The tavern was empty and dark, and he just sat at the bar counter with a little clay bottle half full of sake. The glass in front of him was empty, and he grunted and looked up towards his master while he poured himself another.

  “You know, I still hurt from fighting him at that sumo tournament,” Aki said in his hoarse voice.

  The old man chuckled and nodded his head. Aki’s master was old, but as a cultivator, the man didn’t look to be his age. Not his true age. Years spent working in the tea fields had given him suntanned skin, and he was bald. He forwent the cultivator robes they usually wore. He found them too warm for him. So he opted for a simple peasant’s robe, which was really more of a cloak. Faded and gray and draped over his shoulders, letting his bare skin and the loincloth show unless he kept the oversized cloak closed around him.

  Aki didn’t look much better than his master did. The student thought he was much younger than his master since he was just a boy when Nakayasu took him in and started him on the path of cultivating. He was a beggar, though. He wore dingy, threadbare robes of grey and black, and he desperately needed to wash them. If he had the spirit silk robes, it’d be too much of a giveaway.

  Long black hair that was kept in a topknot, though he favored the topknot of the south, the Song region of the empire. It was easy to maintain. The topknots and chonmage that were the style in the north could flop around, and it was hard to tell if they were out of place. This way, he just bundled it up on top of his head and tied it off. Easy.

  “I’m sure he is a kami. It’s a good thing Botan was there to back you up,” Nakayasu told his apprentice.

  Aki took a drink of his sake and then once more looked up towards his master’s voice. The pupil had never seen his master. Aki was a blind man and went through life wearing cloth wrapped around his eyes. Until recently, when he had been given a pair of dark sunglasses. He had his tricks in order to tell things, of course. The man was a cultivator, and he reached the spiritual realm just before he decided to take on a literal lightning god.

  The beggar snorted and shook his head. “A broken man practicing a broken path. That man is the furthest thing from a water cultivator..” Aki trailed off and then shrugged.

  “Maybe, maybe, but he is still strong. It’s a good thing he was there,” Nakayasu said to him.

  Aki nodded his head in acceptance of his master’s words and poured himself another drink.

  “Well, there are some…”

  Nakayasu paused for a second, and Aki heard him think for a word.

  “Newcomers to the world now, thanks to all of that,” Nakayasu finally finished.

  Aki looked up and cocked a brow behind his glasses. “To the world?”

  “Yeah, I just met one of them and set him up. Gave him a job to run some tea leaves to the capital. He has a spirit beast, an ox he calls Betsy,” Nakayasu said and tried to hold back the laugh.

  “Betsy?”

  Nakayasu just nodded. Aki still got the movement and understood. Ever since he had reached a higher stage in cultivation, he could sense his surroundings much better. He tried to be careful about it in unfamiliar places since you never knew who would be there. Here, though, in his master’s own tavern, he let his spirit cover the place. The cultivator was gentle enough not to press down on things with his aura, but just enough so he could tell where things were and what was going on in his immediate surroundings.

  He could tell where things were in the tavern. A few tables, each with two or three of the zabuton cushions around them to sit on. Habit from drinking there told him where the bar counter was, but he now saw it was well-polished and well-cared for. Nakayasu didn’t settle for things that weren’t nice, well, besides his appearance. Behind the bar, Aki could still smell the scents left over from the dinner they served. Heavy with onion and garlic, they must have sold a lot of noodles. The starch hung heavy in the air.

  “Wait, aren’t oxen bulls?” Aki asked his master.

  Nakayasu stifled a laugh and nodded his head again. “They are. He doesn’t seem like he’s like he’s a particularly smart guy. Maikeru is kind enough though and means well. He’s also pretty powerful. Kentaro brought people here, and they already have fully formed channels and a core. Though he doesn’t have an element.”

  “How?”

  Nakayasu shrugged. “How should I know? I’m not a god, nor even an expert cultivator. I’m just a tea grower and seller. You’d have to go ask the wise men in the mountains. Maybe the Sect of the Jade Mountains would have an answer for you.”

