that there are no additional dangers.”
Orders given, the group split up with Tou Hei staying behind to guard the musician. As Wu Ying moved through the water, he paid careful attention to how much chi he dispersed. Too much and he would be found before he located the creature himself.
***
They set up on a small hill, not far from where the Chan Chu rested. Like most of its kind, it lay half-submerged in the water near the edge of dry ground. It was covered by brackish water, sand, and vegetation lapping at the edges of its body. Only portions of its head and eyes showed, nostrils poking out of the water as it slowly breathed. It lay in wait, and if not for Wu Ying’s expanded senses, they would have likely walked right past the creature.
Wu Ying shook his head again, marveling at the flows of energy he sensed and smelled. The Chan Chu cultivated as it rested, offering Wu Ying a glimpse into a greater dao. It emanated a sliver of chi from its body, manipulating the flow of energy around it within a couple of li radius. It was a subtle, almost imperceptible alteration of the environment, akin to the way Wu Ying and the others manipulated the environment with their own qinggong exercises.
But instead of making its body lighter, the Chan Chu’s manipulation formed a vortex that drew the environmental chi toward it. In this way, the Core formation spirit beast was able to draw in a greater than normal amount of chi by concentrating energy within its surroundings. Once it drained an area dry, it would leave. And if a meal came along, drawn by the flow of chi, well, dinner was served.
The fact that the Chan Chu was currently cultivating was an opportunity for the expedition. Until it was ready to move along, they had an opportunity to set up and attack. Wang Min was seated with her guzheng out, gently strumming the instrument and verifying its tuning. Unfortunately, she could only tune the instrument to a certain extent while she was blocked off from the environment. It was no simple matter of tuning notes but tuning the environment and making the song work against the creature in question. As such, she needed to sense the environment and the creature’s chi-aspect to complete her job. Once she released her formation, they would face the greatest danger as the Chan Chu could choose to attack at that time.
If it did not, Wang Min would finish her tuning before leading the assault against the spirit beast. Careful application of her music would affect the creature’s chi flows, both blocking the environmental flows going in and out and also disrupting its defensive aura. Done well, it would leave the creature defenseless to Wu Ying and Yu Kun’s attacks.
Together, Wu Ying and Tou Hei made their way to another hill a short distance away from the one the team had set up on, in between the Chan Chu and the other pair of cultivators. Wu Ying moved ahead a little farther, setting up a series of trap talismans. He licked his lips, sweating as he finally returned to his position beside Tou Hei.
The moment they were ready, Wang Min dropped the formation, and the first of her delicate notes entered the atmosphere. They struck Wu Ying as he crouched low, sword in hand, and he felt the notes press upon his skin, his aura. He pushed back automatically and extended his senses.
Every breath was controlled to allow him to sense the chi all around, to smell the rotten, brackish water of the marsh, the poisonous mists that floated through the air. He felt the winds, bearing the pollen of poisonous and aromatic plants, brush against his skin, pushing his tattered robes tight. The grip on his sword was comforting, the leather of the hilt absorbing the moisture from his palms, the cool metal engravings of his scabbard drawing away heat.
He expanded his senses and waited.
Fingers strummed, filling the air with musical notes laden with chi. Wu Ying sensed his friend shift beside him, the tip of Tou Hei’s staff creeping into his vision, pushing ahead of his position. Depending on what happened, either Tou Hei or Wu Ying would meet the creature first. After the initial clash, they would transfer the monster’s attention away from Wu Ying if needed, allowing the monk with his Mountain Resides staff form to keep the creature away.
“It’s moving,” Wu Ying warned his friend.
Moments later, the water trembled. The washed-up mud and debris that had sat upon the previously inert monster shifted, trembling as they fell aside. At first look, it could have been mistaken for an errant wave, maybe an errant breeze. And then, a bigger change. The creature shifted, pushing against the water and the mud around it as it jumped. A single bound took it two-thirds of the way toward Wu Ying and Tou Hei.
The pair did not need to speak, having worked together for so long now. Tou Hei jumped, meeting the Chan Chu as it leaped thro
ugh the air again. Staff raised over his head, the ex-monk swung the wooden implement, pouring his chi into the attack. The staff lit aflame, as did the monk himself. Faint shimmers of a mountain, tall and implacable, formed around the man as he fell.
In retaliation, the Chan Chu imbued its aura with its chi as ever more earth and water sloughed off its body. Wu Ying groaned mentally as it revealed its aspect, though he’d already guessed. It was a metal-aspected Chan Chu, the hardest kind to fight.
Fire and metal met in the air, the chi auras of the combatants flaring as they impacted. Wu Ying watched as Tou Hei’s staff bent under the force of their collision. The Chan Chu was redirected downward, its trajectory altered as it crashed to the ground in a spray of water and mud. Tou Hei was thrown backward as the momentum of his attack rebounded, sending him flying into the distance.
Already, their plan was disrupted. Wang Min’s playing kept going at the same serene pace, but Wu Ying could barely hear it as he rushed the slowly rising monster. An arrow buried itself beneath the frog’s left eye, just missing blinding the creature, as Yu Kun fired at it. Another arrow was knocked aside by a fast-moving tongue, one that forced Yu Kun to throw himself aside as it shattered his bow.
Trap talismans, forming spikes of metal chi, erupted from the surroundings as the Chan Chu waddled forward. Its own metal aura deflected the attacks, the monster delivering a loud croaked rebuke. As its feet bunched beneath it, Wu Ying finally caught up.
Sword chi imbued with the full strength of the Dragon’s Breath attack of the Long family style struck the back of the Chan Chu’s only rear leg. It caught the rear tendon of its left foot, tearing at metal-chi hardened flesh and leaving a long bleeding wound. Another croaked rebuke as the creature twisted to assault Wu Ying, ignoring the noisome but ineffective Wang Min for the moment.