  Aki harrumphed and drank more sake.

  “His ox is a lightning beast though,” Nakayasu continued.

  “Yeah, that makes sense,” Aki nodded. If lightning brought him here, then lightning would be given to the man he figured.

  “I need you to find the others.”

  Aki looked up and gave his master a flat look. “What?”

  Nakayasu smirked and put his hands on the bar counter. “Find the others. There’s a girl sleeping out in the woods right next to the town, and I heard reports of a new store that just opened on the western continent of Ilian. Then there’s this random new chef who started working at The Lying Lily.”

  Aki kept frowning. “You want me to go west? And that inn goes all over. How the hell…” Aki paused. “No, how the hell do you know the new chef there is supposed to be from another world? So what if a new store opened up an entire ocean away?”

  Aki didn’t even know where to begin in griping about this new job he was given. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder and a calming aura flow through his icy veins.

  “I know, I know it’ll be hard, my friend.”

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  Aki looked up. This must be important if Nakayasu was calling Aki his friend. Nakayasu was Aki’s master, but Aki wasn’t exactly a spring chicken himself. Well into his thirties, he was almost at the point where the old wise masters thought cultivators ran into a brick wall and couldn’t progress any further.

  “Yes, it’s that important. These people don’t belong in this world, and they need to go home. Beyond that, we need to figure out what the hell is going on with Kentaro.”

  Aki looked down towards the bar and gripped the clay bottle firmly. It was empty. “Send William, the guy from that sect on the island, to the north. At least he’s a white guy. He’ll fit in on Ilian.”

  Nakayasu shook his head. “No, he’s too…” Nakayasu paused. “Angry.”

  “I’m angry!” Aki shouted and looked up.

  The calming aura once more went through Aki’s body.

  “I know you are, but there isn’t anyone else I’d trust with this. I’d go, but I have to stay here and run my business and keep my fingers on the pulse of information. It’s how we survive,” Nakayasu explained.

  Aki sighed and calmed down. Eventually, he nodded his head. The ‘we’ his master was talking about was their little loose-knit group. They were a sect in the loosest form of the word in that they all cultivated, but they practiced different paths and styles. They were a network that shared information across the empire, though. The sect tried to make sure everything went smoothly in the cultivating world and, for the most part, they kept the peace between the sects and regions in this Sasuke empire.

  “So, you want to send a literal ice cultivator to a continent that’s dry and arid and probably impossible for me to cultivate in?” Aki asked incredulously.

  Nakayasu shrugged. “We can deal with that, and nothing is impossible. It just might be harder.”

  “You think?”

  “It’ll help you grow.”

  Aki sighed and nodded his head once more, resigned to carrying out the whims of his master like a good pupil. He reached for his cane under the bar counter and stood. “Out in the woods, huh?”

  Nakayasu nodded. “Yes.”

  Aki sighed and shook his head. “Then I have to go to Ilian?”

  Nakayasu nodded. “If you’d be so kind.”

  Aki huffed and walked towards the exit of the tavern. He was careful not to trip over the damn little tables the establishment used. That was one good thing about going west. He heard they used tables that were almost the height of bar counters here and had proper chairs to sit on.

  Once at the door, he took a moment to gather himself and reel in his spirit. He was sure this town would be safe for him, but you could never be too careful. He composed himself and then set the cane down and walked out the door, brushing the cane from side to side as he walked in the direction out of town and towards the woods.

  He knew the town well enough not to have to worry about tripping or running into anything. The cane also helped with that, of course, but sometimes things still happened. Powerful cultivators have been known to walk into a door or two. Aki spat and then tried to kill the bitterness he felt in his soul.

  The beggar walked along beside the Royal Road, the road that connected all the regions and capitals of the continent. By all accounts, it is a well-kept road and means of traveling the area. Towns or villages usually popped up around or near it as a way to keep trade close by. It was also fairly easy to walk alongside thanks to the way it was groomed. With each brush of the cane, he made sure to keep the road close to his right side.

  It didn’t take him long to get to the woods. The road went right through the woods his master was talking about. He turned his head from side to side and listened as intently as he could. He heard a girl snoring softly and let his spirit feel around. The snake’s presence surprised him, he hadn’t heard it earlier.

  “Oh, hello there.” He looked to the ground where the snake was.

  It slithered, and Aki felt the snake with his spirit. It was indeed a spirit beast. An illusionary beast. Powerful and rare. It also wasn’t attacking him, so he figured that was a good sign. He ignored the snake and looked up towards the girl snoring. His aura draped over the area of the forest like a blanket covering a bed.

  Aki frowned and took off towards the girl. A spirit boar that wasn’t friendly was in the area. He may have been physically blind, but he could sense enough to not trip. It was mentally and spiritually exhausting doing this, but a wild boar could be dangerous to a person, let alone a fire boar.

  When he got to the small clearing, the girl had already woken up and was staring at the creature. Aki lowered his head and calmed his breathing as he cycled the mana in his body. The boar lowered its head and charged.

  “MOVE!”

  The rough shout came, and the girl turned to see where it came from. She didn’t completely dodge like he had wanted her to, but she moved enough. He reached and grabbed her wrist and pulled her the rest of the way out of the boar’s charge. The cultivator threw her by the wrist into the nearest tree as he landed on the ground and turned towards the raging animal.

  With a twist of his wrist and the handle of the straight wooden cane he used moved away from the base. As he pulled, a short straight blade came sliding from the wooden sheath of the cane sword. His canvas shoes felt a tree root sticking out from the ground, and he leapt towards the boar. The animal lowered its head and responded and charged at Aki with its tusks.

  He growled when the sword just slid to the side. The animal’s hide was too thick and too strong to pierce with his sword. By the kami, I need a stronger weapon. He landed on the other side of the animal, and it rounded towards him. The boar lowered its head for another charge.

  “Snake!” He turned and called out. He prayed he was right about it.

  If the man his master told him about had a spirit ox and this random spirit snake appeared, Aki prayed it was hers. Prayed it wasn’t too far a leap that this girl would have some kind of spiritual familiar like the man did.

  He was almost giddy when the snake came slithering out from under the undergrowth of the woods. It hissed, and Aki swore the small, harmless snake had turned into a rattler. He heard about these snakes from others and how dangerous they were. A single bite could kill a man. They had them over on Ilion.

  A blink and the single snake had turned into a dozen, all surrounding the boar. It huffed out a breath of fire from its nose and danced about as the snakes circled it. Aki grinned. He couldn’t see all the snakes, but he felt them. They felt as real as the first one, almost. They lacked the physical properties of the snake, but he was smart enough to listen and smell. There was still only one snake there.

  In the panic, the boar didn’t recognize this, though. The panicked animal huffed again through its nose and leapt over until it ran away. Aki grinned and watched the animal before he lamented a little that he wouldn’t be able to keep the spirit stone. He’d have to chase it down and kill it with this damn sword of his. He sighed and then looked towards the woman.

  “You’re lost, and quite far from home,” he said. He didn’t ask. He knew she knew and wanted to tell her knew so they were both on the same page.

  I could feel her looking around before she looked back at him. “You’re blind?”

  Aki frowned. He was trying to move right past all of this, but he nodded. “Sometimes you can see more without your eyes.”

  “Uh, okay.”

  He grunted and listened to the snake already following his directions. He pointed back in the direction of the town with his sword. “Get to the village and look for a man named Nakayasu. Tell him the beggar sent you. He’ll help you.”

  He lowered his head and breathed deeply when he heard her run away in the direction he had pointed. Finally, someone just listened to what he said. That made him happy. Aki sheathed his blade, and he leaned against the tree. Once he knew the girl was headed in the right direction, the cultivator couldn’t quickly regain his composure.

  “Ah, fuck,” he cursed when he realized he had to get out of the woods and back to the main road without his little spiritual aid.

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